Chapter 161: The Semi-Mechanized Silk Reeling Factory

After arranging for the establishment of the security force, Master Zhao felt a sense of ease in his mind and body. The Budou Team was certainly not as reliable as the army trained by the Fanhaijin, but he was now their master and provider, and they had no choice but to risk their lives for him. Moreover, he had given Zhao Tong instructions: “We must establish and promote Master Zhao’s authority.”

Just as he was feeling complacent, someone came to report: “Miss Li has arrived.”

Li Yo’er had been running back and forth between the silkworm breeding farm and the silk reeling factory these days, leading a group of students from the “sericulture training class,” raising silkworms and reeling silk. In fact, she herself had limited knowledge of these things, and it was all based on cramming when she was in Hainan. So, leading the students was very hard work. The gene she had complained about for years, “I’m the type who gets fat easily, I even get fat from drinking water,” seemed to have suddenly disappeared. Her face was a circle smaller, and the flaw she had always been troubled by when wearing a skirt—the fat on her thighs—had also vanished without a trace. When she took a bath at night, she was surprised to find that her legs had become straight and firm.

The servants, seeing Li Yo’er’s haggard face and her daily rushing up and down the mountain without a moment’s rest, secretly discussed that Master Zhao had a good eye for people: he had found a concubine who could work so hard.

“When will the boiler worker arrive?” This was the first thing Li Yo’er said when she came in.

Phoenix Mountain Estate already had a boiler, but it was used to power the estate’s water pump. The estate’s water supply had already pushed this equipment to its limits, and it was really unbearable to have it also supply steam and water for the silk reeling factory.

For this reason, the mechanical department had supplied two new boilers, one for supplying hot water and the other for driving the water pump that supplied water to the silk reeling factory. As a result, new equipment operators and maintenance workers were needed.

“The telegram said they would arrive on this boat, either tonight or tomorrow morning,” Zhao Yigong said, looking at his nominal “concubine.” She was still dressed in the same way: narrow sleeves with a vest over them. But her double buns were a little crooked, looking a bit messy. Her face was swollen, and her eyes were bloodshot, a picture of overwork.

“If the boiler room doesn’t start a fire, the trial reeling will be very difficult to do. The cocoons won’t wait.”

The cocoons obtained by Phoenix Mountain Estate through small loans and purchases were now piled up in the warehouse at the foot of the mountain. Fresh cocoons cannot be stored for long. According to the general workflow, the cocoons must first be dried to kill the pupae before they can be stored for a longer period. A centralized drying room had already been built in the silk reeling factory, but this required a boiler to provide heat. And the silk reeling factory itself also needed a large amount of hot water.

“As soon as the people arrive, have them start work,” Zhao Yigong said. “How is the training of the silk reeling workers?”

“They are ready to start,” Li Yo’er said. “Most of them know the traditional method of silk reeling. The method is actually similar, except that they used to turn it by hand, and now they use their feet.” She was a little worried, “To be honest, I’m still a little worried about this set of equipment. It’s another resurrected item. Can it be of any use? This is the first time it’s been made…”

“No, this is not the first time it’s been made,” Zhao Yigong said. “The mechanical department has made a prototype and tested it in Lingao. Otherwise, they wouldn’t dare to give us the prototype directly, would they?”

“I hope so.” Li Yo’er was not as confident as Zhao Yigong. The boiler and equipment had been technically debugged by the Traverser in charge of installation and were normal. If there were no accidents, they could be officially ignited and used as soon as the workers arrived tomorrow. But she was really afraid whether this brand-new silk factory could produce normally under her half-baked “technical guidance.”

Originally, she just wanted to plant some herbs, do some gardening, and then artificially cultivate ginseng. It slowly turned into a potato breeding journey on Jeju Island, and then she came to Hangzhou and became a sericulture technician. Now, she found herself suddenly the manager of a silk factory! The transformation was too fast.

“Let’s go and see the silk factory,” Zhao Yigong encouraged her. “Let’s see the great power of industry.”

For the convenience of water use and drainage, the Cihui Hall Silk Reeling Factory was located at the foot of Phoenix Mountain, close to the Fuchun River. The Cihui Hall refugee camp dormitories were right next to it, saving the cost of building separate workers’ dormitories and canteens. A ten-meter-high red brick chimney stood alone by the river, very conspicuous.

In the boiler room under the chimney, a Lancashire boiler was installed to supply hot water and steam, and a power fire-tube boiler was used to drive the water pump.

A wall separated the silk factory from the surroundings. Inside were rows of houses that looked somewhat strange against the local scenery.

There were servants on guard at the factory gate. They were all Zhao Tong’s subordinates and recognized Zhao Yigong and Li Yo’er, so they let them in.

Although the factory’s buildings and equipment had been built and installed and were ready to start work at any time, it was now empty. Except for a few servants on duty in the factory’s warehouse who came out to greet them when they saw them arrive, all the workshops were empty.

It was the first time for both Li Yo’er and Zhao Yigong to stand in the workshop of a real silk reeling factory. The equipment made in Lingao was neatly arranged on the foundations. Various brackets, pipes, and valves were intricately arranged together. Zhao Yigong had originally thought that this set of equipment must be very crude. But when he actually stood in front of this crude equipment, he realized that his knowledge was too shallow.

