After receiving the notification from his attendant, Zhu Shuren quickly wandered to the Mechanical Research Institute of the Daming Academy of Sciences in Jiangning Town. The two places were not far from each other, so he strolled there before dinner.
In the Mechanical Research Institute, several academician-level academic experts and several other researchers have already received notification and are waiting for the regent's inspection.
As soon as Zhu Shuren entered the door, he saw the British scholar Robert Hooke who was now the deputy director of the institute (the full-time director must be a Han nationality of Ming Dynasty. There can be several deputy directors, and Hooke is not the only deputy director).
There is also a Dutch researcher, Antony Leeuwenhoek, and some unknown faces that even Zhu Shuren does not recognize.
There is no doubt that both Hooke and Leeuwenhoek were brought back from Britain, the Netherlands and other countries by the Ming merchant fleet that returned from Europe eight and a half years ago, taking advantage of the Great Plague in London.
It can be seen that Zhu Shuren's courtesy to Professor Barrow, Newton and others was not in vain. Those porcelain tea jars with gold and enamel filigree, the best frozen oolong, and Suzhou embroidery were not in vain.
It was all because of the timely help of medicine sellers during the Great Plague in London, and the subsequent display of thirst for talents and high integrity, that a large number of young European scholars and skilled craftsmen saw the potential of gold mining in the East, and were taken over by the Ming Dynasty.
This Robert Hooke was a teaching assistant at Oxford University. He was 34 years old at the time, but he did not have an Oxford degree.
Because he was born as a typical skilled craftsman in the apprenticeship system. He was a member of a trade guild in his early years and was relatively good at hands-on research on machinery, but his theoretical foundation in mathematics and physics was not solid.
Just because he made telescopes and clocks with relatively high precision, and was also very skilled in making other chemical experimental instruments, he was recruited as a teaching assistant by Boyle, a leading scientist in the field of chemistry at Oxford University.
Boyle himself was often responsible for thinking about the needs, and then asked Hooker to help him design and manufacture the experimental equipment. The two of them worked together, one came up with the idea and the other was responsible for implementing it. They worked well together.
Later, during the Great Plague in London, the Ming Dynasty's merchant fleet went to sell medicine, and wasn't it connected to Professor Barrow of Cambridge?
After learning about the efficacy and chemical principles of rat poison, he went to Oxford to find Boyle. Wang Fuzhi, the envoy of the Ming Dynasty, also gave Boyle a heavy gift.
As a result, because Boyle himself was already a leading figure at Oxford University, he could not be hired. In the end, the matter was settled, but he was poached as a teaching assistant in his thirties with low academic qualifications who had no academic status.
After Hooke was recruited to the Ming Dynasty, his theory and practice blossomed in the past few years. With funding from the Ming Dynasty, he could do the experiments he wanted to do as much as he wanted, so he proposed "Hooke's Law" a few years earlier than the same period in history.
"——
In the original history, Hooke's law should have been proposed by Hooke in 1678, which is what is said in junior high school physics textbooks: "In elastically deformed materials, the stress (elastic potential energy/elastic force) has a linear relationship with the strain (elastic deformation).
(proportional)" law.
Now, Hooke proposed this law four years in advance in 1674. Later, he helped the Ming Dynasty create standardized springs in advance, and also proposed a new design concept for the elastic escapement of clocks.
When Hooke proposed Hooke's law and its initial mechanical application, Zhu Shuren made an exception and personally allocated 20,000 taels of silver from the royal property of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to reward Hooke.
That was three years ago. When Hook received the money, he was filled with gratitude. He felt that he would not be able to get that kind of money even if he worked as a mechanical guild in London or as a teaching assistant in Oxford for the rest of his life.
So since then, he has worked harder on research and tinkering with machinery. He has made some contributions in tinkering with various higher-precision optical instruments, clocks and other elastic energy storage machinery.
As for the other researcher waiting for inspection today, Antoni Leeuwenhoek, those who have taken junior high school biology classes in later generations must have heard of him, the Dutchman who invented the microscope to see microorganisms.
He was also a craftsman from a guild, and his cultural level was lower than Hook's. However, he was very capable and had an instinctive talent for designing many mechanical devices. Practice makes perfect.
When the Ming merchant fleet took advantage of the Great Plague in London to go to Europe to recruit people, Leeuwenhoek was working as a clerk in the city hall in Delft, the Netherlands, doing some small innovations in mechanical design in his spare time.
When he was a child, he heard about the regent of the Ming Dynasty who was generous and eager for talents, so he came to the door with one of his gadgets to ask for appreciation and try his luck, and was brought back.
Because of his low cultural level and weak theoretical foundation, Leeuwenhoek did not have the ability to carry out projects on his own. In the past few years, he worked with Hooke to help him with some hands-on and detailed implementation work.
