Chapter 973 Food and Population

After listening to Luo Chong's plan, Lu Guangzhu quickly consulted with someone and then came up with a blueprint. They also dug a pit on the ground to do a simulation experiment. Finally, they finally determined the construction plan and immediately found a place to start construction.

As for the gate that Luo Chong mentioned, they planned to build one directly with wood. Luo Chong thought about it and thought it was no problem. If they made one with iron, not to mention how heavy it was, it would probably take a month or two to make this gate alone. On the contrary, there was plenty of wood here, and the weight of wood was slightly lighter, which was also easier to open.

Luo Chong thought about it and agreed to their plan. After watching the scene for two days, he went back directly.

It was really boring to watch a group of people digging a pit with shovels, and I didn't know when the Han tribe would be able to manufacture an excavator or loader.

This thing is actually very useful, especially in infrastructure. It is perfect for making various engineering machinery.

The only problem is that the Han tribe does not have an internal combustion engine. Of course, there is no problem in making a simple internal combustion engine now. The most important thing is that the Han tribe does not have liquid fuel like gasoline and diesel. This is the most critical

. Power is a big problem.

This does not mean that steam engines cannot be used to make cars, but steam engines are too large and the heat is unstable. Coal must be added all the time, and someone has to serve the furnace, while liquid fuel engines do not have to be so troublesome.

Moreover, Luo Chong vaguely remembered that the power of construction machinery uses a special liquid motor, not an internal combustion engine or a steam engine. Of course, the main power is still a high-power diesel engine, but the transmission mechanism and the direct action on the wheels and mechanical arms are liquid motors, or hydraulic pumps.

Thinking of this, Luo Chong suddenly had an idea. Can he use a steam engine to drive a hydraulic motor to make a similar device, such as an excavator, a loader, a road roller, or even a tractor.

Once this structure is successful, he can make large-scale construction machinery and agricultural machinery, which can not only speed up the construction of the Han tribe, but also develop large tracts of land in the south.

The current situation of the Han tribe is that from the southern Tuohai County to the middle of the capital, or from the Liuyang River to the grassland Honghu, this large area is a vast and fertile flood plain. In addition, the latitude is suitable, the climate is humid and warm, which is very suitable for the development of agricultural planting. No matter what you plant, you can get a good harvest, but the Han tribe does not have so many people to farm now.

In this case, if there are large agricultural machinery, the Han tribe can use one person as thousands of people. It is possible for one person to use agricultural machinery to plant tens of thousands of acres of land.

If it can really be realized, the Han tribe will no longer lack food, and it can even reduce the prices of many agricultural products. For example, if more sweet stalks of sorghum are planted, the Han tribe can produce a lot of white sugar and white wine. Once sugar and wine are more, they will inevitably fall in price, so the people of the Han tribe can naturally buy a lot, which is equivalent to improving the quality of life of the people.

If a large amount of rice is planted, there will be endless staple food. Planting corn and wheat, the Han tribe can not only store enough staple food, but also develop the non-staple food industry and vigorously promote the food industry.

For example, the leftover flour can be used to make noodles, biscuits, and other industrial side dishes. Corn can not only be used to make snacks such as popcorn, but also to extract starch, monosodium glutamate, and alcohol.

If there is too much alcohol to use up, it can even be used as fuel. In this way, Luo Chong can try to make an internal combustion engine fueled by alcohol.

It is said that before and after World War II, Germany's V2 missile used alcohol as fuel. The Dongfeng 1 and Dongfeng 2 rockets imitated by China also used alcohol as fuel.

Alcohol, if there is too much, is indeed a good thing.

Luo Chong does not expect to be able to build a rocket to the sky, as long as he can build a car with an internal combustion engine. If possible, it is not impossible to make a biplane propeller plane.

At that time, a mechanized farm will be built, with crawler tractors plowing, sowing, and harvesting, and airplanes spraying insect repellent pesticides. It is really not a problem for one person to plant tens of thousands of acres of land.

