Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 283 Why Can’t We Have Both?

The telescope has just been made, it is a trial sample, and its effect is not very good yet.

But after seeing it, Galileo confirmed that it was a real usable telescope. Although it was large in size, it could focus accurately.

He was a little confused: "Your Majesty, according to the calculations of the scholars under your rule, only lenses made of this material can be polished to focus exactly?"

General translation is a bit difficult, after all, it involves some special terms.

Fortunately, Zhu Changluo was a good man, and he had an official like Xu Guangqi who had a good understanding of natural sciences next to him.

Zhu Changluo felt helpless after hearing this: "Are you talking about why not using glass?"

Galileo nodded.

The term "glass" was already used in the Ming Dynasty. Li Shizhen recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica: "Glass was originally called Polii, which is the name of the country of Polii. It is as clear as water and as hard as jade, so it is called water jade. It has the same name as water crystal."

When Matteo Ricci came to the Ming Dynasty, he also brought some glass products. Before him, someone had brought glass prisms to create rainbows by refracting sunlight.

China naturally had glass very early, but on the one hand, it worshipped jade culture, and on the other hand, the ceramics had a high level of craftsmanship and were sufficient, so the focus of the technology tree was on colored glass. Of course, there was also transparent glass. Zhu Changluo still remembered the Warring States crystal cup that was always jokingly called a time-travel item.

But if it is to be used as a telescope lens, of course, glass with better light transmittance and purity is most suitable.

In fact, this sample is made of transparent glass made by Daming itself.

At present, Yanshen Town, Yidu County, Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province, is the most advanced transparent glass manufacturing center in the Ming Dynasty.

But it should be said that it was a well-known glass-making center in the Ming Dynasty. They produced red, yellow, blue, green, white, black, smoky quartz, milky white...

Although Zhu Changluo has made clear requests and has gathered a group of craftsmen to go to Beijing's Liulichang to improve the craft, it is still not done well, perhaps because of the materials and craftsmanship.

Zhu Changluo looked at the huge telescope and thought that it might be because of its transparency. This thing obviously used more lenses to focus the light, which allowed Zhu Changluo to see Zhu Guozuo walking towards the Fengtian Hall from the top of Wansui Mountain: What was this guy doing at the Fengtian Hall instead of staying in the Ministry of Rites to handle departmental affairs at this time?
Regardless of this for the moment, Zhu Changluo saw Galileo nod and said, "Even if we don't use more transparent glass, the complex lens group can still successfully achieve the function of seeing far away under the calculation of optical laws. The next step is nothing more than improvement."

Then he looked at Galileo and said, "Do you know the glass manufacturing process in Europe?"

"Of course! In order to make a telescope, I have always wanted to get purer and easier to polish fine glass!"

This was not a problem for Galileo, who later did build a telescope.

Then it was time for him to communicate with the master craftsman called by Zhu Changluo. As they talked, Zhu Changluo finally understood the crux of the problem.

It’s not that the temperature of the Ming Dynasty’s furnace is not high enough, nor that the Ming Dynasty’s craftsmen are not smart, but... the raw materials are probably very different.

碱！
Although he had forgotten a lot of science knowledge learned during compulsory education, especially physics and chemistry, Zhu Changluo at least still remembered three acids and two bases, and their great significance to industry.

The Egyptians used sand, natural soda from salt lakes, lime and other materials for firing. The Ming Dynasty certainly had no shortage of sand and lime, but the salt lakes... were too far away from the heartland of the Central Plains.

The higher purity glass mentioned by Galileo now requires wood ash.

Xu Guangqi immediately said: "Take a bucket of barley straw, soak it in water for seven days, take it out, dry it, and crush it into powder..."

He began to talk about the method of making alkali in Qi Min Yao Shu, and the interpreter was very busy.

After Galileo finished listening, he heard the emperor say one sentence, which was translated as: "It turns out that this was concluded more than a thousand years ago, but... wood ash is too precious, and alkali is too precious, so it has never been used to make glass, right?"

…More than a thousand years ago.

Xu Guangqi nodded: "Indeed. Made by a glass craftsman, this colorless glass is actually not pleasing to the eye. Why use such expensive alkali?"

The population of the Ming Dynasty was so large that there was not enough wood ash to fertilize the fields. Selling feces in the city was a business. Even if alkali was produced, most of it was used to make dough or as cleaning products by the rich. The Beijing-Tianjin area now uses Mongolian alkali "imported" from Zhangjiakou.

The Ming Dynasty lacks this thing.

But not nothing.

It can only be said that the Ming Dynasty indeed lacked the motivation and demand to make transparent glass: even for lighting, relatively less transparent colored glaze or mica sheets and paper windows are more in line with the implicit and hazy culture of Oriental people.

"Try again in this direction." Zhu Changluo immediately arranged for Liu Ruoyu, "Let Wang An tell Changming to buy more caustic soda. That one is probably not pure enough. Find a way to purify it again and burn better glass."

