At night, in the brightly lit station, loaders were unloading goods. The rail carriages arrived at the station brought coal and needed to be unloaded immediately, then transported to the dock for loading.

Therefore, the Sishui Wharf not far away is also bright, and the busyness of night shift workers ensures uninterrupted transportation of goods day and night.

At a corner of the station platform, Li Li, who was patrolling at night, looked at a vertical gas lamp beside him, and looked at the mosquitoes that were dancing around the lights, and were a little dazed.

Night lighting was a matter of course in that era, but in the "ancient times", it was a very luxurious thing for ordinary people.

The cost of night lighting is too high for ordinary families, so ordinary people do not have the concept of "nightlife" and go to bed when it gets dark.

For wealthy families, the cost of night lighting cannot be said to be low.

Because without the help of the oil industry, candles in ancient times were expensive. If you wanted to illuminate the room like daytime, you had to burn a lot of candles, just like burning money. Ordinary families from wealthy families dared not be so extravagant.

Compared with candles, the cheaper lighting tool is an oil lamp, and the oil lamp does not have enough lighting, so reading the lamp at night can easily damage your vision.

Once again, it is to ignite a brazier to obtain light by burning wood.

However, the comprehensive effectiveness of these lighting tools is not as good as gas lamps, provided that there is sufficient supply of cheap coal.

Therefore, the gas lamps in front of us are night lighting tools for people of this era.

However, this was not Li Li's invention, but rather, it was the product of an unexpected evolution.

At first, this was an accident. Workers in a coking furnace found that the exhaust gas from the coking chimney could be ignited.

They transformed the kiln and introduced the coking waste gas into the stove through a special flue to burn, so the workers could cook and boil water and bake clothes at all times.

This is a good ‘waste utilization’, which fully demonstrates the inventive and creative abilities of craftsmen.

Gradually, this method was promoted in other coking kilns, including coking kilns in smelting sites (iron smelting).

There are hundreds of workers in the smelting grounds, and there are special canteen service workers. When the canteen aunt finds that someone uses a "private stove" to steal their business, things become complicated.

No family’s money is blown by the wind. Workers have to save money to support their families, while aunts have to make money to support their families. Conflicts have to break out.

Workers have the advantage of strength and have extremely high "physical damage", while the aunts have thick skin and loud voices, and "sonic attacks" can cause serious "mental damage".

After some twists and turns, the two sides compromised and the exhaust gas drawn from the coke oven was transported to a nearby canteen through specially laid pottery pipes to be used as stove fuel.

Workers are not allowed to cook with coking waste gas, so the canteen that has obtained free fuel will naturally reduce the price of the meal.

But new problems arise: the canteen does not open the stove all day, but the coke oven or multiple coke ovens may run continuously for several days, producing a steady stream of waste gas. It cannot be wasted, right?

So these waste gases were used to boil water, and the cafeteria also served as a boiling water room, providing workers with low-priced boiling water.

Gradually, at night, someone sat next to the fire that was immortal, using the fire to do work, such as sewing clothes, doing some needlework, etc.

Someone also read books by the fire and took advantage of the rare bright "light" of the night.

The happy situation made the "comprehensive utilization of coking waste gas" officially enter the vision of the "superior competent department", so this successful experience began to be promoted.

Then, another accident happened: a coking oven was running somewhere. When it was running on rainy days, because the kiln body cracked, the rainwater entered the kiln along the crack.

Workers found that the amount of coking waste gas increased, and the firepower became stronger when the waste gas burned.

In other words, if water is deliberately sprayed into the coking kiln, the combustible waste gas will increase and the "combustible power" will increase.

More coking waste gas can ignite more flames and bring more light to people at night.

There are many people who need light at night, including the venue owner.

When orders pile up like mountains, the owners were in pain and joy. They hoped that their workshops could run day and night, and workers would produce uninterruptedly in three shifts.

However, night lighting has become a problem. It is impossible to light candles. Lighting oil lamps is also very expensive. You can only ignite turrets, but this requires a lot of firewood and the cost is not low.

