The principle of the steam engine in the Tang Empire was actually not difficult. It could even be said to be very simple. It was nothing more than boiling water to generate high-pressure steam, and letting the high-pressure steam drive the machinery to work.
However, this principle may seem very simple to later generations, but for people in the sixteenth century, especially for a semi-literate person like Alvin, it was not so easy to understand.
Not to mention you can tell just by looking at a chimney.
What's more, even if you know the principle of a steam engine, it is still extremely difficult to build a steam engine.
The steam engine was a veritable flower of industry in the contemporary Tang Empire. It was much more difficult than simply making guns and cannons.
It is not that easy to build a practical steam engine, even if it can only be used to lift water in the early days. It is not that easy to build a simple and practical low-pressure steam engine in a factory.
The processing accuracy of steam engines is very high. To ensure the continuous operation of the steam engine, especially the continuous reciprocating motion of the flywheel in the cylinder, the accuracy requirements are very high. Without high enough processing accuracy, processing is impossible.
If the problem of processing can still be solved by skilled craftsmen polishing it one by one manually, then the raw materials of some core components are completely unsolvable.
In order to ensure accuracy and strength, some of the core components in the steam engine are not ordinary pig iron or wrought iron, or even ordinary steel, but special steel materials jointly developed by the Imperial Institute of Technology and several domestic steel companies.
Moreover, it is different special steel. A certain part may require higher strength, and a certain part may require better toughness, so the carbon content of the steel used to make these parts is different.
So on the surface, the entire steam unit seems to have a steel structure, but although many parts inside are made of steel, there is a huge difference even if they are all steel.
Although the quality of the various special steels produced by Datang these days is incomparable to the steels of later generations, it is definitely not comparable to the low-quality steel produced by contemporary European craftsmen relying on various indigenous methods.
If contemporary European craftsmen use steel made by local methods to replicate the high-pressure steam engines of the Tang Dynasty, then there will be a situation where various parts and components may be imitated if there are skilled craftsmen.
It can be assembled even if it looks the same, but it will never run. Even if it barely runs, it won't last for a few minutes before the cylinder explodes.
Datang's high-pressure steam engine has been developed for more than ten years, and most of these ten years have been spent searching for various special steel materials for manufacturing core components. In order to find these materials, Jiangnan Iron and Steel Company tested various proportions of formulas.
I don’t know how many times this happened.
If contemporary Europe wants to imitate the steam engines of the Tang Dynasty, it must first have a complete industrial system and modern materials science, and then continue to include physics, chemistry and other modern disciplines...
In the end, Europeans had to first establish a modern education system and then a modern industrial system before they could imitate the high-pressure steam engines used in the Tang Dynasty today.
Of course, if they just wanted to simply build a steam engine, it would not be difficult.
A skilled craftsman can just take two pieces of steel and knock them together, and with a little effort, he can make a steam engine, but such a steam engine will never be put into practical use.
When Alvin saw the steam battleships of the Tang Dynasty Navy, he also wondered whether he should also find some people after returning to China to see if they could build this steam engine.
But just think about it. The Portuguese have been copying steam engines for so many years, and they still have samples to copy, but now they still can't even make a low-pressure steam engine that can operate normally.
The English don't even have a sample, and they don't even know what a steam engine looks like, so how can they imitate it?
When the battleship Fujian slowly left the port and raised its sails to sail to the open sea, Alvin took a long time to retract his gaze. He was envious of such a giant ship, but envy was useless. He had better get in earlier.
Port, and then buy the Tang Dynasty merchant ship to ship it back to China and make a lot of money is the way to go.
However, Alvin didn't know that there were no commodities in South Africa's ports now, only empty warehouses, and that the battleship Fujian he watched was actually going to sea to meet and escort the merchant fleet coming from afar from China.
As for the Port of South Africa, we have learned from the fast communication ships traveling between India and South Africa a few days ago that the latest batch of merchant fleets departing from China via India and preparing to go to South Africa are on their way to South Africa. According to the voyage calculation, the distance to South Africa is now
There is about half a month left to sail.
This fleet has a total of more than fifty ocean-going ships, large and small. The fleet is filled with various supplies and also carries nearly 10,000 immigrants. When the fleet sails in Southeast Asia and India, naturally there are no
What's the trouble? These two sea areas are now the inland seas of the Tang Navy, and some indigenous countries along the Indian Ocean, such as the Mughal Dynasty in India, the Safavid Dynasty in Persia, the Ottoman Empire and some indigenous countries in Northeast Africa,
Although these countries also have ships, their ocean-going power is not worth mentioning.
