Chapter 2466 - Mule Jenny

"It is said that in the new urban area built under Master Liu's supervision, there are no high bridges; all are flat bridges laid straight, and roads are all renovated according to Lingao standards. Australian cars and horse carriages will be able to run in Guangzhou in the future." Chen Xuan said, "This is also a business opportunity!"

"Even so, what runs at the beginning will be Australian cars. The cost of horse carriages is too great." Wu Yijun shook his head, "You don't know, under Ming rule, there were quite a few纨绔 (Wanku, silkpants/playboys) in Guangzhou who liked horses and kept a few good horses at home. Keeping horses is much harder than keeping people. Extremely delicate. The horse groom raising horses is familiar with horse nature, yet a horse can't live more than four or five years. Sometimes they die not long after being bought."

"Isn't Hainan hotter and more humid than Guangzhou? Why can they raise horses here?" Chen Lin didn't understand.

"This I don't know. Presumably, raising horses also has some Australian secret method."

"If horses can't be raised, opening an Australian car dealership is not bad either." Chen Ding suddenly said.

"Car dealership?" Wu Yijun was a merchant after all, with a lively mind, and understood immediately, "Just like current sedan chair hong?"

"Correct. I asked the rickshaw puller last night. There are two kinds of pullers here. One buys the car themselves and then buys a taxi license to pull. But there aren't many such people; cars are expensive, and many people can't afford them. Most still rent cars from car dealerships and pay daily car rental fees."

"This is a good business!" Wu Yijun nodded. As long as investing once to buy a batch of cars, the rest is sitting and collecting rental fees. This business is worth doing!

"It's just that sedan chair hongs had territories in the past. I haven't asked if Australians have such regulations."

"I think there probably are." Wu Yijun's eyes were piercingly bright. He felt this was another great business opportunity.

The carriage went all the way south. Several people talked and laughed, not feeling bored. Only without Chen Xiaobing accompanying them in the carriage, having no one to ask when encountering novel things was somewhat regrettable.

When the carriage arrived at the gate of Nanbao Textile Park, Chen Xiaobing, who had arrived earlier, was already waiting there.

Under his guidance, the group walked into the park. Here, red brick sawtooth-shaped factory buildings were scattered like stars, boiler room chimneys towered into the clouds, and trees provided shade in factory courtyards and roads. Chen Xiaobing introduced that there were multiple factories set up here. Engaged in cotton spinning, silk spinning, hemp spinning, wool spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing, and multiple textile-related industries respectively. However, the scale of the factories was not large, mainly playing a "demonstration" role.

"...The technology of these factories will be opened to private enterprises in the future, just that currently cotton spinning is the easiest and has the most market." Chen Xiaobing guided while introducing. "Come, please walk this way."

The roar of machines in the workshops was clearly audible on the road. Small rail cars transporting raw materials and finished products flowed endlessly on the road. Several people clicked their tongues upon seeing this scale: So many factory buildings and machines!

Chen Xiaobing took them to the first factory building. A man wearing work clothes, looking no more than thirty-some years old and smiling, was standing at the door early.

"This is Chief Li Shan." Chen Xiaobing introduced, "The person in charge here. He will answer professional questions here for everyone."

An Elder actually condescended to receive them; the three couldn't help feeling overwhelmed by favor. After shaking hands and exchanging greetings, Li Shan said: "Let's start from here... Xiao Bing, distribute masks to everyone."

Before entering the workshop, everyone had to wear masks properly. With him leading in front, the group walked into the factory building. The noise inside the factory was several times louder than on the road; as soon as they entered, they felt deafening.

The temperature and humidity of the air in the workshop rose steeply. Workshops of textile enterprises often needed to maintain certain air humidity. Coupled with the heat emitted by machines and the masks, it made people feel chest tightness and shortness of breath even more. However, looking at the receiving Elder, he showed no sign of intolerance, wearing a mask and leading the way to explain in front.

They entered the preparation workshop for the first process of the production line. Here was piled with huge cotton bales. White cotton wadding, dust, and debris floated in the air. Even wearing masks, it made people feel itchy throats.

Zou Biao explained that the cleaned cotton used here had already passed the ginning process. Because ginning required too much manpower, the ginning process was mainly done by raw material producing areas. After clean cotton was baled and transported to the workshop, opening and carding were carried out. Loosening and combing cotton fibers facilitated twisting into slivers for roving. This process was the link with the greatest manpower demand in the entire production line.

Watching workers busily feeding and moving, Zou Biao asked someone to distribute samples of clean cotton, opened cotton, and carded cotton to each big household, and said: "Here there are a total of 60 Type-35 opening and carding integrated machines. Each one can produce about 10 kilograms of carded cotton per hour. If converted to Great Ming units, that is about 16 catties in half a Shichen (two hours)."

