MTL - I-Chapter 987 983 [Printing Revolution]

   Chapter 987 983 [Printing Revolution]

  Although Zhao Kuangping is focused on making money, he knows what is a big thing and what is a small thing.

   Just like when he found a loophole in the prince's business before, his first reaction was not to take advantage of the loophole, but to go to his father to tell the matter, to see if the loophole could be plugged.

   When he met an inventor this time, Zhao Kuangping immediately took him into the palace to face the saint.

   "Grassmen thank the rich, kowtow to the Lord Long Live!" The inventor bowed down to the emperor when he saw it.

  Zhao Han attached great importance to this matter and put aside all his official duties to meet him. He smiled and said: "There is no need to salute, just flatten yourself quickly."

  The guard moved the seat, and Xie Fu sat down in panic.

   "Come closer, don't sit too far away." Zhao Han said.

   "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

  Xie Fu was both excited and apprehensive. As he got closer to the emperor, his mind went blank. He was so excited that he didn't know his last name.

  Zhao Han asked: "How did you make this typecasting method? Do you have drawings?"

  Xie Fu quickly stood up and said, "The drawing is with the palace man."

  The guard came directly with a stack of drawings, each step has drawings.

  Firstly select 100-refined fine steel, and use traditional methods to cast and engrave steel molds. Then use the great power of the steam engine to directly stamp out the copper mold with the steel mold. With the copper mold, the traditional method is used to cast movable type, and the metal movable type adopts European alloy formula.

   This set of casting method seems to be more complicated than the traditional casting method, but it is actually used to increase the efficiency by hundreds of times, and the error of the cast metal movable type is extremely small.

   Another time and space also appeared, probably during the Opium War, it was invented by the Englishman Dale specially for Chinese movable type. However, it only took more than ten years before it was eliminated by American Jiang Beili's technology. The Yankees directly adopted the electroplating movable type method, which was lower in cost and higher in efficiency, and was used by Chinese publishing houses until the Republic of China.

   As for Gutenberg's metal movable type formula, it has long been no secret.

  In his later years, Gutenberg was involved in a power struggle and was exiled by the church. His printing factory workers were scattered all over Europe, and his metal movable type formula and printing ink formula also spread. European missionaries brought these technologies to Asia, and there were printing factories in Manila and Coconut City, mainly printing books such as the Bible.

  After China occupied Manila and Coconut City, it also took over the printing factory and reprinted Chinese textbooks for various subjects.

  European metal and ink formulas spread to the mainland, and are now widely used in China.

  The formula of Gutenberg metal movable type is: lead (80%), antimony (12%), tin (8%). Good inking performance, low melting point, short solidification time, and the cast movable type is full and clear. This alloy ratio has been used until modern times.

  The Gutenberg printing ink formula is: linseed oil, turpentine, and carbon black are mixed to prepare oily ink. As a solvent, linseed oil has low surface tension, and turpentine oil further reduces the tension, and at the same time, the adhesion performance is also improved, and very small and clear Chinese characters can be printed.

  The combination of these two formulas, the content of Chinese characters in the previous three or four pages can now be accommodated in one page, and it is more clear to read.

  After the lead alloy movable type was produced, even the copper movable type of the official Chinese printing factory was ordered by Zhao Han to be melted to make copper coins. There is no need to hide anything, Chinese copper movable type is not as easy to use as European lead alloy movable type.

   Zhao Han looked at a few drawings and was very curious: "What did you do before?"

Xie Fu said: "Caomin's father used to be a slave of the Xie family in Foshan. When the heavenly soldiers came, my father was released from slavery, but he still worked as a servant in Xie's family. Caomin graduated from middle school and went to work in Xie's iron factory. In the past few years, the grassroots made several inventions, all of which were seized by the Xie family, and each time they only rewarded one tael of silver."

  Patents are good for inventions, but not necessarily good for inventors.

Xie Fu went on to say: "Later, Cao Min learned to be smart. Mrs. Xie let Cao Min feel at ease to make inventions, and Cao Min used Xie's machine to invent this new type of casting method. The invention was completed, but it was not made public, only that it was not finished yet. Then he fled to Jiangxi due to illness, applied for a patent in Nanchang, and then came to Nanjing by boat."

Fearing that the emperor would feel disloyal to his employer, Xie Fu explained: "Your Majesty, Cao Min's inventions in the past few years have at least earned tens of thousands of taels of silver for the Xie family. But Cao Min does not even have the right to authorize the patent, and has become the property of the young master of the Xie family." Invention. Grassroots...the more I think about it, the more unwilling I am, that's why I ran away this time."

   "Are you planning to go back for revenge in the future?" Zhao Han asked.

  Xie Fu shook his head and said: "The Xie family is kind to the Caomin father and son. Now that the grievances are settled, the Caomin just want to bring their parents to Nanjing, and they will no longer have any contact with the Xie family."

  Zhao Han continued to flip through the blueprints, and found a few forms at the back, he was surprised and said: "Hey, this new type of casting method is thoughtful."

  Xie Fu explained: "The casting method currently used has unclear specifications and different sizes. Caomin thinks that since the error of steam engine-made characters is small, why not adopt a unified standard? So Caomin secretly counted..."

"Caomin counted 30 books on the market, with a total of more than 1.2 million characters, all of which are best-selling books. There are only 13 characters that have been used more than 10,000 times, and more than 200 characters that have been used more than 1,000 times, and those that have been used no more than 25 times. There are more than 3,700. Therefore, Caomin divides the number of times Chinese characters are used into commonly used characters, spare characters, and rare characters.”

