明代永乐年间(十五世纪中叶),我国曾铸造一座重达四十余吨的巨大铜钟。当时,热工、材料、冶炼技术还很不发达,熔炉容量仅为一吨铜矿石。为制造这座巨钟,聪明的工匠们采用了“群炉汇流”工艺;在铸型周围砌筑一系列的熔炉,炉群势高,铸型位低,各炉同时熔化的铜水沿着作辐射状的槽道流向铸型。举世闻名的“万钧铜钟”就是这样铸成的。如果与电脑控制的现代化超大型冶炼技术相比,永乐大钟的制造成本无疑是非常昂贵的。这说明小批量与高成本是手工业时代商品生产的重要特点。 During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty (mid-fifteenth century), China had built a huge bronze bell that weighed more than 40 tons. At that time, thermal engineering, materials, and smelting technology were still underdeveloped. The furnace capacity was only one ton of copper ore. To create this giant clock, clever craftsmen adopted a “mass furnace converging” process; a series of furnaces were built around the molds, the furnace group was high, the mold level was low, and the molten copper at the same time along each furnace was along Radial channels flow toward the mold. The world-famous “Mandarin Bronze Bell” was cast like this. If compared with the computer-controlled modern super-large smelting technology, the manufacturing cost of the Yongle Bell is undoubtedly very expensive. This shows that small quantities and high costs are important features of commodity production in the era of handicrafts.