Amid the expectations and uneasy welcome of many people, Luo Zhixue walked into the exhibition venue with a large group of imperial ministers and princes.
As soon as Luo Zhixue entered, the first thing he saw in front of him was a number of mechanical equipment with very different appearances!
To be honest, just at first glance, Luo Zhixue couldn't recognize that these were gasoline engines. These primitive gasoline engines were too primitive, and they were very different in appearance from the gasoline engines known to Luo Zhixue in later generations.
In particular, the gasoline engine in the middle looks very complicated. In addition to the cylinder structure in the middle, which is probably the cylinder, there are many messy equipment outside. The overall appearance is more complicated than the other gasoline engines.
Looking away from the three gasoline engines, Luo Zhixue saw several gas engines on one side. This gas engine was more numerous. There were more than ten in total. The possible size of the small ones was only forty or fifty centimeters, but The big one is more than one meter long and half a meter high.
The three major internal combustion engine companies have been researching and developing gas engines for many years. Liaodong Hekou Machinery Company has commercialized gas engines and achieved great success. According to previous reports obtained by Luo Zhixue, most of these gas engines are manufactured by Liaodong Hekou Machinery Company. products, and they are all already mass-produced products.
As for the other two internal combustion engine companies, there are fewer gas engines. Each company only has one, and both of them are in the state of research and development and have not been put into market use.
In the field of gas engines, Liaodong Hekou Machinery Company's overall technology has surpassed the other two internal combustion engine companies.
On the left side of the gasoline engine booth, there are only three machines. One of them is a kerosene engine launched by Liaodong Machinery Company, and the other is a kerosene engine from Liaodong Hekou Machinery Company. However, there is a different machine mixed in next to it. A project belonging to the three major internal combustion engine companies is the diesel engine being developed by Guangzhou Machinery Company, a traditional steam engine manufacturer.
Guangzhou Machinery Company is also the only traditional steam engine company in the empire that invests a lot of manpower and material resources in the research and development of internal combustion engines. However, their research and development goals are not actually ordinary small and medium-sized diesel engines. They develop diesel engines. The core purpose is to use diesel engines on ships. This is to seize the steam engine market share of the other two traditional steam engine companies, especially the market share of some small and medium-sized naval steam engines.
This is different from the fact that the three major internal combustion engine companies develop gas engines, gasoline engines and even kerosene engines, basically for use in industrial and land mobile machinery and equipment.
The direct driving force behind the development of gas engines by the three major internal combustion engine companies at that time was to find a lighter, smaller and more powerful power equipment to replace the steam engines in tractor-type equipment. The product they really wanted to develop at the beginning was actually Gas engine-powered versions of tractors, harvesters, etc. Of course, in addition to these agricultural equipment, they can also provide various chassis with gas engines to other cooperative manufacturers. The cooperative manufacturers use these chassis to produce excavators, bulldozers, etc. kind of engineering equipment.
Providing a better power source for agricultural machinery and engineering equipment was the main reason why they developed internal combustion engines. The reason why they chose to start with gas engines was because in the early years, gas was the only more convenient fuel.
In recent years, with the development of the petroleum industry, kerosene, gasoline, and diesel have appeared. Therefore, after comprehensive comparison, the three major manufacturers chose gasoline as the main breakthrough direction.
However, as a precaution, they also conducted appropriate research and development on kerosene engines. Due to the unique needs of ship power, Guangzhou Machinery Company chose one with a lower ignition point, higher torque, and greater output power. diesel engine.
As for the kerosene engine... this thing is actually not very reliable. The ignition point of this thing is neither high nor low, between diesel and gasoline. Because the ignition point is much higher than diesel, it is difficult to use compression ignition to ignite. The reason why diesel It can be ignited with high compression because the ignition point of diesel is very low, only two to three hundred degrees.
But for kerosene, its ignition point reaches about 400 degrees, which means a higher compression ratio is required, and higher requirements for materials and processing techniques of cylinders and key components are required.
As for gasoline, the ignition point of this thing is higher, reaching around 500 degrees... so compression ignition is not reliable, and you can only rely on external ignition points for ignition!
In addition, if kerosene is ignited using an external ignition point, although it is feasible, its bursting power is not as good as gasoline.
To put it simply, among the two ignition routes of an internal combustion engine, diesel is the best for compression ignition, gasoline is the best for external ignition, and kerosene is neither better nor worse... whichever one you choose will not be better than the other two.
