Chapter 8: Something in the belly

It wasn't that she was desperate, and Su You had shown a talent for investigating things, and her actions made Baniang feel amiable and reliable. Now that he had revealed her predicament, it is estimated that Baniang would not give such a nod to Su You.

After all, no matter how smart he was, Su You was still a child of almost six years old in the eyes of Banniang.

Su You shook his little head and thought for a while, then said seriously: "I have to see it before I can say anything. Then, would you like to take me to the workshop and have a look?"

Ba Niang nodded and said, "Okay, I haven't been out for a long time."

I went to say hello to Cheng Wenying, and the two of them left the sealing workshop.

Today's women are not as good as those in the Southern Song Dynasty. They insist on never leaving the first door and never taking another step forward. They are locked in a boudoir. Women's autonomy is still relatively high.

Siyue called for a small sedan, and Ba Niang got into the sedan and said "South Gate Shuijing Alley", and the sedan bearer stepped forward in response.

All the way to a small room, when I opened the door, I saw a variety of woodworking tools, as well as a table full of engravings and movable type.

Ba Niang looked gloomy, looked around and said, "After I got sick, I dismissed all the workers."

Su You was not polite when he came in. He looked at all the various tools and calligraphy plates, and then randomly spelled out a type plate. He picked it up and looked at the sun carefully, and said: "Compared with the engraving plate, this movable type plate is a bit different.

so big."

Banniang blushed slightly, nodded and said, "Yes, Banniang ignored Meng Lang."

After finishing speaking, he pointed to the printing plate and said: "You see, Uncle Yao, the printing is done by writing the manuscript on the plate. The font size is the same and the engraving is done in one go, so it is very even and the words can reflect each other. And every word on the printing plate, this

If the movable type does not correspond well with other movable type, it is inevitable that there will be uneven sizes. Within a line, not only the characters will have different sizes, but also the thickness of the strokes will sometimes be difficult to match."

Su You said: "Wait a minute, I will write them down one by one."

After Su You polished the ink, found a piece of blank printing paper, and wrote "1, problem with the font.", Banniang's eyes lit up and she couldn't help but sigh: "The word "Little Yao Shu" is so noble."

Su You was quite modest: "As for calligraphy, I will ask you for advice another day. You go on, Banniang."

Ba Niang nodded and said: "The other thing is that the ink color will be uneven. Because of spelling typesetting, the layout will be uneven, so when printed, the ink color will be light and heavy, and the shades will be uneven."

Su You added another line of ink on the paper.

Ba Niang continued: "The typesetting is not neat, sometimes it is slanted and not straight, some characters are arranged crookedly, and some characters are even arranged upside down or horizontally."

After speaking, he pointed to the corners of the printing plate: "The corners are spliced ​​together, and it is impossible to achieve a perfect fit, so there will be gaps, staggering, etc."

"In addition, the line boundaries of the movable type will become intermittent and disappear. The line boundaries of the movable type are also arranged in a patchwork manner, so they will be uneven, resulting in uneven inking. There will be intermittent and intermittent phenomena."

After pointing out a few more details, Ba Niang said: "After this incident, Ba Niang realized that nothing in the world should be taken for granted."

Su You nodded and said: "This is easier said than done. Let me sum it up now."

After speaking, I drew a few lines on the paper and gathered them at a point: "The reason for these problems is the problem of the size of the printing, which is caused by the inconsistent craftsmanship of the craftsmen."

Then he drew a few more lines: "These lines are caused by the expansion of the wood seal when exposed to water and deformation."

Then the two people summarized the problem of printing size error, line and grid boundary error, printing fixation problem, height error problem, storage typesetting retrieval problem, version review problem...

Some of the questions were arrived at by Ba Niang after thinking about them for a long time, and some were discovered by Su You. To summarize, there are all these on a page.

Ba Niang couldn't help but burst into tears after taking Su You's order: "I didn't expect that there were so many mistakes. Ba Niang really looked at the sky from a well and made things so easy. Today I will suffer the consequences."

Su You said: "Now that we know the problem, we will solve it step by step. When all the problems are solved, this new printing technology can be flexibly combined, will not break, and can be used wherever needed. It is definitely a major breakthrough in the printing industry. Breakthrough. In fact, things can be done. To put it bluntly, all these problems are just a matter of aesthetics and precision."

"The first thing that needs to be solved is the material. It seems that wood is not suitable for movable type printing now. Banniang, have you tried other materials?"

Ba Niang said "Ah": "Other materials?"

