When Zheng Haizhu walked into the yard, Han Ximeng's second aunt Qian was leading everyone to stand in front of two completely different spinning machines.
The Qian family was born into a landowner's family in the cotton fields of Songjiang. After marrying Han Zhongwen, the Qian family's cotton was mainly supplied to the Han family, who spun, dyed and weaved the yarn.
Therefore, Qian always treated Han Ximeng as her daughter. Since she was familiar with cotton spinning, she came over to take a look when she heard that Dong Erya and Miss Zheng asked the Han family for help and asked spinners to come to Chongming to work on new machines.
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Qian and two spinners brought a three-spindle pedal spinning machine.
It was a machine that had been used in the Susong area for three to four hundred years and was passed down by Huang Daopo.
Southern Zhili originally used single-spindle spinning machines.
After Huang Daopo learned more advanced weaving techniques from the Li women in Hainan, he improved the three-spindle spinning machine used to spin silk and linen in the Jiangnan area, so that the three-spindle machine could also spin cotton.
The efficiency has increased three to four times, keeping up with the demand for raw materials for weaving.
The British spinning Jenny machine has eight spindles since its inception. Although the fineness of the yarn may not be as fine as that of Chinese cotton thread, the efficiency is indeed higher.
After Zheng Haizhu came to the late Ming Dynasty, he found himself in Songjiang Prefecture, known as "the world of clothes and quilts". After seeing the processing and sales of cotton textile industry, he wondered why China, which has many skilled craftsmen, did not give birth to the Jenny machine before the West.
Because it's not necessary.
In the late Ming Dynasty, unlike European countries at the same time, they did not expand maritime colonization and dump cheap goods.
The imperial court's foreign trade volume was very limited, and the demand for silk cloth in the internal circulation was not hungry. Neither political autocracy nor economic conditions could stimulate the leapfrog development of textile productivity.
In the territory of China in the late Ming Dynasty, which was enjoying the demographic dividend, the three-spindle spinning machine invented by Huang Daopo could already meet the supply of yarn for weaving. There was no need for weavers to wait for spinners, and "three spindles became eight spindles."
Where does the motivation come from?
Tang Po's grandmother, a Guangxi woman who could only manage her life within the radius of her official husband's activities, must have had nothing to do with the stimulation of capital to develop multi-spindle spinning machines.
Perhaps because of this, her works progressed very slowly and were stopped with the passing of her life. They were abandoned in the corner of her home, covered with cobwebs and dust, until they were surprised to be discovered by a traveler.
But Zheng Haizhu, who understood Mrs. Tang's thoughts, had no ability to continue the deceased's works.
No matter how hard she tried to recall the illustration of "Jenny's Loom" in her middle school textbook, she still couldn't figure out how to use one wheel to drive several vertical spindles.
Han Ximeng and Fan Polu circled the loom for several days. They got inspiration from the silk-splitting technique of embroidery and the flying stitches of sewing. Under the upright roving spindles, an equal number of cotton yarn rotors were arranged correspondingly.
, in the middle is the horizontal axis that collects the finished fine yarns, and moves the wooden wheel located behind the spindles in Huang Daopo's "three-spindle spinning machine" to the side.
After the second aunt Qian and the spinning woman arrived, the most critical part was figured out by these women - the wooden frame and the wooden pole.
"Miss Zheng," Mrs. Qian said to Zheng Haizhu, holding a long branch that Dong Erya picked up from outside, "if there is a wooden frame with grooves on the poles on both sides, this branch is like a
The sliding rod that can be pushed and pulled back and forth in the slot is used to strangle the seven or eight juxtaposed yarns. By arranging several more wooden lattice rods from top to bottom, cotton yarns, roving yarns, and fine yarns can be connected.
When the wooden wheel is shaken, the cotton yarn is spun into fine yarn through the roving spindle, and pushing the slider back and forth is like having several three-spindle spinning wheels spinning out fine yarn at the same time."
Ah, after listening to Qian's instructions, Zheng Haizhu finally understood how the entire transmission device should work.
But Qian quickly frowned: "However, this modification is several times larger than the three-spindle pedal spinning machine we Songjiang people usually use, and the power required is much stronger. If the wooden wheel is
If you use cotton thread to connect the hook, I'm afraid if you shake it for half an hour, the thread will break."
After Mrs. Qian finished speaking, she heard someone outside the door say: "Several masters...several grandmas, I think you can use beef tendons to wrap around large and small wooden wheels."
Qian and Han Ximeng looked back and saw a man of medium height with a short beard standing next to Hua Er, a girl from the Liao people outside the door, bowing and talking.
Because of this humble attitude, Qian saw at a glance that new hair had just grown out of the man's coarse turban, and he could not even comb it into a bun.
After Qian came to the island yesterday, she heard Han Ximeng say that the Liao people recruited by Zheng Haizhu to farm and serve as soldiers were all Han Chinese who had escaped from the Jurchens outside Kuandian Pass. When Hou Jin enslaved them, he ordered them to
Her head was shaved like a Jurchen, as smooth as a gourd, leaving only a lock of hair the size of a copper coin on the back of her head, tied into a thin braid.
At this moment, Qian saw the appearance of the man outside the door and asked Zheng Haizhu: "Is this young man from your village?"
Zheng Haizhu nodded and said: "His name is Ah Shan. Since he has some carpentry skills, I will bring him here to see him today."
Ah Shan, who was the one who cried in front of the hut and fields and complained about Houjin's forced food killings, looked thinner than the wild dogs on the road when he first landed on the island. In the past two months, he had gained some weight, and his eyes had begun to look brighter, but
He still habitually bows his waist when speaking, and has not completely gotten rid of his habit of saying "Master, Master" when he opens his mouth.
Mrs. Qian looked around the courtyard and saw that they were all women. Even if Fan Polu had not yet left the cabinet, the little girl was still the female steward who was in charge of many male sewing workers.
Qian then greeted Ah Shan kindly: "Come in, take a look at these wooden wheels, and give us careful advice."
Ah Shan hurriedly crossed the threshold and walked to the eight-spindle spinning machine. He stretched out his hand and turned the wooden wheel. He used his thumb to indicate the width of the big and small wheel hubs, and then pulled the thread on the wheel of the traditional three-spindle spinning machine.
Han Ximeng is good at embroidery, and he usually pays attention to the details. Wherever he looks, he sees that Ah Shan's left thumb is particularly thick and has a thick callus. Looking at the rest of his movements, he clearly uses his right hand.
Han Ximeng was curious. This carpenter was not left-handed. It stands to reason that the left hand does not use force as much as the right hand. Why is the thumb of the left hand in such a condition? Is there any work in the carpentry industry that relies on the left hand to exert force?
Just listen to Zheng Haizhu say: "Ah Shan, you carpenters, want to peel off the tendon of beef?"
His tone was very calm, even with a hint of tenderness, hoping that this young man wouldn't have to be nervous to reply.
Ashan took a few steps back, still not daring to look at the dazzling women in front of him. He lowered his eyelids and said, "To Madam, the Jurchens like to use big bows. To make a big bow requires deer sinews. They often let us
Do this job. When you get to Nanzhili, there are more cows than deer, so you can try beef tendons for the smaller ones."
Qian looked at Ah Shan, then at Hua Er, who was repairing the mule cart outside the door, and looked at Zheng Haizhu: "These people you recruited are not only honest about their duties, but also have their own abilities. They are really good."
Zheng Haizhu looked at Ah Shan and said with a smile: "Just as you said, tie it up with beef tendons and see if it can move. If it works, it will be the same as building a gun carriage, and I will give you a reward."