Rise of Rurik - Chapter 686

[Chapter 687 The Success of Papyros]

The work of continuously boiling the bark made the workers feel very boring. They were all discussing what the prince wanted to do, but they actually got stuck with the useless bark.

The workers had already poured out a lot of hot, turbid water, and now the four pottery urns boiled with clean water.

Medved also used a long wooden pole to provoke the big man to turn up the bark to find out.

They have been boiled and flabby, like birch leaves that have been soaked in water for a long time.

Do not!

The bark has indeed been soaked for so long that it becomes so brittle that it can be easily powdered by hand.

Wait a minute, is this what the prince hopes for?

A lot of preparatory work related to papermaking has been completed in the past few days. Medved is neither deaf nor blind. He saw that group of carpenters suddenly found winter work, and actually blocked the task that Mr. Wang was waiting for.

What he cares about is not how much these people get paid, but what they are doing.

Women weavers and carpenters jointly produced a batch of screens. From Medvedt’s knowledge, the first thing he thought of was what he saw at the New Roseburg Mill.

Arik’s second daughter-in-law spent money to build a mill, and the wheat grains were crushed into powder, and then these sieves were further sieved to make fine delicacies that only the big men were entitled to eat.

This tool, not at all rare in Novgorod, was used for sifting fine clay powder from which the finest pottery was fired.

“Either he wants to dry flour, or he wants to make pottery. His wives and concubines are all trained to be skilled craftsmen, and the women from White Tree Manor have very dexterous hands…”

After thinking about it, he never thought that it had something to do with papermaking, or the so-called “cork board” making.

The agreed three-day period has arrived, and this is the morning of the fourth day. Rurik, who is wearing large wooden-framed sunglasses, is dressed like a little polar bear. He brings a group of similarly dressed wives and concubines to inspect the goods.

Prince Rurik, he actually has a pair of black and huge eyes, and half of his face is actually eyes?

!

The workers were taken aback. They all cast curious eyes and watched the group of people take off their eye protection tools to reveal their true colors.

Sunglasses are just for the snowy winter life. This kind of equipment has turned into a project for the Duchy of Ross to raise money from the outside world, just don’t expect it to make a lot of money.

However, men with a little money will buy it so that they will not be blinded by the glare of the sun reflected from the snow during hunting, fishing, logging and other operations in winter.

“Everything is done?” Rurik asked enthusiastically.

Medved made the curious subordinates retreat, then punched his chest and saluted: “I assure you with honor that I have completed the task you assigned very well.”

“I’ll see the results before judging what you’ve done. Stop the boil, and pour out all the water, whatever the bark looks like, pour it all out.”

“As ordered.”

Now the four pottery urns are too hot, the sackcloth wipes off the carbon black wrapped on the outside, and sticks the dough cake on it, and the pancakes will be cooked in a short while.

The flames were extinguished, and the boiling water was scooped out. When the pottery urns had cooled enough, they were pushed down on the “cushion pad” of snowdrifts made by the assault.

The next work is exactly like digging out furnace ashes, except that what is pulled out is all yellow and white, which seems to be mixed with some brown substances.

Medved explained cautiously: “My lord, you should be able to guess that if one is boiled, the meat will be boiled into pulp, and the bones will be boiled into pieces. These barks were originally fragile, but now they seem to be dross. Unless all you need is scum.”

After not seeing these so-called barks again for a few days, Rurik couldn’t hide his joy. He saw these steaming things with his own eyes, piled up together without the bark at all.

Most of them still maintain the basic shape of the sheet, but the boundary of the shape is very fuzzy.

Rurik simply pulled out his dagger and just stabbed it, a special feeling spread from his fingers to his mind.

“Ah! It’s like the toilet is clogged with a lot of toilet paper mixed with bamboo and wood. It’s a big pile of this color thing!”

Speaking of which, pure white toilet paper is not much in Rurik’s memory, and tan toilet paper seems to contain the power of nature, quietly becoming the mainstream.

From a utilitarian point of view, the pulp of various plants is often yellow-brown. It can be processed and used, but it needs to be decolorized into white. As far as disposable toilet paper is concerned, this step of biochemical decolorization can be omitted.

Normal writing paper is naturally pure white, and I am afraid that we lack the ability to produce pure white paper. Traditional decolorization and degreasing methods such as boiling water can only do our best.

