Sword of Dawn

Page 187

"The source of radiation is inside the drum." Rebecca pointed to the shiny magic rune at the end of the device, "Look, this is actually the rune substrate on the base of the magic net communicator used to connect the crystal..."

To be honest, Gawain really didn't recognize it—but after he recognized it, he had to marvel at Rebecca's unfettered creativity.

How did this girl come up with the idea to take out the parts of a magic web communicator and stuff them into a printing cylinder?Can the technical routes of these two things be mixed together in such a magical world!

Rebecca was still explaining the technical details in the drum. She obviously noticed the surprised look on Gawain's face. Being able to surprise this old ancestor who always thought ahead of everyone else obviously brought this girl Feeling a huge sense of accomplishment, she said with joy: "...I didn't just stuff the projection crystal of the magic net communicator into it, but carefully adjusted it, in order to ensure that the arcane phantom projected by the crystal can be accurately landed. On the inside of the cylinder and without distortion, I placed a set of lenses around the crystal, like the lenses on the 'crystal resonator'...

"In addition, I also redesigned an input device that is matched with the arcane transfer cylinder, which is used to transmit images and texts to the projection crystal inside. Stuff: I made an extra-large 'palette' for all 28 letters and several commonly used symbols, so that the person who makes the plate can edit the text directly on the machine, of course, if the 'palette' is not used , you can also directly 'take a picture' of the content written by your hand on the input device, and it can also be converted into a picture projected by the projection crystal on the inside of the cylinder wall. However, these things are still relatively troublesome to operate, because ordinary people are not like mages You can directly use magic to control the projection technique. They have to use a lot of rune triggers to adjust those images. I tried it in private. Even people who can read and write need to practice for a long time before they can master how to use the input device... ..."

Rebecca Barabara said a lot, but Gawain was stunned when he listened to it—it wasn't that he couldn't keep up with the girl's train of thought, but he never thought that the girl could learn to learn without a teacher. After tinkering with the concept of "keyboard", I'm afraid this silly roe deer will become the ancestor of future keyboard warriors...

Of course, the admiration for the "keyboard" is only secondary. What Gao Wen was really amazed at was the working process of the entire device—directly "scanning" real objects or paper, and then transmitting the picture to the projection crystal, and then using the projection crystal Generate arcane phantoms, project the phantoms on the back of the mithril alloy coating to produce "hot plates", and then transfer these pictures to paper by the "hot plates"...

This process is so delicate, so interlocking, so...beyond his expectations.

And all of this, he hardly participated in.

He only drew a sketch for Rebecca that had no practical value at all, and explained to the girl the characteristics and requirements of the new printing machine. As for how this printing machine should be realized...he himself never I figured it out.

But Rebecca succeeded... No, it wasn't her who succeeded, but her and the team she led succeeded.

This project should be attributed to the entire Institute of Magic Technology.

Naturally, it also includes the Arcanist "Mr. Cohen" who originally belonged to the traditional mage from the royal capital.

Rebecca was still happily describing her unconstrained technical ideas, but she soon noticed that Gawain's expression became a little strange, so she couldn't help but stop: "...Master Ancestor, what are you thinking about? "

Gawain woke up from his thoughts. He didn't answer, but stroked Rebecca's hair pamperingly: "It's nothing, you did a great job. And that arcanist named Cohen, he did it." It's not bad either."

As he realized before, the technology accumulation in this world has already matured, and the wisdom and creativity of the local people have never been lacking. Even the traditional mages who are regarded as "stubborn and backward" are not due to lack of wisdom and talent. seem backward.

Gao Wen, a soul from the earth, can't be an inventor or a prophet or sage in this world that takes the magical technology route, but he can find people with these abilities and give them the right environment and conditions, Let these talented people grow up.

The "Cecil R&D-Production System" he painstakingly established has begun to gradually demonstrate its value and strength.

Rebecca blinked her eyes. She didn't know what her ancestors were sighing inwardly, but this did not prevent her from rubbing her head proudly under Gawain's palm. Relationships are rarely so harmonious.

After rubbing it twice, the girl stopped suddenly, with a thoughtful look on her face.

Gao Wen became curious: "What did you think of?"

"Ancestor, I suddenly thought of something just now... You said that the technology in the magic net communicator is used in this transfer tube and input device, so can this whole set of things be connected with the magic net communication network? ?”

