On that day, the Smelting Bureau harvested the first iron candle mold they made.
Although it was already Haishi, all the craftsmen were very happy, because not only did they create the first iron mold, but His Highness King Su, who visited the iron mold making process, also because they were two hundred people
It was very hard work, and an extra reward of ten taels was promised to each person. As for the thirty or so craftsmen working beside the stove, the reward was doubled, to twenty taels.
According to Zhao Hongrun's explanation, this is called a subsidy, and it is specifically issued to these craftsmen who work in dangerous environments.
What makes the craftsmen even more delighted is that this subsidy is not limited to today. In the future, the Smelting Bureau will provide corresponding subsidies for any dangerous errands.
This made the craftsmen of Zhuye Manufacturing Bureau support Zhao Hongrun even more. You know, how much is their monthly salary?
Even after Zhao Hongrun took over the Smelting Bureau and ordered the monthly salary of the officials and craftsmen in the entire Smelting Bureau to be doubled, the craftsman with the highest monthly salary was only one hundred and sixty taels. In other words, a ten-day subsidy was equivalent to one of their
monthly salary.
Regarding this, Wang Fu, the Chief of the Smelting Bureau, muttered a little. Although he knew that Zhao Hongrun had 300,000 taels of silver in his hands, he could not withstand His Highness Prince Su's "squandering" so generously.
The subsidy is only 10 taels a day? The craftsmen standing by the stove get even 20 taels of subsidy?
It is estimated that the more than 200 craftsmen will spend more than 20,000 taels of silver on His Highness Prince Su in just ten days.
What's even more terrible is that His Highness Prince Su also personally promised that the Smelting Bureau will issue corresponding high-risk subsidies for hazardous jobs in the future. This is not a small amount of money!
However, Zhao Hongrun is very open-minded about this. If he had not handed over a large sum of money to the Construction Department of the Ministry of Industry this time, otherwise, he would have definitely increased the amount of subsidies. After all, in his opinion, the hard-working people in the Metallurgical Bureau
The craftsman is worthy of his efforts.
"Don't worry, it won't be long before the candles produced by our Smelting Bureau occupy the market share, and there will be a steady flow of money pouring into our Smelting Bureau. Do you still care about the mere 20,000 to 30,000 yuan?"
As a financial backer, it was a strange thing that Zhao Hongrun persuaded Bureau Chief Wang Fu in turn.
After listening to Zhao Hongrun's words, Wang Fu thought about it carefully and fell silent.
In fact, in the final analysis, he was only thinking about Zhao Hongrun. After all, Zhao Hongrun spent less than 20% of the 300,000 taels of silver he had obtained during the Chu-Wei campaign to hire Meng Wei, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry, to renovate Prince Su's Mansion.
The rest of the expenses were used for the construction of the Metallurgical Bureau. Not only did it increase the monthly salary of the employees of the Metallurgical Bureau, but they also converted those simple work sheds into brick houses. They also asked the Construction Department to build several underground furnaces outside the city.
In the future, the Smelting Bureau will bake fire bricks and smelt iron ore. Although the appearance of the Smelting Bureau has changed drastically, this is all done by King Su with money.
Sometimes even Wang Fu couldn't figure out why His Highness Prince Su was so willing to spend money in his smelting bureau, and he still invested an estimated amount of no less than 200,000 yuan.
By the time they carried the iron molds back to Daliang City, the city gate had already been closed. After seeing Zhao Hongrun and his group clearly, the guards stationed at the city gate quickly came down to open the city gate.
Although these soldiers and guards may not recognize Zhao Hongrun, how could they not recognize Wang Fu, the bureau chief of the Metallurgical Bureau? After all, among the six departments and 24 departments of the imperial court, many departments often have to ask for special services due to the special relationships they are responsible for.
He worked until late at night before returning to Daliang, and sometimes even worked until the early morning of the next day. Therefore, the guards at the city gate were already accustomed to it.
By the time the iron molds were transported back to the Smelting Bureau, it was already past the end of the day, but Wang Fu, the Bureau Chief, obviously had no intention of letting the craftsmen go home to rest. They still had to do some processing on the iron molds.
After all, the iron mold at this time is really just a piece of iron mold. The craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau also have to use files to process the inner wall of the groove to make it as flat and smooth as possible. In addition,
There are also some additional accessories.
For example, build a wooden shelf with corresponding specifications and install the iron mold on it; another example is create a push plate and install it at the bottom of the shelf. Otherwise, after the candle solidifies in the groove of the iron mold, how can they take out the groove?
What about the candle inside?
These follow-up tasks were busy until the rooster crowed the next day.
Perhaps it was due to the high subsidies given by Zhao Hongrun that although these craftsmen worked for nearly a day, they did not feel tired but seemed to be in high spirits. After successfully making a candle-making mold, everyone present
They didn't even think about going home to rest, but excitedly started boiling candle oil, trying to use new techniques to make candles.
Just do it. About two hundred people took several large pots and boiled several pots of candle oil using yesterday's candle oil recipe. After pouring the candle oil into the iron molds, everyone present, including
Zhao Hongrun, Shen Yu and other Zongwei all stared at it with wide eyes.
"tick"
"tick"
A trace of candle wax flowed down along the gap between the iron mold and the wooden frame, which made the craftsmen present frowned unconsciously.
