Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

In fact, Chongzhen did not say a word.

From the perspective of human beings, the first industrial revolution is undoubtedly a great epoch-making event, because since then, human beings have historically entered industrial civilization from agricultural civilization.

But from the individual dimension, the first industrial revolution was full of blood and tears.

Because the first industrial revolution was completed under the cruel squeeze of countless sweaty workers, industrialization was not friendly to the workers in the first industrial revolution.

Pneumoconiosis, blood lead poisoning, and reed sticks, these tragedies are countless.

Therefore, Chongzhen hoped that Koreans, Annan people, and even Anza people would come to Daming's factories to serve as sweat workers, and the people of Daming still need to be treated as kindly as possible. If they emigrate, they should try their best to be farmers or mine owners. A foreman or a farm steward is also fine, which is equivalent to a technical management.

Zhu Cihong asked Chongzhen again: "Father, how should we deal with North Korea's affairs?"

"There are three steps. The first step is to control the army, the second step is to control the political situation in North Korea, and the third step is to promote large-scale immigration." When Chongzhen was about to say something, Fang Yizhi suddenly rushed away come over.

"My lord, the final assembly has been completed." Fang Yizhi bowed and said, "You can order a test run."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Chongzhen said eagerly, "Hurry up, hurry up and light the fire!"

At this time, Pascal interjected: "Your Majesty, it should be due to thermal expansion."

"So that's how it is." Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing had the sudden enlightenment of a hut.

The piston area of ​​this steam engine is 0.72 square meters, and the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the piston is 1 atmosphere, so the maximum theoretical driving force that can be generated is 7 Newtons.

"My lord, the air pressure has reached 2.3!"

When I looked at it again, I saw that the flywheel had stopped and no longer rotated.

Chongzhen frowned and said, "Can't we increase the smoothness of the inner wall of the cylinder and the surface of the piston?"

Pascal quickly issued a warning: "My lord, the air pressure has reached 2.2 atmospheres!"

However, the miracle did not happen.

"Didn't you try it when you were grinding?" Chongzhen frowned, "See if the piston will be stuck by the cylinder wall when it moves back and forth?"

Now that the boiler pressure has reached 2 atmospheres, you can start working.

Under the burning of the raging fire, the furnace body of the boiler quickly emitted scorching heat waves.

"The gap we reserved between the cylinder and the piston was originally enough to ensure the movement of the piston."

Under the eyes of everyone, hot steam poured into the cylinder with a piercing whistling sound, and then pushed the piston to move forward slowly, and the huge flywheel connected to the piston through the connecting rod and the crankshaft began to rotate slowly.

The hearts of Chongzhen and Zhu Cihong's father and son were raised immediately.

"Of course I tried while polishing."

The trial run of Zhengqi No. [-] failed.

Pascal has been guarding in front of the barometer.

[Note: Newton was still a child at this time, gravity has not been discovered yet, here is just a quote]

For hand-made, the most difficult thing is to polish the large-sized surface. The larger the size, the more difficult it is, and the increase in geometric progression. The diameter of the inner wall of the cylinder of Zhengqi No. [-] has reached three feet, and the diameter of the piston is also close to three feet. It is really difficult for a craftsman to polish such two large-sized cylindrical surfaces by hand.

The air pressure is continuously rising.

As soon as the valve is opened, high-temperature and high-pressure steam gushes out, making a sharp whistling sound, which lasts for a long time.

However, if nothing else, an accident will happen soon.

"Then why are you stuck now?" Zhu Cihong asked.

Only then did Chongzhen remember that Zhengqi No. [-] was handcrafted by craftsmen.

Pascal went on to explain: "Because the piston is hidden in the cylinder as a whole, it is fully heated, while only the inner wall of the cylinder is heated, so the piston expands more fully than the piston."

"Yes, the lathe." Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing felt their eyes light up for a moment.

Because of the concern that the strength of the weldment was not enough, the working pressure of the first steam engine was designed to be 2 atmospheres, and the maximum withstand pressure was 2.5 atmospheres. Once the pressure exceeded 2.5 atmospheres, the pressure must be released.

Although Chongzhen didn't cheer, he couldn't hide the smile on the corner of his mouth, because as long as the flywheel can rotate, it means that it can do work externally, and it can generate a maximum mechanical propulsion of 7 Newtons.

The air pressure in the furnace is also continuously rising.

Fang Yizhi also said: "My lord, the reason why Gewuke took so long to build Zhengqi No. [-] is that it took too much time to polish the inner wall of the cylinder, the piston and the outer wall of the connecting rod."

Because the strength of several important welding points of the steam engine is limited, it can only withstand 2.5 atmospheres in theory. The current pressure is almost the extreme value, and it may explode at any time.

This is easy to calculate, 1 Pascal is equal to the pressure of 1 Newton acting on a square meter surface.

Gao Qiqian also turned pale with anxiety: "Long Live Lord, let's go!"

Pascal's voice was already trembling, and he almost turned around and ran away.

