Thousands of sparks

Chapter 3 Epoch-making Inventions
Accompanied by her "fiancé-to-be" Dusand, Lorraine and her parents met smoothly in the glass corridor outside the ballroom.Du Sande, who was in charge of accompanying her, received a long period of performing greetings from the "mother-in-law-to-be" under the corridor.

After performing with the most appropriate way of coping and smiling for a full two quarters of an hour, Dusande was able to get away with a thin layer of sweat on his back.

After bidding farewell to Lorraine's family, Du Sande walked through the crowd in embarrassment, and finally entered the ballroom.He couldn't wait to come and see this "invention" first.

"This is...'the most important invention of this era'?" With himself being the only son of Baroness Androni and "the innate curiosity of a ten-year-old child", in the lounge of the ballroom, Dusande successfully obtained the license to take a look at the invention first.

In the center of the lounge, there appeared quite abruptly an iron table that was clearly different from the gorgeous environment.There is a strange looking metal object on the table.

The upper part of this lump of metal is cylindrical, and four brass pipes are sunk on both sides of the cylinder.The lower middle part of the metal is sealed by a square iron box.On the outside of the box, there is a metal wheel about the size of a steam wagon wheel.

The inventor of this strange creation is standing by the table, ready to answer the questions of the visitors.

"Yes, my lord." Although Dusand is only ten years old now, he still needs to follow the regulations in the imperial code of law - only nobles with the title of baron or above can call him "Dear little Dusande" or something more "endearing" and befitting a ten-year-old boy.

As the inventor of this machine, and as one of the few women in the entire empire who has received advanced mechanical design education, Polina, who has no noble status, still needs to call the little brown-haired boy in front of her "Lord", and also needs to mention Skirt, bowed and bowed his head to salute.

However, these little things are not important to Polina.In fact, even the fact that she was forced to leave her studio in Orin for good and come to Newsail alone...is not that important.

She had been eager to secure the patronage of at least one or two nobles for her invention.Regardless of whether the other party has seen the potential of this invention, or has taken a fancy to something else about him...

Only with funding can she continue to perfect her invention.

Polina firmly believes that her invention is enough to change the world, even enough to be permanently recorded in the annals of history just like Wald's invention and improvement of the steam engine.

May the young little lord be rightly aware of his ignorance, instead of slandering his own inventions like those great artificers in Olin.

She sighed in her heart, if the little lord was older, maybe she could use some other methods to gain the favor of the other party.

Because she refused to admit defeat, she entered the field of mechanical design, which is "only for men", but in the end she needs to rely on her body to gain recognition... This method is completely shameful in Polina's view.

But in order to get funding, she simply didn't think about her own leeway.

Polina's mental activity is wonderful, and Dussande's expression is also wonderful.

"It looks like some kind of power device." With his hands behind his back, Dusand carefully observed this "device" for a long time, then suppressed his shock, and asked his own question with a natural curious expression, "What is this?" A few brass pipes should provide fuel, right? There are some traces of oxidation on the outside of the pipes, are you using some kind of fuel with a relatively high temperature?"

Polina's originally mild expression suddenly froze, and she slowly widened her eyes.

"You've sealed off the main moving parts with hinged black metal plates, sure to get a lot of wow when the other lords dismissively point out 'it's just a small steam engine'. The Good idea, very dramatic."

Dusande continued his analysis, the corners of his mouth raised slightly, as if he had seen the upcoming part of pretending to face, he continued, "In fact, the movement and work of this power device does not need to be heated by water. And the generation of steam—the fuel input from the pipeline will expand rapidly through combustion inside the machine, which is the core power of its operation.”

Polina's expression became more rigid, like a robot that hadn't been lubricated, she slowly turned her head to look at Dusande after a pause, her lipsticked lips opened and closed several times , but could not utter a single word.

Du Sande has no time to appreciate the surprise of the other party now, he was indeed shocked by this product that suddenly appeared in front of him.

According to the history that Du Sande was studying before, the human technology tree in this world is completely different from the world in the previous life.An inventor named "Wald" invented and directly improved the steam engine.Then, under the action of this brand-new power source, mankind quickly started the first industrial revolution—to use the world's proper term, this is called the "Great Revolution."

However, before the first industrial revolution caused enough socioeconomic changes, the second great discovery appeared-human beings discovered minerals that allowed objects to jump directly into space.

