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After the No. 17 high-pressure steam engine prototype successfully ran for more than half a day, the news had reached the ears of the senior officials of the Guangzhou Machinery Company responsible for the research and development of high-pressure steam engines.
In the evening of that day, a group of senior executives from Guangzhou Machinery Company came to the laboratory.
At this time, the high-pressure steam engine they dreamed of was running on the test console in front.
A senior official who didn't know much about technology and was usually in charge of management looked at this steam engine and couldn't help but sigh: "This steam engine is so small, it can have more than 30 horsepower? The size is at most the same as ours." The small four-horsepower steam engine being produced is about the same size!”
There was a production executive next to him who knew some technology and said: "This is the advantage of the high-pressure steam engine. It can increase the power by double or even dozens of times in a limited volume!"
“Not only is it small, but it’s also lightweight!”
"This is the future. Do you think if a steam engine like this was put on the market, those factories would go crazy!"
"Yes, especially those mining companies. They have long wanted to use steam engines instead of mules and horses to transport ore!"
"Last year, Huai'an Mining Company built a steam locomotive to transport coal. However, the steam engine was too heavy to move itself, let alone transport a large amount of goods. I heard that it was even used to transport coal because of the excessive weight. Their pig iron rails were crushed!”
"If you want to build a steam locomotive, high-pressure steam engines are the only solution. Those low-pressure steam engines won't work!"
"Yes, not only is the railway the only option, but the ship is also the only option. The Navy also has great hopes for high-pressure steam engines. They have been trying to install steam engines on warships. Wasn't there before on the Pearl River? Have you conducted a shipping test? Although the steam engine was installed, it was too heavy and too large, and the horsepower was too small, so it couldn't be used at all."
"If this high-pressure steam engine can be used stably, we can contact the Navy and try to get a few big orders!"
While the executives of these companies were discussing the No. 17 high-pressure steam engine that was undergoing trial operation, the technical research and development team was also busy.
They are constantly recording various test data.
At this time, the No. 17 test prototype has been running for more than nine hours from around 8 a.m. to now around 5 a.m., and is very close to reaching their expected second-stage goal.
As long as stable operation can be achieved for twelve hours, it means that the research and development of high-pressure steam engines has made great progress.
Its core machine has reached a barely usable level. They can then carry out further research and development around this core machine to further increase the stable use time. At the same time, they can conduct other developments around the core machine, such as designing multi-cylinder methods. Get more horsepower in a small package.
For example, expanding or reducing the cylinder volume to obtain steam engines of different powers.
At the same time, you can continue to adjust the steam pressure of the steam engine in the future to experiment with the service life under various pressures.
Then, a series of designs such as boilers, pipelines, and traditional systems can be optimized in a targeted manner.
All of this requires the core machine to meet the design requirements before the next step of work can be carried out.
When many systems are integrated, it becomes a complete steam engine.
As for now... it is just a solitary core machine, and the tests are mainly based on core components such as cylinders, pistons, boilers, pipes, and connections.
And this No. 17 prototype did not disappoint them. That night, the No. 17 high-pressure steam engine prototype successfully completed the twelve-hour life test.
In the past twelve hours, there had been no glitches, let alone fatal glitches.
When the test ended successfully and Steam Engine No. 17 finally stopped the flywheel that had been spinning for twelve hours, a group of company executives applauded the R&D team.
Not just applause, but also various rewards that were cashed on the spot.
Its core research team of more than 20 people has received cash checks ranging from three to four hundred to as many as thousands.
This is just the beginning. If the follow-up integrated research and development goes smoothly, when the first commercially available high-pressure steam engine is designed and produced, the entire design team will receive more generous rewards and share the benefits of its multiple patents. Patent fees.
This is what Guangzhou Machinery Company has promised a long time ago. As long as it can produce results, the rewards will be huge.
Promotions, salary increases, cash rewards, equity incentives, and patent dividends are all available.
Otherwise, Guangzhou Machinery Company would not have been able to recruit people from all over the country, even from the Royal Institute of Technology, and finally set up the country's leading high-pressure steam engine R&D team.
If you don't pay enough, why should they give you the hard work to develop a high-pressure steam engine?
These days, there are very few top scientific research talents who have received many years of new education, and it is difficult to recruit any of them. Not to mention that many people are not willing to work in enterprises, even in government-run enterprises. .
These top scientific research talents are generally more inclined to stay in school and teach in government-run colleges and universities, and their teaching positions are serious serving officials...
If you need status and status, your salary and remuneration are also good, and there is no shortage of research funding.
Even if they do not stay in school to teach, they are more inclined to go to the large official research institutes, such as the Dachu Empire Steel Research Institute, the Physics Research Institute, the Chemistry Research Institute, the Guns Research Institute, the Shipbuilding Research Institute, etc. 'At the beginning, it is an official research institute directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry.
It’s the same research, but it’s much better to do research in front of an official than in a company!
If he can make outstanding achievements, he might even be awarded a knighthood.
In addition, there are many people who are not engaged in research work, but will go to the imperial examination to become officials...
