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Xie Fu's calligraphy method is not profound or mysterious.

The breakthrough lies in the use of steam engines and steel molds, which can stamp out copper molds in large quantities and at low cost.

I heard that a Foshan blacksmith was actually appointed as the deputy supervisor of the Ministry of Industry's Type Foundry. The official calligraphy craftsmen couldn't sit still. Zhang Shunmin, a doctor from the Ministry of Industry, was anxious and asked for an interview.

"Why, you also invented a new method of casting calligraphy?" Zhao Han asked with a smile.

Zhang Shunmin replied: "Your Majesty, the official craftsman of the Ministry of Industry has indeed invented a new method of casting calligraphy."

Zhao Han was quite surprised and asked: "What method?"

Zhang Shunmin replied: "The original lead type, copper type, and copper-lead-tin alloy type in the Ming Dynasty are not as good as the European lead alloy type formula. After the full switch to European lead type, the Ministry of Industry has been making improvements based on the characteristics of this alloy. The casting method. Now it has achieved results. It is called the 'Character Casting Furnace' and can cast fifty or sixty movable types per hour."

"good!"

Zhao Han slapped his thigh in approval.

Xie Fu improved the molding technology, while the Ministry of Industry improved the character casting technology. The two technologies can be perfectly matched.

Zhang Shunmin continued: "Your Majesty, the reason why the invention of the type casting furnace has not been reported is because it can continue to be improved. The current invention is a hand-operated furnace, and the Ministry of Industry is improving it into a foot-operated or hand-operated furnace. Once the improvement is successful, movable type will be The casting efficiency can be increased at least several times, or even ten times!"

"Is improvement work complicated?" Zhao Han asked.

Zhang Shunmin organized his words and said: "It's not complicated, but it's not simple either. Occasionally, we have to ask the bachelor of Qintianyuan Physics Museum for advice. We already have a rough idea and the general structure has been designed."

If this movable type casting technology is completely improved and perfected, it can cast seven to eight hundred characters per hour. This thing was used in the late Qing Dynasty. It does not have high requirements on science and technology. The premise is to have fine type molds and lead alloy movable type formula.

There is also a more complex upgraded version of this technology, the "Thomson automatic type furnace", which has been used from the early years of the Republic of China to New China, and can cast 15,000 Chinese movable types every day! That is, more than 600 pieces per hour. It seems that the efficiency has been reduced, but it can be used directly after casting, without the need for subsequent polishing by the caster.

Zhao Han said: "The improvement of the character casting furnace has been completed, and everyone involved will be rewarded generously!"

Official inventions are different from private inventions, and their patent rights automatically belong to the unit where they belong.

The calligraphy method invented by Xie Fu should actually belong to the Xie family factory. But the Xie family went too far. Not only did they take away the patent, they also occupied the right to sign the patent. This was against the Datong Patent Law. Even if the royal family doesn't come forward, there's no telling who will win or lose in a lawsuit.

Zhang Shunmin continued: "There are also official craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry who proposed to use movable type to make dead plates."

"Dead version?" Zhao Han didn't understand.

Zhang Shunmin said: "The engraving block can be printed repeatedly, and the movable type can be disassembled at will. Can the engraving block and the movable type each draw on their own strengths? Movable type typesetting is cumbersome. It is dismantled after printing and has to be retyped for the next printing. Therefore, the official craftsman of the Ministry of Industry He came up with the idea of ​​first using movable type for typesetting, and then using a movable type plate to make a clay mold to cast the lead plate. The movable type can be dismantled and reused, thus saving the number of movable types. The lead plate is used for printing, and can be saved after printing for the next printing. There is no need to do typesetting, just take out the lead plate and print again.”

This is the real printing plate making!

Zhao Han asked: "Has it been invented yet?"

Zhang Shunmin said: "Two years ago, a government official proposed this idea, but there are still many problems in the specific research, and these problems are being solved step by step."

This clay mold lead plate technology has only existed for forty years in history. "Zilinxi Bao" and "Shenbao" originally used this thing.

But it has huge flaws:

First, the clay mold must be broken when the lead plate is cast, so the clay mold cannot be saved. It is a one-time consumable and cannot be cast repeatedly;

Second, although the lead plates can be preserved, they are fragile and easily broken. They may be damaged if not paid attention to during use or transportation.

A later improvement was to use special thick paper instead of clay molds, that is, papier-mâché stereotypes.

A set of paper patterns can be cast repeatedly for more than ten times, and can be easily transported over long distances. After typesetting and printing in Nanjing, you only need to transport the paper pattern to Beijing, where it can be quickly cast and printed, and then transported to Xi'an where it can also be quickly cast and printed.

The printing of a book only requires dozens of sets of paper patterns to meet the needs of all parts of the country, and the typesetting work only needs to be done once. You can also make a few more sets of papier-mâché. As long as you keep them properly, they can be used twenty years later.

Xie Fu improved the type mold, the Ministry of Industry improved the type casting furnace, and then developed the casting technology.

The three technologies can be perfectly matched.

Especially the casting technology is an epoch-making revolution, and the cost of book printing can be reduced to infinitely low.

It should not be difficult to develop clay mold lead plates. However, this technology has too many flaws, and it is unknown how many years it will take before it can evolve into a paper type. Another time and space took forty years, this time and space may be twenty years, or it may take more than a hundred years.

If he wants to continue evolving into the copper version, Zhao Han will definitely not be able to see it. Because of its front-end technology, it must light up photographic technology (optics, chemistry) and electrical technology.

No matter what, Zhao Han couldn't help. He knew nothing about printing.

