Chapter 59 Human-powered Stone Mill
Liujia Village has a mill, which was built by the villagers together on the flat land next to the village ancestral hall.
This place is always the busiest during harvest time.
The open space was full of grain drying in the sun, and the small house of the mill was filled with people inside and outside.
Each household needs to queue up to use the grinder. In principle, whoever wants to use it first will use it first, and those who come later will naturally be queued at the back.
There are three stone mills in the mill. The mill never stops for 365 days a year, and people use it every day.
Because grinding is such a hard job, if people are not in a hurry to sell the grain, they choose to grind it slowly in several batches, or eat up the grain in the jar and then grind enough to last one or two months until it is gone.
Qin Yao was in a hurry to grind the food because the food at home was almost gone.
The last time I bought food was at the end of October last year. After a winter, the rice jar is almost empty.
Grinding wheat with a stone mill actually only grinds the outer skin into pieces. Then a special blower is needed to completely separate the skin and the wheat grains to obtain clean edible wheat grains.
Qin Yao didn't rely on Liu Ji, the useless guy, to do the job of grinding wheat. She asked him to cook at home and she carried the newly harvested wheat to the mill herself.
What farmers care about most is the harvest. When they go to the mill, they always ask, "How much wheat did you harvest this year?"
Everyone said it was okay, there was nothing unusual about the weather, and on average they could harvest about 200 kilograms per acre.
This yield per mu cannot be compared with the yield of thousands of kilograms per mu in later generations, but for Kaiyang County, it is very good to have such a high yield under rough farming conditions.
At this time, Qin Yao looked down at her own 160 kilograms of wheat. With her free-range farming, the average yield per mu was 80 kilograms, which was pretty good.
"Madam Qin! I'm ready now, please come in."
In the mill, someone finished grinding and called Qin Yao who was waiting in line, and Qin Yao hurriedly carried the wheat in.
Finally it was her turn.
The previous family had already cleaned the wheat husks on the stone mill before leaving. Qin Yao had just stood at the door and watched for a while, then she tried it herself and felt it was okay.
However, even someone as strong as her felt frustrated by this efficiency.
It took Qin Yao an hour to grind all 160 kilograms of wheat.
Seeing her speed, everyone around was stunned. One can imagine how tiring this job is for ordinary people.
Thinking of the modern rice mill that only takes a few minutes to finish a job, Qin Yao was walking home carrying the ground wheat, wondering if there was any way to improve the efficiency of the stone mill.
Even if it can't improve efficiency, it would be fine if it can save some effort.
Forget about using livestock to pull the mill. Those in the village who have cows and mules worship them like ancestors and are reluctant to let them pull the mill.
Moreover, cattle and horses need to eat food and grass when they move, which increases the cost.
Walking across the bridge, Qin Yao suddenly stopped, looking at the rushing river water, and an idea flashed in her mind.
The river in the village has a lot of water in three seasons of the year, which is ready-made power!
Qin Yao has participated in the water conservancy project of the base, so it is not difficult to design a waterwheel suitable for the river in Liujia Village.
Besides, hasn't she always been thinking about how to make some money? This water-powered stone mill will definitely have a market in the countryside.
Qin Yao got a little excited when she thought of this.
The villagers don't have much cash, so she can charge a certain percentage of the grain. In this way, in the long run, Liujia Village alone can earn a lot of grain.
There weren't many people in the family, so if she hunted a little, wouldn't she have to work hard on the farm?
Thinking of not having to farm, Qin Yao didn't want to delay for a second, and she trotted home carrying 160 kilograms of wheat.
Liu Ji had already borrowed the wind bucket from the old house, and was waiting for Qin Yao to bring back the ground wheat before starting to sift it.
"I'm back!"
Liu Ji came up with hot water. His wife didn't let him go out to rest today. She was so nice.
Qin Yao put down her burden, took a big sip of hot water, and returned the bowl to Liu Ji.
"The wheat has been ground. Please sift it out. I'm going to go to Carpenter Liu's house first. Please save some food for me at noon. I may be back later."
After giving the instructions, he turned around and walked out the door, heading towards Carpenter Liu's house.
Carpenter Liu's house is located in the center of the village, very close to Liu Dafu's house. Previously, bandits burned the backyard of Liu Dafu's house and almost burned Carpenter Liu's wood as well.
Fortunately, everyone put out the fire in time and his wood was saved.
Now Qin Yao wants to make a waterwheel, and these are all ready-made materials.
When Qin Yao arrived, Carpenter Liu and his family had just finished breakfast. Except for himself who was still planing wood, the rest of the family were busy drying and sifting wheat.
Last time, Qin Yao gave Carpenter Liu the design of a bunk bed, and Carpenter Liu was very happy. This time, when he saw Qin Yao, he guessed that she might have some new ideas, so he enthusiastically led her into the house and asked her what kind of furniture she wanted to make.
Qin Yao stepped on the fluffy wood shavings on the ground and came to Carpenter Liu's big table. She skillfully found his pen and ink, ground the ink, picked up the pen, and drew a rough outline of the waterwheel on a piece of waste board.
He motioned Carpenter Liu to come over and pointed to the picture and said, "I want to make a vertical waterwheel like this to drive the stone mill. I saw the height difference of the water flow in front of my house. I just need to make one this big."
She raised her hand and gestured, and it was about the same height as her.
Carpenter Liu had never seen anything like this windmill before. When he heard Qin Yao say that this waterwheel could use the difference in water flow to create power to drive the heavy stone mill to turn, he couldn't imagine what the picture would be like.
Fortunately, Qin Yao patiently explained the principle to him again and again, and used the waste wood in his house to fill water and did a small test to demonstrate the effect. In addition, Carpenter Liu had a strong ability to understand, so he immediately understood and exclaimed:
"There is actually such a wonderful thing, Madam Qin, where did you see it?"
Qin Yao replied: "When I was a child, I saw it in a book about water conservancy."
Carpenter Liu said "oh" and stopped asking questions.
All skills must be kept secret by each family. It would be bad if you ask about them rashly and violate their rules.
What Qin Yao liked most was the fact that Carpenter Liu would not ask too many questions, thus saving her the trouble of explaining herself.
After understanding the principle, Qin Yao explained it again using a simple diagram, and Carpenter Liu immediately knew what she wanted.
In addition to the waterwheel, a solid piece of wood is also needed as the bearing shaft to withstand the impact of the water flow and transfer this force to the rocker arm that drives the millstone.
Qin Yao said: "It doesn't need to be made very sophisticated, as long as the entire power system can work."
Carpenter Liu looked at the rough drawing on the scrap board and reminded her, "To make this, a lot of good materials will be wasted. Madam Qin, you have to be prepared for the money."
Qin Yao wanted to just wave it off and not worry about the money,
but her wallet was empty, so she had to ask carefully about the approximate price.
Carpenter Liu said that since she had helped him gain some experience, he would do it for her first and waive the labor fee, but the materials alone would still cost one or two taels of silver.
Qin Yao made up her mind and said, "Do it!"
(End of this chapter)