Xia Chan looked at the door of the house in front of her, her eyes full of excitement, but she said timidly and dissuaded her: "Miss, men and women are not close to each other, so you have to be careful when speaking, let alone studying outside privately. Let's... let's go back, madam.
If you know it, you will definitely be blamed, and it seems that the master will return to Beijing soon."
Huang E was uneasy in his heart, but he was tough-minded: "Sister Song is not afraid of traveling thousands of miles to become a disciple. What is there to be afraid of in the capital?"
Xia Chan said: "Miss Song is a girl from a barbarian family, and she doesn't have so many rules. She is a lady of the Han family, so don't be led astray by Miss Song. If this matter gets out, how will you get married in the future?"
"Anyway, I don't want to marry anyone else." Huang E was indeed led astray by Song Ling'er. He was not so bold before.
The door of the house opened again, and the doorman greeted respectfully: "You two ladies, please come in!"
Xia Chan grabbed Huang E's arm and pulled her back, but she took half a step forward to look inside, and said, "Miss, it's still too late to regret it, but once you go in, there will be no turning back."
Huang E couldn't laugh or cry, and spat: "What do you mean there is no turning back? Say something auspicious!"
The master and servant were led all the way to the Gewutang (laboratory). Huang E didn't look sideways, but Xia Chan looked around. They had visited best friends and other official mansions before, but this was the first time they had interviewed a man exclusively. All of this made Xia Chan
Chan felt extremely fresh.
"Wang Erlang's house is so big!" Xia Chan exclaimed.
In the city of Beijing, the houses of nobles were larger in area. They were all houses given by Zhu Di. There were only a few residents in the city at that time, so the houses were built as large as possible.
Among the civil servants of the dynasty, Li Dongyang's mansion was the largest. Like Wang Yuan's mansion, it was also a reward from the emperor.
But after all, Li Dongyang lives in the city, no matter how big it is, it only covers an area of 30 acres. Wang Yuan's house has 208 acres, which makes Xia Chan feel extremely shocked. After all, the Huang Mansion only has an area of one here.
A fraction.
Xia Chan thought to herself: "If the young lady can marry Wang Erlang, as a personal maid, wouldn't I be able to come and live in the mansion?"
Halfway through, they met Zhou Chong.
The servant in charge of leading the way immediately saluted and introduced: "Manager Zhou, these two girls are here to study."
Zhou Chong saw that Huang E was covered with a veil, so he couldn't say much. He just cupped his fists in greeting and left.
Xia Chan was thinking again: "This is Wang Erlang's housekeeper. He looks quite upright. Madam's personal maid was betrothed to the housekeeper by the master. If the young lady can marry, will she also betroth me to her?"
Housekeeper? It’s not a bad thing to marry this steward Zhou, but it’s not as majestic as Wang Erlang. It would be better if I can be Wang Erlang’s maid, and she can be a wife even if she gives birth to a boy and a girl.”
As she thought about it, Xia Chan laughed and felt that she had a bright future.
"Ouch!" As Xia Chan was racing with her thoughts, she tripped over something and almost fell down on the spot.
Huang E reminded: "Be careful, what were you laughing at just now?"
"No...it's nothing." Xia Chan denied.
When the master and servant arrived at the Gewu Hall, Wang Yuan personally greeted them.
"Long blessing, Scholar Wang!" Huang E and his maidservants bowed down and saluted Wang Yuan.
Although Huang E was covered with a veil, Xia Chan showed her face to face. Wang Yuan recognized her at a glance. Wang Yuan was surprised: "But Miss Huang?"
Huang E also held the Discipleship Ceremony: "The little girl accidentally got three volumes of Wang Xuesheng's works. After reading them, she was very fascinated. She also had countless doubts in her heart, so she came here to study. I hope Xueshi Wang would not hesitate to teach me."
"Well... I'm afraid it's a little inconvenient." Wang Yuan suddenly had a headache.
Huang E asked: "Does Master Wang look down on his daughter's family?"
"That's not true," Wang Yuan said with a wry smile, "Miss Huang, please come in."
The Imperial College students were not on vacation today, so not many people came to the laboratory, but there were also several who skipped classes, and three other students from Shuntian Prefecture were also here. They were all very surprised to see a masked girl.
Since I came here to study, I found it even more bizarre.
Huang E Luoluo was generous, and he performed the Wanfu Ceremony to all the students and said hello: "My little girl's surname is Huang and her courtesy name is Xiumei. She has met all the senior students."
I can’t reveal my maiden name, but I can give her nickname. I guess I chose the nickname Huang E by myself.
When men and women are matched, the work is not tiring, and all the students are naturally happy. They are too embarrassed to ask her which lady she is from, so they all call Huang E "Huang Xiaomei".
The laboratory is divided into multiple areas, each conducting different experiments.
With the current level of students, most of them are not capable of doing innovative experiments and are just learning to do repetitive experiments to practice their skills.
Huang E took the maid to observe all the way, and she felt more and more fresh. This place was more interesting than she imagined.
