In November of the 21st year of Chengshun, Jinling City.
At this time, Jinling City has also entered winter. Although it has not snowed yet, it is also very cold.
Luo Zhixue was walking on the grass square outside the front hall wearing a long thick woolen coat. There was no wind today, but the winter sun was shining warmly on his body.
In winter, Luo Zhixue likes the weather with sunshine and no wind. Otherwise, the weather would be too cold and he doesn't like it.
He has never liked too cold winters. When he was still in Funiu Mountain, that poor place was in the mountains, and its geographical location was further north. In winter, the mountains were blocked by heavy snow...
He almost froze to death in the first winter he just crossed over.
This is also the reason why Luo Zhixue has never visited the northern provinces in winter even though the Chu Empire has been established for many years.
He hates the cold weather!
Well... in fact, he has not been to most of the southern provinces in the past ten years!
Except for the time when he personally led the army in the Northern Expedition during the Unification War, Luo Zhixue has actually left Yingtian Mansion only a handful of times for inspections over the years. The occasional few times he went to surrounding areas, to be precise, he only went to Passed through three provinces.
Many people have been to Jiangnan Province, including Zhenjiang, Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, and Zhenjiang several times.
I have only been to Zhejiang Province once, and that was to inspect Hangzhou Prefecture.
I also went to Anlu Province once, to Fengyang, the capital of Anlu Province, for an inspection.
Except for these three provinces, Luo Zhixue has actually never been to other places!
In other words, although the Chu Empire was huge, Luo Zhixue had actually never seen most of the territory under his rule...
It's not that Luo Zhixue is unwilling, but reality doesn't allow it.
Have you ever seen the emperor of the feudal dynasty in ancient times running around the world... The emperor's tours were too troublesome, with tens of thousands of people accompanying him at every turn. At the same time, local officials also needed to make various reception arrangements.
It is no joke to waste people and money.
A patrol trip can easily cost several million Chu Yuan, and this is the starting price...
If you go to some poor places... you can directly put the local local finances to bankruptcy!
In addition to the expense of money and food, it also has a lot to do with the inconvenience of transportation these days. It’s okay to walk around nearby, but if you want to go to a province that is too far away, it often takes several months or even a year and a half. , such a long period of time is prone to turmoil.
After all, as an emperor, it is impossible to leave the center of his rule for a long time. If you leave for too long, unnecessary troubles will easily occur, such as rebellion, turmoil and the like.
There are always such creatures as careerists, no matter what the era or the situation.
And human nature is the most untestable thing. Who dares to say that Luo Zhixue is the founding emperor, and no one wants to kill him and start a rebellion?
As a supreme ruler and an emperor, what Luo Zhixue has to do is not to test the humanity of his ministers, but to avoid such situations that test the humanity of his ministers.
The best way to avoid betrayal is not to give him the chance to betray, not even to give him the thought.
Otherwise, you are messing around on your own, teasing the careerists every now and then: Come on, my slaves have all taken off their clothes, come on... Don't blame others for their lusty words and just pounce on them.
After all, no decent person can withstand such a test!
Therefore, Luo Zhixue generally does not run around unless necessary.
At most, he just wanders around Yingtian Mansion. For example, he often goes to Dangtu Industrial Zone. In addition, he also often goes to many places in Jinling City, such as the Guards Barracks on the outskirts of the city, the Royal Institute of Technology in the west of the city, and Army Officers. He went to school more often.
And now, Luo Zhixue, who was walking in the square, looked at the horizon in the distance, and had an idea in his mind. He wanted to take a tour of his empire, see the northern provinces, and appreciate the scenery of the Monan Prairie. Look at the local herdsmen who are good at singing and dancing.
Go to the Western Region in the west to see the sky full of yellow sand, and then maybe you can see the large cotton fields that have been developed in the area in recent years.
