Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1044 1039 [Electricity Middle Ages]

On the first day of the first lunar month in 1145 AD, the Ming Emperor officially changed the reign title.

Starting from this year, the Yellow Emperor's calendar was added to official documents, historians' notes, and educational institutions. According to the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the "Emperor's Chronicles", and the "Huangji Jingshi", this year is "the 3842nd year of the Yellow Emperor".

At the same time, Emperor Zhu changed the reign title to "Shenfu", which is "the first year of Shenfu".

And set the ancestral precepts that the future Ming emperors will have only one reign title in their lives, which is convenient for official and civilian use.

The imperial seal named Shenfu has been completed. This thing is not used for stamping, but only for large-scale events. And it is not convenient to use it for stamping, and it weighs a full nine pounds and nine taels.

The main body of the jade seal is made of a whole piece of Hetian jade, and the raw materials come from the Gaochang territory.

There is a colorful dragon lying on it, the dragon body is smelted with various metals, and the dragon scales are all cut and inlaid with gemstones. Two oriental pearls are dragon eyes, and one Nanyang gold bead is a dragon bead. Various materials came from all over the country, and some even came from Dali and Tubo.

The wooden box used to hold the imperial seal was made of Annan red sandalwood.

The imperial seal was engraved with eight large characters in insect and bird script: Chengtian Yingmin, Jishou Yongchang.

After many years, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty held a suburban sacrifice again, mainly to tell the heaven and earth and the sages that the Ming Dynasty had remade the imperial seal and established the Yellow Emperor era.

In April, the construction of Luoyang City was completed.

By the way, the water conservancy system inside and outside the city was improved again. Citizens' daily water use is more convenient, and the river embankment is reinforced to prevent frequent waterlogging.

While improving the water conservancy system, a small hydroelectric power station was also built.

The DC generator has a power of about 10 kilowatts, which is equivalent to a medium-power household diesel generator.

Don't think it's too shabby. In another time and space, the world's first hydroelectric generator has a power of only 4.5 kilowatts.

On the day of the start-up, Zhu Ming invited civil and military officials and students from the capital to watch the ceremony.

The emperor did not come.

In fact, there is already a hydroelectric generator in Wangchuan Valley, with a power of less than 5 kilowatts, which has been running for half a year. It was a prototype made by Zhu Guoxiang through repeated experiments. After the test was successful, it was copied to Luoyang and the power was increased.

Unfortunately, the invention of the electric light failed!

To be precise, it was half successful. The carbon filament bulb was successful, and it was made by hand and inert gas was added, but the service life of this thing was too short.

Zhu Guoxiang certainly knew how to use tungsten filament, but the problem was how to purify tungsten?

The most difficult thing now is not the purification method, but not knowing what tungsten ore looks like, and it is not clear from which mineral to extract it.

In fact, purifying platinum is also very simple, and this thing can also be used as a filament.

But the same question, what does platinum ore look like, and where can I find it?

Today's Ming Dynasty, the development of science and technology is deformed, and chemistry lags far behind physics. The discipline of chemistry requires countless scientists to slowly discover, experiment and accumulate.

The hydroelectric power station was built on the southwest side of the imperial city, where there is a water clarifier for the imperial city.

Chengcao is equivalent to the sedimentation tank of the water plant. China had it as early as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. In the ruins of Yangcheng in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, not only sedimentation tanks were found, but also ceramic underground water supply pipes.

This sedimentation tank on the southwest side of the Luoyang Imperial City mainly provides drinking water (including washing) for palace maids and eunuchs. As for the royal family members and officials in the imperial city, they naturally drink well water in the palace. The main purpose of doing so is to prevent poisoning.

After the improvement of Luoyang's water conservancy last year, a total of 24 sedimentation tanks were built inside and outside the city, and a large number of new ceramic underground water supply pipes were laid.

Urban water safety has been a top priority since ancient times.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty, the largest water supply source in Hangzhou was the West Lake, but people often dumped feces and garbage. In order to rectify this matter, the court directly took action against two eunuchs and dismissed them for polluting the water source by washing horses in the West Lake.

However, next to this sedimentation tank in the imperial city, Zhu Guoxiang sent people to build a two-level water tower. It is not that kind of iron can, but more like two super large reservoirs.

It is not high either, the first level water tower is 15 meters, and the second level water tower is less than 5 meters.

The generator is installed between the two levels of water towers, with a height difference of about 10 meters. At this height, only about 0.06 cubic meters of water per second are needed to provide kinetic energy for a 10-kilowatt generator.

The initial way of delivering water to the water tower was very primitive. The eunuchs used manual hand-cranked water pumps to pump it up little by little.

More than a dozen eunuchs took turns to pump it for seven days and seven nights. In order to speed up the progress, they even used pulleys to do work and lifted buckets of water up one by one.

At this moment, the gate of the first level water tower has been opened, driving the generator to do work.

The water that flows down falls into the second level water tower, providing water for the newly laid tap water pipes in the imperial city - mainly used for washing items, such as officials turning on the faucet to wash their hands, but if someone wants to drink water directly, it is also OK.

Civil and military officials, as well as students from the Imperial College and the Fuxue, are all watching intently at this moment.

"Your Majesty, you can turn on the electric water pump."

"Turn it on."

The more than ten-meter-high water pipe that draws water to the water tower is made of copper.

One of Zhu Guoxiang's students has become a technical officer in the Ministry of Works. Now this technical officer, along with several clerks, connects the water pump to the copper water pipe, and then pushes it up to turn on the switch.

