Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 192 Trial Production

But this time travel artifact still has some shortcomings. The glass contains a large number of fine air bubbles, which are densely packed - although it does not affect the use, it seriously affects the appearance.

In fact, completely colorless and transparent glass products did not exist in any time and space in the 17th century.Color cast and bubbles are common phenomena in early glass products.Even modern glass products are not absolutely free of bubbles, but the amount is very small and difficult to detect.For those who are accustomed to seeing the crystal clear and transparent modern glassware, the raw materials in front of them are still a little rough.

So the next step is to transfer to the work of removing air bubbles.Removing air bubbles is called "clarification" in the glass industry. Some people vaguely remember that clarification requires adding a clarifying agent.But no one knows exactly what the clarifying agent is.

In addition, remember that stirring is also a process of removing air bubbles, and the two may be used in combination.

It is vaguely remembered that arsenic seemed to act as a clarifying agent.This highly toxic drug is difficult to obtain in any time and space.Fortunately, according to the requirements of the agricultural department, Guo Yi had already bought up all the arsenic in Guangzhou City - Wu Nanhai originally planned to use it to soak seeds.

The so-called arsenic clarification is to add arsenic to the molten glass. When the arsenic enters the molten glass, it will generate steam due to high temperature. These arsenic vapors exist in the form of large bubbles in the glass slurry. The large bubbles are in the process of stirring the glass slurry. It will gradually absorb the small air bubbles scattered around, and finally take the small air bubbles away.

This method is indeed feasible, but arsenic is added to the hot glass liquid, which sublimates into highly toxic arsenic vapor, and the pollution in the process is really terrible.The glass research team received several masks and gas masks and started the first test.

After the molten glass melted, the glassworkers first threw some ground saltpeter into the crucible for decolorization.Then began to stir the glass slurry continuously. The crucible has a cover, and the steel brazing for stirring can only be carried out through the hole in the cover.Every hour of stirring, put some arsenic into it, while continuing to stir.

The resulting glass is quite clear, but the consumption of raw materials is astounding-almost a whole kilogram of arsenic was used.

One kilogram of arsenic, none of the arsenic in the pharmacies in Guangzhou City came, nor five or six kilograms.According to this efficiency of production, they have to establish an arsenic industry to support the large-scale production of the glass industry.

Obviously this method is extremely uneconomical.After brainstorming and brainstorming, someone proposed a clarification method from novels in the past: the method of forced boiling of water soaked wood. ——Forcibly insert the water-soaked wood into the molten glass with a steel drill to make it boil and take away the air bubbles.

This so-called blister wood is easier to find than arsenic.There is a lot of soaked wood on the shore of Bopu, so hurry up and find some.I poked it with a steel rod and pressed it down hard into the glass liquid.

According to those present, it was as if fireworks had been set off. The red-hot liquid glass exploded and sprayed everywhere. Fortunately, everyone present was wearing asbestos protective clothing for steel workers, otherwise someone would have to go to the hospital. up.

The person who made this suggestion was criticized by everyone for half an hour. Of course he was very wronged-this is not fabricated by him.However, the production process cannot be imitated by just a simple description. Since there is no detailed information on how the process works, we can only temporarily stop the test.

After tossing around like this for several times, someone finally found a glass manufacturing manual from the Superstar e-book in the "big library", and inquired about how to remove air bubbles: first, add a clarifier—arsenic is indeed okay, In fact, table salt can also be used, and then combined and stirred after adding.

Stirring is not just about stirring with a steel braze.Instead, put a stirrer in the glass crucible, which is a hollow cylinder made of refractory mud, and is operated by a steel braze with a hook to move in the glass liquid.As long as the stirring time is long enough, not only most of the bubbles can disappear, but also the streaks and stones in the glass liquid will disappear, and the glass liquid will become completely uniform and transparent-this method was used to manufacture early optical glass. , not to mention being used to make commercial-grade glassware.

Sure enough, after taking out the crucible again according to this operation method, the bubbles in the molten glass almost completely disappeared.The viscosity of the whole glass liquid is also reduced, and the glass liquid becomes very uniform and flows smoothly.This glass can even be used as a material for less demanding optical instruments-such as eyeglasses.

