Chapter 104

104. Chapter 104: Further Modifying the Kiln

When Liu Dagang came and saw this drawn kiln diagram, he was stunned for a long time and couldn't react: "T-this... Xiaoxiao's mother, what kind of kiln is this? I haven't seen it before?"

Jiang Wei slowly put down the brush and said: "This is a kind of kiln I saw in a book. I want you to help find some people to build it. The wages are the same as last time when digging the cellar, twenty-five wen a day."

"Fine!" Liu Dagang didn't ask much and agreed fully.

He looked at the brush Jiang Wei had casually placed on the table, and then looked at the drawing on the clean paper, full of admiration. As expected of someone from a scholarly family, not only could she write good calligraphy, but she could also draw... Xiaoxiao's mother was just like a young lady from a noble family, too amazing!

"Then I'll go find people to help now." After Liu Dagang finished speaking, he went to call people without stopping.

Not only the women and children in the village but even the men liked to come to the Jiang family to work because her work was not only easy but also paid high wages.

Now the irrigation of the rice fields had come to an end, and they just had to wait for the rice to mature. Most of the family members were free and were worried about having nothing to do.

Now that they heard that the Jiang family was looking for people to work again and paying twenty-five wen in wages, everyone gathered in front of Liu Dagang to sign up.

Liu Dagang had a headache from the noise, so he simply called the few people who had dug the cellar with him last time.

Among these people were a few who had helped the Jiang family dig a well before, all honest people who worked hard.

Jiang Wei was familiar with these faces. She first let them look carefully at the kiln drawn on the drawing, and then explained in detail what to pay attention to when building this kiln and how to build it well...

Although these farmers were seeing this style of kiln for the first time, after Jiang Wei's careful explanation, they also understood how to build it.

There were many brick kilns for firing porcelain in the county town, and most of them had seen some.

Jiang Xiaoxiao watched from the side. Her mother finally chose the location for building the kiln on the small hillside opposite her courtyard.

She understood this principle. Building a kiln on high ground could avoid water accumulation and allow the firepower to penetrate upward level by level.

Jiang Wei arranged two teams of people, one side started to build with refractory bricks, and the other side went behind the courtyard to dig clay and mix it with water.

With Jiang Wei directing the construction on the side, the farmers who came to work didn't dare to slack off, and the kiln was built very quickly, basically taking shape in the afternoon.

Jiang Xiaoxiao compared the drawing and looked at the kiln that was gradually taking shape outside the courtyard, and her guess vaguely had a general idea.

The kilns used for forging and heating in ancient times were hand-forged kilns. The working space was a concave groove. Coal was filled into the groove, and the air used for combustion was supplied from the lower part of the groove. The porcelain was buried in the coal for heating.

This kind of kiln was naturally ventilated. When the air inside the kiln was insufficient, the wood charcoal didn't burn fully, making it difficult to reach the predetermined temperature.

Therefore, the thermal efficiency of kilns in this era was usually very low, the heating quality was not good, and they could only process small workpieces, similar to ceramics.

And the kiln her mother directed to build, besides changing the shape to a straight-tube updraft kiln that could provide higher temperatures, also further modified the traditional kiln.

This modification was mainly in terms of ventilation.

In order to compensate for the air in the kiln, her mother adopted the method of forced ventilation, letting people open an extra ventilation port every five chi on the top of the kiln, and the design of the kiln door was also opened toward each other on both sides, which could make the temperature in the kiln further increase.

Jiang Xiaoxiao supported her chin and watched for a long time, her fingers rubbing the round and smooth glass beads on her head rope. Her mother directed the construction of the kiln, all of which were leaning toward high temperatures. Could it be that she was planning to fire glass...

Come to think of it, there was no such thing as glass in this era. If it could really be fired, her family would be rich!

Outside the courtyard, the kiln was being built in full swing, and inside the courtyard, the women and children were also boiling ice cream and snow cakes in the kitchen.

It had to be said that these aunts were really quick-handed. In just a few days, they had made more than ten thousand ice creams and snow cakes ordered by Jiang Yu, and even far exceeded this quantity.

Her family didn't have to worry about the amount of goods to be delivered to those restaurants, tea houses, and wine shops for the next few dozen days.

In the evening, the kiln was built, and the group of aunts who came to work at home also left. Jiang Xiaoxiao and Jiang Wei finally breathed a sigh of relief and started to fuss about dinner in the kitchen.

Because they were too busy during the day, the mother and daughter's lunch was just dealt with casually, eating big meat buns bought from town.

"Don't let everyone come tomorrow." Jiang Wei checked the ice creams and snow cakes that were almost piled up like a mountain in the space.

With so many ice creams and snow cakes, without ice cubes for freezing, they couldn't take shape, so they had to speed up the production of ice cubes.

The cellar had been dug, but Jiang Wei had been slow to move the ice-making machine in because she was afraid that there would be too many eyes and ears, and if she wasn't careful, the clues would be discovered.

Although those who came here to work were all honest people, after all, these were not things from this era, so she still had to be as careful as possible.

The mother and daughter made two bowls of egg noodles, and after eating and drinking their fill, they went to the cellar to place the ice-making machine.

The power of these ice-making machines was between 100 and 200 watts, which meant that it consumed one degree of electricity every five to ten hours. A fully charged battery could keep the ice-making machine running continuously for about a few dozen hours.

Jiang Wei went to the cellar to collect ice cubes every few hours and replaced the dead batteries.

Jiang Xiaoxiao counted. Her mother took out twelve batteries in total. These batteries had large power storage, but there would always be a day when they ran out.

Just as she was worried, her mother took out a few solar charging panels...

Jiang Xiaoxiao: "..."

She looked at the half-person-high fence around the courtyard, then pointed to the rubber wires on the solar charging panels and said: "Mother, our house hasn't been built yet. If someone sees..."

She didn't finish her words, but the meaning was expressed very clearly.

Solar charging panels had to be placed under the sun to charge. They couldn't be placed in the cellar like these ice-making machines. If they were placed in the courtyard, it wouldn't be good if they were seen by people coming and going during the day.

"... It seems we need to speed up the progress of building the house." Jiang Wei silently took back the solar charging panels, and then waved her hand, summoning a few diesel generators.

"..." Now Jiang Xiaoxiao had nothing to say.

Ice-making machines, solar charging panels, diesel generators... She seriously suspected that her mother had moved all the usable materials from the entire base into the space before transmigrating.

But in the end, Jiang Wei didn't use the diesel generators, probably because she felt that the noise made by the generators was too loud, much louder than the ice-making machines.

Although the cellar could cover up a certain amount of sound, using diesel generators was still too risky. (End of chapter)