Chapter Twenty-Four: Stone Mill Flour Machine

  Simar didn't expect that a simple architectural drawing would attract a top student who was studying in the US with a government scholarship, and he wasn't very familiar with other things.

  However, later generations in China have taken an absolutely affirmative attitude towards the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship students who went to study in the United States. Most of these students later became famous scholars and experts at home and abroad, with several even winning Nobel Prizes.

  To be honest, before this, Sima had never expected that the person in front of him was also a Chinese student who had studied abroad in the United States.

  "Hehe! Thanks a lot, young master, it's also rare to eat this kind of red date in the northern part of the country."

  Liu Jiyuan, who had been studying in the US for several years, took over Sima's originally sent to Gao Chuanliang's fruit blue and smiled, saying that at this time of year, apart from apples, Liu Jiyuan really hadn't eaten any other fruits.

  The young master in front of him seemed to have spent a lot of effort on this, although he knew that these fruits were not prepared for himself, but Liu Jiyuan, who loved eating fruits, did not refuse.

  "Young master, Mr. Liu likes to eat some fruit before and after meals, next time young master comes, bring some more without being asked."

  Gao Chuanliang saw that Sima had given the fruit to Mr. Liu, and he felt satisfied with Young Master's arrangement in his heart. Although these fruits were certainly prepared for himself, out of respect for scholars, Gao Chuanliang thought it was more suitable to give them to someone like Mr. Liu than to himself.

  After Gao Chuanliang and Liu Jiyuan's introduction, Sima became increasingly satisfied with Liu Jiyuan's work. Unexpectedly, he hadn't appeared for half a month, yet Old Gao had managed to dig up such a treasure for him.

  Opening the mountain and firing cannons, construction engineering, material budgeting, and construction management are all familiar to him. The more they talked, the more Sima felt that he should keep this person on board. It would be a waste for someone like him to return to the Northern Government's Transportation Department as an official. Someone like him should do practical things like what we're doing now.

  "Ding, ding, ding"

  The entire quarry was filled with the sound of iron hammers striking iron rods, because Director Sima had not purchased wind drills for the quarry, so at present all the work in the quarry relied on manual drilling and blasting.

  Fortunately, due to the large amount of work involved, the daily stone material needed can also be met if calculated according to the current construction volume.

  "Dong, Ding"

  Mu Bai moved his iron fingers slightly as Wu Man's iron hammer rose, and also exercised his numb hands that had been shocked by the vibration. His hands were wrapped in several layers of tattered cloth to reduce the numbness caused by the impact of the large iron hammer.

  Although every day's work is exhausting, fortunately the food here is not bad, there are enough steamed buns, pickled vegetables with a large bowl of porridge, and at noon you can still eat stir-fried cabbage with a piece of fat meat.

  More than ten days have passed and Mu Bai has also gotten used to his current life. Although he's a bit tired, it's still much better than his past days.

  "It's fired!"

  Wu Mantun had just opened a gunpowder hole when he heard someone shouting loudly below. As soon as he heard that they were going to set off the explosives, he hastily stopped what he was doing and ran down the mountain with Tie Hua and Mu Bai, carrying his iron hammer.

  When firing according to regulations, no one is allowed to stay on the mountain except for loading and igniting. The other day, someone was injured because they came down the mountain late. Fortunately, it didn't hurt any bones.

  Hiding behind a low stone wall 100 meters away at the foot of the mountain, Wu Mantun and Mu Bai stared with wide eyes at the people on the mountain who were loading explosives and lighting fuses. Although dozens of cannons are fired every day, and they have been watching for over ten days, they still can't get enough of the scene of blasting the mountain.

  A series of explosions blew half the mountain away, and at first, everyone who had never seen such a scene was stunned. Later, it became a topic of conversation among them, and if they survived, they could return home with bragging rights.

  "Hmm..."

  The sudden explosion startled Sima, who was sitting in the cool shed. The huge explosion was far beyond what Sima had experienced during his own experiment last time, and he even felt that the whole earth shook with it after the explosion.

  "No big deal, this is the thirteenth blast today. At least twenty blasts are needed every day to complete a day's stone work." Liu Jiyuan said while eating a red date that had been washed by someone else.

  "Master, at first I just heard this firework sound and almost got scared to death."

  Just saw Gao Chuanliang's face looking a bit tense, reminiscent of the first time he heard the sound of gunfire and was scared out of his wits. This gunfire is even more frightening than the foreigners' artillery fire back then. But after more than ten days of getting used to it, I'm also getting accustomed to it now.

  "Haha, I didn't expect this opening shot to have such a big impact."

  Simar obviously didn't think that opening fire on the mountain would cause such a big commotion, and his own performance just now seemed to be really off.

  "Master Sima, are you also in the flour mill business?" Liu Jiyuan saw the workers unloading several machines from a simple cart. At first glance, they were a type of simple stone flour mill. Although he had not studied mechanics, Liu Jiyuan could still tell that this stone flour mill would be very popular. Upon closer inspection, its simple structure was evident, although it was much simpler than the stone flour mills currently on the market.

