"Everything has arrived. [Read full text]" Xiao Gui took out a piece of paper from his arms and handed it over. It was densely filled with a detailed list of the goods shipped. Chang Shide looked through it and found that the allocated supplies were really dazzling, ranging from boilers, steam engines, cement, bricks to thermometers, pH test paper, test vessels... many things he didn't expect to apply for were also listed on it - Think more thoughtfully than him.
"This ship is newly built. It is quite suitable for transporting such large items. I was originally worried about how to transport the steam engine and boiler."
"Haha, this is Mr. Wen's latest design." Xiao Gui laughed, "What's it called - a large flat-deck barge with shallow draft in offshore waters. Mr. Wen originally planned to build a container with an all-wood structure, which is considered a container ship. Later, when I made some calculations, I realized that it was simply unrealistic to use wood to make containers - they were heavy and not strong. If the container was not completed, the ship had already been built, so we simply finished it."
“Aren’t there a lot of containers piled up in Lingao?”
"Ma Dugong regarded them as treasures. Even if the Metallurgical Department wanted to dismantle them and recycle them for steelmaking, he would not approve them. He also specifically asked them to do a good job in rust prevention." Xiao Gui said.
While they were talking, Wenxiu came in to report that the migrant workers had been organized. Because this shipment included steam engines and boilers, there was a huge demand for labor, so all the strong men in the entire South China farm were dispatched, and two men were hired nearby. More than a hundred people. A huge team of migrant workers was formed, carrying countless moving equipment such as bars, ropes, and rolling logs. Wen Tong was more worried about the boiler and steam engine. The main structures of these two pieces of equipment had to be transported as a whole.
"Start unloading."
A group of workers in blue shorts and cane hats got off the ship. Their strange outfits aroused a lot of discussion among the onlookers. Carrying green bags, these people unloaded iron pipes, iron plates and sacks of iron parts from the ship. They quickly built a platform with these things on the stone bank, and then continued to use it on the platform. The iron pipes were connected, pulleys and chains were installed, and then under the command of these workers, migrant workers came up. Some lined up to pull the chains, and some grabbed the ropes on the large goods. Someone climbed up on the platform, holding a small red and green flag in his hand, so hundreds of migrant workers and workers began to pull the chains and ropes with the rhythmic blowing of whistles and the waving of small flags. The behemoth was hoisted up tremblingly. A group of migrant workers rotated the crane under the command of Hao Zi. As the crane rotated, the cargo slowly moved from the air to the dock, and then slowly landed on the prepared rolling logs. The crowd watching the excitement burst into exclamation.
Transporting sugar factory equipment to South China Sugar Factory is a very challenging task. Hai'an Port is only about ten kilometers away from Nanmentang, where the Huanan Sugar Factory is located outside Xuwen County. However, the road is bumpy and bumpy, and the road surface is even more bumpy. Normally, only oxcarts can barely pass. General machinery and supplies were either carried on shoulders or carried on ox carts. Large equipment can only roll wood and push it forward slowly. One can imagine how difficult it is. In order to facilitate traffic, a team of migrant workers was responsible for clearing the road, leveling the ground and filling in potholes. The migrant workers walked more than ten kilometers on the road for four full days before transporting the large equipment to the sugar factory. The people who came with the ship also quietly came to the sugar factory and moved into the courtyard prepared for them.
The horizontal steam engine shipped this time is the Mozi Type II. Although there is no increase in horsepower, it is more efficient in steam utilization than the Type I. The Industrial Committee is quite satisfied with the performance of the Mozi Type II and has decided to put it into production in batches. Manufacturing, the machine sent to Leizhou is the mass-produced No. 1 machine.
In addition to these devices, the rarest thing was many long boxes. The three-person team couldn't wait to check them out as soon as they arrived. The words "fragile" and "handle with care" were painted on the boxes. When it was transported, it was all carried on the shoulders and backs by manpower, no bullock carts were used. When they opened the box, they found it was stuffed firmly with straw rope and dried seaweed. When they opened it layer by layer, Wen Tong and Chang Shide both praised Lingao's industrial sector from the bottom of their hearts.
Inside the box are glass and ceramic pipes of various diameters. These pipes will be used in areas with special needs. Used to replace cast iron pipes that are more susceptible to rust.
"It's too powerful-" Wen Tong was simply speechless.
