Zhu Xiang held Ying Xiaozheng who was hanging on him and ran dozens of meters in one leap, then put down his burdensome nephew and gasped for breath.
Although he wanted to run to Xue Ji as fast as he could and hug her and do a 360-degree spin, it was obvious that his physical strength had not yet exceeded the human limit.
"Heavy!" Zhu Xiang took his anger out on his fat nephew.
Ying Xiaozheng gave Zhu Xiang a look of contempt: "You have grown up."
Zhu Xiang took a breath for a while, then got on the carriage with Ying Xiaozheng and went to Xianyang Palace.
Because Xue Ji also had to help Queen Huayang take care of the children and manage the harem, which was equivalent to the female official in charge of Qin Wangzhu's harem, Qin Wangzhu specially gave Xue Ji a palace as a studio to facilitate Xue Ji's research on spinning wheels and looms.
Ying Xiaozheng came from Xianyang Palace in a carriage to tell Zhu Xiang the good news. Zhu Xiang wanted to see Xue Ji, so naturally he also had to take a carriage.
Ying Xiaozheng wanted Zhu Xiang to go directly on horseback, but Zhu Xiang thought it was too ostentatious. Ying Xiaozheng sneered at his uncle's behavior of not using his privileges.
After arriving at the Xianyang Palace, Zhu Xiang sprinted again. Without even looking at the loom, he picked up Xue Ji who came to greet him and realized his wish to spin around: "Madam is so amazing!"
Xue Ji blushed and screamed, "Let go!"
After being hit on the head by Xue Ji, Zhu Xiang obediently put Xue Ji down.
The crowd laughed in good faith. Xue Ji pushed Zhu Xiang, tidied her messy hair, and turned her head away from Zhu Xiang.
Zhu Xiang touched his nose and said, "What are you laughing at? Don't you have a wife?"
"If you keep talking, Xue Ji will run away." Lin Zhi changed the subject for the shy Xue Ji, "Come and see the wonderful things Xue Ji made."
Qin Wangzhu smiled and said, "Your wife is a role model for women."
Zhu Xiang then walked into the crowd and observed the new spinning wheel made by Xue Ji.
Zhu Xiang did not know much about textile tools. Although he had seen traditional textile tools when visiting museums and reading materials, he did not study them. Therefore, after arriving in this era, he did not reform textile tools himself.
However, the principles used by machines that did not enter the era of the First Industrial Revolution were the same. People in this era did not use them, not because they did not know how to use them, but because they did not think of them. When Zhu Xiang was still in Handan, he discussed with Xiang He the reform of textile tools, such as using the principles of tracks, gears, levers, etc. to save manpower.
Human energy is limited, and Zhu Xiang used all his energy on farming. He didn't have much time to think about other things. He also didn't know much about textiles, so he put this matter aside.
Xue Ji was in poor health and Zhu Xiang did not allow her to work in the fields, so she learned the skills of spinning, weaving and embroidery.
After cotton appeared, Xue Ji was ordered to study cotton weaving. She worked together with the Mo family and craftsmen to explore and combine the theory that Zhu Xiang had mentioned before to create this wonderful thing.
Zhu Xiang knew nothing about textile tools in his previous life, but in this life, watching Xue Ji spinning and weaving, he became quite familiar with the tools of this era.
Nowadays, the main spinning tool for the people is the hand-cranked spinning wheel. The weaving tool is called a loom, which consists of two horizontal bars, a "spinner" and a weft-beating knife.
When weaving, the woman tied one end of the yarn to the horizontal bar of the loom and the other end to her waist, and sat on the ground with her legs stretched out to weave, so it was called "sitting loom".
Zhu Xiang knew that in the homes of the nobles, the weavers kept at home would use a "slanting loom" that could be used to weave cloth while sitting. The slanting loom had two pedals underneath, and the weaving was done with both hands and feet, which was much more efficient than the sitting looms used by ordinary farmers.
The new spinning wheel that Xue Ji came up with was inspired by the twill loom. She changed the hand-cranked spinning wheel into a foot-operated spinning wheel, freeing the weaver's hands and naturally doubling the efficiency.
