From a human perspective, the first industrial revolution is undoubtedly a great epoch-making event, because since then humans have historically entered industrial civilization from agricultural civilization.
But from an individual perspective, the first industrial revolution was full of blood and tears.
Because the first industrial revolution was completed under the cruel oppression of countless sweaty workers, industrialization was not friendly to the workers in the first industrial revolution.
Pneumoconiosis, blood lead poisoning and reed sticks, the tragedies are countless.
Therefore, Chongzhen preferred that Koreans, Annamites and even Angsa people come to work as sweat workers in the factories of the Ming Dynasty. However, the people of the Ming Dynasty still need to be treated as kindly as possible. If they immigrate abroad, they should try to work as farmers or mine owners. It is really not suitable for them.
A foreman or farm steward can also be used, which is equivalent to technical management.
Zhu Cixiang asked Chongzhen again: "Father, how should the affairs of Korea be handled specifically?"
"There are three specific steps to take. The first step is to control the army, the second step is to control the political situation in North Korea, and the third step is to promote large-scale immigration." When Chongzhen was about to say goodbye, Fang Yizhi suddenly rushed away excitedly.
come over.
"Your Majesty, the final assembly has been completed." Fang Yizhi bowed and said, "We can order the test run."
"Then what are you waiting for?" Chongzhen said eagerly, "Hurry, light the fire quickly!"
The steam engine could finally be ignited and tested, and Chongzhen no longer cared about North Korea.
Fang Yizhi immediately turned around and shouted: "The Holy One has decreed, light the fire!"
Song Yingxing over there immediately lit the boiler.
Under the blazing fire, the furnace body of the boiler soon emits a scorching heat wave.
About half an hour later, a roaring sound of air flow came from inside the boiler. Obviously, the cold water in the furnace had been boiled. This was the noise made by the rolling steam.
Pascal remained in front of the barometer.
In order to commend Pascal for inventing the barometer, Chongzhen decreed that Pascal should be used as the unit of pressure, which is the pressure produced by a 1 kilogram weight acting on an area of 1 square meter.
[Note: 1 Pa in the book = 5 Pa in reality, but to avoid confusion and facilitate reading, the actual pressure unit Pa will still be used in the following text, and atmospheric pressure is still = 100,000 Pa]
What Chongzhen did was just returning to his original appearance.
But Pascal couldn't predict the future, so he was grateful for it.
Because using his surname as the unit means that he will be remembered in history.
At a certain moment, Pascal shouted: "Your Majesty, the pressure has reached 2 atmospheres."
After more than half a year of intensive study, Pascal can speak fluent Ming Dynasty Mandarin.
Because of concerns about insufficient strength of the welded parts, the working pressure of the first steam engine was designed to be 2 atmospheres, and the maximum pressure it could withstand was 2.5 atmospheres. Once the pressure exceeded 2.5 atmospheres, the pressure had to be relieved.
Now that the boiler pressure has reached 2 atmospheres, it can start working.
Chongzhen immediately issued the second order: "Quickly, open the cylinder valve!"
Fang Yizhi immediately opened the valve connecting the cylinder.
Chongzhen and Zhu Cixiang's father and son were immediately excited.
Fang Yizhi, Song Yingxing, Pascal and everyone else also looked at the flywheel of the steam engine.
In full view of everyone, hot steam poured into the cylinder with a harsh scream, and then pushed the piston slowly forward, and the huge flywheel connected to the piston through the connecting rod and crankshaft began to rotate slowly.
Seeing the huge and heavy flywheel begin to rotate slowly, Fang Yizhi and the others immediately cheered.
Although Chongzhen did not cheer, he could not hide the smile on his lips, because as long as the flywheel can rotate, it means that it can perform work externally, and it can generate a maximum mechanical driving force of 70,000 Newtons.
[Note: Newton was still a child at this time and had not yet discovered gravity, so this is just a quote]
This is easy to calculate, 1 Pascal is equal to 1 Newton of pressure acting on a surface of one square meter.
The piston area of this steam engine is 0.72 square meters, and the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the piston is 1 atmosphere, so the maximum theoretical driving force that can be generated is 72,000 Newtons.
So what does a pushing force of 72,000 Newtons mean?
This means that 7 tons of weight can be lifted into the air!
Thinking of this, Chongzhen's face turned into a daisy with a smile.
However, if nothing else happens, an accident will happen soon.
I saw the huge flywheel running for about a quarter of a week, and suddenly there was an extremely harsh grinding sound from the cylinder of the steam engine, which could almost make a person's teeth ache.
Gao Qiqian and several young eunuchs subconsciously covered their ears.
Chongzhen's face also fell, and the smile at the corner of his mouth froze.
When I looked again, I saw that the flywheel had stopped rotating.
The faces of Fang Yizhi, Song Yingxing, Pascal and others also turned black in an instant. The test run failed! The test run of Zhengqi No. 1, which the emperor had high hopes for, failed!
Only the boiler was still roaring.
The air pressure inside the furnace continues to rise.
