Zhuotang well

Zhuotang well

Zhuotangjing is a living fossil of hand-made salt. It is a salt well with upright thick bamboo tubes to absorb brine. It was invented in the Qingli period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1041-1048), more than 800 years earlier than the West. Its diameter is only the size of a bamboo tube, but it can drill wells as deep as tens of feet. It is known as "the fifth greatest invention in ancient China" and "the father of oil drilling in the world".

At present, there are 41 zhuotang wells in Daying County, Suining City, which are distributed within a radius of 6 kilometers. The local Dashun stove is the only salt stove that can be produced by zhuotang well technology, and it is also an invaluable treasure.

Zhuotang well mainly depends on three technologies: round edge file, surface casing and fan mud barrel. It is the earliest one-way valve in the world. With these three technologies, salt wells can be drilled deeper and deeper. Zhuotang well has created a precedent of human mechanical drilling and is a milestone in the history of drilling in the world.

history

Brine extraction technology of large shallow well

The development of well salt in China has experienced two stages.

From 255 to 251 B.C., Li Bing, a famous water conservancy expert, discovered bittern during the construction of Dujiangyan project, which immediately opened the prelude of the history of well salt development in China. The Guangdu salt well dug by Li Bing was a large shallow well dug on the basis of water intake at that time. Due to technical limitations, this kind of salt well is not very deep and has a large diameter. The brine extraction technology of large shallow wells has lasted for more than 1200 years.

Brine extraction technology in zhuotang well

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the people of zhuotungjing town in Daying County invented the technology of brine extraction by zhuotungjing, and then the small deep well gradually replaced the large shallow well. Su Shi, a great writer of the Northern Song Dynasty, recorded in Shuyan shushushushushushuo: "since Qingli emperor, Shu founded zhuotang.". If you chisel the mountain with a round knife, it will be as big as a bucket. If the depth reaches tens of feet, the salty spring will rise from the top. ".

Zhuotungjing is not only a symbol of the diligence and wisdom of the British people in ancient times, but also a blessing to the British people for thousands of generations. Combined with the cultural connotation of "zhuotang well", the British people have carefully designed and brewed the Luzhou flavor "zhuotang well" and a series of Qujiu, which has become one of the famous specialties in Britain today.

principle

Its principle now seems to be very simple and primitive. It uses the lever principle of the ancients when they pounded rice to drive a drill bit up and down by human foot, so as to achieve the purpose of drilling.

Zhuotang well makes full use of Nanzhu (a kind of bamboo plant as thick as a bowl) which is unique in Sichuan. It empties the bamboo knots to form a "tube". The tube is connected with the tube, which not only plays a role in fixing the shaft wall, but also facilitates the removal of the mud and stone.

technological process

brief introduction

The technological process of zhuotang well includes five steps: drilling (repairing well), brine pumping, brine drying, brine filtering and salt frying.

Su Shi's Shuyan shushushuo says: "if you chisel with a round blade, it's as big as a bowl, and the depth is tens of feet; if you remove the knots with giant bamboo, and the female and the female are holding each other as a well, then the salty spring will rise from the top.".

well drilling

The local chronicles recorded the specific drilling method: "choose the place where the salt source is, and drill the well with iron cones as big as a bowl. Connect it with four or five bamboo poles to make it long. Tie the iron cones with bamboo branches and drill it in bamboo. There are four iron claws at the bottom of the well. It will be salty water for 60 or 70 days or more."

Zhuozhang well is about 130 meters deep, with a diameter of 10-12 cm, covering an area of two square feet. The selection of well salt is decided by experienced salt workers according to the mountain situation. The selection of well site is also called "Du vein". The "Du vein" is not allowed. One is to make a lost circulation well, the other is to make a dry hole.

Drilling is divided into two stages: 1. Drilling big hole; 2. Drilling small hole. Zhuotang well is composed of big hole and small hole. The upper layer is a big eye with a diameter of 15-20 cm and a depth of about 50 meters. The function of the big hole is to lower the connecting bamboo tube (casing). The function of the bamboo tube is to isolate the fresh water from the wall of the cave and prevent it from entering the well. Whether the bamboo tube can isolate fresh water is the key to the success of drilling. At the same time, when the big hole is drilled to a depth of 50 meters and the bamboo tube is lowered to a depth of 50 meters, it can't isolate the fresh water from the hole wall. This is called lost circulation. It can't be drilled any more, it can only be scrapped.

Cut off the fresh water, drill a small hole, change the "Daling Paitou" at the top of the big rod (drill pipe) into the "Xiaoling Paitou" and continue to drill down to a depth of about 100 meters. If it can produce 500 ~ 3000 Jin of brine with a concentration of 7 ~ 10 degrees per day, it will become a well. If halogen-free is not allowed to call dry hole.