To be honest, once the inertia of improvement in printing is formed, China's research and development speed will definitely be faster than Europe's on the same technological basis. Because printing Chinese characters is too cumbersome, while European letters are simple, the need for improvements in printing technology in Europe is not that urgent.

Looking at the performance of the official craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry, we know that all they lack is the European alloy movable type formula.

With this recipe, all kinds of ideas come to mind.

Taking advantage of the alloy properties of the formula, the research and development of type casting furnaces was a matter of course, but there was no such demand in Europe because Europeans did not need so many movable types. Chinese character typesetting is also a big problem. Since the European lead alloy formula is easy to use and easy to cast, it is natural to think about making cast plates. This is not an urgent need in Europe.

Just like in some tropical areas, the land is harvested three times a year, and you can rely on the sky for food even if you lie flat.

Countries in temperate zones need to face various natural disasters. While solving the problems, they can promote political and technological development.

It was precisely because of the difficulty of printing Chinese characters that improvements in printing technology could be quickly spurred. The premise is that a focus is needed, which is Gutenberg's alloy formula. A series of technical improvements are currently being made around the alloy formula.

Historically, during the Manchu Qing Dynasty, foreigners were prohibited from privately making movable type, and the alloy formula was never introduced. Missionaries in the Ming Dynasty devoted themselves to compiling Chinese religious books and directly asked Chinese booksellers to help print them. They simply did not have the financial resources or energy to print books themselves. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, they completely missed the introduction of lead alloy movable type.

It was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty that the imperial court had no control over anything, and movable lead type did not appear in China and developed rapidly.

The king of Chu, Zhao Kuangping, was so busy that he gave Wu Rui and Jin Shengtan the responsibility for "The Literature and Art of the King of Chu". He personally contacted the steam engine manufacturer, took out the design drawings of the type casting machine (actually the type casting mold), and customized a brand new steam type casting machine.

Then he had to contact raw material suppliers, such as coal, copper, steel... If he didn't have enough money, he asked his father for an interest-free loan, and the royal treasury directly allocated funds to lend it to him.

It took two months to complete the prototype of the steam type molding machine. They also brought over the type furnace from the Ministry of Industry. This is a hand-operated type furnace that has not been improved yet. It can only cast dozens of movable types in an hour, and it needs to be polished after casting.

Even so, the use of hand-operated type casting furnaces still has to pay patent fees to the Ministry of Industry.

Until the autumn, four steam type casting machines were shipped, and the preliminary improvement of the foot-operated type casting furnace was completed. Under the roar of the machine, copper type dies were stamped and formed one by one, and then thrown to the foot-operated type furnace to make movable lead type. Each type furnace produced four to five hundred pieces of movable type per hour (in the future, the perfect improved version can reach seven to eight hundred pieces).

On the contrary, the steel mold used in the steam engine cannot keep up with the speed at all. This thing needs to be carved by hand.

Zhao Han personally inspected the type foundry, looked at the continuous movable lead types coming out of the furnace, and praised: "It's really fast, much faster than before!"

Zhao Kuangping said with a smile: "The steam engine stamps copper type molds too fast, and this foot-operated type furnace can't keep up. Erchen ordered four steam machines. In fact, two are more than enough. The remaining two are not as good as the original price. How about selling it to the Ministry of Industry? I'll pay for the freight."

"Okay." Zhao Han couldn't help laughing.

A group of craftsmen were polishing lead movable type. Zhao Han bent down and picked up a few, and found that they were all repeated common characters.

Zhao Han asked: "How many words are engraved on the steel mold?"

Zhao Kuangping said: "These are hundreds of refined steels. It is very difficult to carve characters and requires high craftsman skills. In a few months, only more than 300 steel molds have been carved."

Steel molds are consumable parts of the machine. Only one character of the same size needs to be engraved. Before the steel molds wear out, copper type molds can be punched out in batches, and then the copper type molds can be used to cast lead movable type.

Zhao Han reminded: "Since the foot-operated type furnace cannot keep up with the speed of the steam engine, the excess copper type molds you produce can be sold to other printing shops. They can buy them and cast the characters themselves."

Zhao Kuangping explained: "Erchen also thought about it, but Erchen's fonts are all produced according to standard font sizes. Some are similar to traditional fonts, and some are very different from traditional fonts, so we can only make do with them. Erchen contacted several companies , they are also willing to buy, but only buy a few commonly used fonts that are consumed a lot."

"Market upgrading is also a problem." Zhao Han nodded.

The Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Rites and the Supervisor of Rites, updating equipment is a matter of the emperor's word.

But for private printing companies, they have to measure profits. It has been several years since lead movable type was introduced to China. Some small workshops are still using old movable type, and the materials are various, including wood movable type, copper movable type, lead movable type, and tin movable type (these Chinese metal movable types are basically alloys, but they are different from European formulas. Different, printing clarity is insufficient).

However, European inks have been promoted rapidly, and old-fashioned printing inks are almost no longer produced.

It may take a long time for the standard font size formulated by Xie Fu to be fully accepted by the market. The adoption of this standard in official textbooks can promote market replacement, but it is only a promotion. The old movable type that people have worked so hard to cast cannot just be thrown into the warehouse to gather dust. It will be discarded only after it is severely worn and worn out.

Of course, the combination of the two type casting technologies makes movable type incredibly cheaper than before.

With the cheap movable type produced by King Chu, printing companies must vote with their feet. In the next one or two years, the entire Jinling Prefecture will no longer make their own movable type. It would be great if they go directly to the King of Chu to buy high-quality and low-priced new movable type.