The development of technology often takes the shape of a tree branch. When a key technical difficulty is overcome, many products behind this technical difficulty will develop one after another. In Gao Wen's view, Rebecca and Nicholas The "arcane transfer cylinder" made by the egg is such a key technical difficulty. It seems to be just a core part of a printing machine, but what it solves behind it is a key step in transforming traditional illusion magic into industrial printing products. .
As long as this key step is taken, various printing technologies based on the principle of "arcane transfer printing" will develop naturally.
The only thing that surprised Gao Wen was Rebecca's keen ability to "detect new things" and her unconstrained thinking.
He told Rebecca about the concept of fax and network printing, and the girl seemed very happy. She clattered a lot of her own ideas and follow-up improvement plans, and even ran to Gawain's desk at the end, Grabbing pen and paper, she drew a lot of sketches to build her imaginary Monet fax workflow, as well as the corresponding miniaturized printing equipment with communication functions. In fact, Gao Wen thought that this kind of equipment should be called a "printer"... But in the face of the peculiar working principle of the arcane transfer device, he decided not to get entangled in this conceptual problem.
"My lord, my lord, do you think this is feasible?" Rebecca grabbed the sketch she had just drawn, and ran up to Gao Wen happily. Because she drew too impatiently, the girl's face and hands were stained with ink , "I think that in addition to the machines that can print newspapers in large quantities, places like government affairs halls also need small printing machines for printing documents and so on. These machines can all be connected together..."
Gawain looked at Rebecca, at the ink that was accidentally stained on her face, and at her dancing happily, he couldn't help but think of what Hetty once said
Although the Cecil family doesn't have close contacts with other nobles, comparisons between nobles have always been popular. In the circle of Miss Nobles in the southern border, Rebecca has always been known as "clumsy". The clumsiness in the course is regarded as a typical example of "natural dullness", and she is keen on "exploring" in the castle and studying the behavior of machinery, which always makes herself appear dirty in front of everyone, which especially aggravates the attitude of others towards her. Negative image of this "Scion Cecil"...
The corners of Gao Wen's mouth curled up. How could those noble ladies who could only slowly drink tea and grow flowers in the castle, and even touched the scissors in eight steps, be smarter than his roe deer
"Master Zu, what are you laughing at?" Rebecca asked curiously, "Is there something wrong with the process I designed?"
"No problem, I believe this set of things will play a big role in the operation of the Government Affairs Office," Gao Wen smiled and waved his hands, "But we still have to take it step by step, first make a prototype of a large printing machine, and solve the problem. The bottleneck of newspaper and book printing."
At present, general education has been implemented in the territory for more than a year, and the effect is of course obvious. However, with the rapid increase of population and the rapid expansion of territory, the existing general education model will also face challenges, and one of the most important challenges is It is the textbook.
Gao Wen needs a large number of cheap textbooks with uniform standards. Only by letting these textbooks cover the entire southern border along with general education can he successfully sweep away the haze of ignorance that hangs over the people.
At present, the textbooks used by Cecil General College are still "emergency supplies" printed in small batches by traditional crafts, which are already stretched to meet the current teaching scale, and it is necessary to print enough to meet the needs of millions or even thousands of students in the entire southern region. The textbooks needed to literate 10,000 people... would be an impossible task without industrial printing presses.
That's why Gao Wen attached so much importance to the printing machine project led by Rebecca.
He turned to Mr. Nicholas: "Nicholas, how long does it take to make a prototype?"
The silver-white ball floating next to it made a confident voice: "At most a day and a half including the time for debugging and designing the assembly line decomposition diagram. I have ninety-nine percent sure that I can succeed in the first attempt because the most critical arcane transfer tube has been done. , the remaining structure is no more difficult to me than pinching a few gears."
"Very good, let's make a prototype first, the sooner the better."
The silver-white ball floated up and down slightly: "You will see it soon."
Afterwards, they discussed a little bit about the work of the Institute of Magical Technology, and after finalizing the reward plan for members of the research team who made outstanding contributions, Rebecca left Gawain's study with the sketch she had just drawn contented.
Humming a casual ditty and briskly walking, the heir to the Cecil family walks through the corridors. Whether it's the behavior of humming while walking or the way he walks without the slightest dignified way, none of these seem orthodox. It was done by the noble lady, but everyone in this mansion has long been familiar with the young lady with this style of painting, even Hetty, who has always been strict, has given up correcting Rebecca's behavior until now.
When walking through the corner of the corridor, Rebecca stopped suddenly. She saw that the door of the room not far ahead was slightly opened, and a light leaked from inside.
She recognized Betty's room, and walked briskly over to see what Betty was doing.
After the door was pushed open, she saw that the little maid who had fled from the old territory with everyone in a daze and followed her to this day was sitting at the small desk next to the bed, looking down at something intently.
The furnishings in the room are very simple, except for the necessary beds, tables and chairs, there is only a small wardrobe and two small boxes in the corner.
An old frying pan hung on the wall next to the bed. It looked weird, but it was Betty's treasure. Now Betty is no longer the lowest kitchen maid, so she took her most precious frying pan Hanging it in the room, no one is allowed to touch it.
