Li Mengxi believed that a major breakthrough in papermaking was not far away. Even while eating, Li Mengxi was excitedly talking to Guan Yu about papermaking.

Li Mengxi said, "Papermaking is a major cultural event. Cai Lun is famous for his papermaking. Improving papermaking is a victory. Why doesn't General Guan work with him to do it?"

If we can make paper, it will be easy for us to leave our name in history!"

Guan Yu stopped his kuaizi, stroked his beard and laughed, "Okay! When are you going to make paper? I'm here to help too."

Li Mengxi successfully brought Guan Yu in.

After that, Li Mengxi briefly talked about the problems encountered in papermaking.

“Papermaking is made by sinking the bark of the hemp tree and other herbs in ponds for many years, then crushing the pulp, boiling the pulp, and drying it on a net to make paper.”

"Why did raw hemp sink into the pond? There are water bugs and other microscopic objects in the water. Water bugs can eat certain things in the herbs. These things must be removed and the bark of the raw hemp tree can be boiled to make pulp.

Therefore, it is better for raw hemp to settle in muddy ditches and manure pits, because there are more microorganisms in muddy ditches and manure pits.”

“The base material of paper is fiber. Fiber is something as fine as silk and as long as hair.

Raw hemp and other herbs are boiled to produce fiber, and then the fiber can be made into paper.

But there is another substance in the herbs. If this substance is not removed, the fiber will be difficult to come out.

The key to making paper is to remove the things that lock the fibers.

If we can try to remove these things, then wheat straw can be made into paper, weeds can be made into paper, bamboo, rattan and wood leaves can be made into paper. It is not necessary to use bark and other things to make paper, and it will consume less. And if all the debris can be removed, then it can be made into paper.

The paper material is stronger, and by then, the daily production of paper will be tens of millions of kilograms."

"It's a pity," Li Mengxi sighed, "I don't know what the thing that locks the herbal fibers is."

Li Mengxi talked a lot about fibers and micro-objects, which made Guan Yu frown. At the same time, Guan Yu also clearly understood the key to papermaking.

The key to making paper is to boil the fibers from the bark, hemp, and other herbs, and then make the pulp into a net and dry it, and then the paper is made.

Papermaking turned out to be so simple, Guan Yu suddenly realized.

Afterwards, Guan Yu fell into deep thought. Herbaceous fiber is the base material of paper, but there is something else in the herb that locks the herbaceous fiber so that it cannot spread out or become pulp.

So, what is it that locks the herbal fiber?

Guan Yu stopped eating, twirling his beard and frowning in thought.

a long time.

Guan Yu raised his head, "Could it be Jiao?"

Li Mengxi was stunned for a moment, "What glue?"

"Gum." Guan Yu replied.

"Gum?" Li Mengxi's eyes widened, still confused.

"Yes," Guan Yu nodded, "Gum. Gum will flow under the bark of toon trees, peach trees, pine trees, poplar trees, etc."

Li Mengxi frowned slightly. He thought about it for a moment. It is true that peach trees have a lot of peach gum, and chun trees also have a lot of gum. Pine trees are not common in rural areas and have never been observed. But, poplar trees?

"Poplar trees also have glue?" Li Mengxi looked at Guan Yu doubtfully.

"Yes." Guan Yu nodded with certainty, "When the weather is hot, poplar gum will flow out from the branches. Although the gum of poplar trees is not as good as that of chun trees, it does."

Li Mengxi suddenly realized that poplar trees also have glue.

According to Guan Yu, so many trees have gum, and by analogy, do all trees contain gums such as peach gum and toon gum? Is it possible that it is these gums that lock plant fibers?

When I think about it, it's possible.

Plant fiber is something similar to the shape of hair, so it is reasonable to say that it is a glue that locks countless hairs and aggregates them into shapes such as bark, leaves, and grass.

Furthermore, vegetable gum is also a nutrient, and it is the most nutritious part of plants no matter how you look at it. Therefore, this also explains why when raw hemp is cooked in the pond, it is easily boiled into pulp. This is because the plant gum is the most nutritious part of the plant.

