Chapter 70 Lithography

The Palace of Versailles is to the west of Paris, while the town of Saint-Antoine is to the northeast. In order to avoid running back and forth - mainly because he couldn't stand the bumps of riding in a carriage - Joseph spent a night at the president of the Paris Chamber of Commerce. The next morning he went directly to the town of Saint-Antoine.

This small town in the suburbs of Paris is a bit like a "special economic zone". It is the only place around Paris that is not affected by various guilds. Craftsmen can find jobs here without joining a guild.

Since they can save a sum of guild dues, the wages that craftsmen ask for are slightly lower. A large number of workshops that want to save costs have taken root here.

After years of development, the town of Saint-Antoine is full of workshops, gathering thousands of craftsmen and their families.

Joseph asked Emman to find a guide and took him to inspect several papermaking workshops in the town one by one, but he gradually frowned.

Those small workshops had almost no conditions for testing new papermaking technology.

The largest workshop has more than 200 craftsmen, and its scale is very large, but the owner of the workshop, Lei Weiyong, does not want to try the new papermaking technology.

After all, the new technology requires a lot of investment to carry out production trials, and the results are unpredictable, and the risks are too great.

Joseph also had the idea of ​​gritting his teeth and buying the workshop directly, but he finally gave up.

Lei Weiyong's workshop costs at least 500,000 livres, and trial production of cheap papermaking also requires an investment.

Because Joseph has frequently used his "money ability" recently, his wealth of more than 2.3 million livres has now shrunk to only 700,000.

If all of it is used to smash the papermaking workshop, if other places need money, they will immediately fall into a dilemma.

Therefore, Joseph weighed the pros and cons again and again, and found that he could only temporarily put aside the cheap papermaking technology and wait until he had more money on hand.

However, this result was within his expectations. After all, an industry with a large scale and high output value like papermaking cannot complete technological changes overnight.

You know, if the papermaking industry can be upgraded and rolled out nationwide, it can even boost the French economy.

When Joseph returned to the Palace of Versailles, three plate-making craftsmen from the Paris Commercial Newspaper had been waiting for him for a long time.

Joseph looked at the heavy tool bags on the three people's backs, the hammers of different sizes inserted on their waists, and the marble floor in the bedroom that was as bright as a mirror, and immediately gave up the idea of ​​teaching them lithographic printing technology here.

Emman suddenly came quickly and bowed to him and said, "Your Highness, the chalk slabs you want are still piled on the carriage. Where do you think they should be unloaded?"

Joseph frowned and thought: It would be great if there was a workshop.

Thinking of the workshop, a place suddenly appeared in his mind. He couldn't help but smile and said to Emman: "Let's move to His Majesty's workshop."

"This..." Emman was surprised, "Are you sure?"

"I'll tell His Majesty."

Joseph gestured to the three craftsmen again, "Please follow me."

More than ten minutes later, in Louis XVI's well-equipped, spacious and bright workshop, His Majesty the King of France looked curiously at the stone slabs in front of him and the craftsmen in coarse cloth.

Joseph first sincerely thanked his father for providing great help to the publishing industry in France, and then put on a very serious expression and looked at the three craftsmen:

"The technology I am about to tell you is extremely important! Without my consent, you must not disclose it to anyone, otherwise..."

He thought about it, picked the most serious charge, and said: "It will be considered treason."

In the royal workshop are the current king and the crown prince. Standing outside the door are the tall and mighty palace guards. The craftsmen had never seen such a scene before. They were so nervous that their legs trembled and they dared not raise their heads. They just kept swearing and swearing that they would never mention a word to others.

Then, Emman took out the prepared confidentiality agreement and asked the craftsmen to sign it one by one.

In fact, Joseph also knew that there was no patent law at present, so this technology could not be kept secret for too long. In the future, he also planned to popularize lithography throughout France.

However, this is his winning weapon at present, and the technology must not be leaked. In the future, he will send people to protect the three plate-making craftsmen at all times, at least until he can control the public opinion in Paris.

After completing the confidentiality mobilization work, Joseph began to formally introduce the lithography technology.

He asked a craftsman to fix a polished chalk slab on the table, and then took out the printing ink that had been prepared long ago and mixed some paraffin and rosin into it.

When the additives in the ink were completely dissolved, Joseph dipped the brush into the ink and wrote "Salute to His Majesty the King" on the chalk slab.

An hour later, the ink was basically dry, and Joseph used a brush to apply dilute nitric acid twice on the slate.

The part of the slate covered with ink was not affected, while other parts were corroded by a thin layer of nitric acid.

"The base plate is finished." Joseph said casually, and applied water on the slate, and then brushed it with printing ink.

He felt that when he went to the mountainous area to teach voluntarily that month, he helped the principal print several test papers for the children with a mimeograph machine. He didn't expect that the "skill" would be used here.

At this time, the part of the slate corroded by nitric acid absorbed water, so the ink could not adhere, and the original dry ink was covered with ink.

Joseph placed the paper on the stone slab, pressed it lightly, and then carefully removed it. A line of words appeared on the paper - Salute to His Majesty the King.

However, the words were reversed left and right.

The three craftsmen looked at each other and saw great shock in each other's eyes.

Although the words were simple and not neat, it took only more than an hour from the beginning of plate making to the completion of printing! This has completely overturned their understanding of printing!

Louis XVI watched with interest for a long time, and then asked leisurely: "Is there anything special about the printing process just now?"

Seeing that His Majesty asked sincerely, the oldest plate-making craftsman bowed in fear and explained to him: "Your Majesty, the technology of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is enough to make all current printing methods eliminated!"

Another craftsman excitedly continued: "We used copper plates before. We had to cover the copper plates with a layer of wax first, then cover them with paper, and use a pen to carve out the unnecessary parts of the painting on the paper.

"The pen will take away the wax under the paper. After the painting is finished, the copper plate is placed in the ferric acid solution. Those places not covered by wax will be corroded, and then the copper plate is taken out, the wax on the surface is wiped off, and then the ink is applied for printing.

"It takes a long time just to carve the wax, and it takes more than half a day to erode the copper plate. It usually takes at least two or three days to complete a base plate.

"And the way His Royal Highness the Crown Prince makes the plate is to directly draw the required parts, which is much simpler than carving out the unnecessary parts!"

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