Li Mengxi went to the women's and children's camp and found Liu, the embroiderer. Liu and a group of women were doing trivial tasks such as twisting hemp rope, weaving nets, and putting shoes into tents.

Mrs. Liu put down her work and came over, asking if there was any new military affairs.

Li Mengxi thought for a while and roughly told Mr. Liu the style of the mask. He gestured and explained, "It's like this, two layers of palm-sized cloth, filled with a layer of crushed charcoal in the center, and sewn together.

This thing is used to cover the mouth and nose for epidemic prevention. But Tian Bu and the others made one, and the charcoal gathered into a ball, making it very uncomfortable to wear.

See how to do it well."

After the task was handed over, Mrs. Liu thought about it and felt it was not too difficult, so she got busy with her needle and thread.

Li Mengxi stood outside and waited. Soon, Mrs. Liu made the mask and brought it over.

Li Mengxi took the mask and looked at it. He saw that although Liu's craftsmanship was exquisite and the mask was sewn very delicately, the mask was still just a little bit of crushed charcoal stuffed between two layers of cloth, and it still had the same structure.

Li Mengxi couldn't help but frown. He picked up one end of the mask and shook it vigorously. All the charcoal inside was knocked to one end. After wearing such a mask for a while, all the activated charcoal sank to the bottom, making it unusable.

This is the first question.

When Li Mengxi put on the mask for a try, the second problem arose.

The rope loops on both sides of the mask are too long. If they hang on the ears, the mask will not fit snugly and will simply slide down.

Li Mengxi thought about it, and it seemed that in later generations of masks, the ropes hanging from the ears were elastic ropes, and the tightness was adjustable.

In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, it was difficult to find elastic ropes, so after much thought, Li Mengxi thought that the rope loops could be discarded and replaced with two short ropes similar to shoelaces, so that individuals could adjust the tightness according to their own needs.

This is the second problem, the rope loop is not easy to use.

The third problem was that Li Mengxi discovered that the shape of the mask was wrong. The shape of later masks fit the contours of the face, and the mouth and nose were tightly protected after being worn.

The mask sewn by Liu is more like a veil than a mask, and it cannot fit the facial structure at all.

After taking off the mask, Li Mengxi carefully explained the shortcomings of the mask to Mrs. Liu, "Aunt Liu, look," Li Mengxi pointed to the sand-like activated carbon in the mask and said, "The broken charcoal box always falls down.

Once it falls to the top, it becomes empty and can no longer block anything. See if there is any way to prevent the coal from falling down."

"The second thing is that the fit is not tight. You can think of a way to make it fit the face. It is best to put it on so that your mouth and nose can be fully covered."

After explaining the details of the mask, Li Mengxi asked Mr. Liu to get busy first.

Standing outside, Li Mengxi looked up at the sky and began to think. Crushed charcoal is like sand, and it will sink when put in a pocket.

Li Mengxi felt that the problem of activated carbon sinking had not been cured. So he wondered if there was any way to improve it.

For example, you can break the charcoal into smaller pieces, then get a piece of cloth, sprinkle some glue on the cloth, and then sprinkle the activated carbon powder on it in a thick layer.

In this way, the coal will not sink.

Li Mengxi felt that his improvement method was very good and solved the problem perfectly.

However, Li Mengxi obviously underestimated the wisdom of Liu and other women, and Li Mengxi once again complicated the problem.

Mrs. Liu returned to the tent. She looked at the mask in her hand, picked it up and shook it. The broken charcoal inside easily swayed to the bottom. The military advisor said this was not possible.

Ms. Liu looked at the busy women and asked the other women, "Sisters, what do you think we can do to prevent the things here from sinking?"

A woman standing by took a look at the mask and pinched the lumpy charcoal inside. The woman asked curiously, "What's in here? Is it wheat?"

"It's filled with charcoal." Mrs. Liu replied.

The woman used her rough hands to twist the broken charcoal in the cloth layer, and found that the charcoal was very big. The woman thought for a while and said, "Sew a few more stitches, line them up, and sew them both inside and outside."

Is it done?"

Mrs. Liu thought about it, and there was a way.

The women were all curious about what Mrs. Liu was up to, so they took the masks and looked at them.

Rather than saying that the women are curious, it is better to say that this is another feedback from the rebel reward system.

The women's and children's camp does not have much daily work, but during the limited military service, many of them received generous rewards for their good ideas. Therefore, as long as the military service comes, the enthusiasm of the women is not much worse than that of the craftsmen.

.

The women passed the masks around. The masks had a simple structure, with some crushed charcoal stuffed between two layers of cloth.

A woman saw the structure of the mask and gave Ms. Liu another idea. The woman drew a grid on her legs and said, "Sister Liu, do you think this will work? Let's sew small squares one by one, one by one."

One, like this, the charcoal will not be able to sink."

When Ms. Liu heard the words, she thought about it, and she understood. The general idea was that there were small pockets inside the mask, so that the charcoal was locked in the small pockets and could not leak underneath.

This is also a method.

Ms. Liu understands better than other women. She knows that this mask is for epidemic prevention and needs to be tightly sealed without any gaps.