Colloids are far more nutritious than fiber. The percentage of nutrients in gum is very high. One gram of gum contains almost one gram of nutrients, while one gram of fiber contains less than one tenth of it.

Nutrients that are easily utilized by microorganisms.

After the hemp is soaked in water, the colloid is almost eaten up by microorganisms, while the fibers remain, which is equivalent to a biological impurity removal process, so papermaking has a process of hemp sinking.

After much deliberation, Li Mengxi felt it was extremely reasonable.

First, glue is a relatively good polymer material, and plant fibers are held together by glue, which is reasonable.

Secondly, almost all trees, grasses and other herbs contain gum, and plant fibers are polymerized together by plant gum, which is reasonable.

Third, plant gum is rich in nutrients, so when it sinks into the pond, the nutrient-rich gum is easily eaten by microorganisms, which is reasonable.

There are many aspects that can be used as evidence. Li Mengxi feels that the thing that needs to be removed during the papermaking process is most likely glue.

One step closer to the truth.

Since it may be glue, the next step is easy, just find a way to remove the glue.

You don’t need to use raw hemp tree bark to test, just look for high-purity glue, find the glue from the Chinese peach tree, and then try it, soak it in water, use cold water, hot water, boil it in hot water, and then add some acid.

Boil, if there is no acid, use vinegar, acetic acid is also an acid, then use lye, boil with lime water, boil with plant ash, add various salts, add table salt and boil.

Then add fat and cook.

You can’t add more starch, which is flour.

Lower-level compounds include acids, alkalis, and salts.

No matter what the acid, alkali, or salt is, try them all, and you should be able to easily find the substance that can dissolve the glue.

Whether it is an acid, a base, or a salt, you will know once you try it.

When Li Mengxi once again mentioned the need to build a pressure cooker, it could be used to cook paper pulp.

Guan Yu curiously asked what a pressure cooker was and why he wanted to make a pressure cooker.

After Li Mengxi talked a little hastily, regardless of whether Guan Yu understood it or not, Li Mengxi said casually, "The pressure cooker is not very easy to make."

It's hard to make Guan Yu and I can't give you any advice. Guan Yu doesn't even know what a pressure cooker is.

Li Mengxi knew very well that the technical difficulty of pressure cookers was not high. The basis for his judgment was that the technology of pressure cookers already existed in the late Han Dynasty. The evidence is that in the tomb of Liu Bei’s ancestor, King Jing Liu Sheng of Zhongshan, the tomb of Liu Bei’s ancestor was

I dug it, and found a physical object of a pressure cooker in the tomb.

There is a pressure cooker in Liu Sheng's tomb, which shows that under the technical conditions of the late Han Dynasty, it was not too difficult to make a pressure cooker.

Come to think of it, how difficult can a pressure cooker be? It's just a thick iron pot with a sealable lid, and a small hole in the lid to release the pressure and air.

The structure is very simple.

It is not difficult to make a thick iron pot, it is not difficult to make a lid, and it is not difficult to drill a small hole in the lid. The only difficulty is in sealing. The difficulty is how to make a pot and lid that fit together and are airtight.

If the seal is difficult to make, it doesn't matter. You can pour molten lead or even molten iron liquid around the edge of the pot to make a one-time seal.

Anyway, we are exploring papermaking technology now. The production problems can be solved later, and the pressure cooker sealing problem can also be solved later.

If the problem cannot be solved in the future, it doesn't matter. Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan, was a man two or three hundred years ago. Two or three hundred years ago, there were craftsmen in the Han Dynasty who could make pressure cookers. If the craftsmen in the army really couldn't solve the sealing problem, then

I went directly to Luoyang to find powerful master craftsmen, and the problem was solved.

Even if we go to Luoyang to find craftsmen, we can't solve the problem, but it doesn't actually affect production much.

A giant pressure cooker with a height of more than ten meters can cook paper pulp weighing more than ten tons at a time. The pulp cooked at one time can be enough for a month's production. So, sealing cannot solve the problem. Just pour molten iron on the pot and lid and cook a pot.

Just smash the lid once. Although this will slightly increase the cost, it will not affect production at all.
Chapter completed!