Due to Downing's huge financial resources and industrial resource allocation ability, coupled with Brunel's outstanding engineering innovation, Crystal Shipyard started from scratch and built the first 10,000-ton steel ship in more than two years. It was finally named the Great Eastern. Because it is mainly used on the Far Eastern route, it echoes the Great Western from afar.

The Great Eastern has a registered gross tonnage of 1. 20,000, 156 meters long, can accommodate 1,000 passengers, half of the first class, half of the tourist cabin, only 200 crew members, because Downing specifically asked Brunel to design an automatic coaling system, so this 10,000-ton giant ship pioneered the briquette conveyor belt, all the coal is pre-made into balls in the factory and packed in a specially designed large coal tank, constantly rolling into the furnace under the action of gravity. This innovation alone has saved the manpower of Bailaihao for the power system!

Due to the strong horsepower of the steam turbine, this 1. A 2-ton behemoth can run wildly through the ocean at a speed of 20 knots, four times faster than a pure sail ocean-going vessel and more than twice as fast as a steam-powered ocean-going ship like the Great Western (8 for the Great Western). v. 5). The voyage time from the UK to India has been reduced from six months to just over two months.

The sails can now be removed, but replaced with wind turbines, which can be used for lighting, cooking, and using electrical appliances such as telegraphs and phonographs. Equipped with the world's largest cold storage, passengers can enjoy fresh meat, eggs and vegetables throughout their journey. Reverse osmosis membrane watermakers provide travelers with an abundance of fresh water every day. With these food guarantees, the Great Eastern does not need to stop in South Africa at all, and of course, as a traditional transit point, it is also possible to make a few special trips to South Africa by the way.

Today's large ships are mostly coated with black asphalt to prevent oxidative damage to the steel, so the incident in which the U.S. Navy forcibly opened the gates of Japan became known as the "Black Ship Incident" (1853). Our local tyrant is already the famous Duke of London, we have to pay attention to taste, absolutely not perfunctory with asphalt, just for the color of the paint of the Great Orient, the Duke has worked hard to make people prepare hundreds of samples of various colors and feelings, and finally decided to use the most tasteful emperor Song Huizong in the East for the color of the imperial porcelain - the azure color when the rain has passed.

He asked to merge the three large chimneys originally designed into one, and use an air purifier that consumes energy to deeply filter the soot, and the big chimney can only produce a mixture of carbon dioxide and water vapor that has no problem breathing, of course, limited to the process, and a small amount of sulfur dioxide, which cannot be too perfectionist. In short, from a distance, you can only see the white color of water vapor, and it feels very clean.

The steel ship itself is very safe, and it is not ready to sail north, so it is possible to hit an iceberg, and it is not ready to explore, and it will not enter unfamiliar waters, and the probability of a fire is extremely small, because of the use of electric lighting and electric cooking (electric stove), even if it catches fire, the steel ship will not burn. Even so, Downing equipped the Great Eastern with enough life rafts for all passengers. How do you equip everyone with a life raft in the precious hull space? Of course, it is not difficult for the great inventor, and his solution is - inflatable.

The inflatable life raft is usually only a small piece of inconspicuous pad, and when used, pull the inflatable valve cable, and the CO2 cylinder placed in the raft will automatically inflate the life raft, making it bulge into a round soft raft with a canopy. Those who ride in the tent are protected from the impact of waves, cold winds or scorching sun. There are also flashing lights on the top of the tents to help rescue workers locate at night.

When it comes to positioning, the Great Eastern was the first cruise ship to be equipped with a radiolocator, and of course, the accuracy was only a few dozen miles, which was about the same as the positioning accuracy of the celestial phenomena at this time. This is the result of Downing's deliberate effort, in fact, he can easily increase the accuracy to within 1 mile, but, considering that it will be used militarily in the future, he doesn't want to raise the accuracy to a high level all at once, as long as it is enough. This is already very good, the means of passing the guò sextant and the nautical clock can only determine the longitude at noon, and there is only one chance a day, and you have to pray for a clear sky.