Stir up brine

In zhuotang well, fresh water is separated by upper and lower casings in the big hole, and brine is produced in the small hole. The brine producing eyelet is corroded by brine with the passage of years. The strata change and sometimes the cave wall collapses. This is called "collapse". If the brine producing hole is filled with rock, the brine cannot be drawn. Sometimes, some brine pumping tools fall into the well or other man-made obstacles, which is called "pile", and it is also unable to pump brine. In order to pump brine, the fault must be eliminated. Therefore, the technology and tools for repairing wells are produced. If the fault is big and difficult, it will take one month or several months to repair a well. It is difficult to keep a brine producing well from failure.

Basking brine

The pot maker uses salt carts (horn carts, flower carts) and pots to drain brine from the well. The brine is turbid, and the concentration is generally 7 ~ 10 degrees. This kind of brine has low salinity, high fuel consumption and high cost. In order to raise the concentration of brine to 18 ~ 20 degrees, the production tools of drying brine, such as drying brine support, drying dam (also known as salt field), were produced.

Sun dam is generally 60 meters long and 20 meters wide. The frame is generally about 30 meters long and 5 meters high. Its structure is like a figure of eight. It is made of wood. The frame is covered with golden bamboo branches, and the top is made of "heavenly boat". The sky boat is 10 meters long, 1 meter high and 15 meters wide. The sky boat is placed in the middle of the top of the trestle. At the bottom of the sky boat, there are empty bamboo tubes extending to both ends of the trestle, which are the same length as the trestle. Irregular small holes are drilled on the bamboo tubes. On one side of the bracket, there is a bobbin car. The bobbin car is like a round cover of isosceles triangle, which is 6 meters high and 5 meters in diameter and is worn by a horizontal axis. Bamboo tubes are installed on the outer ring of the waist bottom, each about 30-50 cm long. A wooden board is installed on the inner ring of the waist bottom, and people walk on the board (inner diameter) to promote the rotation of the garden cover. The brine in the boat shaped pit of the sun drying dam is transported to the sky boat through the small bamboo tube on the cover. After the brine flows through the small eyes of the long bamboo tube connected from the bottom of the sky boat, it is input into the filter tank for filtration.

Brine filtration

Filter tank will be in the brine mud sand, impurities filtered clear, and then put into the salt pan fried salt.

Fried salt

The place where salt is fried is called kitchen, commonly known as "Changhuo". The kitchen is generally 25 meters long and 15 meters wide. The structure of the kitchen is a wooden bucket with small green tiles. In the front of the kitchen is a large salt pan for frying salt (before liberation, it was a round pig iron pan. In modern times, it is a square pot welded by steel plates. The size depends on the amount of brine produced by the salt stove). Behind the salt pan is a warm water pot, and behind the warm water pot is a salt Kang. The salt Kang is rectangular, made of slate, about 8 meters long and 2 meters wide.

Brine in the salt pot by high temperature gradually into salt. In order to make the salt white and crystal clear, add soap bean and soybean milk in the fried salt. At the same time, raise the gallbladder (note, another mineral, can order tofu), the stove maker scoops the water into the salt bin, filters out the water, and then pinch the salt in the bin onto the Kang, and dry all the water on the Kang to form salt.

significance

The drilling technology of zhuotong well in China is more than 800 years earlier than that in the west, and it has made an inestimable contribution to mankind as well as gunpowder, papermaking, printing and compass. Therefore, it is honored as "the father of modern oil drilling in the world", "the pioneer of mechanical drilling" and "the fifth great invention of China" by the three books "history of drilling technology in China", "history of science and technology in China" and "history of well salt technology in China". The scientific and technological circles have a very vivid metaphor for zhuotungjing: "without zhuotungjing, there would be no gulf war.".

Originated in the Qingli period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1041-1048), the salt drilling technology of zhuotang well in Daying county made the deep underground brine be exploited scientifically for the first time. In the process of exploiting the brine, human beings discovered the buried oil and gas resources. Although it has experienced nearly 1000 years of history, its ancient technological process is still quite intact.

Zhuotangjing is the ancestor and living fossil of deep well drilling in the world. It is the only existing historical and cultural heritage in the world, and is a "living dinosaur".

The story of zhuotangjing

In the middle of Sichuan Basin, there is a magical ancient town with buried treasure Penglai town. According to the research, this is the birthplace of Guanyin Bodhisattva. Old people often say, "Bodhisattvas often manifest themselves.". Here, beautiful scenery, hard-working people. From generation to generation, children have been singing a nursery rhyme: drilling two wells, starting a stove, drying salt, building a house, asking for a wife and giving birth to a baby. The idyllic life is a picture of the ancient British drilling for salt and cooking with oil and gas. So, how did people discover and utilize oil and gas and salt resources at that time? Let's enter the tunnel of time

It is said that one day a long time ago, an honest and strong man, zhuotang, was planting rice seedlings barefoot in the field wearing big red trousers. He was planting rice seedlings while curiously looking at the bubbles coming out of the field. A face of perplexity, sitting on the ridge of a hundred, can not understand. When the sun was at noon, zhuotang went home to eat. As soon as he came in, his wife, Yuniang, served the food and set it on the table Zhuo tongtui said: "there are ghosts in the field, bubbling every day

Chinese PinYin : Zhuo Tong Jing