"In the future, when casting movable type, more commonly used characters will be cast, less spare characters will be cast, and rare characters will be cast even less. When printing typesetting, book factories can also follow this standard and place movable types in different categories, and the time for finding and selecting characters will be greatly shortened. "

   "In addition, Caomin also compared the books on the market, and established a font size for the movable type. It is divided into seven types: obvious, clear, middle, line, solution, annotation, and precious. It is not only convenient for typesetting, but also beautiful and concise.

  Zhao Han exclaimed: "Great kindness!"

  Zhao Kuangping said: "Congratulations, father, you have to be big to use it."

Zhao Han said to his son: "I will lend you money, and you set up your own factory to recruit people. First order the steam engine, and then order the casting machine. From now on, the movable type of the Sili Jianjing Factory will be purchased from your foundry. However, The movable type of the printing factory of the Ministry of Rites will definitely not ask you to buy, let the Ministry of Industry use this technology to set up a type foundry."

Then, Zhao Han said to Xie Fu: "If you cooperate with the King of Chu, whether you want to buy a share or buy out the patent, you can discuss it yourself. As for the Ministry of Industry Type Foundry, you will not be given patent fees. I appointed you as the Ministry of Industry Type Foundry Deputy supervisor. Remember, once you become the deputy supervisor of the Ministry of Industry Foundry, you can no longer do business with official status. Your cooperation with the King of Chu can only sell out patents or patent dividends."

  Can be an official?

  He is also the deputy director of the Ministry of Industry Foundry!

  Xie Fu was stunned by happiness in an instant, and immediately said: "Your Majesty, if Cao Min can be the deputy supervisor of the Ministry of Industry, he will give the patent of casting characters to the king of Chu, and he will not charge a penny for the patent fee!"

Zhao Han said with a smile: "The Zhao family is not the Xie family, and will not take over your invention. You can discuss with the king of Chu yourself how to use the patent. Remember, when you become an official in the Ministry of Industry, don't just lie on your laurels. You must continue to improve the casting Fa, in the future, the name left in history will be Bi Sheng of my Datong dynasty!"

   "Your Majesty will live up to your Majesty's entrustment!" Xie Fu's blood was surging, he got off his chair and knelt down and kowtowed.

  Zhao Han said: "I will send pedestrians to bring your family to Nanjing, and give you a mansion in the capital. The houses in the city are gone, so you can live outside the city."

  Zhao Han is naturally happy. This kind of happiness is not only due to the improvement of printing technology. And Xie Fu, who was born as the son of a domestic slave and studied in a new type of middle school, his current invention achievements all show Zhao Han's achievements.

   Only the typecasters are injured. If this method is promoted, a large number of typecasters will lose their jobs.

  Of course, the new type casting method also needs typewriters, but there are not so many. At the Lijianjing Factory, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Industry, the casters who were dismissed this time were directly thrown to the King of Chu to set up a factory. This solved the unemployment problem, and the King of Chu did not have to bother to recruit people everywhere.

  After Zhao Kuangping and Xie Fu resigned, Zhao Han summoned the Minister of Rites and the Minister of Industry.

  The Ministry of Industry is in charge of opening a new type foundry, and the Ministry of Rites is preparing to replace textbooks.

   All textbooks printed in the future will use the new type of casting. Moreover, the standard font size is used, and the content of each page of the printed textbook can be increased, and it is concise, easy to read and better identifiable.

  Old-fashioned textbooks can still be used, especially for poor children, who can save a lot of textbook fees by buying old books themselves for class. The government is not allowed to forcibly replace new books, and it is not allowed to drive school children out of classrooms who use old books.

   It's a printing revolution!

  The revolution started a long time ago, starting with the use of European metal alloys and the use of European ink formulations. It also started from the printing of textbooks, changing from vertical to horizontal.

  Xie Fu's series of inventions accelerated the printing revolution.

  There are so many Chinese characters that it is not like twenty or thirty letters in Europe can handle it. Therefore, the casting of Chinese movable type has always restricted the development of printing technology, and it is difficult to greatly reduce the cost. And Xie Fu's casting skills, coupled with a set of clear standards, is equivalent to kicking open most of the door with one kick in Chinese printing that opened a door.

   Next, we can continue to improve and improve efficiency.

  But if we want to achieve leapfrog progress again, we have to wait until the electrical age and use electroplating to cast characters!

  Xie Fu's casting method is good enough for this age.

  The cost of printing has been reduced by a large amount, so even ordinary people can afford newspapers without renting newspapers.

  The cost of books for schoolchildren is no longer so expensive, which is more conducive to the promotion of enlightenment in remote areas, and accelerates the assimilation of Chinese civilization to foreign races. Administrative and military expenditures in remote areas can also be reduced more quickly.

  The more Zhao Han thought about it, the more excited he became, and he was too lazy to work, so he called the concubines to visit the imperial garden together.

   Chu Wang Zhao Kuangping was also very excited, and negotiated with Xie Fu on the patent royalty. 5% of the foundry's profits are distributed to Xie Fu every year for a period of 20 years.

   Within two years, the king of Chu exclusively enjoyed the patent for casting characters.

  Two years later, Xie Fu could sell the casting patent to other businessmen outside Jinling Mansion. Three years later, the casting patents can be sold to businessmen in Jinling Prefecture.

  If someone infringes on a patent, businessmen in the relevant area will help to file a lawsuit in order to protect their own interests.

  For example, during the exclusive patent period, the king of Chu will be very vigilant, no matter which province encounters a copycat factory, he will issue a proper complaint. Not only must the other party stop the infringement, but also make the other party make up the patent fee, and the compensation obtained will be distributed through negotiation between King Chu and Xie Fu.

  (end of this chapter)