Lingtai Mountain in the western suburbs of Langzhong, the eldest house of the Zhou family.

Zhou Qun resigned due to illness many years ago and returned to his hometown. He became obsessed with astrology and astronomy all day long, and almost every day he went upstairs to observe.

In his eyes, the universe is majestic, vast, mysterious, and imaginative. It is far more fascinating than the smoke and intrigues of officialdom.

It's a pity that the secrets of heaven are unpredictable. Even if you build tall buildings and use your best eyesight, you may know more, but you don't know even more. You can only look at the sea of ​​stars and sigh, lamenting the insignificance of mortals.

Zhou Qun always thought that if he could get a glimpse of the secret, it would be more attractive to him than being a high official or a general.

Astronomical observation in the Han Dynasty was actually very detailed and could be said to have reached the limit of the human eye.

It's a pity that without good observation tools, no matter how smart a person is, he can't go further.

In the past few days, Zhou Qun could not calm down and concentrated on his observations.

He has been thinking about it, when will his nephew, who has been granted the title of Marquis and returned to his hometown in fine clothes within a year after leaving home, come to see him?

He is his uncle and the head of the Zhou family. The first thing Zhou Mo did when he returned to his hometown was to visit his mother. The second thing he did was to visit his uncle.

However, several days have passed and there is no movement at all?

This is really outrageous, and combined with the various deviant behaviors of this kid before, it makes people angry just thinking about it.

Zhou Qun had already thought in his mind that when this kid comes, he must first speak harshly, educate him, and suppress his arrogance.

But it was no big deal that he didn't come for a long time. Zhou Qun couldn't bear it anymore, so he sent someone to inquire.

The servant reported back: "In the past few days, his wife was pregnant and then sick, so he took care of her at home personally."

Zhou Qun said: "So that's the case, it's understandable."

The servant added: "It's just that after he stayed at home for a day or two, he went to the jade shop in the south of the city every day. He stayed there all day, and one day he even stayed late at night before returning home."

Zhou Qun asked: "What did he go to the jade shop for?"

The servant said: "I asked the owner of the jade shop, and he said that Zhou Lang said that he wanted to prepare a big gift for his uncle, which required skilled craftsmen to carve it carefully. Zhou Lang was very demanding, and he had to give it to his uncle every day.

Come and supervise it yourself."

"Nonsense!" Zhou Qun said angrily, "Am I the one who likes jewelry and jade toys? Others don't know, but he, Zhou Mo, grew up next to me. He climbed up and down the attic every day when he was a child. How could he not know this?

?"

"Besides, with the huge family fortune of my Zhou family, how can we ever lack his one or two exquisite jade articles?" Zhou Qun was filled with anger and couldn't help but stand up, "I think he has become a high official and has been contaminated by too many things.

The officialdom is vulgar, and you actually think that you can fool me with some mundane gifts."

"Go quickly, go directly to his house and call him to me. Just say that his uncle is very angry and the consequences will be serious."

Seeing that his master was furious, the servant did not dare to say anything, so he agreed and hurried to Zhou Mo's house.

In the jade shop in the south of the city.

Zhou Mo picked up a round semi-finished glass piece that had just been polished, squinted one eye, and looked at it carefully before the other.

If you stand opposite him, you can see that Zhou Mo's eye is magnified many times through the translucent glass disc.

This glass piece is actually a convex lens, commonly known as a magnifying glass.

"Finally, this feels pretty good." Zhou Mo said happily, "The requirements can't be too high. After all, this is just crude glass, with too many impurities and poor permeability."

Beside Zhou Mo, three or four jade masons were processing the same glass pieces. There were dozens of finished products piled on the table beside him. However, most of them were unqualified. Only the piece in front of him barely met Zhou Mo's requirements.

.

One of the jade carvers said: "Sir, your demands are not high. They are simply too high and strange. I have been a jade carver for half my life, and I have never seen or heard of anything. These days have exhausted me."

Zhou Mo said with a smile: "Thank you for your hard work. Your wages are indispensable. Once what I want is done, I will give you a big reward."

After saying that, Zhou Mo took out a soft cloth bag and carefully took out six palm-sized raw jade crystal clusters.

In later generations, this thing was also called natural crystal. To put it bluntly, it was glass or silica crystal. Its reserves are also very abundant and can be found all over the country. It is not very rare.