…
When Zhu Shuren saw the excited faces of Hooke and Leeuwenhoek, his inner expectations suddenly rose to a higher level.
There is no other reason. Zhu Shuren has often been concerned about the work of Nanjing University and the Ming Academy of Sciences in recent years. Of course he knows what projects Hu Ke has been worrying about in the past two or three years——
Even for this project, Zhu Shuren took the initiative to give instructions to the other party with the mentality of just hitting the ball if there was no date. However, Zhu Shuren did not dare to have extravagant expectations and did not put pressure on the other party to produce results within a time limit.
Seeing the other party's excited look at this moment, Zhu Shuren couldn't help but wonder if that thing was successful...
He actually took a deep breath nervously and asked in a low voice in a questioning tone: "Is that thing successful?"
Robert Hooke's face was full of pride: "Yes, Your Highness, this is the machine that uses steam to drive the crankshaft and flywheel to do work. We have finally produced the first sample. It is already running, although it was only running stably in the morning.
Twenty minutes later, there was a little air leakage. In addition, the success rate of the startup process was not high, but at least we made it."
Although Zhu Shuren was mentally prepared, he couldn't help but be shocked: Didn't that mean he had made a steam engine? It couldn't be so fast.
Even if Ming Dynasty had standardized rubber seals, standardized gears, screws, springs, and other auxiliary advances in the fields of chemical engineering and materials science, it would still be impossible to build a steam engine so quickly, right?
To be honest, Zhu Shuren actually never thought that he would see a steam engine in his lifetime. In his original plan, he could use "power to create miracles" in the field of "big efforts can produce miracles" where stupid birds like biochemical environmental materials and crazy trial and error are the first to fly.
If he roughly picks the "fruits" and then lays the foundation for science and engineering education for Ming Dynasty, his life will be worthwhile.
Even if it takes another generation or even two generations for future generations to build a steam engine, he thinks it will be at an acceptable speed, not too slow, and we don’t demand too much.
Unexpectedly, the final breakthrough was so fast. In a manic mood, he quickly asked Hook to lead the way and visited it again.
Hooke and Leeuwenhoek also took him around quickly. When he saw the clumsy big machine, Zhu Shuren was filled with excitement, but as time passed, his excitement gradually calmed down.
It was very difficult for Hooke to start this machine, because the flywheel and crankshaft seemed not precise enough. If the original inertia of the one-way rotation at the beginning was not large enough, it would be easy to turn the circular motion of the crankshaft and flywheel into a reciprocating motion like a swing.
It took Hooke a long time to get the machine started.
The moment he saw the machine start up, Zhu Shuren already had an idea of improvement in his heart:
Can't they make something similar to a tractor crank first, just like later generations of diesel tractors started, and let the flywheel crankshaft have an initial direction of rotational inertia before starting the steam engine?
This shouldn't be difficult to change. It just took a flash of inspiration to break a layer of window paper, so Zhu Shuren thought of it and said it immediately.
Robert Hooke, who was on the other side, was as enlightened as he heard the regent's divine words. He was stunned for a long time before he came back from the ecstasy and reverence.
"Oh, Your Highness! You are truly omniscient and omnipotent! You only took a look at the difficulty of starting this machine, and instantly thought of an improvement suggestion! I will definitely change it in the next version! Add an additional manual rotation in advance to give the flywheel an initial inertia.
A device of speed!”
Leeuwenhoek and the other researchers next to him did not react as quickly as Hook at first. But after hearing what Hook said from the bottom of his heart, it was not like trying to please them. They finally came to their senses and admired the well-informed prince.
.
Such a ruler is truly knowledgeable! No wonder the prince was able to guide Newton and propose the three laws. Newton was just the person who provided mathematical proofs, and the original conjecture came from the prince's keen foresight!
Perhaps the prince is not good at conducting research himself, but his keenness of vision is truly unmatched by anyone in the world! That kind of sharp insight that can see through the essence of things and the roots of contradictions at a glance is simply terrifying.
In everyone's amazement, the steam engine finally started up. As the machine ran normally, Zhu Shuren finally calmed down and realized that the progress of the thing in front of him was not that great.
He was a little frightened by the history books at first. When he heard about steam engine, he subconsciously thought it was Watt's steam engine.
But after calming down, he had already remembered that Watt only improved the steam engine. To be precise, he made a "huge improvement", but in the end it was still an improvement, which meant that someone had created a steam engine long before Watt.
Let’s not talk about the steam-injection copper balls that opened the temple doors in ancient Egypt, but just talk about modern steam engines. In fact, in the original history, the British Newcomen invented the modern steam engine in 1705. And with Watt’s improvement
It was completely completed in 1787, and a full 82 years passed.
In fact, the life cycle of an industrial revolution is about 80 years.
For example, Watt's improved steam engine was completed in 1787.
