New Shun 1730

The best group of craftsmen gathered in the lecture hall. Some of these people had built boring machines, some had dismantled Newcomen steam engines, and a dozen or so half-year-olds selected from the orphans who knew science but had no technical knowledge. Children serve as apprentices.

On the blackboard, Liu Yu was talking about a very important issue, but it might sound like nonsense to these people.

"When water boils and turns into vapor, it must absorb heat; when water vapor turns into water, it must release heat... The heat is all produced by coal. It's just like a bucket of water, whether you put it in a teapot or soak it in clothes , the total amount is certain.”

These seem to be very intuitive knowledge in the eyes of craftsmen. Even though much of the science since has been counterintuitive, much of the science at this time is still intuitive.

Liu Yu talked endlessly about the issues of heat release, heat absorption, and coal burning, and finally talked about improving steam engines.

Theoretically, it is not difficult. If you have studied mechanical principles, the crank linkage system will not be a problem. Anyway, Dashun does not have a patent system, and there is no need to bypass patents and design a separate planetary gear system like Watt.

I talked a lot, and the people below basically understood it. The overall problem is to improve the steam engine that pumps water in the shipyard that Weihai already has, and many of them can imitate it, and separate and condense it. The device can only move up and down until it can be cranked, burning less coal and having more power.

As for how strong the power is, power is one problem, and power is another problem. Liu Yu didn't talk about it in such a formal way, but made a joke.

"To talk about how powerful it is, it is said in the storytelling that Xue Rengui ate the rice cakes of Jiutian Xuannv and gained the power of one dragon, two tigers and nine oxen. We don't dare to imagine how powerful this dragon and tiger power is. But it is said This cow is powerful. I said let’s test how much work this cow can do one day.”

"Find a deep well, make a pulley, and make a 1,000-pound iron lump, and let the cow pull it on the flat ground. Hold your pocket watch and see how far it can pull in one minute. This is the power of one cow. When you come up with an improved steam engine, if you can achieve the power of two oxen, you will be considered successful. If you can achieve the power of three oxen or five oxen, there will be another reward."

"Exactly how powerful an ox is, you can try it for yourselves in a few days."

After speaking, he simply drew a fixed pulley style, and in front of it he drew a strange animal with two horns sticking out, which he regarded as a cow.

Straightforward and clear at a glance, it is more intuitive to define power than rigidly defining things like cattle, acceleration, speed, and mass.

Those orphans who survived the calamity learned things in the past. They could distinguish between power and force, and had their own system of conversion units. Moreover, these were their after-school exercises, and they could easily solve the power after high potential energy conversion.

It's just that those craftsmen didn't know how to calculate, but when they heard the power of one dragon, two tigers and nine oxen, they all laughed, thinking that it was easy to understand, how powerful is the power of one ox, so it was just right to try this.

Hearing that Liu Yu's requirements were not high, that is, the power of two or three oxen would be enough, some craftsmen thought that this was simpler than a boring machine.

Boring machines also exist, cylinders can dig, crank structures also exist, and self-feedback regulators are also copied. Several people looked at the pictures on the blackboard, patted their chests and said, "It will take at most two years to complete it. But, sir, sir , Isn’t this thing just for carrying water?”

Liu Yu said with a smile: "Of course not. Can't it be used in any business that can be drained with water? And it doesn't have to have water. Some things that are drawn by oxen, such as millstones and mills, can also be used. Forging iron, breaking armor, etc. Isn’t it possible to even drive this boring machine?”

"You make it first, and then you think about where to use it in the future. Anyway, spend my money."

When everyone thought about it, they thought the same thing. Anyway, Liu Yu's money would be given in real money. Even if it is made for fun, no one can control it.

But some people immediately thought of their previous industries and thought that if this thing could really be made, it might really save a lot of trouble.

For example, in the salt wells in Sichuan, with this thing, wouldn't it mean that there would be no need to raise so many cattle pulling pulleys? This thing works twelve hours a day. Cows can't work all day long. Even if they don't sleep, they have to chew their cud.

Different industries have different uses, and Liu Yu also has plans in mind.

Anyway, it cannot be used in the textile industry first. Regardless of the impact on the textile industry, we must also consider that the steam engine is a power source, and large-scale machines suitable for power machinery are not yet available.

It is estimated that the water-powered spinning machines in the UK are also fast. After finishing the Netherlands, I will find an opportunity to go to Europe and evaluate for myself if there is anything that can be directly "used" and copy it if I can.

The British Manchester Act has been implemented, which is both a challenge and an opportunity for Dashun's cotton textile industry.

Without this bill, Dashun would not have to copy, because the mainstream clothing material of Dashun is not wool, and wool imitation technology and wool-cotton blending technology are different from pure cotton textile technology.

This may take some time. If the steam engine is developed, it must be used in some emerging industries first.

Most of the emerging industries are controlled by him, and they are not small workshops and will not cause opposition from his peers.

Glass grinding, mining, forging iron, crushing ore, sawing, machinery... these industries can all use it.