Rurik could tell that the bark only seemed to maintain its shape, and the fibers inside were almost in a state of being broken.

Perhaps it will be more ideal if it is boiled for a few more days. Looking at the overturned pottery urn, it is no longer equal.

Seems broken?

Then turn it into powder.

“Very well, you are all doing well.”

Rurik received the sword and praised Medved’s work, and said: “I will pay you today as agreed.” Hundreds of onlookers heard it.

“I still want to continue to hire you. I need strong and strong Slavic warriors. I think you can do it. Come on, accept my new arrangement.”

When the bark began to be moved, Rurik further learned that they had become paper in a sense.

The public stone mortar for pounding oats in White Tree Manor was requisitioned by Rurik, and the wet and soft bark that had been boiled for three days and three nights was thrown into it, and the cone-shaped stone hammer began to pound the oats, as if smashing the wheat grains into pieces. Powder, these barks will also become powder.

Baishu Manor has never been in contact with rotating stone mills and rolling stone rollers in previous life. Since the stone materials have to be transported from afar, and secondly, the mechanical structure of the equipment for processing grain is already very complicated. Those who have not obtained advanced knowledge They are difficult to do independently.

The slightly shaped bark was finally smashed into powder, and in the process they were further dehydrated, and finally became something that Rurik held in his hand that could stick to each other.

They are not sticky at all and absorb water efficiently by themselves.

If there is anything to describe them, it is probably the toilet paper that has been absorbed and then dehydrated and shredded.

These rough and cohesive things are put into the water and become the pulp itself.

The next thing is that the strong Slavs can get their revenge and exit happily, and then it is time for the Duke and his wives and concubines.

The water from the melted snow was filtered a bit, and then poured into five large wooden troughs originally dyed with twine.

Of course, White Tree Manor has this kind of large-scale water-storage wooden equipment to meet its own needs, so Rurik doesn’t even have to think about making tanks to hold the pulp himself, and can provide a batch of wooden tanks with excellent use effects locally.

In a large wooden house stood Rurik’s wives and concubines, and the idlers avoided them. In front of the curious wives and concubines, Rurik pointed to the wooden trough that had turned into five pools of turbid water: ” The bark is turned into small things, and they will be attached to the screen we made. When a layer of paste is applied, we will take out the screen, push and squeeze the water with wooden boards, and then put the screen in the corner. We I have been fighting for many days and paid a sum of money for this, and the success depends on you!”

The girls hold their breath, as if they really are the ones who will make or break it.

Rurik finally clapped his hands: “Let’s get started!”

Papermaking has entered the later stage, and it is also the most critical step. Fortunately, everything is under Rurik’s control.

Of course, there is a certain element of luck in this. If he only got pure fiber, the paper produced can be a good toilet paper, but it is not suitable for writing.

Birch bark also contains a lot of lignin, but it is boiled for three days and three nights and then pounded into powder. The long structure of lignin has not been completely destroyed.

The suspended fibers begin to attach to the screen, and the wooden board immediately presses off the surface moisture, and the entire screen begins to dry in the shade.

After all, this room was decorated, with as many as fifteen oil lamps placed on the walls.

A mixture of seal and whale blubber that burns slowly.

Although the flames were weak, the temperature in the whole house was maintained at around 3°C.

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Rurik and his wives and concubines work in cold water, which is inappropriate but also helpless.

After some work, the pulp is still not used up, but all the sieves have begun to dry in the shade, and the whole house is also filled with erected sieves. At first glance, it looks like the heat sink of the machine is stuck.

They began to rest, drinking some hot honey and chrysanthemum water to warm their bodies and wait for a perfect result.

They didn’t have to wait long.

When the sheets start to dry, they are already paper, the moisture dissipates freely, and the paper remains attached to the screen.

They did this in one morning, and came to inspect the goods just after sunset.

The group of long-burning oil lamps keeps the whole room from being cold, the gauze nets are still standing neatly, and the remaining pulp in the five wooden troughs is still in a state of suspension.

Rurik simply peeled off the paper by himself, thanks to the lignin inside, the rougher paper gave Rurik a hand feeling similar to kraft paper, not to mention, its color also resembled a local cow (a kind of brown-haired European cow) ) the coat color of the calf.

The paper is easy to peel off, and it’s relatively stiff, but it didn’t break after bending.