Rebecca knocked lightly on the door next to her. The sudden sound startled the little maid. She raised her head and stood up quickly when she saw Rebecca, but Rebecca interrupted her before she could bow. She said: "I'm fine, I just came to see what you are doing."
Betty raised her finger to the small desk next to her with that trademark blank expression: "... read a book."
Rebecca looked over curiously, and saw a copy of "Wizards and Potion Bottles" spread out on the desk. The actual content is basically a simple short story. She remembers that she also had such a book when she was young.
The book is old and has obviously been flipped through many times, the handwriting is slightly blurred in some places, and the edges of the paper are also badly worn, but it can still be seen that it has been treated with care and preserved to this day.
"This...Mr. Santis lent it to me," Betty explained the origin of the book, "I'm almost finished reading it, and I'm going to return it after I finish it."
Rebecca glanced at Betty in some surprise. At this moment, a feeling suddenly popped up in her mind, which was usually in a state of flying:
Betty was only two years younger than her.
However, this girl, who is only two years younger than her, has only just learned the basic words, and she has just been able to read an enlightenment book that she was tired of reading when she was seven years old, and she read it with gusto.
And if it wasn't for her ancestors who insisted on promoting general education, this little maid probably wouldn't have had the chance to touch this book in her entire life.
Rebecca blinked. She had never treated Betty as an "inferior person". She got along with everyone in the castle like a family member, even the lowest handyman who shoveled horse manure and Betty. The kitchen maid, when she was very young, she even took Betty and several other young maids of the same age to organize a small castle adventure, and they played like sisters.
But why has she never noticed... Betty doesn't even have a book.
Rebecca became a little confused. She couldn't figure out why she hadn't paid attention to this kind of thing in the past ten years of her life, but she felt that the reason why she noticed it today was because the success of the "Arcane Printing Press" was in sight.
My ancestors once said that when the printing press becomes popular, the printing age will come, and the monopoly of a few people on knowledge and knowledge dissemination channels will be completely broken. Should have a few books of its own.
Industrial printing is an essential part of promoting Cecil's "general education" to the entire southern region.
"Betty, do you want a book? Your own book."
Betty became a little confused, but after thinking about it seriously, she nodded vigorously: "Yeah."
Rebecca laughed: "I'll give you a few books after a while!"
In fact, she can give Betty a lot of books right now, whether it is simple enlightenment books or real magic books, but she thinks those books do not meet her requirements. After the books produced by the production method are printed out, it is meaningful to choose the right one from it and give it to Betty.
After hearing Rebecca's words, Betty was puzzled for a longer time, before she said in a daze, "But books are very precious..."
"No, books will not be so precious anymore. My ancestors once said that knowledge can be precious, but it should not be noble, let alone expensive," Rebecca shook her head, and after noticing Betty's confused eyes, she He laughed, "It's okay, it's okay if you don't understand, you will see it with your own eyes soon. My own book! Lots and lots of books!"
Betty opened her eyes wide and stared blankly at the "Miss Viscount" who could almost be said to have grown up with her. After a long time, she said: "Miss... This way of speaking is a bit like a master."
Rebecca scratched her hair: "Hey, yeah, I think so too."
…
The first working industrial printing press was completed a little earlier than Gawain had expected.
On the afternoon of the second day, he saw this large machine that was processed, assembled, and debugged by Mr. Nicholas Dan himself on the "Mechanical Round Table" of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering.
Together with Gao Wen, Hetty, Rebecca, who is the general manager of the project, and Godwin Orlando, the president of the Cecil Newspaper and the head of the news publishing department, came to the Mechanical Research Institute to accept the equipment.
The new printing machine is like a steel monster crouching on the ground. There are long metal grooves extending out from the front and back. The grooves should be the structure for transporting paper, and the very important one can be seen in the center of the machine. The "arcane transfer cylinder" is fixed above a flat plate in the center of the machine by a movable bracket, and the outlines of gears and connecting rods can be faintly seen inside the bracket.
And below the transfer device, there are guide slots for the paper to pass through, and the ink plate at the bottom.
In addition to these main structures, there is also an "accessory structure" on the side of the printing machine that looks like a separate machine. On the top of the square metal box that is as tall as half a person, Gawain saw the "large structure" mentioned by Rebecca. Color palette (keyboard)” and the “editing organ” used to control the projection crystal inside the arcane transfer cylinder, dozens of dazzling keys are arranged in a fan shape and installed on a slanted metal panel, And on the top of the metal panel, you can also see a small projection crystal.
That projection crystal should be used to provide "preview".
Just from the appearance, the complexity of this device far exceeds any kind of magical machine manufactured in the territory before.
If he hadn't known Nicholas Danzong's ability, Gawain would never have believed that this thing was created in a day.
"Look, let me tell you, you'll see it soon!" Nicholas Dan always floated next to the new machine, and said with strong pride in his tone.
Gao Wen looked at the industrial printing machine in amazement, but he was even more surprised by the shape of Nicholas' egg, which was originally a spherical silver-white metal ball, but now it looks a bit square.
Although it is not to the point of being angular, it is indeed a bit square.
"How...how did you become like this?"
"Oh, I've been tossing about this printing machine for a while now, it's fine when I'm tired, just go back to sleep."
Gao Wen: "..."
What's wrong with this ball