This is also the reason why kerosene engines are rare in the field of internal combustion engines.
However, despite these shortcomings, in order to give it a try, lest one day competitors actually come up with it, and then fall behind others if they don't have it, so the three major internal combustion engine manufacturers still invest a certain amount of resources in the field of kerosene engines. research.
However, they basically follow the same technical route as gasoline engines, and there is no compression ignition kerosene engine... Even diesel engines have not yet developed compression ignition, let alone kerosene engines.
This is also the reason why there will be a kerosene engine in this internal combustion engine exhibition demonstration.
Luo Zhixue looked around at the dozens of various internal combustion engines in the clubhouse, with a kind smile on his face!
The development of the internal combustion engine field is faster than he expected... This is also thanks to the three major agricultural machinery/internal combustion engine companies that invested resources in research and development in the early years.
To be honest, Luo Zhixue actually didn't even know that the three major internal combustion engine companies were engaged in internal combustion engine research and development until the gas engine project of Liaodong Hekou Machinery Company failed and was canceled for several years.
After all, the officials below would not report everything, especially the research projects that the companies below had launched on their own in order to compete in the market, and they were still failed projects.
If all projects were reported, then countless scientific research projects would have to be reported to Luo Zhixue every day.
In a country as big as the Da Chu Empire, there are dozens of key official research institutions with universities as the core, official funding and other support, and there are many various research projects.
Then there are all kinds of messy research projects launched by many companies.
If you really want to talk about it, there are countless research projects in progress throughout the empire all the time, some of which fail and some succeed, and it is impossible for the officials below to report everything to Luo Zhixue.
Only some major and influential scientific research successes will be reported to Luo Zhixue, such as the previous series of electrification research. Not only Luo Zhixue is very concerned about electrification, but in fact the high-level officials of the empire are very concerned about it... Mainly because electrification can bring The huge impact and benefits are very obvious, especially with such a huge success example as wired telegraphy. The empire's senior officials attach great importance to the development of electrification.
In recent years, the funding for various projects to support electrification research and application promotion has reached tens of millions. This does not include various policy supports. For example, the Ministry of Taxation has long included the electrical industry as a high-tech tax exemption industry. For enterprises engaged in the electrical industry, support policies such as tax reduction or even tax exemption will be adopted.
Contemporary electrification companies can enjoy very generous tax preferential policies, thereby reducing investment costs and operating costs, freeing up more valuable funds for research and development and product applications...
This is the extent of the empire’s policy support for the electrification industry.
As for the internal combustion engine, it was not considered a strategic industry before this. Few people in the empire's senior management knew about it, and the few who knew it didn't care much.
So it’s not like I reported it right away.
All these changes came from an instruction given by Luo Zhixue last year.
But until now, many senior officials in the empire are not very interested in the internal combustion engine. Most of them think that although it is somewhat useful, it is just like that and cannot affect the empire's century-old strategy.
Therefore, Luo Zhixue brought so many people to visit today. Although many of the imperial ministers who came with him came, they still somewhat disagreed with it.
I feel that His Majesty attaches too much importance to it. This emphasis is almost as strong as electrification.
Is the internal combustion engine useful? It must be useful. For example, it is very good to be used as a power source for tractors. Gas engines can also be used as a power supplement for steam engines and electric motors in the industrial field, but for these uses, they cannot affect the empire. The big picture.
How can such an internal combustion engine be compared with electrification?
This is the inner thought of many imperial ministers.
In this regard, as the emperor of the empire, Luo Zhixue was actually able to know the thoughts of his ministers to some extent. It was precisely because he knew that he brought these people over to see and expressed his position in such a public occasion, so that the empire's The important ministers all paid attention to it.
In order to let the empire's ministers better understand the meaning and prevent them from guessing and guessing wrong in the end, Luo Zhixue did not behave in this inspection like he did in many usual inspections.
Instead, he looked very interested in internal combustion engines and looked forward to the tour while listening to the explanations of the technical leaders of each manufacturer.
When he heard the chief engineer of Tangshan Machinery Company say that their gasoline engines used their newly developed electronic ignition system, Luo Zhixue was honestly a little surprised.
Then he asked many details on the spot, and finally said: "The electronic ignition of your gasoline engine is very good. It shows that you have also worked hard!"
"Can this gasoline engine start the demonstration?"
