Diqin Designer

Chapter 100 Enlightening Scientific Thinking
"The shoes that horses wear are different from the shoes that we wear. They are not worn on the feet, but nailed to the horses' hooves."

A craftsman from the Shaofu asked, "But sir, if you nail the shoe into the horse's hoof, won't the horse feel pain?"

Li Nian said: "Horse hooves are different from human feet. They have a layer of hard keratin about an inch thick. Anyone who has seen or touched a horse hoof should know this."

A young craftsman said excitedly: "I have touched a horse's hoof, and it is just like what you said, it feels hard, very different from our feet."

Not many people have touched horse hooves, but many have seen horses. If you think about it carefully, it seems to be like this.

"This layer of cuticle is like our fingernails."

Li Nian stretched out his left hand and pointed at his nails with a small stick: "Have you ever trimmed your nails before? Have you ever felt pain?"

The craftsmen in the Shaofu shook their heads. When doing their job, they couldn't let the nails grow too long. Normally, they would trim them when they found they were too long, but no one had ever connected this with horse hooves.

"As long as it doesn't exceed the thickness of the keratin on the horse's hoof, it won't cause pain to the horse."

After hearing this, the craftsmen in the Shaofu Palace suddenly understood what was going on. One of them asked curiously, "But sir, why don't we feel any pain when trimming our nails?"

Looking at the craftsman who asked the question, Li Nian smiled and said, "This is because the part of the nail that is trimmed has no nerve distribution."

After explaining this, Li Nian did not continue to explain and turned the topic back to the horseshoe: "When a horse is running normally, it is actually this part of the cuticle that is in contact with the ground, but if the horse continues to run, what do you think will happen?
A craftsman said: "Of course it will be worn out..."

As soon as these words were spoken, all the craftsmen understood that the purpose of nailing the horseshoes on the horses was to replace the keratin that was worn out, so that the horses could be used for a longer time. Moreover, the horseshoes were iron, so those roads that were previously difficult for horses to travel on could now be walked on.

The older craftsman thought about it for a while, and then suddenly had an idea: "Cow hooves and horse hooves seem to be the same. Sir, can I also nail this hoof on cows?"

Li Nian said: "Cows are different from horses. They don't need to run long distances. They usually work in the fields. The soil in the fields is generally soft and will not damage the cow's hooves. Therefore, they don't need to be shoed. However, the cow's hooves need to be trimmed regularly, just like people trim their nails."

The older craftsman bowed to Li Nian and said, "Thank you for clearing up my doubts, young master!"

At this time, another craftsman reminded: "These horseshoes and stirrups look simple to make, but they are so useful. We must not let the Hu people learn them. Their horses are better than those of the Qin Dynasty. If they can master horseshoes and stirrups..."

Due to historical reasons, Qin was not very short of horses, but it was still far inferior to the increasingly powerful Xiongnu in the north. If stirrups and horseshoes were hastily spread, the advantage brought to the Xiongnu might be greater than that to the Qin.

Li Nian also thought of this problem and said, "The matter of horseshoes and stirrups must be kept secret and not disclosed."

The craftsmen who were chosen to work here strictly abided by the confidentiality laws of the Shaofu. When they heard what Li Nian said, their expressions straightened and they said, "Don't worry, sir. We will never dare to leak the secrets!"

Li Nian waved his hand, and the eunuchs carrying two wooden boards retreated. Another eunuch came forward carrying a new wooden board. The craftsmen in the Shaofu saw that what was drawn on the board was a complete production process diagram.

Li Nian pointed with a stick at a stone-like object in the first picture: "This is 'Shi Nie'. Some of you should know it."

The craftsmen nodded, knowing that they had used this thing to smelt metals, but it had a smell and sometimes made people breathless.

Compared with stirrups and horseshoes, Li Nian was more concerned about honeycomb briquettes. He explained carefully: "Crush it into powder, find yellow mud, and mix it with water in a ratio of 80% stone and 20% yellow mud." A craftsman was taking notes carefully with bamboo slips. Li Nian added: "'80%' and '20%' do not refer to their weights, but to their sizes. Stir when mixing, so that the stone and yellow mud are evenly mixed, until the mixture can be kneaded into a ball."

"Then use this briquette machine to make them into honeycomb coal."

The briquette machine may be the most technically demanding part of making honeycomb coal, but for the craftsmen in the Shaofu, they can figure out how to make it after just a few glances at it.

The stick pointed to the last picture, "Put the finished briquettes in a well-ventilated and sunny place to dry them, and they will be ready."

Li Nian recalled that when he was young, his family also used coal briquettes, especially in winter. His parents always had to go to the town to buy a lot of coal briquettes. But after natural gas was connected, people bought fewer coal briquettes, and families who made honeycomb coal no longer did it.

Now that he has come to this world, he may never see his parents again. The things he does in Daqin are actually meant to accumulate merit for his relatives in another world.

After the craftsmen heard this, one of them asked, "Sir, can these coal balls be burned? Why do we need to make these holes in them?"

Li Nian explained: "Of course, make these holes..."

Li Nian originally wanted to say that this was conducive to air flow and more complete combustion, but after thinking about it, he changed his approach to one that was easier for the craftsmen to understand.

"When you are making a fire, have you ever noticed that if you gather the firewood in one place, the fire will not be big, but if you spread the firewood out a little, leaving some space between each firewood, you can make a bigger fire?"

Li Nian didn't mention it, but unexpectedly, now that he mentioned it, the craftsmen recalled it and found that it was true. Although they have been doing this for so many years, almost no one has thought deeply about it and they all treat it as a commonplace thing.

I never paid attention to it in the past, but when I heard you mention it today, I thought about it carefully. Why is this?

It took so many years to realize that they didn't know the reason.

The reason why Li Nian explained these things in such detail was not only to enable the craftsmen to do their work better, but also to inspire their scientific thinking.

It is too difficult for Li Nian to promote scientific and technological progress in this era alone. More people are needed. These Shaofu craftsmen are the top technical experts of this era. They may become the leaders and founders of the development of science and industry in the Qin Dynasty.

He planned to propose to the First Emperor that he give classes to the craftsmen of the Shaofu every once in a while to answer some of their questions, preferably after paper was invented. Without paper, it would be too troublesome to rely on bamboo slips to record and spread information.

A craftsman asked, "So the holes in the coal balls work in the same way, making the fire burn bigger?"

Li Nian nodded and said, "That's right. This thing is easy to make, the fire it burns is bigger, and it doesn't produce a lot of smoke and dust like burning stone directly. Because yellow mud is added, it can also reduce the consumption of stone and lower its price, so that more people can afford it."

"The coal slag left after burning coal briquettes can also be used to pave roads and make cement."

The old craftsman who had just asked whether the ox's hooves could be shod said, "Sir, do you want to use this as a new kind of firewood for the people of the world to use?"

Without waiting for Li Nian to speak, the older craftsman said, "If Shi Nie can provide it, your method will benefit the world and save countless lives."

(End of this chapter)