81 years later, in 1868, Faraday invented the generator, ushering in the second industrial revolution.
Another 78 years later, in 1946, the University of Pennsylvania invented the first computer "Eniac", ushering in the third industrial revolution.
Another 77 years later, in 2023, Microsoft invented GPT. I don’t know if this counts as the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution. But even if it doesn’t, give it three more years to make up for 80 years. By around 2026, artificial intelligence will
There is a high probability that intelligent technology will reach an inflection point of qualitative change at the industrial level.
Which civilization can seize the turning point of qualitative change in industrial life will determine which civilization will be the leader of the earth for the next 80 years.
So from this perspective, 82 years passed between the invention of Newcomen's steam engine and the improvement of Watt's steam engine in history. Newcomen's time can be regarded as the "zero industrial revolution".
At this moment, after careful observation, Zhu Shuren also saw some clues. He discovered that the thing built by Robert Hooke according to his request a few years ago, although it cannot be said to be a Newcomen steam engine, it also has the characteristics of a Newcomen steam engine.
Several very important common features. Anyway, they definitely cannot be counted as Watt-type steam engines.
Calculated in this way, the historical Newcomen steam engine was born in 1705, and the current Hooke steam engine was advanced to 1677. In fact, it was only 28 years ahead of schedule, which is not much at all.
Considering that the Ming Dynasty's industrial base has made so much progress in materials science and has done so much basic work in design standardization, it also gave Hooke sufficient resources and allowed him to conduct research and development for four or five years under a nationwide system, ahead of schedule.
This 28 years is very reasonable.
After all, Newcomen in parallel time and space did not have so many resources, and everyone spent their own money on research. Today's Hook spends money from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ming Dynasty. His financial and material resources are not at the same level at all. It can be said to be a world of difference.
difference.
The reason why Zhu Shuren judged that the Hooker steam engine was closer to Newcomen than to Watt was because he discovered that Hooker's machine did not have an important feature of Watt's steam engine - it did not have a steam condensation recovery device.
It is precisely this device that represents the decisive difference between Watt's superiority to previous steam engines, making Watt's steam engine at least three or four times more thermally efficient than Newcomen's.
This thing is said in terms that laymen may not understand, but to give a popular example, you can understand it in one sentence——
Newcomen and earlier steam power devices had a huge waste, that is, they had to boil water from normal temperature to 100 degrees Celsius, then boil it to form steam pressure, and spray the steam pressure out to do work.
After the steam has only done work once, once the air pressure drops and loses power, it is directly discharged into the outside air. After the steam loses pressure, it condenses back into water. At this time, it is still about 80 to 90 degrees.
Although the water temperature is not boiling, it is still very hot.
And this water is directly discharged into the air and wasted, and the water is boiled again from cold water at room temperature of more than 20 degrees, boiled again, worked again, and discharged again... The waste of heat is huge.
Because this is equivalent to the heat energy of the 70-degree temperature difference in burning water from 20 degrees to 90 degrees, which is wasted. In the end, the work done is only the energy of the temperature difference from 90 degrees to 110 degrees.
As for Watt's steam engine, an important idea is to "re-collect the condensed water that has cooled down slightly after doing work and lost power and re-liquefied through the condensing copper tube, and then circulated it back to the boiler to be burned again, boiling repeatedly."
When the water is taken back, it still remains at a high temperature of at least 80 to 90 degrees. After all, it is water that has just changed from steam to liquid. And when the 90-degree water is returned to the furnace to boil and continue to do work, the efficiency is higher than that of water from 20 degrees Celsius to 20 degrees Celsius.
It started to boil water much more efficiently.
Every time the Newcomen steam engine does work, it must burn cold water from 20 degrees to water vapor above 110 degrees, while the Watt steam engine only needs to start burning from recovered hot water at 90 degrees.
If you save an extra 70 degrees of heat energy at a temperature difference, doesn't the thermal efficiency of the fuel suddenly increase by three to five times?
The former is "stir-fried pork" and the latter is "twice-cooked pork".
In fact, Zhu Shuren had no idea how to build a machine or how to achieve this goal. But at least he was familiar with history and knew the energy-saving logic and direction of progress.
Therefore, he can directly play the role of a man who only moves his mouth.
He observed and repeated it for a long time, thinking about his words, and finally gave Hook some advice and issued a new order:
"After your water is boiled, it turns into steam and is sprayed into the cylinder. After pushing the piston once to complete the work, the energy drops and cools down into water mist, and then it is sprayed out directly from the exhaust port.
But even if these 'water mist' are below 100 degrees, they are still at least over 80 degrees, right? It's always much hotter than the 20-plus degrees room temperature water waiting to be boiled in your cold water boiler.
Can't you think of a way to put a collection device at the exhaust outlet to collect the 'water mist' that is at least over 80 degrees Celsius and pour it back into the boiler to continue burning? Wouldn't that save more fuel than burning cold water from scratch?"