Luo Zhixue spoke very kindly, with a smile on his face... These scientific researchers present are basically the core engineers in the field of internal combustion engines in the empire, so they can't scare them by speaking too harshly.
Furthermore, in this kind of public situation, you have to show your kindness and kindness, so that when you go back to write a story for the royal reporter of the newspaper department, you don’t have to open your eyes and tell lies!
Therefore, in almost all public inspection occasions, Luo Zhixue is always cordial and kind. If it is inspecting a factory or the like, he will still talk to front-line representatives.
Of course, these representatives are basically corporate representatives who have been carefully selected through repeated and rigorous reviews by the Imperial Academy's Internal Affairs Section and the Imperial Household Agency's Guards Division... and there are also plainclothes agents from the Internal Affairs Section and the Guards Division.
What kind of international joke are you kidding? Luo Zhixue is the emperor of the empire. How can he let ordinary people of unknown origins approach him at will? Luo Zhixue is not afraid of death, but a large number of imperial officials are afraid of losing their lives.
Let Luo Zhixue get close to ordinary people with unknown origins. If one of these ordinary people has trouble thinking, just take a wrench and hit him in the head, wouldn't it be the end?
Therefore, no matter Luo Zhixue is willing or not, it is impossible for the Internal Affairs Section of the Hanlin Academy, the Guards Office of the Imperial Household Agency, and the Guards, which are responsible for the emperor's security, to let ordinary people get close to Luo Zhixue... let alone close to him, close to a few It is impossible within ten meters.
Once there is any assassination case, it is hard to say whether Luo Zhixue will die, but they will definitely die. In serious cases, their homes will be confiscated and their families will be exterminated.
As for Luo Zhixue, he complied with the advice of the security agency and would not put himself in a dangerous environment at will... He was also afraid of death!
Throughout history, there have been many rulers who held public demonstrations and gave speeches and ended up being assassinated by various assassinations.
The prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire who ignited the powder keg of World War I was stupidly paraded in a convertible among ordinary people and was shot to death.
Later, Kennedy also imitated him and rode in a convertible for a parade, and was shot again...
Being close to ordinary people is actually very dangerous for rulers... It has nothing to do with whether you are good or not, because being a ruler will always damage or fail to take care of the interests of some people, and there will always be some people who are hostile to the ruler. Holding a grudge, if one of them is bold and has the ability to act, it will be very dangerous.
Therefore, as a ruler, if you do not show an image of being friendly to the people...well, especially rulers after modern industrialization, they will basically not end well;
But if you really get too close to ordinary people and escape from protection, it will basically not end well...
Luo Zhixue, on the other hand, wants to play up the image of being close to the people, but he will not put himself in danger to make fun of things.
But you can't say that he is not close to the people... Because many of Luo Zhixue's policies actually focus on two points: the first is to stabilize the foundation of rule, and the second is to improve people's living standards.
Let’s not talk about the first one, let’s talk about the second one!
Luo Zhixue's series of policy measures in the past thirty years, including a series of external expansion and wars, are all aimed at improving per capita food levels and reducing the proportion of food consumption.
Luo Zhifei worked hard, but the ultimate goal is just to make the people of Chu fed and well fed!
From this perspective, there are really few rulers at home and abroad who have more noble governance concepts than Luo Zhi!
Since Luo Zhixue unified China, he actually has no ambitions... he just wants to enjoy life by himself, have a harem of three thousand, and then incidentally improve the living standards of the people of Chu, so as to achieve some self-satisfaction of his own.
Simple and simple governance concept!
It is a pity that no other ruler in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, has such a simple and simple governing philosophy.
Because he is a cheating time traveler. He regards unifying China, expanding the world, and running an empire as a strategic game... and sets a goal for himself so that everyone in Chu can have enough to eat. game goals.
A strategy gamer who plays games and a native ruler...these two are not the same species at all.
Perhaps, the only people who can understand his governance philosophy are Qidian’s history readers!
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Luo Zhixue wants to see the on-site demonstration of Tangshan Machinery Company's gasoline engine. There is no problem. This time the demonstration itself has an on-site prototype demonstration session. It is not only the gasoline engine demonstration of Tangshan Machinery Company, but also the gasoline engines of other manufacturers. Gas engines and even some semi-finished kerosene engines and diesel engines will be demonstrated on site.
As Luo Zhixue walked around and briefly looked at each machine, and listened to the explanations by the person in charge of each manufacturer, he also came to the on-site demonstration session.
