March 12, 1651, fine.

Peng Zhicheng strode along the embankment of the Xingnan section of the Southern Cone Railway, followed by a group of workers in black railway uniforms -- all members of the State Railway Administration. This place is 20 kilometers away from Xingnan Port, and strictly speaking, it is no longer the boundary of Xingnan Port, but the jurisdiction of Xinbao. Today, Peng Zhicheng, an army veteran who is in charge of the state's railway construction supervision, came to such a remote place in the south, not to be idle, but to test the latest product of the Central Railway Company (which now operates both the Luomei Line and the Northwest Railway): the cable telegraph.

As we all know, in a vast and sparsely populated place on the East Coast, which is facing serious security problems, the telegraph, a powerful communication tool that can transmit information in real time, has always been the focus of attention of the Executive Committee. Since a few years ago, the Central Railway Company continued to extract a considerable proportion of the profits of the Luomei Railway and invest it in the research of the telegraph system and lead-acid batteries, the Executive Committee has been instructing the Government Council to issue a number of scientific research subsidies to the Central Railway Company, and at the same time, the technical personnel of the Telecommunications Institute of the Natural Sciences Research Institute (currently there are only two or three kittens, and there is an urgent shortage of talents) and the "China Railway" to carry out research and development of the entire telegraph system.

The research and development of the whole system began with the research of dry batteries and accumulators on the East Coast many years ago. The East Coast Institute of Natural Sciences began with voltaic stacks, doing basic research and training technical personnel -- mainly students from the high school affiliated to the Institute of Natural Sciences, who, as "high-level intellectuals," were closely protected and monitored by the State Intelligence Administration -- and they also made some crude electrical instruments by hand with reference to the real objects on the Crossing Shiyunsheng No. 1. While exercising students' hands-on ability. It also gives them a preliminary understanding of electricity. This is conducive to the subsequent theoretical learning.

Later, they began to develop batteries, that is, how to convert chemical energy into electrical energy, so as to realize its utilization. Because of the impression from later generations, the East Coast people went straight to the lead-acid battery from the beginning, instead of taking a detour to study some other batteries that were not so reliable as in history.

The positive and negative plates of the lead-acid battery are made of lead, in which the positive plates are coated with a layer of lead dioxide in a dilute sulfuric acid solution (27%-37% concentration) medium. The lead dioxide on the positive plate will become an unstable state of lead hydroxide, which will make the positive plate positively charged; The lead on the negative plate will transfer the lead positive ions to the medium under the action of dilute sulfuric acid, so that the two electrons remain on the negative plate, so that the negative plate is negatively charged, so that the potential difference between the positive and negative plates is formed, and a more stable current can be formed as long as the external circuit is connected.

Of course, limited by the influence of materials, technology and some other factors, the lead-acid batteries manufactured by the East Coast people are not satisfactory in terms of cost, capacity, life and voltage, and they need to be improved urgently. But that's all for nowhere. The big yes and no problem has been solved, and all that's left is to gradually refine the details and improve performance.

In fact, the original people from the Institute of Natural Sciences had already completed the research and development of lead-acid batteries before this. Even more than a dozen experimental products have been made, but they have not been very satisfied with the requirements that are too high, and they keep saying that they need to continue to improve, so they have rejected the trial requirements of many departments or units. However, this time, the Central Railway Company couldn't help it, and asked them to immediately finalize the latest products and send them to the line of the South Cone Railway in Hung Nam Port to provide power for the newly developed telegraph system. As for the poor performance of the battery, the voltage is low, and the capacity is small, it is not a problem, multiple batteries can be connected in series to increase the voltage, and the telegraph does not need any high voltage, which is enough to cope.

With the power supply, the wire is simpler, the East Coast people are currently using a thin copper wire coated with a layer of tung oil from the Far East - in fact, there is no need to do this, in the environment of low voltage and low heat generation, a lot of paint can be used as the insulation layer of the wire, but for the sake of insurance, the Central Railway Company still uses the copper wire of the tung oil insulation layer very luxuriously.

As for the telegraph system, to be honest, it is not too difficult, although many parts can only be made by hand (which causes high costs), although many parts have a low service life, and although the overall reliability of the system is not high (frequent failures), it can be used after all, and in most cases, it can receive electrical signals from afar.

At present, this telegraph transceiver system has actually been jointly tested by the Academy of Natural Sciences and the China Railway Corporation many times before, but today's test is a long-distance test with a transmission distance of more than 30 kilometers -- the signal sending station is Xingnan Port, and the receiving station is set up in Zixinbao.

