The development of technology often takes the form of branches. When a key technical difficulty is overcome, many products behind this technical difficulty will naturally develop one after another. In Gao Wen's view, Rebei The "Arcane Transfer Tube" created by Ka and Nicholas Egg is such a key technical difficulty - it seems to be just a core component of a printing press, but what it solves behind the scenes is to transform traditional illusion magic into an industrial one. An important step in printing products.
As long as this crucial step is taken, various printing technologies based on the principle of "arcane transfer" will develop naturally.
The only thing that surprised Gawain was Rebecca's keen ability to "detect new things" and her unconstrained thinking.
He told Rebecca about the concept of fax and network printing. The girl seemed particularly happy. She rattled off a lot of her ideas and subsequent improvement plans, and even ran away in the end. When she went to Gawain's desk, she grabbed paper and pen and drew a lot of sketches - used to build the Magic Network fax workflow in her imagination, as well as the matching miniaturized printing equipment with communication functions. . In fact, Gawain felt that this device should be called a "printer"... but in the face of the strange working principle of the arcane transfer device, he decided not to dwell on this conceptual issue.
"Master Ancestor, Master Ancestor, do you think this is feasible?" Rebecca grabbed the sketch she had just drawn and ran to Gawain happily. Because she was too anxious to draw, this girl His face and hands were stained with ink, "I think in addition to machines that can print newspapers in large quantities, places like the Government Affairs Office also need small printing machines for printing documents and so on. These machines can all be connected together... …"
Gawain looked at Rebecca, looked at the ink accidentally stained on her face, looked at her dancing happily, and couldn't help but think of what Hetty once said. Words——
Although the Cecil family does not have close contacts with other nobles, comparisons between nobles have always been prevalent, and in the competition circle for noble ladies in the South, Rebecca has always been the leader. Known for being "clumsy", her clumsiness in etiquette classes was regarded as a typical example of "natural stupidity", and her enthusiasm for "adventures" in the castle and studying machinery always made herself appear dirty. In front of everyone, this especially aggravated others' negative impression of her as the "descendant of the Cecil family"...
The corners of Gawain's mouth curled up - those who could only drink tea slowly in the castle How could an aristocratic lady who needs eight steps to even touch a pair of scissors to grow flowers be smarter than his roe deer?
"Ancestor, what are you laughing at?" Rebecca asked curiously, "Is there something wrong with the process I designed?"
"No problem, I believe in this set of things It will play a big role in the operation of the Government Affairs Department," Gao Wen smiled and waved his hands, "But we still have to take it step by step. First, we will make the prototype of the large printing press.Come and solve the bottleneck of newspaper and book printing. ”
The territory has been implementing general education for more than a year now, and the results are of course obvious. However, with the rapid increase in population and the rapid expansion of the territory, the existing general education model will also face challenges. One of the most important challenges is textbooks.
Gao Wen needs large quantities of cheap, unified and standardized textbooks. Only by covering the entire southern border with these textbooks along with general education can he succeed. Clear away the haze of ignorance that hangs over the people.
The textbooks currently used by Cecil General College are still "emergency supplies" printed in small batches using traditional techniques, which are already insufficient to cope with the current teaching scale. , and to print enough textbooks to satisfy the literacy needs of millions or even tens of millions of people in the entire southern border... without industrial printing presses, it would be an impossible task.
So Gao. Wencai would attach so much importance to the printing press project led by Rebecca.
He turned to Nicholas Mr. Dan: “Nicholas, how long will it take to make the prototype? "
The silver-white ball floating next to it made a confident voice: "A day and a half at most - including the time for debugging and designing the assembly line exploded diagram. I am 99% sure that I can succeed in one go - because the most critical arcane transfer tube has been taken care of, and the remaining structure is no more difficult for me than pinching a few gears. ”
“Very good, 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 more about the work of the Magical Technology Research Institute, and after finalizing the reward plan for members who made outstanding contributions to the research team, Rebecca happily held the drawing she had just drawn. The sketch left Gawain's study.
Humming a casual tune and walking briskly, the heir of the Cecil family walked through the corridor - whether it was humming as he walked or not. There is still no dignified way of walking. These are not the actions of an orthodox noble lady. However, everyone in this mansion has long been familiar with this style of eldest lady, even the always rigorous lady. Hetty, by now, had given up on correcting Rebecca's behavior.
As she walked around the corner of the corridor, Rebecca suddenly stopped - she saw the door not far ahead. It was slightly open, and there was light leaking out of it.
She recognized it as Betty's room, and walked over quickly to see what Betty was doing.
The door opened. After opening the door, she saw the little maid who had fled from the old territory with everyone and followed her to this day was sitting at the small desk beside the bed, her head lowered and looking attentively at something in the room.
The furnishings are very simple, except for the necessary bed, table and chairs, there is only a small wardrobe and two small boxes in the corner.
A slightly old pan is hung on the wall next to the bed. It looks a little weird, but it is Betty's baby - now Betty hasShe was no longer the lowliest kitchen maid, so she hung her most precious pans in the room, and no one was allowed to touch them.
Rebecca lightly knocked on the door panel next to her. The sudden sound startled the little maid. The latter raised her head and stood up quickly after seeing Rebecca, but after she bowed Rebecca had interrupted her before: "I'm fine - I just came to see what you were doing."
