national surname chiming

Chapter 516 Unexpected breakthrough

After receiving the pass from the attendant, Zhu Shuren soon wandered to the Mechanical Research Institute of Daming Academy of Sciences in Jiangning Town.The distance between the two places was not far away, and we walked to the point before dinner.

In the Mechanical Research Institute, several academician-level academic experts and several other researchers have already been passed on, and are waiting for the regent's inspection.

As soon as Zhu Shuren entered the door, he saw Robert Hooke, a British scholar who is now the deputy director of the research institute (the current director must be a Han Chinese of Ming nationality, and there can be several deputy directors, and Hooke is not the only deputy director), There is also a researcher from the Netherlands, Anthony Leeuwenhoek, plus some unknown public faces that even Zhu Shuren doesn't know.

Undoubtedly, Hooker and Leeuwenhoek were both brought back by the Ming Merchant Fleet from Europe eight and a half years ago, taking advantage of the Great Plague in London, from England, the Netherlands and other countries.

It can be seen that Zhu Shuren's courtesy to Professor Barrow, Newton and others was not in vain.Those porcelain tea pots with chiseled gold, enamel and filigree, the top quality frozen top oolong, and Suzhou embroidery were not given away for nothing.

It was all because of the timely delivery of charcoal in selling medicine during the Great London Plague, and the subsequent display of eagerness for talents and high integrity, so that a large number of young European scholars and skilled craftsmen saw the potential of coming to the East to seek gold, and were included in Daming's pocket.

This Robert Hooke, who was a teaching assistant at Oxford University, was 34 years old at the time, but he did not have a degree from Oxford University.

Because he was born as a typical skilled craftsman under the apprenticeship system, he was a member of the trade association in his early years, and he was good at studying machinery by hand, but his theoretical foundation in mathematics and physics was not solid.

It was just because of his relatively high precision in making telescopes and clocks, and his superb craftsmanship in making other chemical experimental instruments, so he was recruited by Boyle, a leading scientist in the field of chemistry at Oxford University, as a teaching assistant.

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 used their brains and hands, one came up with ideas and the other was responsible for implementation. They cooperated well.

Later, during the Great Plague in London, when the Ming merchant fleet went to sell medicines, didn’t they connect to the line of Professor Barrow in Cambridge, but Barrow was a mathematician and didn’t understand chemistry and pharmacy. To find out the efficacy and chemical principles of rat poison, I went to Oxford to find Boyle, and Wang Fuzhi, the envoy of the Ming Dynasty, gave Boyle a great gift.

As a result, because Boyle himself was already a leading figure at Oxford University, he couldn't dig it out.In the end, the matter was settled, but he was hired as a teaching assistant in his thirties who had no academic status.

After Hu Ke was recruited to Ming Dynasty, the past few years can be regarded as both theory and practice.With the financial support of Daming, he can do as much experiment as he wants, 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, that is, in the junior high school physics textbook, "In elastically deformed materials, the stress (elastic potential energy/elastic force) has a linear relationship with the strain (elastic deformation) (proportional)" law.

Today, Hooke proposed the law four years earlier, in 1674.Later, because of this, it helped Daming to manufacture a standardized spring in advance, and also proposed a new design concept for the watch's elastic escapement mechanism.

When Hooke proposed Hooke's Law and its initial mechanical application, Zhu Shuren made an exception and personally allocated 2 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 very grateful. He felt that he would not be able to get that much money if he worked for a lifetime in the Mechanics Guild in London or as a teaching assistant in Oxford.

So from then on, he worked harder on research and tinkering with machinery.Contributed somewhat to tinkering with various higher-precision optical instruments, clocks, and other elastic energy-storing mechanisms.

As for another researcher who is waiting for an inspection today, Anthony Leeuwenhoek, anyone who has taken a junior high school biology class in the future should have heard of it. He is the Dutchman who invented the microscope to see microorganisms.

He was also a craftsman from a mixed trade guild, and his educational level was lower than that of Hooker, but he was very capable of doing things, and he also had an instinctive talent for designing many mechanical devices, so practice makes perfect.

When the Ming merchant fleet took advantage of the Great Plague in London to go to Europe to poach people, Leeuwenhoek worked as a city hall clerk in Delft, the Netherlands, and made some small innovations in mechanical design in his spare time. When he was young, he heard about the generosity of the Ming Regent and his thirst for talents, so he took one of his gadgets to the door to ask for appreciation and try his luck, and was brought back.

Because of his low level of education and weak theoretical foundation, Leeuwenhoek was not able to carry out projects on his own. In the past few years, he has formed a team with Hooker to help him do some hands-on and detailed implementation work.