Although sewing small pockets one after another can indeed prevent the charcoal from falling down, the gaps between the small pockets are also flaws.

Ms. Liu thought for a while and soon came up with a solution.

After having a solution, she immediately started busy.

The masks were not difficult to sew. After a while, Liu had two types of masks sewn.

The first one is to lay a layer of crushed charcoal between the two layers of cloth, and then use a needle and thread to sew the entire mask densely one layer at a time, vertically and horizontally. With such a dense seam, the charcoal blocks

It is not so easy to fall. Because the broken charcoal is not like sand. The broken charcoal is large and is stuck in the dense pins and cannot be moved.

The second type of mask sewn by Liu is much thicker. The second type of mask is to sew the broken charcoal into small pockets on the front layer. After the previous layer is sewn, the small pockets are connected to the small ones.

There is a big gap between the pockets, and then, in the middle of the gap, add another small pocket at the back facing the gap.

In this way, using the nesting method, overlapping and nesting before and after, there will be no gaps.

Afterwards, Mrs. Liu discussed with the woman how to make the mask fit the mouth and nose.

The women had no other abilities, but were extremely experienced in needlework such as sewing.

After everyone's discussion, Liu's women first improved the cutting method and cut out pieces of cloth that were narrow at the top and wide at the bottom to fit the shape of the face. After trying this shape, it turned out to be compact.

Finally, after further modifications, Liu chose to slightly subtract a piece from both sides of the mask. After cutting off a piece, the mask became a horizontal H-shape. The characteristic of such a mask is that some overlapping seams can be sewn in the middle.

It can be stretched, so that the protective area of ​​the mask can be adjusted.

Such a mask can be pulled down slightly to expose the mouth and nose, and lifted up and down slightly to protect half of the face.

The same technical principle applies to pleated skirts.

——

When Mrs. Liu showed Li Mengxi two newly made masks, he took the masks and Li Mengxi picked them up and looked at them. His eyes lit up immediately.

There are two kinds of masks, one is sewn densely, and the other is sewn in small pieces. No matter which type, the activated carbon is fixed very tightly and densely.

After putting on the mask and tying the rope behind his ears, Li Mengxi found that the shape of the mask had also changed, becoming a perfect fit for his face, from the bridge of his nose at the top to the cheeks on both sides, and then to his chin at the bottom.

I pressed it with my hand. After all, the mask filled with activated carbon was not as soft and comfortable as the masks of later generations, and had a hard texture.

After wearing the mask for a while, I didn't feel much discomfort except for feeling slightly suffocated.

After thinking about it, Li Mengxi felt that he should try the protective effect of the mask, that is, test the filtration effect of activated carbon. He said to Ms. Liu, "Aunt Liu, wait for me, I will be back in a moment."

After saying that, he ran away with his mask on.

Back at the City Lord's Mansion, Li Mengxi dug out vinegar and alcohol, then poured a little vinegar and a little alcohol into it, and tried it while wearing a mask. The activated carbon was so powerful that he couldn't smell anything even with the mask on.

The test was very successful, and the filtration effect of activated carbon is unparalleled.

Activated carbon is enough to protect against chemical weapons.

At the end of the test, the activated carbon mask is enough.

When they came to the women's and children's camp again, Li Mengxi asked Mrs. Liu, "Aunt Liu, how many masks can be made in a day if you let us make them freely?"

Ms. Liu thought for a moment, did some calculations, and said, "If we have enough cloth and needle and thread, we can make at least a hundred of them in one day..."

The amount of masks to sew is not large, so it is not a big problem to make a hundred masks a day.

After learning about the working hours of making masks from Mrs. Liu, Li Mengxi calculated that one person could make a hundred activated carbon masks in one day. There were at least two thousand women in the women's and children's camp who could help. In one day, two hundred thousand activated carbon masks could be sewn.

Face mask.

In one day, as many as 200,000 pieces can be sewn.

Even if there are millions of giant deer, enough can be sewn in five days.

Manpower is not an issue, nor is production time.

The key issue seems to be that only the materials are left.

Li Mengxi asked Mrs. Liu, "Aunt Liu, do you think how many masks like this can be made from one foot of cloth?"

Ms. Liu thought about it for a moment and said, "I think I can make more than twenty per foot."

One foot of cloth can be used to make twenty masks. So, if one million masks are made, 50,000 feet of cloth will be needed.

As soon as this amount was calculated, Li Mengxi paused. He was wondering if there was so much cloth in the army. It was probably not that much. Not to mention fifty thousand feet of cloth, there might not even be ten thousand feet.

Masks don’t require much raw material, but they can’t support a large number of people. If a plague breaks out in Julu County, each person needs to be given a mask immediately. The demand for hundreds of thousands or even millions is too scary.

But then I thought about it, although the army did not have much fabric hoarded, but no matter how ragged the people were, they could still pull off a piece of rag. If a plague really struck, their lives were more important than wrapping themselves up.

Therefore, weighing the pros and cons, the possibility of a plague outbreak in spring is very high, so a million masks must be prepared. If the cloth is not enough, even if you cut cloth from the people, you will have to make a million masks.
To be continued...