The first thing to come on stage is the gasoline engine of Tangshan Machinery Company, which Luo Zhixue has paid the most attention to!
In Luo Zhixue's view, although this gasoline engine is still immature in many aspects, it already looks like later generations of gasoline engines. In particular, their electronic ignition system is far ahead of the heat pipe ignition of other internal combustion engine companies.
With the preparations for the demonstration completed, an engineer from Tangshan Machinery Company came forward with a crank... Their gasoline engines still use hand crank start.
Their electronic ignition system does not mean electronic start, but uses a spark plug to ignite the cylinder fuel.
If it is started in the early stage, a human crank is still needed to provide initial power.
As the engineer worked hard and quickly shook the crank, the gasoline engine soon made a slightly harsh chug sound, and the gasoline engine started smoothly.
After Luo Zhixue saw that the gasoline engine started smoothly, he couldn't help but smile and nodded. This thing actually started and ran smoothly.
And it seems to be running very smoothly.
At this time, the chief engineer of Tangshan Machinery Company also explained in time: "Our current prototype adopts a four-stroke design, the maximum output power can reach half a horsepower, and its maximum speed can reach 600 rpm, which is far It exceeds the gas engine that uses heat pipe ignition, and the better rotation speed also allows our engine to achieve higher fuel efficiency. The thermal efficiency value far exceeds that of steam engines, and also exceeds the gas engine on the market today!"
"In order to ensure the high engine speed, we specially designed a high-frequency electronic ignition system that can ignite up to three hundred times per minute."
"If this kind of gasoline engine can solve the problem of mass production in the future, its adaptability will be very wide, and it can provide light and efficient power for various mechanical equipment, such as agricultural machinery and engineering equipment."
"This kind of gasoline engine will be more suitable for mobile platforms than the existing steam engines and gas engines!"
When the engineer from Tangshan Machinery Company was explaining, the heads of Liaodong Machinery Company and Liaodong Hekou Machinery Company next to him looked unhappy.
This piece of shit is so advanced...it's much better than the heat-pipe ignition gasoline engine they came up with.
With Zhu Yu in front of them, wouldn't it mean that if they took out their rags for demonstration, they would be embarrassed and thrown into grandma's house?
Luo Zhixue listened to the explanation of the person in charge and flipped through the technical manual provided by them.
This thing is better than he expected. Whether it is speed, thermal efficiency or stability, it is very good. If this prototype is adapted and improved, it can be used in various specifications of gasoline engines.
Although the prototype is only half-horsepower, it is just a technical demonstration prototype. It is relatively small and relatively conservative... After all, this is a demonstration before the emperor. Luo Zhixue can understand that they lowered the power by themselves in order to avoid problems. Some technical indicators.
According to this set of technical standards, they can definitely build a gasoline engine with greater horsepower, such as a few horses or even a dozen or twenty horsepower.
So Luo Zhixue said: "It's very good. This kind of gasoline engine has a great future. It can be used in agricultural machinery and engineering equipment. In addition, according to my opinion, this kind of gasoline engine can also be installed on a carriage to replace horses and make a gasoline engine." The carriage!"
A gasoline-powered carriage?
After hearing this word, a group of people at the lower level were puzzled at first, but soon some people reacted, and then they couldn't help but imagine in their minds what it would be like to install this kind of engine into a carriage.
In this way, wouldn't it be possible to keep the carriage running? And if we continue to increase the power, wouldn't the carriage be faster?
The most important thing is that if the gasoline engine is used, once the price and usage cost of the gasoline engine are reduced to a certain level in the future, wouldn't it be cheaper than using a draft horse?
At this time, the Minister of Transportation spoke up: "If horse-drawn carriages can use this kind of engine, then the urban traffic pollution problem that has troubled us for many years will be solved!"
Urban traffic pollution these days...is not talking about internal combustion engine exhaust, but the feces, urine and horse carcasses emitted by the horses pulling the carts.
Songjiang, the largest city in the Chu Empire, has been troubled by this problem for twenty or thirty years... As the city grows larger and more populous, more and more carriages are needed. The horses in Songjiang City The problems of feces and urine pollution and horse carcasses are becoming more and more prominent.
Not long ago, Songjiang Prefecture launched a city-wide horse carcass cleanup operation, and the carcasses of more than 10,000 horses were cleaned up throughout the entire city!
It’s so scary!