He also wanted to visit the southern provinces, especially the sea in Guangdong, as well as Thang Long Province, which was newly incorporated into the empire, where there was also the largest anthracite coal mine in the empire.
He also wanted to experience the winter in a southern city... It snowed in Guangzhou last year, and he was curious about what it would be like when it snowed in a southern coastal city!
Snowy Guangzhou City... This kind of situation will not be seen in future generations.
As an aside, the Great Chu Empire is also experiencing the Little Ice Age. The overall temperature is much lower than that of later generations. In the early years, even the Yangtze River froze, and the Jinling City area was even more frozen. It snows all year round.
Even the city of Guangzhou occasionally gets heavy snowfall.
Various extreme and abnormal climates have been emerging one after another.
In terms of climate alone, it is actually similar to the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and both are typical of the Little Ice Age.
This Little Ice Age will last until the Xianfeng period, probably the early 19th century...
However, although the Great Chu Empire is experiencing the Little Ice Age and various extreme climates often occur, it does not pose any practical threat to the Great Chu Empire. In the past twenty years, there has been no major disaster under the Great Chu Empire. There was no large-scale famine, nor large-scale refugee turmoil.
The people dare not say that they can live and work in peace and contentment, but at least they will not starve to death on a large scale, and even the poor can barely make ends meet.
Of course, it would be difficult to truly ensure that everyone has enough to eat.
Luo Zhixue felt that if the empire continued to maintain its current development momentum, it would probably be able to almost solve the problem of food and clothing in another ten to twenty years.
The empire that will be more than ten or twenty years from now must have become a deeply industrialized country and is expanding strongly on a global scale. Only in this way can it make use of its global resources, coupled with a large amount of chemical fertilizers, hybrid rice and other technologies. Progress to completely solve the problem of food and clothing in the empire.
Before that, it was difficult!
The problem of food and clothing for hundreds of millions of people is not so easy to solve!
It is not easy to completely solve it, but it can still be done by solving part of it first, such as developing the Northeast Plains, then vigorously developing animal husbandry in the north, increasing colonial expansion in Nanyang, and immigrant settlement, etc.
Doing some of these things can solve the food ration problem for some people.
Luo Zhixue, who was thinking about this, felt a little sad.
Although he wanted to take a look outside and appreciate the beauty of the empire, it was impossible under the current technical conditions.
The patrol speed is too slow and the cost is too high.
Therefore, Luo Zhixue is looking forward to building trains and building a railway network so that he can truly travel around the empire.
See his empire for yourself.
Before that, he could only imagine the empire under his rule through documents, data, and painted portraits.
————
Just when Luo Zhixue was imagining that trains were opening all over the country and that he would ride a special train to patrol the vast territory of the empire, in the laboratory of the Guangzhou Machinery Company, a group of young engineers were surrounding a steam engine.
This steam engine is different from those commonly seen low-pressure steam engines, and its volume is much smaller.
These days, the steam engines produced by the major steam engine manufacturers in the Chu Empire are relatively large in size. With the boiler, cylinder, and transmission structure, even the sixteen-horsepower steam engine with the largest number of applications is very large. big.
But the steam engine in front of me is relatively small, and its parts are also very compact.
The group of young engineers, several of whom were making final inspections of the steam engine with gloved hands.
A moment later, after the inspection was completed, a middle-aged man in the lead said: "Everyone return to the observation room to prepare for the startup test. Please pay attention to safety!"
As a group of people gradually retreated to the distant observation room, only a few operators wearing protective clothing and shields were left on site.
At this time, the middle-aged man said loudly: "The first test of high-voltage prototype No. 17 has begun!"
As the order was issued, operators immediately began to burn coal in the boiler of the steam engine.
As the coal is ignited, the temperature of the water in the boiler gradually increases.
At this time, everyone continued to be busy, and one of them stared closely at the spring pressure gauge and continued to report.
"The pressure has reached 0.1 MPa!"
"0.15 MPa!"
