Chapter 507 Steam Turbines and Heavy Oil

Having warships and officers does not mean that you have a complete navy, you also need a lot of supporting equipment, such as military ports and various auxiliary maintenance facilities. But for Xu Jie, for the sake of the 8 new dreadnoughts, what is missing is not only the follow-up facilities, but also the steam turbines and heavy oil necessary for the manufacture of dreadnoughts are a worrying thing.

The reason is very simple, in this era, except for the British and American imperialists, no one could provide China with stable and reliable steam turbines before 1905. Including Germany, don't look at the small boilers in Germany that are not very efficient, but the steam turbine is really not something that Germany can play with now! Not to mention 1905 in history, even the power pack used by the Nassau-class ex-dreadnoughts and the Helgran-class ex-dreadnoughts built by themselves was a three-expansion steam engine! Although the Nassau can reach a speed of nearly 20 knots in a short period of time, it is difficult to maintain this speed. If you want to ask which was the first German battleship to use a steam turbine, then you have to talk about the Von der Tann, and the steam turbine used by this von der Tannen is not its own! It was the Parsons steam turbine of the British!

If you want to ask when the Germans used their steam turbines...... This has to start with the third pole dreadnought Caesar-class, a total of 5 warships, three of which use the British's Parsons steam turbines, one uses the AEG Curtis-type steam turbine, and only one Prince Albert uses a German steam turbine! This shows how unconfident the Germans were in their own technology at that time! Germans are not confident, and Xu Jie is even less likely to be confident!. …。

At that time, there was only one country in the world that could produce steam turbines, and this was the company started by Charles Parsons in England. This company was unique in the world before 1910. It wasn't until 1910 that the Americans came up with the Curtis-type steam turbine!

Xu Jie did not believe in the steam turbine technology of the Germans, but he believed in the British Empire's Parsons steam engine technology! In the original historical plane. In 17 years, the British Royal Navy had a destroyer equipped with a Parsons steam turbine and ran a high speed of 34.5 knots in front of Queen Victoria, which was the first attempt by the British Royal Navy to a steam turbine.

After a successful attempt, Parsons persuaded the Royal Navy to use new steam turbines on the two destroyers to be built, which would later become the Viper and Cobra. Of course, the navy can't be used as a guinea pig in vain, and the navy requires that these two small ships with a displacement of about 350 tons must run at a speed of more than 30 knots! Otherwise, Parsons would have to pay £100,000! Fortunately, in the end both ships were above 30 knots. Parsons was a huge success, and this event is only 1901 in history! And in this plane, these two high-speed little things have been in service in 19 years, more than 1 year earlier than in history!. …。

It's not just a boat. Steam turbines still perform very well on large ships. In this regard, it is impossible to mention a legendary ship, the historic Mauritania cruise ship, which was completed in 1907. This luxury cruise ship with a displacement of up to 36,000 tons has a maximum output of more than 73,000 horsepower! The blue ribbon has been maintained for 27 years at a speed of 22 knots! In other words, in the current plane, it is perfectly possible to equip a steam turbine that can drive a 20,000-ton warship around 1905, provided that you can negotiate a series of business with Parsons, and the steam turbines and related accessories required for 8 warships are not a small number

Therefore, Xu Jie's telegram to Chen Jitong, the Chinese ambassador to Britain (who had historically served as the counselor in France), made it very clear that in any case, he should negotiate with Charles Parsons about the supply of steam turbines and related accessories before 1902. According to Xu Jie's estimates, in 1903, most of the capital ships would complete the hull construction and launch for outfitting. Therefore, the power problem must be solved as soon as possible, and in order to ensure that a sufficient number of steam turbines are obtained, Xu Jie hinted that he can communicate and coordinate with the British government when necessary. Take Parsons through government intervention. …。

In the end, Xu Jie told Chen Jitong that money is not a problem, but it should be as little as possible. Although steam turbines are not yet popular, with the large number of orders from China, all the great powers will show a strong interest in this new power system. When the time comes, it is inevitable that prices will rise.........

After getting the steam turbine, Xu Jie was finally relieved about the power system of the new warship, what? Small boilers, you say? This thing is not easy to get, most of the British battle cruisers used large boilers, which was the top technology of the German 1 war, not something that can be thought of now. After arranging things in the UK, Xu Jie also needed to find the right amount of food for those steel behemoths, and coal could no longer fully satisfy these monsters that could cruise at high speed for a long time. They need more efficient food...... And this is marine heavy fuel oil!

To be honest, marine boilers have very low requirements for the quality of oil. It can be said that as long as it is a slightly refined oil thrown in, it can basically be killed. For example, the highly volatile crude oil of Borneo that caused the sinking of the Taiho was basically thrown into the boiler without treatment, not to mention that it was used quite well, of course, in the end, the most elite aircraft carrier of the Japanese Empire sank because of this.

For better cruising power, in order to maintain high-speed cruising performance. All eight new ships use two types of boilers, one is a kerosene co-fired boiler, which is used to ensure the normal cruising of the ship, spraying heavy oil on the coal bed burned at the boiler level to improve efficiency. (Of course, you can't spray fuel until you reach a certain temperature) and the other is for high-speed sailing. The special oil-fired boiler is usually turned off, and it will be turned on for use once .........necessary.

How much fuel does a ship consume? Here is an example of the British Dreadnought, which is guaranteed to sail 6,620 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots with 2,900 tons of coal and 1,120 tons of fuel oil on board. This may seem like a lot, but don't forget that this speed value is too low! If you want to sail at high speeds, the fuel consumption will increase a lot, for example, the German Kaiser-class battleships can sail 6,000 nautical miles at 12 knots, and only 4,000 nautical miles at 19 knots. Since the Chinese Navy intends to clean up the Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia. Then the distance of thousands of kilometers between the two sides requires that the battleship in Xu Jie's hand must have enough endurance. After all, you don't drive straight and come back after a fight!

So Xu Jie must now find ways to accumulate heavy oil. Where does heavy oil come from, you can only look for the United States. In this era, the United States has an absolute monopoly on global oil exploitation, and the oil fields in the Middle East and Indonesia have not yet begun to explore!

So Xu Jie ordered the Navy Department to start building heavy oil depots now, and start importing crude oil from the United States in case of war. There is coal in Huaxia, but oil must be stored as soon as possible, and corresponding oil depots must be established in Dalian, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Kaohsiung. The fleet also needs to be accompanied by tankers. These are all big engineering ..........

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