Rebecca was a little worried when she came home dirty—because in fact, she didn’t even notice the stains on her hands and face, and she just walked back from the Magic Technology Research Institute with the oil on her face. , I didn’t realize I didn’t wash my face until I was reminded by the servant after entering the house, and this kind of behavior would usually be knocked on the head in the past...
But after seeing the things on Gao Wen's desk, all her fears and headaches disappeared.
"New machine design!" The girl jumped up excitedly when she saw the blueprint on the table, and was about to grab it, "Let me see..."
Gao Wen slapped the girl's dirty paw back with a slap: "Look at your hand!"
"Oh!" Rebecca hurriedly retracted her hands and rubbed her body twice (just this action, at least five times in front of Hetty), and then carefully moved to the desk, looking at the weird machine, " What is this for... Hey, do you mean to put paper under this cylinder? Print something?"
As expected, Rebecca often dealt with all kinds of machinery and equipment on weekdays, and she also had a certain understanding of Gao Wen's thinking habits. The moment she saw the printing press, she roughly guessed its function, and saved Gao Wen had a lot of trouble explaining, the latter nodded: "This is a printing press."
"Printing, I know about that," Rebecca nodded, "The textbooks used in schools, the paper with grids and stamps used in offices, and the labels used in alchemy factories are all printed... Are you Has the printing equipment been improved? But this thing... looks completely different from the ones used in the territory."
Rebecca knew what printing technology was currently used in the territory—in fact, it was Ansu’s long-established technology. Using a wax plate, engraved characters and patterns on it to form inscribed characters, and then mixed a kind of bitter root vine The powdered mud is evenly poured on the wax board, and then heated. After heating, the bitter root vine powder mud will become a hard clay board, and the wax will melt. In this way, a Yangwen engraving block can be used to print things. up.
But this plate-making method has a lot of limitations. First, you can’t make mistakes when engraving. If you make a mistake, the entire wax plate will be scrapped. Secondly, after covering the wax plate, the bitter root vine mud needs to stand for several hours to eliminate air bubbles and initially solidify. , Then it can be heated and hardened, and the finally hardened Yangwen board is brittle and fragile, so you must be careful when using it.
Even so, this kind of printing technology can be considered quite advanced - nobles used this method to print a large number of letterheads and official paper with family patterns, which is also its main application method.
However, the use of this improved printing method to print books is a precedent set by Cecil. The reason is very simple-only here can a large number of people be literate, and there will be a large number of people who need to read...
In fact, Cecil led this method of printing cheap books in large quantities, printing the text on cheap paper, and the covers of the books were not decorated with any metal and gemstones, and they were not fixed with leather sleeves or ties. In the eyes of traditional scholars in this world, the method of spine is an "insult to sacred knowledge".
Many scholars complained when they came to Cecil Territory and saw those cheap and "roughly made" books. According to their traditional concept, books must be made of delicate parchment paper, or even frost paper at worst. Made, transcribed by hand or shorthand magic, signed by famous scholars, and finally decorated with a lot of gorgeous, complicated, and expensive decorations.
However, Gao Wen completely ignored these pedantic voices - anyway, as the founder of the country, he has more prestige than anyone else, and he is not afraid of any challenge when it comes to the word "right to speak".
Rebecca studied Gawain's design with curiosity. At first, she thought it was an "improvement" of the existing printing technology in the territory, but soon she realized that the working principle and efficiency of this machine were different. Far beyond the traditional printing technology can be compared.
The basic concept of "plate making-transfer printing" is still there, but the working method of this machine is really too advanced - the word "continuous printing" appeared in this girl's mind for the first time.
Sometimes, all the technicians lack is a direction.
"What needs to be solved now is 'plate making', or how to quickly and conveniently transfer text to this printing cylinder," Gao Wen pointed to the most core part of the machine, talking about the problems he is currently encountering. "My requirements are three First, it is fast and convenient. The process of converting text into imprints on the cylinder must be faster than the current plate-making technology; second, it is easy to edit, and it cannot destroy the entire page like a traditional engraving. So this requires that the process of transferring the text to the drum is reversible, or that the text can be modified and reset before the transfer; third, in fact, it is also related to the second item, that is, the drum can be used multiple times , the imprints on it can be erased, not only to reduce the cost, but also to improve the efficiency of the device.”
"Wow..." Rebecca raised her voice, "It sounds... very challenging."
"Yes, it is indeed a bit of a challenge." Gawain looked at Rebecca with a serious face, "That's why I have to leave it to you—or rather, to your Institute of Magic Technology to solve this problem."