"Zero point two megapascals!"
"0.3 MPa, pay attention, it is almost reaching the design critical point!"
…
After hearing the data, the middle-aged man said: "It has stabilized at 0.3 MPa. Open the valve and conduct an operation test!"
Following the middle-aged man's command, everyone worked together, and the high-pressure steam, which was three times higher than the steam pressure in the ordinary low-pressure steam engine, began to pass through the valve, then entered the steam pipe, and then entered the most important structure of the steam engine, that is, the cylinder. Inside.
This high-pressure steam drives the piston to reciprocate, and then drives the flywheel next to it to start rotating.
"Pay attention to recording power!" the middle-aged man promptly reminded the assistant.
The assistant next to him began to continuously record the power output data: "It is currently stable at thirty-five horsepower!"
After hearing this, the middle-aged man continued: "The expected power has been reached. Keep the steam pressure stable at 0.3 MPa and continue running!"
"Now, let's see how long it can last!"
The middle-aged man didn't look too happy when he heard the expected power of thirty-five horsepower... This was not the first time they tested a high-pressure steam engine.
You know, this prototype is already the seventeenth one... and among the sixteen high-pressure steam engine prototypes before this, the one with the highest power output even reached more than 200 horsepower.
But of course there are no eggs... They are all soft-legged shrimps. Various problems will occur within a short time of operation. Burst and leakage of steam pipe connections are the most common, and problems with boilers and cylinders are also common!
The most serious incident was when the No. 8 prototype was undergoing an extreme test. The high-pressure steam at that time was as high as 2.5 MPa, which directly caused the steam pipe to burst. A large amount of high-temperature and high-pressure steam filled the entire laboratory in an instant.
This test accident resulted in the death of three technicians and injuries to more than ten people.
This is the most serious R&D accident in the history of Guangzhou Machinery Company, causing extremely heavy losses.
However, it is precisely these test accidents again and again that have led Guangzhou Machinery Company to continuously adopt stricter safety measures in the research of high-pressure steam engines... and even cooperate with friends to develop research and development using rubber materials. Wear protective clothing to prevent personnel from being burned immediately by high-temperature and high-pressure steam when steam leaks... At least, it gives the experimenters a buffer to escape.
At the same time, in order to measure the steam pressure more accurately and avoid inaccurate pressure testing, resulting in calculation errors and eventual accidents, they also cooperated with Jinling Precision Instrument Company in research and development, and specially developed a new spring-type pressure gauge to replace the previous liquid pressure gauge. pressure gauge.
At the same time, they also improve the connection port part where problems occur most often by constantly adjusting materials, processes and other methods.
Of course, the most important thing is the cylinder!
The most difficult thing to do in a steam engine is the cylinder, especially the cylinder of a high-pressure steam engine.
This ghost thing must be able to withstand high temperature and high pressure. Well, high temperature is nothing. After all, it is made of steel... The main thing is to withstand high pressure.
At the same time, there is a reciprocating piston in the cylinder, which means that there is movement between the piston and the cylinder... It is necessary to keep the two moving, but not to allow too much gap between the two to cause air leakage.
This requires the machining accuracy of the cylinder to be very high.
This huge difficulty is also the main reason for the continued difficulty in producing high-pressure steam engines.
In order to solve this major technical problem, their Guangzhou Machinery Company even specially improved the processing equipment to process cylinders and pistons with higher precision, and then improved the piston rings for sealing.
In order to overcome a series of technical problems of high-pressure steam engines, Guangzhou Machinery Company has a technical team of more than 100 people working. Not only them, but in fact Guangzhou Machinery Company is, to a certain extent, just a steam engine assembly factory. That’s all.
Many technical problems of high-pressure steam engines basically involve materials and processing... because Guangzhou Machinery Company still cooperates more with various friends and the Royal Institute of Technology Steam Engine Research Institute.
