Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1968 New Development and New Opportunities ([-])

"Another year is going to pass. When will our power station successfully obtain construction funds?" said Pan Yan, the director of the Electrical Engineering Institute of the Engineering Technology Research Institute, who was already graying.Beside him is Ma Xiaopeng, the general manager of Dong'an Electric Power Company. These two second-generation members are sitting in a yard beside the Huangyang River, drinking boredly.

Compared with Pan Yan, who has devoted half his life to electrical research, Ma Xiaopeng may be more relieved.Because he came to TEPCO, a state-owned enterprise that is stronger than a shell company, to take office. It was the arrangement of the elders and the arrangement of the family. He presided over the work in this boring but not low-level confidential enterprise.

The East Coast Power Company is now his one-acre three-point land, but the company, which has encircled many lands in Patagonia, currently has only a few hundred workers, divided into three workshops to produce some electrical equipment.One is the electrical instrument workshop, which specializes in the production of various electrical measuring instruments for use by research and teaching departments. The battery workshop specializes in the production and maintenance of lead-acid batteries, which are supplied to major domestic cable telegraph stations. This one is actually profitable, but not much, because the state mandates that TEPCO not sell lead-acid batteries at high prices, fearing damage to cable telegraphs career development.

The last workshop is the generator production workshop. It has many of the most advanced industrial machine tools in China with very high precision. It can be said that they can use whatever machine tools are used by industry leaders such as Erzhong, Railway Machinery, and Tieling Heavy Industry, and they may even use them. There is still more than that.The reason is mainly because the production and processing of electrical equipment is actually a job that requires relatively high precision, and high-precision machine tools must be used, unless you are willing to endure low-efficiency primitive manual production.

Of course, given the current operating conditions of TEPCO, they definitely cannot afford these sophisticated machines. The way they obtain them is mainly the "gift" from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Engineering Technology Research Institute. To put it bluntly, it is for them subsidy.So, don't look at Ma Xiaopeng's mouth all day long about how the country suppresses them and ignores them, in fact, it is all nonsense!If the country really ignores you, how about sending all the latest high-speed machine tools here?This shows that the country attaches great importance to TEPCO and has high expectations.

The generator production workshop has produced more than a dozen types of generators, including small hand-operated and pedal generators for teaching and scientific research, and equipment that can actually generate electricity. For example, the factory is in The self-exciting generator launched about seven or eight years ago, a power generation equipment that Pan Yan used to sell everywhere.

Today, after seven years of continuous improvement, TEPCO's technicians have corrected some of the fatal flaws, making it more realistic.For example, in view of the high heat generation of this type of generator, TEPCO organized personnel to conduct in-depth research, and has gradually improved this defect: they use a laminated iron core stator, and then use the latest rubber as the insulation of the coil These layers greatly reduce the eddy current and heat generation, making it possible to increase the size of this generator, although there are still many technical problems.

At present, East Coast Power Company has designed a new single-phase alternator.After repeated research and demonstrations, they are confident that this generator has great practical significance and can be used for commercial power generation. Therefore, in the middle of this year, Ma Xiaopeng reported to the Ministry of Science and Technology, requesting higher-level funding for the Patagonia built a power house to make their generator that still exists on the blueprint.

However, after the report was submitted, it fell into the sea like a mud cow, and there was no news from it again.As a last resort, Ma Xiaopeng took a boat to the capital himself, searched for someone in the Ministry of Science and Technology for a long time, and finally the Minister of Science and Technology Qiu Haiyang "bombed him away".Minister Qiu told him bluntly that the plan to build a power generation house in Patagonia will not be approved for the time being, unless TEPCO organizes elite troops to further improve this generator and try to use parts that can be machined, so that it can be The cost has been effectively reduced, but it is still too high at present.

Ma Xiaopeng felt a little depressed when he heard it.Qiu Haiyang asked him to reduce the cost of this single-phase alternator, which involved many design issues. The armature, winding, commutator, and even the high-speed steam engine used to drive the generator needed to be modified. It is not a small project, and some of them are busy.

But from another point of view, Qiu Haiyang's opinion is actually reasonable.In today's East Coast Republic, the application of steam engines can be said to be in full swing, and it has begun to penetrate into all aspects of society. There are countless companies, workers and designers involved, and new models of steam engines are launched almost every year. The application of the rising style has also begun to become widespread.In such a situation, how could the country give up the steam engine with huge investment and many interested groups for the sake of immature generator technology?You know, the profits here have not been completely squeezed out, and the Europeans have just embarked on the road of large-scale application of steam engines, and everything has not yet come.

