Establishing Units of Measurement

Once the temperature dropped slightly, Luo Chong eagerly smashed open the mold with a stone. Amidst the broken clay pieces, a light golden, shimmering great axe lay quietly.

The axe head was slightly larger than a fire axe and had a pre-drilled hole for a handle. The task of polishing the blade was given to Lame, while Luo Chong began preparing the second batch for casting.

Rulers and board saws at a 4:1.5 ratio, carving knives at 5:2, chisels at 4:1, planing knives at 3:1, hand drills at 4:1.5, and four-sided spearheads at 4:1.

The hand drill was first cast as a 'T' shaped bronze flat piece. Then the drill bit part was heated in the fire, and after it turned red, the drill bit was clamped between two square bricks and twisted like a pretzel to form a spiral drill bit. After cooling, the edge was polished, and a wooden handle was added to drill holes in wood.

By the time the tribesmen returned in the evening, all work had stopped. There were four small clay furnaces, two for smelting and two for refining. The output was very low. After a day, most of the charcoal was consumed, yielding only about forty jin of copper plates and tin plates. However, Luo Chong hadn't brought back much ore, so it was enough for now.

The golden great axe's blade gleamed brightly after being polished. A handle made from a Man-eating Tree sapling was inserted and secured with Fish Maw, completing a large golden fire... no, a Tree Cutting Axe.

There were also two board saws with wooden handles attached, one large and one small, one for two people and one for a single person.

Luo Chong called over the exhausted logging team. Today, their Stone Axes had broken another four, and these were ones confiscated from the Cannibal Tribe. Now, there weren't many left.

When Dashu and the others saw the gleaming golden axe, they immediately gathered around. They also saw the board saws but didn't know how to use them.

"What is this made of? It's such a beautiful axe," Dashu's eyes were practically glued to it.

"Hehe, there's this too," Luo Chong smiled and produced a Long Spear with a white shaft and a golden head. The bronze spearhead was a flat four-sided pyramid shape, 30 centimeters long, with a round tubular socket at the end. A white wooden shaft coated with Fish Maw was inserted, making the total length two and a half meters. It looked intimidating.

The tribesmen's eyes went wide. Was this still a spear? It was too beautiful. Especially Beast Tooth and One-Ear, who had gotten used to using wooden spears recently. Seeing this Long Spear with a golden head made their mouths water.

"Chieftain, what is this made of? Are there more? Are there any for us?"

The tribesmen eagerly asked. However, they also knew that if there was only one, it definitely wouldn't be their turn to use it.

Luo Chong smiled and handed Dashu a piece of Chalcopyrite. "It's made from this kind of stone. We don't have much right now; you know we didn't bring back much."

The people from the original Tree Tribe were stunned. They had helped dig up this kind of stone, but the finished product looked nothing like the stone. It didn't seem like it was made of stone at all.

Wooden Porpoise was the most honest and direct. Since there wasn't much, they would just go dig for more. "Chieftain, let's go dig for some more stone. We know where it is."

Luo Chong nodded but told them that digging like that was too slow. He needed to make some things first. After this winter, they could dig up a lot, a lot, and then everyone would have such a Long Spear. For now, they should just work hard.

The tribesmen calmed down. The Chieftain's words were trustworthy. Since he said everyone would have one, then everyone definitely would.

Then Luo Chong took them to the logs they had cut and taught them how to use the board saw and hand saw.

The two-person board saw was placed on the end of a log and pulled back and forth. Sawdust like powder drifted down. It didn't take long to saw off a round piece of wood, which amazed everyone.

He then used the single-handed hand saw to clear branches. A side branch as thick as a wrist was sawed off in less than a minute, and the cut was smooth, unlike the rough cuts from using a Stone Axe. This would greatly increase the utilization rate of wood and save labor and effort, and the speed was also very fast.

The meter-long great axe was also easy to use. When swung, it could utilize the strength of the whole body. If Big Strength from the Han Tribe used it, he could cut down a tree as thick as a person's leg in just a few swings.

