Chapter 95 Tianjin River
Ge Tiangong explained to Shen Guogong in detail what it would look like when it was completed.
A steam engine will be placed behind the entire ship, and this steam engine will be used to drive the iron fork. Insert it into the sand under the river one by one to loosen the soil, and then let the river water wash it away. Thus desilting is carried out.
Nowadays, the poor drainage of Tianjin's rivers is actually related to sediment.
Some rivers in Hebei have a lot of sediment, and some have less sediment, but when they gather here in Tianjin, the sediment settles. And a lot of land in Tianjin has only been impacted recently. This is a problem, that is, this A section of the river is very gentle.
When the sediment from the upper reaches reaches this point, it settles and forms piles of sand at the bottom of the river. As a result, the river course is raised and the water from the upper reaches can no longer flow.
In fact, this situation is not limited to Tianjin. This is the case in many outlets of the Yellow River. The flatter the new coastline created by the sediment impact, the easier it is for sediment to be deposited. The more sediment is deposited, the easier it is for river channels near the outlet to appear. It is higher than the river channel upstream.
Then there is poor drainage, various breaches, backflow, and other things.
This is the law of nature.
Although the Tianjin river channel has just been repaired. But in this era, the effects of manpower repairing rivers are very limited.
Therefore, He Xi thought of using steam to drive machinery, whether it was for digging sand or dredging, in short, to make the river flow faster.
After listening to Ge Tiangong's explanation, Shen Guogong didn't express anything. In fact, Shen Guogong didn't understand many things. But it doesn't matter. Professional people do professional things. It doesn't matter if you don't understand. Just watch Ge Tiangong do it.
Duke Shen asked, "When will this ship be ready?"
Ge Tiangong said: "Five days, it will be completed in five days."
Shen Guogong said: "I will wait for you for five days. After loading the things, we will set sail for Tianjin immediately."
Ge Tiangong said: "Yes."
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After all, the project was not completed within five days. It took ten days for the project to finally arrive in Tianjin.
On this day, the sky has cleared up. Moreover, the sun was shining brightly, but just looking at it, one could not see the boundaries of the river on both sides of the river. Only some branches higher than the river and houses still clinging to the water proved that this was not a lake.
As for the Tianjin area, except for some places with relatively high terrain, that is, the city of Tianjin, remained unmoving amid the floods.
Cities in this era often had flood control functions.
Even in the 21st century, some ancient cities have repeatedly made achievements in flood control. Not to mention this era.
When the weather is hot, the water vapor is evaporating, it is humid and hot, and people can't help but want to drink water. However, at this time, it seems that the eyes are full of water, but they cannot drink it. The floods outside Tianjin lost their roughness and flowed slowly. If you don't pay attention, you can't even see the ripples of the water.
This made Shen Guogong secretly frightened. Everything in front of him proved He Xi's previous judgment. Looking at this flow method, it will take several months for the floodwaters to drain out, not to mention that the good land will turn into saline-alkali land after being soaked in water for several months. To put it simply, if we delay for a few months, what will the people eat and drink?
Shen Guogong said to Ge Tiangong: "You can start. As long as this thing is accomplished, I will ask you for credit. There will definitely be a position for you in the Water Department of the Ministry of Industry."
Ge Tiangong said: "Yes."
Ge Tiangong had been awake for several days. He was exhausted both physically and mentally, but in high spirits. Changed ship immediately.
This modified ship looks like a strange-looking ship. There is no sail left, so many people must use oars or be dragged by other boats to move. The entire stern was remodeled. Create a working surface. The tallest chimney in the middle.
None other than where the boiler is. The boiler heats up, and the water vapor drives the machine to work, pushing things up, and then letting go of the water vapor. Without the support of the water vapor, the lever comes down again.
It's just that it's a clumsy and heavy machine that can't move fast at all. You can hear the obvious beat, "Kang--Kang--Kang."
And this power drives a huge iron claw, like Zhu Bajie's rake, to be lowered from the boat and sink to the bottom of the river. Then, driven by the steam engine, the rake plowed the bottom of the river.
There was a problem just the first time.
The rake below was motionless, but the boat was moving.
The whole ship was heeling.
Everyone was shocked.
The boilermakers were unsteady on their feet.
Shen Guogong, who was watching from another boat, also clearly saw that Ge Tiangong's boat tilted.
Countless people focused their attention on Ge Tiangong.
Ge Tiangong's Adam's apple moved slightly.
I couldn't help but wonder in my heart what the problem was.
what is the problem? There are many, many problems here.
First of all, there is the problem of river positioning. As mentioned above, the water has completely submerged the river. It cannot be seen from the water surface. Where is the river below and where is not the river. It's possible that when I lowered my claws, I made a mistake in the wrong place. Instead of grabbing the bottom of the river or the sand, I grabbed something else.
Secondly, there is the issue of focus.
This ship is not a professional ship, but a temporarily modified ship. During the work, the issue of center of gravity was not considered at all.
There is also a problem with the machine itself. This machine is very heavy and is generally located at the back of the ship, which further exacerbates the center of gravity problem.
etc.
But at this moment, Ge Tiangong felt that it was not important anymore.
Ge Tiangong had prepared for many problems before and sent many people to dive to confirm the river course. After all, he put as much coal as possible on the bow of the ship as a counterweight. Now he has done everything he can. Although rushed, it is not a big omission.
At least, if Ge Tiangong is given time now, he may not be able to do better.
Of course, give him a few months to come up with a better ship. But is there time?
there is none left.
Therefore, Ge Tiangong's decision was not to make a decision. Just watching indifferently.
Seeing that Ge Tiangong remained silent, he just grabbed the side of the boat and looked coldly at the iron claw sinking to the bottom of the river.
So just continue.
There was a strange noise coming from nowhere. A gurgling sound came from the boiler, and half of the boiler was burning red. The face of the man who burned the boiler was ugly. His face was red, white, and black, three colors, creating a thrilling feeling.
Red is naturally the color of the reflected flame. The white one came out of fear, because the boilerman was worried that the boiler would explode.
Many advances in industry are paved with human lives, and the same is true for steam engines. Although today's steam engines are nothing to He Xi, there have been many boiler explosion accidents. In He Xi's opinion, many of these boiler explosion accidents were low-level mistakes.
But the problem is that the illiteracy rate in Daming was extremely high, and the industry was unstable, making it difficult to maintain a constant standard for the quality of the boilers themselves. In this case, both high-level errors and low-level errors are normal.
It can even be said that these explosions promoted the development of steam engines.
Many times, if you don’t make mistakes, you won’t know how to make progress.
This boilerman was a veteran, and he actually felt that there was something wrong with the boiler, but no one could stop it unless Ge Tiangong said stop it.
As for black, it is naturally the color of coal.
It was as if a giant was pulling the boat tightly under the water, and the bow of the boat even tilted up a little, breaking away from the water. Some small things on the boat began to shake slightly. If this continues, the ship's keel may not be able to withstand it.
You know, the keel of this wooden ship was never expected to withstand such a huge force.
Ge Tiangong couldn't keep calm anymore. He was sweating profusely and looked at the seemingly calm water.
Suddenly, a ripple appeared on the water, and the entire boat suddenly loosened. The bow hit the water heavily, and the entire boat involuntarily moved forward several meters. And the iron claw that passed the position suddenly came out of the water. As for the stern of the boat, it was as if something was rolling up. The originally relatively calm water surface and the relatively clear water surface instantly turned into a yellow mud soup. That kind of water, most of which is sand yellow mud soup.
