The Rise of the European Emperor

Marin wanted to take out the briquettes a long time ago, but considering the reaction of his allies, the Lamark family, Marin delayed the time to take it out. After all, he traded a large tract of land with coal mines in the Ruhr area from the Lamarck family. If you take out the briquette technology as soon as you change the territory, anyone can see that he is cheating his teammates.

And Germany is a dangerous area that is used to grouping in Europe. If someone finds out that he is cheating his teammates and fights in the future, Marin will be alone and helpless. Therefore, Marin endured for many years.

Originally, Marin planned to take out the briquettes a few months ago. But by coincidence, it happened that the old Hoffman couple wanted Simon to marry Princess Anna of the Lamarck family. Then, Marin had to postpone the plan again. It wasn't until after Simon got married on November 11 last year that Marin felt that the time was right...

Of course, it is not immediately taken out, and it needs to be paved. For example, a few days ago, two merchant ships returned from Panama, full of various commodities purchased from the Ming Dynasty. Along with those commodities, apart from several Ewenki falconers and Haidongqing eagles, there was also a letter sent back by Kong Tai...

Of course, the letter was written in Chinese characters, and no one else could read it. Then, after Marin pretended to read the letter, he announced happily and loudly that Kong Tai had learned an amazing technique from the Ming Empire!

What technology? Of course it is honeycomb!

Then, Marin called potters, carpenters, and blacksmiths to "develop" briquette stoves and manual briquette presses. It is said that it is research and development, but it is actually Marin directing the craftsmen to restore his memory.

The briquette stove is very easy to make. It is very simple to ask the potter to knead the shape, throw it in the stove and fire it, and then make a ceramic briquette stove.

The manual briquette press is more troublesome. Malin specially asked the carpenter to make a sample first, and then disassembled it, and asked the foundry blacksmith to cast the parts by sandbox casting. The reason why sand box casting is chosen is for standardization. As long as the mold remains the same, the size of the parts of the manual briquette press machine cast by the sand box is almost the same.

Marin tried it. This manual briquette press is similar to the one he used in later generations. In their previous life, their family lived not far from the Grand Canal, and they could easily buy coal transported from Xuzhou. In order to save costs, many people bought manual briquette presses, which are foot-operated. The principle is very simple, that is, first mix the anthracite powder with yellow mud and water into a dough form. Then, the hand-made honeycomb coal press with the lower end is pressed down, compacted, and then pressed a few times with the pedals.

At this time, there is a complete piece of briquette in the manual briquette press machine with the lower end open. Then, people will use their feet to step on a pedal on the upper end of the honeycomb briquette container. The pedal is connected to a circular plate at the upper end of the press. There are 12 holes on the circular plate, which are set on 12 fixed iron rods drilled. But the circular plate can move up and down. When a person steps down from the upper pedal, the circular plate at the top of the press will completely press out the briquettes that were originally pressed into the press. Then, this wet briquette is taken to dry and air-dried before being transported and used.

Of course, Marin was in a hurry, so he didn't go to the sun or blow it, and directly dried the briquettes in the oven. And the way he ignited the fire was also very rough - throwing it directly onto the pile of charcoal on the red-hot blacksmith's stove, and it burned the outside of the briquettes red in a short while...

Then it is the specific use. It should be pointed out that the 12 holes of the upper and lower three briquettes must be aligned. Otherwise, the briquettes on the top are not easy to ignite, and the briquettes lit on the bottom are also easy to extinguish or burn poorly.

But no matter whether it is to put the red-hot first piece of honeycomb into the bottom of the stove, or to add the next two pieces of honeycomb and make the 12 holes line up, it is impossible to do it by hand. In particular, the first red-hot briquettes. So, at this time, Marin needs another "artifact" - tongs...

The poker looks like scissors, but the front part is not a pair of blades, but a pair of slender iron bars. Because there is no cutting edge, the two iron bars at the front end of the tongs can easily penetrate into two of the 12 holes of the briquette,

And with a little force, you can clamp the honeycomb, lift it up and put it in the furnace, or clamp the burnt honeycomb and replace it.

Moreover, because the iron bars can go through the holes of the briquettes, when adding the two pieces of briquettes above, people don't need to see whether the holes are aligned. Just stretch out the front end of the tongs and find the aligned holes to complete the alignment of the holes.

Therefore, to play briquettes, you must be equipped with an "artifact" such as tongs, otherwise it will be more troublesome. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, briquettes are now used, and there is no tongs, and the alignment of the briquettes can only be accomplished by stabbing down several times with an iron rod, which is very inconvenient.

After completing the ignition of the briquettes at the bottom and the addition of the two pieces of briquettes (or only one piece) above, the next step is to put the iron pan or kettle on the top of the stove.

To be honest, the briquette stove seems to have insufficient firepower, especially when cooking. Therefore, Marin didn't think about cooking with a briquette stove, but put a 5-liter large tin pot on it, and started to boil water...

In the early stage, only the briquette at the bottom was ignited, so the firepower was a bit insufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to fan the air inlet at the bottom with a fan to speed up the burning of the briquettes.

Then, Marin discovered a strange situation - there are no fans in Europe...

...

Don't laugh, Marin didn't brag, but Europe really doesn't have fans in this era...

Historically, it was in the 16th century that the Portuguese discovered that there were such things as fans in the world after they opened up routes in the Ming Dynasty (for details, you can search for "European fans" in Encyclopedia). Then, bring it back to Europe. In England, it is said that fans were not introduced until the end of the 17th century. Moreover, this is also because of the influence of the Portuguese princess Catherine marrying Charles II. Because, at that time, it was not only fans that were introduced to England with Queen Catherine, but also tea that had influenced Britain for hundreds of years...

Of course, the fan is not important, because Europe is not hot. However, tea directly exploded in England and became a favorite of the people.

But in this time and space, the Portuguese have not yet established a trade relationship with the Ming Dynasty, and only Marin has had a trade relationship with the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, at this time in Europe, there are no fans anywhere else.

And in Marin's hands, there is no plantain fan that later Chinese people used to fan the briquettes in the early days. In desperation, he had no choice but to take out a beautifully crafted folding fan and fan the air intake under the briquette stove for his subordinates.

Looking at the carefree look of his guards, Marin said distressedly:

"Be careful, that is a very precious fan!"

Can it be precious? There is an inscription of Li Dongyang on the folding fan. Although Ma Lin got a few folding fans with inscriptions from Li Dongyang, they are still treasures. Do you think the folding fan with the inscription on the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty is expensive? If Marin didn't have a fan in his hand now, he wouldn't have made such a move...

"Well, it seems that Ming's plantain fans need to be imported. It seems that the plantain fans are made of palmetto. It seems that Kong Tai should be notified to introduce a batch of palmetto seeds and plant them in Savannah in the southeast of North America..."

In fact, Marin can also make paper fans. However, the cost of paper fans is too high for most people to use. The plantain fan is low in cost, light in weight, and has a strong wind, which is a good tool for fanning the fire.

In the absence of a plantain fan, Marin thought about it and decided to ask the carpenters to make a few thinner square planks. Holding this kind of thin wooden board to fan the wind is also windy, although it is not as light and windy as a plantain fan, but it is barely usable...

Under Marin's extremely worried and pained eyes, Marin's guards worked hard to fan the wind, and finally cooked the first pot of hot water heated by a briquette stove in Europe...