At the Beijing Mechanical Research Institute, Zhu Houzhao brought Liu Jin to his own laboratory with familiarity. Here, he had a research team of more than a hundred people to help take charge and study the machine that Zhu Houzhao wanted to study.
"Old Liu, look, this is the steam cultivator I developed. It is very powerful and domineering. I gave it a very awesome name, called the General Cultivator!"
Zhu Houzhao pointed to a steam cultivator parked in an open space and introduced it to Liu Jin very proudly.
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"..."
When he heard what Zhu Houzhao said about the General's plowing machine, Liu Jin was immediately speechless, but he still observed it carefully with interest.
The entire steam cultivator is naturally far different from some of the cultivators of later generations, but some prototypes can still be seen. The core is still the steam engine, and a special large plow is dragged behind it. The steam engine drives it forward and drags the plow to plow the land.
At the same time, the design of the steam engine is similar to that of later generations of steam engines, and the structure is basically the same. A large boiler plus a piston, the piston does work to generate power.
"It's awesome. Look at this plow. It has six plowing surfaces, which is equivalent to six plows plowing the land at the same time. That is to say, the current steam engine is not powerful enough. Otherwise, you can add more plowing surfaces to it. All of a sudden
Cultivate more land.”
Zhu Houzhao knocked the plow of the cultivator and introduced it very proudly.
"How much power can the largest steam engines have today?"
When Liu Jin heard this, he quickly asked.
The loss of steam engines is actually very serious, and the thrust generated by steam is actually quite limited, far less than that of internal combustion engines and electric motors.
But in this era, this steam engine is definitely the most advanced and awesome existence, but power is still very critical.
If the power is not strong enough, its practicality will be greatly limited. For example, steam trains and ships definitely require high-power steam engines to drive them.
In addition, this steam cultivator actually requires a high-horsepower steam engine to drive it. Plowing the land is a laborious task, especially if you want to plow the land deeply, you will need high horsepower.
"The largest steam engine now is capable of twelve horsepower."
After hearing the news, Ren Siheng, who hurried over, quickly replied.
He is the owner of the Jingcheng Machinery Factory and the person in charge of the Jingcheng Machinery Research Institute. Now his main work and energy are on the research, improvement, application and promotion of steam engines.
"Twelve horsepower, which is quite good."
When Liu Jin heard this, he immediately nodded slightly. With twelve horsepower, this power can be said to be very powerful.
"It is not difficult to increase the power of a steam engine. What is really difficult is its stability and reliability. The stability and reliability of the steam engines we have currently manufactured need to be improved."
"In addition, the conversion efficiency between steam engine power is too low, which is also a direction we need to continuously improve in the future. The same is true for the conversion between mechanical power."
When it comes to steam engines, Ren Siheng has endless things to say. He is an expert in this field and has been studying steam engines for a long time. He is very familiar with the situation of steam engines.
"Take your time, don't rush~"
"The key to slow work and meticulous work is to summarize more, discover more, explore more, find out the deficiencies, and constantly experiment with new methods to solve these deficiencies. Over time, we can always create more and more powerful products.
machine."
Liu Jin smiled and encouraged.
Machine research and scientific progress are actually the same. What is required is continuous exploration and exploration over many years and generations to make progress, and then slowly accumulate, and finally usher in leaps and bounds of development and breakthroughs.
"I heard that this steam cultivator is starting to sell out?"
Then Liu Jin changed the topic to the great sales of steam cultivators.
"Yes, the steam cultivator developed by His Highness is now selling very well. The orders are so full that our Beijing Machinery Factory cannot produce it anymore."
Ren Siheng nodded and said: "At the beginning, it was very difficult to sell our steam cultivator. No one was willing to spend more than one hundred taels of silver to buy our steam cultivator."
"Later we thought of some ways, held some promotion activities, and also rented some cultivators at land prices for people to use."
"The results are very good. After everyone saw the power and magic of the steam cultivator, a lot of people ordered the steam cultivator from us."
"Especially in our Beizhili and Liaodong regions. In Beizhili alone, we have received orders for more than 10,000 vehicles. At the same time, there are also orders for several thousand vehicles in Liaodong."
"But in the southern part of Ming Dynasty, sales are very poor and cannot be sold at all."
"Sales are booming in northern Zhili and Liaodong, but cannot be sold in the south at all?"
When Liu Jin heard this, he immediately frowned and started thinking carefully.