So don’t be surprised when you see a person studying theoretical physics running to become an official in the imperial examination. This is a characteristic of Da Chu!
This is also a situation caused by the very special official-oriented tradition in the Chinese region. People are always more inclined to become officials, especially if they are not good at academics, cannot advance academically, or cannot obtain middle- and high-level official status through academics. Students usually settle down and take the ordinary imperial examinations, starting from the grassroots level.
However, whether they take the academic path or the administrative path, they all do it for an official position, for glory and wealth.
This point must be made clear!
Similarly, this is also an important reason why the Chu Empire has cultivated a large number of scientific talents in just a dozen years.
If you learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well, you can become an official...
In other words, only if you learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well can you become an official... After all, even if it is an ordinary imperial examination, you have to test the ordinary content of mathematics, physics and chemistry.
Only by studying mathematics, physics and chemistry can one become an official. This is the reason why so many people work hard to study mathematics, physics and chemistry.
It is also the fundamental reason that promotes the spontaneous and large-scale wave of learning mathematics, physics and chemistry among the people.
In terms of promoting the education of new subjects such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, Luo Zhixue actually did not do too many messy things to promote it. Strictly speaking, Luo Zhixue only did one thing: incorporate science content into the imperial examination!
Then, private students, and even their parents, rushed to find textbooks and teachers to learn mathematics, physics and chemistry.
The whole scene was similar to that of students from the Ming Dynasty all running to study the eight-part essay.
In the past, students studied eight-part essays, while today’s students study mathematics, physics and chemistry... The purpose is also highly consistent: to become an official!
As for promoting the development of science and technology and conducting research, for most ordinary students, it is just incidental...
It's just that many people, even if they become officials, only do research in laboratories.
This kind of system will actually bring about many problems, but that will be a matter for the future.
Now, Luo Zhixue needs a large number of fast-track scientific and technical personnel to carry out various researches, as well as a large number of administrative officials who understand basic scientific knowledge.
After all, you can't let a person who only understands eight-part prose become a county magistrate... I won't ask you to study steam engines, but you have to know what a steam engine is... Otherwise, how can you be in the jurisdiction? Develop the agricultural, industrial and commercial economy and lead the people to live a good life.
Luo Zhixue also requires ordinary officials to have a certain level of scientific knowledge, at least knowing some basics.
And some more professional positions require officials with professional backgrounds, such as officials in the Ministry of Industry.
It's nonsense to ask an official who doesn't even know the principles of smelting to be an official in the Smelting Department...he's not professionally qualified.
It would be even more ridiculous to ask someone who can't even calculate accounts correctly and knows nothing about the financial and economic system to be an official in taxation, finance and other fields.
Many official positions in the Da Chu Empire have certain professional requirements, and not just anyone can be a candidate.
This has further led to the high demand for these professional talents in the officialdom, and further promoted the emergence of the social concept that only those who have learned mathematics, physics and chemistry can become an official.
This has led to the emergence of a large number of new talents in the education system of the Great Chu Empire in the past ten years.
However, most of these so-called talents are actually ordinary people, not top talents, and there is no need for large companies such as Guangzhou Machinery Company to spend a lot of money to recruit and retain people.
What really makes Guangzhou Machinery Company pay a certain price to recruit and retain people are top talents, especially the seven or eight talents from the Royal Institute of Technology.
If you want them to leave the Royal Institute of Technology and then join the Guangzhou Machinery Company, even if the Guangzhou Machinery Company is a government-owned enterprise, you can use the Ministry of Industry to transfer them from the research institute of the Royal Institute of Technology to Guangzhou Machinery in the form of 'transfer'. They hold positions in the company and thus keep their official status and benefits.
But it's still not easy. After all, if you don't provide enough attraction, why would you give up your teaching and research position at the Royal Institute of Technology and go to a company to work hard for you? Because of your big face?
It is not easy for government-run enterprises directly under the Ministry of Industry to attract top talents. It is even more difficult for purely private enterprises. Apart from relying on money, there is basically no other way!
The huge efforts of Guangzhou Machinery Company in the past have finally paid off now.
After the No. 17 high-pressure steam engine prototype completed the test, the technical team conducted a detailed inspection of the prototype and found some minor problems, and then made targeted improvements. Three more prototypes were quickly manufactured, namely No. 18 and No. 18. The 19th and the 20th.
After the prototype was built in the laboratory, it was quickly put into continuous testing.
After a series of conventional tests, all aspects of performance data have reached the design indicators, and then the extreme test begins.
Prototype No. 18 continued to run for a full day before it malfunctioned. Moreover, it was a small fault on the interface. It was not a malfunction in core components such as the cylinder, piston, and boiler. After the fault was eliminated, the test continued... and it continued to run for five years. Only days later did the steam engine have a problem.
It is worth noting that the continuous operation of the No. 18 prototype has always been maintained at a pressure of 0.3 MPa. This pressure is actually the critical value... But for actual commercial use, such a large power output is often not needed. , then the actual working conditions do not need to reach this pressure data, maybe 0.2 MPa is enough.
