Chapter 204 [Stove glass is qualified for status]
The foundation of the main hall was mixed with a lot of lime, which required a large amount, and almost consumed all of Fang Chang's inventory.
There are many big trees in Yunzhong Mountain, but these houses are not too tall, and Fang Chang just cut some straight and long ones back to serve as the pillars on the front steps.
In fact, Fang Chang has already built the doors and windows of the main hall, but they are still in the shed. It just needs the things he is making now to match. Although it can be made into a carved window and pasted with homemade bamboo paper as the window paper, Fang Chang has nothing to do in the mountains anyway, so he gets up as he pleases.
The shape of the furnace is very unique. It borrows heat preservation measures such as the reflection of the copper smelting kiln, and uses a good flue, but there are two furnace chambers, one inside and one outside. One is a large crucible made of ceramics, and the other is It is an ordinary furnace room on the outside.
The special furnace body structure can make the temperature of the furnace chamber exceed the flame temperature, thereby refining things that were difficult to melt before.
He's going to try to burn some glass.
The raw materials have been selected. Large pieces of quartz stone and large pieces of marble picked from the mountains are smashed with a hammer. The soda ash, which is not pure, was extracted from the alkali-containing brine taken from the hole dug in winter, and put into a ceramic pot according to the proportion of quartz stone and marble, and then he lit a fire in the kiln.
Although the melting points of various raw materials are high, the glass itself as a mixture does not have a fixed melting point and will melt at a lower temperature.
After several experiments, I finally knew in my spiritual sense that I would succeed this time.
The furnace had been calcined for a long time. Fang Chang opened the hot viewing port with his bare hands, and found that the raw materials in the ceramic crucible had been mixed together, but it was relatively viscous.
He gently closed the observation port, and continued to keep the furnace warm to raise the temperature inside. For the next step, the glass solution flows as well as possible.
A large amount of metals are stored in the shed, including the associated mines of copper, tin and silver.
Fang Chang picked up a lot of tin blocks, took them to the side of the stove, put them into another larger, heated but vacant furnace room, and quietly watched them melt.
The melting point of metal tin is very low, even much lower than the temperature of firewood flames, so it is one of the earliest metals used by humans.
The only problem is that the smoke from the kiln somewhat spoils the painting on the cliff. Fang Chang planned to build a small yard to enclose the workshop and several kilns.
The tool has been prepared, similar to a long bronze horse spoon.
Pulling open the viewing port again, Fang Chang was in the kiln, quickly scooped out the red glass juice, and poured it into the tin juice that had melted into a silvery white pool.
Because of the specific gravity, the glass floats on the surface of the tin, forming a uniform layer. And because the temperature at which the glass begins to melt is much higher than the current temperature of the tin liquid, the glass layer begins to cool and solidify gradually, but the tin liquid can be continuously heated to keep it in a liquid state.
"The person who invented this method must be a genius." Fang Chang thought to himself.
After the glass layer cooled down and solidified, he stretched out his hand, gently took out the hot glass plate, and observed it in his hand. Perhaps some kind of raw material is not pure, and the finished glass plate has a green color, and there are small bubbles scattered in it.
But Fang Chang is already very satisfied:
"really not bad!"
Cut it back and install it on the doors and windows of the main hall.
He continued to open the viewing port, scooped out the glass juice and poured it onto the tin. Because of his successful practice, his hands are very steady, he feels the weight very carefully, and his observation ability is subtle, so the thickness of the glass he made is very consistent.
And put it on top of the tin juice, the cooling speed of the glass is even, and it is not easy to break.
The smoke from the kiln on the cliff was still coming out, and Fang Chang lightly poked pieces of flat glass aside.
The charcoal he has bottomed out again.
………
Every time Fang Chang went down the mountain, whenever he met someone selling seeds, he always had to spend money to buy some. Therefore, the crop seeds in his hands are much more than those he has planted.
He also left seeds from last year's harvest, including fruits and vegetables that had been planted for a season, including sorghum and millet.
A lot of sorghum has been stockpiled. After this year's harvest, maybe they can make some wine by themselves.
In addition to food, vegetables and fruits, Fang Chang also bought many flower seeds.
Before he planted half of the field with flowers.
In spring, he was carrying a **** and shovel, clearing the fields and preparing for the new year's sowing. The flowers have been transplanted elsewhere and some will be planted this year.
While he was busy, he saw movement in the direction of the back mountain.
It was Liu A Niu who hadn't seen him for a long time.
He didn't look like an ordinary cow, he was standing upright, walking this way with a straw bag on his shoulders—just because he didn't wear clothes, it was a bit indecent.
He also saw Tanaka Fangchang from a distance, so he looked happy and ran over at a faster pace.
"Master, you are back!"
A Niu is already his registered disciple, but Fang Chang looked at the expression on his head, pinched his fingers slightly, and found that this master-student fate is not far from the end of the fate.
Fang Chang stood in the field leaning on a hoe, smiling as he watched Liu A Niu running over.
"How come from here?"
"I'm too heavy, and I'm still clumsy. Even if I can walk like this, I'm afraid I'll step on the path on the edge of the cliff, so I come around from behind." A Niu said.
Fang Chang didn't ask him where he went, but the sincere A Niu said:
"I wandered around in Yunzhong Mountain during this time, roughly in the vast area north of Xianqi Cliff, to visit the old times, and at the same time to relax and look for food in the mountains."
"Now that the tree has sprouted green branches, I thought that the field on the cliff needs someone to plow the bell, so I came back to plow the field and sow seeds. I didn't expect you, Master, to come back. This is really a good thing."
Fang Chang nodded and said with a smile:
"Since you're back, don't be in a hurry, go back and rest for a day, and talk about it tomorrow."
Then he picked up the hoe, took A Niu back to the house, put away the tools and chatted with A Niu for a long time, sometimes asking him what he had seen and heard during this period, and sometimes answering some small questions about the other party's practice.
"Master, I thought about it last year. The open space on the cliff is so vast and the land is so fertile. Why don't you open up a few more acres of land? It's better to grow something."
"Okay." Fang Chang felt confident.
Early the next morning, the master and apprentice drew a line on the cliff with ash, and then began to plow the ground to loosen the soil.
It is not difficult to open a field, but the follow-up cultivation is delicate work. A piece of newly opened wasteland will take two or three years to be cultivated before it becomes a mature field. There are also many ways to serve the land. Due to the proliferation of people in the mountains, intensive farming is now commonly used in order to grow as much food as possible on a limited field.
"Last year's mature fields were planted with millet and sorghum, and some wheat can also be planted. This year's newly opened fields are planted with beans, which can be used to fertilize the field. I will leave you two more, one for vegetables and fruits, and one for flowers."
Aniu has many ideas about farming, and he talked about it. In terms of farming, he has been influenced by years of hard work, and with his own practice, he is more professional than Fang Chang.
Thank you Huadie Tianya for your reward.
(end of this chapter)