With her signature blank expression, Betty raised her hand and pointed to the side. The small desk: "...reading a book."
Rebecca curiously took a look and saw a copy of "The Wizard and the Potion Bottle" spread out on the desk. It was a very easy-to-understand book. Although the title contained the word "wizard", the actual content was basically simple short stories. She remembered that she had such a book when she was a child. This was considered a book for the wealthy class of this era. It is one of the first enlightenment books that the children of this book come into contact with.
The book is very old, and has obviously been read many times. The writing in some places is slightly blurred, and the edges of the paper are also severely worn, but it can still be seen that it has been treated with care and preserved to this day. of.
"This...Mr. Santis lent it to me," Betty explained the origin of the book, "I'm almost finished reading it, and I have to return it after reading it."
Rebecca glanced at Betty with some surprise. At this moment, a thought suddenly appeared in her mind, which was always in a free state:
Betty was only two years younger than her.
However, this girl, who is only two years younger than her, has only just learned basic words and can just understand an enlightenment book that she had read and tired of when she was seven years old. , and watching it with gusto.
If her ancestors had not insisted on promoting general education, this little maid might never have had the opportunity to come into contact with this book in her life.
Rebecca blinked. She had never treated Betty as an "inferior person". She got along with everyone in the castle like a family, even the lowest person who shoveled horse manure. Super handyman and kitchen maid like Betty. When she was very young, she even took Betty and several other little maids of similar age to organize a small castle adventure. They played like sisters.
But why has she never noticed... Betty doesn't even have a book.
Rebecca was a little confused. She couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t noticed 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 of the “arcane magic.” The success of "Printing Press" is in sight.
My ancestors once said that when the printing press becomes popular, the printing era will come, and the monopoly of a few people on knowledge and knowledge dissemination channels will be completely broken. Ordinary poor people should have a few books of their own at home.
Industrial printing is an indispensable part of promoting Cecil’s “general education” to the entire southern border.
"Betty, do you want a book?A book of your own. "
Betty was a little confused, but she thought about it seriously and nodded vigorously: "Yes. ”
Rebecca laughed: “Then I will give you some books in a while!” ”
In fact, she can give Betty many books now, whether they are simple enlightenment books or real magic books, but she feels that those books do not meet her requirements-she wants to wait for printing After the machine becomes practical, and after the first batch of books produced by industrial mass production are printed, it only makes sense to select suitable ones and give them to Betty.
After Betty heard what Rebecca said. He was confused for a longer time, and finally said in a daze: "But books are very precious..."
"No, books will no longer be so precious. My ancestors said In a word, knowledge can be valuable, but it should not be noble, let alone expensive." Rebecca shook her head and noticed Betty's confused eyes. She laughed, "It's okay, it's okay if you don't understand. Soon you will You will see it with your own eyes - from now on, every ordinary person in this land can not only read and read newspapers, but also own their own books! Lots and lots of books! "
Betty opened her eyes wide and stared blankly at the "Miss Viscount" who could be said to have grown up with her. It took a long time before she said: "Miss...this way of speaking is a bit... Like the master. ”
Rebecca scratched her hair: “Hey, right, I think so too.” ”
……
The first usable industrial printing press was completed earlier than Gawain expected.
Only the afternoon of the next day , he saw this large machine on the "Mechanical Round Platform" of the Mechanical Research Institute, which was personally processed, assembled, and debugged by Mr. Nicholas Egg.
He came to the Mechanical Research Institute with Gao Wen. Also inspecting the equipment were Hetty and Rebecca, who were in charge of the project, as well as Godwin Orlando, the president of Cecil Newspapers and the head of the press and publishing department.
The new printing press. Like a steel monster crouching on the ground, there are long metal grooves extending out from the front and rear. The grooves should be the structure for transmitting paper, and the crucial "arcane" can be seen in the center of the machine. "Transfer cylinder" is fixed on a flat plate in the center of the machine by a movable bracket. The outlines of gears and connecting rods can be vaguely seen on the inside of the bracket.
Under the transfer device, there is a The guide groove through which the paper passes, 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 press that looks like a separate machine. , on the top of the metal box that was about half a person tall, Gawain saw the "large color palette (keyboard)" mentioned by Rebecca, as well as the "editing mechanism" used to control the projection crystal inside the arcane transfer tube. Dozens of dazzling buttons are arranged in a fan shape and are installed on a sloping metal panel, and on the top of the metal panel, you can also see a small projection crystal.
The projection crystal should be used to provide a "preview".
Just from the appearance, the complexity of this device far exceeds any magic machine previously manufactured in the territory.
If he hadn’t known Nicholas Dan’s ability, Gawain would never have believed that this thing was built in one day.
"Look, let me just say it - you will see it soon!" Mr. Nicholas Egg said with a strong sense of pride in his tone as he floated next to the new machine.
Gawain looked at the industrial printing press in front of him in amazement, but what was even more surprising was the shape of Mr. Nicholas Egg—this originally spherical silver-white metal ball now looked a bit square.
Although it is not angular yet, it is indeed a bit square.
"Why... did you become like this?"
"Oh, I have been tinkering with this printing press for a while, and I am tired - it's okay, I'll go back and take a nap. Okay."
Gawain: "..."
What's wrong with this ball?