The development of technology tended to be in the form of branches. When a key technical problem was solved, the products behind the technical problem would naturally develop one after another. In Gwen's eyes, the 'Arcana Transfer Cylinder' that Rebecca and the egg Nicholas made was such a key technical problem. It looked like a core part of a printing machine, but what it solved behind the scenes was the key step to transform traditional magic into industrial printing products.
As long as the key step was taken, the various printing technologies based on the principle of 'Arcana Transfer Cylinder' would naturally develop.
The only thing that was out of Gwen's expectation was Rebecca's keen ability of 'new things' and her unrestrained thinking.
He told Rebecca about the concept of fax and online printing. The girl was particularly happy. She talked a lot about her ideas and subsequent improvement plans. In the end, she even ran to Gwen's desk and grabbed a pen and paper to draw a lot of sketches. She used them to build the magic network fax workflow in her imagination and the matching miniaturized printing equipment with communication functions. In fact, Gwen felt that such equipment should be called 'printer', but in the face of the unique working principle of the Arcana Transfer Cylinder, he decided not to dwell on the conceptual problem.
"Ancestor, Ancestor, do you think this is feasible?" Rebecca held the sketches she just drew and ran to Gwen happily. Because she was too anxious, the girl's face and hands were stained with ink. "I think that in addition to the machine that can print newspapers in large batches, places like the government office also need a miniaturized printing machine to print documents. These machines can all be connected together …"
Gwen looked at Rebecca. Looking at the ink that was accidentally stained on her face and her dancing with joy, he could not help but think of something that Heti once said.
Although the Cecil family was not close to the other nobles, the trend of comparison had always been popular among the nobles. In the evaluation circle of the noble ladies in the south, Rebecca had always been known as' clumsy '. Her clumsiness in etiquette classes was regarded as a typical example of' born slow-witted '. Her passion for' exploring 'and studying machinery in the castle always made her appear dirty in front of everyone, which had especially aggravated the negative impression that she, the last descendant of the Cecil family, was the' last descendant of the Cecil family '…
Gwen's lips curled up. How could those noble ladies who could only drink tea and grow flowers in the castle and needed eight steps to even touch the scissors be smarter than his deer?
"Ancestor, what are you laughing at?" Rebecca asked curiously. "Is there a problem with the process I designed?"
"No problem. I believe that this set of things will play a great role in the operation of the Government Office." Gwen smiled and waved his hand. "But we still have to take it step by step. First, we have to build a prototype of a large-scale printing machine to solve the bottleneck of newspaper and book printing."
At present, the general education had been implemented in the territory for more than a year, and the effect was obvious. However, with the rapid increase of the population and the rapid expansion of the territory, the existing general education model was bound to face challenges, and one of the most important challenges was textbooks.
Gwen needed a large number of cheap, uniform and standard textbooks. Only by covering the whole Southern Territory with the general education could he successfully sweep away the haze of ignorance that shrouded the people.
At present, the textbooks used in Cecil General College were still "urgent products" printed in small batches by traditional craftsmanship, and they could barely cope with the current scale of teaching. To print enough textbooks to meet the needs of millions or even tens of millions of people in the Southern Territory … Without the industrial printing machine, it would be an impossible task.
That was why Gwen attached so much importance to the printing machine project led by Rebecca.
He turned to Nicholas Egg. "Nicholas, how long will it take to build a prototype?"
The silver ball floating next to Nicholas answered confidently, "One and a half days at most, including the time for debugging and designing the assembly line. I'm ninety-nine percent sure that I can succeed on the first try because the most important arcana transfer cylinder is already done. The rest of the structure is as easy as pinching a few gears for me. "
"Very good. Let's build a prototype first. The sooner the better."
The silver ball floated up and down slightly, "You'll see it soon."
After that, they discussed the work of the Research Institute of Arcana Technology and finalized the reward plan for the members of the research team who made outstanding contributions. Rebecca left Gwen's study with the sketch she just made in satisfaction.
Humming a casual tune and walking briskly, the heir of the Cecil family walked through the corridor. Whether it was her humming or her undignified way of walking, it did not look like something a noble lady would do. However, everyone in the mansion was already familiar with this style of a noble lady. Even Heti, who had always been strict, had now given up correcting Rebecca's behavior.
When she turned the corner of the corridor, Rebecca suddenly stopped. She saw that the door not far ahead was slightly open, and there was light leaking out from inside.
She recognized that it was Betty's room and walked briskly to see what Betty was doing.
When she pushed the door open, she saw the muddle-headed maid who had followed everyone out of the old territory and followed her until now sitting at the small desk beside the bed, her head lowered as if she was looking at something.
The furnishings in the room were simple. Aside from the necessary bed, table, and chairs, there was only a small wardrobe and two small boxes in the corner.
A slightly old pan was hanging on the wall beside the bed. It looked a little weird, but it was Betty's treasure. Now that Betty was no longer the lowly kitchen maid, she hung her most precious pan in the room and did not let anyone touch it.
Rebecca gently knocked on the door next to her. The sudden sound startled the maid. The latter looked up and quickly stood up when she saw Rebecca. But before she bowed, Rebecca interrupted her. "I'm fine. I'm just here to see what you're doing."
