After discussions with the two Female Advisor, Paul put forward his various new ideas at Government Affairs Council's regular meeting.
He emphasized two points: health services and printing industry.
Government Affairs Council officials attending the meeting took turns to experience a microscope, and they all exclaimed that it was incredible. They did not expect that there was another world in the tiniest places that the human eye could not touch.
Someone said to Paul, "This will cause a big earthquake in the academic world. I suggest you send your new discovery to the Enlightenment Society headquarters. They will definitely erect a statue for you in the Central Square of the Holy City."
"Haha, really?" Paul scratched his head a little embarrassed, after all, he was not the one who really invented the microscope.
In addition to widely publicizing hygiene concepts and popularizing scientific nursing methods such as disinfection and antibacterial means, Paul also asked Government Affairs Council to provide material and financial support to the two Female Advisor to train a group of "professional" medical personnel, and set up Hygiene Clinic in each village and town to dispatch medical personnel to station. Of course, at this stage, money is still required.
However, compared to scientific and technological things such as microscopes and microorganisms, officials are obviously more interested in Printing Industry, which can make money.
Think about it, a piece of worthless paper is printed with text and pictures, and then bound into a book, and it immediately becomes a book that required manual labor to copy. The price difference between a book and a pile of paper is huge.
And printed books have two huge advantages over handwritten books:
The first is quality. Copyists often make typos, smears and other defects when copying books. With Printing Technique, as long as there are no errors on the printing plate, there will be no errors in the text on the book. If you hire a skilled engraver to make the printed characters neat and beautiful, you will definitely be able to outshine traditional handwritten books.
The second is cost. The scribes hired by the traditional book copying industry must be good at handwriting and their own cultural level cannot be too low. In this era when literacy is considered a talent, hiring such a large group of people is costly. There is also the time cost, and the difference is even greater.
This is simply a way to get money... ah no, it is a great progress in the history of human civilization.
"Gentlemen, the Printing Technique we can use now is only a very rudimentary technology. I call it Woodblock Printing. At this stage, it can only be used to respond to emergencies. Engraving is still very time-consuming and labor-intensive. A big book like "Holy Book" may take a long time to engrave."
Paul introduced his improvement plan to everyone, "My idea is to develop a tool that can freely combine and arrange words or letters. I call it Movable Type Printing."
He explained the principle of Movable Type Printing to everyone, which caused another burst of surprise from the officials.
Finally, Paul took out a stack of paper and handed it to the official of Department of Industry, which contained a detailed description of the principle of Movable Type Printing and the structure of the original Printing Press. He ordered, "Give this to the craftsmen of Mechanical Factory, mobilize the manpower to cast a batch of movable type, and build a Printing Press."
Casting metal movable type is troublesome. If the movable type is not cast regularly enough, it will seriously affect the typesetting of the text. A special Printing Ink had to be developed. In the memory of Paul, the Printing Ink invented by Gutenberg at that time seemed to be composed of linseed oil, lamp black, varnish and other raw materials. It could stick to both metal and paper.
If you just cast metal movable type, you still have to apply ink and wipe paper manually. The characteristics of ink make this work not easy, but having a Printing Press can greatly save time and effort.
The most original Movable Type Printing machine in the West seems to be modified from a spiral downward flax press. This mechanical structure is simple. It has a heavy base with two uprights on the side, and a crossbeam on top. There is a rotatable wooden spiral passing through the crossbeam, which can push down the reinforced pressure plate or top plate that can slide between the uprights. Anyone who wants to apply pressure evenly on a flat surface is likely to think of using this simple device.
The structural drawing of Printing Press given to the craftsmen by Paul is drawn according to this equipment.
He announced, "Once Printing Press is successfully developed, we will build a Printing Factory, promote this technology to the private sector, and vigorously promote cultural and educational undertakings in the territory."
"In addition, I have already commissioned Quiller Foster to bring a large number of southern books from the south, including poetry, prose, novels, etc. We can print these books in large quantities, bind them beautifully, and then transport them to the south to sell to the nobles and rich people who like arty style."
This is another source of wealth.
At the regular meeting, Paul also got three pieces of news that made him happy.
The first good news was that Hansel, who was going to Royal Capital again, sent someone to deliver a letter. It said that this time he had recruited more talents, including several Alchemist. In addition to talents, he also gathered a large number of refugees and prepared to send them to Northwest Bay.
The war in the south has created many refugees heading north, which has caused headaches for the northern lords. It is already very difficult to keep their people fed. There is no "extra" food to help these refugees. Moreover, the influx of refugees has continued to worsen the security situation in the major territories.
Now Hansel is strutting around under the banner of recruiting refugees, and has also set up Reception Stations on several traffic arteries. The lords, big and small, with the mentality of watching fools' jokes, organize people to tie up the refugees in their territories and send them to his Reception Stations.
"The letter said that the first batch of people coming over may be six to seven hundred people. Do we have the ability to accept this batch of refugees?"
"Government Affairs Council is ready to accommodate refugees. Considering that due to customs and other reasons, they are likely to conflict with the locals in their lives, we have built a group of temporary houses in the Ves River and South Bank for them to live in. In addition, we have notified factory owners and farmers from all over the country and asked them to come and recruit manpower."
Chief Steward Ford gave Paul a satisfactory reply on behalf of Government Affairs Council.
The second good news was that the ordnance factory improved the formula of gunpowder. In theory, the optimal gunpowder formula is a combination ratio of nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal of 78.74%: 11.84%: 11.32%. That is, this gunpowder generates the most gas, emits the most heat, raises the highest temperature, and has the strongest killing power.
The craftsmen did not know this chemical knowledge, but they still relied on a large number of experiments to summarize the best gunpowder formulas for guns and Artillery respectively. The ratio of nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal for gun propellant is 75%:10%:15%, and the ratio of nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal for gun propellant is 78%:8%:14%.
This improvement not only increased the power of gunpowder, but also extended the service life of guns.
The machinists also designed a set of gunpowder grinding and stirring equipment driven by water power, which greatly improved the efficiency and precision of gunpowder generation and saved a lot of manpower.
The third good news is that the craftsmen of the ordnance factory have finally produced reliable springs. The ordnance masters from Royal Capital have brought advanced heat treatment technology and have made a great contribution in this regard. With the spring, the first Flintlock Gun was assembled. Combined with the improved quality of gunpowder, the firing rate reached more than 80%.
Paul ordered to continue to urge the ordnance factory to improve Flintlock Gun. With Flintlock Gun, the Soldierss can be arranged more closely, thereby greatly increasing the firepower density and avoiding interference from weather factors to a certain extent. Sooner or later, he will have to change all his troops to Flintlock Gun.
Paul suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "I suddenly thought of another idea to make money. Now that we have good springs, can we make a shock-absorbing device for our carriage? The current carriage is really uncomfortable to sit on."
Using springs to make horse-drawn carriage shock-absorbing devices is a money-making tool for people traveling from all walks of life. How could he let it go?
Department of Industry officials said they would immediately convey Paul's ideas to the Mechanical Factory craftsmen. In fact, you don't necessarily have to rely on springs to absorb shock on a carriage. There are already various shock absorption measures in the world.
After arranging a series of things properly, Paul decided to leave for Franklin Harbor again, because two new Sailing Ships were manufactured, and one of them would soon go south to open a new route. He wanted to see the lineup of "Expedition Team".
Unexpectedly, this time Female Advisor Laddie actually offered to go with him.
Female Advisor said to Paul with a solemn expression:
"My Lord Earl, you may encounter some bad things on the way."