Chapter 125 Steam Engine Laboratory
Imperial College, Beijing.
The Imperial College in Beijing can be regarded as the fastest building built in the entire city of Beijing.
There is already a large campus now. It’s just that these campuses are completely different from Nanjing Imperial College. The Nanjing Imperial College has always been an exquisite traditional Chinese building, with carved beams and painted buildings, and even some yamen and palace styles.
But the Imperial College in Beijing is different.
The buildings at the Imperial College in Beijing are more like the work sheds popular in Liaodong, which are made of wood, concrete, wooden boards, iron wires and other things. They have many similarities with the simple warehouses of later generations. You can tell at a glance that it is easily damaged and easily repaired.
If no one told He Xi, this is a school. It's okay to say this is a factory.
The promotion of treasure banknote exchange and banks in various places is still proceeding slowly. There is a sharp contrast between the north and the south, and this contrast is unlikely to change for a long time. It is impossible for He Xi to keep focusing on these things.
He had other things to focus on.
Such as a steam engine.
After He Xi changed the host of Steam Engine, this was the first time Zhang Zongde reported progress to He Xi. He Xi also came to the Imperial College in Beijing.
Saw this scene in front of me.
However, this seems to be a factory, but it is still different from a factory.
The whole thing seems to be in two parts, from mechanical manufacturing to the final assembly of the steam engine. On the walls on both sides, there are blackboards with the structural diagram of the steam engine drawn on it. There are also many tables with stacks of manuscript papers on them, and I don’t know what is written on them.
This reminded He Xi of what Ge Tiangong looked like when he was in charge. The place where Ge Tiangong studies steam engines is actually like a car repair workshop. There are very few books and other things. Unlike here, although the place is vast and there is a steam engine in the middle, overall, the books here are Manuscript paper far exceeds the weight of the machine.
The personnel following Zhang Zongde were also completely different.
Behind Zhang Zongde, the people following were all young people, no more than twenty years old at most. As long as I ask, they all have diplomas from the Institute of Technology, Liaodong Institute of Technology, Yingkou, and even navigation colleges. Their hands are all bloody. Scar upon scar.
Just know that their practical ability is still lacking.
As for Ge Tiangong's work team, they are all very old people. Everyone has calluses on their hands. In their own professional fields and specific craft categories, they are simply miraculous. It's so ingenious that people can't believe it.
But the students can only take action.
It's not that they suppress rising stars, but that they have been like this since they were in elementary school. They also believe that these students speak clearly and eloquently, but without several years of experience, they are not qualified to speak.
These are two completely different models.
He Xi secretly thought: "This is what a laboratory looks like."
Although, compared with He Xi's idea of a sterile laboratory where you have to change clothes and wear shoe covers when entering, it is far different. But it already looks pretty good. It's very much like a university internship workshop.
Zhang Zongde He Xi explained: "Sir, I have gone through the entire steam engine research data over the past year. This is the latest steam engine I have designed. It can already operate stably."
He Xi looked at the steam engine in front of him.
The first one felt huge.
Of course, compared to the kind of steam engine that requires a boiler room to be built, it is already very small, at least it can fit in the entire work shed. This is a vertical steam engine.
First of all, the boiler has been shrunk, but even the shrunk boiler is still three meters high. Zhang Zongde improved the transmission structure so that the steam engine could drive the lever and turn the axle. This can continuously output power. In other words, with this steam engine, there is no need to combine a steam engine with a water tower to drive machinery.
He Xi looked at it carefully, then climbed up the iron ladder next to the steam engine and walked up to it. Stepping on the iron plate above, looking at the specific structure below. After reading it once, I could generally understand it. After I came down, I said, "Not bad, let's give it a try."
"Your Majesty, with a body worth millions of dollars, you cannot take personal risks." Wang Qianli said, "I have inquired before I came here. This steam engine broke down several times after this year. Once, it exploded, destroying the entire house. It was blown away. Then I moved it here. As for a few parts that were ejected and misfired during operation, there are too many big and small problems."
Zhang Zongde was a little embarrassed. Said: "Sir, don't worry, all the problems have been solved. It won't happen this time. However, the startup time is too long, and there is no preparation this time, so please don't watch it."
It seems that Zhang Zongde feels that all the problems have been solved, but he is also worried that there is an unexpected problem.
It seems that Zhang Zongde did not choose this kind of work shed-like laboratory from the beginning, but made it through experience. This work shed is almost made of some iron and wooden boards. It would be heartbreaking if it exploded, but it is not that traditional The house can be passed down for many years, and it is a new house. If something happens to it, many people will feel sad.
He Xi said, "Okay, let's wait and see."
Zhang Zongde immediately handed over a picture album with both hands, which contained all the structural diagrams of the entire steam engine.
