Chapter 1937 is about to usher in the era of automobiles
This is why the theory of internal combustion engines has been perfected, but even the development of gasoline engines is still difficult.
It’s not that it can’t be designed, it’s that it can’t be built!
However, the current investment in gasoline engine projects is very large. Many tests are carried out at the same time, and huge sums of money are even invested in supporting research. According to the predictions of the project team, the preliminary tests can be completed within half a year, and the laboratory-made engine should be ready within two years.
Engineering prototype.
As for mass production, this has nothing to do with the Royal Institute of Technology.
The Royal Institute of Technology has always researched the most cutting-edge science and technology. As for how to popularize these technologies, it has nothing to do with them. That is what external companies should do.
But for gasoline engines, Li Xuan estimates that ordinary companies cannot afford it. Looking at the high requirements for many new materials and manufacturing processes for gasoline engine projects in this report, if companies want to do it, they must first build eight out of ten companies.
The materials and processing plants at home are all of the highest quality, so the investment is huge.
Li Xuan knew roughly from just looking at it that if this gasoline engine was really built, even if the cost was not taken into account, if it wanted to achieve mass production, it would probably have to cost millions or even tens of millions for industrial support.
This thing is even more difficult to work with than the steam engines of the past!
It is estimated that it will be difficult for private capital to support such a huge investment. This kind of thing can only be done with state-owned capital or imperial capital.
To this end, he called in people from the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises and the Royal Assets Department, and asked them to pay attention to the progress and needs of the gasoline engine project and prepare supporting equipment in advance.
"When the gasoline engine comes out, I want to see related products as soon as possible!"
"Relevant research must begin now, especially products related to gasoline engines!"
"Especially cars, vehicles powered by gasoline engines that carry people or goods. This is the key to the practical use of gasoline engines!"
"If we can use the lightweight power of the gasoline engine to design and manufacture engineering vehicles for transporting goods or other functions, this will play a major role in promoting many constructions of the empire."
Although the research and development of this gasoline engine is a bit difficult, judging from the current progress, there is still hope that it can be produced within two years. Even if the performance is a bit poor by then, Li Xuan is still ready to produce a car.
First come up with it and shock the world, and only then can you promote the progress of the entire industry.
Even Li Xuan plans to advertise the car himself and drive or ride in the first car.
As long as he did this, the monarchy and feudal system of the Tang Dynasty would be enough to reflect the emphasis on automobiles, and then a large number of officials below would pay more attention to the automobile industry.
However, what Li Xuan values is not private cars. What Li Xuan values is trucks, engineering vehicles and other mechanical products powered by gasoline engines.
Because private cars are purely private consumer goods, they can certainly drive the consumer market and promote the development of the automobile industry.
But for the current Datang, trucks and other construction machinery used for transportation and construction are more important.
Because the latter can greatly promote various infrastructure construction in Datang.
What's more, private cars, due to their expensive construction and use costs, can only be considered a luxury item in a short period of time. Ordinary people cannot afford to buy them or use them. In summary, the market is not big enough, and it is difficult to support the entire huge fleet of cars.
industry.
But trains and construction machinery are different. These things are now extremely desired by the entire Tang Dynasty.
Haven’t you seen that the demand for heavy, complicated, and troublesome steam tractors exceeds the supply?
In the field of transportation, construction and even the military field, the demand for trucks and construction machinery is extremely huge, and they can also withstand high prices.
This is the best way to promote the development of the automobile industry in the short term.
As for cars for private consumption, they can just go on the market. When there is demand in the market, people will naturally build them, and there is no need for Li Xuan to push them deliberately.
After Li Xuan summoned the persons in charge of machinery from the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises and the Royal Assets Section, both the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises and the Royal Assets Section took action one after another.
First, in terms of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, several of its subordinate machinery companies jointly invested in technology and talents to establish Songjiang Engineering Machinery Company. The first batch of investment reached 500,000 Tangyuan.
The Royal Assets Division also allocated funds to establish Zhongyuan Automobile Company.
The focus of the two sides is also different. Songjiang Engineering Machinery Company is mainly preparing to develop various mechanical equipment using gasoline engines, while Zhongyuan Automobile Company is preparing to develop gasoline trucks for transporting goods, such as gasoline tractors, and Li Xuan personally
Proposed gasoline wheeled truck.
After the establishment of Zhongyuan Automobile Company, the management and technical backbones transferred from other companies by the Royal Assets Division were put into intense work.
The first step was naturally to introduce the Royal Institute of Technology's gasoline engine patent authorization. Without this patent, they would not be able to develop a gasoline engine.
To this end, they adopted a model of early investment, joint research and development, and sharing of research and development results, which also allowed the gasoline engine project team of the Internal Combustion Engine Laboratory to obtain sufficient funding.
Only with sufficient funds can we carry out research and experiments on more sub-projects at the same time, so that progress can be accelerated.
However, this is only the most basic preparation. Zhongyuan Automobile Company still needs to establish many supporting facilities on its own.
The designers of their company quickly came up with the preliminary design of the gasoline truck based on the existing horse-drawn carriages.
But this was just an appearance, and then they found that the car was difficult to build. They didn't need to worry about the development of the gasoline engine, but they had to make other major components themselves.
For example, they need to design a specially designed control system. In the past, when a carriage turned, the groom could directly urge the horse to turn, but for a car, it had to be controlled by a human.
Then there has to be a transmission system, so that the power of the gasoline engine is transmitted to the wheels, which is also a troublesome thing.
Not to mention that you have to control the speed. You can't just run away as soon as the gasoline engine starts.
Finally, they also discovered that if the gasoline engine and various transmission system parts were assembled, the weight of the vehicle would increase significantly. The support structure could not be made of wood because it would not be able to support it, so it had to be replaced with steel.
As for wheels, most carriages now still use wooden wheels, and only a few use solid rubber wheels with iron frames wrapped in rubber.
But this thing is still not easy to use. After searching many new technologies on the market, they found that there is a company in Anqing that produces pneumatic tires.
However, due to serious air leakage, high price and low sales, and the speed of horse-drawn carriages these days is also slow, solid rubber tires can also be used.
However, Zhongyuan Automobile Company saw the wheel solution from this pneumatic tire, and directly acquired the wheel company with a large amount of money.
Then continue to invest in research and development of better pneumatic tires.
However, even though Zhongyuan Automobile Company and Songjiang Engineering Machinery Company have successively invested heavily, not many people outside the world know that maybe in a few years, they will usher in the era of automobiles!