The No. 19 prototype was subjected to extreme high-pressure testing. They conducted various tests starting from 0.3 MPa, tested the stability at 0.35 MPa, and then tested 0.4 or even 0.5 MPa. The stability and service life under the pressure are quite good. Even if it reaches 0.5 MPa, this test prototype can still last for more than an hour.
As for the No. 20 prototype, it was not subjected to extreme testing. Instead, it was used as a core machine and tested with other components, especially the traditional structure.
In other words, after adding many supporting parts, Prototype No. 20 can actually be regarded as a single-cylinder industrial steam engine with a complete structure that can be put into actual use.
After intensive testing of three prototypes, the high-pressure steam engine technical team of Guangzhou Machinery Company collected a large amount of information and further improved the design, and finally entered the design work of a real mass-produced high-pressure steam engine.
This is the No. 21 high-pressure steam engine prototype. This is a horizontal double-cylinder steam engine. The cylinders on both sides are very eye-catching. It also uses the Guangzhou Machinery Company's exclusive patented technology 'multi-smoke tube boiler'.
The heat transfer channel area is large and the steam is heated quickly. It can effectively increase the steam pressure while reducing energy consumption. It is a very practical technological advancement.
The combination of many advanced technologies has resulted in this steam engine with more than 100 horsepower.
A steam engine with more than one hundred horsepower is actually nothing to the current Chu Empire.
The large steam engines of Tianjin Machinery Company now start with hundreds of horsepower, and the largest ones can even reach more than 300 horsepower.
Guangzhou Machinery Company has always focused on small steam engines, pursuing low energy consumption and low cost, but their product line also has large steam engines with hundreds of horses.
It's just that if these previous low-pressure steam engines wanted to reach more than a hundred horsepower, their size and weight couldn't be that small.
But the current prototype No. 21, although it may look very big from the perspective of future generations, its size and weight have been greatly reduced compared to those low-pressure steam engines with the same horsepower.
If we really want to compare, it may be only one tenth.
Why are high-pressure steam engines the future? It is because it can achieve several times or even ten times the output power with the same volume and weight as a low-pressure steam engine!
Prototype No. 21 is the most typical example!
Because this thing is small in size, light in weight, and has a huge power of more than 100 horsepower, it can even be further integrated to make the train that mining companies only dream of... to replace mules and horses for transportation. Various ore cargoes.
The successful test of prototype No. 21 also opened the curtain on the practical use of trains.
At this time, in addition to starting to sell high-pressure industrial steam engines to various industries, Guangzhou Machinery Company also started another research plan, which was also one of their main motivations for studying high-pressure steam engines before: trains!
Although selling high-pressure steam engines directly is also very profitable, if you directly buy integrated steam trains, you will definitely make more money...
In fact, the commercial railways make more money, but they don't dare to hope for this. The commercial railways in the Dachu Empire have long been integrated into the Railway Management Office of the Official Affairs Department of the Ministry of Transport.
Throughout the empire, commercially operated, public-facing railways are under the operation and jurisdiction of this management office, and other institutions or individuals are not allowed to enter the commercial railway field.
Therefore, Guangzhou Machinery Company will definitely not enter the railway construction industry, but they are very interested in the train manufacturing industry.
I have already built a high-pressure steam engine, so it is not difficult to build a train. Selling the entire set of trains can make more money than selling a single high-pressure steam engine.
Ever since, Guangzhou Machinery Company has been thinking about designing and building a real train, and then put it on the market!
Directly relying on the No. 21 prototype as the prototype, they designed and optimized their first locomotive: the Type 21 steam locomotive.
It is the research and development code name taken from the No. 21 prototype, which also means the 21st year of Chengshun.
Although the train was designed, the construction of the prototype had not yet started, so they couldn't wait to find the mining companies to promote it.
To make money, you have to do it early!
The major mining companies are the best customers of trains at this stage. They all have deep pockets and are willing to spend money for this.
In addition, they were also sent to find the Railway Management Office, which invested in the construction and subsequent operation of the Songjiang Railway. It will be completed next spring.
I just happened to go over to sell their trains, so that they would stop using those carriages that couldn't transport much and were too expensive.
The executives of Guangzhou Machinery Company were excited at the thought that they could be the first to occupy, or even monopolize, the unique and vast market of trains in the next few years!
And the market reaction was indeed as violent as they expected!
After Guangzhou Iron and Steel Company learned that the Guangzhou Machinery Company next door had developed a high-pressure steam engine and a locomotive based on the prototype, they immediately came to buy the locomotive... They used it for iron ore transportation on Qiongzhou Island. .
Within a few days, Guangning Mining Company also came to visit. Guangning Mining Company owns the largest anthracite coal mine in the empire. Its various mining areas are also connected by railways to the shipping terminal, because its coal mine transportation is huge. I have long wanted steam engines to replace mules and horses.
No, after hearing the news, I quickly came to buy it.
For a time, although Guangzhou Machinery Company has not officially announced it to the outside world, the imperial industry has already become a sensation because of the news of the successful development of high-pressure steam engines and trains!
(End of chapter)