Such a long transmission distance is also the first time for China Railway Company, so although it is estimated in advance that there is no need to set up a relay station in the middle of the way, and the signal can definitely be transmitted over such a long distance without attenuation, they still have no confidence - after all, their own family knows their own affairs, and the quality of their products is quite average (or a mess), and whether they can transmit successfully is really bottomless, and they can only fight for character.

The test was scheduled to begin at 12 noon, and half an hour later, Peng Zhicheng was still inspecting the completed railway section on the Gobi Desert. He looked very carefully, the curvature of the roadbed, the drainage ditch (in fact, it was not needed, the local drought and precipitation were less), the rail type, etc., and from time to time he took out his small notebook to record something. But he was so serious, the group of people who followed him seemed a little absent-minded, and from time to time they turned their heads to look west in the direction of Zixinbao, which surprised the herdsmen who occasionally passed by on the side of the road, and wondered if the sun really came out of the west today.

"The 32-kilometer railway from Xingnan Port to Xinbao has already been connected, the 55-kilometer stretch from Araukan Port to Qingniwa Fort has also been connected a while ago, and we have also built a branch line with a length of about 41 kilometers (Black Mountain Coal Mine - Qingniwa Section). Overall, the total mileage of the Southern Cone Railway is likely to far exceed that of the Khingnam Highway that we built before, and will historically reach a total length of 416 kilometers (including branch lines), which is already more than the 330 kilometers of the Northwest Railway, and is the longest railway line in China. After hearing Peng Zhicheng's question, an official of the Southern Railway Company immediately replied cautiously: "At present, we have built 159 kilometers of mileage of the Southern Cone Railway, and in addition to these three sections that have been opened to traffic, we have also intermittently built some small mileage in the middle. According to the current situation of personnel and machinery and equipment, it may take four years for the entire railway to be completed, that is, it will not be opened to traffic until the end of 1654, so I have established the Executive Committee, the State Railway Administration and the Southern Railway Company to increase investment and add more personnel and equipment so that this railway can be completed ahead of schedule, which is extremely important for the increasingly heavy task of transporting migrants and the transportation of goods from the Peruvian smuggled trade, and it can be said that it is not too significant to elevate it......"

Just as the official of the Southern Railway Company was babbling to Peng Zhicheng about his grievances and planning to ask for more assistance from the mainland, two riders rode from the west on fast horses, and soon approached. I saw that the rider who hit the head skillfully reined in the horse, then tore his throat open, and shouted at Peng Zhicheng and the others with all his strength: "Since the information was received at the Xinbao Railway Station, the translator made an interpretation within two minutes, which is 'insisting on the leadership of the executive committee for a hundred years'!" ”

"Persist in the leadership of the Executive Committee for 100 years without wavering" is exactly the message sent by the telegraph station on the side of Xingnan Port, Peng Zhicheng and others already knew when they set off, and when they learned the exact news, they all immediately smiled, because this proved that the cable telegraph system they designed and developed was at least able to pass through the guò wire through a space of 32 kilometers and send information to a distant place in an instant, which was a great achievement.

"The initial success of the experiment, the next step is to insist on improvement, whether it is design, materials, or reliability, in short, to continuously improve the performance, so that it has stronger practicability and lower cost." Peng Zhicheng said happily to everyone, and then he emphatically called the officials of the Central Railway Company who followed him, and reminded him emphatically: "First of all, congratulations on achieving this phased result, but I want to say that this is not the end, and then you must find ways to improve performance and ensure that the signal can be transmitted over longer distances, such as Sand Castle, Qingniwa, Black Mountain Coal Mine, and Araukan Port, step by step." Of course, the construction of relay stations should also be carried out simultaneously, and the training of telegraph operators and interpreters should not be left behind. Think about it, what a miracle it is that the instructions from the port of Khingnam were received in a few minutes by the port of Araukan! ”

In the arrangements of the Executive Committee and the Government Council, in the future, priority will be given to the construction of cable telegraphs along the railway lines, and in principle, one relay station will be built at each railway station - the distance between these railway stations is moderate, and there will be no significant attenuation of the signal. In terms of operation, it is naturally handed over to the Central Railway Company, after all, most of the research and development funds and a considerable part of the technical personnel are provided by the company, so the patent for the cable telegraph naturally belongs to the company. It is foreseeable that when the cable telegraph is gradually popularized, this business will inevitably be a source of money, and it will become the second money printing machine under the China Railway Corporation.

"Supervisor Peng can rest assured that our company will increase investment to enhance the reliability and durability of the system, and the training of the relay station and corresponding personnel will also be carried out at the same time, please rest assured." When the official of China Railway Company heard this, he immediately expressed his position and said with a happy face. (To be continued......)