Chen Ding asked: "May I ask Chief, what is the use of this carded cotton?" Everyone naturally understood loosening cotton (Songmian). Although the Australian cotton loosening method was somewhat peculiar, it was not beyond comprehension: traditionally, spinning also required loosening cotton first, usually bowing cotton with bowstrings. Besides loosening cotton, it could also remove remaining impurities, making cotton cleaner. But this carding cotton (Shumian) was not understood. Under traditional craftsmanship, loosened cotton was generally directly twisted into slivers and then spun by weavers; there was no carding process.

In principle, the ancient sliver-making process was also a kind of carding, but there were differences in craftsmanship. Carding technology was a cotton processing technology developed in modern Western Europe of the old timeline, more adapted to large-scale machine production. Therefore, Zou Biao explained: "This extra process exists for subsequent production. Please follow me, everyone, and you will know."

The essence of the production line was the combination of individual machines, but Lingao's textile industry couldn't achieve continuous operation yet. Especially since speed regulation of steam machinery was inferior to electricity, manpower was still needed to combine individual machines. Workers were seen feeding carded cotton into the next machine; after mechanical drafting and slivering, it became roving bobbins.

This behavior made the Chen family uncle and nephew somewhat puzzled. For a moment, they still didn't quite understand the function of this extra process. To them, it was obviously an extra redundant process.

"Everyone may still be puzzled, but there is one point everyone might discover: the roving coming out from here is all regular, unlike the uneven thickness from family spinning." Li Shan explained.

After he said this, everyone suddenly realized. Looking into the factory again, at this stage, it was basically male workers doing the work, and all were labor-intensive jobs without skills to speak of, simply feeding and moving. This meant that through these processes, yarn with regular and uniform thickness could be woven without skilled spinners. Chen Lin also understood at this time how previous spinning achieved such consistency. This process seemed redundant but was essential.

Next was the process of spinning roving into spun yarn. Here was equipped entirely with Mule Jennies. This Mule Jenny was also one of the detours taken in the cotton textile industry. The reason was that initially, handmade cotton yarn collected was found to be uneven in thickness and difficult to hang on looms for weaving. After discussion, Mule Jennies, which were originally not intended for use, were installed as a remedial measure.

The so-called Mule Jenny was actually a hybrid of Arkwright's water frame and the Spinning Jenny. The yarn spun by the former was coarse and rough in texture. The yarn spun by the Spinning Jenny was fine but had poor strength. The Mule Jenny combined the drafting rollers of Arkwright's machine and the main sliding carriage of wooden spindles of the improved Spinning Jenny, producing yarn that was both fine and strong.

By principle, Mule Jenny belonged to intermittent spinning machines. Textile machines of this principle had complex structures and low efficiency. They were especially suitable for long-fiber spinning, capable of weaving fine high-count yarn. The problem was that the cotton the Senate could collect was mostly short-staple cotton. Except for a few Sea Island cotton produced on Hainan Island, there was basically no long-staple cotton.

Although Zou Biao despised this machine very much, in the state where the textile industry didn't rank at all, having something to use was considered not bad. Not good to use didn't mean couldn't use; built it to make do first. This making do lasted until now.

Originally, it should have been eliminated after Ring Spinning was developed, but due to resource rationing reasons, only old equipment in too poor condition to continue use was eliminated. The Planning Academy intended to sell those Mule Jennies in decent condition to private enterprises.

Even if they were backward capacities prepared for elimination, these machines were dazzling existences for the visiting group.

Spindles of Mule Jennies were seen installed on frames. With tracks continuously moving back and forth, roving was wound on this end, and spun yarn was unrolled from the winding drum on the other side. Female workers were working on this side. With skillful hands dancing, rolls of spun yarn were continuously stacked aside.

Compared to previous processes, the Mule Jenny side surprised them even more. They had learned from numerous rumors before that the Australian Song could drive the power of water and fire. Seeing with their own eyes the power of water and fire used for rapid spinning...

As the team advanced, Chen Lin confirmed it was indeed exactly the same as sold in East Gate Market Department Store. This yarn was absolutely better than any spun by any skilled spinner of Great Ming, and the output was dozens of times the original.

"Worthy nephew, how do you think of this Australian yarn?" Wu Yifan was an outsider after all; besides feeling it was fine, he couldn't see other tricks. The only thing clear was that the output of this yarn was huge. If cotton was guaranteed, native yarn could absolutely not compete. Just didn't know why Australian yarn didn't flood Guangzhou Prefecture.

"Exquisite regarding comparison! Both the finished product and the process are eye-opening! With such a set of machinery, it doesn't matter whether there are skilled spinners or not. The only need for skilled hands is the last process. Such workers probably cannot be found anywhere except Lingao." Chen Lin said with mixed joy and worry. They could only watch workers operate from the walkway. Of course, some people were unwilling and squinted hard, leaning over to see clearly. But no matter how they looked at the high-speed running machines, they couldn't understand them in a short while. Chen Lin also leaned over to watch. He only saw Australian female workers with skillful techniques, stacking many yarn cones very quickly, but he couldn't see clearly how exactly it was done.

(End of Chapter)