Gawain stared dumbfounded at the girl in front of him, and even Nicholas, who had been silent beside him, gave out a strange buzzing sound from his body. Obviously, this Iron Ball star was also touched by Rebecca's thoughts.

Rebecca continued to say: "We can connect the printing machine to the magic net. Anyway, its core part is a magic net communication projection crystal. As long as some adjustments are made, its crystal and the magic net communicator will The signal is completely ok...what did you call it...oh, it's completely compatible. In this way, people at both ends of the magic network communicator can not only talk, but also directly send documents to Print it out... the government affairs offices in various parts of the southern border will definitely use this function!"

Gao Wen continued to be dumbfounded: "..."

Seeing Gawain's reaction, Rebecca couldn't help feeling worried: "My lord ancestor...what are you talking about, my idea...isn't it too unrealistic?"

Gawain blinked, and looked at Rebecca in front of him like he was looking at a time traveler: How did she manage the jumping speed of her thoughts?

After a long time, he opened his mouth to break the silence: "Let me introduce two things to you... one is called fax, and the other is called remote printing..."

Chapter 0450 Prelude to the Printing Era

The development of technology often takes the shape of a tree branch. When a key technical difficulty is overcome, many products behind this technical difficulty will develop one after another. In Gao Wen's view, Rebecca and Nicholas The "arcane transfer cylinder" produced by the egg is such a key technical difficulty - it seems to be just the core component of a printing machine, but what it solves behind it is the transformation of traditional illusion magic into industrial printing products key step.

As long as this key step is taken, various printing technologies based on the principle of "arcane transfer printing" will develop naturally.

The only thing that surprised Gao Wen was Rebecca's keen ability to "detect new things" and her unconstrained thinking.

He told Rebecca about the concept of fax and network printing, and the girl seemed very happy. She clattered a lot of her own ideas and follow-up improvement plans, and even ran to Gawain's desk at the end, She grabbed a pen and paper and drew a lot of sketches—to build her imaginary Monet fax workflow, as well as the corresponding miniaturized printing equipment with communication functions.In fact, Gao Wen felt that this kind of equipment should be called a "printer"... But in the face of the peculiar working principle of the arcane transfer device, he decided not to get entangled in this conceptual problem.

"My lord, my lord, do you think this is feasible?" Rebecca grabbed the sketch she had just drawn, and ran up to Gao Wen happily. Because she drew too impatiently, the girl's face and hands were stained with ink , "I think that in addition to the machines that can print newspapers in large quantities, places like government affairs halls also need small printing machines for printing documents and so on. These machines can all be connected together..."

Gawain looked at Rebecca, at the ink that was accidentally stained on her face, and at her dancing happily, he couldn't help but think of what Hetty once said -

Although the Cecil family doesn't have close contacts with other nobles, comparisons between nobles have always been popular. In the circle of Miss Nobles in the southern border, Rebecca has always been known as "clumsy". The clumsiness in the course is regarded as a typical example of "natural dullness", and she is keen on "exploring" in the castle and studying the behavior of machinery, which always makes herself appear dirty in front of everyone, which especially aggravates the attitude of others towards her. The negative image of this "descendant of the Cecil family"...

The corners of Gawain's mouth curled up—how ​​could those noble ladies who could only drink tea and grow flowers in the castle slowly, and even touched the scissors in eight steps, be smarter than his roe deer?

"Master Zu, what are you laughing at?" Rebecca asked curiously, "Is there something wrong with the process I designed?"

"No problem, I believe this set of things will play a big role in the operation of the Government Affairs Office," Gao Wen smiled and waved his hands, "But we still have to take it step by step, first make a prototype of a large printing machine, and solve the problem. The bottleneck of newspaper and book printing."

At present, general education has been implemented in the territory for more than a year, and the effect is of course obvious. However, with the rapid increase of population and the rapid expansion of territory, the existing general education model will also face challenges, and one of the most important challenges is It is the textbook.

Gao Wen needs a large number of cheap textbooks with uniform standards. Only by letting these textbooks cover the entire southern border along with general education can he successfully sweep away the haze of ignorance that hangs over the people.

At present, the textbooks used by Cecil General College are still "emergency supplies" printed in small batches by traditional crafts, which are already stretched to meet the current teaching scale, and it is necessary to print enough to meet the needs of millions or even thousands of students in the entire southern region. The textbooks needed to literate [-] people... It would be an impossible task without industrial printing presses.