However, the emergence of "coke oven exhaust gas lighting" has made relatively low-cost large-scale night lighting possible.

With huge demand, the motivation for technological improvements has been generated, and craftsmen began to consciously explore how to better produce "coking waste gas", which is sent through pipelines, used as fuel, and gain light.

The word "coking waste gas" is too unpleasant, so people named this gas "gas" based on the source of gas production.

Gas is dangerous because people will faint and die if they smell too much in a more confined space.

Gas is really dangerous because the equipment and ventilation pipes that make gas may explode due to air leakage or open flames.

However, this relatively cheap large-scale lighting method still fascinates the audience. The strong demand for night lighting from night production supports craftsmen to continuously improve this lighting technology.

When Li Li led his army to cut people in Xiangzhou, Jingxiang, Mianbei and Huaibei, this new lighting technology was constantly improved.

When he took root in Hanshan, his practical "gas lamp lighting technology" also had the ability to "industrial lighting".

Therefore, the night lighting of each work site next to Hanshan Weir gradually became gas lamp lighting.

There is a special gas field that produces gas through various "gas makers" (kilns) on the site, and then centrally supplies gas to each site through a unified laying pipeline.

Such centralized gas supply and large-scale lighting methods provide cheap (relative) night lighting for each field and port area.

Because the kiln covers a large area and the layout of ventilation pipes is quite troublesome, gas lamps cannot be used for home lighting for the time being.

This is the gas lamp developed by accident. It is not the technology invented by Li Li. He just put forward his own improvement opinions during this technological improvement process.

So when he looked at the gas lamp, he always felt like "this is black technology".

At night, mosquitoes gathered at the lights. Li Li, who was standing under the light, was so annoyed by the mosquito bites. He took out his pocket watch to check the time, and then left.

Not far away, there is a brilliantly lit "block", with a "house" full of wine shops, restaurants and romantic places.

Because there is a gas station that supplies gas to the station and port area nearby, there are gas lamps in the yard, which is a "night-free shop".

The name is also called "Non-night Floor".

The No-night Floor opened not long ago, and I made a lot of publicity before opening: because it is adjacent to the station and the dock, the merchants in the shop have gas lamps lighting, and the night is like daytime.

The night is like daytime, which is a treatment that even the state government does not have. It is the first place in Hanshan City with sufficient lighting at night except for the field and port areas.

Li Li's own mansion does not have this treatment, it's nothing more. The gas lamp lighting system is too large and too dangerous, and it is not suitable for household use.

On the night of the opening of the shop, the gimmick of "gas lamps, night is like daytime" and the serious and inappropriate "service", attracted guests to come one after another, and the guests were full that night.

The same goes for the next time, the night and night are full.

Tonight, Li Li took the top three in the army's competition to find out what happened.

He and his entourage were dressed in casual clothes and entered the shop through the west gate of the Never Night House. After entering, they saw gas lamps lit under the corridors on both sides of the street.

There were high-legged benches under the lamp, all of which were full of people, all of whom were men in cloth, both old and young.

They were cloth bags next to them, and they were focused on the book in their hands, and mosquito-repellent mugwort was lit in the corridor.

There are many rows of gallery, with gas lamps inside, and under the lamps are also filled with people reading books, as well as small vendors who rent books.

There are also ‘public toilets’ and late-night snack stalls.

Li Li kept his eyes open and continued to move forward. This is the Pure Land for scholars and is one of the serious services provided by the Never Sleeping House. He is a commoner who comes to spend the whole world and drink, so he should be more low-key.

After passing through the "Xiyuan", after passing the garden gate, what comes towards us is laughter, flowers, wine and wine.

The gas lights illuminate the Never Night House. The Never Night House not only provides various enjoyment (charges), but also night lighting (free), allowing countless students to find light in the long dark night.

But Li Li wanted more than this, he wanted Hanshan to become a never-night shop.

Let countless cold people find the light they are pursuing in the dark night between scholars and common people, in the Hanshan Mountain, a yard that never sleeps.
Chapter completed!