Lin Feng was planning to build a city. He found a craftsman and said,"The area north of the manor will be built into a city in the future. I want to build a city with a circumference of 2,000 steps. The city walls will be covered with bricks and four gates will be opened!”
Craftsman Head was stunned for a moment and muttered,"Lord Official is so bold. Lord Official means to build a city the size of a county city!”
Li Zhi nodded proudly and said,"That's right. You'll be able to see this new city in a few months!”
"As expected of the Lin family in the east of Tianjin!”Tao Youmao sighed and suddenly became anxious. He rolled his eyes and knelt in front of Li Zhi with a plop. He prostrated on the ground and said fawningly,"Official, you have to give me some of the work of repairing the city wall and wrapping bricks. I have more than 200 craftsmen under me who are waiting for their jobs to open every day to earn a living!”
"That depends on the quality of the barracks you build. If the quality of the barracks is good, I'll give you the work of repairing the city wall!"”
Tao You Mao kowtowed on the ground and said,"Don't worry, Sir. We will definitely put in 120% effort to build these barracks!"”
Since they were preparing to build the city wall, they would need to use a large number of cement materials to make cement.
In the Ming Dynasty, Sanhe soil was used to bond bricks and stones. It was recorded in the book "Heavenly Works and Creation" that "when used in Xiang tombs and water ponds, one part of the ash was mixed with river sand, and the other part was mixed with glutinous rice and sheep peach vine juice." It's called Sanhetu." This kind of Sanhe soil required glutinous rice, and the cost was high, directly causing the cost of ancient civil engineering in China to be expensive. Moreover, compared to cement, the quality of this Sanhe soil was far inferior.
The best materials were naturally needed to build a city wall that could be used to protect one's life.
They chose to produce portland cement, which was simple to produce in the early 19th century and was strong and durable.
The cost of cement was much lower than that of cement, but the effect was better. Not only would cement be used to build the city walls, but with the expansion of the business, the amount of civil engineering projects in the future would definitely not be small. This cement would be used everywhere.
To make cement, limestone and clay were needed. After burning, a small amount of plaster was added as a retard. Limestone and clay were extremely cheap and easy to obtain. He found a miner and ordered 100,000 catties of limestone and 30,000 catties of clay, spending only a few dozen taels of silver. There was also a mine of plaster in the late Ming Dynasty. It was used as a medicinal herb and was not very expensive. He found a big medicine shop in Tianjin and bargained for 1,000 catties of plaster at three copper coins per catty.
The production of cement required two grinds and one burn. The limestone and clay had to be ground into powder before being incinerated. The cement would be incinerated at a high temperature of 1,300 degrees Celsius in a vertical cellar. After the incineration, the cement would be ground into powder.
A few factories were built outside the south gate of the Fan manor. They were surrounded by walls and used as factories to produce cement. There were thirty large stone grinders in the factory, which were pulled by donkeys. They were specially used to grind materials and finished products. He also used three taels of silver a month to hire four lime craftsmen who burned quicklime. He asked them to set up a cellar in the factory to burn cement.
Lin Feng instructed the craftsmen to grind the materials into powder, then mix them with limestone in a ratio of three to one and send them to the vertical cellar for roasting. The temperature of the vertical cellar gradually increased. After roasting at the highest temperature for three hours, the fire was extinguished, and the clinkers in the shape of large and small stones were obtained. He asked the lime craftsmen to pour the grog into the stone mill and grind it into powder. Then, he added some plaster as a retard.
The four lime craftsmen worked according to the requirements and obtained the first batch of test products. He took it out and tried it out. He mixed the cement powder with water into a paste and applied it to the brick to bond it with another brick. After the cement dried, he grabbed a brick and lifted the two bricks.
At first, the second brick could still stick to the first brick, but with a slight shake, the second brick fell off.
The first batch of cement failed.
Feeling a little annoyed, he thought about it and checked the formula of the cement in his memory again. After confirming that there was no mistake, Li Zhi felt that the temperature of the cellar might not be enough.
He walked to the front of the two-man-tall vertical cellar and looked around. He turned to the most experienced craftsman and said,"Boss Liang, the temperature isn't high enough now. Can you raise the temperature of your cellar?”
As a genius, he understood the formula of cement, but he did not study the kiln for burning lime. He could only rely on the craftsmen of this era. After saying this, he looked at Boss Liang nervously.
Boss Liang replied respectfully,"Sir, it can still be improved, but the cellar needs to be modified."”
Lin Feng's face lit up. He patted Boss Liang's shoulder and said with a smile,""Then hurry up and modify it! Hurry up!"
Those lime craftsmen were experienced and had some experience in controlling the vertical cellar. It took them three days to modify the cellar and raise the temperature.
After the second batch of cement, Lin Feng finally produced the world's first batch of qualified cement.
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