That night.
Fang Er didn't even know how he got home.
He only knew that when he woke up.
He was already at home in Fang Family Village.
Xiao Qing was guarding the bedside.
Seeing Fang Er wake up, she hurried out to fetch water.
After washing up.
Fang Er sat in the courtyard, thinking about what profitable path would be suitable for the Chai family.
Weapons were out of the question.
He only felt at ease when he held them himself.
Soap and glass already had owners.
Printing?
That wouldn't do.
If that's the case, then papermaking it is.
After all, his own printing workshop now needed a large quantity of paper.
It was too much of a loss to always buy from outside.
The paper used in this era was mostly made from bamboo.
It took at least a hundred days to prepare the materials and produce one sheet of paper.
This was also the reason for the high price of paper.
As soon as he thought of it, he acted.
He went directly to the workshop.
He called a few artisans and asked them to build a large pool with cement.
Fang Er himself, meanwhile, went into his studio.
He needed to build a pulverizer!
Handmade papermaking had its advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage was the better quality of the paper.
The disadvantage was that it was too time-consuming and the output was very low.
Because the purely manual method involved soaking bamboo, tree bark, or dried grass in lime water.
During this process, constant pounding was required to extract the fibers.
At the same time, microorganisms in the water were used to decompose these fibers.
Finally, there was the process of scooping the paper.
With a pulverizer, tree bark and dried grass could be directly ground into powder.
Then, it could be made into pulp.
This could greatly reduce labor time.
Moreover, later on, by changing the sieve in the pulverizer.
It could also be used as a flour mill.
One machine, multiple uses!
He decided to make it big.
Fang Er spent three days.
Building the pulverizer.
According to his design, this pulverizer could consume one ton of raw material in two hours.
The cement pool outside was also completed.
It was located in a workshop near the printing shop.
Three large pools were built side by side.
Fang Er called Old Horse Head over.
He asked him to spread the word that they would buy straw, bark, and dried branches without limit for copper coins.
In short, anything that could be used for papermaking was wanted!
At a price of two copper coins per jin, the villagers went crazy.
Bringing a piece of deadwood could earn them dozens of copper coins, why wouldn't they do it!
A few days later, the cement pools were ready for use.
And the raw materials were piled up in the open space outside!
Fang Er had already spent over a hundred guan on these raw materials alone.
A total of fifty to sixty thousand jin!
The pulverizer was brought out.
Connected to the power.
Dried grass and bark were fed into it.
A large amount of powder was sprayed out from the discharge port.
The artisans working there looked as if they had seen a divine artifact!
This is too amazing!
Of course! Such thick bark turned into powder as soon as it went in.
If a person were put in, would they also be ground into dregs?
And so, from that day on.
The way children were disciplined on the estate changed.
Normally, they would be beaten if they were disobedient.
Now, the threat was, if you're disobedient, we'll stuff you into the pulverizer.
Ugh!
Just thinking about it was terrifying!
The powder was directly transported to the cement pools and put in.
Then, water was added to the pools.
Having an electric motor made things convenient.
A well was specifically dug at the printing shop.
Water was directly pumped up from underground and sent to the papermaking pools through steel pipes.
Grass powder, water, and then a large amount of quicklime was added.
The quicklime was to further decompose the grass powder into fibers, and also to whiten the paper.
More than a dozen artisans, holding wooden poles, stood outside the cement pools, stirring the turbid slurry inside vigorously.
Fang Er had people make bamboo screens for scooping paper.
He himself picked up a sieve for sifting flour from the village.
Every so often, he would scoop out some from the pool to check the degree of pulping of the materials.
Until two days later.
Fang Er looked at the remaining paper pulp in the sieve. After baking, it turned into a whole sheet of white paper.
Only then did he reveal a satisfied smile.
He directed the artisans to start scooping the pulp with the bamboo screens.
Sheets of wet paper were placed on the pressing boards.
Then, the excess water was pressed out with wooden boards.
After that, they were baked.
A thick pipe was connected to steam, and the temperature of the iron pipe was controlled at a suitable level.
The warmed paper was placed next to the pipe.
As the temperature rose.
The paper on the pressing boards, from top to bottom, was dried sheet by sheet.
Fang Er took one out.
The paper was very soft!
With this feel, it was impossible to write on it!
Fang Er took the paper and dipped some water from the pulping pool.
The water stain spread rapidly on the paper.
Damn it!
This was something made for wiping bottoms!
It was impossible to write on.
He cut it directly into one-foot squares, bundled them up.
Fang Er said to an artisan nearby.
Since it couldn't be used for writing, there was no need to worry about its flatness.
These three pools of pulp.
It took two days to finish scooping them all.
During the second papermaking attempt.
Fang Er's mind started working.
He had people bring two carts of rice from the village.
It was ground into powder along with the grass.
When the paper was scooped out.
Indeed!
This time, the absorbency was much less than the first time.
At least it could be written on.
By the third attempt, even more rice was added.
The paper produced was both white and smooth!
The reason was that the rice slurry not only had viscosity but also rice oil!