……

Seeing the excited faces of Hook and Leeuwenhoek, Zhu Shuren couldn't help but suddenly raised his expectations.

There is no other reason. Zhu Shuren has often been concerned about the work of Nanjing University and Daming Academy of Sciences in the past few years. Of course, he knows what projects Hooker has been worrying about in the past two or three years——

Even for this project, Zhu Shuren took the initiative to order the other party with the mentality of playing a shot if he had no dates.It's just that Zhu Shuren didn't dare to expect too much, and didn't put pressure on the opponent to produce results within a set time limit.

Seeing the excited look of the other party at this moment, Zhu Shuren couldn't help thinking that maybe that thing had succeeded...

He actually took a deep breath nervously, and asked in a low voice with a questioning tone: "Is that thing successful?"

Robert Hooke was full of pride: "That's right, Your Majesty, it is the machine you ordered that uses steam to drive the crankshaft and flywheel to do work. Finally, the first prototype has been trial-produced. It has already started running, although it has only been running stably in the morning. In 10 minutes, there was a little air leakage. In addition, the success rate of the start-up link is not high, but at least we made it.”

Although Zhu Shuren was mentally prepared, he couldn't help but turn pale with shock: Isn't that just the steam engine?It can't be so fast.

Even if Daming had standardized rubber sealing rings, standardized gears, screws, springs, and other auxiliary advances in the fields of chemical engineering and materials science, it was impossible to build a steam engine so quickly, right?

To be honest, Zhu Shuren actually never thought that he would see steam engines in his lifetime. In his original plan, he would be able to "make miracles with great effort" in the field of "low-hanging" in the field of biochemical and environmental materials. "The fruit" roughly picks it once, and then lays the foundation for Daming's science and engineering education, and his life will be worth it.

Even if later generations spend another generation or even two generations building a steam engine, he thinks that the speed is qualified, not too slow, and we don't require too much.

Unexpectedly, the final breakthrough was so fast. With a manic mood, he quickly let Hook lead the way and visited it.

Hook and Leeuwenhoek also quickly led him around.When Zhu Shuren saw that big clumsy machine, his heart was full of excitement, but as time passed, the excitement gradually calmed down a bit.

It is very difficult for Hooker to start this machine, because the flywheel and crankshaft seem to be not precise enough. If the original inertia of one-way rotation is not large enough at the beginning, it is easy to change the circular motion of the crankshaft and flywheel into a reciprocating motion like a swing.

So Hook worked for a long time before turning the machine around and starting it up.

The moment Zhu Shuren saw the machine start up, an idea of ​​improvement had arisen in his heart:

Can't they get something like a tractor crank like the diesel tractors of later generations, and let the flywheel crankshaft have an initial direction of inertia before starting the steam engine?

It shouldn't be difficult to change this point, but it was just a flash of inspiration that broke a layer of window paper, so Zhu Shuren immediately said it when he thought about it.

Robert Hook on the other side heard the regent's divine words, but he was so enlightened that he was stunned for a long time before turning around from ecstasy and reverence.

"Oh, Your Majesty! You are so omniscient! You just glanced at the difficulty of starting this machine, and immediately thought of an improvement suggestion! I will definitely change it in the next version! Add an additional manual rotation in advance, and give the flywheel an initial inertia. A device of speed!"

But Leeuwenhoek and the other researchers beside him didn't react as quickly as Hooker at first.But hearing Hu Ke speak so sincerely, it didn't seem to please them, and they finally realized that they admired the well-informed prince.

Such a ruler is really knowledgeable!No wonder the prince was able to guide Newton and put forward three laws.Newton was just a person who provided mathematical proofs, and the original conjecture came from the prince's keen foresight!

Perhaps the prince is not good at doing research in person, but his keen eyesight is really unparalleled in the world!The kind of sharp insight that sees through the essence of things and the root of contradictions at a glance is simply terrifying.

In the amazement of everyone, the steam engine finally started.And with the normal operation of the machine, Zhu Shuren finally calmed down, realizing that the progress of the thing in front of him was actually not that great.

He was a little taken aback by the history books at first, and when he heard the steam engine, he subconsciously thought it was Watt's steam engine.

But after calming down, he also remembered that Watt only improved the steam engine. To be precise, he made a "huge improvement".

Let’s not talk about the steam-spraying copper balls that opened the temple gates in ancient Egypt. Let’s just talk about the modern steam engine. In fact, in the original history, the British Newcomen invented the modern steam engine in 1705.By the time Watt's improvement was completely completed, it was already 1787, and a full 82 years had passed in the middle.