"It's nothing, practice makes perfect. Besides, these pipes are not just made for you, they are used in more places in the chemical plant. This batch can only be regarded as trial production."
The power workshop of the future sugar factory will be located by the river for the convenience of water use. In addition to large-scale leveling of the foundation to facilitate the installation of equipment, Merlin also organized the construction of a reservoir specifically to treat boiler water. Masons were recruited to build a chimney so tall that they had never built it before, and it was so big that all the local masons were not enough. Chang Shide also bought up all the bricks and tiles in the local brick kiln in one go. Now the only brick kiln in the county is working overtime to bake bricks and tiles to supply the needs of the construction site.
The three-roller juicer that Wen Tong requested arrived smoothly. With the help of a huge database, it didn't take much trouble to design and manufacture this machine. The machinery factory just had some complaints about the press roller consuming too much steel. Wen Tong looked at it and found that the machine looked no worse than the old equipment he had seen.
"However, the strength of many parts inside has problems, so the service life is hard to say." Xiao Gui said that although some key connecting parts, gear transmission parts and the like have been manufactured, they are limited by material performance and durability. Sex is relatively poor.
"It doesn't matter. I brought a lot of spare parts this time." Chen Tianxiong didn't take it seriously. "If it breaks, just replace it. It's inevitable that the quality will be worse when making something for the first time."
In addition to juicers, there are also rotary knives and crushers specially used to crush and tear sugar cane. The crushed sugar cane has a much higher juice yield than the traditional method of sending sugar cane directly to the squeeze roller.
One month later, the installation of the sugar factory's buildings and equipment was finally completed. The boiler ignited successfully once and the steam engine started running. For the first time, billowing black smoke symbolizing modern industry appeared in the sky over Xuwen. This semi-mechanized machine sugar factory, unique in this time and space, finally started mass production. Its daily sugar cane crushing capacity is 7o tons, and it has workshops for cane cutting, pressing, and sugar boiling. Except for the sugar-cooking workshop, which continues to use old-fashioned manual methods, other workshops use machinery. The sugar cooking workshop does not use fire at all, but directly uses the steam from the boiler for heating.
The towering chimneys and steel cane presses of the Huanan Factory surprised many locals. After hearing that sugar mills were continuing to process sugar cane on their behalf, many sugarcane farmers did not hesitate to send sugar cane from afar, just to open their eyes and see how the sugar mills under this new method operated. After the bundles of sugar cane are transported back to the sugar factory located at the south gate of Xuwen County on oxen and carts, they are first mechanically processed: the sugar cane is first leveled and cut with a sugar cane knife, and then the sugar cane is torn apart by a crusher. The crusher is very particular, because the sugar content of the sugar cane is stored in the "cane marrow". The crusher only crushes the sugar cane in the direction of the fiber to avoid breaking the "cane marrow" during the crushing process and causing the loss of cane juice. .
The crushed sugarcane is manually transported into baskets to the feeding port of the press. A three-roller press can produce 70% of the juice at one time. However, most modern sugar factories use several three-roller or multi-roller machines to press continuously, and some require fifteen rollers to complete. The juice yield rate is as high as 9o%.
The time traveler does not have such mechanical conditions, so he uses repeated squeezing. After the first pressing, the sugarcane bagasse is not discarded but piled aside until all the raw cane is squeezed out before it passes through the press again. Although it is quite labor-intensive, the benefits obtained are still considerable.
The sugarcane juice squeezed out by the press is first sent to an iron heater. The sugarcane juice is heated with high-temperature steam while flowing inside, and then passes through the cement ash tank, where lime is added for clarification, and finally passed through Ceramic and glass pipes are transported to the sedimentation tank to allow the generated impurities to settle. The clarified sugarcane juice enters the boiling pot and continues to be heated with steam to produce sugar. The method of removing sugar residue still uses the technology of tiles, but the scale has been upgraded. More than 30 tiles are lined up in the sugar cooking workshop.
The boiling and ash adding process was supported by Lingao's thermometer, pH test paper and other test equipment. After many practices and repeated tests, Wen Tong finally mastered the temperature at each stage when boiling sugar, the amount of ash added, etc. A series of data, and the corresponding production process has been formulated. The sugar-cooking masters originally disapproved of his set of things - they had worked with the master for many years and only mastered this technology through long-term practical experience, and their mastery was still average. So I was skeptical about this new gadget, and I was even prepared to see my boss make a fool of myself.