Luo Chong checked the axe blade. Because the blade was relatively thick, there were no signs of breaking.

Once everyone had learned how to use these tools, Luo Chong sent them to eat and rest.

After dinner, the tribesmen gathered to listen to Lame talk about copper refining, while Luo Chong began to establish various units of measurement.

Only with units of measurement could civilization slowly develop and move towards industrialization... no, towards agricultural development. Otherwise, when they plant Rice next year, how would they calculate the area of a mu of land, and how would they know how many jin of grain a mu produces?

Of course, this was also simple. As long as there was a standard length first, everything else would not be a problem.

Luo Chong used a Carving Knife to carve markings on a Copper Ruler. Using the width of his ring finger's fingernail as one centimeter, he carved a one-meter-long straight ruler. He brushed Molten Tin into the markings on the straight ruler and polished it again, resulting in a Golden Ruler with silver markings.

Based on the unit of length, area units were established: square centimeters, square decimeters, square meters. 667 square meters equals one mu. Larger units weren't needed for now; that could be discussed later.

With this standard unit of length, volume could be measured, and capacity units could be set: Liter, which is one cubic decimeter; 125 Liters equals one Dou (Unit of Volume), which is 1/8 cubic meter.

Weight units were even easier. Middle school physics textbooks all said that 1 cubic centimeter of fresh water weighs exactly one gram. Half a Liter of water is 500 grams, which is one Jin (Unit of Weight). One Liter of water is one Kilogram, and 1000 Kilograms is one Ton (Unit of Weight).

Angle units were also easy to find. A full circle is 360 degrees. All they needed to do was find a standard right angle. They got a Water Jar and used a Hemp String tied to a stone to make a Plumb Bob. The stone was lowered into the water. The angle formed by the vertical Hemp String and the horizontal surface was the most perfect right angle. With this right angle, and using the formula for the sum of interior angles of a triangle, various angles could be obtained.

Luo Chong had always felt that as someone who had transmigrated, possessing a mature and scientific system of measurement, yet insisting on using outdated units like cun, chi, and zhang was simply asking for trouble.

Moreover, facts had proven that the decimal system for length units was most conducive to scientific development.

Anyway, he was the boss now, and he was the one setting the standards in this world, so why would he make things difficult for himself?

The women's foraging work had stopped. There was enough Insect Wax now, and the Sisal had also been collected. They were now focusing on weaving ropes.

The children were all lying outside the Rabbit Enclosure, watching the rabbits have babies inside. The three pregnant large rabbits had all given birth, and they had quite a few; each litter had six or seven, bringing another 20 little lives into the world. The rabbit population of over thirty had nearly doubled, making Luo Chong marvel at the rabbits' reproductive ability.

Lame had extensive experience in pottery and was now capable of helping Luo Chong carve Wax Molds. The round-headed iron shovel, or Copper Shovel, was to be cast in batches. It would be useful for many things, whether digging rivers or farming. With the sample Luo Chong provided, Lame had no problem copying it.

As for Luo Chong himself, he was researching the most crucial item: the Plow. He had very little experience with this, so he could only rely on his limited memory to figure it out. Moreover, he planned to make two sizes, a large one for the Dinophants and a small one for the Sable Antelopes. The one for the Sable Antelopes was for plowing land, while the one for the Dinophants was for digging rivers.

He definitely had to use those two for digging rivers; otherwise, Luo Chong was unwilling to let them eat so much grass for free every day.

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Yesterday, I received a notification that the trial run will be on the 3rd, so I'm adjusting the update time. Starting tomorrow, it will be at 10 AM and 6 PM (I heard from others that updating during the day results in higher readership).

For now, it's still two updates a day. I really can't update more during the new book period, but I will add an update on Lunar New Year's Day.

Thank you all for your support for so long. The trial run is tomorrow, and the book's performance depends on all of you. If you have recommendation votes, please remember to save them for me. Qing Shu thanks you!!!