Steam engine......

With the steam engine, the railway ran from east to west, and sailed across continents and oceans, three thousand miles a day.

This is a dream, but Li Xi believes that such a future can still be realized in his lifetime. The first steam locomotive was launched in 1804 and the first steamship in 1783. Although it is only 1718 now, Yinghua, which is in charge of Li Shi, is fifty or sixty years ahead of the scientific and technological tree of industry, which is not excessive. Compared to the many black histories that have crossed the plane, this achievement has not yet pressed the passing line.

At present, in 1718, it should be impossible to jump out of a full-fledged steam engine. The so-called "steam engine" has actually gone through several stages, and the popular "Watt got inspiration from the phenomenon of steam lifting the lid of the kettle, and thus invented the steam engine", in fact, it is a history of more than 1,000 years, and the attempts and efforts of countless people have been condensed into Watt alone. Just about the steam engine of the industrial age, from 1698 Thomas ? Seville's "Friend of the Miners", a similar product from Newcommen in 1712, and then James Watt in 1769 to make an external condensing steam engine, and 1782 to make a double-action steam engine, this is what later generations called the steam engine: double-acting reciprocating piston steam engine, the source of power for industry.

Li Shi's thirst for the steam engine has evolved from simply crossing the party's scientific and technological tree to a deep understanding of the current reality of national politics.

What does a steam engine mean? Trains and ships are secondary, which means that the industrial economy has a steel-like support point. Why did Yinghua under his rule swell capital, but it was difficult to invest in the workshop? It is that there is no mature industrial system, and it is impossible to produce massive industrial products on a large scale, such as cotton spinning and silk weaving, packaging, building materials, food deep processing, etc., especially machinery.

The essence of industry is to replace labor with machinery made of steel to form large-scale and standardized production. The steam engine not only powered it, but also directly generated the demand for steel in everything from machinery and ships to steel rails and even building materials.

Why? Because only machinery and other utensils made of steel can be more durable, stronger, larger, and can withstand the more intense and fast-paced energy conversion patterns caused by the steam engine. It's a simple truth, people's demand for energy has gone up to a higher level, and the components, machinery and even the environment that carry energy conversion will naturally be stronger.

It can be seen that in the industrial age, the index to measure the industrial level of a country should not only look at how much steel it can produce, but also how much steel it consumes, and in which fields the consumption of steel is distributed.

Just like the current Yinghua, although Dongguan Machinery is working hard to promote the popularization of machinery and strive to achieve mechanization in many fields, in addition to stable power, the steel industry is still not mature enough. The reason is not that there is not much steel, now there is Shilu's iron ore, and there will be a coal mine in Jiaozhi, the iron-making process is also quite mature, and the steel-making process is also used in reverberatory furnaces, and the coke process is also native to China, so it is good to improve it, as long as he waves, 10,000 tons of steel will be produced.

But what about after it is produced? Where can it be used? Guns, swords, armor, carriage chassis, in addition, is what kind of iron pot and other living utensils, before the industry, human demand for steel, especially steel, is pitiful.

The steam engine and steel are the twins of industry, and no one can do without each other. Now the level of Yinghua's iron and steel industry has exceeded the needs of reality, and the whole country is a cripple, just waiting for the steam engine.

Therefore, Li Shi was so excited, and Tian Dayou and Xiao Sheng and his party got into the carriage, galloping, and rushed all the way to the test site of Dongguan Machinery Company. The test site has been heavily protected by the black-clothed guards and the blue-clothed guards, and this thing is very important, and secrecy is naturally the first priority.

Three simple sheds were erected in the huge wasteland, and Tian Dayou led Li Xian to one of them: "There are two other groups of people who have also made progress, but compared with Huang Zhuo's, I feel that it is still a lot worse." Seeing a group of people coming in a hurry, Tian Dayou, the general supervisor they were already familiar with, was still in the accompanying position, reporting to a young man in the middle, Huang Zhuo and the others took a cool breath.

Huang Fei timidly poked his brother's waist: "Then it should be the emperor, can you do this thing?" Silver is a trivial matter, and if it ruins the emperor's impression of us, it will be troublesome. ”

Huang Zhuo patted his chest: "The emperor's reward order didn't say that it should be able to do ten points, only that it could be a look, just prove that this idea can be realized, just look at it."

Huang Fei pouted: "Don't talk about the bicycle you got before, don't talk about pulling goods, riding an empty car for a few miles, either tired or dead, causing us to make a few thousand taels of silver in Hunan."

Huang Zhuo scratched his head, he did plant a heel on the bicycle, riding that thing was too laborious, it was impossible to pull goods, and he just rode in the city to attract attention. After that, he also went to Dongguan Mechanical School to buy "The Degree of Heavenly Principles" (Newton's "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), delved into the science of moment, and went to Foshan Iron and Steel Company as an apprentice, stealing mechanical transmission, trying to improve his own invention.

