Chapter Nineteenth: Matchstick (Seeking Bookmarks)

  Back home for more than an hour, Zhang Lei was still thinking about this incredible thing. Having lived here for so long, he didn't know that there was such a powerful figure not far from himself.

  "If I had met him earlier, forget about tobacco, I would have made machine guns directly."

  Hiding in his own room, Zhang Lei was so excited that his hands were trembling. He took out the two precious prescriptions and carefully made two copies, hiding them separately before sitting down at his desk to study them seriously.

  He had memorized the proportions on the formula, and Zhang Lei immediately began his experiment. Hearing news of the rebel army's advance a few days ago, he finally felt that time was really too pressing, with no time to fuss over small things. It was precisely because of this that he was anxious to manufacture matches, as safety matches were originally a military necessity, and the combustible substance on match heads was soon used in the production of shells.

  However, in today's society, privately developing something that can be directly used for military equipment, once discovered by the authorities, will result in imprisonment for life at best and execution at worst. Therefore, except for those who practice alchemy under Huangdi's nose in the imperial palace, others dare not openly refine elixirs, just like the Taoist priest encountered this morning, finding a secluded place where no one knows to explore on their own.

  But now for the current Zhang Lei, the most dangerous time has passed. Potassium chlorate is a stable oxidizer that cannot change at room temperature, and as long as it is stored properly, there is no need to worry about it. The remaining tasks are very simple, just soak the wood in wax oil, dry it, and then apply a mixture of potassium chlorate and sulfur on one end of the match head. This makes a simple match. Then, by rubbing the red phosphorus vigorously, enough heat can be generated to ignite the match and start a fire. This is much more convenient than the popular flint and steel method - of course, mainly because using matches to light cigarettes is much more convenient than using a flint and steel.

  To make matches as soon as possible, Zhang Lei didn't waste any time and immediately bought wax oil. Then, in his father's workshop, he found a piece of pine wood. Pine wood is relatively soft and easy to split along the grain into strips. This task was well within Zhang Lei's capabilities, but the problem was that the strips he cut were too thick, about the size of an infant's arm. If they were any thinner, they would easily break. A strip this big wouldn't even be suitable for making torches, let alone matches.

  "Hey, hey, brother, what are you doing? Why are you chopping firewood at home?" Unbeknownst to him, it was already afternoon, and Zhang Chen and Zhang Baosheng had both returned home. He was carrying a basket in his hand, which contained the dinner they had bought back from town. It had been like this ever since Zhang's Technology opened up.

  Zhang Lei wiped away the fine sweat beads on his forehead and said, "Conduct an experiment."

  "Doing experiments? Splitting firewood?" Zhang Chen was intelligent but still didn't understand what the two had to do with each other.

  Zhang Baosheng looked at the wood that Zhang Lei had chopped down and said, "It's been several months since I've practiced this skill, I've regressed."

  Time was not early, Zhang Chen went to the stove to make a fire and cook. He took out a turntable from the house, which had a bracket supporting it at an angle on the ground. The turntable had a handle attached to it, just like a bicycle pedal. By grasping the handle and turning it lightly, the large turntable could be turned together with it. On this turntable, there was also a hollowed-out part with a patch stuck on it, which was full of holes.

  Zhang Lei, who had lived in a big city since he was young, had never seen this thing before. He was just about to ask when he suddenly remembered his identity and quickly shut up.

  Zhang Chen held the radish in his left hand and put it into the inclined pocket on the wheel, while quickly rotating the wheel with his right hand. The radish was cut by the stickers into small round holes, forming radish silk that fell into a prepared vegetable washing basin. In just a short moment, two large radishes had become coarse and fine, evenly lengthened radish silk.

  "Ah...... I've got it." Zhang Lei suddenly exclaimed, startling Zhang Chen.

  Before Zhang Chen could ask any questions, Zhang Lei had already gotten to work. He found a piece of iron and drilled many small holes in it, similar to the tool he used to cut the radish earlier. As soon as something was dragged across it, the protruding parts would become sharp blades that would cut down anything that fit through the holes just so.

  Zhang Lei thought that if the iron sheet was made very strong and sharp, and with enough strength, it would be possible to cut the pine wood into long strips the size of matchsticks, and then cut them open later, which would be much easier than using a knife to chop now.

  All day long, Zhang Lei was thinking about this matter, except for eating, he didn't enter the house until his vision was completely blocked at night.

  In his hands, a one-foot square iron plate with dozens of small holes drilled in it had an edge that was even sharper than a regular knife. By applying force to press the wood through these small holes, he could produce the required small wooden sticks.