Then he turned to Galileo, paused, and said: "Knowing and understanding the world is a long and difficult process. In Europe, the church explains the knowledge between heaven and earth. I have heard about Copernicus being burned to death." After listening to the translation, Galileo was shocked.

"In the Ming Dynasty, the disaster you are worried about will not happen. On the contrary, I am an enlightened emperor. The earth is not the center of the universe, and neither is the sun. How do the sun, moon, and stars move? Why do the tides rise and fall? Why do metals rust? Why do some things turn into something else when burned together? Why do people get sick?"

Zhu Changluo had done the same thing as asking three thousand whys to the Taichang Temple and Baijiayuan, and now he told it to Galileo as well.

"I have used the vast and rich power of the Ming Dynasty to select talented and knowledgeable people from among the hundreds of millions of people, and established schools with tens of thousands of students in my capital. In the name of the emperor, I have invited and funded scholars to conduct research in order to unravel more and more mysteries."

He looked at Galileo: "How much can you prove to me?"

Galileo was still listening to the translator and heard him say that the earth was not the center of the universe, nor was the sun. This was even bolder than Copernicus.

Of course, he is the Emperor of the East, who does he need to be afraid of?

He just wanted to ask the emperor why he was so sure, and then feel the emperor's strong curiosity from his questions.

With the stone tablet, Galileo believed that this was not just curiosity. What the emperor needed was the truth, the truth that could be expressed in mathematics.

The Eastern emperor actually placed these disciplines above theology and philosophy?

How much the last one could prove? Before Galileo could think of how to answer, the emperor turned around and pointed at the solemn building: "This temple is called the Holy Temple. I ordered it to be built. Those who can reveal the laws of heaven and earth are the saints in my mind. I have carved their research results on stones and placed them next to it. If you can achieve such achievements in the Ming Dynasty, I will not hesitate to include you in the list, publish your results, and let your name spread from the East to the West."

"Galileo, learn Chinese well and write to bring your family here. Under the shadow of the church, friends like you who want to prove some viewpoints that the church cannot accept can write to me and call them here. In the Ming Dynasty, you don't have to worry about anything else, just do the research you want to do and prove it to me. Liu Ruoyu, this sample will be given to Galileo first."

No one can stop the trend of the times.

As ocean navigation technology advances, missionaries will continue to come to the East.

There was no need for Zhu Changluo to take any deliberate action, as China already had quite mature experience in dealing with the religions introduced into the country.

On the contrary, during the transition from the old era to the new era, the church was actually an obstacle to natural science in the West.

As fate would have it, since Galileo had come, Zhu Changluo was prepared to keep him and even to use him to attract more people.

Since the Emperor of the East is still only in his twenties, the scientific history of this world will naturally be rewritten in the future.

On this day, Zhu Changluo not only brought Galileo to the holy temple on Wansui Mountain, but also to Baijiayuan and Qianqing Palace, and let him meet Zhu Zaiyu, the most talented mathematician in the Ming Dynasty.

Although he is fascinated by music, there is mathematics behind it.

By the order of the emperor, Zhu Zaiyu, his great uncle, became more and more interested in mathematics in his later years.

Now Zhu Changluo introduced to Galileo this old scholar from the Eastern Empire who had given up his princely title to specialize in research, and gave them both a task: first establish a set of more rigorous, easier to learn and calculate mathematical standards.

Without this, more sophisticated metrics are difficult to come by and further research will be slowed down.

After meeting the Eastern Emperor, Galileo was quickly taken seriously. This was reflected in the following: Zhu Changluo, in addition to taking time to arrange the preparations for the establishment of the Beiyang Fleet and meeting Chen Jian who had arrived in Beijing and arranging for him to start the selection of the Minister of the Secretariat and the Minister of State Affairs as soon as possible, spent the rest of his time on establishing the norms and standards for the discipline of mathematics.

The Ming Dynasty's abacus formulas and vertical writing standards were a great torture for Galileo.

The Eastern abacus was a surprise to Galileo, who was familiar with Napier's rod.

Zhu Changluo was naturally more familiar with the standards of later generations, but he was not sure whether it was just a matter of habit.

In short, this time we have to call on some clerks from the Ministry of Revenue, and let these people who have to calculate a lot of things all year round to explore together what the mathematical standards should be.

This was one of the reasons why Zhu Changluo was slow to take any action on weights and measures.

The astronomical observations that Galileo wanted to do could not be completed in a short time, and he could not participate in the improvement of the telescope for the time being. However, he already had the dual identities of a director of the Institute of Research and a professor of Baijiayuan. He just couldn't go to class until he had learned the language well.

But Zhu Changluo treated him generously: he gave him a house and 1,000 taels of silver as a living allowance.

He already knew that Kepler was a good friend of Galileo.

Although he had already prepared the soil for the Ming Dynasty and was constantly discovering and cultivating talents, Zhu Changluo also believed in the wisdom of the Ming Dynasty's talents, but...

Why can't you have it all?
(End of this chapter)