  Now, due to the European war, flour exports have surged, and everywhere is expanding flour mills, but unfortunately, there are not enough machines, and more than half of them are only on paper. Now that flour machines are in such high demand, it's obvious that this young master Sima doing the flour machine business is nothing out of the ordinary.

  "Recently got a few electric flour mills, trying to sell them. If it works out, I'll ask some skilled workers from Tianjin and Shanghai to make this stone mill."

  Since seeing a large number of advertisements for flour mills in the newspaper, Sima searched online for information about flour mills and unexpectedly found that those primitive stone mills from the 21st century were still being sold on the market.

  This is just a simple stone mill with only two pieces of stone, driven by a low-power electric motor, the structure can't be simpler, it should be the most suitable product for disguising warehouses produced by factories nowadays.

  "Master, sometimes when we quarry stones, big rocks are blasted open. Making this stone mill is the most suitable thing to do."

  Gao Chuanliang took a look and thought of the large stone blocks that were sometimes obtained when opening mountains. Those stones, if they wanted to be used, could only be blasted open with another gun eye, which was quite troublesome. If they were used to make this kind of stone mill, the size would be just right.

  "I wonder how many generations of noodles this stone mill can grind in a day?"

  Although he had seen stone mills before, the stone mill flour machine that Liu Jiyuan had seen before was at least several times larger than this one. This small stone mill is obviously simple in structure, but its output must be much smaller than that of the large mill. At that time, it's likely that large factories will not want to buy it.

  "It's not a lot, if the machine runs day and night, producing over 100 packs of noodles per day is no problem."

  When Sima bought these stone mills, he specifically asked people that this kind of stone mill can produce 100 kilograms of powder per hour. With a bag of flour weighing 25 kilograms, it's about 110 bags a day.

  "Really?"

  Liu Jiyuan didn't quite believe this number, although he wasn't too familiar with flour mills, but still heard that stone grinding flour mills could produce at most a few dozen bags of flour per day.

  "Of course it's true, Old Gao. On the way back, leave one of these machines behind and take the remaining four to Zhangjiakou by train, find someone to sell them off."

  A stone mill costs less than 2,000 GMB, how can a machine like this be sold for several hundred dollars and still sell?

  As for those wanted ads in the newspaper, Sima estimated that once these four flour mills appeared in Zhangjiakou, they would probably be snatched up by people.

  "If you two believe me, I have a classmate whose family is in the flour business. If possible, I can write a letter to them."

  Liu Jiyuan has a classmate whose family happens to be in the flour business, and they are currently struggling with no machinery to build a new factory, introducing him would not be bad.

  "Brother Ji Yuan, that's a good price. Brother Ji Yuan's friend needs it, and the price is negotiable. Thank you in advance, Brother Ji Yuan."

  As soon as Sima heard that he was willing to help introduce a buyer, he quickly agreed, and since he still had use for him, it didn't matter whether he bought or gave it to him.

  "That young master, in our stone material factory, there are a few who used to be stonemasons. Why don't I get someone to call them over and have them try to see if they can make this stone mill?"

  Gao Chuanliang interrupted the conversation between the two, saying: "Since Young Master has decided to do this business, we should start preparing now." After getting permission, Gao Chuanliang called over a person who was waiting outside the door and told him to go to the stone factory to call over a few stonemasons.

  "Old man! Are you looking for us?"

  About half an hour later, several middle-aged and elderly people who looked a bit nervous stood outside the shed, bowing their waists and saying...

  I just heard that the boss asked us to come over, and on the way here, several people were nervous because this place only wants young and strong people, and it's rare to see people of our age around here.

  "Have you all been stonemasons before?"

  Although Sima was surprised why he had originally named the young and strong, the several people in front of him now looked like they were full of wrinkles, not at all like young men. If they could do stonework, it would be fine to use them.

  "As for what you said, Master, we are all from mountain villages and have been struggling to make a living since childhood. We don't know what instructions you have."

  A few people saw that it was not as they had imagined on the road, and they all let out a sigh of relief. One of them, who looked like the leader, gave a respectful reply.

  "Well then, see if you can make this kind of stone mill?" Sima said, pointing to the stone mill on the flour machine.

  A few people surrounded the stone mill, carefully looked at the stone grinder on it, and touched it to see. After a while, the leader came over, bowed his waist and said.

  "Master, this stone mill is no different from the large stone mill I made in the past. If you agree, we can disassemble it and take a look at its measurements. It should be fine to make one."

  "All right, if you can make this stone mill well, each of your wages will be increased by two dollars per month. Later on, in addition to the salary for making this stone mill, there will also be piecework pay."

  It's not a big deal to disassemble this stone mill, just loosen a few screws. Since we've already decided to do the stone mill flour machine business, it's good to do some preparatory work now.

  This stone mill flour machine is the simplest, the hardest part is that motor, fortunately now Tianjin and Shanghai have such motor workshops and factories, it's not difficult to dig some workers from those factories.

  Secondly, it is currently impossible to produce motors, and this small batch of imported motors will probably be enough for a year.

  "Lao Gao, take a look back and see if you can recruit some younger ones. After recruiting masters from Guannei later, let them follow the masters as apprentices to learn craftsmanship."