It is said that a piece of paper cannot be folded more than eight times. He did not need to challenge the limit this time. He folded it four times and verified that there is no sign of breaking it. Isn’t this a great success?

Unknown wives and concubines watched their men fiddle with the so-called cork boards, and they whispered to each other.

When they saw Rurik’s arrogant smile, they were sure that they had achieved great success.

Svetlana asked sweetly: “Have we succeeded now?”

“It’s a success! It’s a complete success. Come on, all of you!” Rurik roared in excitement, raising his right fist as if calling for thousands of troops to charge.

“Take all the… corkboard. Oh no, maybe it has to be given a simpler name now, it’s decided, let’s call it paper.”

In Europe or the world of old Rome and old Greece, the word describing paper is probably pronounced “paper”.

It is papyrus, very similar in structure to oriental paper.

This word is originally the word “papyros” in the Phoenician language. The Phoenician city of Byblos monopolized the Mediterranean papyrus trade. Papyrus also made the city’s name. The world of the Aegean Sea and the Levant are very prosperous in terms of amassing wealth.

The word “paper” has a very deep doorway, at least its syllables are short enough to be catchy, unlike the previous “cork board”, which is actually a patchwork of three words.

Rurik succeeded in making birch bark paper, and his intuition told him that this thing could be used for writing immediately.

All the papers were peeled off, and the size of the fifty sheets was exactly the same due to the standard screen, except for the inevitable roughness at the edges.

The paper can be cut twice, divided into two by a knife, and becomes a good paper that can be written on both sides.

All the papers were collected in Rurik’s hands, and the heavy weight was incomparably gratifying, as if he was holding a weight of gold.

Now that there is still pulp to procreate, let’s go after the victory before things can get any better!

The era has entered here, and at the end of 834 AD, a new papermaking technique from the far east, which is different from papyrus technology, was born in the forests of Northeast Europe!

Since Eastern Rome lost control of Egypt, the supply of papyrus collapsed, causing some empires to pick up expensive parchment as writing materials.

Rurik knows the importance of paper to a civilization. It is the carrier of information, and it can transmit anyone’s thoughts to distant places, and even to people thousands of years later.

Of course, Rurik’s need for paper is an extremely urgent need. For the first time after the birth of the Principality of Ross, it is necessary to calculate the massive data, survey and map the total amount of farmland around Lake Ilmen, and the initial population of Novgorod and surrounding farms. The census is indeed a huge national project.

He asked his wives and concubines to use all the remaining paper pulp overnight, and he himself used a quill, dipped the nib in the traditional ink brought from his hometown in Roseburg, and scribbled on the paper.

He’s not scribbling, paper is precious, after all.

He drew some solid geometric patterns, what is called a tetrahedron, what is called a cube, and more complex drawings.

It turns out that, just for writing, these rough papers really have a texture of kraft paper, even rougher.

Fortunately, the so-called pen is actually the flying feather of a wild duck or chicken. It was widely used to make arrow feathers, and now it is suitable for writing.

There is no need to worry about wearing out the nib at all. This kind of quill is essentially a consumable. In order to make statistics on a large amount of data, Rurik has already prepared a batch of feathers for backup. There is no need to worry about running out. The chicken under it can also be stewed in soup.

The ink made by traditional crafts contains a certain amount of oil, and it is true that writing on this kind of paper will not cause a large cloud.

Excitement dominated Rurik’s body, and when the girls dragged their tired bodies to tell him that the matter was over, he told everyone to go to sleep, and only he continued to be alone in the room facing a long-burning oil lamp .

Because, Rurik was already drawing a map, that is, re-engraving the map of Europe that had been smeared on the patchwork boards on paper.

Putting together four pieces of paper into one, Rurik is drawing the outline of Europe with his own memory. It can be said that he understands the structure of this vast world better than any scholar in this time and space.

A silhouette is not enough, he needs to add more details.

The general directions of mountains and rivers are marked, and the cities and small settlements in the Principality of Ross must be marked accurately!

This also includes other foreign cities that are not known to the public.

This map of Europe can be continuously refined and revised. The map is drawn on paper without any frame, but the information on the map itself is better than gold.

It is said that when a monarch dreams of laying down a large territory and building a prosperous new world, this map is the best guide.

It is Rose’s treasure, and it can only be Ross’s treasure!

Moreover, it is very small and easy to store. As long as it is kept dry, it can be stored for a thousand years.

[End of this Chapter]