Pascal quickly issued a warning: "Your Majesty, the air pressure has reached 2.2 atmospheres!"
Following Pascal's warning, several sealing mechanisms of the steam engine also began to leak.
Chongzhen gritted his teeth and said: "Don't rush to open the pressure relief valve, wait a moment."
Chongzhen was still a little unwilling and looked forward to a miracle happening.
However, the miracle did not happen.
The flywheel remained motionless.
The air pressure continued to rise.
"Your Majesty, the air pressure has reached 2.3!"
"Your Majesty, the air pressure has reached 2.5 and is about to explode!"
Pascal's voice was already trembling when he spoke, and he almost turned around and ran away.
Because the strength of several important welding points of the steam engine is limited, in theory it can only withstand 2.5 atmospheres of pressure. The current pressure is almost at the extreme value and may explode at any time.
Gao Qiqian was also so anxious that his face turned pale: "Long live Lord, leave quickly!"
Chongzhen could only give up and said dejectedly: "Open the pressure relief valve."
Pascal opened the pressure relief valve as quickly as possible.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! As soon as the valve is opened, high-heat and high-pressure steam will spurt out, making a sharp whistling sound that will not stop for a long time.
Chongzhen was in a very bad mood. It seemed that the ancients believed that good things come from hard work. The development of the first industrial steam engine did not go so smoothly after all.
The test run of Zhengqi No. 1 failed.
…
That night, Fang Yizhi and the others discovered the reason for the failure.
"The inner wall of the cylinder is not smooth enough and the piston is stuck." Fang Yizhi looked ashamed.
"Didn't you try it when you were polishing it?" Chongzhen frowned and said, "See if the piston will get stuck on the cylinder wall when it moves back and forth?"
"Of course I tried it when polishing."
"It was indeed not stuck at that time."
"Otherwise, it won't pass the inspection."
Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing immediately became anxious.
"Then why is it stuck now?" Zhu Cixiang asked.
Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing were speechless, and they also wanted to know the reason.
At this time, Pascal interjected: "Your Majesty, it should be due to thermal expansion."
"Expansion?" Chongzhen reacted when he heard this. Not surprisingly, it should be this.
Pascal went on to explain: "Because the entire piston is hidden in the cylinder, it is fully heated, while only the inner wall of the cylinder is heated, so the piston expands more fully than the piston."
"The gap we reserved between the cylinder and the piston was originally enough to ensure the piston moved."
"But now that the piston has expanded much and the cylinder has expanded less, the gap between the two has become smaller, so the gap reserved before was not big enough, so it got stuck in the end."
"That's it." Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing had a sudden enlightenment.
Chongzhen asked: "Mr. Pascal, have you thought of a solution?"
"Your Majesty, there is no good way." Pascal said, "The only way is to reduce the size of the piston and increase the gap margin between the piston and the cylinder. However, the air tightness will be reduced and the output efficiency will be worse.
, it was originally possible to push more than 50,000 kilograms of heavy objects, but after increasing the gap, it may only be able to push 20,000 to 30,000 kilograms."
Chongzhen frowned and said, "Can't we increase the smoothness of the inner wall of the cylinder and the surface of the piston?"
"Of course." Pascal nodded and said, "If the inner wall of the cylinder and the surface of the piston can be made absolutely smooth, then only a small gap will not be stuck. However, this is only theoretical, but it is not possible in practice.
, because it is simply impossible to polish a huge cylindrical surface to an absolutely smooth level.”
Fang Yizhi also said: "Your Majesty, the reason why it took so long for Gewuke to build Zhengqi No. 1 is mainly because it took too much time to polish the inner wall of the cylinder, the piston and the outer wall of the connecting rod."
Only then did Chongzhen remember that Zhengqi No. 1 was handmade by craftsmen.
For hand-made work, the most difficult thing is to polish large-sized surfaces. The larger the size, the higher the difficulty, and the geometric progression increases. The diameter of the inner wall of the cylinder of Zhengqi No. 1 reaches three feet, and the diameter of the piston is also close to three feet.
It is really difficult for craftsmen to polish two large-sized cylindrical surfaces by hand.
However, this problem is not unsolvable.
At that time, Chongzhen said: "In this way, the size of the piston of Zhengqi No. 1 will be reduced, and we will try to run it first. Then we will research a large lathe that can turn. Zhengqi No. 1 will provide power for this large lathe, and then cast a set of the same size.
The cylinder and piston are turned and polished using a lathe to turn and polish the inner surface of the cylinder and the outer surface of the piston."
"Yes, lathe." Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing suddenly felt their eyes light up.
This is actually a fixed mindset, just like window paper. If you don’t pierce it, you won’t be able to think of it.
"Okay, then hurry up." After Chongzhen said that, he sent Fang Yizhi and others away.
It is not an easy task to research and build a lathe that can turn the No. 1 cylinder.
It was conservatively estimated that it would take at least another year. Thinking of this, Chongzhen couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
The application of the steam engine had to be postponed for another year, and the Northern Expedition also had to be postponed for at least another year.
