Chapter 45: Gold bricks enter the kiln (seeking a monthly pass, yes
"Burning green bricks? Green bricks are fragile and troublesome to burn." Chen Qinglin hesitated for a while and said.
Chen Wenzhe naturally knows, but he has a way to solve the problem.
"I can burn!"
"Really? There is a covered kiln in our village where we can make green bricks!"
"Is it still available?" Chen Wenzhe was really surprised this time.
"It's right behind your old house. It was built by our grandfather back then. It's just filled in and covered up. It's not damaged. It can be used if it is dug up."
"Eh? Haha, it saves you the trouble this time. I'll get the brick embryos for you when the time comes. I'll make sure that the fired green bricks are as hard as stone."
It's just a little harder, and it doesn't have to be like a gold brick. It's as bright as a mirror, sounds like a chime, and hits like a gold stone!
Since receiving the inheritance, Chen Wenzhe has been studying for a long time and already knows how to make gold bricks.
But he didn't expect that he would have a chance to get burned so soon!
"Can you bake bricks?" Chen Qinglin was a little confused. Are all college students so good?
"I can not only make bricks, but also make porcelain!"
"Haha, I know you are studying at an art university, but do you really know how to bake bricks? What a brick!"
"Yes, you can not only make bricks, but also make tiles. You can also make tiles. Didn't you design the gatehouse? Do you know anything about brick carving?"
"Okay, I'll leave these to you. I will definitely impress your sister-in-law this time."
Chen Wenzhe looked at Chen Qinglin strangely, was he angry with his wife?
I have to say that Chen Qinglin is a real man. After all, the price of anger is too high.
With the support of Chen Qinglin, it is much easier for Chen Qingshan to do things.
The village digs soil all year round, and everyone knows where there is good soil, but it turns out that the soil is not very particular.
Now with Chen Wenzhe's guidance, it is not difficult to dig out some qualified clay.
Although the clay he chose was not suitable for firing gold bricks, he still followed the process of firing gold bricks.
Of course, all those troublesome steps are omitted.
With this practice, Chen Wenzhe has gained some knowledge about firing gold bricks!
So, in the next two days, he has been helping to build the house and bake bricks.
After the brick embryos were put into the kiln, Chen Wenzhe, who had nothing to do, began to officially make gold bricks.
In his third uncle Chen Jianshe's greenhouse, Chen Wenzhe first had to choose the soil.
According to ancient techniques, the selected soil must be left in the open air for a full year to remove its "earth nature".
In the eyes of others, this step must be done regardless of whether it is useful or not, without management or understanding. However, what is soil nature?
Chen Wenzhe, who has gained inheritance experience, knows very well that earthy nature exists, but this is mainly a selection process.
Qualified gold brick soil only needs to be dried for a while.
So why did ancient craftsmen still spend a lot of time drying the soil?
In fact, it is very simple. One is that the conditions at that time were not good, and the preserved brick soil was easily contaminated and needed to be randomly inspected at any time.
Another issue is the construction period. If the construction period is not extended, if the construction period is delayed due to a small accident and insufficient gold bricks are not delivered, then you will be beheaded.
So, they took two years to complete a task that could have been completed in one year. Can they still complete the task in this way?
Chen Wenzhe has enough experience in selecting gold brick soil, and he also has the conditions to preserve the gold brick soil in good condition to prevent the gold brick soil from being contaminated.
The main reason is that the gold bricks he makes are relatively small, only four or five tons of soil, which is easy to handle.
He has a master's level of clay training, and living in clay is no problem.
Soak the clay in water and put it directly into the mixer. When the mixing is good, put it into the dough mixer.
This way, he doesn't have to let several cows trample the clay repeatedly to remove the air bubbles in the mud, and finally make it into a dense clay ball.
After repeated beatings, the critical moment came.
At this time, Chen Wenzhe had to be careful. He passed all the refined clay in his hands bit by bit.
In this way, when the gold bricks are finally fired into bricks, there will be no bubbles left inside the gold bricks.
Finally, put the mud ball into the mold, cover it with a flat plate, and then step on it until it is firm.
Then the bricks are dried in the shade. This is actually quite different from the porcelain-fired bricks, but the requirements are more stringent.
Of course, it is not necessary to dry in the shade for more than 7 months before firing in the kiln, as in ancient times.
This is all based on experience. There are certain standards for when to dry in the shade and to what extent.
Using various methods, this process is actually very fast. The simplest is to speed up ventilation. In the eyes of modern people, this is too simple.
With experience, you are not afraid of problems. Therefore, this step for Chen Wenzhe only took twice as long as firing ordinary bricks.
With qualified brick embryos, the subsequent firing will be more troublesome.
In ancient times, when firing, they were first smoked with chaff for a month to remove the moisture.
Then chop the wood and burn it for a month, then use the whole wood to burn it for a month, and finally use pine branches to burn it for 40 days before it can be released from the kiln.
This is an exaggeration. Let alone smoking for a month to remove moisture. With experience, it can be completed in less than a day.
As for chopping firewood and burning it for a month, that's a bit exaggerated, because even smelting iron doesn't take that long.
The main reason is that in ancient times, there was no way to control the kiln temperature, and it was impossible to observe the kiln temperature at any time. Anyway, it would not burn out, so it would be better to burn it for a few more days.
There is also the same problem with the final pine branch firing kiln, but this step also requires carbon infiltration.
The reason why black bricks can be fired is that there is no oxidation reaction, and the other is that after the kiln is closed, the carbon ash in the pine smoke will penetrate into the gold bricks.
As long as the infiltration is completed, it doesn't take long, but all the pine branches in a kiln must be burned.
The kiln firing is not finished yet. After the bricks leave the kiln, they must undergo strict inspection.
If 6 of a batch of gold bricks cannot reach the level of "no sound when knocked and no holes when broken", this batch of gold bricks will be considered scrap and must be fired again.
In this way, in ancient times, it took up to two years to go from soil to gold bricks.
If he followed this method, Chen Wenzhe would never be able to fire gold bricks in a short period of time, and naturally he would not be able to complete the task.
The times are developing, and science and technology are not useless. Chen Wenzhe, who has been doing research for a long time, naturally knows how to save time.
Based on experience, using machines and scientific methods to save a little time, there is no problem at all.
Of course, you can use means, but you can't do it randomly.
Apart from anything else, the reason why it took so long to dry a brick in the shade in ancient times was entirely because they depended on the weather. If the weather was bad, it would naturally take a long time to dry the brick in the shade.
Nowadays, there are more methods that can be used. As long as you have experience, you can use baking rooms, electric kilns, and fans.
In the next few days, he became very busy.
When Chen Qinglin's bricks come out of the kiln, his gold bricks can also go into the kiln.