Just like the United States, the United States has a vast territory and a sparse population, but it has the most suitable land for farming. There is sufficient water near the Great Lakes, and it is all plains, which is very suitable for mechanized planting. Therefore, the United States has dense farms, and the various agricultural products produced are sold all over the world. Almost every country has to buy food from the United States.

But to be honest, they do grow a lot of food.

The Zhili area of ​​the Han tribe is very similar to the terrain near the Great Lakes. There is sufficient water and fertile plains, which are very suitable for agricultural development.

The most important thing is that as long as there is food to eat and clothes to wear, the population can expand without limit. In this way, it will not take more than a dozen generations for the Han tribe to develop to a scale of several hundred million people. With a population, it can continue to expand outward and even occupy the entire continent.

Thinking of this, Luo Chong immediately wanted to start research, but the existing work still had to be dealt with first.

He first arranged for the excavation of the dock in Weishan County, and then asked them to draw the blueprint, copy the blueprint three times, and send it to Dongxin County, Takumi County and Tang Tribe at the same time. This is because the train not only needs to be loaded onto the ship, but also needs the same equipment to unload the train from the ship, otherwise the train cannot be landed after being transported to the destination.

As for the carriage, it can be disassembled into parts and transported. Just install the wheel frame and the beam directly, and the remaining wooden carriage wall can be customized on-site at the local wood processing factory.

After handling these things, Luo Chong went straight back home and began to recall and design the hydraulic pump.

The hydraulic telescopic rod is no different from the cylinder and piston of the steam engine, or it is more similar to a needle tube, because it is not filled with gas, but liquid.

Pascal's law, which was learned in junior high school, is the law of fluid statics. It says that when pressure is applied to a certain part of the liquid, this part of the increased pressure will instantly spread to every part of the liquid. For example, when the liquid in one syringe is squeezed, the piston of the other syringe will be pushed out by the liquid.

This is the principle of the hydraulic telescopic rod, and what the hydraulic pump does is to pressurize the hydraulic oil in the hydraulic cylinder and squeeze it into the cylinder of the hydraulic rod.

If a cylinder with a smaller diameter is connected to a cylinder with a larger diameter, then according to Pascal's law, pressure P = pressure F/S force area, and finally it can be concluded that the pressure on the large cylinder and the pressure on the small cylinder are equal to the force area of ​​the large cylinder divided by the force area of ​​the small cylinder.

Knowing this principle and law, we can find a problem. Take a needle tube with a cross-sectional area of ​​1 square centimeter and connect it to a hydraulic rod with a cross-sectional area of ​​100 square centimeters. In this way, the force of one kilogram applied to the needle tube will be instantly amplified by a hundred times and become a thrust of one hundred kilograms when it is transmitted to the hydraulic drive arm by the liquid.

According to this theory, a child only needs to hold a syringe and press the piston to control the excavator to work? !

Of course, there is nothing wrong with this theory, and children can indeed push the hydraulic rod of the excavator, but how much is pushed out must be calculated according to the volume.

In other words, if you want to use a needle to push the hydraulic rod of the excavator out completely, the volume of the liquid in the needle must be equal to the volume in the hydraulic rod of the excavator. If you convert it, the needle may have to be thousands of meters long to achieve the requirement of equal replacement.

The hydraulic pump, or plunger pump, is used to solve this problem.

The plunger pump generally has more than four rotating cylinders, and a movable disc controls the depth of each cylindrical piston entering the cylinder. Then, by controlling the inclined disc, the plunger pump can pump oil from one end and output pressurized liquid oil from the other end when it rotates.

In simple terms, it connects countless needles to a hydraulic drive arm. The oil in a needle may not push out a long hydraulic rod, but I can keep injecting needles into it. If one tube of oil is not enough, I can inject thousands of tubes. As long as enough hydraulic oil is pushed in, the hydraulic rod of the excavator can be pushed out.

If you need to shrink, turn the hydraulic pump in the opposite direction, so that the oil inside can be sucked back into the cylinder.

In fact, the principle of the plunger pump is very similar to the existing air compressors in the Han tribe. One is to pressurize the air cylinder with an air pump, and the other is to pressurize the oil cylinder with a hydraulic pump. The only difference is that there are at least four pressure cylinders on the plunger pump, while there is only one cylinder on the air pump.

