First of all, let’s have a relatively simple general understanding of this chapter, mainly based on the core idea of ​​the huge changes brought to our world by the industrial revolution:

The Industrial Revolution first started in the United Kingdom, and then spread to other parts of Europe and Asia. This caused extensive and profound social changes, which had a profound impact on our human society. The Industrial Revolution was first of all a futile attempt.

The technological revolution on an unprecedented scale has led to an astonishing development of social productivity. Secondly, the Industrial Revolution has contributed to the formation of the proletariat, causing our human society to increasingly split into two opposing classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. At the same time,

The Industrial Revolution also broke the original balance of development levels in the agricultural world of Eurasia. Under the impact of the Industrial Revolution, all countries and regions around the world were involved in the economic system of the capitalist world.

Since our above analysis said that the Industrial Revolution was caused by a technological revolution of unprecedented scale, now we will immediately understand what these technologies are, the first one: steam engine.

I believe that even our modern humans, as long as they have gone to school or are in places with relatively developed social structures, everyone knows about the existence of steam engines. In the past, the trains in our human world were actually powered by steam engines. Generally, they were powered by steam engines.

The power generated by boiling water. Since we are talking about boiling water, let’s digress. What is it? In fact, some time ago, I got into a fight with a group of people in the QQ group. They seemed to

Are you scolding me? I can't remember clearly. As for the reason? In fact, I said that the fission bombs we humans have today are just small firecrackers to our mother earth. If you use too many of these things, you will die.

We humans, Mother Earth, will not die. And this fission technology includes a fission power station. I told them that our fission power stations around the world are boiling water, but they didn’t believe me! Do you think I have a mental illness? Do you really remember the details?

I’m not sure, but the fission power station is a super high-tech existence.

Then I also defended myself. I told them that our fission power stations around the world use fissile raw materials to boil water. That is, the process of boiling water drives the wheels to rotate and converts them into electrical energy. They didn't believe it, so I continued to tell them.

, in fact, the core technology of this fission power plant is to effectively control the temperature of fissile raw materials, and then perform a process of boiling water. As for the core technology, it is to control the temperature of fissile raw materials. In short, I can't make sense to them in the end.

Later, I gave up. If you are interested, you can learn more about this technology.

Now we continue to return to the previous topic, which is the steam engine. Once we mention the steam engine, I believe most of us know that the steam engine was invented by Watt, but few people know that this does not mean that it was invented before Watt.

There are no machines that use steam. In fact, the invention of the steam engine also went through a process of production, development and gradual improvement.

The legend is really a legend. The legend has appeared in ancient Egypt in the second century BC. The mechanical device that uses steam to drive the sphere is just too old. Our modern scientists and even archaeologists have no way to verify the specific situation.

It is also recorded that in the first century AD, the ancient Greek inventor Hero used steam as power to drive toys. In fact, the great painter Leonardo da Vinci also described the scene of using a steam engine to drive a cannon.

But to be more precise, we humans have used steam as power since our modern times. In 1698, the British engineer Savery invented a steam-driven water pump. In 1712, the British engineer Savery invented a steam-driven water pump.

Newcomen invented a more efficient steam engine that could use a piston to separate water and condensed steam. In fact, the steam engine invented by Watt started by improving the Newcomen steam engine.

The widespread use of Newcomen's steam engine in the field of production has aroused people's attention, including of course James Watt. There is a famous saying in our world that victory always favors those who have already

Prepared people. We can change this sentence to mean that opportunities are only given to prepared people, and Watt is just such a prepared person.

James Watt was born on January 19, 1736, in a mechanical family near Glasgow, Scotland. He was obsessed with mechanical manufacturing since he was a child. However, due to his family's financial difficulties, Watt himself just finished high school.

After graduation, he went to London to learn the craft of manufacturing machinery. He was talented and hard-working, so it took him one year to learn the skills that others took four years to learn. Then Watt studied at the University of Glasgow in his hometown

Got a job as an instrument repairman.

