The day after Song Yang and his party returned from an outing, Zhang Mi found Song Yang.
He brought good news.
The steam harvester is out!
"Did it really happen? Let's go and have a look!" Song Yang happily followed Zhang Mi to the experimental site.
We also saw a steam harvester - the first generation machine.
It is smaller than John Deere Jialian.
The body is composed of steel frame structure and wooden structure.
The wheels use steel rims with gears, which can be used to walk on all kinds of muddy soil.
The harvesting part of the front of the truck uses a conical device to initially concentrate the crops.
Behind the conical head is a rotating blade, and the gear drives the chain to rotate the cutter. The cut crops rotate with the cutter and are brought to the conveyor belt behind.
The conveyor belt sends the crops to the iron rollers, which grind the grains off the rod diameter and fall into the collection trough below.
Song Yang looked at the general process and gave Zhang Mi a thumbs up.
"Old Zhang! You made this thing very well. I believe it can be used!"
"It's all thanks to the prince. Without the prince's guidance, ordinary people would not be able to study this thing despite all their efforts!" Zhang Mi nodded and bowed.
Song Yang had previously provided ideas for the drawings, and Zhang Mi had a general direction. After working on this general direction for a year, he finally built the harvester.
"Lao Zhang, have you tried the machine? How is the power?" Song Yang patted the harvester and asked.
"I tried it, the power is very good, it should be much faster than manual work." Lao Zhang nodded heavily.
As he said this, Lao Zhang found his apprentices and prepared to start the machine to try.
A harvester requires three people to operate.
One person is in charge of the rudder, another is in charge of the steam, and another is in charge of the harvest.
First add firewood to the power cabin. After burning, the water temperature rises, the water vapor drives the transmission shaft to rotate, and the machine slowly starts to work.
"The steam is ready." The young apprentice on the steam side shouted.
"OK."
The young apprentice driving in front responded.
I released the handbrake and started to move slowly.
"Haha! Your Majesty! Look! It's moving! It's really moving!" Zhang Mi shouted excitedly.
"Your Majesty! We've started the harvester!" The three young apprentices also looked excited.
Only Song Yang felt a little sleepy.
The steam harvester is in motion.
We drove forward for five minutes.
Song Yang strode forward and caught up within a minute...
"This thing runs too slow!" Song Yang complained.
"My lord, it was like this when it first started. After a while, the steam will be enough, and it will run much faster." Zhang Mi still couldn't suppress the excitement on his face.
There was no way, ancient society came up with steam locomotives.
And it's a car that went off the track.
It's enough to excite people of this era.
After another ten minutes, the steam finally caught up.
The speed of the car has also increased a lot.
At least he can't catch up if he trots.
"We're here!" the young apprentice at the helm shouted.
The harvester responded.
I saw him closing the handbrake.
Song Yang could hear the empty sound of the machine.
And sitting on the harvester, you can also feel the vibration of the machine.
Song Yang felt that this thing was not very safe, so he turned over and jumped.
"You guys continue. I'll take a look at the harvesting effect below." Song Yang waved his hand to the young apprentice who was driving.
"Okay. Prince, please take a look!" the young apprentice said with a smile.
"Kuji! Kuji!"
The machine entered the experimental meadow, the collecting head gathered the grass, and the rear cutter head cut directly at a low position.
As the machine crossed the border, the meadow was cut all the way across.
Song Yang looked in front and behind.
The front part is not a big problem and you can see that the crops enter the machine smoothly.
The problem behind is not small, the harvester misses a lot of crops.
Some are missed by bending, and some are missed by rolling.
These missed crops have to be picked up again by the master.
After a while, the machine stopped, and Song Yang asked Zhang Mi these questions.
The old man smiled and said: "Your Majesty, ordinary people have also discovered these problems. It's just that it will take some time to solve them."
"Your Majesty, the efficiency of our harvester is already very good."
"If you push it all the way, you can get 80% or even 90% of it. The rest only requires one or two people to follow. It doesn't take much effort, and women and children can do it."
"We had to harvest these few ridges of land before, but if we didn't have three or five skilled men, we wouldn't be able to harvest them all in a whole morning."
As an agricultural expert of this era, Zhang Mi recognizes the efficiency of harvesters.
Song Yang's skepticism came from his era's vision of more efficient internal combustion engines.
After listening to Zhang Mi's words, Song Yang realized that his demands were too high.
Today's harvesters are much more efficient than manual labor. It is not an exaggeration to say that one is as good as ten.
And the most important thing is that machinery can work non-stop, and manpower always needs to rest.
The birth of the harvester can greatly liberate manpower needs.
"Old Zhang, you are right, I am a little too ambitious." Song Yang shook his head and smiled.
Zhang Mi waved her hands hurriedly and said: "My lord, you are a far-sighted person who can see thousands of miles away. How can we compare with you?"
Song Yang smiled and shook his head without saying anything more.
"Lao Zhang. The harvester is done, but it needs to be improved. It won't be of much use this year. We still have half a year until last autumn to adjust the performance of the machine, and strive to officially launch the steam harvester this fall."
Song Yang walked to the harvester, walked around the harvester and said.
"Yes! Your Majesty, some people have planted two crops of grain that can be harvested immediately. The grassroots people have contacted them and will help them harvest one crop in a few days. We will see if it is used in practice and if there are any problems, we can improve them." Zhang
Mi has long thought about practical applications.
After harvesting the meadow for a while, the old man couldn't bear the boredom of the meadow anymore and wanted to operate with real grain.
"Okay. You make your own arrangements. You have to make an agreement with the people. If the harvester doesn't work and damages the grain farmland, the Yamen will be responsible for this loss." Song Yang gave Zhang Mi his support openly.
Zhang Mi nodded hurriedly and thanked her.
Song Yang can help them bear the experimental risks, which is the greatest support.
What's more, the production, materials, and original parts of the machine itself are all the responsibility of the Yamen.
Song Yang and Fang Zhe mentioned that a department should be established to support scientific research and innovation.
However, there were never enough talents, so Fang Zhe could only choose an astute civil servant to take the lead, and temporarily set up an empty shelf, called the Science and Technology Department.
There is only one official in the Science and Technology Department, who is responsible for helping each factory contact the Yamen to allocate funds and materials.
A few days later, steam harvesters were used for the first time to harvest food crops.
Song Yang, Fang Zhe and others also came to visit.
When the machine started, everyone was worried.
Some are afraid that the machine will break down, and some are afraid that the farmland will be destroyed and the food will be wasted.
Until the machine started running slowly and the crops were harvested in pieces, the farmers burst into cheers.
This cry represents a new liberation of human power.
It represents that agricultural production has gradually entered the mechanization era.