Although Lin Hui said that limited by technology, the current they can design and produce the shipborne steam engine, or can not be too big, when the steam pressure reaches a certain level, in order to increase the power, it is natural to make the steam engine larger, but want to make the steam engine bigger, the demand for processing production capacity is also very high, the need for larger, more high-end equipment, such as casting parts, the larger the parts, the higher the requirements for processing equipment, For example, the current ship-borne steam engine needs to use a very small number of 500-ton hydraulic presses in the empire, and if you want to make larger parts, you may need a 1,000-ton or even 35,000-ton hydraulic press.

Therefore, Lin Hui also said that the power of building a steam engine, a single unit to achieve 80 horsepower is basically the limit of the existing technology, if you want to do bigger, you need to upgrade the manufacturing process on a large scale, especially large-scale manufacturing equipment.

A single 80-horsepower steam engine is naturally much stronger than the previous low-pressure steam engines, but it is still too much to push those thousand-ton battleships.

But the admirals who came to watch the steam engine did not think so.

In particular, Zhang Xiaotian, director of the Shipbuilding Department of the Ministry of Shipbuilding, vice admiral of naval technology, and the main designer of many battleships and cruisers of the Imperial Navy, said that a battleship can only be equipped with one steam engine, as long as the hull is large enough, then it can be equipped with two or even three or more steam engines!

Moreover, in his opinion, this kind of steam engine can still continue to be changed, and now all kinds of machinery and equipment are lacking, but they can be upgraded and improved, such as hydraulic presses, the current 500 tons are not enough, then do 1,000 tons or even 3,000 tons, 5,000 tons.

There was no before, just because there was no demand, now there is demand, then it will be made, although it is more difficult to develop new machinery and equipment, but the difficulties have always been there, but as long as continuous investment, it can always be solved.

When there is production equipment, the steam engine can be made larger, so that the power of a single steam engine will also come up.

With the addition of multiple steam engines used in parallel at the same time, it is completely possible to push thousands of tons of warships at that time!

They are extremely optimistic about the future, and when they saw the prototype of the shipboard steam engine, they were already planning how to stuff a larger and more steam engine into a thousand-ton battleship, so as to build a real steam warship.

The Navy was stimulated by this shipborne steam engine, which had only a basic design and no prototype that could be experimented!

After going back this time, many bigwigs of the Navy discussed that the construction of the existing capital ships of the Navy was suspended!

Because in their opinion, this shipboard steam engine is about to be made, and it is not stupid to continue to build a pure sail battleship, and now that it has been built, the hull will have to be modified in the future, and then the steam engine can be installed.

If this is too much, otherwise the construction of new ships will be suspended now, and the design will be directly changed, and the steam warship will be built directly!

Of course, this change in design does not mean that warships will not be built, in fact, they will continue to be built, but they will only change the hull design, and at the same time, they will continue to retain the sail system.

Because even if the shipboard steam engine is made, no one dares to guarantee whether the steam engine can run stably for a long time, in case the sails are canceled, and then the steam engine lies on its stomach again, then it is really only possible to wait for death on the sea.

In addition to preventing the unstable performance of the steam engine, it is also to increase the sailing speed!

If you use both a sail and a steam engine, you can reach even greater sailing speeds with a tailwind!

At the same time, this change in the design of the battleship under construction is also to discuss the future steam engine modification plan of the existing battleship!

When the admirals of the Navy saw the successful operation of the high-pressure steam engine of the Royal Institute of Technology, and also came up with the basic design of the shipborne steam engine, they already realized that the era of steam warships had arrived.

When the era of steam engine battleships arrived, although it was said that new steam engine battleships would be built in the future, the existing large number of sail battleships could not be thrown away.

You must know that the Tang Empire currently has more than 70 frigates and more than 70 main warships, and the number of various patrol ships, communication ships, and transport ships has reached more than 100.

As for river warships, not to mention.

With so many sailing ships, it is impossible to give up directly, which is built by the Datang Navy in the past ten years and spent countless military spending, and it is not allowed to throw it directly.

Therefore, the follow-up sail ships will definitely be converted to steam in the future, but how to modify it requires detailed planning.

After discussing with the high-ranking generals of the Navy and the technical officers of the Navy's Ship Administration Department, they came up with a preliminary steam plan for the next five years!