The space of the life raft can accommodate a family of four, and there are some life-saving equipment inside, such as: a fresh water bottle, a pack of compressed biscuits, enough for the victims to survive for a few more days. The cap of the fresh water bottle has a reverse osmosis membrane, which can be used to filter some seawater for drinking. To ease the anxiety of passengers while waiting, there is also a small fishing rod for recreation, and of course, to survive by nibbling on sashimi for a few more days while waiting for rescuers to arrive. Downing even put a copy of "The Origin of Species" as a spoof for passengers to relieve their boredom.

Even the liferafts have "entertainment" equipment, and the ship itself certainly does not lack it, the Great Eastern has a billiard room, a gymnasium, a library, a shop, a small theater, a bathroom, a restaurant, a laundry room equipped with a large ozone and ultrasonic washing machine, and a conference room. It's the most well-equipped of all cruise ships, and wealthy people who want to sail as a travel pleasure won't be afraid of the hard work at sea anymore. Yes, Tang Ning now has his own ** to go to sea.

Needless to say, the British Empire, which made its fortune in seafaring, revered seafaring technology, and the inaugural voyage of the world's largest steel ship, the Great Eastern, even reached the point where it had to sell tickets or it was overcrowded. Moreover, political leaders and business elites, including Queen Victoria, Prime Minister Palmerston, and Lionel, came to get a sneak peek.

From afar, I saw the delicate body of the extraordinary azure beauty of the Great Eastern, shining in the bright sun, everyone was admiring her face, only one person had a black face, that was the Dutch ambassador to the United Kingdom, he had seen the amazing technology of the crystal shipyard, but unfortunately he could not convince the Dutch king to form a customs union with Belgium in exchange for the construction of a shipyard of this class in Amsterdam, when he saw the Great Eastern, he regretted for the king again, missed such a great opportunity.

Brunel was happily presenting the various technologies used in the Great Eastern by the Queen, the Prince and the Prime Minister, such as welding, turbines, automatic coal supply systems, wind power generation, reverse osmosis membrane desalination, large cold storage, radio wave positioning, bar-la-la-la-la......

Not far away, the queen and they could see the Duke of London and his fiancée Princess Elisabeth of Bavaria, who was on the highest point on the Great Eastern, and a few good friends by his side: Faraday, Darwin, Wallace, computer scientist Babbage, sewage treatment engineer Bartherje, Royal Botanic Garden Hook, Crystal Palace designer Paxton, Daily News Foster, Chairman of the Indian Control Committee Wood, and even Engels, it seems that he has been getting along well with the big capitalists recently, The "fall" of a proletarian leader.

The citizens of London who came to visit kept using Leica to take pictures with the Great Eastern, and the innocent Princess Sissi, who was looking down from a high place, was shocked by the grand occasion of the maiden voyage ceremony, and asked puzzledly: "Why do the citizens of London attach so much importance to this ship, just because it is so big?" ”

Wood triumphantly answered the little duchess's question as if he had built the ship: "Because this means that the world's most advanced shipbuilding technology is still in our England, and England will rule the world for a hundred years!" ”

The little duchess, who was a foreigner, only said "hehe" twice, and after a while, she thought of a reason to fight back, and said to Wood: "We have cars in Bavaria!" ”

Huh? This is true, the car is also very powerful, and the 55-year-old Wood is full of childlike heart and debates with Sissi about who is better in sea power or land power.

Foster smiled: "Don't argue, whether it is sea power or land power, it is our Duke of London who has the final say, and the Great Eastern and Smart were invented by him!" ”

Woke up from the dream, Wood muttered, "Fortunately, Downing is English......"

Engels suddenly said: "I have decided to become an English citizen. ”

Wood was stunned, this is ......

Downing smiled and explained on behalf of Engels: "So that I can support his candidacy for Birmingham's parliamentary legislature." ”

It seems that Engels was persuaded by Downing to change the original intention of the violent revolution and turn it into a legitimate parliamentary struggle.