Hook was startled when he heard this, and then there was an uproar in his heart.
What kind of insight does His Highness the Prince Regent have? He just taught him how to make a cold start crank handle, which already made him feel like a miracle. At this moment, he was able to observe the exhaust gas emissions of the boiler for a while, and then he realized that he should add "water in the exhaust gas"
"Mist heat energy recovery device" to recirculate hot water for boiling?
After all, Hooker had been studying this thing for several years, so he immediately understood the essence of it. He realized that if this thing was done, not only would the utilization rate of fuel heat be increased several times, but the key is that the water consumption of the steam engine would also be increased.
Save several times.
Because the cooled water mist is collected again after the work is done, the frequency of adding cold water to the boiler can also be reduced several times. This change may not make much difference in areas with abundant water resources on land, but if you are in Dan
Where it is inconvenient to replenish water, it is definitely a qualitative change.
To give the simplest example, without a water mist recovery device after doing work, a steam engine can never be used to power seagoing ships. This is because you cannot let the boiler burn seawater, and there is no way to replenish fresh water resources at sea.
If we now discharge the waste mist after boiling it once, even if all the steam engine ships in the future are used to transport water and coal, they may not be able to travel even a hundred miles without burning all the water and coal.
Only steam engines that circulate water to boil water can be used to power seagoing ships.
"Oh my God, your revered Highness, your insight is as perfect and sharp as a god, and you can actually discover a qualitative technical defect so quickly! My admiration for you cannot be described in words!
I will arrange improvements now! I will try my best to collect the waste hot water mist after the work is done! But it may be a bit troublesome and it will take at least a few years. I have not thought of how to combine the air components in the exhaust gas with the water.
The mist components are separated and the water mist is recycled separately...
After all, water mist only accounts for a very small part of the final exhaust gas. There must be a more reliable way to separate water mist and other exhaust gas components. These have to be studied from scratch. I had never imagined it..."
Zhu Shuren waved his hand: "Time is not a problem, just take your time. In fact, to separate the water mist from other exhaust gases, it is not impossible to consider cooling the water mist first and condensing it, so as to waste more heat.
All you have to do is to weigh the cost of the condensation device and the degree of heat waste to find the most economical and reliable balance point. I don’t know the details, so I won’t limit your thinking.”
Zhu Shuren was of course a little confused in his heart. After all, men in later generations have never washed the air conditioner or defrosted the refrigerator at home, so they have never eaten pork, seen pigs running, and seen the compressor condensation copper pipe structure behind the air conditioner and refrigerator.
But Zhu Shuren didn't know whether the condensation collection tubes of this era could be like those used in air conditioners and refrigerator compressors in later generations, so he could only describe the principles without specifically restricting the other party's practical experiments.
Practice is the only criterion for testing and sorting out, and it’s not like Ming Dynasty cannot afford these experiments.
Robert Hooke kept Zhu Shuren's principles and ideas in mind and quickly embarked on a new research and development journey.
At the same time, Zhu Shuren also kept an extra thought, saying that the current machine should not be wasted. If there is no way to make large-scale improvements in a short time, then he should first correct the small problems and run them in, and then build a few more machines and take them to Ma'anshan.
And for pumping water in Changxing Coal Mine in Huzhou.
Only when the same product is put into engineering practice can more problems be quickly discovered. And Zhu Shuren believes that there will be many such problems. The pitfalls he can point out are only big problems clearly recorded in the history books. There are countless small problems that are not worthy of being written down in the history books.
The problem was only gradually discovered by Hooke in practice.
In addition, even if the water mist sprayed by the current steam engine cannot be recycled, it can at least be sprayed into a cold water pot, and the cold water and waste mist can be mixed to form warm water. This is not a waste of energy and can be used by coal miners.
Open a hot-water bathhouse and use high-temperature waste mist mixed with cold water to bathe workers.
——
PS: In fact, the new book "Brother Zhuge Liang" has been released, and the first chapter was uploaded just half an hour ago. There is only one update on the two days on the weekend, and I will wait for the signing on Monday.
Because the number of words in the new book is too small, only 3,500 words, so I don’t dare to publicize it, so I will just say it secretly here.
From now on, make sure to release at least one update of new books and old books before 8 a.m. every day. (If there are two updates, the second update will be moved to the afternoon to increase the number of clicks and follow-up rate. Now new books all rely on the follow-up rate.
, without the follow-up rate, there will be no recommendation position, alas.
I don’t dare to ask for anything else about the new book. I just ask that it not be fattened, don’t be fattened, and don’t be fattened. So I don’t dare to publicize it early, for fear that if I publicize it too early, I will feel that the words are too few and the words will become fatter. If you don’t like it, don’t collect it first.
, just treat me like a fart first. I’ll give you more notice in a few days.)