Seeing Wang Yuan's hands full of ink and operating a strange machine, Huang E asked curiously: "Is Bachelor Wang also doing some experiments?"
Wang Yuan said with a smile: "I am developing a wax printing machine. Every issue of "Journal of Physics" has to be copied by someone, which is a waste of money and the copying speed is also slow, so I thought about making a wax printing machine myself."
Xia Chan interjected: "Printing with movable type, the printing houses in the capital can do it."
Wang Yuan explained: "The "Journal of Physics" has a large number of patterns. Depending on the content of the experiment, the patterns are different each time. It is impossible to print them all with movable type. Block printing is even more uneconomical. The cost is too high. After printing,
After one issue, those engravings can only be chopped up and used as firewood."
Huang E stared at the wax printing machine and asked, "Can Bachelor Wang make a new printing machine?"
"Let's see."
Wang Yuan sat down with a smile, picked up the stylus, and engraved the contents of the title page of "Journal of Physics". Then he placed the white paper and wax plate in the machine and fixed it, dragging the roller and pressing it repeatedly, and immediately wrote two sentences by Zhu Xi
Famous quotes are printed.
Huang E exclaimed: "How convenient! How did Bachelor Wang do it?"
Wang Yuan explained: "The wax plate is specially made. As the name suggests, it has a layer of wax on it. When the stylus is inscribed on the wax plate, corresponding to the raised lines of the iron plate, it can cut through the wax layer of the wax paper and expose the tiny pores of the wax paper itself.
When printing, the ink passes through the pores of the wax paper to complete the printing work."
"It's quite simple." Xia Chan smiled.
Wang Yuan also smiled and said: "The main thing is the choice of wax paper. I changed a total of sixteen kinds of paper before I selected the most suitable paper material for engraving."
The students also came over one after another and talked around the wax printing machine.
"With this wax printing technology, it will be a hundred times easier to spread words in the future, comparable to movable type printing!"
"For thousands of students, this object is also a sacred tool!"
"Our study of physics is indeed better than that of Cangjie. With only one wax seal technique, we can promote enlightenment in Guangming during the Ming Dynasty!"
"..."
This thing is not suitable for large-scale printing, but it is extremely convenient for small-scale printing.
For example, Yang Shen's Lize Club publishes a journal every year, which is actually a collection of poems and essays by its members. The content is not much, only twenty or thirty pages, and only a few dozen copies are issued at a time. If the traditional printing process is used,
That would be too much trouble. It would be better to hire someone to copy it by hand.
With the wax sealing technique, Yang Shen could directly engrave on wax and finish the conference journal in one day.
In addition, there are Cheng Mo essays for Taoist examinations, rural examinations, and general examinations, which are exam model essays. In many remote and impoverished counties, the Cheng Mo collection is very perfunctory. They compile it and let the clerks just copy a few copies at will. There is no redundancy at all.
Try to print in batches whenever possible.
If the majority of university students want to get Cheng Mo, they have to either borrow a handwritten copy from a connection, or wait to buy a copy from a wealthy state or county, which is very inconvenient anyway!
The invention of wax printing can benefit countless students, allowing them to obtain sample materials at the first time. In Jiangnan, the merit may not be obvious, but in a poor province like Yunnan and Guizhou, the benefits are endless!
Wang Erlang is so smart!
Huang E secretly looked at Wang Yuan. The more he looked, the more he liked it. He smiled and said, "Scholar Wang, can you let me engrave an article?"
"Miss Huang, please." Wang Yuan gave up his seat.
Huang E smiled and said: "Scholar Wang is just like the seniors, just call me Miss Huang."
Wang Yuan did not answer.
Huang E lay on the table and picked up the stylus to engrave. Unfortunately, she was not familiar with writing with a hard pen, so the words she carved were a little out of shape, so she could only keep adjusting her strength while blushing.
"Oops, there is a wrong engraving here." Huang E was quite embarrassed and felt that a piece of wax paper was wasted.
"It's out of the way."
Wang Yuan blew the paper over red fire and slowly smoked it close to the wrong part. After the wax surface melted, he said: "This is called 'melting wax to smooth the fault', and it can be re-engraved."
"It's so convenient." Huang E praised sincerely.
In Chinese schools in the 1980s and 1990s, male teachers were considered cool in carving. They smoked and carved rolls at the same time. If they made a mistake, they didn’t need to find a match, they just put the cigarette butt over it. After correcting the mistake, they continued to smoke. The whole set of actions was embarrassing.
It is called flowing clouds and flowing water.
When Huang E was happy, Wang Yuan said to everyone: "You continue to do the experiment. I will go to the Leopard Room to see Your Majesty and present this set of wax printing machines to the imperial court."
There is indeed a commercial market for wax printing machines, but they are also easy to copy, and it is more cumbersome to do business. Wang Yuan was too lazy to earn such hard-earned money, so he directly dedicated it to the court to count balls, and the Ministry of Industry promoted it to the world, and he was able to repay his accumulated wealth by the way.
The reputation of himself and the school of physics.
For literati all over the world, improving the spinning wheel can only make them sneer, but inventing the wax printing machine can make them admire it!