Chapter 116 This rumor cannot spread
“Investigate! Investigate strictly! The source must be found!”
At the monthly meeting of Wessonland, Frederick stood directly on the chair Roaring like an angry lion.
Recently, a rumor appeared in the territory, involving Baron Wesson. The content was both outrageous and somewhat unreliable, so it spread very quickly and widely. Even Maria knew about it.
After the rumors appeared, Baron Wesson attached great importance to them and immediately issued instructions, requiring him to organize capable forces to quickly find out the source and seriously investigate those responsible; he immediately organized and carried out work to refute the rumors, and further provided publicity and explanation to prevent the rumors from spreading further. diffusion. Currently, Wesson is having a hard time holding back laughter while leading the senior management.
This matter should be handled by the newly formed police department. Dominic tried his best to keep a straight face and prevent the smile from appearing on his face.
"Sir...hahahaha!!!"
He still couldn't hold it in, it was okay not to speak, and he immediately started laughing as soon as he spoke.
As soon as someone started, the whole conference room burst into laughter.
Giovanni entered this circle as a bank president not long ago. At first, he felt that even if he thought it was funny, he shouldn't laugh in front of his boss. But everyone laughed, and he didn't laugh either. Couldn't help it anymore.
Frederick's new administrative secretary, Giovanni's niece Vanessa, was sitting at the small table behind Frederick taking minutes of the meeting. She also covered her mouth with her notebook and laughed, attracting the second-generation knight on the other side of the conference table. They looked sideways.
Frederick jumped off the chair, sat down on it, and stared at these guys angrily.
Omet coughed twice, letting his smile disappear, and said to Frederick seriously: "Principal, why don't you let the reporter interview you and let everyone know that those women are here to help study textile machines? If you do, there won’t be any rumors that you like mature married women.”
As soon as he finished speaking, there was laughter again in the conference room.
Frederick sighed deeply and was too lazy to pay attention to this group of unscrupulous people.
Today's weaving is done independently by women at home. According to the previously planned plan, after the schematic drawing of the textile machine was completed last month, a group of skilled weavers were recruited to the blacksmith shop to assist in the development of the machine.
The skills of spinning and weaving are passed down from generation to generation between mothers and daughters. To be skilled in these crafts requires rich experience, this makes the minimum age of these weavers 30 years old.
Textile is an important source of income for a family. Girls who can spin yarn and weave good cloth will not have to worry about getting married, so these weavers are all mothers of their children, and grandmothers and grandmothers are not afraid of getting married. few.
But people don’t know that much. Everyone only knows that Baron Wesson recruited many wives from the entire territory, starting at age 30 and capping at 55.
As for what these women were recruited for, don’t expect those people to come to any good conclusions.
When Frederick learned of this rumor, he was so angry that he almost smashed his astronomical telescope.
This kind of rumor cannot be spread and must be refuted in newspapers as soon as possible.
"How is the research on the machine going now? How much is the estimated processing cost?" He turned to Ogilvy and asked Ogilvy. Textile machinery is the current key project of the Industrial Bureau.
Omet coughed twice and said first: "What I am going to say next is confidential, please do not spread it outside."
The people in the conference room instantly became serious.
Ogilvy continued: "Cotton gins, cotton openers and carding machines are relatively simple. They mainly use rotating rollers. The effect can be achieved with wood. It is very simple to make a prototype, but there is still a need to improve efficiency and quality. More experiments. ”
“The spinning machine made a prototype according to the schematic diagram, but the yarn was not up to standard and often broke down, and each component needed further research and optimization.”
"We have not improved the loom according to the principal's wishes. Let's do it bit by bit, starting with the shuttle that can maximize efficiency."
"Let me talk about the cost of cotton cloth first. The price of seedless cotton with the seeds removed is about 6 to 10 times that of wheat in southern coastal areas such as Constantinople. The price when shipped to us is about 8 to 12 times. The farther north you go, the colder the winter, the higher the price. The price in the dark land of the north is even 10 times that here.”
“The weather is cold now, but the price of seedless cotton here has been reduced because everyone knew that there was a large amount of stockpiling. It is currently 1. Kreuz can buy about 5 kilograms ”
"But all we have in our warehouse now are cotton bolls with seeds, which we have never sold here. The price on the southern coast is about twice that of wheat of the same weight."
