Textiles in ancient times actually had their own meanings.
Spinning means spinning ramie fiber into yarn or thread
Weaving means weaving cloth, which means weaving yarn into cloth.
In modern times, because industrial production is carried out simultaneously, cloth can be made directly without spinning, so textiles are regarded as one.
In Qin Dynasty, both were quite tedious tasks.
However, they have a common feature, which is that they are cumbersome but not complicated. What they need is to repeat the same process over and over again.
For example, weaving is actually just like basket weaving. The warp and weft threads are divided into warp and weft threads, and then the warp and weft threads are interlaced and woven together to form a piece of cloth.
Just because the yarn is so thin, it takes a long time to hand-knit it into a piece of cloth that can be made into clothes.
This also exponentially increases the cost of clothes...most of the costs are labor costs.
The original loom was a waist loom, that is, you sit on the ground and fix one end of the warp on your waist with a hemp rope, and use the "twisting stick" to separate the odd and even numbers of the warp with the other end supported by your feet...
The "splitting stick" was something invented by people in ancient times when weaving cloth.
As mentioned before, weaving is like weaving a basket by interlacing the weft threads one by one with the warp threads.
If it were made by hand and each weft thread had to be interspersed in this way, the workload would obviously be too much.
So people came up with a way: fix the ends of the warp threads and straighten them, and then insert a "twisting rod" at the odd and even numbers of the warp threads, so that the odd and even numbers of the warp threads are always staggered, and the weft threads only need to be staggered.
Just pass it through the "woven opening" formed when lifting the "twisting rod".
By the Warring States Period, although there were already foot-operated looms, it was actually the same principle as the "waist loom", except that a frame, heald frame, reel and pedals were added. The full name was "pedal-operated heddle twill weaving".
machine".
However, there are still many people using this primitive weaving method.
Shen Bing believes that this is mainly related to the production level and living standards of the people.
Although pedal looms are highly efficient, not everyone can make them and not everyone can afford them.
If you don’t know how to do it and can’t afford it, of course you can only use the much cheaper “waist machine”.
In fact, let alone the Qin Dynasty more than two thousand years ago, even in modern times, ethnic minorities still use this kind of waist machine to weave cloth.
This kind of simple and repetitive work is actually very suitable to be replaced by water power.
Shen Bing, of course, uses a more mature pedal loom.
This time Shen Bing called Cang, Fatty Tun and Mengliang.
Shen Bing has not had much contact with them since he became the deputy general, but now it is finally necessary to develop production.
This is what Shen Bing planned:
Cang, a junior fellow apprentice, is very good at craftsmanship, so the production and maintenance of equipment in this textile factory must depend on him. He should even train a group of workers who can skillfully operate and maintain these equipment, and then lead them one after another.
Fatty Tun is a businessman and is good at magic, so the management depends on him.
As for Mengliang, don't look at this guy who looks lazy and lazy... This aspect is actually an advantage if used in practice. He is widely popular and has friends everywhere. In addition, his father is Pang Chen from Xianyang, so he must be a textile factory.
Isn’t it appropriate to open up sales?
Before that, Shen Bing also asked the censor:
"Soldiers are not allowed to do business, but can they do business if they are in charge of Yunzhong County?"
The censor replied:
"If you are the Daliang Army, you cannot do business, but Yunzhong County can."
Shen Bing asked impatiently:
"Is it possible or not?"
The censor quickly replied:
"Back to the general, just record the tax in Yunzhong County."
Shen Bing nodded, thinking this was reasonable.
It may be true that soldiers cannot do business, but what if General Shen Bing also manages Yunzhong County?
Is it true that Yunzhong County is not allowed to do business with the outside world?
Then should Yunzhong County continue to develop and become autonomous?
With the words of the censor, this textile workshop gained legitimacy.
At this time, Fatzitun and others were confused when they saw Shen Bing asking someone to bring in several "bias looms".
The first person to understand was Cang. He looked at Shen Bing in surprise and said:
"Could it be that the general... wants to use water power to weave cloth?"
Shen Bing nodded and asked:
"Why not?"
Cang said suspiciously:
"It's easy to pound rice with water, but we need to weave cloth..."
Weaving is indeed more complicated, but not that much.
Lifting, shuttling, etc. are all fixed actions, which are problems of connecting levers. Of course, these are not difficult for Shen Bing.
Before Cang finished speaking, Shen Bing handed a drawing to Cang and said:
"Make it according to this picture!"
Cang is an expert. When he saw the drawings, he looked at Shen Bing with shock on his face, and his voice stuttered a little when he spoke:
"General... General, where did this thing come from?"
The fat man stepped forward and looked at the handwriting and said:
"Who else could it be if it weren't for the master's painting?"
"This is not the first time that the engineer has made such a fuss."
Cang replied with an expression of disbelief on his face:
"But this thing... is different from the past, this..."
Shen Bing knew what Cang wanted to express.
As the saying goes, "A layman can see the excitement, an expert can see the door."
This drawing looks like Fatty Tun. People like Meng Liang are just looking at the fun, but in Cang Yan's eyes it is very important. Especially the multi-layer gear structure is used to solve the problem of the sequence and speed of various operations of the loom. …
This made Shen Bing a little embarrassed.
In fact, water-powered looms appeared in the Song Dynasty of China and were quite common in the Yuan Dynasty.
At this time, it would be more appropriate for Shen Bing to make a water-powered loom from the Song Dynasty, but Shen Bing didn't know how to make it. He only remembered what a water-powered loom looked like during the British Industrial Revolution, so he drew it based on his impression.
That was 1785, almost two thousand years ago... No wonder Tuen was so frightened. He had never even seen a gear before.
Shen Bing didn't intend to explain more. He just raised his head and said:
"Just make it according to the sample. I have given the iron parts to the iron workshop, and you can make the wooden parts according to the size."
"If necessary, we can make it together with you through consultation."
Cang responded, then folded the drawing up like a treasure and put it into his sleeve. After thinking about it for a while, he felt uneasy, so he took it out and put it under his clothes to keep it close to his body.
At this time, even the cynical Meng Liang had a solemn look on his face, and he asked dubiously:
"General, is this weaving really powered by water?"
Fatty Tun didn't doubt this, he said without thinking:
"Can the things made by the master be fake?"
Mengliang said:
"In this case, if we sell the woven cloth to the Central Plains, wouldn't it be..."
Fusu then said:
"If water power could be used to weave cloth, we could weave non-stop day and night."
"Isn't it just like pounding rice, which saves the people of Qin from the pain of weaving?"
Shen Bing found it funny for a moment. These people seemed to have different expectations for this loom.