After the pedal spinning wheel was invented, King Zhaoxiang of Qin rewarded Xue Ji and appointed her as the person in charge of promoting and improving cotton weaving. She led the aristocratic women to weave cotton yarn and cotton cloth, and promoted cotton to the common people from top to bottom.
Later, Xue Ji made improvements on the pedal spinning wheel, reducing the diameter of the wheel and increasing the number of spindles to three, thus increasing the spinning efficiency by three times.
But Xue Ji was still not satisfied.
If the spinning wheel can drive more spindles, can the spinning efficiency continue to improve
Xue Ji tried many permutations without success, and the research stagnated for several years.
After Zhu Xiang and Ying Xiaozheng left Xianyang, Xue Ji sorted out Zhu Xiang's manuscripts and saw the concept of using levers, gears, and tracks to drive textile machines that Zhu Xiang and Xianghe had talked about in Handan. She found that the tracks and gears that Zhu Xiang had imagined had not yet been used in textile machines. Could they start from there
Xianghe happened to be in Xianyang at this time. Xue Ji took the conceptual drawing to discuss with Xianghe, and then took out the simple "Mechanics" book written by Zhu Xiang for Ying Xiaozheng and studied with the Mohist family, trying to add new parts to the textile machine.
He continued to think about this for several years until Zhu Xiang returned and King Zhaoxiang of Qin passed away.
Xue Ji finally increased the number of spindles to six, doubling the spinning efficiency again.
But what amazed everyone was not that the efficiency of the spinning wheel had doubled, but that the path that Xue Ji had researched to improve the efficiency of the spinning wheel still had a long way to go.
In other words, the spinning wheel that Xue Ji is currently developing does not require much change. It only needs to fine-tune its components to make it more perfect, and its efficiency can continue to improve.
Ten spindles? Twenty spindles? Thirty spindles? After Xianghe and Xueji's calculations, all of this is possible!
"If it is driven by water wheels or animal power, perhaps one wheel can drive nearly a hundred spindles!" Xianghe said excitedly, "Although it cannot be used by the people, the weaving workshops of government offices and military camps can definitely use water wheels and animal power!"
Zhu Xiang's brows twitched.
No wonder the fat nephew, who had become more stable, bumped into his kidneys again. This was really shocking.
"If the spinning efficiency is increased tenfold, will the weaving efficiency not keep up?" Zhu Xiang asked, "Have the looms also been improved?"
The benefit of improved spinning efficiency is that raw materials can be quickly turned into semi-finished products to avoid waste of raw materials. As long as cotton and linen are turned into cotton and linen yarn, more cloth can be made by increasing manpower even if the looms are relatively backward.
However, Zhu Xiang believed that since Xue Ji was able to improve the spinning wheel, she should have also improved the loom.
Xue Ji nodded and showed Zhu Xiang the new loom she had modified from the slant loom.
The improvement of the inclined loom only changed its form, and the efficiency of individual weaving was only increased by two or three times. However, the efficiency of the loom that used water conservancy and multi-person cooperation was greatly improved.
Zhu Xiang stroked the shuttle on the loom and admired it deeply.
Xue Ji loaded the shuttle into the chute. One person used the shuttle while the other one wove cloth. The efficiency was two or three times higher than if two people each used a loom.
Zhu Xiang said: "If we put springs on both ends of the slide and let the shuttle rebound by itself, perhaps the efficiency will be higher."
"What is a spring?" asked Qin Wangzhu.
Zhu Xiang said, "Pour the iron into a spiral shape. Casting is simple, but with the quality of iron today, the spring may not work well. Write it down now, and let future generations make it after the iron smelting technology is improved."
In this way, future generations will also have a direction to reform the looms.
“Isn’t it amazing? Isn’t it amazing?” Ying Xiaozheng’s nose was almost turned up.
"Yes." Zhu Xiang said with a smile.
The beginning of the first industrial revolution was the development of textile technology. Zhu Xiang couldn't remember what the Jenny looked like, but the power of a textile machine without a steam engine was about this.
Of course, although historians regard the development of textile technology as the beginning of the First Industrial Revolution, it cannot be inferred that the development of textile technology caused the First Industrial Revolution.
A landmark event is like a boundary marker. A territory becomes one’s own only after a war has been fought for and governed. A boundary marker is just a symbol.
