The problem of money is only a part of the development of glass, but it is not the most important problem, the most important thing is the advantages of glass windows, which is the fundamental reason why glass windows replace old-fashioned window paper.

Compared with the traditional papier-mâché windows, the glass windows are more solid, in addition to being brittle and fragile, the hardness of the glass is very up to standard, and the hardness is almost as good as that of jade.

Glass is fragile, that's just for large flat glass, glass balls are not so fragile, if the flat glass is fixed, it is difficult to cut simply with scratches, most of the glass knives in later generations, his tip, are diamonds, otherwise, it is difficult to cut.

Greater strength also means that it is not easy to be damaged, as long as it is not a hard beating, a simple wind, it is almost difficult to blow the glass, a typhoon, of course, an exception, it is no longer something that ordinary items can resist.

Typhoon is above the ocean, the formation of strong convective weather, under the extreme imbalance of heat, the formation of strong wind, his energy, can be dozens of times higher than ordinary wind, even hundreds of times, not to mention glass, sometimes, even a house, can be blown away, in the later generations about the typhoon video, a cement truck of dozens of tons, were blown up, not to mention the glass, a strong wind blew, all glass doors and windows, whether tempered, or explosion-proof, all blown away.

Durable, not easy to replace, and relatively cheap, this is a good advantage of glass, but for a window, the characteristics of the window itself are the most important.

Why do you have windows, it is for the light transmission during the day, if the house does not have any windows, day and night, which is unthinkable for the feudal dynasty without electric lights and other means of lighting.

The Northern Song Dynasty created a city that never sleeps in Tokyo with a developed economy, and the large-scale use of candles also made the night as wonderful as the day.

But night is night after all, and candles can't replace the sun's rays, especially for ordinary civilians, there is no way to light them at night, and it's acceptable to light some candles when there must be light, but it's almost impossible to light candles during the day.

Compared with the window paper, the effect is of course better, compared to the semi-sealed environment such as the window paper, the warmth of the glass is better, as for the light transmittance, an almost transparent glass, and a translucent, can only be blindfolded to see the window paper, these are two completely different concepts.

In the era of no windows, after the construction of the building is completed, to form a dwelling that can be inhabited, it takes twice the time invested, even twice as much as before, the current wooden windows and window paper, the difficulty of manufacturing and installation, is not generally large, on the contrary, the glass is much easier, even if there is no new material such as aluminum alloy and plastic steel windows, it is simply a steel window, which will improve the efficiency of the whole a lot.

Unlike wooden windows, which need to be carved and manufactured, steel windows can be forged, and then the glass can be mined, which greatly enhances the efficiency.

Since the establishment of the Ding Navy, efficiency has been deeply rooted in the foundation of the Ding Navy, and without sufficient efficiency, the commodities of the Ding Navy cannot replace the traditional commodities of the Northern Song Dynasty.

At the same time as glass research, once a large plate glass has been completed, it is possible to develop a large flat mirror.

At this time in the Northern Song Dynasty, not to mention a one-person-high dressing mirror, even if it is a palm-sized mirror, you can make huge profits.

In addition to glass windows and glass mirrors, glass has many other uses, such as greenhouses.

Plastic greenhouses are the best material, not because of its good performance, but because it is cheap, even in the 21st century, when the price of glass is extremely cheap, it also requires a high cost to build a large glass greenhouse.

For ordinary farmers, the service life of glass greenhouses may be longer, unlike plastic greenhouses, which may need to be replaced in a short year or two, but the high cost of an acre of land is unbearable for farmers.

The plastic greenhouse also came into being, and only a fraction of the cost of glass is the key to his success.

Now in the Northern Song Dynasty, in winter, that is in addition to radish cabbage, not the Northern Song Dynasty should be called wead, there is no green plant era, can eat something pickled, it is already good, in the winter, the use of off-season production, with the method of glass greenhouses, to produce a large number of vegetables, can be in Ding Haijun, in the Northern Song Dynasty of Bianliang, how much value to create.

Not to mention, the benefits of glass greenhouses in agriculture, Zhao Xin already knows that organisms are constantly evolving and developing, and by selecting superior seeds, after several generations, or even dozens of generations of cultivation, high-yield seeds can be produced.

Perhaps, in this era, it is not possible to study these things, such as paternal and maternal parents, and genetics, but simple intensive farming, scientific fertilization, and fine management can make the development of seeds better and faster, which is also a research direction.

However, traditionally, it is one season a year, at most two seasons of planting, even if the growth period is the shortest, it takes about 4 months, and the winter in the north is not suitable for most plants to grow.

With the greenhouse is different, as long as the sunshine can be guaranteed under the premise, it is completely possible to find some short-growing, more suitable for the climate, more high-yield food, this is a fundamental scientific research direction.

If steel and cement are to increase the hard power of the Northern Song Dynasty, he will make the Northern Song Dynasty harder, and when resisting foreign enemies, it is not easy to be attacked, and it can resist for a longer time.

However, the improvement of agriculture is the improvement of soft power, the most basic strength, not to mention, if the 800 million mu of farmland in the Northern Song Dynasty is increased from an average of 3 stones, to 5 stones, or even 8 stones, it will bring terrible changes to the Northern Song Dynasty.

It turned out that the limit of what the Northern Song Dynasty could accommodate, 200 million was already a lot, plus the grain purchased from overseas, it could almost reach 250 million, but once the popularization of improved seeds and scientific planting methods reached an average of 8 stones, it was equivalent to saying that the entire Northern Song Dynasty had a volume of 600 million.