Years ago, the research team solved the two major technical difficulties of glass decolorization and clarification. The team members who were encouraged by the success agreed that they would not rest during the Chinese New Year and continue to tackle key problems in the manufacture of glassware, so as to contribute to the early realization of the Ming Dynasty in glassware production. .

When Wen Desi walked into the steaming glass factory shed, he found that most people were squatting listlessly outside the shed fanning fans. The glass furnace was still exuding oppressive heat. The temperature in the shed was as hot as 37 degrees Celsius.After a while, I was sweating profusely.A large basket in the middle of the floor was filled with smashed pieces of glass. There were strangely shaped glassware everywhere on the ground and on the operating table, and some of them could barely tell that it was a cup or a bottle.

Ji Situi told him listlessly that the trial production of glassware was completely unsuccessful—no one was capable of blowing out a suitable shape.These amateur glassmakers practice their glassblowing skills from early in the morning.I searched all the information and found no teaching how to blow glass.The only clue was a documentary about handmade glass, and the workers on TV blew it up and got what they wanted, and they didn't get the point.Not to mention utensils such as glasses, glass bowls, and bottles, there are not even a few similar utensils.From the early morning of the first day of the new year to now, several baskets of blown things have been packed.

"Mr. Wen, this is a difficult matter." Ji Situi's brow was covered with sweat, the fire was raging here, and no qualified glassware could be produced, which made the group leader of the chemical engineering group very anxious.

"Don't worry, the planning committee still has a lot of glassware in stock, which can last for a while." Wen Desi was more anxious than him, and he still pretended to be calm to comfort him.

"It's not difficult to see people shouldering the burden." Ji Wusheng said in Shanghai dialect, "It's our turn, we can't handle it anyway."

"There is no other way, just keep trying, practice makes perfect." Wen Desi didn't have anything else to say - he was also very unfamiliar with this industry.

A group of people were sighing and sighing, Li Mei came outside the door, and as soon as she entered the door, she greeted everyone with a big smile, and distributed many small baskets made of bamboo to everyone-they were filled with betel nuts.Wen Desi knew that since the Women's Welfare Association organized the supply of betel nuts on its own, it has been promoting this red-chewing thing among the cross-travelers all day long.

In fact, Li Mei's intentions are more than that.She is very well-informed, and the news of the trial production of glass by the industrial sector has reached her ears very early. This is nothing less than a stimulant for Li Mei, who is thinking about increasing the variety of welfare agency operations every day-glass!If it can be shipped in batches, it will be developed!After that, she kept thinking about going to the glass factory to see if she could establish a relationship with the factory manager.The custom of New Year's greetings on the first day of the Lunar New Year gave her a good opportunity.

"It's a new year, why do you all look like this?" Li Mei quickly noticed the strangeness of the atmosphere.

"Can it get better?" Ji Wusheng said angrily, "After tossing for a long time, a pile of rubbish came out." He said that he had no skills in glass blowing, and he couldn't make anything up to now.

Li Mei clapped her hands after hearing this: "Oh, you guys really deserve it. What are you talking about working together all day long? Ask me about it!"

"What?!" Everyone's eyes suddenly widened.Wen Desi was also taken aback - Li Mei's files did not say that she had worked as a glass worker - the Ming family did have a single-plank technique that was not available in Transit, but it had nothing to do with glass.

"You can blow glass? That's great, hurry up and help demonstrate." Ji Wusheng's spirit came immediately, and he almost went to pull the old lady directly.

"I can't blow glass." Li Mei still looked calm and composed, "But when I was the manager of a material trading company, I had a lot of glass products in my hands, and I knew a little bit about them."

Pointing to those oddly shaped glassware, she said, "Just talk about things like cups. There are generally two types, one is blown and the other is molded—"

Wen Desi cried out: "Molding! How could I forget!"

"That's right. President Wen, did you remember that too?" Li Mei smiled all over her face, "Since you can't make a blower, let's use a molder. In fact, when it comes to glass, there are far more molded glasses than blown ones." too much."

"Okay, let's try it out!" Ji Situi thought that this idea opened up a new situation.Molding requires the use of molds, and designing and manufacturing molds is a piece of cake for the mechanical department, let alone such a simple little thing.