Different from the British development direction that followed the economic laws of starting with light industry and then heavy industry, Liu Yu wanted to use the power of the court to promote rather than develop spontaneously, so he must start with heavy industry first.

The iron mines and coal mines in Liaodong, and even the coal mines in Tangshan, are all things that were created from scratch, and there is not that much opposition to new things.

Different from the situation in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, when the Manchu and Qing Dynasties came to the Boxer Rebellion, they were not necessarily anti-science, but more like a kind of populism - foreigners are bad, we don’t use the things foreigners make, and the things made by foreigners are not that good. If we look for efficiency If you can’t find any black spots, then look for them in superstition.

It is more of a populist feeling of loss after the fall of the dynasty.

This emotion is strange.

If you are the first to come up with this thing, then it means that this thing is really good, and foreigners are not really barbarians. If someone else comes up with it first and bullies you miserably, then it means that this thing is not good. Even if it is easy to use, it must be useful. There are definitely good things about our ancestors' bad things.

Liu Yu understood this mentality very clearly. In many traditional industries, the more truly useful they are, the more open and inclusive they are; the more backward and useless they are, the more closed and exclusive they are.

Since he had done it first, he wasn't worried about it.

Once these orphans who have been taught by themselves have practiced as interns for a few years and have a solid foundation in science and practical skills, they can be counted on to build steam locomotives. This is the thing that will most impress the emperor's support - the Grand Canal that does not require water. , it is convenient to mobilize troops, to rule, to suppress, to centralize power, to prevent the emergence of local forces, etc. The emperor must be happy to see it.

On the other hand, if it is engaged in the textile industry, the force base for external dumping is not enough, and it can only be turned inward.

Regardless of quality or price, Dashun's cloth has huge advantages in the international market, but it is useless. In the real world, there is no truly free market that is not controlled by the government.

In this way, the profits scattered in the hands of various small craftsmen are actually concentrated into the steam factory. If he wanted to rely on this method to raise funds to build a coal-railway complex and build railways, Liu Yu felt that it would be better to engage in trade and government-run export trade to earn money quickly, have less impact, and be easier for the emperor to support.

He doesn't even want to engage in trade to make money quickly, so naturally he doesn't want to take this road. Even if we leave, we must establish a foothold in India and completely open Japan's door before we can engage in the textile industry. The order of priority must not be wrong.

The only thing I'm worried about at this time is time. The craftsmen were full of confidence and believed that they would definitely be able to produce the improved steam engine he requested within two years.

Using this steam-powered blower, you can try new methods of smelting iron and steel, and that's no problem.

Can this group of orphans who have high hopes cultivated by themselves use their theoretical knowledge and technical experience to build an experimental steam locomotive within ten years after successful research on steam engines?

After the meeting ended, Liu Yu left behind these dozen and a half-year-old children. Seven or eight years have passed since the great famine, and these children have also been studying in a closed environment like Liugong Island for seven or eight years.

Although in the past seven or eight years, Liu Yu could only spare four or five days per month to teach these children on average, he still instilled enough theoretical knowledge that transcended the times.

The eldest child is already eighteen years old. From those children who were on the verge of starving to death, they have become young men and young women.

"teacher."

After shouting in unison, Liu Yu asked them all to sit down and talk about the train.

They have all studied a text written by Liu Yu, or "science fiction", titled "What it will look like in fifty years."

The science fiction written by the "prophet" is not science fiction, but an accurate prophecy. Although these children have never seen a train, it does not prevent them from knowing about trains.

Not only do they know about trains, they also know that there is nitrogen in the air, and if it can be enriched, it can be used as fertilizer; they know that steel and iron only have different carbon contents; they know that human illness is caused by bacteria; they know that thunder in the sky is caused by friction in experiments Electricity is the same electricity.

Just like the children of later generations, even if they are only ten years old, even if they have never flown into space, they still firmly believe that the earth is round.

Just like the children of later generations, even if they have never seen rhizobia, even if they have never touched chemical fertilizers in their lives, they still believe in the root nodules under soybeans and are deeply impressed by the three words nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

The closed environment and arbitrary teaching materials gave these children a similar worldview and cognition to Liu Yu.

Liu Yu rarely quoted some poems to encourage these children.

"There is a saying from our ancestors that if you have tens of thousands of mansions, you will be able to shelter all the poor people in the world. That is what you will do in the future. If there is a train and there is a famine in Jiaodong, you can adjust the situation in the south of the Yangtze River. If there is a famine in Shaanxi and Gansu, we can use the food from Sichuan. People always need food, clothing, shelter and transportation, and all the poor people in the world will be happy. That means transportation and food."

"You have all been hungry, and you know what it feels like to be hungry. Now I am almost thirty. When I wrote about the world fifty years from now, in fifty years, I will be over seventy. People say , people are rare in their seventies, and I hope that I will live until then and watch the world in that article come true. "

"Do a good job, I'm optimistic about you. You have learned what the world is like, but the key to the problem is not to explain the world, but to change the world."