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Chapter 747: Gerdes Touring Zhaoqing

As a latecomer, Li Xuan has never doubted the important role that steam engines can play. Otherwise, he would not have continued to support the development of steam engines in the Youjun Camp in the past two years.

It is even less likely that when the steam engine was first developed and only had a few horsepower, it was impatient to apply the steam engine to industry and even ships.

It is true that the current steam engines are only low-pressure steam engines. Not only are they small in power, they are also large in size and weight. Moreover, the fuel utilization rate is too low, and too much fuel is needed to produce one horsepower.

The current cost of a steam engine to produce one horsepower is enough for a hydraulic machine to produce ten horsepower.

In other words, even if the current steam engine power is mature and can operate stably, it is impossible for current factories to directly use steam engines to replace hydraulic machinery, because this represents ten times the cost!

Only operations in places with abundant coal resources, such as coal mining areas, can have relatively good economics. If it is used as a factory power or cargo ship power, the operating cost is actually very high, and the economic gain outweighs the loss.

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However, the widespread use of steam engines is an inevitable trend in the future. Similarly, only with the large-scale use of steam engines can the industrial revolution truly be launched. Therefore, Li Xuan clearly knew that the ships currently built have no practical value, but he still vigorously promoted

With.

On the 16th of Bing, this paddle-wheel ship is equipped with steam engine power. Even the transmission device is not perfect. Once the steam engine starts, it cannot accelerate or decelerate at all unless it is stopped directly, and the speed is also very impressive.

Fa pointed out that the speed was only a few kilometers per hour, which was basically the same as a person’s walking speed, and this was when the ship was empty.

If No. Bing-16 is loaded with a certain amount of cargo or towed by other ships, it is estimated that not only will it not move forward when going upstream, it will even go backwards!

Therefore, at present, steam engines do not have the practical ability to be used on ships because the unit power is not high enough, but this is not important.

All Li Xuan wants is to point them in a direction and then continue to work hard in that direction.

Sure enough, after the news of the successful test of the steam engine on board the ship spread to the Navy, the Navy generals learned that the steam engine could allow the ship to travel without the need for sails or artificial paddles. People with a little more flexible minds are

Come to think of it, the steam engine is simply tailor-made for the warships of their navy.

Today's ships, even slightly larger river ships, rely heavily on sails for navigation, so in today's naval operations, seizing the upper hand is a crucial tactic.

But if you have a steam engine and you get the upper hand, you can directly maneuver to any position you want and launch an attack!

At the same time, when fighting in inland rivers, due to the limited width of the river, the use of sails is extremely restricted, and there is also the difficulty of countercurrent. If there is such a steam engine, then the warships of the Tang Navy will be able to go up and down inland rivers and lakes.

freely.

So just after hearing the news about the successful test of the steam engine on board, several senior generals of the Navy and even Bao Yifen himself found Li Xuan and said that the Navy was in urgent need of this kind of steam engine warship!

In their mouths, this kind of steam engine is even more important than those large-caliber naval guns!

Naturally, Li Xuan himself did not care about these technical details and let the navy negotiate with the people at the Young Military Camp and the Machinery Branch. Soon Bao Yifen found Lin Hui and made a series of requests.

What are the requirements?

They need a steam engine with greater power, smaller size and weight, and a longer time to be trouble-free. It is best to have a power of more than 100 horsepower, so that their navy can directly install this steam engine on the cruiser.

Moreover, the size and weight cannot be too large, and the cost cannot be too high. The manufacturing cost of current steam engines is too high.

In response, Lin Hui rolled his eyes at them. A hundred-horsepower steam engine was just a joke!

He, Lin Hui, and a group of people have been thinking hard day and night in recent months and have improved many details, but they still have not been able to push the single-machine power of the steam engine to ten horsepower. Although the weight and volume have been reduced, the reduction has been very small.

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It is absolutely impossible to have a hundred horsepower!

Whether it is a steam engine or other various internal combustion engines in later generations, all kinds of messy engines have a very special name: the flower of industry!

If you want to build an engine, it’s useless just to design it. You have to build it!

This is like later generations, when the Yankees gave an F35 engine to other countries, without even requiring them to do reverse engineering mapping, and directly handed them the full set of design papers, but few countries were able to successfully copy it!

Because most countries don’t even have the raw materials and processing levels to make such engines!

This is true even for the most primitive steam engines today. Although the steam engines built by Lin Hui may look very crude and bulky from the perspective of later generations, for this era, they are actually the most top-notch industrial products, materials and processing.

Basically, they have reached the top level that the Tang Dynasty can currently achieve.