A "buzzing" sound rang out, and the clerk on the water tower quickly shouted: "Water is coming, water is coming!"

The officials and students were stunned.

The cabinet minister Fang Mengqing died of illness last year. He died of a sudden illness while in office. Currently, Hu Anguo has replaced him as a cabinet minister. Pan Lianggui was transferred to the Minister of Personnel, and Wei Liangchen was transferred to the Minister of Revenue.

Hu Anguo was shocked: "I have heard that the emperor has the skill of controlling electricity. This is really amazing!"

The representatives of the students were mentally prepared. Some of them have been playing with battery stacks (primitive batteries) for nearly two years.

For Zhu Ming and Zhu Guoxiang, this is just a small fight.

Moreover, it is impossible to use the water tower to generate electricity and then drive the pump to draw water forever. At critical times, water must be pumped up by manpower.

But this is a good start and convenient for life in the imperial city.

Under the water tower, tap water pipes were laid. They are all wrought iron pipes, the outer layer is painted to prevent rust, and the joints are cold welded with zinc-tin alloy (traditional cold welding uses lead-tin alloy).

Zhu Ming smiled and walked to the faucet: "Look, everyone."

A eunuch brought a fragrant soap, Zhu Ming turned on the faucet, tap water flowed out, and the emperor began to wash his hands with soap.

Everyone liked it very much. This thing is too convenient.

Zhu Ming asked, "Does anyone know the principle of this tap water?"

The students were eager to answer, and one of them bowed first: "Reporting to the emperor, this is the effect of water pressure. The second-level water tower is more than ten feet above the ground, and water will naturally gush out of the water pipes on the ground."

"You are good at physics," Zhu Ming asked with a smile, "What is your name?"

The student answered happily: "My name is Li Yue, my courtesy name is Duzhi, and I am currently a student of the Imperial College."

Zhu Ming nodded slowly.

Although it was just a verbal praise, it made other students envious.

Zhu Ming said to the officials: "Officials of the cabinet and the court who work in the imperial city can use this tap water in the future. The water pipes have been laid to the harem and various palaces and pavilions. If there is a fire, water can be quickly released from the water pipes. Remember not to waste it. The water in the water tower is limited, and electric pumping cannot fully meet the demand. We have to use manpower to pump water every once in a while."

"Yes!" The senior officials bowed quickly.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "Let's go home today and try it."

Everyone left.

Officials working in the imperial city returned to their respective offices.

There has been construction work for the past two months, and they know where the faucet is installed.

At the Privy Council, Li Bao turned on the faucet, put his mouth to it and drank directly, and said with a smile: "It's like spring water pouring out of the mountains."

"You don't mind the dirtiness." Yang Zhi expressed his disgust.

"The water that has passed through the clarifier (sedimentation tank) can't be much dirtier," Li Bao washed his hands and stepped back, "You can try it too."

After a while, an official from the Ministry of Works came over and said, "Generals, you can go to the toilet to take a look."

Wang Yuan asked, "You have been messing with the toilet for a month, and we have to use a toilet. What has it become?"

A group of military generals ran to the Privy Council toilet curiously, but saw a whole row of squat toilets there.

Foreigners would probably be red-eyed when they saw it.

The shit stuff is actually made of ceramics!

The clerk pressed the flush button, and water flowed into the squat toilet.

The military commanders understood and praised this method. With the incense in the toilet, there was no odor at all - in ancient high-end toilets, incense was burned every day to drive away odors.

The officials used squat toilets, but Zhu Ming himself used a sit-down toilet.

At this moment, he sat on the toilet and enjoyed it for a while. After flushing, he returned to the Chuigong Hall to review memorials.

This feeling was so good, the toilet plus straw paper, it was like re-experiencing modern life.

We have to build one or two more water towers. After all, the imperial city is too big, and the tap water will run out after being used. That generator may not be able to cope with it.

Moreover, if we build more water towers, we can also add generators to drive electric fans or something.

In the offices of the emperor and officials, installing that kind of ceiling fan does not use too much electricity, but it is very comfortable in summer.

If we want to generate electricity continuously, we have to build a dam.

Unfortunately, with current technology, the loss rate of long-distance power transmission is too high, so a small dam must be built nearby.

Zhu Ming is sending people to Xuzhou to select a site, which is the largest iron smelting base in the country. If a hydroelectric power station is built in Xuzhou, with electricity, coal, and iron ore, the development will surely advance by leaps and bounds.

Zhu Ming muttered: "According to European calculations, it should be the Middle Ages now. The Middle Ages with hydroelectric power stations, it's fucking outrageous to think about it!"

Cabinet, toilet.

Several cabinet ministers are playing with flush toilets. No one wants to persuade the emperor not to be distracted by playing with things, and no one persuades the emperor not to build large-scale projects.

They like running water and flush toilets very much.

There should be more of this kind of distraction and large-scale construction!

Li Hanzhang even said without a teacher: "Can we intercept the Yishui River at Yique Gate and build a dam to continuously drive the generator. Then build a few water towers and lay water pipes throughout the city so that all the people can use tap water and flush toilets?"

The cabinet ministers were stunned.

It seems... it's possible.

Ling Guxu thought: "We must carefully explore the terrain, so as not to affect the people upstream and downstream, and also not affect the navigation of the Yishui River."

Hu Anguo joked: "Longmen is also there, just a little bit downstream of Yique Gate. If we intercept the river there and build a dam to generate electricity, I'm afraid many failed scholars will curse that the court has affected their chance to jump over the dragon gate."

"Hahaha!" Everyone laughed when they heard it.

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