Watt took the opportunity of repairing teaching instruments to make friends with many scientists, such as Professor Black and Robison, and often discussed instrument and mechanical issues with them. One day in 1764, a laboratory at the University of Glasgow

The Komen steam engine model was sent to Watt for repair. Watt not only repaired the machine, but also became very interested in the structure and working principle of the machine. He found Professor Black and worked with him to study how to reduce the consumption of the Newcomen steam engine.

The amount of coal and the plan to improve its efficiency. Later, Watt discovered that the cylinder and condenser of the Newcomen steam engine were not separated, resulting in a huge waste of heat energy. After finding the crux, Watt began to experiment with modifying the Newcomen steam engine.

Watt first raised some funds, rented a laboratory, and began to trial-produce a steam engine with two hot and cold containers. He thought that in this way, the cylinder responsible for doing work would always be hot, and the steam condensation process would take place in another container.

Completed in the middle, this can avoid repeated alternation of hot and cold in the same cylinder, saving heat energy. After many experiments and many failures, Watt finally completed a single-acting steam engine with practical value and applied for patent protection.

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In order to promote his new invention on a larger scale, Watt used a steam engine he designed to compete with Newcomen's steam engine in a public competition to pump water. As a result, using the same amount of coal, Watt's steam engine pumped five times as much water as Newcomen's steam engine.

So people saw the advantages of the Watt steam engine and used it to replace the Newcomen steam engine.

Watt did not stop there. He absorbed the principle of German scientists using the intake and exhaust valves to make the cylinder reciprocate, and used a flywheel and a crank to convert the reciprocating motion of the piston into a circular motion. Unfortunately, this technology had already been applied for by Picard.

Patent. But Watt found another way out, using a planetary gear structure to change reciprocating motion into circular motion, and finally obtained the patent for a double-acting steam engine in October 1781.

Watt continued his efforts. In 1784, he used a flywheel to solve the problem of rotational stability and obtained the third patent for the steam engine. Two years later, he worked on the steam engine valve structure and obtained the fourth patent. Watt

Through continuous efforts, he also invented the pressure gauge to ensure the safety of machine operation. Finally, the invention and transformation of the double-acting steam engine was completely completed in 1794. Because Piccard's patent expired that year, Watt introduced the planetary gear structure.

Modified to a crank-connecting rod structure, the steam engine has reached a relatively complete level.

In order to protect the income rights of his patents, Watt went to court many times. In fact, we can also say that Watt was inventing things for money, just like the Leonardo da Vinci we knew before, but Watt and Da Vinci

Qi Ke is not a character of the same level at all. We don’t need to explain this here, right?

In 1781, Humblauer invented the double-cylinder steam engine. Watt believed that it cited his own patent, so he filed a lawsuit with the court. The result was to prevent the promotion of this invention. Trevedi invented

Watt also firmly opposed the high-pressure steam engine and asked Congress to declare it dangerous and illegal. His assistants tried to use steam engines to drive passenger cars, but they did not get Watt's support. Until his later years, Watt held a hostile attitude towards steam locomotives.

Although Watt was such a person, the invention of the steam engine caused the industrial revolution to develop rapidly and spread to the United States, Germany, France and other countries. So we can conclude that Watt made indispensable contributions to the progress of mankind.

In order to commemorate the inventor's contribution, Watt is used as the unit of power in the International System of Units.

So how did Watt's steam engine begin to bring development to the industrial revolution? Next, we will talk about it in a little more detail. First, let's take a look at the invention of trains and ships:

After Watt invented the steam engine, many people were actually thinking that it would be great if the steam engine could be used in transportation to greatly increase the speed.

So in 1789, a young American named Fulton arrived in England, visited Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, and told him his idea of ​​using steam engines on ships. Then in 180

One day three years ago, the weather was particularly clear and cloudless. Fulton decided to conduct a trial voyage on the Seine River in Paris, France. Fulton's steamship was a large ship about 21 meters long and 2.5 meters wide.

Unlike other ships, it is equipped with an eight-horsepower steam engine.

At first, the ship was puffing out smoke and swaying on the Seine, but after a while it stopped moving. People watching on both sides of the river were laughing loudly at Fulton and moved the ship

The idiot called Fulton. So we can say that Fulton’s first trial voyage ended in people’s laughter. In fact, this is our human nature. Do we always like to laugh at others?
Chapter completed!