The spinning jenny is a symbol of this.
The First Industrial Revolution was an indispensable process of the mutual support of ideological enlightenment, development of natural basic sciences, and development of industrial technology. Among them, ideological enlightenment and development of natural basic sciences were the cornerstones, while the development of industrial technology was just the flower that bloomed.
Speaking of technology alone, many of China's traditional industrial technologies were at the forefront of the world at that time.
Therefore, Xue Ji's rapid development of textile technology will not have a big impact on the progress of this era.
Productivity and production relations complement each other and are indispensable. Under the premise that ideology and culture have not developed and productivity in other fields is extremely backward, it will take at least a thousand years to move from the feudal system to a better system.
Because there is no way forward now, we need to explore and open up new paths.
Even if Zhu Xiang knew the way, only a sage could know the way. It takes many people to walk together to carve out a path in the wilderness.
Of course it is not right to say that Xue Ji’s current invention is insignificant.
Social progress requires a lot of accumulation. Zhu Xiang’s research on farming technology is an accumulation, and Xue Ji’s improvement of textile technology is also an accumulation.
These accumulations may not bring about any qualitative changes in society at the moment, but after other areas have gradually accumulated, what Zhu Xiang and Xue Ji have accumulated in advance for Chinese society will always play a role in the qualitative change from quantitative change.
And for this era, Xue Ji's invention is also crucial.
For civilians, better weaving tools would allow them to weave more cloth and save them from freezing to death.
For the Qin State, the current currency is mainly metal coins and cloth coins, and cloth coins are linen, silk, etc. The overall textile efficiency of the Qin State has increased to nearly ten times that of other countries, which is equivalent to running a full-speed printing press.
Qin Wangzhu laughed so hard that his teeth showed. That was it.
What Xue Ji invented was not a textile machine, but a money printing machine from the Warring States Period.
The trade war that Zhu Xiang was worried about was easily resolved after the "money printing press" appeared.
Several measures came to his mind that could use this "money printing machine" to crush the economies of the six countries and reduce the difficulty of Qin's destruction of the six countries without bloodshed.
"Xue Ji is the reward!" Qin Wangzhu said with a smile, "Zhu Xiang, what do you think I should reward you with?"
Zhu Xiang was stunned: "Reward me? Isn't it a reward for Xue Ji?"
Qin Wangzhu said: "Isn't rewarding Xueji a reward for you? Do you want to increase your fiefdom or salary?"
Zhu Xiang: “…”
He looked at everyone. Xue Ji and the others all looked very happy and did not think there was anything wrong with this scene.
Zhu Xiang's high spirits slowly subsided.
"You are really patient. You are not even excited about such a great achievement." Seeing Zhu Xiang regain his composure, Qin Wangzhu said with emotion, "Forget it, I will decide on the reward and increase your fiefdom by one hundred households!"
Zhu Xiang's lips moved, and then he smiled and said, "Since it's Xue Ji's credit, why not just reward Xue Ji? This will also encourage women to weave."
Qin Wangzhu said: "Of course I will reward Xue Ji. I have already decided to announce it to the world!"
He stroked his beard and said, "Now both of you are going to be famous all over the world."
Zhu Xiang bowed and said, "I ask Your Majesty to reward Xue Ji with a title or an honorary position. It is not a title or an official position, but just an honor. The promotion of textiles depends on the enthusiasm of the ladies. For them, if they have enough food and clothing, they may not be willing to share their credit with their husband's family. If you give them an honor, a position, even if there is no actual benefit, it will make them more active."
Qin Wangzhu hesitated: "Will the scholars of the world object to this?"
Xunzi frowned and looked at Zhu Xiang with a hint of gloom in his expression.
Zhu Xiang said: "It is just like the rank of the wives of nobles and dukes, but more standardized. There are also relevant records in the Zhou Li. The Qin State standardized the ranks of the noble women, which is also necessary to improve the etiquette. Your Majesty can take advantage of Xue Ji's meritorious service to standardize the ranks of the noble women of Qin State."
Xunzi's brows relaxed and he smiled, "Your Majesty, Zhu Xiang is absolutely right."
(End of this chapter)