What exactly is this mineral, how is the space jump realized, how do people ensure that the direction and distance of the space jump are correct... These problems tormented Dusand at night.

But he has not learned the relevant knowledge.Aristocratic families adopted the education mode of home tutors for their children.All the knowledge is spread through the tutor's dictation and writing on the blackboard - he can't even satisfy his curiosity by reading the textbooks in advance.

In short, after the discovery of this mineral, humans completed the first successful manned space jump within 20 years, and quickly discovered dozens of planets suitable for human habitation.

The rapid expansion of human living space has become the best weapon to ease social contradictions.

Under moderate economic and social conditions, the demand for scientific and technological progress is no longer acute due to production relations. Anyway, there are plenty of space and resources.Not only was the steam engine not quickly replaced by the demand for miniaturization and quieter and more efficient, but it continued to develop with extremely vigorous vitality for nearly 300 years.

Great technicians with sufficient professional knowledge are basically hired by companies or nobles of various colonial planets as applied talents with high salaries, and human beings' improvement of steam engines is basically in a state of minor repairs.Today's steam engine has been on the road to miniaturization for a long time, but the progress is extremely slow.

The basic concept of the external combustion engine has never been challenged.

The internal combustion engine, which should have appeared about 100 years after the improvement of the steam engine, was two centuries late.

Now, it appeared in front of Dusand.

"So, what kind of fuel does this machine use?" Dusande curbed his divergent thinking, and refocused on the amazing machine in front of him.The efficiency of the internal combustion engine is naturally higher than that of the external combustion engine, and it is more conducive to miniaturization than the steam engine.At the same time, the noise is less, and the vibration of operation is much smaller than that of a steam engine.

But the problem is that the internal combustion engine doesn't have the appetite of the steam engine.Almost any fuel can be used as a source of heat for a steam engine, but an internal combustion engine can only use a few specific fuels.

Although humans have discovered oil, this fossil fuel has only been found on six colonial planets.At the same time, the "petroleum" substances produced by different colonial stars are also very different.At least on Nusaal, the "oil" was found to be extremely viscous, almost like asphalt.

Such a fuel is obviously not an ideal source of heat for an internal combustion engine.

"We use gas." When talking about professional knowledge, Polina's nervousness has obviously improved."A poisonous by-product of coal mining," she whispered.

Although I don't know why Lord Dusand, who is only ten years old, can recognize internal combustion engines at a glance, let alone why he seems to know this kind of machine very well.But she still explained, "The price of coal under the control of the mining complex is too expensive. If the gas they don't need can be used as fuel, the development prospects of this kind of power equipment will be very good..."

Dusande shook his head and said regretfully, "This machine has great potential... But it's a pity that you are now in Newsail."

Polina didn't quite understand Dusand's meaning. She persistently defended her invention, "I have great confidence in my invention, and its potential is endless."

"There is nothing wrong with unlimited potential, but if you want to attract the ideas of all the gentlemen at this ball...then you will be disappointed." Dusand frowned, "After coming to Newsail, your The machine has never been run experimentally, has it?"

"Because there is no need, the time is too short, and I don't bring much gas..." Polina sounded a little guilty, and then she quickly added, "When I was in Olin, I have tried it many times. , and it worked perfectly!"

"In Olin? That's no wonder." Dusand showed a smile that fits the image of a ten-year-old boy, "I can assure you that in Newsail, this machine will not be able to continue to operate at all. You Your invention will become the laughing stock of all nobles - its failure to demonstrate will cause great damage to your reputation, and from then on, the entire empire will recognize you..."

He paused, then saw Polina's nameplate engraved on the machine, and added, "... Ms. Polina, is a complete liar and paranoid."

No matter how honorable the little lord in front of him was, any inventor would absolutely not accept that the equipment he had devoted so much energy and energy to be belittled to such an extent.

Polina's lips turned pale, and she was almost about to throw out this little kid who didn't understand anything but uttered wild words.

"However, I can help you improve it," Dusand said with a smile. "Its future prospects are very bright, but first...you need to know why this artwork cannot work properly in Newsail."

Before the other party questioned, Dusand first revealed a small part of the answer, "This is Newsail, a plateau planet with an average equivalent altitude of 27 joles. And Olin's average equivalent At an altitude of only [-] jolls, such a machine would work fine in Olin, but here in Nusaal. Your creation might not last a single successful cycle."

He spread his hands, "Didn't you feel a little labored to breathe when you came to Newsail?"

(End of this chapter)