That's why Gao Wen attached so much importance to the printing machine project led by Rebecca.

He turned to Nicholas Egg: "Nicholas, how long does it take to make a prototype?"

The silver-white ball floating next to it made a confident voice: "One and a half days at most - counting the time for debugging and designing the assembly line exploded diagram. I have ninety-nine percent sure that I can succeed at the first time - because the most critical arcane transfer The barrel is done, and the remaining structure is no more difficult for me than pinching a few gears."

"Very good, let's make a prototype first, the sooner the better."

The silver-white ball floated up and down slightly: "You will see it soon."

After discussing a little bit about the work of the Institute of Magic Technology, and finalizing the reward plan for the members of the research team who made outstanding contributions, Rebecca left Gawain's study with the sketch she had just drawn contented.

Humming a casual ditty and briskly walking, the Cecil heir walked through the corridors—whether it was the act of humming as he walked or the way he walked without the least bit of dignity, it didn't seem like It was done by an orthodox noble lady, but everyone in this mansion has long been familiar with this style of painting. Even Hetty, who has always been strict, has given up on correcting Rebecca's behavior until now. .

When walking around the corner of the corridor, Rebecca stopped suddenly - she saw the door not far ahead was slightly open, and a light leaked from inside.

She recognized Betty's room, and walked briskly over to see what Betty was doing.

After the door was pushed open, she saw that the little maid who had fled from the old territory with everyone in a daze and followed her to this day was sitting at the small desk next to the bed, looking down at something intently.

The furnishings in the room are very simple, except for the necessary beds, tables and chairs, there is only a small wardrobe and two small boxes in the corner.

A slightly old frying pan hung on the wall next to the bed. It looked rather weird, but it was Betty's treasure—now Betty was no longer the lowest kitchen maid, so she put her most precious The frying pan was hung in the room and no one was allowed to touch it.

Rebecca knocked lightly on the door next to her. The sudden sound startled the little maid. She raised her head and stood up quickly when she saw Rebecca, but Rebecca interrupted her before she could bow. He said to her: "I'm fine—I just came to see what you're doing."

Betty raised her finger to the small desk next to her with that trademark blank expression: "...Reading."

Rebecca looked over curiously, and saw a copy of "Wizards and Potion Bottles" spread out on the desk. The actual content is basically a simple short story. She remembers that she also had such a book when she was young.

The book is old and has obviously been flipped through many times, the handwriting is slightly blurred in some places, and the edges of the paper are also badly worn, but it can still be seen that it has been treated with care and preserved to this day.

"This is...Mr. Santis lent it to me," Betty explained the origin of the book, "I'm almost finished reading it, and I'm going to return it after I finish it."

Rebecca glanced at Betty in some surprise. At this moment, a feeling suddenly popped up in her mind, which was usually in a state of flying:

Betty was only two years younger than her.

However, this girl, who is only two years younger than her, has only just learned the basic words, and she has just been able to read an enlightenment book that she was tired of reading when she was seven years old, and she read it with gusto.

And if it wasn't for her ancestors who insisted on promoting general education, this little maid probably wouldn't have had the chance to touch this book in her entire life.

Rebecca blinked. She had never treated Betty as an "inferior person". She got along with everyone in the castle like a family member, even the lowest handyman who shoveled horse manure and Betty. The kitchen maid, when she was very young, she even took Betty and several other young maids of similar age to organize a small castle adventure, and they played like sisters.

But why has she never noticed... Betty doesn't even have a book.

Rebecca became a little confused. She couldn't figure out why she hadn't paid attention to this kind of thing in the past ten years of her life, but she felt that the reason why she noticed it today was because the success of the "Arcane Printing Press" was in sight.

My ancestors once said that when the printing press becomes popular, the printing age will come, and the monopoly of a few people on knowledge and knowledge dissemination channels will be completely broken. Should have a few books of its own.

Industrial printing is an essential part of promoting Cecil's "general education" to the entire southern region.

"Betty, do you want a book? Your own book."

Betty became a little confused, but after thinking about it seriously, she nodded vigorously: "Yeah."

Rebecca laughed: "I'll give you a few books after a while!"

