Since Huang E came to study, laboratory assistant Li Wan has been completely reduced to a handyman serving tea and water.
Huang E did all the preparation, packing, and management of experimental equipment. Sometimes she also acted as an experiment recorder when there was insufficient manpower, and even gradually began to help Wang Yuan conduct experiments, while Wang Yuan only had to put forward ideas and direct the entire process.
Take today as an example, Wang Yuan has just arrived at the laboratory, the required experimental equipment has been laid out, and Huang E is sitting there slowly studying ink.
"Good morning, little sister." Wang Yuan greeted with a smile.
The maid Xia Chan rushed to answer: "It's not that we came early, it's that Bachelor Wang came too late. It's already late."
Wang Yuan held two kittens in his arms and explained: "I haven't been active for a long time. I got up this morning to do some exercise and ran around the house on horseback."
Huang E pursed his lips and smiled, moved his seat and said, "Scholar Wang, the ink has been ground."
Wang Yuan put down the two kittens and said to Huang E, "Thank you very much, little sister."
Huang E's heart was filled with sweetness. He called her "little sister" to his left and "little sister" to his right, making her very happy.
"Wow, these two cats are so good. Where did Bachelor Wang get them?" Xia Chan felt bored in the laboratory, and at this moment, her attention was completely attracted by the cats.
Wang Yuan said: "It was born from my own big cat."
The Three Civil Engineering Masters, two males and one female, have produced numerous descendants.
From late winter to early summer, it is the estrus season for ocelots. When Wang Yuan took Tumu Sanjie outside the city, several female cats near Uncle Wang’s home were already pregnant, and the female cat in Tumu Sanjie was also pregnant.
Already.
That pregnant female cat is called Gang Gang.
A total of five kittens were born, one was given to Uncle Wang, one was given to Gu Yingxiang and Yang Shen, and the remaining two were held by Wang Yuan and played with.
"Meow~~"
The master and the servant both knelt down and each picked up a kitten. In an instant, the girl's love overflowed.
Huang E touched the cat's ears and asked: "Scholar Wang, is this a civet cat? The ears are so long, they are different from what I have seen before."
Wang Yuan said: "I don't know who their father is, but their mother is a wild copper coin cat."
Here we were petting the cat and chatting, when suddenly Yang Shen came to visit.
After Wang Yuan and Yang Shen hugged each other, Huang E also took Xia Chan to salute: "Blessed brother Yang!"
"You're so polite, little sister."
Yang Shen said hello and handed Wang Yuan a pamphlet: "If you please accept it!"
Wang Yuan took it and took a look, but it was the Lize Society's journal "Lize Collection", and it was made using wax paper engraving technology. He touched the printed text again, and found that it did not fade much, and immediately praised:
"Good ink!"
Yang Shen said with a smile: "I tried more than 20 inks and finally selected the one that is most suitable for wax printing. Moreover, the price of this ink is moderate and the cost is not too high. Poor scholars can also afford such publications.
."
"Brother Yongxiu took the trouble." Wang Yuan was quite happy. Since Yang Shen had chosen the right ink, he no longer had to try it slowly.
Yang Shen was also very happy and said: "I am the one who should thank you. With the wax paper engraving machine, one copy of "Lize Collection" can be published every six months in the future. Not only can it be distributed to colleagues in the society, but it can also be given to other friends. That's it.
Printing hundreds of copies of it only requires more wax paper. For scholars, this is a masterpiece!"
Wang Yuan lamented: "Unfortunately, the wax paper is still too brittle and will break if you don't pay attention."
Yang Shen smiled and said: "Seal carving wax block is a delicate job."
This wax paper engraving printing technology first became popular in various government offices in the capital because it was convenient and saves trouble.
Don’t think that if the printing quality is too poor, the imperial government will reject it and refuse to use it.
There was a wax engraving technology in the Song Dynasty, which used wax plates instead of wooden boards to engage in an alternative type of engraving printing. Not only was it easier to engrave blocks, but after printing, the wax could be melted and re-engraved. The printing effect of that thing was even worse, and the handwriting was often blurred.
, but it was very popular among the yamen of the Song Dynasty.
Just because the bigger the yamen is, the more various documents there are. The cost of traditional printing is too high, and it is too time-consuming for officials to copy them.
Nowadays, the clerks in various yamen in the capital love Wang Yuan to their core. The wax printing machine saves at least two-thirds of their office time! Especially in the yamen of Di newspaper, where twenty or thirty people used to do the work for several days, now
It can be done easily by one person in half a day.
For departments that have wax printing machines, except for important documents that need to be archived, all other official documents have been printed on wax paper, which has resulted in official production of wax paper being in short supply.
There are already paper mills in the private sector. Taking over the business of producing wax paper, they can seize the opportunity to make money.
When carving wax blocks, the officials were also very particular and figured out the ropes in a short period of time. They knew how to carve characters along the lines of the iron plate to make the handwriting more natural and pleasing to the eye, and they unanimously used "Song style" characters.
In the true sense, Song-style characters were originally shaped by carvings in the Ming Dynasty. Books using Song-style characters were called "Song-engraved editions" by Ming Dynasty literati. This font is very suitable for engraving knives and stylus for engraving wax plates, making seal engraving easier.
And the handwriting is clear.
Since there is suitable ink that can prevent wax printing products from fading seriously, why can't we make newspapers?
The name of the publication is "Acta Physica Sinica". On the basis of "Acta Physica Sinica", some too difficult content is deleted, and some news, drama, and jokes are added. This is definitely very marketable. It can not only spread physics knowledge, but also
It can influence public opinion within a certain range.