First of all, the navy considered that if the warship used a steam engine, it would need to be coaled, so it was necessary to build coal reserves in advance in major naval bases and many ports. At the same time, the steam engine is not too stable and mature now, and the follow-up maintenance of the warship will definitely be very troublesome, so it is also required to set up a steam engine repair organization in the major naval bases.

And according to the application of the steam engine, began to train specialized talents, especially mechanical engineers, after all, during the voyage, if there is any problem with the steam engine of the battleship, it must be pulled back to the shipyard, and then ask the mechanical company to repair it, right?

The Navy is going to have an engineer directly attached to the steam warship to solve some minor problems, just like the previous concept of having a carpenter on the ship.

Cultivating human resources and setting up coal stations was to prepare for the large-scale use of steam engines in the future.

The design of the warships under construction was changed in preparation for the smooth installation of steam engines after the subsequent steam engines came out, and also in preparation for the modification of a large number of existing sail warships.

And this modified design will naturally retain the sail system.

Considering the immaturity of the steam engine, for a long time in the future, the navy will tend to retain the sails and adopt the power system of the sail and the steam engine.

But these modifications are always refitted, and the Navy wants more warships that have been designed on the basis of steam warships from the beginning.

At this time, Li Xuan also mentioned a few words from the navy, lest they go down the wrong path!

After all, even if Li Xuan was not a fan of the navy in his previous life, he knew the general appearance of the battleship, and knew that the steamship was propelled by paddle wheels at the beginning, and then propellers were rushed.

Li Xuan had already let the navy test the propeller technology before, but unfortunately the technology was not perfect enough, so Li Xuan said that at this stage, it can be propelled by paddle wheels, but the future development direction must be propeller, so the navy must find a way to transition to the propeller propulsion route as soon as possible.

In addition, it is also for the navy to try to wrap steel in the hull of the battleship to improve the protection ability of the battleship.

But Li Xuan also knew that his reminders were actually not of much value, because if you want to realize the propeller propulsion, steel hull, plus pure steam engine power propulsion, and large-caliber artillery battleships that Li Xuan said, it is not something that can be done in three or five years, and it will take a long time to perfect.

Now, it's better to play steam sail hybrid honestly, the steel is at most to wrap some iron sheets around the hull, and the propulsion has to use paddle wheels.

After all, this is not perfect, but it can be made.

Under the guidance of Li Xuan, the designers of the Shipbuilding Department of the Navy and the Ministry of Naval Shipbuilding, with reference to the opinions of the Department of Naval Ships, the Department of Mechanics and several major shipyards of the Royal Institute of Technology, designed a real steam warship.

This one was called an epoch-making warship by the Navy's internal designers, and interestingly, it was just a patrol ship!

Why? Because this is only a technical verification ship, the Navy plans to build one first to see the effect, and then build a large warship!

Therefore, the displacement of this 'Xuanping 18-year new steam patrol ship', which has a very uninspired design codename, is only 200 tons.

But the reason why it is said to be epoch-making is that the patrol ship is also equipped with a steam engine in the sail system, which is expected to use a single steam engine with a power of 80 horsepower, propelled by a rear paddle wheel, and at the same time cover the hull of some key parts with a layer of steel.

Li Xuan didn't have any feelings about the so-called epoch-making design of the navy, anyway, it was not the first time that the navy had made steam engine test pieces, in fact, in the past so many years, the navy had used the original low-pressure steam engine to build more than a dozen steam engine test ships.

Not to mention this hybrid, paddlewheel propulsion, key part of the steel-covered test ship.

In the past, the navy even carried out pure steam engines, propeller propulsion, and test pieces built of all-steel, well, although the power was seriously insufficient, it could not run the speed of the river, and during the second trial, it was hit by a small wave, and then ...... And then it capsized!

In short, over the past many years, the Navy has actually engaged in all kinds of messy test ships.

However, this time it is epoch-making, because this time the test ship is actually the predecessor of the mass production battleship, and the design is all in consideration of the subsequent mass production, and at the same time paves the way for the subsequent construction of large-tonnage steam warships.

Li Xuan is also accustomed to the toss of the navy, and he also supports them to carry out all kinds of tossing, this is not a toss, how can there be any technological progress!

If the navy didn't toss, it would not have been possible to repeatedly test the traditional system of the steam engine, paddle wheel, propeller and steel warship, the navy's years of tossing and turning have also led to the fact that the steam engine warship is everything, only the east wind is owed!

Now the navy has everything ready, and it's just a steam engine.