Romeni was a glass craftsman who signed a lifetime contract before Venice sold Marin, and he was the main person in charge of the glass greenhouse arranged by Marin.
Previously, Mozhigen and Battelle had brought a batch of oriental herbal seeds and ordered Romeni to build a glass greenhouse to cultivate these seeds. So, Romeni took over the task.
On the island of Texel, Romeni built a small glass greenhouse to cultivate various herbs brought by Mozhigen and Battle.
Later, these successfully cultivated herbs were also tested outside Texel Island, and most of them survived. Moreover, among them, the most inconspicuous stinky Artemisia, Marin specially arranged a manor to plant it.
Marin knew very well that it was the legendary Artemisia annua, the source of artemisinin to treat malaria. Therefore, after Marin occupied East Frisia and established the capital in Aurich, he built a new manor next to the horse farm in the north of the city, dedicated to growing Artemisia annua. Of course, other herbs are also grown. It can be said that this manor next to the horse farm has become a herbal medicine base.
However, Marin recently had a whim to grow spices and vegetables. So, Romeni was called from Texel to Aurich, and asked him to build another glass greenhouse and try to grow ginger, pepper and other spices. In addition, Marin can also eat fresh vegetables in winter.
Marin's tastes vary greatly among people of this age. Europeans in this era are particularly heavy-mouthed, especially male aristocrats, especially like to eat pepper. Barbecue should be dipped in pepper, and bread is eaten, and everyone likes to dip it in spices. It seems that if they don't eat spices, they can't show off their aristocratic status.
Moreover, most men like to eat meat and don't like to eat vegetables. No wonder, because Europeans in this era eat vegetables raw. What does it taste like to eat raw vegetables? Of course it's bad. Therefore, no one likes to eat vegetables.
But Marin knows that eating vegetables helps to supplement vitamins and is good for health. Also, the vegetables are well fried and delicious. Especially in winter, when vegetables are scarce, it is very uncomfortable to eat meat all day long. In the past few winters, Marin often wants to eat vegetables...
Before, because of the need to plant herbs and the lack of alkali in hand, glass making could not be scaled up. But it's different now. Marin bought a lot of sodium carbonate from Venice, and it was too much to use up. So, Marin planned to start making glass products and build more glass greenhouses.
So, Romeni led a group of Venetian glassmakers to start firing glass for the construction of a new glass greenhouse in the north of Aurich.
When Marin was fine, he went to watch them burn glass and build a greenhouse. However, when he got there, Marin discovered that the glass block fired by Romeni and others was a bit small...
How small is it? Bigger than a palm...
As for why it is so small? The reason is also very simple, that is, craftsmen such as Romeni, when making glass sheets, they are all blown...
Yes, these glass products are blown by artisans. Each glass craftsman, before the glass liquid cools down, uses a special pipe to blow the glass liquid that is about to condense with special skills, blowing out the shape they want...
Under the processing of these skilled craftsmen, the molten glass is blown into the shape of cups, bottles, or other works of art...
However, the flat glass sheet is so small that when building a glass greenhouse, a glass greenhouse is made up of many glass sheets. Therefore, the frame of the glass greenhouse built by Romeni is so dense. Then, the gap between the frames is so small that it fits a hand-sized piece of glass...
However, because the frame density is too high, the light transmittance is greatly reduced...
Marin suddenly remembered that the large glass production technology seemed to have only appeared in 1688, and it seemed that the rolling method was used. It is to roll the softened glass liquid that will be cooled horizontally with a metal roller to make it smooth.
Although, in the end, the upper surface of the rolled metal will be a little rough, but it's okay, just polish it with sandpaper. Unlike the previous blowing method, because the glass liquid cools quickly, there is no time to blow large pieces of glass.
Because of the emergence of the rolling method, not only can large pieces of glass be produced, but the cost is also low. After all, blowing glass is a relatively advanced craft that ordinary people cannot do. If each piece of glass is blown by a master craftsman, the cost is indeed quite high. The rolling method can be easily done by ordinary craftsmen, and the efficiency is extremely high, so the natural cost is low.
Marin mentioned the rolling method, which immediately aroused great interest of Romeni. So they made a groove with parallel sides and a smooth copper rod.
When the molten glass is melted in the crucible, the craftsmen will pour the molten glass into another container, and when the liquid glass starts to gradually thicken, pour it into the groove. Then, the copper rod is carried on the edge of the groove on both sides, and rolled over like a stone roller to press down the protruding surface. In this way, a large glass block like a flat plate is formed as a whole.
Then, the formed large glass block will be sent to the annealing furnace together with the groove for annealing. After the annealing is completed, the craftsman takes out the large piece of flat glass with a flat bottom and a slightly rough top, and polishes it with sandpaper. This kind of sandpaper is not the industrially produced sandpaper of later generations, but shark skin. Shark skin is rough enough to be used as natural sandpaper...
After sanding the upper surface, a piece of flat glass is born. Of course, due to technical reasons, sometimes the whole piece of glass may have problems, but even so, most of the glass is qualified and can be used as door and window glass.
Most importantly, his production efficiency has been greatly improved. An ordinary craftsman can quickly produce large pieces of flat glass. Unlike before, the size of the glass depends purely on the lung capacity of the glass craftsman. A glass craftsman with a large lung capacity can blow out larger pieces of glass, while a glass craftsman with a small lung capacity can only blow out glass pieces the size of a palm...
The glasshouse at Marlin Farm was immediately modified with large sheets of plate glass. The original dense glass frames were removed and replaced by glass frames with wide gaps. In this way, the larger the glass sheet and the less the frame, the better the light transmission of the glass greenhouse...
As for the high temperature required to grow tropical crops in glass greenhouses, this is also very easy. When the weather is cold, just get some briquettes stove to boil water in the greenhouse. The steam of hot water permeates the entire greenhouse, which can completely increase the temperature. During the day, in order to get better light, some women need to be sent in to wipe the glass surface inside the glass greenhouse with a rag. Because water vapor adheres to the inside of the glass, which will cause blurring and prevent sunlight from entering. But there is no need to do this at night, the glass will be glued, just send a few serf women to clean the glass regularly when the sun rises the next morning.
Although, the cost of building a greenhouse is quite high. Using coal as fuel also costs a lot. But, can it be higher than transporting spices and so on from far away India
In fact, Marin is only slightly interested in growing spice crops in glass greenhouses. And he is more interested in planting off-season vegetables to satisfy his appetite...
A large piece of flat glass just appeared because Marin wanted to eat off-season vegetables...