Chapter 313： spinning and weaving

Spinning and weaving can be said to be the two oldest skills of mankind. After the dawn of civilization and the dawn of civilization, there are records of weaving.

The spinning process consists of two distinct parts: twisting and drawing. The raw material is usually in the form of fibers, which must be twisted together for strength and twist, and then drawn into threads.

In the most primitive technique, the weavers used a spindle and a spinning rod. The unspun thread was placed on the spinning rod, and the spinning thread was drawn out with one hand. Once the thread was long enough, the weaver Picking up the spindle spins the thread around the bobbin IQ, and the process repeats itself. The disadvantage of this spinning method is that it is slow, and the advantage is that the equipment is light.

Hundreds of years ago, spinning technology ushered in a major technological breakthrough - the spinning wheel was invented. The spinning wheel was significantly bulkier and more expensive than the simpler craft that preceded it, yet it spun thread ten times faster.

During the long-term use, people have made some improvements to the hand spinning wheel one after another, such as changing the hand-operated type to the pedal type. The pedals that turned the big wheels increased the speed of the spinning wheel and freed the hands of the weavers.

Later, a more creative "flywheel" was invented, which once again made great progress in spinning technology, but because it was difficult to obtain a suitable tension, only thick yarn could be spun.

Now is the time to redefine the age-old art of spinning thread once again.

On October 1, 1991, the long-prepared technical conference of Huxin Town Machinery Factory was held as scheduled. People from Arda, Bairding, and Emden gathered in Lake Town to watch the new gadgets launched by the machinery factory. Some of them are businessmen in the city, some are landlords in the countryside, some are nobles and lords with titles, and even a large number of ordinary people with mediocre families but with dreams of getting rich. people of a place.

The press conference was held on the square in front of the Lord's Mansion. Now, these people from all walks of life and backgrounds are surrounding a machine to marvel.

A machine shop demonstrator is working on a very creative piece of equipment. A main wooden frame with a row of vertical spindles, across the main frame are two parallel wooden rails, the two rails can slide back and forth freely on the frame. After combing and winding into cotton threads, they move between two tracks. The demonstrator moves the shelf back and forth with one hand, and turns the handle with the other hand to drive the runner to drive the spindle. A row of spindles is placed at a certain angle, and the thread passes through the spindles. It is twisted by the rotation of the spindle, then reversed and released at the top of the spindle. Finally, a piece of metal wire hangs down to the spinning thread. At this time, the spindle continues to move forward, which makes the twisted and elongated thread retreat to the spindle lower part, and the process repeats itself again.

Yes, this is the spinning jenny that played an important role in the 18th century. In order to show respect to her real inventor, Hargreaves, Paul still retained his original name after being restored in this world, and it happened that the youngest son of Old Ford, the head of the State Council, had just given birth to a daughter, avoiding a lot of messy boredom from others Guess, but that made old Ford grateful.

"Gentlemen!"

Guy Burns introduced the crowd with a proud face.

"This is the idea of ​​Mrs. Graiman - Jenny Spinning Machine. Oh, first of all, let me state that Jenny is the name of Mrs. Ford's newborn granddaughter. Don't think too much about it. Let's get back to the topic and see how powerful she is. It's amazing."

"This is just a simple demonstration of one round of ten spindles. Even so, it can cover the workload of the previous 10 weavers. In fact, as long as the power is sufficient, the number of spindles she can drive is theoretically unlimited, 18, 30 , or even 80, the efficiency can be increased dozens of times.”

The people around were in an uproar.

"Oh! Of the Lord of Light! What a wonderful creation."

"I already have a premonition that a new era is coming!"

Many people wanted to go up and touch it, but there was a cordon around the spinning machine, and the menacing eyes of the inner guard soldiers with live ammunition drove away those who tried to get close. Obviously, the Lord's Mansion still kept its manufacturing technology secret.

As for whether it is a fake? The machine is spinning thread under the operation of the demonstrator. The machine couldn't touch it, but the thread spun on the spot was still taken out for everyone to taste.

It's a bit of a downside that machine spun threads can't be spun very thin like hand spun threads, it seems to only make light yarns (yarns that run along the length of the loom), but it's definitely, definitely, definitely ok to call it Technology leaps forward.

…

Listening to the audience's discussions and seeing the surprised expressions on their faces, Guy Burns was very satisfied spiritually, and his pride was beyond words. Of course he has reason to be proud. Although the idea and general structure were proposed by Paul, the specific implementation was completed by him and his colleagues who are also artificers Knowledge and technology should benefit most people , instead of being reduced to a plaything in the hands of a few people—the words that Lord Graeman concluded at the time were so right, and Guy Burns felt that he had taken another big step on this road.

Haha, there is something to surprise you next!

Guy opened his throat and shouted: "Gentlemen, have you ever thought that at the speed of our current looms, what is the use of producing more yarn? It can only be piled up in the warehouse to eat." Ash."

Everyone was shocked, could it be...could it be...

"That's right! The Lake Town Machinery Factory also manufactures a new type of loom that matches the spinning speed of the spinning jenny!"

One sentence whetted the appetite of the visitors again.

Guy walked to another exhibition area, and people's eyes followed him, focusing on a piece of equipment covered with cloth.

With a clatter, Guy tore off the cloth covering the exhibit, revealing the true face inside.

This machine is obviously a loom, a wooden structure, about 2.5 meters long and 2 meters high, powered by pedals. However, there are still some mechanisms that are different from traditional looms, which can be seen at a glance.

For centuries, weavers have passed shuttles from one hand to the other as weaves so that weaves are as long as two human arms. To make the cloth wider, two weavers have to be used, which greatly limits the width of the cloth and the speed of weaving.

Now, an invention called "Flying Shuttle" solves these two problems. It can increase the width of the cloth and greatly increase the speed of weaving.

"Ahem! Now, let me introduce the second new product of the machinery factory—the flying shuttle loom."

Guy Burns continued the introduction with a proud face.