King of German Mercenaries

Romeni is a glass artisan who signed a lifetime contract and was previously sold to Marin in Venice, and is the main person in charge of the glasshouse arranged by Marin.

Before, Mo Zhigen and Bartle had brought a batch of oriental herbal seeds and instructed Romeni to build a glass greenhouse to cultivate these seeds. So, Romeni took over the task.

On the island of Texel, Romeni built a small glasshouse to cultivate various herbs brought by Morigen and Battelle.

Later, these successfully cultivated herbs were tested outside Texel Island, and most of them survived. Moreover, the most inconspicuous Artemisia annua was specially arranged by Marin to plant it in a manor.

Marin knew very well that it was the legendary Artemisia annua, the source of artemisinin for the treatment of malaria. Therefore, after Marin occupied East Frisland and established the capital of Aurich, he built a new manor beside the horse farm in the north of the city, dedicated to the cultivation of Artemisia annua. Of course, other herbs were also grown. It can be said that this manor beside the horse farm has become a herbal medicine base.

However, Marin has recently come up with the idea of ​​growing spices and vegetables. As a result, Romeni was called from Texel Island to Aurich, and asked him to build another glass greenhouse to experiment with spices such as ginger and pepper. Plus, when winter comes, Marin will be able to eat fresh vegetables.

Marin's tastes vary widely among people of this age. Europeans in this era were especially heavy-mouthed, especially male nobles, and they liked pepper. The barbecue should be dipped in pepper, and a piece of bread is liked to be dipped in spices. It seems that they don't eat spices and can't show their noble status.

Also, men mostly like to eat meat and don't like to eat vegetables. No wonder, because Europeans in this era eat vegetables raw. What does it taste like raw vegetables? Of course it's bad. So, no one likes to eat vegetables.

But Marin knows that eating vegetables can help supplement vitamins and be good for health. Also, the vegetables are well fried and delicious. Especially in winter, when vegetables are lacking, it is very uncomfortable to eat meat all day long. In the past few winters, Marin has often been craving vegetables...

Before, because of the need to grow herbs and not much caustic soda, glass manufacturing could not be scaled up. But now it's different. Marin has bought so much sodium carbonate from Venice that he can't use it up. So Marin plans to start looking at manufacturing glass products and build a few more glasshouses.

So Romeni took a group of Venetian glassmakers and started firing glass to build a new glasshouse in the north of Aurich.

When Marin was free, he went to watch them make glass and build greenhouses. However, after arriving there, Marin discovered that the glass blocks fired by Romeni and others were a bit small...

How small is it? bigger than a palm...

As for why it's so small? The reason is also very simple, that is, when craftsmen such as Romeni make glass sheets, they are all blown...

Yes, these glass products are all blown by artisans. Each glass craftsman, using a special tube, with a special skill, blows the liquid glass that will condense and blows it into the shape they want before the liquid glass cools down...

Under the processing of these skilled craftsmen, the glass liquid is blown into the shape of cups, bottles, or other works of art...

However, the flat glass pieces are so small that when building a glass greenhouse, a glass greenhouse is made up of many pieces of glass. Therefore, the glass greenhouse that Romeni presided over, the frame is so dense. Then, the gap between the frames is so small that a piece of glass that is the size of a palm fits in...

However, because the frame density is too high, the light transmittance is greatly reduced...

Marin suddenly remembered that the technology for producing large pieces of glass seems to have only appeared in 1688, as if the rolling method was used. It is to roll the softened glass liquid to be cooled horizontally with a metal roller to make it flat.

Although, the top surface of the metal roll will be a little rough in the end, but it's fine, just use sandpaper to polish it brightly. Unlike the previous blowing method, because the liquid glass cools quickly, there is no time to blow large pieces of glass.

Because of the emergence of the rolling method, large pieces of glass can not only be produced, but also the cost is low. After all, glass blowing is a relatively advanced craft that ordinary people cannot do. If each piece of glass is blown by a master craftsman, the cost is indeed quite high. The rolling method can be easily done by ordinary craftsmen, and the efficiency is extremely high, and the natural cost is low.

Marin mentioned the rolling method, which immediately aroused great interest in Romeni. So they made a groove with parallel sides, and a smooth copper rod.

After the glass melted in the crucible, the craftsmen poured the glass into another container, and when the liquid glass began to thicken, poured it into the groove. Then, the copper rods are placed on the edges of the grooves that are flush on both sides, and they are rolled over like a stone drum to press down the protruding surface. In this way, the whole large piece of glass like a flat plate is formed.

Next, the shaped large glass blocks are sent to the annealing furnace together with the grooves for annealing. After annealing, the craftsman took out the large flat glass with a flat bottom and a slight burr on the top, and sanded it with sandpaper. This kind of sandpaper is not the sandpaper produced by the industry in later generations, but shark skin. Sharkskin itself is very rough, just right to be used as a natural sandpaper...

After sanding the top surface, a piece of flat glass is born. Of course, because of the craftsmanship, sometimes there may be problems with the whole piece of glass, but even so, most of the glass is qualified and can be used as door and window glass.

Most importantly, his production efficiency has greatly improved. An ordinary craftsman can quickly produce large pieces of flat glass. Unlike before, the size of the glass depends purely on the vital capacity of the glass craftsman. A glass craftsman with a large lung capacity can blow out larger pieces of glass, but with a small lung capacity, he can only blow out a piece of glass the size of a palm...

Immediately after the large sheets of flat glass, the glasshouse at Marin Farms was modified. The original dense glass frame was removed and replaced by a large gap glass frame. In this way, the larger the glass sheet and the less frame, the better the light transmission of the glass greenhouse...

As for growing tropical crops in a glass greenhouse, it requires high temperature. This is also very easy. When the weather is cold, you can get a briquettes stove and boil water in the greenhouse. The steam of hot water, which permeates the entire greenhouse, can completely raise the temperature. In the daytime, in order to get better light, we need to send some women to go in and use a rag to wipe the glass surface inside the glasshouse. Because the water vapor adheres to the inside of the glass, it will cause blurring and prevent sunlight from entering. In the evening, this is not necessary, the glass is smeared, and it is only necessary to send a few serf women in when the sun rises the next morning to clean the glass regularly.

Although, the cost of building a greenhouse is quite high. Using coal as fuel costs a lot. But what could be better than transporting spices or something from far away India?

In fact, glass greenhouses grow spice crops, and Marin is only slightly interested. And he is a little more interested in growing out-of-season vegetables to satisfy his appetite...

Large pieces of flat glass, just because Marin wanted to eat out-of-season vegetables, appeared like this...