"Wow." The jade mason saw it and exclaimed: "Your Majesty, this is a big deal. Although this water jade is not rare, its texture is so crystal clear and it is so big. It is still possible to take out so much at one time. In this Langzhong

In the city, only your Zhou family can do this."

Zhou Mo said with a smile: "Uncle has a good eye. It took a lot of effort for me to get these jade."

When the jade craftsman saw the good materials, he couldn't stand his skills and suffered from occupational diseases, so he said: "The main materials of these jade can be used to make wine vessels, and the remaining materials can be used to make hostas, rings, and jutes. The villain guarantees that the objects made will be absolutely perfect."

Exquisite, it will definitely satisfy the guests."

Zhou Mo shook his head and said: "No, no, no, we can't waste natural resources like this."

He carefully took out two of the pieces and gave them to the jadeite, saying, "Polce these materials into lenses for me according to the standards of the previous piece of glass."

"What?" the jade craftsman asked in surprise, "If you want to be a villain, you can naturally make it. However, it would be a pity to only use such good materials."

"Just do it and it's done. I'll pay you a lot of wages."

The jade carver shook his head and thought: "What is a waste of natural resources? In my opinion, he is a waste of natural resources. Alas, the idea of ​​​​this top noble man is really different from that of ordinary noble men, just four words, rich

, willful."

In desperation, the jade stonemason had no choice but to start processing according to the customer's requirements.

Zhou Mo's real idea is to use these jade stones to make a telescope and give it to his uncle as a gift of apology.

Once your uncle's interest is aroused, and relying on the abundant manpower and material resources at his disposal, we might be able to push the glass manufacturing industry a big step forward.

When he was a child, he used a piece of reading glasses as the objective lens and an original piece of high myopia lens as the eyepiece. After adjusting the focal length, he rolled it in a paper tube, sealed the light leakage with black tape, and made a camera that could see the moon craters.

The simple telescope comes out.

The principle is actually very simple, and a knowledge of junior high school physics is enough.

One of the key difficulties today is that the materials are not easy to clean. That is to say, glass with sufficient permeability is needed.

In the Han Dynasty, the glass making process had actually been invented long ago, but it had more impurities and poor permeability. The colored glaze used by Zhou Mo before was just glass.

The reason why it has not been developed as well as in the Middle East and the West is mainly because in ancient times glass was mainly used to make containers, and in China, glassware has a powerful substitute, ceramics.
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To put it simply, it is not that it is difficult to make transparent glass, but that China's ceramic technology is too developed, the technology is more mature, the raw materials are more popular, the cost is lower, and the finished products are exquisite enough.

There is a lack of market for glass products, so no one has the time to research and improve glass technology to produce more transparent and beautiful glass.

But it doesn’t matter. Artificial ones are not easy to get for the time being. We can use natural crystals instead. As long as we use our money to make a small amount of top-quality natural crystals, it’s not too difficult.

The second difficulty is that the craftsmanship is not good enough.

The polishing technology is readily available. The jade processing industry in the Han Dynasty has been very mature. In the hands of experienced old craftsmen, grinding jade of various shapes and shapes is a basic skill.

The polishing process is not uncommon and has even developed into a small industry. The bronze mirrors of noble ladies will wear and oxidize over time and become blurry. After polishing and repair by craftsmen, they can reflect the image clearly again. Those with excellent craftsmanship

The bronze mirror just polished by the craftsman is not much worse than the glass mirrors of later generations, it is just less durable.

The disadvantage is precision. There seems to be not much difference between one ground lens and another, but when used in optics, the difference is huge.

Zhou Mo's solution is also very simple. He currently only needs two plano-convex lenses, one with a lower magnification and larger aperture as the objective lens, and one with a higher magnification and smaller aperture as the eyepiece. Mass production is not required.

As long as the craftsmen do more and in large quantities, as the quantity increases and the craftsmen's experience gradually increases, they can always make something suitable.

That's why Zhou Mo asked them to experiment with ordinary translucent colored glaze first, with the purpose of increasing their experience and improving the yield of finished products. When the experience is mature, they will then use rare jade materials to make real finished products.

During this period, he can also use these semi-finished products to tinker with how to make telescopes, such as measuring the focal length and considering the material of the lens barrel.

Zhou Mo was concentrating on his research when suddenly there was a commotion outside.

A man who looked like a servant came in and said to Zhou Mo: "Master, you are here, you can teach me how to find him easily. The patriarch ordered you to go see him immediately. The patriarch told him, he was very angry, and the consequences will be dire.
Chapter completed!