In any era, the population base is an important indicator, similar to the development of the Netherlands and Portugal, it can only be called a flash in the pan, and even if it is not for the Netherlands and Portugal, it is in Europe, backed by the huge land and population base of Europe, so that it is possible to develop, really throw it to the place where the bird does not, even if he breaks through the sky with science and technology, it is impossible to dominate the whole world.

In the period of World War I and World War II, the population and land area are particularly obvious, why Germany always can't win against Russia, whether it is national strength, or the level of science and technology, Germany in World War I, are much stronger than Russia, but the world's largest land area and more than 100 million people, is Russia's heritage, in weapons and technology, under the premise of no generation difference, population and land area, will form a huge strategic advantage.

The Northern Song Dynasty is not small, with a population of more than 100 million, it will become the huge foundation of the Northern Song Dynasty, and under the opening of industry, it will develop faster, but Zhao Xin still wants him to be faster.

Looking for high-yield crops in North America is a direction, and in the future, when the navy is built and reaches a foundation, it will inevitably open a route to South America and bring over the three major high-yield crops in the Americas.

But even now, the three major crops in hand, it is impossible to change immediately, the popularization of a food crop, a large number of applications, this is not a short time to do, even in later generations, sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn, after becoming the basic crops, has not shaken the status of wheat and rice, these two, is still the first choice for planting.

Even for the three major high-yielding crops, cultivating good seeds is still effective, and a suitable seed that is easy to adapt to the environment is completely different from a seed that has not been cultivated and is still in a South American state.

In addition to the role of agriculture and greenhouses, glassware is also an important basic tool in the laboratory.

At the beginning of the establishment of the iron and steel research laboratory for Niu, Zhao Xin gradually established the research system of the entire Northern Song Dynasty under the current relatively meager manpower.

Science and technology change everything, this is recognized by later generations, backward will be beaten, when thermal weapons come to the stage, weapons form a generation gap, then the role of weapons is crucial, this has nothing to do with others.

The laboratory is related to the various fields of the future Ding Navy, perhaps, for the current Ding Navy, it is not a suitable time to set up, and even the basic researchers have no way to get together, but Zhao Xin still invested without hesitation, it can be said that in the entire investment, in addition to the construction of the Ding Navy itself, the laboratory is already a swallowing beast.

This point, under the premise that the quality of the experimenters is not up to par, this is especially the case, some simple experiments, maybe there are professional personnel, may be able to do dozens of times, these personnel, may not be able to do hundreds, thousands of times.

For this, Zhao Xin has no other way, science and technology is like this, one step ahead, even more so, under the premise of no qualified personnel, only continuous training, so that they can gradually improve their strength, there is no other way to solve it.

Of course, Zhao Xin tried his best to improve the conditions of the laboratory, for example, a sealed sterile environment, which can reduce the occurrence of accidents and perhaps save one or two percent of the cost, which is very important for the laboratory that invests hundreds of millions.

If you use the windows of the Northern Song Dynasty now, it is difficult to completely close them, and sometimes, under the critical conditions of the experiment, a strong wind blows, and the sand and dust that blows through it breaks the window paper, which will immediately affect the internal experiment.

As for the influence caused by the light, it is even more abundant, the accuracy of the laboratory is very high, some color changes, very fast, sometimes, the opportunity is fleeting, some places where candles can be lit, you can use the method of lighting candles to illuminate the light, but in the experiment that is easy to generate flammable gases in itself, how to do it, as long as it is ignited, there will inevitably be a big explosion, this common sense is still there.

In this case, either an open-air experiment is required, or a glass with greater light transmission must be used.

After a large-scale accident in the steel plant, he paid more attention to it, but the traditional papier-mâché windows were not only not bright, but even the sealing performance was not very good.

If there is danger in the laboratory, especially some key laboratories, the impact will be greater, you know, now Ding Haijun's laboratory is gradually built up through countless investments, in the midst of non-stop experiments, some major researchers, they are scrapping hundreds of thousands, or even millions of investments, so that they can be cultivated, once there is a problem, such a person loses one or two, then it is over.

So many uses of glass, coupled with the gradual impact on all fields of Ding Haijun, also made Zhao Xin a little anxious, he ensured sufficient funds, resources, manpower, and even at a critical moment, a large number of researchers were transferred to supplement the research work of glass.

In Zhao Xin's view, the production of glass should not be a problem, not to mention the traverser articles seen in later generations, maybe a few people can make glass, just say that the manpower and material resources he has now mastered, there are not one or two people who have experience in ceramics and brick burning, that is, dozens, or even hundreds of groups.

Glass, which is also a product of firing, may be a little more complicated, but as long as the right formula is found, there is no problem affecting the glass.

The temperature of firing glass is probably a little higher than that of cement, but it is very limited, and even when firing, the required environment is somewhat similar to that of cement and brick kilns.

But from the stability to Ding Haijun to the present, almost ten months, after at least hundreds, or even thousands of experiments, the glass is still difficult to deliver, perhaps in other aspects, for example, on the glass, there is a certain harvest, but on the transparent glass, it has always been difficult to deliver, costing millions of funds, and there is no gain.

Compared with bricks, cement and porcelain, glass is more difficult, and the requirements for the formula are very high, no matter how knowledgeable Zhao Xin is, it is impossible to record the complete formula of glass, which is only the most basic component.

This formula guides the opening of glass research, so that researchers know what glass is, but it is completely different from transparent glass.

Glass is a compound formed by blending, calcining, and forming natural silicon compounds such as quartz, with different components, with different physical and chemical properties, transparent and opaque, that is, related to the composition of the material.

Zhao Xin didn't know what the formula of transparent glass was, which greatly troubled the progress of the overall research, and even made the researchers a little confused.