African Entrepreneurship Record

Mbeya, South Salzburg Province.

"The kiln is open!" followed by a shout.

The workers who had been waiting beside the kiln used iron fibers to open the kiln mouth, and then a stream of hot air spurted out from the kiln mouth.

"How about a quick look?"

At the urging of the factory director, the heavily armed workers entered the kiln entrance and began to carry the newly fired porcelain. The weather in Mbeya is now about 17 degrees, so it is not too hot even if you put on cotton clothes and stay outside. As soon as you enter the kiln room, you can feel the surging heat.

After a moment of hesitation, the worker carefully took out the sagger. Under everyone's expectation, the old master began to open the sagger.

"Alas! What a pity, the bottom of this one is connected to the sagger, next one!"

It was a bad start, so the next sagger was opened.

"This glaze is unqualified, next one!"

In the end, all the saggers were opened, and the results were not satisfactory. The yield was only 15%. The quality of the finished products was also poor. The production was rough, the inner bottom was unglazed, and the aesthetics was poor. However, the results were in line with everyone's expectations. .

"It's the first time! It's great to have this result. Don't be discouraged and continue to improve the technology. I believe that our Mbeya Ceramics Factory will lead the kingdom's ceramic manufacturing industry in the future." The mayor of Mbeya comforted him.

The porcelain produced by the Mbeya Ceramics Factory is coarse porcelain, that is, porcelain for common people. The porcelain in Constantine's Palace was imported from the Far East.

There are rich kaolin resources near Mbeya City. The current preliminary survey by the East African government is about three million tons. It is a bonus when searching for coal mines. This is also the reason why the first porcelain factory in East Africa was located in Mbeya City.

In East Africa, the current civilian utensils are mainly wood products or ceramic products, and porcelain is definitely rare.

Excluding the porcelain in the palace, East African porcelain is mainly distributed in the coastal areas of East Africa, from Mogadishu to Mtwara, and even porcelain exists in the hinterland of Zimbabwe.

However, almost all of these porcelains are products of the Far East and were only transported to East Africa along the trade routes. Therefore, the porcelain fired by the Mbeya Ceramics Factory can be regarded as the first batch of African porcelain.

East African porcelain technology mainly comes from Yixian County, Yanzhou in the Far East. Each batch of immigrants to East Africa has a basic file, so special attention will be paid to professionals.

In fact, porcelain firing is no secret in Europe, and there are many porcelain factories. However, the initial immigrants from East Africa were mainly rural people from Germany and the Far East.

European porcelain is not for ordinary people, and its popularity is far lower than that in the Far East. Therefore, the skilled workers in Mbeya Ceramics Factory are mainly from the Far East.

Among them, Qi Village in Yixian County is the main one. Qi Village has a long history of pottery making. The pottery industry flourished in the Tang Dynasty and reached its peak in the Yuan Dynasty. The prosperity of every kiln and every household making pottery has continued to this day.

In other words, more local people make a living from this, and many people from Qi Village have taken advantage of East African immigrants to East Africa. Currently, about 30% of Qi Village residents live in Mbeya Ceramics Factory.

Although Qicun has a long history of firing ceramics, it is not very famous. After all, it is mainly a folk product.

If there are technical requirements, East Africa can send people to Jingdezhen to learn from it, or they can obtain technology from Europe, but it is not necessary.

The establishment of the Mbeya Ceramics Factory is already considered a charter by Ernst. After all, the needs of East African residents can be met with wooden and pottery vessels. It is enough to bake some coarse porcelain to enrich the products in East African specialty stores. As for mid-to-high-end porcelain Products are directly imported, and there is no need to develop a large-scale porcelain manufacturing industry in East Africa at the moment.

Of course, the main reason is, who will buy the porcelain after it is produced? Not to mention competing with the Far East, it is impossible to compete with European countries. If you can't make money from production, you will naturally have no motivation to promote it.

At present, the main promotion in East Africa is the glass manufacturing industry, because a large number of Venetians have entered East Africa, which provides convenience for the development of the glass manufacturing industry in East Africa.

The level of Venetian glass manufacturing is world-renowned. Just imagine, if there were many immigrants from Jingdezhen in East Africa, then East Africa would definitely promote the development of the porcelain industry.

Of course, Jingdezhen is only a relatively representative porcelain origin of Far Eastern porcelain, and there is no need for Ernst to focus only on Jingdezhen. There is also a huge need for glass to win out, and that is that there is indeed a huge demand in East Africa.

First of all, glass can also be used to make utensils and have overlapping functions with porcelain, but the windows used in East African buildings must be made of glass. When the Qivit Palace was built, a large amount of glass was imported from Europe for decoration.

Even the glass for the palace is imported, which is a bit unreasonable. What's more, the demand for many government agencies and buildings in East Africa is not small, as well as civilian houses.

Although East African houses have been unified into German architectural styles, lighting is basically non-existent. The windows are basically whole wooden boards. They are opened during the day to let the sunlight in, and closed again at night to prevent mosquitoes from entering. East African residents may be equipped with glass windows. It's a bit luxurious, but small pieces of glazed tiles can still be arranged.

In addition to the demand for glass windows, East Africa also considers the needs of East African scientific research in the future. Although East Africa currently does not have scientific research capabilities, it will take this step sooner or later, and experimental equipment, such as test tubes, lenses, etc., all require glass.

The East African glass industry is mainly located in Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Songaea. In addition to professional workers in Venice, the Hechingen Daily Necessities Company under the Hechingen Consortium was instructed by Ernst to set up a technical technical department. group, researching the large-scale production of glass.

The most important of these is to conquer the flat glass production process. To this end, the Hechingen Daily Necessities Company has reached cooperation agreements with a number of German universities.

This is also a layout for the future automobile industry. The earliest cars did not have windshields. Drivers and passengers often use goggles to protect themselves from the elements, insects, and flying leaves and dust from the road.

Although flat glass may not necessarily be used in cars after it is developed, after all, glass is a dangerous and fragile product, and it is dangerous to use it in cars rashly, but it will always be used.

As for when to install glass on cars, it depends on market demand. When people are no longer satisfied with cars without shields, the Hechingen Consortium can take the lead in launching car glass. The technology is like squeezing out toothpaste. Bit by bit drain other people's wallets.

Of course, this is fantasy time. The Hechingen Consortium has neither flat glass nor cars. To realize these two things, it still needs to continue to work hard.

By the way, Benz is still improving the engine, trying to make the engine smaller and increase its power.

Under Ernst's instructions, the frame has a general goal, but how it works and the mechanical structure design are still far away. Optimistic estimates suggest that it will take several years before the Hechingen Consortium launches the first practical car. .

As for why it takes so long, it is to ensure that when the car is launched, it will be quite complete. More complex processes and lower production costs will allow copycats to explode on the spot, and prevent the car structure from being too simple for ordinary people to copy by hand.

In addition, there is another reason, which is that after a few years of waiting in East Africa, the automobile industry must start in East Africa. If this flagship product is first produced in East Africa, it will be of great use in increasing East Africa’s international influence in the future, and it can also lay the foundation for East Africa. The Kingdom’s first-mover advantage in the automotive industry.