If he didn’t have a manual in his hand, he wouldn’t be able to explain the principles and operating modes of these devices, which were considered “backward” and “simple.”

An individual is truly insignificant in the face of the crystallization of the wisdom of countless people in large-scale industry.

The workstations, connected by countless pipes and brackets, were arranged one after another, like a sleeping dragon. Once awakened, the fire and smoke it spewed would converge into a terrible productive force, burning the production methods of this old world to ashes and destroying countless people along with it.

Zhao Yigong couldn’t help but feel a surge of emotion and said, “This is big industry!”

Li Yo’er did not have such a profound feeling. The factory and equipment in front of her also moved her. However, the thought that this silk factory and the female workers who would soon fill the workstations were all under her management made Li Yo’er a little panicked. This was too terrifying! Could she handle it?

However, she did not dare to say this. Right now, there were only two of them, Traversers, at the Hangzhou station. They needed to support each other, especially to encourage each other. It was better to say less discouraging words.

“Our silk factory looks quite high-end, atmospheric, and classy…” Zhao Yigong said somewhat jokingly, as if to ease her anxiety.

The equipment used by the Cihui Hall Silk Reeling Factory was an improved imitation of the “machine-powered large looms” of the Jichanglong Silk Factory established by Chen Qiyuan in the 19th century. The technical level was very low, and even by 19th-century standards, it could only be considered semi-mechanized production. But its advantage was that it was simple to operate and maintain, which was very suitable for the social conditions of the time.

The most ready-made model for the silk reeling factory that the Fanhaijin wanted to establish in the 17th-century Ming Dynasty was naturally the Jichanglong of the 19th century. Therefore, not only was the equipment imitated, but the factory layout and management model were also referenced.

The greatest progress of Jichanglong’s machine-powered large looms was the use of steam to boil the cocoons, replacing the charcoal fire boiling that had been passed down for generations in manual silk reeling. This was a major advancement in production technology.

The cocoon itself is formed by the silk spit out by the silkworm being glued together by sericin. To reel the silk out, it is equivalent to separating stamps, and water must be used to dissolve the sericin. In traditional charcoal fire boiling, the temperature cannot be constant, which affects the amount and quality of the silk produced. The unified circulating water supply adopted by the “Jichanglong” factory ensured the stable temperature and clean and fresh quality of the reeling water, so the silk was uniform in thickness and had a clean and lustrous color, which was determined by the improvement of the reeling process.

Although this set of equipment had a boiler, it did not use mechanical power in silk reeling, but instead used foot-pedal-driven equipment. Therefore, it could not be considered a mechanized silk reeling factory. From the perspective of silk reeling alone, although the speed of the foot-pedal equipment was more stable and uniform than the hand-cranked method of the traditional silk reeling machine, it could not be compared with the effect of a prime mover, and the uniformity of the silk produced was also a notch lower. Li Yo’er knew that this kind of silk could only be called “improved silk.” In the 19th century, it was considered of good quality, but after the early 20th century, it became backward and could not even be exported. The silk improvement carried out by the Suzhou Sericulture College in Kaixiangong Village also used a similar human-powered “improved machine,” but the raw silk produced could not meet export standards. However, compared with handmade traditional silk, it was already fine, smooth, uniform in quality, and white.

However, in this time and space, this flaw was not a flaw at all. It should be known that the raw silk exported to Japan by Zheng Zhilong even included the so-called “yellow raw silk,” which was actually yellowed old silk from the previous year. Generally speaking, it was not valuable, but it could actually be used for export.

This shows how urgent the demand for raw silk was on the international market at that time. The silk reeled by the Cihui Hall Silk Reeling Factory using the machine-powered large looms would inevitably be better than the best Huzhou silk.

The silk factory had a total of 300 foot-pedal-style silk reeling workstations, one cocoon baking room, along with auxiliary rooms such as baking rooms, baking sheds, and cocoon storage rooms. Each workstation was equipped with a circular cauldron, under which a steam pipe was connected to keep the water in the cauldron at the required temperature for boiling and rinsing the cocoons. It was also equipped with hot and cold water taps. The boiling water was used for rinsing the cocoons, and the cold water was used to adjust the temperature and for necessary washing, so that the silk could be drawn out quickly, which was conducive to quickly guiding the silk ends to the twisting machine.

The machine-powered large looms were very significant in improving labor productivity. According to Chen Qiyuan’s experience in running Jichanglong, each female worker could do the work of more than ten people. In manual silk reeling, each worker could manage ten silk ends, while in machine reeling, they could manage sixty, and skilled workers could even manage a hundred, increasing labor productivity by six to ten times. Although Zhao Yigong had no experience in running a factory, he knew that the equipment manufactured by the mechanical department had been greatly improved from the prototype of Jichanglong, and the efficiency improvement should be more than that. In addition, the industrial department was designing a labor management system for the silk factory based on the “Taylor system,” which would further improve the work efficiency of the workers.