In the palace, Wang Wu placed the two bags in the courtyard and shouted towards the front hall: "Your Majesty, the sand and lime you asked for, the small one has been brought back to you."
Zhao Bin walked out of the hall after hearing the shouting. Zhao Bin stepped forward, opened one of the bags, and carefully looked at the white sand inside. It contained a large amount of quartz sand, but it was impure, but it should be barely usable.
"Tui'er, take the soda ash you prepared next door."
"Okay, Your Majesty," Cui'er in the room heard Zhao Bin's instructions and responded.
"Come on, Lao Wu, let's go next door."
Wang Wu picked up a bag in one hand and the two walked towards the next door. It turned out that the iron furnace used by the blacksmith had been kept. Zhao Bin asked Wang Wu to light the furnace. While Wang Wu was lighting the fire, Ling'er was holding a jar of alkali noodles. Came to the courtyard.
"My lord, what are you doing?" Ling'er asked curiously.
"Be a good person," Zhao Bin said, somewhat mysteriously.
"What good stuff?"
"I can't tell you yet. I'll show you when it's done."
Cui'er pouted and said, "Okay."
Two quarters of an hour later, Wang Wu burned the stove vigorously. Zhao Bin brought the dry boiler for smelting, put a portion of each of the white sand, soda ash, and limestone into it, stirred it evenly, then placed it in the middle of the stove, and covered the top of the stove. .
"Lao Wu, blow the wind." Zhao Bin ordered.
"Hello, Your Majesty." Wang Wu responded and began to step on the blower continuously. Then he felt a wave of heat emanating from the stove, and Zhao Bin and Cui'er took a few steps back.
The melting point of sand is actually very high, almost one thousand seventy-eight degrees. To be honest, Zhao Bin doesn't know if this furnace can reach such a high temperature. If not, he will have to go to an iron smelting plant to use a blast furnace. .
An hour later, Zhao Bin asked Wang Wu to open the lid of the stove, put a long iron rod into the dry boiler, and gently stirred the fine sand inside. Now the fine sand had begun to melt, but the melting was not complete. Wang Wu started again. Some coal was added, sealed again, and calcined continued.
After about an hour, after turning on the stove again, the fine sand in the dry boiler finally melted and turned into a liquid object. Zhao Bin used an iron rod to stir out a lump of liquid object, placed it on the prepared flat plate, and put it Pressing a one-centimeter-thick circle, Zhao Bin asked Cui'er to bring a basin of water, and then put the round object into the water to cool down. As soon as the round object entered the basin, the water seemed to be boiling, splashing layers of water. There was a splash of water, and the three of them hurriedly took a few steps back. After it cooled down, Zhao Bin took it out. It was slightly hot but still completely cooled. Zhao Bin picked up the round object and looked at the sun carefully.
Ling'er on the side asked curiously: "Your Majesty, why did the sand become like this? Is it still light green?"
Zhao Bin turned to look at Cui'er and said: "This is just like iron ore. Isn't iron ore originally also a stone? After smelting, doesn't it contain iron? The reason why it turns green is that the sand is not pure enough and there is iron in it. Made of powder, how do you like it, does it look good?" Zhao Bin said and handed the object in his hand to Cui'er
Cui'er took it in her hand, looked at it carefully and said, "Well, it does look pretty, like a gem, but much more translucent than a gem."
"My lord, is this still called sand?" Wang Wu interjected and asked.
"Of course we can't call it sand anymore, this is called glass." Zhao Bin explained.
"Glass? Is this the same as Liuli?" Cui'er asked.
"The meaning is similar, but the two are not the same thing. There are still some differences. Where have you seen Liuli?" Zhao Bin said.
"My lord, why have you forgotten that the Zhang family paid tribute to Your Majesty a glass lamp two years ago? It is said that it was obtained from the Western Regions. It is colorful and looks better than this one, but it is not as translucent."