Even so, the only manufacturer that can produce steam engines now is the Machinery Branch of the Zhaoqing Arsenal, and it can only produce small batches, requiring a large number of skilled craftsmen to manually polish the fine parts before finally assembling them.

In the past few months, the Machinery Branch Factory has only produced a total of more than ten steam engines. They are all handmade. Each one is an expensive handicraft. The price of a single machine has reached 800 silver. This is the Mechanical Branch Factory.

The pure manufacturing cost price estimated by the factory, if it is a commercial selling price, is less than two thousand taels of silver. Don’t even think about it!

Otherwise, don’t expect to be able to recover R&D costs and maintain profitability for subsequent continued R&D and improvements.

Today's steam engines are more like expensive toys than industrial products. Only the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Xuan, had the courage and capital to play with them.

The steam engines currently produced are basically used for testing and are basically not used in actual industrial production or military applications.

So Lin Hui said very directly, don't count on a hundred horsepower, don't count on the low cost, don't count on the former, don't count on the size and weight of the rear either.

But Bao Yi never gave up!

The cost is high. Well, I, Bao Yifen, just said casually, as long as the thing is usable, it will be at your price, whatever you say!

Anyway, the price of any frigate, cruiser or warship is tens of thousands of taels of silver, but your steam engine is worth hundreds of taels of silver!

It doesn’t have a hundred horsepower, but fifty will do. It may be slower, but it’s better than nothing!

What, it takes time to develop, our navy can wait, it can take three to five years.

What? It still requires a lot of research experience and various messy experiments. Bao Yifen said on the spot that although our navy is not as rich as the army, it still has a military expenditure of more than two million taels a year. With this research and development funding, our navy

All inclusive!

Lin Hui was speechless when faced with Bao Yifen's attitude that everything else was negotiable as long as he had a steam engine.

Dealing with bumpkins like the Navy, talking about money, really undermines his character!

He is a dignified ninth grader, and one of the only two ninth graders in the Tang Dynasty. Although he is not in the officialdom, he enjoys third-grade treatment and was named a viscount. How can he continue to mess around with a common man like Bao Yifen?

, and directly asked his seventh-grade assistant, Rear Admiral Bao Yifen, to blow out the laboratory.

But even though the navy people have been driven away, the research and development of this steam engine will not stop!

There is no shortage of technical personnel and research funds in the Young Army Camp. As a special institution that directly belongs to the royal family, the Young Army Camp has the top scientific and technological talents in the entire Tang Dynasty, and even in the world. Just bring out a sixth grade student.

, can defeat the whole world.

As for funds, there is no shortage of them. The funds for the young military camp are all paid directly from the royal treasury, and various research and development funds are also open to supply.

Besides, don’t think that Youjunying just spends money but doesn’t make money. In fact, they also make money. Many technological achievements in Youjunying have already begun to be used in many factories under the major arsenals of the Ministry of Industry. Although everyone is Datang

They are part of the family, but brothers still have to settle accounts.

For example, for every set of rice-crushing equipment produced and sold by the Machinery Branch, Xiaojunying can directly collect a 10% share from it, and this part of the share is ordered by His Majesty to be a patent fee.

So, Youjunying is rich!

Otherwise, there would be such a big bottomless pit for scientific and technological research and development, and Li Xuan’s royal family would not be able to support it no matter how much money it spent!

The people from the Navy have left, but they are still obsessed with it. The high-power steam engines they want will not be available for a while, but the current steam engines can also be used. Even if they cannot be put on battleships for practical use, they can test them first.

It is also possible to accumulate experience in use and maintenance.

So people from the Navy went directly to the Machinery Branch Factory, bought two steam engines for testing, and started internal experiments and testing within the Navy.

Of course, Gerdes, the captain of the Folangji pirates who had just arrived in Zhaoqing, didn't know about these things. In fact, he had never seen a steamship again since he saw it from a distance when he first arrived in Zhaoqing.

The steam engine was on, because after they disembarked and landed, they had been staying in a separate courtyard in the city, and this courtyard was guarded by soldiers of the Guards. They could not get out at all, and they had to learn the complicated Chinese etiquette every day.

.

Half a month later, after their active request, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allowed them to go out for a walk, but they must be accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and soldiers from the Guards would also go out.

Keep following.

At the same time, they are only allowed to travel along the routes set by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They are not allowed to go to places outside the routes without permission, otherwise the spies will die on the spot.

However, despite the many restrictions and intimidation, they still couldn't stop Gerdes and other Flemish people from being curious about Zhaoqing, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, so when the appointed time came, they all dressed up

, and then, accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and soldiers of the Guards, took to the streets of Zhaoqing!


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