In fact, she can send Betty a lot of books now, whether it is simple enlightenment books or real magic books, but she thinks those books do not meet her requirements-she wants to wait for the printing press to be practical, and the first batch of books will be used. After the books produced by industrial mass production are printed out, it makes sense to select suitable ones and send them to Betty.

After hearing Rebecca's words, Betty was puzzled for a longer time, before she said in a daze, "But books are very precious..."

"No, books will not be so precious anymore. My ancestors once said that knowledge can be precious, but it should not be noble, let alone expensive," Rebecca shook her head, and after noticing Betty's confused eyes, she Laughed, "It's okay, it's okay if you don't understand, and you will see it with your own eyes soon—from now on, every ordinary person in this land can not only read, read newspapers, but also read books." Own your own book! Lots and lots of books!"

Betty opened her eyes wide and stared at the "Miss Viscount" who could be said to have grown up with her in a daze. It took a long time before she said: "Miss...this way of speaking is a bit like a master."

Rebecca scratched her hair: "Hey, yeah, I think so too."

……

The first working industrial printing press was completed a little earlier than Gawain had expected.

In the afternoon of the second day only, he saw this large machine that was processed, assembled, and debugged by Mr. Nicholas Egg on the "Mechanical Round Table" of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering.

Together with Gao Wen, Hetty, Rebecca, who is the general manager of the project, and Godwin Orlando, the president of the Cecil Newspaper and the head of the press and publication department, came to the Mechanical Research Institute to accept the equipment.

The new printing machine is like a steel monster crouching on the ground. There are long metal grooves extending out from the front and back. The grooves should be the structure for transporting paper, and the very important one can be seen in the center of the machine. The "arcane transfer cylinder" is fixed above a flat plate in the center of the machine by a movable bracket, and the outlines of gears and connecting rods can be faintly seen inside the bracket.

And below the transfer device, there are guide slots for the paper to pass through, and the ink plate at the bottom.

In addition to these main structures, there is also an "accessory structure" on the side of the printing machine that looks like a separate machine. On the top of the square metal box that is as tall as half a person, Gawain saw the "large structure" mentioned by Rebecca. Color palette (keyboard)” and the “editing organ” used to control the projection crystal inside the arcane transfer cylinder, dozens of dazzling keys are arranged in a fan shape and installed on a slanted metal panel, And on the top of the metal panel, you can also see a small projection crystal.

That projection crystal should be used to provide "preview".

Just from the appearance, the complexity of this device far exceeds any kind of magical machine manufactured in the territory before.

If he hadn't known Nicholas Dan Zong's ability, Gao Wen would never have believed that this thing was made in a day.

"Look, let me tell you—you'll see it soon!" Nicholas Dan always floated beside the new machine, and said with strong pride in his tone.

Gao Wen looked at the industrial printing machine in amazement, but he was even more surprised by the shape of Nicholas Dan Zong—this silver-white metal ball that was originally spherical, now looks a bit square.

Although it is not to the point of being angular, it is indeed a bit square.

"How...how did you become like this?"

"Oh, I've been working on this printing machine for a while, and I'm tired—it's okay, just go back to sleep."

Gao Wen: "..."

What's wrong with this ball?

Chapter 0451 The Crystallization of Wisdom

In fact, to be honest, Gao Wen would occasionally reflect on whether there was something wrong with the way he recruited people and built his territory, so that the people (balls/fishes/light bulbs, etc.) gathered around him were so distinctive, these Guys with distinctive features are of course beyond doubt in terms of ability, but their distinctive features can sometimes make a good thing embarrassing - Nicholas Egg is undoubtedly an expert in this regard.

This ball can even change its square, how can it be reasonable.

After this new type of printing machine comes out, it’s not easy to record a credit book—you can say that other project leaders are hard-working and dedicated, so you can say that you are sick from overwork, so tired that you vomit blood, and you can’t leave the line of fire for minor injuries. You will write about mechanical research later. So here it is written that the director has grown twelve sides due to exhaustion - if you don't attach seven or eight illustrations and two pages of explanatory text, you have to suspect that the brain that wrote this article was caught by the door...

"You... you've worked hard..." Gao Wen looked at the iron ball star from the corner of his eyes, "After this project is over, you can rest for two days..."