Wang Yuan said to Yang Shen: "Brother Yongxiu, I want to run a newspaper. Can I ask you to write a few manuscripts? Poetry, drama, and prose are all acceptable."
Yang Shen smiled and said: "The imperial court already has a residence newspaper, but who can read the private newspaper?"
"There are always people reading it," Wang Yuan said. "I want to publish a newspaper and sell it to the public, so that ordinary people know that there is physics."
Yang Shen agreed: "Since it is sold to the people, I will write a few Sanqu."
Wang Yuan took out a broken piece of silver and said, "This is the way to polish your pen."
"Why is this necessary?" Yang Shen refused.
Wang Yuan said: "This is the rule. In the future, if someone submits a manuscript, if it is accepted, money will be given to polish it."
"Then I'll accept it." Yang Shen didn't take it seriously.
Newspapers already existed in the Tang Dynasty and reached their peak in the Ming Dynasty, but they were all handwritten newspapers. They have many names, such as Chao Bao, Beijing Bao, Tang Bao, Pai Bao, Di Chao, Urgent Selection Bao, and Daily Chuan Bao.
Wait, these newspapers are collectively called "Dibao", and their main audience is officials and staff.
For example, Chen Xinjia died because of newspapers in history.
At that time, Hong Chengchou was captured, Zu Dashou surrendered, Li Zicheng captured Luoyang, Zhang Xianzhong successfully broke out, and the Ming Dynasty was besieged internally and externally. Emperor Chongzhen asked Chen Xinjia to negotiate peace with the Manchus.
But this peace negotiation was carried out in secret. Emperor Chongzhen sent Chen Xinjia dozens of hand edicts, each time saying that they must be kept strictly confidential. One day, after Chen Xinjia saw the emperor's hand edicts, he put them on several cases.
I mistakenly thought it was the Di newspaper, so I took it and copied it.
All the officials were in an uproar and urged impeachment. Emperor Chongzhen actually killed Chen Xinjia in order to get rid of the blame, saying that negotiating a peace was none of his business.
Why did Chen Xinjia's family children secretly pass around the newspaper?
In order to make money!
Di Bao was issued by the imperial court to officials and officials all over the world. If folk intellectuals wanted to know about the world's major events, and merchants wanted to know the current situation in various places, they had to spend money to buy it from the officials' families.
The Di Bao of the Ming Dynasty was only technologically backward and relied entirely on hand-copied works. However, its content was truly brilliant, comparable to the news newspapers of later generations.
For example, in the Hongwan case, Ni Yuanlu, who was an official in other places, could clearly understand the situation in the court through a large number of newspapers and knew that this was a fierce struggle between the Donglin Party and the Cui Wei Party.
Another example is the Wanggong factory explosion. The newspaper at the time recorded this: "...in a moment, there was a big earthquake, the sky collapsed and the earth collapsed. It was as dark as night and thousands of houses were in ruins. From Shunchengmen Street in the east to Xingbu Street in the north, there was a long
Three or four miles, and thirteen miles around, there is nothing but powder... Heads flying down from the air on Chang'an Street, some with eyebrows and noses, or even foreheads... There is a large stone lion on Shihuma Street, weighing five thousand kilograms and hundreds of pounds.
The person couldn't move, and flew out of the sky outside the Shun City Gate..."
It's written in such detail, and it's so scary to read that people's heads are flying in the air.
After making the decision, Wang Yuan immediately wrote a newspaper plan.
It's definitely not possible to run a daily newspaper, so let's make a ten-day newspaper, which will be published once every ten days. The sections are temporarily designated as: current affairs, news, poetry, prose, drama, mathematics, and physics.
The imperial court did not prohibit people from knowing current affairs. The reason why Di Bao was only distributed to officials was simply because the officials were too lazy to copy so many copies. As long as Wang Yuan did not leak information in advance and extract current affairs that had been announced by Di Bao for printing, there would be no
bear any political risks.
The news has also been dominated by newspapers. For the time being, it only publishes the disaster in a certain place, the rebels in a certain place, the skyrocketing price of rice in a certain place, etc. When more people submit or report, some short-term social news can be published.
It is best to develop content in other sections. Mathematics and physics sections can be provided internally by the Physics Society. Literary sections are provided by officials or scholars. As long as the newspaper has influence, those scholars are willing to pay money to publish their works.
When Wang Yuan finished writing the newspaper plan, Huang Eguanzhi was very interested and asked: "Scholar Wang, can I submit the article under a pseudonym?"
"Of course." Wang Yuan smiled.
Huang E thought about it casually: "Then my name will be Guangming layman."
Huang'e, also known as Xiumei, was from Sichuan. So she turned Mount Emei into a pseudonym. Mount Emei is also called Daguangming Mountain, so of course she is the Guangming layman.
Wang Yuan suddenly remembered the story he had told Mr. Mu before, and said with a smile: "Little sister, there is a folk legend about a female ghost in Guizhou. Why don't you tell me about it, and you can write it down and publish it in the newspaper."
"Okay." Huang E was very happy to cooperate with Wang Yuan and eager to give it a try.
Wang Yuan immediately began to tell, but as soon as he started speaking, Huang E raised an objection: "'Lanruo' is the official name of a Buddhist temple. How can there be a temple called 'Lanruo Temple' in the world?"
Wang Yuan knew nothing about Buddhist scriptures and was speechless when asked. He could only say nonsensically: "Maybe it's a rumor. You can give the Buddhist temple a name."
Huang E asked: "Which Buddha in Guizhou has the most incense?"