On the ninth day of February, the two bell towers in Fanjiazhuang and Tianjin were completed.
The clock tower built by Li Zhi is not the bell tower of the Ming Dynasty, but a real clock tower with hour and minute hands.
With the advancement of various technologies in Tianjin, Tianjin people have become more and more demanding on time. In the past, citizens would work from sunrise to sunset, and sleep a little longer on rainy days. But this is obviously no longer possible.
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The working hours of various factories are fixed, so workers have precise requirements for time; students in the school have to attend a number of classes every day, and both teachers and students have requirements for time arrangements; at midnight every day, the newspaper office moves out the free daily newspaper
Distribution will be gone if you arrive late; at noon every day, workers get off work, and vendors have to wait for this time to do business...
Due to the advancement of technology, the pace of life in Tianjin is getting faster and faster, and the requirements for timing are getting higher and higher. The original timing methods such as "morning", "morning", and "noon" can no longer keep up with productivity.
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The work style of waiting for an hour has begun to hinder the development of Tianjin.
Li Zhi complied with the requirements of changing working methods and produced the original pendulum clock.
In the original history, the pendulum clock was invented by the Dutch physicist and astronomer Huygens in 1657. Now it is 1645, and it will take another 13 years for Westerners to invent the pendulum clock. But for industrial designer Li Zhi
, the original pendulum clock was not a very complicated thing, Li Zhi could have invented it in advance.
This kind of clock uses the isochronous timing of the pendulum's back and forth movement, and uses the escapement structure to rotate the dial. Li Zhi drew the structural design in March last year, and then organized craftsmen to experiment with manufacturing. The craftsmen Li Zhi recruited were mainly locksmiths.
Craftsmen, locksmiths are the best at making gadgets in Daming these days.
I encountered some minor problems during the manufacturing process, and spent more than half a year researching it. It was not until November last year that I finally produced the finished product.
Because the technology of this era was relatively rough and the various gears inside the pendulum clock had relatively high friction, the pendulum clock had to be manually re-strengthened every five minutes. Such a pendulum clock obviously required a dedicated scout, otherwise it would run for five minutes
It gradually stopped.
No matter how wealthy a family is, there is no need to hire a person to take care of the clock. Overall, Li Zhi’s pendulum clock is not yet ready to be turned into a private commodity.
But when it comes to making a bell tower, you don’t have to worry about rough technology.
The clock tower made by Li Zhi is 28 meters high. It uses reinforced concrete as beams and columns and brick walls. It is eight stories high. There are five people specializing in maintenance inside the clock tower, and it is renovated every few minutes.
The huge pendulum force ensures that the pendulum clock always has complete power and accurate time.
Li Zhi divided the whole day into twenty-four hours. There are huge dials on the four sides of the clock tower. Each dial has hour and minute hands to show what time it is. There is also a copper bell at the top of the clock tower.
One, during the day, a bronze bell is rung in the clock tower every hour to announce the current time to the whole city.
With this towering clock tower, the lives of the people in Fanjiazhuang and Tianjin Acropolis have been greatly changed. From now on, timekeeping will be accurate to the minute.
Of course, bell towers are being built in various places. According to Li Zhi's plan, in the future, any city with a population of more than 10,000 will have to build a bell tower.
On this day, Hong Chengchou, a staff officer of the shogunate's general staff, and Wang Pu, who came to Tianjin to open a bank, were walking on the road to the Acropolis when they suddenly heard the clanging sound of the clock tower chiming the time.
This time Li Zhi raided the eight Shanxi merchants, but left half of the property to the Wang family of Datong. Wang Pu's Wang family thus almost monopolized the trade between Ming Dynasty and Mongolia. The Wang family also took advantage of the situation and climbed on Li Zhi's express train to do business.
Come to Tianjin.
Wang Pu entered Tianjin with his relatives, and Li Zhi asked Hong Chengchou to come out to welcome him.
Hong Chengchou stopped talking, listened carefully for a while, and said: "General Wang, it is now four o'clock in the afternoon, which is when Shen Shi is hit. By then, the hand will turn to the forty position, which will be another third of the month.
When the time comes, I will take you to see the Duke of Jin."
Wang Pu was stunned and asked: "How can this clock tower be accurate to one-third of an hour?"
Hong Chengchou smiled and said: "This clock tower can be accurate to one hundred and twenty minutes. Twenty minutes is one sixth of an hour."
Wang Pu paused for a moment, shook his head and said: "The Duke of Jin can kill enemies and make meritorious deeds when he mounts his horse, and he can invent and create when he dismounts. The invention of this bell tower is really amazing. Wang Pu admires it! This visit to Tianjin is really not in vain, Wang Pu is so long.
I’ve seen it.”
Hong Chengchou stroked his beard and said: "This clock tower is really wonderful. I used to get up as soon as the sky was slightly bright every day. I would read for an hour after getting up, eating, and then go to the staff headquarters to work. But it is difficult to control the time when reading. If I see
The wonderful thing is that a few hours pass by inadvertently, and you always miss the time."
"After having this clock tower, I start reading at seven o'clock every morning. When I finish reading at nine o'clock, I go to the staff headquarters to work. I won't miss anything."
"In the past, the dining time in the shogunate was very chaotic. The dining hall opened at different times every day. Some people couldn't figure out the time and were afraid of being late. They went to the dining hall half an hour before the meal time to wait for the meal, which wasted a lot of time. I
There were times when I couldn’t figure out the time and went to the canteen late, only to find that the canteen was closed and I was left hungry.”
"In the past, there was no clock tower. When making an appointment with others, the disadvantaged party often had to wait for a period of time in advance. With this clock tower, the waste of time is greatly reduced. If it is really said, it can save the people a considerable amount of waiting every day.
Time. I think it saves everyone at least half an hour of waiting time."
"For example, when there was no bell tower, Duke Jin said he would see you at 3:40. I'm afraid you would have to wait at the Duke's Mansion before 3:00. Now we can just get there at 3:30.
It saves thirty minutes, which is a quarter of an hour."
Wang Pu nodded and said, "Mr. Hong is right."
Hong Chengchou stroked his beard and said: "It seems that the Duke has done a small thing, but this bell tower can actually improve the efficiency of Tianjin and Fanjiazhuang a lot. According to the words of the Duke of Jin, the living standards of the people will also improve in the end!
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Wang Pu thought for a while and asked, "This bell tower is indeed a good thing, but it's a pity that it doesn't exist anywhere else except Tianjin."
Hong Chengchou smiled and said: "In the future, cities in Tianjin and Shandong will build such bell towers. I heard that the emperor was also interested in this bell tower and asked Duke Jin to build a big one in front of the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City."
When Wang Pu heard this, he pondered for a long time and said nothing.
Hong Chengchou stroked his beard and smiled: "What is Mr. Wang thinking?"
Wang Pu said: "Tianjin is changing with each passing day. Now that we have the support of the Duke of Tianjin, my Wang family should move more people to Tianjin. I think the first batch of people to come to Tianjin should be two hundred."
People. We want to open banks, pawn shops, and Mongolian specialty stores."
Hong Chengchou laughed loudly and said: "Don't be anxious, don't be anxious! Tianjin's development does not happen in a day or two. The Wang family will have opportunities whenever they come."