"Cotton bolls need to be removed to remove the cotton seeds. It is used to fill clothes, spin thread and weave cloth. In the past, this step could only be done by people bit by bit. One person could peel out half a kilogram of seedless cotton from 1 and a half kilograms of cotton bolls in a day. "
"Cotton seed removal is the simplest. It has no technical content and the wages are the lowest. It is more than half less than the labor digging the canal. It is barely enough to make a living. It costs about 4 copper plates a day, which is equivalent to processing 3 kilograms of cotton bolls into 1 kilogram of cotton bolls. The cost of seed cotton is 8 copper plates. "
"According to our cost here, if I buy 1,500 kilograms of cotton bolls for 60 kreuz, I need to spend 40 kreuz to process them into 500 kilograms. The seedless cotton is loaned to each household for spinning and weaving, and then the finished product is paid for. The cost of spinning is 40 Kreuz, and the cost of weaving is 80 Kreuz. The final cost of cotton. It’s 220 Kreuz, the raw material cost is 60 Kreuz, and the processing cost is 160 Kreuz.”
Everyone nodded. Everyone here was rich and could afford to wear cotton clothes, so they were attracted by this price. Still understand something. Everyone knows that the machines developed by Ogilvy and Mather under the guidance of the master are best at reducing the cost of manual labor. The cost of processing is the largest part of the cost of textiles. If Ogilvy and Mather's machines can reduce the processing cost by 50%, then Wei Wei The price of cotton in Senling will be more than 60% of that in other places, which is enough to make a big profit.
Everyone is waiting to see if it can meet their expectations.
Ogilvy opened the thermos cup slowly, took two big gulps of milk tea, and then slowly closed the lid.
Seeing that the murderous aura in the conference room was about to reach its peak, he said: "Our cotton gin is 300 times more efficient at removing cotton seeds than manual cotton seed stripping."
"How much? ?” Giovanni was particularly sensitive to numbers and immediately asked, “How many times?”
"It is currently 300 times, and it is expected to reach 1,000 times or even higher after optimization." Ogilvy said with certainty, "In other words, in the example just mentioned, the 40 Kreuz can be almost saved, only With a little machine depreciation, boiler fuel expenses and a small amount of workers' wages."
Giovanni shouted loudly: "This is impossible..."
Omet interrupted him with a smile. : "This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened to the principal. You just get used to it."
Many people in the conference room nodded in agreement. They felt that this was better than eating fresh vegetables on a snowy day. Not magical enough.
Omet continued: "The current human-powered spinning machine can only spin one spindle at a time. The cotton opening machine, carding machine and new spinning machine are combined. The current design is to drive 200 spindles at a time. It can drive 2,000 in the future.”
Giovanni rubbed his temples and asked: "What about the loom?"
Omet shook his head slightly and said: "Alas... we have failed the principal's expectations. The efficiency of the half-baked loom is only It’s 40 to 50 times that of manual looms. There’s still a long way to go.”
His tone was so helpless, but his expression was very proud.
Giovanni finally unscrewed the newly purchased thermos cup with trembling hands and drank some tea to calm down his shock.
Omet continued: "Actually, most of these machines can be used on wool, but the focus now is on cotton."
Giovanni put down the cup and asked doubtfully: "Why is this so? Isn't wool bad?"
Frederick answered this question: "There are too many people in the surrounding areas who make a living by spinning at home. , most of them use wool.”
“If we suppress the price of wool products all of a sudden, those people will have no way of living and will vent their anger on us.”
“So we develop the cotton textile industry first, and at the same time, I will give those people another way to survive.”
He remembered that the family of someone who invented the spinning machine was smashed, and he didn’t want to suffer the same thing. treatment.
The torrent of history will ruthlessly wash away some people. The least he can do is prepare people and prepare a lifebuoy.
The only life preserver that Frederick could think of was cross stitch.
The embroidery of this era was so expensive that only nobles and wealthy businessmen could afford it. It was synonymous with nobility.
After the cotton textile industry spreads, the cost of raw materials for cross-stitch will be greatly reduced, and the entry threshold will be low, and it will not overlap with the existing mid-to-high-end embroidery market. There will be a good market among the civilian class, which is enough. Provided for the family.
Frederick instructed Ogilvy: "Find a newspaper and ask them to report that we are researching new textile machines. The improved efficiency will be reduced to single digits. Don't scare other people. ”
"At the same time, report more about the textile workers who came to help, so that everyone knows the role they play, and don't always think about it."
What he said at the end was the key point, and everyone laughed again after hearing it.
After everyone finished laughing, Frederick waved his hand and dismissed the meeting.
At the same time, he said to old Franz: "Let's go to the military camp together tomorrow afternoon."
Old Franz asked: "Do you want to inform there?"
Frederick nodded.
(End of this chapter)