Chapter 197 - 87: Earth Mortar (Long), Water Mill (Dui), and Millstone_2
Lately, besides idly carving a half-finished arched load-bearing beam out of wood, Chen Zhou hasn't done much woodworking.
Suddenly having to take on such a "big project," he truly felt a bit uncertain.
Moreover, even after completing the earthen mill and sifting off the rice husks, the third step of making a water pestle is equally troublesome.
As a somewhat advanced machine that uses water power, levers, and concave wheel principles to process grain, a water pestle requires many round components.
Chen Zhou hasn't even figured out how to manually carve wheels, so making a more precise and component-rich water pestle is quite a challenge for him.
But a challenge is a challenge. Chen Zhou felt that with his knowledge reserve, designing a functioning rice hulling machine by referencing the earthen mill and water pestle wasn't difficult; the real key to the project was his hands-on ability.
Besides, these are all machines he would have to prepare sooner or later. If he has to manually hull and eat raw rice, his stomach, accustomed to modern rice, probably wouldn't cope well and he'd have a stomach ache after just a few meals.
Furthermore, after the rice matures and is harvested and processed, he'd still have barley and wheat awaiting him.
Fortunately, the process of turning wheat into flour isn't as complex as turning rice into cooked rice; it just requires a millstone.
If there is no millstone, like Robinson, manually making a mortar and pestle can also work, although the resulting flour wouldn't be as fine as that ground by a millstone, compromising the texture significantly.
...
On May 10, for the whole day, apart from the usual visit to the wooden hut to tend to the crops, Chen Zhou hardly left the cave dwelling.
Under the shade of the rocky wall, he sat at the bedroom doorway, a small table beside him, gripping a homemade pen, with a notebook spread across his lap, diligently drafting blueprints and pondering the procedural steps in his mind.
Over centuries of development, iterations of steam, electrical, information, and even intelligent industries have rendered the machinery from the Ming and Qing dynasties completely out of touch with modern mechanization.
Even in the principle areas where change is least likely to occur, there have been tremendous transformations.
Compared with the modern machinery that requires components such as interference fit connecting parts, friction wheel drive, drive shafts, clutches, bearings, machine bases, lubrication systems, and springs, which are complex precision structures made of metal, rubber, or plastic, the earthen mill using wood, clay, and Stone glued together with a touch of ironware, seems akin to a primitive community's artifact.
Most of what Chen Zhou learned in the classroom could not be applied to the design of the earthen mill, water pestle, and millstone.
Often, he couldn't calculate the compressive strength, wear resistance, or corrosion resistance of wooden structures and could only estimate based on his experience.
So many constraints rendered his design process quite painful.
Sometimes, when his train of thought hit a dead end, he would long for various machining tools like lathes, milling machines, drills, planers, grinders, and boring machines, along with pre-processed metal blocks.
With these tools and ample power reserves, in 28 years, he could elevate this island to become the most technologically advanced place on earth in the 17th century.
He might even produce several firearm production lines, leading South American natives to proclaim an anti-invasion and anti-colonial effort centuries ahead of schedule.
Unfortunately, this world doesn't entertain "what ifs." All he has now is a one-of-a-kind "Super Space-Time Cutter," still only capable of cutting straight lines, a wasteful cutter that can only be used every 15 days.
...
A gentle breeze blew, and during the dry season, the island perpetually radiated the kind of sweltering heat found only in northern summer seasons.
Chen Zhou habitually placed his fingers on his head, occasionally pinching a clump of hair to rub, using bursts of pain to help him concentrate.
The notebook already had several different structure designs sketched on one page, while another page documented his sudden inspirations and previously overlooked details in dense handwriting.
This kind of work that heavily consumes mental energy could inadvertently make one irritable.
Thus, every two hours of work, Chen Zhou would stand up, temporarily set aside the notebook, walk a round at the door, pat Lai Fu's furry head, or knead Xiao Huihui's chubby belly.
Sometimes, when Lai Fu was too lazy to pay attention to him, or Xiao Huihui hid from his restless big hands out of dislike, he would squat by the nursery garden surrounded by walls to study the herbs planted from the unknown seeds in the ship's medical kit.
Over nearly fifty days, those various-looking seeds had all sprouted and grown tall, becoming uniquely distinct.
It turns out, he indeed recognized a few of them.
Plants like nettle, fennel, and mint, which he had seen in educational videos, were among them.
There was also a plant resembling the common northern mock aster, reportedly a medicinal herb known for relieving stomach pain and bloating.
However, Chen Zhou knew his botanical knowledge was extremely limited and dared not confirm that the plants appearing similar were indeed the ones he knew, much less taste them.
But for nettle, fennel, and mint, he was almost certain he identified them correctly.
That's because each plant had significant characteristics—mint's and fennel's distinctive scents and the red welts and itching pain caused by nettle stings are traits that are hardly mimicked by other plants.
Of the three plants, fennel was the most valuable to Chen Zhou.
Fennel leaves make an excellent filling for dumplings when paired with meat or eggs, and it can also help eliminate the gamy odor when cooking meat, being a great partner for lamb.
Mint, although more commonly used in Western cuisine, was almost invisible in Chinese cuisine, let alone in the dishes from Chen Zhou's hometown.