Su You said: "Yes, our ancient ancestors used jade seals and copper seals. Now we can use them back, right? But jade seals and copper seals are difficult to carve and cast. If we use pottery, well, it's almost feasible. I doubt it. The word used by Bi Sheng should be Tao. Only in this way can it not be easily deformed."

Ba Niang thought for a moment and nodded: "Then let's try?"

Su You said: "Professional matters need to be left to professionals. Do we have ceramic craftsmen in Meishan City?"

Ba Niang said: "The Shi family owns several porcelain workshops, and I know them."

After saying that, he burst into tears and smiled: "Young brother, my mother arranged for him to be the young lady of the Shi family, but I haven't married him yet."

Seeing Banniang smile, Su You felt a little more relaxed and said, "That's easy, let's go and take a look now."

Ba Niang looked at the sky outside the door and said, "It's too late today. The ceramics workshop is outside the city and there are only stores in the city."

Su You nodded: "Then let's continue the discussion. Apart from the materials, the rest is basically a matter of workmanship. In that case, more precise measuring tools are needed to ensure that each impression is perfectly aligned."

"If you have a font problem, you have to find a professional to customize it. It's best to do it by one person. If the requirements are too high for one person, it's best to be a family. The craftsmanship is the same and the fonts are not far apart. This is the Cheng family's specialty. The problem Not big."

After speaking, he persuaded Banniang: "Banniang, this is a big deal. You can't do it alone. You have to report the results of every step of the experiment to Mr. Mingcheng, Mr. Cheng, and your husband."

"You are the daughter-in-law of the Cheng family. You can't let them think you are having an affair. It's better to discuss everything."

Ba Niang was smart and knew everything about it. She nodded and agreed, but in the blink of an eye she felt worried again: "Now it seems that the most difficult problem lies in the error in the craftsmanship you mentioned. This requires too high a craftsman's skill. In Meishan City, , I’m afraid there are no craftsmen with such exquisite skills.”

Su You smiled and said: "This is the simplest thing for me. The Shi family outside the village has a set of "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic Notes". When I don't have other books to read, I just read this one. I feel that I can use the methods in it. , it is enough to solve this problem.”

Ba Niang was shocked: "Really?"

Su You thought about it seriously, quickly sorted out his thoughts, and said: "Banniang, think about it, the size of the font is mainly due to the lack of precise enough measuring tools for measurement. When printing large characters, the font itself is not half an inch, but a tenth of an inch. One cent, one tenth is divided into one centimeter, one centimeter and ten centimeters, and one millimeter and ten silk. Well, if you have a ruler that can be accurate to a millimeter, use it to measure the impression. If it does not fit the size, discard it or polish it. Now, can the printing plate put together like this fit together perfectly?"

In the Song Dynasty, one inch was converted into 30.7 millimeters in the metric system, and one centimeter was 0.3 millimeters. This is already the concept of a centimeter.

Ba Niang thought for a while, shook her head and said: "Accurate to centimeters? How can you see such a dense scale?"

Su You said: "So we have to use tricks. Let's go back and finish this matter first."

Back at the bookstore, Ba Niang summoned a group of craftsmen and asked them to cooperate with Su You.

Moments, rulers, and gauges were all readily available in the bookstore's workshop. Su You found large sheets of paper for printing and prepared to make drawings.

However, in order to be precise, the strokes had to be detailed. In the end, Ba Niang found out her own small pen for drawing fine brushwork, and finally managed to use it.

When the craftsmen heard that a five-year-old boy had come to the Su family and wanted to make a measuring ruler accurate to centimeters, they couldn't help but shake their heads. This was clearly impossible.

Su You didn't care, he started drawing with a ruler and compass, and started explaining while drawing.

First, draw a horizontal line on the drawing paper, then use a compass to determine a point on both sides of the straight line and draw a vertical line.

All craftsmen know this, but a five-year-old child knows how to obtain vertical lines in this way, which can't help but make the craftsmen look at him with admiration.

But not surprising yet.

Next, Su You used a compass and a ruler to pick a point on the vertical coordinates and draw a right triangle with a right-angled side of one foot.

Not bad, not bad, very standard and beautiful, the craftsmen continued to nod.

Next, when the magic time began, Su You abandoned the original inches marked on the ruler because he thought it was not precise enough, but then he randomly drew a ray under the triangle using a right angle.

Then use a compass to divide the ray into ten equal segments, use a ruler to connect the end point and the 45-degree angle of the adjacent side of the right triangle, and then use the parallel relationship of this line to divide the right-angled side into equal parts.

ten portions.
Chapter completed!