In desperation, Ma Xiaopeng had no choice but to return to Patagonia unhappily, conveyed the opinions of his superiors, continued to improve the generator, and laid a solid foundation for the construction of a power generation room in the future.After all, the structure of their current generators is indeed a bit complicated and not very efficient, so that a considerable proportion of parts need to be hand-made, which is the main factor for its high cost.

In the next step, TEPCO's main task is to work hard in this area and really design a set of mature, stable, efficient and low-cost alternators.Before that, they probably can only continue to rely on selling lead-acid batteries and related after-sales services (charging the batteries with DC generators), selling electrical instruments, and selling small generators to scientific research institutions. Think about it It is also quite difficult.

"Mr. Ma, I advise you not to think about these things. I have already seen through the fuck. The grandsons of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Academy of Engineering discriminate against our electrical department. The people who make steam engines are all arrogant, Aren’t they just fitters, what’s there to be ashamed of?” Pan Yan took a sip of his wine and said disdainfully, “When my father was still there, I almost died of anger when I spent money with them every day. So many years have passed , I don’t think they have changed at all, they are still as fucked up, so let’s save some effort, don’t hold out too much hope, it’s a little bit to get back a little bit.”

"Yes, if you can ask for a little bit." Ma Xiaopeng said with a long breath.

In fact, it's not that he didn't get a penny when he went to the Ministry of Science and Technology this time, in fact he still got some.Minister of Science and Technology Qiu Haiyang was more interested in the arc lamp lighting system he brought over, and specially approved him 2 yuan in research funding, allowing him to go back and start research and development as soon as possible.Minister Qiu especially emphasized that the money must be earmarked for special use and cannot be transferred to other places. The arc lamp cannot be confined to the laboratory. You can use the form of government procurement to install it in some lighthouses and other places. Of course, this requires a matching generator, which is a later story.

Ma Xiaopeng couldn't understand Qiu Haiyang's brain circuit.The applications for the construction of power generation houses and power stations were not approved, and they were ordered to go back and redesign.Is the sequence reversed?He reckoned that Qiu Haiyang really couldn't save face (mainly because of Ma Wanpeng's face), and he couldn't reject a project, so he abandoned the hugely expensive power station project and let the arc lamp, which cost less, pass.

But Ma Xiaopeng is really not very optimistic about the prospect of arc lamps.There is no other reason. Now that gas lamps have been rolled out across the country, the government also invests a large amount of money every year in the laying of gas pipelines, the installation of lamps, and the manufacture of gas generators. The accumulated investment is already amazing.At this time, they cannot turn back—at least in the short term—it is impossible to abandon the gas lamp system that has been rolled out and choose to use their arc lamps, which is not in line with economic laws.Therefore, as Qiu Haiyang once said to him, the future of arc lamps is still in areas where gas lamps have not been developed, such as lighthouses along the coast and along rivers, and so on. Breaking through slowly bit by bit is the right way.

But that's all for the future.For now, in the foreseeable future, East Coast Electric Power Company will continue to be in a difficult state, with advanced electrification productivity being suppressed by backward steam engine productivity. Every time Ma Xiaopeng thinks about this, he feels a little depressed.

"Mr. Ma, TEPCO, I think it can only be maintained in the next few years. Anyway, it's just like that, step by step. It's nothing more than continuing to improve generators, reduce costs, and at the same time do a good job in after-sales service for other products, and cultivate more Talents. These actually don’t require us to worry too much, so as not to be boring, I think you should go to the business of electrolyzing salt water with me.” Pan Yan said.

Pan Yan's brother once set up a business of direct current electrolysis of saturated salt water to produce chlorine gas, and the business has been doing well for many years.This time they plan to expand the scale and set up a production line for preparing other products using chlorine gas, so as to enrich the product range and expand the market.It just so happened that Pan Yan and his Institute of Electrical Engineering have made some breakthroughs in theoretical research in the past seven or eight years, and the DC generators manufactured by Dongan Company have become more and more reliable, so they can effectively reduce the production cost of this enterprise.

Moreover, as the saying goes, if you are close to the water, you get the moon first. Controlled goods such as generators are not easy for others to buy or obtain permits. Isn’t it easy for them?The two of them had already talked about it before. Pan Yan's younger brother was in charge of building a new production line, and Ma Xiaopeng sent his son to help. Wouldn't it be great for everyone to make a fortune together?

Of course, as the foundation of everyone's life, the research on electricity cannot be left behind.The alternator must continue to be improved, and the research on the arc lamp must be paid close attention to, but the research on other transformers and transmission networks must also be continued, and none of them should be left behind.Electricity is not a fool. Even if there is no large-scale promotion for various reasons, it will definitely not run in the future. It is inevitable that electricity will replace steam engines!

(End of this chapter)