But the owner used glass tubes, pieces of paper, and some inexplicable pots and pans, and not only did he cook the sugar, but every pot made no mistakes, and even the amount of sugar was almost the same! This is a devastating blow to the sugar cook's self-confidence - even the most skilled sugar cooks in this county and prefecture can't do this!
Seeing the fearful and admiring eyes of the sugar cooks, Wen Tong was both proud and a little disappointed: Why is it that our science and technology have always been empirical. Doesn’t anyone want to explore its principles and formulate standards?
The implementation of this method greatly reduces the waste in the sugar cooking process. Moreover, Wen Tong used this to formulate a more stringent assessment system for loss rate control - since the production factors are all controllable, the only factor that produces standard losses is the lack of responsibility of the candy cooking workers. From this day on, the people who were originally called "masters" in the sugar making workshop became "workers."
This whole process is many times more efficient and convenient than the traditional Tutangliao. The sight of large-scale, semi-mechanized production of sugar cane made everyone in the local area stunned, regardless of whether they were scholars or civilians.
The surprise was only secondary. When the sugarcane farmers discovered that their sugar cane had been processed by this factory, the amount of sugar produced was actually a quarter more than that of ordinary Toutangliao. Moreover, the sugar factory continued to charge 30% for processing. of low charging standards. Suddenly, all the sugarcane farmers in Xuwen went crazy. No matter how far or near, there were oxcarts and ships coming to deliver sugarcane for processing. There was a long queue at the entrance of the factory. Some sugarcane farmers even had to queue for two or three days before they could get on the wheel. However, The enthusiasm remained undiminished, and in the end a whole shipload of sugar cane was even shipped from Haikang. After arriving at Haikang, an ox cart was hired to send it to the Huanan factory for processing. Because there were so many people coming, there was inevitably chaos, so Liao Dahua had to ask people from the Yamen again to maintain order and suppress the situation. The chimney with billowing black smoke and the steel roller that swallowed a huge amount of sugar cane with a huge roar obviously left a deep impression on Master Dianshi. However, his fear of machinery was far greater than his curiosity, so he was always careful. Stay far away.
When Wen Tong got the first day's figures, he knew that the profits were far higher than expected. Especially in the field of contract processing, a considerable part of the extra sugarcane juice squeezed out falls into the pockets of the South China Sugar Refinery, and this part of the profit is obtained at zero cost. Not to mention that the extra processed sugar mi and sugarcane bagasse are their benefits. Sugarcane farmers don't need these by-products, but South China Sugar Refineries use them.
If the equipment is better, up to a twelve-roller machine, and combined with the water immersion method, 97% extraction rate is not a dream. Wen Tong thought to himself, the profit potential that can be tapped here is really not small.
Wen Tong even began to consider whether it was necessary to maintain the existence of the other four tutangliao. It seems that driven by interests, ordinary people will not be afraid of the distance and difficulty of the road. At least Xuwen's Tutangliao can be closed down, leaving only Haikang's.
Mei Lin and others who came to assist were also beaming. Seeing that the sugar factory was prospering, everyone felt sincerely happy - this was another point of growth for foreign trade. Naturally, there were some problems when the entire equipment was running. Once, the pipe at the boiler interface burst and leaked, and several times, the gears and connectors of the juicer were damaged, which temporarily affected production. However, under Chen Tianxiong and Xiao Gui's emergency repair quickly returned to normal. Xiao Gui also has the task of training several qualified boiler workers for the sugar factory - burning boilers is a very serious job, and if you are not careful, you will harm others and yourself, not to mention that this boiler is a copycat product.
Chen Tianxiong is not too anxious. Although he also has the task of training maintenance technicians, he is on a long-term business trip and will not be back for a while. He has enough time to take care of his apprentices. Wen Tong suggested that after the school for the children of the sugar factory is opened, apprentices can be selected from older children aged thirteen or fourteen based on their learning performance.
However, Chen Tianxiong's behavior attracted Chang Shide's attention. In addition to regularly inspecting the machine three times a day, he often talked with people from the special reconnaissance team in the yard, and sometimes changed into local clothes to impress Qiwei. The escort led him out. Obviously, Chen Tianxiong is not only here to maintain the machine, he is also an intelligence agent in all likelihood. ! ~!