"Oh, it took too long, I might have forgotten." Zhao Bin responded casually. Then Zhao Bin made all the remaining glass into this round object. In the next few days, Zhao Bin patiently polished the glass piece into the shape of a convex lens and installed it in a copper tube.
"Hahaha, it's done," Zhao Bin shouted loudly, holding up his binoculars and looking at the sparrows falling on the trees in the distance.
"Your Majesty, I want to see this too." Cui'er also became interested when she saw Zhao Bin's excited expression.
Zhao Bin hugged Tweet's body and gently put the telescope on Tweet's eyes.
Cui'er aimed her eyes at the lens barrel, followed Zhao Bin's example, closed one eye, and looked into the cylinder.
"ah!"
As if she had seen something incredible, Cui'er's little head dodged backwards, screaming uncontrollably, and her head hit Zhao Bin's chin.
"Ouch"
"My lord, are you okay? Does it hurt? It's all Tweet's fault." Tweet quickly turned around and held up Zhao Bin's chin, asking apologetically.
"It's okay, it's okay, it doesn't hurt."
Several people in the room heard the exclamations outside and ran out to check. When they saw the two hugging each other, they turned around and went back. Ling'er was not so shy and instead ran over to ask what was going on. .
"There was a big sparrow here just now. It was so scary." Cuier said, pointing to the telescope still in Zhao Bin's hand.
"Silly girl, how big can a sparrow be? It's the sparrow on the tree in the distance. This is called a telescope. It can see far away as if it's right in front of you." Zhao Bin explained with a smile.
"What a big sparrow?" Ling'er tilted her head and murmured, "What are you talking about, Cui'er?"
"It's nothing, Your Majesty, can I take a look at it again?" Cuier said casually.
"See for yourself, be careful not to break it." Zhao Bin handed the binoculars to Cui'er.
Cui'er took the telescope, carefully put it in front of her eyes, and looked into the distance. She looked in this direction for a while, then turned to another direction, "My lord, this is so clear, it's like clairvoyance."
Ling'er on the side couldn't bear it anymore and shouted: "Let me see, let me see"
"Be careful, don't be scared." Cui'er handed the telescope to Ling'er, and stood aside with her hands under the telescope, fearing that the little girl would throw the telescope away.
"Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! It's so amazing, you can actually see so far away." Ling'er put the telescope on her eyes for a while, and then moved it away. Seeing that she had no reaction, Cui'er took her hands back with confidence.
Cui'er looked at Zhao Bin and asked, "Your Majesty, is this made of the same glass as a few days ago?"
"Yes, is the prince powerful?" Zhao Bin said proudly with a pretentious look on his face.
"Your Majesty is the most powerful," Cui'er replied with a smile.
Zhao Bin pointed at his cheek and said, "Is there any reward for such a powerful prince?"
Cui'er shyly glanced at Ling'er who was still excited next to her. After realizing that she didn't pay attention to the conversation between the two, Cui'er stood on tiptoes and kissed Zhao Bin's cheek lightly, then quickly took it back.
Zhao Bin had a satisfied smile on his face.
"Your Majesty, let's get a few more. This thing can see so far away and will definitely be useful in a war." Cui'er regained her composure and said.
Zhao Bin also put away his playful smile and said: "It will happen, but we need to re-screen the raw materials. The sand Lao Wu brought back is not too pure. There should be a source of quartz sand ore in the upper reaches of the river. Let people look for it. I hope to find it. Better ore.”
Later, Zhao Bin let Wang Wu, Xiao Chu, Lu Biao and others experience the function of the telescope respectively. After that, Zhao Bin arranged for several people to go upstream along the river to search for quartz sand ore, led by local people. This kind of quartz sand is actually found in many places, and it is not too difficult to find. A few days later, the soldiers who went out to search found this kind of ore rich in quartz sand in the mountains. Wang Wu, Xiao Chu, and Lu Biao followed Like chicken blood, he spent every day making glass next door and smelted more than a hundred small glass pieces in one go. Ling'er and Cui'er also wanted one, so they also joined in polishing the glass pieces.