"Wait a minute, we need to finalize the specifications first." Wen Desi said, "Since we use molds, we must determine the appearance, specifications, and dimensions, so as to facilitate future standardized manufacturing, otherwise it will cause waste."

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, glass cups and glass bottles are often seen, who knows what their specifications and sizes look like?It was Xiao Bailang who thought about it: Go to the planning committee's warehouse and take out a copy of all kinds of glassware, don't you know after field surveying and mapping?

At that moment, Wen Desi hurriedly called Ma Qianju and asked to borrow a batch of glassware temporarily.Here, the glassware research team is divided into two teams. The first team is composed of Ji Wusheng, Xiao Bailang and other metallurgical and mechanical personnel. After receiving the samples, they immediately start surveying and mapping, and open molds.On the other hand, chemical workers led by Ji Situi continued to smelt glass frit to prepare sufficient raw materials for subsequent large-scale production.Now the division of labor has been decided, and each takes action.

Wen Desi himself has also worked on molds. Anyway, there is nothing to do during the Chinese New Year holiday, so he went to the mechanical part and provided some professional advice for making molds by the way.

Xiao Bailang looked and looked at all kinds of glasses, glass bowls, glass vases, wine bottles, water bottles, various tea sets, and coffee sets borrowed from the planning committee, not knowing which one to draw first.

"Let me have an octagonal glass." Wen Desi thought that it is hard to say what kind of demand this 17th century market has.Or the simple things that come first.

"Okay!" It was not difficult for Xiao Bailang, who was born in machinery, to design the mold for this kind of thing.I took a closer look at the octagonal cup, measured the size, and drew a simple three-view drawing on the notebook with a pencil. I picked up the ruler and pencil and designed the mold drawing on the spot.

"Mr. Wen, what do you think of this mold?"

Wen Desi looked at the picture below, the mold of this kind of cup and bowl is very simple, it is a two-piece combination design, and there are matching fixtures, there is no problem.

"Just open it like this. The material doesn't need any good things, let Ji Wusheng cast it with pig iron."

Thus passed the first day of the new year in 1629.

The next day, Ji Situi sent several pairs of pig iron molds that he had made overnight to the glass factory.As the physical properties of the molten glass have been roughly known through glass blowing yesterday, after discussion and several trial productions, the process flow was determined: first, a layer of charcoal powder mixed with tung oil was applied inside the mold to prevent the glass from The liquid will bond with the inside of the mold.Then Ji Situi used the blowpipe to dip a mass of viscous glass slurry out, and while blowing air into the blowpipe, he rolled the taken out glass frit on a clean iron rolling plate, and then began to lift the blowpipe and the glass bubble upwards. Air should be blown in order to prevent the glass frit from concentrating on the bottom of the glass bubble.When the volume of the glass bubble reaches a certain size, put down the blowpipe, use the crucible tongs to stretch the glass bubble to the length of the cast iron mold, put the glass bubble into the cast iron mold, and make the glass bubble sink to the bottom of the mold. Step on the wooden splint to close the mold, while continuing to blow air, while rotating the blowpipe continuously to rotate the glass bubbles in the mold.After a few moments, the glass bubbles are knocked down with cold water.Opening the cast iron mold, a beautiful octagonal glass appeared in front of everyone, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Then they made round glasses, glass bowls, Western-style goblets, and even glass wine bottles—this is what Guo Yi has been asking for for a long time.

The finished glassware is placed in an annealing kiln for annealing.Then, they are sent to the machine shop, where the mouth of the blowpipe is cut off with a high-speed wheel saw, and polished and polished-these are done by the boys of the apprentice team in the mechanical department.

The first batch of shaped containers made the entire glass research team love it.After receiving the good news, the executive committee ordered that one piece of each type of glassware in this batch be extracted and sent to the planning committee as "important historical relics" for permanent preservation.

Ji Situ continued to work hard, and simply followed Guo Yi's request in the telegram, and asked Xiao Bailang to design a set of molds according to the shape of the flat bottle Red Star Erguotou, and made three hundred wine bottles in one go.This kind of small object is simple in shape and uses less materials, which is just for everyone to practice.

(End of this chapter)