"Your Majesty, there is no good way to do this." Pascal said, "The only option is to reduce the size of the piston and increase the clearance between the piston and the cylinder, but in this way, the airtightness will decrease and the output efficiency will deteriorate. , It may have pushed more than [-] jins of heavy objects, but after increasing the gap, it may only be able to push [-] to [-] jins."

Pascal opened the pressure relief valve as quickly as possible.

However, the problem is not insoluble.

The flywheel remained motionless.

Fang Yizhi, Song Yingxing, Pascal and everyone else also looked at the flywheel of the steam engine.

"But now the piston expands more, the cylinder expands less, and the gap between the two becomes smaller, so the gap reserved before is not big enough, so it finally gets stuck."

Following Pascal's warning, several sealing mechanisms of the steam engine also began to leak air.

"It really wasn't stuck at the time."

In order to commend Pascal's achievements in inventing the barometer, Chongzhen decreed that Pascal should be used as the unit of pressure, which is the pressure generated by the action of 1 catties of weight on an area of ​​[-] square meter.

Seeing the huge and heavy flywheel start to rotate slowly, Fang Yizhi and the others immediately cheered.

[Note: 1 Pa in the book = 5 Pa in reality, but in order to avoid confusion and facilitate reading, the real pressure unit Pa is still used in the following text, and atmospheric pressure is still = 10 Pa]

"Otherwise, it will not pass the acceptance."

The faces of Fang Yizhi, Song Yingxing, Pascal and others also turned black in an instant, and the test drive failed!The test run of Zhengqi No. [-], which was placed with high hopes by the Holy One, failed!

But Pascal couldn't predict the future, and was grateful for it.

Over there, Song Yingxing immediately lit the boiler.

That night, Fang Yizhi and the others found the reason for the failure.

However, Chongzhen was in a bad mood. It seems that the ancients were honest and not deceived. Good things just take a long time. The development of the first industrial steam engine was not so smooth after all.

Chongzhen could only give up, and said dejectedly, "Open the pressure relief valve."

After more than half a year of intensive study, Pascal can speak fluent Ming Mandarin.

What Chongzhen did was just to return to the original appearance.

"My lord, the air pressure has reached 2.5, it's about to explode!"

Chongzhen gritted his teeth and said, "Don't rush to open the pressure relief valve, just wait."

Chongzhen's face also collapsed, and the smile on the corner of his mouth also froze.

"Of course." Pascal nodded and said, "If the inner wall of the cylinder and the surface of the piston can be made absolutely smooth, then there is only a small gap and it will not be stuck. However, this is only theoretical, but it is impossible in practice. , because it is impossible to polish a huge cylindrical surface to an absolute smoothness."

Only the boiler was still roaring.

Fang Yizhi immediately opened the valve connecting the cylinder.

Chongzhen immediately issued a second order: "Quickly, open the cylinder valve!"

"Expansion?" Chongzhen also reacted when he heard this, no surprises, it should be this.

At a certain moment, Pascal shouted: "Your Majesty, the pressure has reached 2 atmospheres."

So what does the 7.2 Newtons of push mean?
It means that 7 tons of heavy objects can be hoisted in the air!
Thinking of this, Chongzhen's face also turned into a daisy with a smile.

I saw the huge flywheel running for about a quarter of a cycle, and suddenly there was an extremely ear-piercing grinding sound from the cylinder of the steam engine, which could almost knock out a person's teeth.

Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing became anxious immediately.

About half an hour later, there was a rumbling sound of air flow inside the boiler. Obviously, the cold water in the furnace had been boiled, which was the noise made by the tumbling steam.

Immediately Chongzhen said: "In this way, the size of the piston of Zhengqi No. [-] is ground down, try to run it first, and then study a large lathe that can be turned, and Zhengqi No. [-] will provide power for this large lathe, and then cast a set of pistons of the same size. The cylinder and piston of the cylinder are turned and polished by a lathe on the inner surface of the cylinder and the outer surface of the piston."

……

Chongzhen asked, "Mr. Pascal, have you thought of a solution?"

Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing were speechless, and they also wanted to know the reason.

"The inner wall of the cylinder is not smooth enough, and the piston is stuck." Fang Yizhi looked ashamed.

Chongzhen was still a little unwilling, looking forward to a miracle.

Because using his surname as a unit means that he will be famous in history.

Gao Qiqian and a few young eunuchs subconsciously covered their ears.

The steam engine could finally be ignited for a test run, and Chongzhen no longer cared about North Korea.

Fang Yizhi immediately turned his head and shouted: "The Holy Spirit has a decree, light the fire!"

This is actually a mindset, like window paper, if you don't pierce it, you can't think of it.

"Okay, then hurry up." After Chongzhen finished speaking, he sent Fang Yizhi and others away.

Researching and building a lathe that can turn Zhengqi No. [-] cylinder is not an easy task.

It is conservatively estimated that it will take at least another year. Thinking of this, Chongzhen couldn't help but sighed again.

The application of the steam engine had to be postponed for another year, and the Northern Expedition had to be postponed for at least one year.