"Have you investigated the reasons for this?"
"Yes, we have done some research and found that the land in North Zhili and Liaodong is mostly plain, which is very suitable for farming with steam cultivators, and because they are all planted with wheat, the fields are all dry fields."
"In addition, there is another very important reason, that is, due to the development of the Beijing-Tianjin area in Beizhili, a large number of people from the rural areas in Beizhili have poured into the factories, workshops, businesses, etc. in the Beijing-Tianjin area.
work."
"So in the past, the land of the wealthy landowners was no longer cultivated, and the emergence of steam cultivators gave them hope of cultivating the land again."
"As for the Liaodong region, because the land is vast and sparsely populated, every household has a large field. The emergence of steam cultivators can greatly facilitate them to cultivate fields and reclaim wasteland, so sales are very strong."
"It's different in the south. The south is full of paddy fields, and in most areas, the fields are very small, which is not suitable for the work of steam cultivators like ours."
Ren Siheng nodded and said, obviously he has also worked hard on this aspect.
"That's it~"
When Liu Jin heard this, he immediately understood.
This is because people in Northern Zhili have gone to work in factories and workshops, and no one is farming. After all, after working hard for a year and still not having enough to eat, it is better to go to work in a factory and get food and accommodation included.
After a year, the income will be much more than farming, so who will farm?
The landowners have no one to farm anymore, so they can't panic. They still have to find ways to plant something, and the emergence of steam cultivators just caters to this demand.
Moreover, these landowners in Beizhili are all wealthy people. A steam cultivator worth more than one hundred taels of silver is very expensive for ordinary people, but for landowners like them, it is trivial.
Therefore, in Beizhili, the sales volume of steam cultivators is the best.
As for Liaodong, that's because Liaodong is a vast area with few people and everyone has a lot of fields, which cannot be cultivated by manpower. The emergence of steam cultivators has also greatly saved manpower, allowing them to cultivate more fields.
Once it comes out, sales will naturally increase.
"You have people here send a batch of steam engines to the Hezhong area in the Western Region, and another batch of steam engines to Australia and the Golden Continent. The land is also vast and sparsely populated, so they will definitely be able to sell well."
After thinking about it, Liu Jin said to Ren Siheng.
The land on the Golden Continent is definitely more suitable for large-scale mechanized farming, and the bald eagle's mechanical agriculture in later generations is famously powerful.
Immigrants from the Hezhong area have just moved there, and it is time to cultivate the land. With this steam engine cultivator, it will definitely save manpower and time and cultivate more fields.
"Yes~"
When Ren Siheng heard this, he nodded quickly and wrote it down.
Then he thought for a moment and said, "Actually, the sales of steam engine cultivators are not the hottest yet. The real hottest ones are our steam spinning machines and steam looms."
"Because our steam spinning machines and steam looms are much faster than the old spinning machines and looms, and they are not subject to geographical restrictions, they have been favored by textile factories and textile workshops as soon as they were launched.
I like it so much that my order has been scheduled for a few years.”
"Steam spinning machines and steam looms are expected to be popular. The key is that we produce thousands of steam engine products at once. Can we guarantee the stability of the products and how to ensure quick response to faulty products?
Make repairs."
When Liu Jin heard this, he nodded slightly, as he had expected it.
The steam engine is definitely the most popular and the first to be used in the field of textiles. In this era, the most important thing people consume is cloth.
Such a huge population in the Ming Dynasty required an extremely large amount of cloth every year. Especially as the living standards of the people in the Ming Dynasty became higher and higher, the sales demand for this cloth became larger and larger. In addition, there was a broader overseas market.
.
The textile industry has always been in pursuit of faster, better, and more efficient machines, and steam-powered looms and spinning machines are sure to be popular.
"This is indeed a headache for us at the moment, because the stability of our machines is not high and they often break down, and it is also very troublesome to repair, so we are also worried about how to solve this problem."
When Ren Siheng heard this, he nodded solemnly.
The emergence of the steam engine has brought great power to everyone, but also brought new tests. The stability of the steam engine is an urgent problem that needs to be solved. At the same time, if it breaks down, how to repair it quickly is also an important issue.
In order to solve these problems, Ren Siheng and his entire research institute team have done a lot of research and exhausted their brain cells. At present, they still have not found a good way to solve these problems.
PS: To solve this problem, it seems that we need to industrialize and standardize production~