The Resurrection of the South Seas of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 286 The advent of the steam engine
In Zhu Hongyu's eyes, the status of the research institute is very important.

It is precisely because of this that the research institute was placed in Zhenyuan City, not far from the Jian Guo Mansion.

On the one hand, it is convenient for Zhu Hongyu to inspect at any time, and even guide the research.

On the other hand, it is convenient for security work!
Zhu Hongyu, dressed in ordinary clothes, came outside the gate of the institute.

With a creak, the soldiers of the Restoration Army who guarded the gate opened the gate, and Zhu Hongyu led people in.

Wang An, master and apprentice, led a group of researchers and craftsmen to welcome them.

Everyone spoke in unison.

"See Your Highness Jian Guo!"

Zhu Hongyu waved his hand and said.

"Free gift!"

"Take Gu directly to visit the steam engine!"

Wang An promised, and then began to lead the way in front while explaining.

"The structure of the steam engine we developed is based on the suggestion of His Highness Jian Guo!"

"It is mainly composed of a cylinder, a base, a piston, a crank connecting rod mechanism, a slide valve steam distribution mechanism, a speed regulating mechanism and a flywheel."

"The specific principle is that in a steam boiler, water is boiled into steam through the combustion process, and the steam is sent to the cylinder."

"The valve controls the time when the steam reaches the cylinder, enters the slide valve chamber through the main steam valve and the throttle valve, and is controlled by the slide valve to alternately enter the left or right side of the cylinder to push the piston to move."

"The speed of the current steam engine can reach seventy to eighty revolutions per minute..."

Don't look at this inconspicuous figure!
But what you need to know is that at the end of the eighteenth century, the speed of the steam engine improved by Watt was only thirty or forty revolutions per minute.

Now that the steam engine developed by the research institute can have such a speed, Zhu Hongyu is already very satisfied, and even very pleasantly surprised.

Listening to Wang An's description of the specific performance data of the steam engine, Zhu Hongyu kept nodding his head.

Along the way, the smile on his face never disappeared!
Under the leadership of Wang An, a group of people entered an open-air testing ground.

In the center of the test site, there is a steam engine that can be called stupid.

Zhu Hongyu strode towards the steam engine, reached out and groped on the machine for a while, feeling the icy temperature from the steel.

Zhu Hongyu's face was full of smiles!

The appearance of the steam engine is of epoch-making significance!
Even without mentioning that the steam engine can open the door to the industrial age, the role that the steam engine can play in the military industry is unimaginable.

The steam engine can provide a stable source of power for the machine tool!
The machine tool is the key to finishing!
For example, let's say rifling a musket!
If the musket is rifled by hand, even the most experienced master can't guarantee that there will be no accidents during the rifling process.

Once there is a little accident, a musket will be scrapped!

This is why, from the beginning to the end, the main equipment in the Liberation Army has always been the musket gun, and the reason why the rifle gun is only equipped in small batches.

However, as long as the machining accuracy of the machine tool can be ensured, there will not be too much error.

With the steam engine powering the machine tools, it would no longer be a problem to rifle rifles in large quantities.

Even, it is possible to directly mill the casting of the cannon, pull the rifling for the cannon, and complete the transformation from the smoothbore gun to the rifled cannon!
Zhu Hongyu carefully looked at the steam engine in front of him, and the smile on his face could hardly be concealed.

Nodding to Wang An, he spoke.

"Start running!"

Wang An nodded in agreement, and then began to operate it himself.

The boiler is lit, and over time the cold water heats up until it boils...

Gudong!Gudong!
As the water vapor continues to expand during the boiling process, the pointer on the pressure gauge of the steam engine begins to move slowly.

After the pointer moved from the white area to the green area, the steam engine began to run slowly.

The piston drives the crank connecting rod and the flywheel to slowly rotate!
As the pointer moves from the green area to the yellow area, the speed of the steam engine becomes faster and faster.

Wang An explained.

"The pressure gauge is divided into four zones of different colors!"

"White represents the charging stage, green represents normal operation, yellow represents normal operation, and when it reaches the red area, it is a danger warning, indicating that the furnace may be fried again at any time!"

Zhu Hongyu silently watched the steam engine running, and asked.

"Is the power delivery stable? How about runtime?"

Wang arranged his chest and said.

"The power supply is absolutely stable!"

"In terms of running time, in the initial test, the steam engine ran for three days without any trouble."

"Then there was some small problem with the piston, so it stopped and checked the replacement parts!"

Due to the standardized production emphasized by Zhu Hongyu, every part of the steam engine is unified, and if there is a problem with the operation, it can be replaced at any time.

In this era when the steam engine had just been invented and could not run for a long time due to technical limitations!
It is very important to standardize accessories and quickly replace damaged accessories at any time!

In this regard, Zhu Hongyu can only feel the ingenuity of these craftsmen.

Touching his chin, Zhu Hongyu asked again.

"When will the steam engine be put into mass production?"

It is not enough to have a steam engine. If you want to open the door to the industrial age, you must put the steam engine into practical use on a large scale.

The first step is to make the steam engine mass-produced, not just a laboratory product!
Wang An spoke.

"Report to His Highness Jian Guo!"

"The research institute is already preparing for the mass production of steam engines!"

"The machine tool for producing steam engine parts is undergoing transformation, and researchers are trying to find a way to make the machine tool adapt to the steam engine as a power source instead of continuing to use water power or animal power."

"When the relevant tests are successful, the mass production of steam engines will no longer be a problem!"

The Liberation Army has already started using machine tools!

The machine tool sounds very high-end. It is an industrial mother machine and the brightest jewel in the crown of an industrial country.

But this is talking about those high-end CNC machine tools!
If you don't pursue precision, it is not as difficult as you think to make a simple machine tool by hand, such as lathe, boring machine, milling machine and other basic machine tools.

Anyway, after Zhu Hongyu took out the drawings, the craftsmen of the research institute made the real thing.

And the machine tools made are also used in military production and steam engine parts manufacturing.

The processing accuracy is really not good, but it is not too bad!
Where precision processing is required, it is usually after a simple frame is made by a machine tool, and then fine processing is carried out by a skilled craftsman.

All in all, it works!

Moreover, after a long period of improvement, the machining accuracy of the machine tool has been guaranteed to a certain extent.

When the steam engine is put into large-scale production in the future, the parts manufactured by the machine tool using the steam engine as the power source are used to assemble a machine tool, and the machining accuracy of the machine tool should be improved a lot.

Zhu Hongyu nodded in satisfaction, patted Wang An on the shoulder and said.

"keep it up!"

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Hongyu publicly announced the rewards for all members of the steam engine research team.

(End of this chapter)