Betty raised her hand and pointed to the small desk beside her with her signature blank expression. "… Reading."
Rebecca curiously leaned over to take a look and saw a book called "The Wizard and the Potion Bottle" open on the desk. It was a very easy to read book. Although the title had the word "wizard", the actual content was basically a simple short story. She remembered that she had such a book when she was young. It was one of the earliest books for the children of the rich class in this era.
The book was very old and had obviously been read many times. The handwriting was slightly blurred in some places, and the edges of the paper were badly worn. But it could still be seen that it had been carefully preserved to this day.
"This is … lent to me by Mr. Santis," Betty explained the origin of the book. "I'm almost done reading it, and I have to return it."
Rebecca glanced at Betty in surprise. At this moment, a thought suddenly popped into her mind, which was usually in a state of flight.
Betty was only two years younger than her.
However, this girl, who was only two years younger than her, had only just learned the basic words. She was only able to understand a book that she had already finished reading when she was seven years old, and she was reading it with relish.
And if it were not for her ancestor's insistence on popularizing general education, this little maid would never have had the chance to read this book in her life.
Rebecca blinked. She had never treated Betty as an inferior person. She got along with everyone in the castle as if they were family, including the lowest-level servants who shoveled horse dung and the kitchen maids like Betty. When she was very young, she even took Betty and several other maids of the same age to organize expeditions in the small castle. They played like sisters.
But why had she never noticed that … Betty did not even have a single book?
Rebecca was a little confused. She could not understand why she had never noticed this in the past ten years of her life. But she felt that the reason why she noticed it today was that the success of the "Arcane Printing Press" was just around the corner.
Her ancestor once said that when the printing press was popularized, the age of printing would come. The monopoly of knowledge and the dissemination of knowledge by a few people would be completely broken. By then, even the most ordinary and poor family would have a few books of their own at home.
Industrial printing was an indispensable part in popularizing Cecil's "general education" to the whole southern region.
"Betty, do you want a book? A book of your own. "
Betty was a little confused, but she thought for a while and nodded hard. "Yes."
Rebecca smiled. "Then I'll give you a few books later!"
In fact, she could give Betty a lot of books right now. She had both the simple books for beginners and the real magic books, but she felt that those books did not meet her requirements. She wanted to give Betty the most suitable books after the printing press was put into use and the first batch of books produced by industrial mass production was printed. Only then would it be meaningful.
Betty was even more confused after hearing Rebecca's words. After a long while, she said in a daze, "But books are very precious …"
"No, books won't be so precious anymore. My ancestor once said that knowledge can be precious, but it shouldn't be noble, let alone expensive." Rebecca shook her head. After noticing Betty's confused eyes, she smiled. "It's okay. It's okay if you don't understand. You'll see it with your own eyes soon. From now on, every ordinary person in this land will not only be literate, but also be able to read newspapers and have their own books! Lots and lots of books! "
Betty opened her eyes wide and looked at the "viscountess" who had grown up with her. After a long while, she said, "My lady … the way you talk is a bit like the master."
Rebecca scratched her hair. "Yeah, I think so too."
…
The first usable industrial printing press was completed earlier than Gwen expected.
On the afternoon of the second day, he saw the machine made by Nicholas Eggy on the "mechanical round table" in the Mechanical Research Institute. It was a big machine that was processed, assembled, and tested by Mr. Egg himself.
Together with Gwen, Heti, Rebecca, the general manager of the project, and Godwin, the president of Cecil Press and the head of the press and publication department, came to the Mechanical Research Institute to check the machine. Orlando.
The new printing press was like a crouching iron monster on the ground. There were long metal grooves extending out from the front and back. The grooves were probably the structure for transporting paper. In the center of the machine, there was a very important "Arcane Transfer Cylinder". It was fixed on a flat plate in the center of the machine by a movable bracket. The outline of gears and connecting rods could be vaguely seen inside the bracket.
Under the transfer device, there was a channel for paper to pass through, and at the bottom, there was an ink board.
Other than the main structure, there was also an "accessory structure" on the side of the printing press. On the top of the square metal box, which was half the height of a person, Gwen saw the "large color palette (keyboard)" that Rebecca mentioned before, and the "editing mechanism" that was used to control the projection crystal inside the Arcane Transfer Cylinder. Dozens of dazzling buttons were arranged in a fan shape and installed on a slanted metal panel. On the top of the metal panel, there was also a small projection crystal.
The projection crystal should be used to provide a "preview".
Just from its appearance alone, the complexity of this device was far beyond any of the arcanotech machines that had ever been made in the fief.
If Nicholas Eggy didn't know about Nicholas Eggy's ability, With Egghead's ability, Gawain would never believe that this thing was created in a day.
"See, I told you--you'll see it soon enough!" said Nicholas Dorian. Egg always floated beside the new machine and said with a tone full of pride.
Gwen looked at the industrial printing press in front of him in amazement, but Nicholas Eggy was even more surprised. The shape of Eggy, which was originally a spherical silver metal ball, now looked a little squarish.
Although it was not angular, it was indeed a little squarish.
"How did you … become like this?"
"Oh, I've been working on this printing press for a while. I'm tired. It's okay, I'll be fine after a nap."
Gwen was speechless.
What was wrong with this ball?
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