  The idea is good, and the principle can be said to pass, but Zhang Lei tried it out and found that it doesn't work at all. Firstly, the hardness of the wood itself, although the pine wood is soft in texture, but cutting a large piece of wood is still very difficult. This is not all, to get an inch of length, the iron sheet must be suspended in mid-air, leaving a gap underneath, but once it's suspended, the iron sheet will immediately bend and there is no fulcrum, making it impossible to press down with force.

  So Zhang Lei fell into a dead end again, in order to be able to exert force conveniently and press down, the bottom must be suspended, but once the iron plate is suspended, there is no fulcrum, and it cannot be pressed down.

  Just when he was at a loss, Zhang Chen gave him an idea and said: "Brother, why don't you stick many such iron sheets together? You can stack them as high as you want to cut the wood, and it will be much more convenient when placed on the ground?"

  "Ah, how come I didn't think of that?" After he reminded him, Zhang Lei slapped his forehead, suddenly enlightened, and a tool used to process beehive coal in the countryside when he was a child appeared in his mind.

  A steel plate is surrounded to form a can with only one closed bottom, and then several steel pillars of the same height as the can are installed on the closed bottom. Then, after wetting the coal with water, it is smashed onto the already wetted coal surface and then placed flat on the ground. After removing the tool, a beehive coal briquette is done.

  Zhang Lei thought of reversing the tool for pounding coal, in a closed jar, inserting several pieces of iron sheet that had been ground into a田character shape, and then using force to press down on the already cut wood, creating fire sticks. Because it used the principle of leverage, only a small amount of force was needed to complete this work.

  "This is a perfect design." Zhang Lei thought about it more and more, feeling that the plan was feasible, and he couldn't help but feel excited. After drawing a rough sketch in his room, he went to find Old Chen.

  Chen Lao's home was two streets away from Zhang Lei's, a small courtyard that could be seen through the gaps in the bamboo fence, with a large stove inside, and the sound of clanging pots and pans coming from within.

  "Uncle Hammer." Zhang Lei stood outside the door and called out.

  Chen Laoqiu came over and opened the door, saw Zhang Lei, smiled and said: "How did you come? You haven't entered my door for several months."

  Zhang Lei scratched the back of his head and said apologetically: "Recently, things have been pretty busy, so I haven't come to visit you. Don't be angry."

  "Look at what you're saying, I was thinking about when to go to your house to thank you for helping my family out of trouble. If those cigarettes couldn't be sold, we wouldn't know how to spend the New Year this year. Now it's all good, all the cigarettes are sold and we even made some money, so we can eat a few more pounds of meat during the New Year." Chen Lao Tui stretched out his hand to show some affection to Zhang Lei, but immediately thought that he was all sweaty, so he quickly pulled it back and wiped it on his sweat-soaked shirt, saying: "Come on, come on, let's go inside and sit... Dà Yǒng, Zhang Lei's big nephew is here, hurry up and make some tea."

  Chen Dàyǒng invited Zhang Lei to dinner, Chen Lǎo Chuī hastily made time to take a bath and change his clothes, then brought out some treasured food to entertain Zhang Lei.

  The enthusiasm of the two fathers made Zhang Lei somewhat embarrassed, and after careful consideration, he finally took out the drawings.

  "Uncle Hammer, I came today to ask for your help. Can you make this thing? Help me make one and I'll pay you for the work." Zhang Lei said as he unfolded the blueprint, which detailed all the dimensions and shapes of the parts.

  Chen Lao chuckled and said, "This thing is simple, easy to make, don't mention money to me, it's tacky. Although we are ordinary people, we can't accept that kind of money. Besides, after such a long time, I haven't thought of how to thank you, making something like this is also a way to express my gratitude."

  After Zhang Lei's repeated insistence, Old Chen finally accepted the one or two silver coins he handed over. Although one or two silver coins were enough to pay for Old Chen's labor and materials, with plenty left over, his words were: "Last time you also made a bellows for me, which helped me out greatly, so this one or two silver coins still owe me the labor fee."

  For the next half hour, Zhang Lei and Chen Lao Chui continued to discuss the method and specifications of this thing. When they finally reached an agreement, it was already late.

  "Stay here and have a meal." Chen Dayong had already gone to the field to pick some vegetables, Zhang Lei was about to leave, he persuaded him to stay.

  "No way, my dad and brother don't know I came over to your place, I'd better head back home for dinner, they should be back by now."

  Back home, Zhang Lei finally relaxed his tense nerves after so many days. After dinner, he took a hot bath and soon fell asleep.

  The next afternoon, Chen Lao Chui brought over the things Zhang Lei needed. Zhang Lei took a look and saw that they were exactly what he wanted. He praised: "Uncle Chui's craftsmanship is indeed exceptional, able to make such exquisite things."

  Upon hearing his praise, Chen Lao Chui said with embarrassment: "It's not as great as you say, okay, let's hurry up and try it out."