Rebecca vaguely understood: "Magic Technology Research Institute..."
"The Institute of Magic Technology exists precisely to solve these application technical problems, and the working method of the large-scale comprehensive laboratory is also designed to solve these problems," Gao Wen said with a smile and nodded, "All kinds of creative Talented craftsmen, mechanism masters, rune masters, and magicians gather in a laboratory as "magic technicians", use their own ideas to create one idea after another, discuss with each other, help each other, realize it together, and verify it together , putting all the resources to work on one project, that’s what those labs are for.”
He paused, and seeing Rebecca's pensive look, he continued: "A person's creativity is limited after all, but many people together can exert a creativity far beyond the sum of the number of people. I give You put forward a direction, and then you lead your team to give full play to it—discuss everyone’s ideas, don’t be afraid of mistakes, and then you will find out how incredible the power of a large laboratory is.”
Rebecca's eyes opened wider and wider, and at the end they even sparkled slightly. Suddenly, she happily grabbed Gawain's arm and shook it vigorously: "I understand, I understand! So it's like this... This is the correct usage of a large laboratory!"
"Don't shake it first, don't shake it... You said you have such a strong hand as a mage," Gao Wen said after knocking Rebecca's head lightly, and easily broke free, "Before you take the project to the laboratory, Tell me what you think first—do you have a solution?”
"emmmmm..." Rebecca tried to think with her finger on her lower lip, and said uncertainly after a while, "Actually, I have a little idea... I thought of the mage's shorthand magic."
As Gao Wen expected, after encountering such a problem that seemed impossible to be solved mechanically, Rebecca's first thought was magic—this is also the most normal way of thinking for a mage. Although Rebecca's magic talent is a bit subtle, the outsider's idea of "using magic to solve problems" obviously still works on her.
"Shorthand magic..." Gawain nodded slightly, "I know this kind of spell, it's one of the relatively low-level but very useful official spells, it should be from the Arcane Department, right?"
"Yes," Rebecca nodded while gesticulating, "On the enchanted parchment soaked in special potions, the shorthand magic can directly transfer the clearly remembered pictures in the mage's mind into words or patterns. If there is no If the parchment is enchanted, the mage can also use the enchanted quill to perform relatively inefficient 'shorthand'. This spell has an alias, called transfer magic... "
Gao Wen raised his eyebrows: "Your theoretical knowledge is not bad?"
Amber stuck out her tongue: "When I was a child, if I couldn't memorize it, I would be spanked... My aunt said that as a mage, I can't learn other spells because of my talent, but if I don't even know the theoretical knowledge, then I really don't know how to do it." You have worked hard, and you have to be punished well."
Gao Wen: "..."
"Shorthand magic is probably an idea, but there is still no way to solve the problem of quickly converting text lines into imprints, and I remember that shorthand magic does not have a magic circle—this is a spell that must be released by a mage," Rebecca sighed. After living a difficult life as a child, Gao Wen said while thinking, "So the current rune logic can't deal with it, and it doesn't conform to our principle of 'making it accessible to ordinary people'. But let's keep this idea for now. , you go back and do some research.”
Rebecca left with the half-finished printing machine drawings and half-finished ideas in his head, while Gao Wen walked to the French window of the study, watching the sunset outside and fell into deep thought.
Just like what he thought before—his own knowledge reserve and creativity are limited after all, even if he has enhanced memory and insights beyond this world and this era, he himself is just a mortal.
He could propose ideas for a new type of printing machine book, but he could not come up with a practical and fundamental technical solution after all.
But he has no regrets about it, because he recognized it from the very beginning.
This world has its own technological system, and people in this world also have their own wisdom and creativity. He does not need to be an all-rounder who can invent all technologies and systems. People gather as much as possible in their territory, organize them reasonably, and give them a "direction".
He couldn't think of how to make a fast and convenient printing equipment that could work continuously, but he could tell the technicians in the territory that he needed such a piece of equipment—he could also share the general idea and technical requirements of this piece of equipment. Described in general terms, this can greatly increase the speed of technology research and development.
He didn't know if this way of development was right, but he thought it was the most suitable way for him, Cecil, and the world.
He withdrew his gaze, returned to the desk, took out a piece of paper, and scribbled a new plan.
The technological breakthroughs of new printing machines cannot be completed in three or two days, but before that, some things can appear in advance, and the efficiency is at most lower.
Under Gao Wen's pen, a line of large characters appeared:
About the concept of the newspaper, and the distribution plan.