How can Sissi understand this, she still thinks that the 35-year-old eldest brother Engels is the most important thing to express his support for sea power, and abandon the glory of Germany.

For Wood, Downing was playing with fire again.

Tang Ning said: "Her Majesty the Queen is here, let's go and greet it!" He said to Engels, "Do you see the eldest princess beside the queen?" She is already engaged to the heir to the Prussian throne, if you do not develop well in England, you can go back to Prussia to fight legally, the eldest princess is in favor of the constitution, of course, whether you support the workers' struggle or not depends on whether you can fool her. ”

Indeed, even Prince Albert, the husband of the Queen, was discriminated against in Britain, let alone Engels, a German? Downing has long explained that the success of capitalism in England has made capitalism as gorgeous and attractive as the big tail of a male peacock, and that the workers' movement in the British Empire cannot be carried out only by looking at the factories and the number of workers.

Downing claims to support the workers' movement, but the strength of the support is not large, there are also parliamentarians in Britain who support the right to vote for all workers, but it was denied, Downing is in favor of only taxpayers are eligible, those proletariat who have not even reached the wages of paying taxes if they enter politics in large numbers, will formulate too radical welfare policies, weaken the competitiveness of the country, in Downing's view, such a policy is inappropriate in the era when the middle class has not yet risen. Nevertheless, since the workers in Downing's Birmingham factory were very well-paid, most of them taxpayers, and had a huge number of votes, as long as he supported Engels' election as a parliamentarian, Engels was likely to become a parliamentarian and become a pioneer in the fight for better workers' treatment.

Workers are not allowed to form associations in Britain today, and the strategy discussed between Downing and Engels is to use the transitional form of "tax-paying workers' associations" to organize trade unions, which not only unites the workers, but also does not violate the basic political norms of Britain. These are the electorate, and when united, the power should not be underestimated. They are planning a political party, the Labour Party.

Downing has always wanted Congress to pass an environmental bill to eliminate soot, and the Labor Party will certainly support such a plan, which has a clear effect on improving the environment of industrial cities. This is for the benefit of all people, including himself, which Downing loves to do.

After Tang Ning's reminder, Engels was really very friendly to the eldest princess, and the eldest princess was about to become the princess of Prussia, so she was naturally very concerned about the affairs of her in-laws, so Engels could take advantage of the situation to develop friendly relations with the future Prussian queen.

The Great Eastern's maiden voyage was just a 100-kilometre trip to the Belgian port of Antwerp, a test of the power of the turbine engines.

"Let's go! It's so fast, I didn't expect such a big ship to drive so fast! Sailing enthusiasts were amazed, unaware that it was just the Great Eastern running at 50% power in order to run in the engine.

It wasn't until the Great Eastern made its maiden voyage and broke the speed record that the British felt that Palmerstony deserved the honour of conferring on Downing the Duke of London (the Queen had not yet said so). They attach too much importance to shipbuilding technology, it doesn't matter how many people die in a war, just win the war, so there is not enough estimation of the power of the Windsor Military Hospital, in fact, saving people and killing people are complementary to each other, you think, everyone has 1000 soldiers, 500 dead and wounded each in a big battle, and within a few days, the combat effectiveness of the superb medical technology has recovered to 900, and the combat effectiveness of the poor medical level has recovered to 550, which has become 900 to 550, and the second big war has not been fought and lost, According to this logic, it is clear that the great power of military hospitals can be seen.

It's far away, but let's get down to business. Because the first big dock had to be built, the first ship was built very slowly, it took more than two years, and the second was much faster, it only took half a year. The demand for fast cruise ships is too strong, the Far East, North America, South America, Australia, so many ocean-going routes need turbine steamships, not to mention that Downing still has plans to build warships. In order to achieve the speed of shipbuilding like dumplings, continue the technological transformation. This time, it is the turn of electric welding technology that is more advanced than heat welding.

