I Became The Chief Of A Primitive Village

Chapter 130, A New Timekeeper?

Translator: Silavin

At dusk, Su Bai had people bring the dried paper into the Main Teepee, and the wooden boards were arranged on the stone table.

He carefully peeled off the thoroughly dried paper from the wooden boards. It naturally produced an uneven sheet of paper.

If paper were made as on Earth, the pulp would be spread on a large bamboo screen. After drying, it would be manually divided into individual sheets, which would be a more troublesome process without the proper tools. Thus, Su Bai had Gu Mu make small wooden boards, roughly 297mm*420mm in size, with some slight deviations due to the limitations of tools for precision and accuracy.

This size was quite common on Earth, neither too big nor too small. Once the pulp dried, it could be torn off directly as a single sheet of paper.

Of course, he first drew the size out and had Gu Mu copy it.

“Where exactly did we go wrong?” Su Bai frowned, his expression a bit grave.

The whole sheet of paper was not only uneven in appearance but also easily torn, full of holes, looking quite unsightly.

Su Bai tore it a few more times, then crumpled it into a ball to test the quality of the paper.

He put down the crumpled paper ball and sighed, muttering to himself. “Seems like some steps were wrong.”

“Shaman, is this paper?” Yu Ying’s pink eyes looked at the paper with surprise.

Yan Hua also pulled out a sheet, held it up and shook it, then held it up to her eyes for a good while.

She tilted her neck and murmured, “How strange, is this paper? Why are there so many little holes?”

Su Bai covered his face with one hand and chuckled, saying, “This is indeed paper, but it’s a failure. We need to make it again.”

“Make it again?”

Yan Hua tugged at the paper with her hand and asked puzzled, “Shaman, doesn’t it look fine? Why do we need to make it again?”

“This is not up to standard. The unevenness greatly affects writing. We’ll have to make another batch tomorrow,” Su Bai shrugged.

“Ah? So everything we made today is no good?” Yan Hua’s red eyes widened.

“How much was made today?” Su Bai asked. [At this point, nothing else can be done about it. I guess it is inevitable to have some oversights in our first attempt at papermaking. This can be considered a lesson to reflect upon.]

Yu Ying thought for a moment, then shook her head and said. “Not much. Later, because we ran out of wooden boards, we did not continue.”

“That’s good then,” Su Bai breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought much more would be wasted.

“Shaman, what else do we need to remake it? I’ll prepare it tonight,” Yu Ying asked, curious.

“We don’t need to make anything new, just a small error in the steps. It’s easy to correct.” Su Bai said.

He pondered over each step taken carefully, scrutinising everything, and found a small hole. [Ah. I see. When we placed the Wolf Tail Grass Pulp into the wooden bucket, it was not stirred well. This resulted in incomplete formation of paper pulp.]

“Okay.” Yu Ying said softly.

“Shaman, Uncle Shan Qiu has sent someone with something.” A Warrior Trainee called from outside the Teepee.

“Xiao Yu, let him bring it in. It seems the sundial is ready,” Su Bai instructed.

Yu Ying nodded and turned to lift the Teepee door flap, letting the person bring the item in.

Su Bai carefully examined the sundial on the ground, nodded with satisfaction, and said, “Very good, just as I had instructed.”

The sundial was about the size of an Earth washbasin, with markings around the edges. These markings were in Arabic Numerals, not Roman numerals. After all, he had taught Arabic Numerals, and they were more intuitive to look at.

In the centre of the sundial was a thin, long wooden stick, which was used to determine the time.

Yan Hua curiously examined the sundial, poking it with her finger, and asked curiously, “Shaman, is this the divine tool that can tell time?”

“This big stone can tell the time?” Yu Ying seem to have her own doubts as she continued, “This is different from the thing in the Shaman’s hand.”

“Of course these two are different,”  Su Bai put away his pocket watch and said. “This is something, you all would be able to easily understand.”

“Are those the numbers the Shaman taught written on it? I can understand these.” Yu Ying’s soft voice sounded.

“I can understand them too, but can you really tell time just with numbers?” Yan Hua still did not quite understand. The cow horned girl pursed her lips and kept observing the sundial, trying to see it from a different point of view.

“You won’t be able to tell right now. You’ll know when it’s daytime.” Su Bai said.

“Can’t this stone be used at night?” Yu Ying innocently asked.

Su Bai raised an eyebrow. [That is indeed an issue. Although the sundial is simple and easy to understand, it’s only drawback is that it relies on the sun. So, it can’t be used at night or when it’s dark in general.]

*Ahem…* Su Bai coughed lightly and said, “There’s a timekeeper specifically for the night.”

A name had just flashed through his mind, [Water clock. A water clock uses a pot filled with water, and utilises the principle of how uniform water drips. It would use each drip to calculate time by observing the data shown on the markings in the pot. This isn’t too difficult to make. During the ancient times on Earth, it was also common to have a timekeeper to take note of the time.]

“A timekeeper specifically for the night?” Yu Ying felt her brain already being overloaded for the day.

“Yes, we’ll have people make it tomorrow and then you’ll know. But this might take some time.” Su Bai explained.

“I understand,” Yu Ying swished her fox tail. As long as she listened to the Shaman and waited, she would eventually see the results. This was always how the fox eared girl thought.

Su Bai stepped to the stone table, picked up a charcoal and started drawing on an Animal Hide. He wanted to draw out the making of the water clock.

Tomorrow, he would have Gu Mu make it. Since there were no transparent bottles for making water clocks in this era, they would have to use wood.