He Xi looked at it carefully and said, "Tell me, do you have any questions?"
He Xi knew very well that when Zhang Zongde called him over this time, he did not say that the steam engine could be mass-produced. The one in front of me can only be said to be a prototype. He was invited to inspect it. It was not so much an inspection as a question.
Sure enough, Zhang Zongde said: "Sir, I strive to improve this steam engine. I found the best batches from hundreds of batches of steel produced in Liaodong and Zunhua, improved the machine tool processing, and even used some details. We polished it by hand and finally assembled it like this.”
Zhang Zongde looked at this steam engine and couldn't help but gently touch the cold steel with his hand, as if it could feel warm. This is where his heart lies.
"But." Zhang Zongde also knew the problem very clearly and said, "I don't know whether we can produce the next steam engine. If we want to produce it in large quantities, there are many problems that need to be solved."
"I have laid out the overall plan. Please take a look at it, sir."
He Xi took the master plan from Zhang Zongde and frowned after just scanning it. It's not that He Xi doesn't want to support research and development in this area, but that he really wants to. But Zhang Zongde wanted too much. He Xi couldn't support it at all.
Rather than saying that what Zhang Zongde submitted was a master plan for steam engine production and research and development, it would be better to say that what Zhang Zongde submitted was a master plan for scientific research and development of Ming Dynasty.
Which covers almost all aspects of steel smelting and mechanical processing. Zhang Zongde didn't say the specific number, because Zhang Zongde didn't know how much to improve, but He Xi had been doing it for so many years, so he knew it silently.
The price of a Zunhua Iron Works.
The first thing to conquer is the materials.
That is metallurgy.
In fact, Ming Dynasty's steelmaking technology was sufficient to produce steam engines, but the problem was instability.
It’s okay for swords, farm tools, and even general machinery to be unstable. After all, steel can already reach the lower limit of various usage scenarios. Nothing will go wrong. The steam engine's requirements for steel are much higher. When a steam engine is moving at high speed, it makes no sense for even steel to break if it is said to break.
Zhang Zongde proposed a plan for a furnace temperature thermometer.
In this way, the furnace temperature can be determined and He Xi's blast furnace can be refined. This allows the furnace temperature to be adjusted more sensitively.
Ensure that the steel quality is within a certain range and be able to stably produce high-quality steel.
And high-quality steel can improve machine tool performance.
The processing performance of a machine tool depends largely on the knife. The knife used on the machine tool is actually not a knife in the traditional sense, but a high-quality alloy steel. The hardness must exceed the steel to be processed. Only in this way can iron be cut like mud. The processed steel is processed into what people want it to be.
There is no high quality alloy steel.
Many precision machining cannot be performed.
Secondly, there are machine tools.
Zhang Zongde redesigned almost all machine tools, just like rebuilding all steam engine parts.
He Xi also saw the machine tool redesigned by Zhang Zongde, which was on the side of the laboratory. From the guide rails to the bed, everything has been changed. It is completely different from He Xi’s previous simple design.
Moreover, Zhang Zongde designed some special lathes to process some new parts.
These are exclusive to steam engines and are not produced elsewhere.
Compared with before, the steam engine was stupid, bulky and bulky, but now the steam engine finally made He Xi feel the beauty of industrial design.
But this kind of beauty is also very valuable.
Among other things, redesign the blast furnace and design the steel furnace thermometer. How much money is needed here? He Xi doesn’t know. But He Xi knew that this kind of blast furnace is now operating continuously and is not allowed to stop, because if it stops, the entire blast furnace will be broken.
As for the study of improving blast furnaces, it is estimated that one will be built and the other will be demolished.
I don’t even know how many times it needs to be repeated to achieve the effect Zhang Zongde wants.
A blast furnace is not worth much, so it can be done for about a hundred taels. But these hundred taels multiplied by the unknown amount made He Xi a little overwhelmed.
Not to mention, He Xi seemed to remember that he had done a stupid thing. He sold this place and it became the property of his He family. And because Hefu Industry bought a large piece of land in Beijing, Princess Anqing is happily building this piece of land. Another huge amount of money.
In other words, He Fu's current liquidity is very small.
It seems that He Xi can get a bank loan to complete this research and development, but I always feel that the burden on He's government is too heavy. There is no end in sight.
Not to mention, the machine tools for producing steam engines are not good either. In other words, if He Xi wants to produce such a steam engine, the industrial system He Xi has built needs to be updated. Is this all money?
Let alone others, He Xi felt very distressed for herself.
After all, everything today was created by He Xi. Not anymore.
Of course, feeling distressed is one thing. Money is another matter. The funds returned by He Xi are used to exchange for banknotes and establish a complete financial system. And where does the money for industrial upgrading and upgrading come from?
Some people died, but not completely...