Except for the electric motor, the power machinery invented by humans is basically the same in essence. They are all derived from the piston principle, and the earliest piston principle may be the wooden bellows.

After drawing the principle and model size, Luo Chong began to find a carpenter to make a model of a hydraulic plunger pump with wood to demonstrate the principle of hydraulics to others. As for the actual size of the machine, Luo Chong cannot take it out now.

This specific standard must be calculated according to the size of the machine. For example, how big the bucket of the excavator is, how heavy it will be when it is filled with soil, and then calculate the thrust and pull required by the hydraulic rod based on the weight, and then calculate the diameter of the hydraulic rod, and finally get the amount of oil needed, and then reduce the size of the plunger pump according to the multiple, and finally get the actual size of the plunger pump.

In short, this thing has to be calculated in reverse.

After Luo Chong made the model of the plunger pump, he did not send it directly to the Power Research Institute. The work there is still very busy. The production of trains is basically on track. The locomotive factory has now produced four locomotives. The workers are basically familiar with the manufacturing process and do not need much guidance from researchers.

In addition, there is the Air Power Machinery Factory, which currently mainly produces various pneumatic tools and air compressors. In this regard, the Han tribe has already formed its own system. Except for some small pneumatic tools that are still in the research stage, other production work is done by workers, and not many researchers are needed.

Then there is an arsenal, which currently mainly manufactures three types of firearms for the Han tribe.

The steam engine factory is responsible for the manufacture of various types of steam engines, and the workers are all skilled workers.

The last general machinery factory currently mainly produces various customized large-scale equipment, including large stone crushers, sugar water presses, and grinding mills, which are used to grind ore and produce cement.

Generally speaking, the General Machinery Factory develops whatever the tribe needs. There is no fixed production project, and the products produced are also varied. Therefore, the General Machinery Factory needs the most researchers, and many researchers have their own projects.

If you want to develop new large-scale machinery, especially excavators, loaders, tractors and other things, it will definitely require a lot of manpower, so Luo Chong has to find a time when they are not too busy.

However, the excavator is a large-scale machinery of comprehensive nature. The whole project can be divided into many small projects. For example, the person responsible for the overall structure is responsible for the overall structure, the person responsible for the control system is responsible for the control, the person who works on the engine is responsible for the engine, and the hydraulic part can be assigned to a group.

In this way, the project can be launched immediately. First, let them design the overall structure, and then subcontract each sub-project, let each group put their research results on it, and finally complete the assembly of the whole machine.

Just like the development of modern aircraft and tanks, a chief engineer has an overall view, subcontracts each sub-project, and the chief engineer assembles them together.

There are many advantages to this design, that is, the parts of each part will be very suitable. If each part does its own thing and finally puts a bunch of unrelated parts together, the finished product will be very ugly.

So Luo Chong began to recall the appearance of these four machines while drawing drawings and asked the carpenter to help him make models.

They are "hydraulic drive" crawler excavator, "hydraulic drive" four-wheel loader (bulldozer), "hydraulic drive" vibrating double-roller roller, and "hydraulic drive" four-wheel large tractor.

These four machines are all powered by steam engines and driven by hydraulic piston pumps. The speed of a piston pump may not be very fast, but in terms of torque, it is basically unmatched. Just think about how strong the excavator's mechanical arm is, and you will know that this is all thanks to the piston pump.

Therefore, it is very appropriate to use a piston pump as a driving device. Anyway, these construction machines don't expect to run very fast, as long as they are strong, especially the ground they travel on is basically muddy or loess ground during construction, and the Han tribe has no paved roads for them to walk on.

Almost a month passed like this, until the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, when the people's third season of grain had been planted, Luo Chong finally made the wooden models of the four vehicles. However, at this time, Luo Chong had no time to do this, because the Shen Ce Guards would go out in the autumn. After a little preparation, they would go to the north. Luo Chong had to deal with the Shen Ce Guards' affairs before he could continue his research.

(End of this chapter)