He had always known about the bounty on the steam engine, but he thought it was too much to pay attention to. It wasn't until one day when I was helping my fellow villagers to pump water in a man-made mine that I suddenly felt that the principle of the steam engine was actually very simple, so I left everything behind and began to ponder this topic.

I didn't dare to think about 100,000 taels of silver, but I still got the title of "the first worker in the world", in the current Yinghua, the craftsman is no longer inferior, but superior. It is said that Governor Tian, who will be a prisoner, followed Guan Guozhang to publish books and lectures, and his reputation has spread far and wide, and he has been praised as the great master of the craftsmen in the country.

"Excuse me, are you Huang Zhuo? Okay, let's talk about the principle of your thing. ”

The emperor went straight to the topic, and a middle-aged man in a dark blue military uniform beside him also stared eagerly at the things in the shed, and was pressed by their eagerness, Huang Zhuo's original self-confidence also dissipated most of it, and he stammered.

"The steam vitality mentioned in the bounty order, vacuum-induced, Xiaomin and others are very familiar with it. The pumping drain in the mine, the pump of the fierce fire oil tank, and even the oil replenishment of the horse lantern and the ordinary cupping are all ......"

After a while, Huang Zhuo also spoke fluently, explaining his understanding of the principles of the steam engine. This principle is not a foreign product, and both Chinese and foreign countries have understood the phenomenon of the power of steam and vacuum.

But to realize on the steam engine, this principle is still missing, which is Li Xi helped them to make up, that is, the early steam engine to achieve piston movement, not only steam push, but also vacuum pullback, which requires the condensation of the steam to do work into water, which is also the principle used in the steam pump made in Britain 20 years ago.

"But Xiaomin tried it, and felt that the vacuum was a little redundant, and he could directly use steam."

Then Huang Zhuo said this, which made Li Shi very surprised, and directly skipped the principle of low-pressure vacuum...... Is that okay too?

The boiler has been burning, and the steam leakage problem is still annoying at this time, so there should be no safety hazards. Hearing that Huang Zhuo might have crossed the primary stage, Li Zhuo was even more excited, so he asked Huang Zhuo to explain while demonstrating.

The "steam engine" that Huang Zhuo made out was divided into three major lumps, one was the boiler, the other was the cylinder, and the other was the flywheel. Looking at the big wheel in the third part, Li Xian pinched his chin, thoughtfully, and vaguely felt that this thing didn't seem to appear in the early steam engine......

"The emperor wants this steam engine to replace the waterwheel, and this wheel is indispensable."

As soon as Huang Zhuo said this, Li Xian also nodded knowingly, indeed, he didn't just use the steam engine to pump water. Of course, he, a guy who only understood the fundamentals, did not know that fifty years later, Watt would be in tears when he saw this flywheel. It took Watt several years to figure out the crankshaft connecting rod that transformed the linear motion of the piston into a circular motion, and thus the steam engine was transformed from a mine pumping machine into a factory power engine. …,

Who made the ancient Chinese better understand the principle of transmission? Gears, circumferences, connecting rods, Chinese are proficient in everything. In the Book of Agriculture, there is a waterwheel driving thirty-two spindles, and the transmission in between them is already very complicated, not to mention the elaborate escapement system in the astronomical instrument. The water exhaust blower, on the other hand, is a typical circular motion to piston movement, which is now just reversed. In the history of Li Yan's previous life, if the Chinese and the Britons could have had closer contact, the mature steam engine would probably have appeared decades earlier.

The boiler has nothing to say, it is connected to the cylinder in the middle by a copper tube. It is said to be a cylinder, but in fact it is just a copper cannon. This was custom-made by the gunsmith according to Huang Zhuo's request, and even the fire door was left, and four were made to be used as steam entrances and exits. The muzzle of the gun was also sealed, and only the connecting rod remained.

Four mouths......

The barrel of the gun, no, there are four copper pipes on the cylinder body, one on the left and one on the left and one on the end, one on the top and the bottom, and there are gates. The lower tubes are connected to the boiler, and the upper ones are connected to a horned chimney. Looking at this layout, Li Shi took a cool breath, double-action?

The sound of snorting and jetting sounded, and the four valves were leaking at the same time, and under Huang Zhuo's order, his brother Huang Fei personally went into battle and opened the steam inlet gate at the end of the cylinder. After a while, the sound of friction was heard, and the piston in the cylinder was pushed by the steam, and it slowly moved forward, the lever was pushed, and the flywheel also shook.