After all, you can't let Guangzhou Machinery Company, a company that produces steam engines and various daily iron products, develop high-precision boring machines... that is the business scope of Hantian Machinery Company.
Large-scale high-end machine tools have always been the specialty of Hantian Machinery Company.
As for various materials, it has nothing to do with their Guangzhou Machinery Company. That is the business area of Yitiao Smelting Company.
Therefore, Guangzhou Machinery Company's research and development of high-pressure steam engines is actually designed and developed based on various basic equipment and materials developed by friends. It does not even require them to provide materials and processing equipment.
If you really let them do it all by themselves... that would basically be equivalent to asking them to rebuild an industrial system.
However, even if one is designing and developing on the shoulders of a friend, the research and development of a high-pressure steam engine is not easy... because the technology of the friend is not very good either.
In this way, under limited technical conditions, we can make a stable, efficient and low-cost high-pressure steam engine. This is what Guangzhou Machinery Company needs to consider.
——
As the coal continued to burn, bursts of white steam continued to be emitted from the steam engine, and the flywheel continued to rotate.
Soon, two quarters of an hour passed. At this time, everyone was slightly relieved. The middle-aged man said: "We have reached the first stage goal. Keep going. I hope I can reach the second stage goal!"
The goal of the second stage is six hours, twelve hours!
This is the second phase goal of their high-pressure steam engine R&D project team, which is to make the high-pressure steam engine run stably for more than twelve hours without failure.
Because steam engines, whether they are used in industry or intended to be used on ships, have very high requirements for stability. Not to mention continuous operation for ten days and a half, but at least it must be able to last for one or two days.
Otherwise, if it runs for only a few hours and then collapses, how can the factory still be operating? How can the ship still sail!
This is why they chose to lower the steam pressure to 0.3 MPa for testing after trying higher steam pressure before.
When they conducted various extreme tests before, they could even achieve the ultimate steam pressure of three MPa, but the problem was that it would not last long...
A steam engine that explodes within a few minutes is useless!
Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the steam pressure and select a suitable steam pressure range as the standard pressure. After many previous tests, they set the predetermined steam pressure of the high-pressure steam engine to 0.3 MPa.
If it is too high, the material cannot withstand it; if it is too low, the pressure is not enough and the power output is insufficient.
However, among the previous sixteen prototypes, none of them could maintain long-term operation under the steam pressure of 0.3 MPa. The previous longest one only lasted for more than an hour, and That test prototype also adopted an unconventional manufacturing method. It was a pure laboratory product and the cost was too high to continue.
After all, Guangzhou Machinery Company is a steam engine manufacturer. They develop high-pressure steam engines just to bring this thing to the market. It is useless to produce pure laboratory products. What they want is a high-pressure steam engine that can be mass-produced and then launched into the market.
And this prototype No. 17 carries their new hope!
A new cylinder processing method is adopted to further improve the accuracy of the cylinder and piston, and the strength of the cylinder is also higher. It also uses piston rings made of new materials, and improves the related design, making the sealing better and , the friction resistance between the piston and the cylinder is lower.
Even the boilers and pipes are designed after long-term improvements.
At the same time, lessons were learned from previous serious accidents caused by steam pipe bursting after the steam pressure exceeded the limit value, and a new safety valve was also established to actively release the pressure when the steam pressure is too high to avoid serious accidents such as explosions.
This series of improvements are based on the previous sixteen test prototypes and more various design plans that have not even entered the ignition test process.
It is also based on the continuous and rapid development of the basic industry of the Great Chu Empire in recent years.
This No. 17 prototype is a child standing on the shoulders of giants!
And this child is running steadily for one hour, two hours, six hours...
At this time, Prototype No. 17, which had successfully run for more than six hours, had attracted the attention of the entire project team. This was an achievement they had never achieved before.
The most important thing is that prototype No. 17 is still running stably!
The dawn of the high-pressure steam engine appears!
(End of chapter)