In fact, the life cycle of an industry is about 80 years.

For example, Watt improved the steam engine, which was completed in 1787.

Eighty-one years later, in 81, Faraday invented the generator, which opened the second industrial revolution.

In 78, 1946 years later, the University of Pennsylvania invented the first computer "Eniac", which opened the third industrial revolution.

After another 77 years, in 2023, Microsoft invented GPT. I don’t know if it is the start of the fourth industrial revolution.But even if it is not counted, give it three more years to add up to 80 years. By around 2026, artificial intelligence technology will most likely advance to an industrial-level qualitative change inflection point.

Which civilization can seize the turning point of the qualitative change in industrial life can determine which civilization will be the leader of the earth for the next 80 years of mankind.

So from this point of view, 82 years have passed since the invention of the Newcomen steam engine in history and the improvement of the steam engine by Watt. Newcomen's time can be regarded as "the zeroth industrial song".

At this moment, after careful observation, Zhu Shuren has also seen some tricks. He found that the thing that Robert Hooke built according to his request a few years ago, although it cannot be said to be a Newcomen steam engine, it also has Several very important commonalities.Anyway, it is definitely not a Watt steam engine.

In this way, the Newcomen steam engine in history was born in 1705, and the current Hooke steam engine was brought forward to 1677. In fact, it was only 28 years ahead of schedule, which is not much at all.

Considering that Daming's industrial foundation has made so much progress in materials science, and has done so much laying the foundation for design standardization, Hu Ke was also given sufficient resources to allow him to research and develop for four or five years with the nationwide system, ahead of schedule. The 28 years are very reasonable.

After all, Newcomen in parallel time and space does not have so many resources, and people spend their own money on research.Today's Hu Ke spends the money of the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the financial and material resources are not in the same order of magnitude at all, which can be said to be a world of difference.

The reason why Zhu Shuren judged that Hooke’s steam engine was closer to Newcomen than to Watt was because he discovered that Hooke’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 over previous steam engines, making Watt's steam engine at least three or four times more thermally efficient than Newcomen.

This thing is said in terms, laymen may not understand it, but to give a popular example, one sentence can understand it——

Newcomen and earlier steam power devices have a huge waste, that is, they all have to burn water from normal temperature to [-] degrees Celsius, then boil to form steam pressure, and then eject the steam pressure to do work.

After the steam has only done work once, once the air pressure drops and the power is lost, it is directly discharged into the external air.After the steam loses pressure, it condenses into water again. At this time, the water temperature is still about 80 to 90 degrees. Although it is not open, it is considered very hot water.

And the water is directly discharged into the air to be wasted, and the water is boiled again from the cold water at room temperature of more than 20 degrees, boiled again, worked again, and drained again...the waste of heat is huge.

因为这就相当于把水从20度烧到90度的这70度温差的热能，都被浪费掉了。最后做功的，只是90度到110度那一段温差的能量。

As for Watt's steam engine, an important idea is "to re-collect the condensed water that has been cooled slightly after doing work and lost power and re-liquefied through the condensing copper tube, and sent back to the boiler for re-burning and repeated boiling."

When the water was taken back, it was still at a high temperature of at least 80 degrees to 90 degrees. After all, it was water that had just changed from steam to liquid.And then return the water at 90 degrees to the furnace to boil and continue to do work, the efficiency is much higher than that of boiling water at 20 degrees.

Every time the Newcomen steam engine does work, it needs to burn cold water from 20 degrees to steam above 110 degrees, while the Watt steam engine only needs to start burning from the recovered hot water at 90 degrees.

All of a sudden, it saves the heat energy of burning an extra 70 degrees of temperature difference, so wouldn't the thermal efficiency of the fuel work suddenly increase by three to five times?

The former is "stir-fried pork" and the latter is "twice-cooked pork".

In fact, Zhu Shuren didn't know how to build a machine or how to achieve this goal.But he is familiar with history at least, and knows the logic of energy conservation and the direction of progress.

Therefore, he can play the character who only moves his mouth in a very simple way.

He observed repeatedly for a long time, pondered his words, and finally spoke to Hook and issued a new order:
"Your water, after being boiled, turns into steam and sprays into the cylinder, pushes the piston once to complete the work, and the energy drops, it cools down into water mist, and then sprays out directly from the exhaust port.

But even if these 'water mist' are lower than 100 degrees, there are still at least 80 degrees, right?It is much hotter than the 20-degree room temperature water to be boiled in your cold water boiler.

Can't you think of a way to set up a collection device at the exhaust outlet to collect the 'water mist' that is at least 80 degrees Celsius and pour it back into the boiler to continue burning?Wouldn't that save fuel than boiling cold water from scratch? "

Hu Ke was taken aback when he heard the words, and then there was an uproar in his heart.