It is impossible to pose any threat to the huge ocean-going fleet of the Tang Empire.
Therefore, it is relatively safe in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.
But when the fleet enters South African waters, it may run into trouble.
Even though the Imperial Navy has blockaded the Cape of Good Hope, it is not a complete blockade. Recently, there have been more ships from various countries gathering in South African waters. When these ships are doing business, they are merchant ships, and when they are not doing business, they are pirates.
In order to avoid any accidents, the African Squadron of the Indian Ocean Fleet sent warships to meet and escort.
When the battleship Fujian escorted the merchant fleet back, Alvin could buy the Tang merchant ship he wanted, whether it was silk, porcelain or perfume.
Alvin Grant drove his beloved Alvin into the reserved berth and anchored under the guidance of the South African port management ship. However, when he was about to take people to transfer to a small boat to go ashore, he...
They were told that they had not yet been allowed to disembark and disembark.
After asking carefully, they were told that in order to prevent disease, they needed to wait on the ship for three days, and they could not disembark after three days!
People have to bow their heads under the eaves, and Alvin keeps telling himself that he is a person who does great things and must remain patient.
He came here to buy goods and find a fat sheep to start with on the way back. He has to endure it now!
After three days of boring waiting on the ship, Alvin was allowed to bring a group of sailors ashore. Of course, he did not bring all the sailors ashore. If all the sailors were brought ashore, Alvin would probably be gone the next day.
The document number no longer belongs to him.
Ask him why he is so worried!
Because the Alvin was not his before. He had snatched it from a pirate den three years ago with a group of his men. The pirates, the captain of the ship at that time, were careless and took too many sailors off the ship.
Went to have fun, but it turned out that Alvin and dozens of desperadoes quietly paddled close to each other in a small boat under the cover of night, then climbed onto the boat, killed the dozen or so pirates who were left on the boat, and then robbed the boat and ran away!
From then on, the pirate ship was renamed the Alvin!
Although he estimated that this kind of thing is unlikely to happen in South Africa's harbor, it is always right to be careful when people are floating on the sea.
So he only took half of his men ashore, leaving half of his men on the ship, and promised to let the sailors take turns on duty.
After taking the boat ashore, he saw a large open space in front of the pier. There were dozens of people waiting in the open space. He didn't know what was going on, but soon, there was a blond and blue-eyed man next to him, but he was wearing Tang Dynasty clothes.
The Portuguese in uniform said in an authentic Portuguese voice: "Don't run around when you get ashore. Just wait in line in the square in front to register. If you run around, don't blame me for not warning you!"
"Also, we have a lot of rules in the Tang Dynasty. You must abide by all the rules when you go ashore. Remember not to urinate, spit, or litter anywhere. Otherwise, you will be severely punished!"
"And the most important thing is that you must not do illegal things in our Datang territory. Theft, robbery, rape, and fraud are all prohibited. Once discovered, you will be hanged!"
Having said that, the blond and blue-eyed Tang Port Arrival Guide pointed to a row of mummies swaying in the wind at the edge of the pier: "If you don't want to become one of them, just be honest!"
"Aren't they pirates?" According to tradition, those who are hanged and dried in the port are usually pirates. Alvin also saw this row of at least dozens of dried corpses before and thought they were all captured pirates.
Woolen cloth.
The guide shook his head directly: "A few are pirates, but most of them are criminals of various kinds. Didn't you see the signs hanging on them? It says: thieves, robbers, rapists, pirates."
We have them all!”
Should you be hanged for stealing or robbing someone?
These Tang people are so barbaric!
And Alvin really can’t understand the text above!
Even though Alvin can converse with the port guide in Portuguese proficiently, he is completely illiterate and cannot even recognize the alphabet.
As for why this illiterate person, as an Englishman, is also proficient in Portuguese and can speak and understand certain languages, it has nothing to do with illiteracy. After all, illiterate people can also speak!
What's more, although Alvin is an Englishman, as a great pirate, it is normal for him to be proficient in multiple languages. What's more, Spanish and Portuguese are the common languages of Western navigators these days.
In foreign languages, how do you go out and become a pirate?