"Hey, don't worry, it's a small problem, and it will recover soon," Nicholas Dan seemed to be unaware of how many people his current shape has scared, "Let's see how this device works first—you will definitely feel it. satisfying."

Gawain tried his best to divert his attention from the twelve newly grown sides of the Nicholas egg, and began to focus on the really important things here.

The "Arcane Printing Machine", which was different from the printing machines he knew in terms of working principle, structure, and shape, was ready.

"Let's get started," Gawain nodded, "start with the initial editing. Rebecca, do it yourself."

Rebecca, who came with Gao Wen to inspect the results, had been waiting for this moment for a long time, she immediately responded happily, and then walked briskly to the small cabinet next to the arcane printing machine.

She pulled a lever on the side of the small cabinet, and a very slight buzzing sound came from inside the device, and a slight light appeared on the surface of the projection crystal inlaid on the top of the cabinet, followed by a light blue A halo appears over the top of the entire device.

It is very similar to the holographic screen of the magic network communicator that is not connected to the signal and is in standby state. The difference is that there is a circle of bright square lines on the edge of this screen, which should be the restricted area of ​​the layout.

And at the same time that the small "cabinet" was started, a crystal inlaid on a metal platform at the connection between the cabinet and the main body of the printing press also lit up—Gao Wen realized that this was used to connect the two The structure of this device is actually the "scanning device" of the arcane printing machine.

The assistant who was standing by the side stepped forward and placed a piece of white paper on which words had been written long ago on the metal platform.

In the holographic projection above the "small cabinet", the image of that piece of white paper immediately appeared - up to here, every step is a scene and phenomenon that the magicians of this world are all too familiar with, this is just an illusion It is the most common technique in magic and crystal crafting.

But as Rebecca pressed the first button on the "keyboard" on the top of the small cabinet, Gawain saw something that had never appeared in conventional illusion magic:

In the holographic projection on the top of the cabinet, under the image of the white paper, the characters entered by Rebecca appeared.

A series of characters were quickly typed out by Rebecca, forming a sentence: "The above is the function of physical scanning, and this sentence is the function of text editing."

Then Rebecca moved a handle next to the keyboard, and there was a slight mechanical sound from the small cabinet. She continued to input characters, and new characters appeared below the previous sentence.

"Speaking of which, how did you enter text into an illusion projection?" Gawain asked this question that he had ignored before, and this question made him extremely confused: with the current progress of Cecil's rune logic, computer technology is still In the foreseeable future, the technicians have not been able to produce a magic circle capable of data processing, and Jenny has no idea about it, so how did Rebecca realize word processing on such a device?

Is this a purely mechanical process?So how is the purely mechanical process transformed into symbols on the holographic projection?

"Oh, this one, the principle is not complicated, but the structure is complicated. There are only 28 letters in total, plus more than 30 commonly used punctuation marks. We directly made 37 pre-engraved pieces in this cabinet. The white crystals with the above characters, these 37 pieces of white crystals are very small, and they are arranged into a fan-shaped disk with connecting rods. There is a small window at the front end of the fan-shaped disk, and a thin cardboard that can move at the other end of the window. Behind the cardboard is Another crystal for scanning that moves with the cardboard. When a rune trigger is pressed on this 'keyboard', the corresponding white crystal will be bounced to the window at the front of the fan-shaped disk and activated, ablated on the cardboard Make a black character - then the crystal behind the cardboard will illuminate the pattern. In addition, by adjusting the distance between the white crystal and the cardboard, the size of the character can also be adjusted..."

While talking, Rebecca opened the side cover of the small cabinet, and Gawain saw the intricate and amazing mechanical structure inside, which was vaguely similar to the mechanical typewriter he remembered.

Rebecca continued: "However, its shortcomings are quite obvious. First, it consumes a piece of cardboard every time. Of course, this consumption is not too large, and it is acceptable. Secondly, you must be careful when typing. If you make a mistake, there will be marks on the cardboard. If there are fewer mistakes, you can return the cardboard and cover it with a black block key. If there are too many mistakes, it will affect the reading and the typing will be wasted..."

"Unbelievable..." Gawain looked at the complex mechanical structure almost in astonishment. Those ingeniously designed connecting rods, springs, gears and slide rails seemed to have a strange charm. Crystallization is the pinnacle of mechanical craftsmanship. He stared at Rebecca with wide eyes, "You came up with it?"