The electric power is more controllable, making mechanization and automation feasible, and Tangning has planned guide rail welding. Have you ever seen a machine that copies a key? It is the cutting machine that cuts the new key according to the outline of the key. The electric welding method that Tangning wants to build is to draw on the principle of the key distribution machine, and make standard and accurate guide rails for various welds, so that the head of the electric welding machine follows the guide rail, and can complete the automatic welding of any route. Rail welding only needs to set the track and speed to be operated automatically, which is faster, better and more economical than manual work.

There is an electric welding technology called submerged arc welding, which refers to the method of burning the arc under the flux layer for welding, which is a kind of arc welding. Submerged arc welding is characterized by the melting of welding wire, flux and weldment under the action of arc heat to form a protective film composed of slag and gas, which plays the role of isolating air, insulation and shielding optical radiation to the welding area. This welding method has high productivity, good weld quality, no arc radiation and spark splash.

Although the rail welding is more advanced than the submerged arc, there is one thing that must be learned - the isolation of the air. Therefore, it is necessary to supply the junction with an inert gas to prevent the weld from oxidation by oxygen to improve the quality, and a high-temperature resistant glass cover to block flying sparks.

Electric welding has a big trick - spot welding. It's a high-speed, cost-effective method of connectivity. It is suitable for the manufacture of thin plate components that can be lapped, the joints do not require air tightness, and the thickness is less than 3mm. When welding, the surface of the weldment is cleaned first, and then the welded sheet metal is lapped and assembled, pressed between the two columnar copper electrodes, and pressed by pressure. When a sufficiently large current is passed, a large amount of resistive heat is generated at the contact of the plate, which quickly heats the metal in the hottest area of the center to a highly plastic or molten state, forming a lens-shaped liquid molten pool. Continuing to hold the pressure, the current is disconnected, and after the metal cools, a solder joint is formed. This is to weld the individual points of the weldment on the contact surface at the joint, the speed of continuous welding is as fast as ever, often within one second, and the connection strength does not need to be too large thousands, tens of thousands of welding points will be very difficult for thermal welding, and it is a trivial matter for spot welding.

The "heavy" of heavy industry lies in dealing with heavy components, and super cranes and gantry cranes are the key to further improving production efficiency, with which the components can be welded into a medium whole and then transferred to the final finished product manufacturing line, with a more free assembly line operation space.

The other is the production of turbines, which are now using the "guide rail type", and the turbines produced are still primary, and the next stage is the high-efficiency turbines produced by CNC machine tools.

When Babbage saw in the real room that Downing had actually used his own computer, qì, on a machine tool, he was fascinated, and this application was enough for him to go down in history. (http：/／.）。

Not all "computer whizes" are willing to go to Switzerland, and Downing has prepared a project for them - desktop computing equipment. This is certainly not a desktop computer, but a machine that helps the financial accountants and tax officials to count and calculate, that is, a tabulating machine inspired by the Swiss Minister of the Interior to do the census.

Babbage's "general-purpose computer qì" is half a room in size, but once it is made, the teams at each component can optimize the volume of the part for commercial use.

The team's products were used to set up a company called IBM International Business Machines. Babbage is the chief engineer at IBM.

The general-purpose computer qì can also be used as a wireless telegraph switch to replace a human operator, at this time, with the increase in the number of jù, the paper tape storage device has become bloated and slow, Tanging began to let the team develop vinyl records to store the number jù, since it can record the analog number of sound, of course, it can also record the digital number of binary. This led to the entry of computers into the binary era.

As a result of the improvement of Babbage's computer qì, which changed from a purely computational auxiliary machine with no storage function to a mechanical computer just one step away from a real computer, Downing was awarded the honorary title of Lucas Professor of Mathematics by the University of Cambridge, a highly honorary professor title held by Newton, and by this time he had certainly become a full professor of computer science, and he did often go to Cambridge to take classes to recruit mathematical talents. Now Prince Albert knows why Downing wants to be a professor of mathematics, and mathematics is no worse than chemistry and physics when it really enters industry. The prince only knows accounting and statistics, and if he knows the storage of CNC machine tools, it will be stunned.