What kind of insight is this His Royal Highness the Regent?I just taught him how to make a crank handle for cold start, which already made him feel like a stroke of genius.At this moment, I can still observe the exhaust gas emission of the boiler for a while, and realize that it is necessary to add a "water mist heat recovery device in the exhaust gas" to recirculate the hot water to boil?
After all, Hook has been studying this thing for several years, so he immediately grasped the essence of it.He realized that if this was accomplished, not only would the heat utilization rate of the fuel be increased several times, but the key point was that the water consumption of the steam engine would also be saved several times.

Because the water mist that cools down after work is collected back, the frequency of adding cold water to the boiler can also be reduced several times.This kind of change may not be much different in areas with abundant water resources on land, but if it is inconvenient to replenish fresh water, it will definitely be a qualitative change.

To give the simplest example, in the absence of a water mist recovery device after work, the steam engine can never be used as a driving force for seagoing ships.Because you can't let the boiler burn seawater, and there is no way to replenish freshwater resources at sea,
If the waste mist is discharged after one boil like this, even if the steam engine ship in the future uses all its capacity to transport water and coal, it may burn up the water and coal within a hundred miles.

Only a steam engine that circulates and boils water can be used to power sea ships.

"Oh my God, Your Highness, your insight is as perfect and sharp as a god, and you can find a technical defect of a qualitative change so quickly! My admiration for you is beyond words!
I will make arrangements for improvement!Do everything possible to collect the waste hot water mist that has been done!It may be troublesome though, and it will take at least a few years.I haven't thought of how to separate the air components in the exhaust gas from the water mist components, and recycle the water mist separately...

After all, water mist only accounts for a tiny fraction of the exhaust that ends up blown out.There must be a relatively safe way to separate water mist and other exhaust gas components, these have to be studied from the beginning, I have never imagined before..."

Zhu Shuren waved his hand: "Time is not a problem, just take your time. In fact, if you want to separate the water mist from other exhaust gases, you can consider cooling and condensing the water mist first to waste more heat.

What you have to do is to weigh the cost of the condensing device and the degree of heat waste to find the most economical and reliable balance point.I don't know the specifics, so I don't limit your thinking. "

Of course, Zhu Shuren has some clues in his heart. After all, no man in the future generations has ever washed the air conditioner or defrosted the refrigerator at home, so he has never eaten pork, but he has seen pigs run, and he has seen the compressor condensing copper pipe structure behind the air conditioner and refrigerator.

But Zhu Shuren doesn't know whether the condensate collection tube of this era can be the same as that of air conditioners and refrigerator compressors in later generations, so he can only describe the principles and not specifically limit the other party's pragmatic experiments.

Practice is the only criterion for testing and organizing, it's not like Daming can't afford these experiments.

Robert Hook kept in mind Zhu Shuren's principled idea of ​​building a high-rise building from a strategic position, and soon invested in a new research and development journey.

At the same time, Zhu Shuren also kept an eye out, saying that this one should not be wasted now.If you can't think of a large-scale improvement method in a short period of time, then you should first modify the small problems and adjust them a little bit, and build a few more ones for pumping water in Ma'anshan and Huzhou Changxing Coal Mine.

Only when the same product is put into practical engineering, can more problems be quickly discovered.Moreover, Zhu Shuren believes that there will be many such problems, and the ones he can point out and avoid are only big problems clearly recorded in the history books.As for the countless small problems that are not worthy of being written in the history books, only Hooker gradually discovered them 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 to let the cold water and waste mist mix to form warm water. Open a hot bath, and use high-temperature waste mist mixed with cold water to bathe the workers.

-

PS: In fact, the new book "Brother Zhuge Liang" has already been published, and Chapter 1 was uploaded just half an hour ago.There is only one update on the two days of the weekend, and the sign is signed on Monday.

Because the word count of the new book is still too small, only 3500 words, so I dare not publicize it in a humble way, so I will say it secretly here.

From now on, before 8 o'clock in the morning every day, make sure that at least one new book and old book are released. (If there are two update days, then the second update will be moved to the afternoon, and more hits and follow-up rates. Now new books are all based on follow-up rates. If there is no follow-up rate, there will be no recommendation, alas.

The new book doesn't dare to ask for anything else, just don't get fat, don't get fat, don't get fat.So I didn't dare to publicize it early, for fear that if I publicized it early, I would feel fattened by too few words.If you think it's too little, don't collect it first, just let me go as a fart.I will notify you again in a few days. )
(End of this chapter)