On the way to the slipway, workers pushed flatbed carts on the narrow-gauge railway. The carts were filled with various kinds of shipbuilding raw materials such as wooden boards, irons and bolts of various sizes. A steam hammer was seen in the distance.
The sound of forging hammers coming from the workshop made the shipyard seem noisy.
After taking the initiative to give way to the workers, and walking for a while, the group arrived at the slipway, where a wooden-hulled clipper ship disembarked, and the workers were busy there.
After arriving at the slipway, Zhu Xianhai walked around to the stern. The ship planks on both sides of the stern had been removed, exposing the ship's ribs. The ship's ribs were made of wood. The wooden ship's ribs were very thick. Through the ship's ribs, workers could be seen.
We have a cabin built in the main cabin.
"That's the power cabin."
Philip Routh came over from the other side of the boat and said.
"The original cabin affected the layout of the boiler, so the cabin needed to be redesigned. However, we still encountered some problems. Although the "diagonal" steam engine produced by the shipyard can provide 600 horsepower, it is too heavy and too large.
A larger engine means increased weight, increased displacement and loss of speed. Combined with the added coal bunker, expect a 50% reduction in cargo capacity. Unless there is a better, faster, more compact steam engine, my advice would still be to use
A 300-horsepower or even a 150-horsepower steam engine..."
Philip Routh, a naval engineer, once again made his suggestion.
"Sir, although it is very common to install steam engines on old ships now, they are all small steam engines, just to make up for the shortcomings of sails, rather than using steam engines to replace sails as the main power. Moreover, it consumes a lot of energy.
The amount of coal is also huge! Even if it is loaded with 600 tons of coal, the coal-fired voyage will not exceed 2,000 nautical miles."
Philip Routh's suggestion made Zhu Xianhai frown. The reason why he installed a steam engine on the clipper ship was to increase the speed and increase the speed of immigration. But the current modification seems to be a bit outweighing the gains.
"So, the main problem is the steam engine?"
After thinking about it, Zhu Xianhai said.
"What if we use a new type of steam engine?"
"A new steam engine? Although every new ship launched now has a better, faster, and more compact steam engine than before, I don't think there is a steam engine that can meet your needs."
"The diagonal steam engine is definitely gone, but..."
Zhu Xianhai smiled.
"What if it's a triple-expansion steam engine?"
"Triple expansion steam engine?"
Phillip wondered.
"What kind of steam engine is this?"
Almost immediately after the steam engine was used in trains and ships, as people studied steam in-depth, they discovered that the Watt-type reciprocating piston steam engine had a great waste in thermal efficiency. After the steam does work once, it also contains
The steam with huge energy is discharged from the body and wasted in vain.
In the past few decades, some people have begun to develop multi-cylinder steam engines that use steam to do work multiple times to drive steam engines. However, no one has yet proposed a clear principle and concept of multi-cylinder steam engines. And the triple-expansion type
A steam engine refers to a steam reciprocating machine in which the high-pressure steam coming out of the boiler expands three times in the high-pressure, medium-pressure, and low-pressure cylinders in sequence, converting the heat energy of the steam into mechanical work.
The invention of this triple-expansion steam engine, which utilizes the principle of triple expansion to produce work, would have to wait for another ten years, and its application on warships was even as late as the 1880s. Although its application on warships was relatively late, it was
This triple-expansion steam engine with high thermal efficiency and low fuel consumption has changed the human navigation industry - it is it that has brought the shipping industry into the steam age. With the advantage of low fuel consumption, sails have been completely eliminated.
In the simulator, Nanhua's first ocean-going merchant ship used the triple-expansion steam engine that had just been invented, and it was a domestic product manufactured through imported technology. The reason why Zhu Xianhai boldly applied it to the ship was because he knew very well that
Before the invention of the steam turbine, it was the best marine engine. Not to mention merchant ships, it had been the standard equipment of those warships in the era of ironclads and pre-dreadnoughts. Even the famous "Freewheel" during World War II still used three engines.
Expansion steam engine.
"A new type of steam engine,"
Zhu Xianhai pretended to smile mysteriously, and then said to Liang Mingwei.
"I can provide a technical document to the shipyard, and you can study it."
Where did the technical information come from?
Once again, Zhu Xianhai opened the system mall. Although the user level of the mall has not been upgraded, there are many more products. There are many products from the 1870s and even products from 1880 - that was also the time of the last long-term simulation.
, the time and space limit of the mall is limited to the simulation time.
Thanks to the "product upgrade" of the mall, Zhu Xianhai has purchased a lot of supplies from here in the past few months. What has he purchased the most?
Of course it's books - in the system mall there are many books printed by multiple publishing houses in Nanhua. From the most basic textbooks to natural science magazines to technical books, there are all kinds of books.
Compared with other products available in the mall, one thing is certain, these books are the most valuable possessions.
Although it is not possible to "wholesale", with the master book, simple "pirated" printing is not difficult at all.
Because of this, the problem of school textbooks that originally troubled Zhu Xianhai was easily solved. Not to mention elementary school textbooks, hundreds of technical school textbooks have been printed, and even the "Chinese Dictionary" and "Chinese-English University" have been printed.
Reference books such as "Dictionary" require time and effort to compile, and they are directly reproduced.
Compared with copycat mechanical products, "pirated" books are simpler, and the wealth contained in these books is huge. They are the hard work of a generation of South Chinese people in the simulator, and even Zhu Xianhai's hope for revenge. For this reason, for many leading
He is cautious about technology and technical information.
After all, Nanhua's productivity lags far behind Europe and the United States. Even if it can successfully turn advanced technology into products for export to other countries, it is unlikely to make huge profits. After all, it is impossible for European and American countries to watch Nanhua use patents to make big money.
They will also copycat and file patent lawsuits to protect their own interests. Just like the "Aspirin" patent dispute in history, the U.S. Patent Office and the court resorted to delaying tactics until the German company Bayer won.
At the time of the lawsuit, twenty years of patent protection also expired.
The so-called "patent protection" has always had room for "floating", and who can care about face in the face of money?
Of course, Zhu Xianhai was more worried that advanced technology would become a weapon for imperial powers to attack Nanhua. After all, when productivity lagged behind Europe and the United States, European and American countries could imitate Nanhua's products and give Nanhua a greater advantage on the battlefield.
A blow. After all, the mechanical technology of these days...even the Qing Dynasty can imitate it. Moreover, it is the European and American powers. It is extremely easy for them to imitate it.
Even if you want to absorb those advanced technologies, you cannot do without foreign technical personnel!
Looking at some mechanical books on principles such as "Principle of Three-Expansion Reciprocating Steam Engine" in the mall, Zhu Xianhai still felt a little helpless!
It seems that the triple expansion machine will be released in advance...