"There's an oil leak here...Brother Liu San, you can't hit the ground with this wooden frame."
"Fart! I polished it repeatedly with a planer, how is it possible!... It must be related to the mold."
"Nonsense, when we made the clay mold, we measured it repeatedly with a ruler..."
"Stop arguing, stop arguing, we'll make up for it later."
The craftsmen have some accusations against each other, all because they are too inclined to strive for excellence.
In fact, this is not a big deal in Zhao Hongrun's opinion: with the current technology of Wei Dynasty, they can create such a candle technology that can be used for thousands of years. What big deal is a few drops of candle oil leaking?
The craftsmen waited with their eyes wide open, waiting for the candle oil in the iron mold to cool down.
During this period, many craftsmen came up with ideas to improve the mold due to anxiety in other places.
"Just waiting for the candle oil to cool and solidify is too slow and makes people anxious... What do you think if we build another water tank under the iron mold, with water filling and flowing out at both ends, so as to use water to cool down?
"
"This method is good, but you have to ensure that the candle oil in the grooves in the iron mold does not flow into the sink..."
"That depends on Brother Liu San..."
"I told you it's none of my business, it's the iron mold's business!"
Zhao Hongrun smiled and watched the craftsmen noisy there, but in his heart, he couldn't help but marveled again.
The wisdom of ancient craftsmen should not be underestimated. Even if he had not yet proposed using water to quickly lower the temperature of the candle oil in the iron mold and make it condense quickly, these respectable craftsmen had already thought of it themselves.
"Remember the names of those craftsmen and give them additional rewards later. Their ideas will be adopted by me." Zhao Hongrun whispered to the Prime Minister Wang Fuyan.
Alas! His Highness King Su is going to spend money again...
Wang Fu sighed silently and nodded.
After waiting for about half an hour, the candle oil cooled and solidified. At this time, several craftsmen from the Smelting Bureau got under the iron mold, carried the push plate on their shoulders, and pushed it upward. Suddenly, in the groove of the iron mold,
Ten candles in a row, ten candles in a row, a total of one hundred candles, were pushed out and presented neatly in front of everyone's eyes.
Looking at this scene, many craftsmen present were extremely moved.
They succeeded!
They succeeded!
"Oh oh oh!"
There were more than 200 craftsmen, and they shouted so loudly that Wang Fu, the chief of the Smelting Bureau, was so frightened that he quickly stopped.
joke!
You must know that Daliang City is completely silent at this time, and many people are still sleeping. How can their voices wake up the people living nearby?
Disturbing people's dreams is quite frowned upon!
Fortunately, the craftsmen realized it immediately, scratching their heads and making fun of each other's gaffe.
Then, the craftsmen took out the formed candles. After that, some people continued to improve the mold, hoping to add the idea of a sink that can quickly cool and solidify the candle oil, while others,
Then start stuffing wicks into those candles.
These candles had already reserved space for placing candle wicks. Therefore, the craftsmen used the new candle wick proposed by Zhao Hongrun to dip some candle oil at a low temperature, and easily stuffed the candle wick into the candle.
And all this is due to the strict candle wick standards. Those candle wicks produced according to specifications are neither big nor small, and just fill the hollow inside those candles.
"Success!"
When a craftsman lit the first successfully made candle, all the craftsmen present cheered again.
But this time, Chief Wang Fu didn't bother to stop it, because he knew that these people were too excited.
That day, a few craftsmen who stayed behind carefully recorded the specifications of the iron molds, wooden frames, and sinks. The rest, including Zhao Hongrun, dragged their exhausted bodies back to rest.
After that, another nine days passed, and the Smelting Bureau further improved the process of casting iron molds and melted nine iron molds again. Moreover, these ten iron molds in total were all added with the addition of a mold that can quickly cool and solidify the candle oil.
sink.
It has to be said that with the addition of the creativity of the sink, the speed and unit output of making candles using this new candle technology are far behind the old methods.
In this regard, Lang Guan Xunxin of the Smelting Bureau calculated that if ten molds start processing at the same time, a thousand candles can be produced at the same time. As for the time consumption, as long as the temperature of the candle oil is properly controlled, the manufacturing time of a batch of candles will be
It only takes half a quarter of an hour.
what does that mean?
This means that in one hour, the Smelting Bureau can make four thousand candles!
Four thousand candles in one hour, a conservative estimate of 40,000 candles in twelve hours a day, what a terrifying number!
This terrifying output will make the Wei Dynasty, no, it will make every candle workshop in the world despair!
Of course, the premise is that there are enough raw materials.
If there is not enough animal fat, candle production will not increase even if the smelting bureau adopts new processes.
But it has to be said that when the news reached the Yu Department under the Ministry of Works, the director of the Yu Department, Zhou Peina, was dumbfounded and his face turned pale.
Four thousand candles an hour? The Smelting Bureau is trying to kill all the candle-making workshops in the Wei Dynasty!
After hearing the news, Zhou Pei, the director of the Yu Department, rushed to the Smelting Bureau in a hurry.
After all, among the candles sold in Dawei market, Yubu has the highest market share.
Therefore, once the Smelting Bureau adopts new technology to manufacture candles crazily, the first one to suffer will be Yubu. (To be continued.)