The piston goes to the end, and it's half a stroke. Huang Fei closed the steam inlet valve at the rear end, opened the outlet valve, and then opened the steam inlet valve in front of the cylinder, and the steam was pushed from the other end of the cylinder.

The hairs on the back of Li Shi's neck stood up, and this thing is that if it is coupled with a linkage slide valve to achieve automatic back and forth, it will be a mature steam engine in the future

But after waiting for a long time, the piston did not move, and saw steam spewing out of the valve and chimney. Huang Fei's face was in pain, Huang Zhuo was also sweating, and he shouted: "I can push it back before."

Air leakage, air leakage is too serious, and the boiler is directly boiling a pot of water, how much steam can be produced in this way? Huang Zhuo's approach is correct, and he will indeed no longer rely on condensing steam to do work in the future, but with the current material technology and thermodynamic achievements, it is still unknown how young it is to build a mature high-pressure steam engine.

Li Shi patted Huang Zhuo, who was pale and felt that he had messed up: "It seems that you still have to figure out the principle of using vacuum induction, don't be discouraged." Now there are four problems to be solved, the first is of course less air leakage, the second is to design a set of things, instead of people to open and close the gate, so that it can continue to move on its own, the third is to find a way to produce more steam, and the fourth is to add condensing steam method, suck forward and push back, so that the force should be enough. ”

He waved his hand and said heroically: "This is already a great success, you come to take charge, you want someone to give you people, you want something to give you something, and then give you 10,000 taels of silver, whatever you want, there is no time limit, just bury yourself in researching this matter"

Huang Zhuo and Huang Fei were overjoyed and thanked him, Li Xian remembered that the brothers were from Jiangnan, and their surnames were Huang, could it be ......

"How did the name of the father get into the emperor's respect, yes, the father kept the ...... of the village"

Huang Zhuo replied like this, Li Xian paused for a moment, and smiled, okay, it is really the queen of the gods.

Although there is still a great distance from the finished product, and even the practicability of the mine pumping machine has not been reached, but this direction has made Li Shi extremely happy, looking at this, it should be successful in three or five years.

There are also two groups of people who have also made progress, and Li Xi also went to see by the way, one is honestly taking the road of condensing steam, almost reproducing the Newcomen steam engine, and also using a flywheel, anyway, this technology is a rotten thing in China. But they still use the single-action principle, pushing and pulling. Because the condensation process had to be inserted, although the flywheel turned once, it had to wait for half a day before making a second turn. Again, air leaks are severe. ..., the third one performed even worse, and even the flywheel was not pushed, but this one seemed to have a deeper understanding of the principle of steam generation, and actually wrapped the cylinder in asbestos cloth to prevent the steam from condensing too soon and too quickly.

Huang Zhuo's group mastered the double action, the second group was groping for condensation, and the third group had a vague understanding of thermal efficiency.

"Looks like we'll have to make contact with the Britons......"

At this time, Li Xi already knew from Xiao Sheng that Captain Popper had really tinkered with the steam engine, and God knows how he got such a big iron guy so quickly.

"We, the British East India Company, were mining in India, and we also had problems with stagnant water, so we shipped a lot of 'Friends of Miners' pumping machines, which His Majesty called steam engines, from home. I heard that His Majesty is developing a mining industry, and he must need more than just such a pump. A few years ago, there were people in Britain who had invented more advanced pumping machines, and I am willing to act as an agent to introduce new pumping machines from Britain if His Majesty needed them. ”

Captain Popper is a businessman, and his mind is full of money-making calculations, and he naturally does not understand that Li Xian does not treat this thing as a pumping machine, and at the same time, he does not know enough about the engineering and technical level of the Chinese.

It turned out that this guy was shipped from India, no wonder it was so fast. Li Xian's face did not change, he only said that he would try it first, and buy this one for the time being, and bid three thousand taels of silver for the sake of your hard work.

Popper happily suppressed the trembling of his face, three thousand taels of silver, according to the calculation that one pound is about equal to twelve taels of silver, that is, more than two hundred and thirty pounds, a tattered machine, a machine that is only twenty or thirty pounds in the homeland, pulled here, it will appreciate ten times more than two hundred pounds, which is not a large amount for him as a merchant, but the British commoners of this era can earn so much in twenty years. 【1】

Then Li Xi changed the subject and talked about other things that Popper had brought. Although the "Friends of Miners" is backward, it can remind its own people from the principle of condensation, as well as sealing technology and valves, which is also a good reference. Naturally, there was no need to let this Britanny know.

"Great Your Majesty, pious Popper will do everything in his power to show you the gifts I have brought."

Feeling that this income was only the beginning, Popper believed that he would enjoy more wonderful happiness in the hands of this bold ......,