Chapter 184 Triple Expansion Steam Engine (3rd update, please subscribe)
On the way to the slipway, workers were pushing flatbed carts on the narrow-gauge railway. The carts were filled with various shipbuilding materials such as wooden boards of various shapes, iron pieces and bolts. The sound of forging hammers coming from the steam hammer workshop in the distance made the shipyard seem noisy.
After actively making way for the workers, they walked for a while and arrived at the slipway, where workers were busy working under a wooden-hulled clipper boat.
After arriving at the slipway, Zhu Xianhai walked around to the stern. The planks on both sides of the stern had been removed, revealing the ribs. The ribs were made of wood and were very thick. Through the ribs, one could see that the workers were building a cabin in the cabin.
"That's the power compartment."
Philip Lawth came over from the other side of the boat and said.
"The original cabin affected the layout of the boiler, so the cabin needed to be redesigned, but some problems still occurred. The "diagonal" steam engine produced by the shipyard, although it could provide 600 horsepower, was too heavy and too large.
A bigger engine means added weight, more displacement and loss of speed. Add to that the added coal bunker and expect a 50% reduction in cargo capacity. Unless a better, faster and more compact steam engine is available, my suggestion is to go with a 300 hp or even a 150 hp engine…”
Philip Roth, a ship engineer, once again made his suggestion.
"Sir, although it is common to add steam engines to old ships now, they are all small steam engines, just to make up for the lack of sails, rather than using steam engines to replace sails as the main power. Moreover, it consumes a lot of coal! Even if it is loaded with 600 tons of coal, the coal-fired voyage will not exceed 2,000 nautical miles."
Philip Laws' suggestion made Zhu Xianhai frown. The reason for installing a steam engine on the clipper ship was to increase the speed of navigation and immigration. But at the moment, such a modification seemed to be a bit of a loss.
"So the main problem is still the steam engine?"
After thinking about it, Zhu Xianhai said.
"What if we switch to a new type of steam engine?"
"A modern steam engine? Although every new steamer that comes out has a better, faster, and more compact steam engine than before, I don't think there is any steam engine that can satisfy your needs at present."
"The diagonal steam engine is definitely gone, but ..."
Zhu Xianhai smiled.
"What about a triple expansion steam engine?"
"Triple expansion steam engine?"
Philip was puzzled.
"What kind of steam engine is this?"
Almost immediately after steam engines were used in trains and ships, as people delved deeper into the study of steam, they discovered that Watt's reciprocating piston steam engine had a great waste of thermal efficiency. After doing work once, the steam, which still contained huge energy, was discharged from the engine and wasted.
In the past few decades, people have been developing multi-cylinder steam engines that use steam to do work multiple times to drive steam engines. However, no one has yet come up with a clear multi-cylinder steam engine principle and concept. A triple expansion steam engine is a steam reciprocating engine that converts steam heat energy into mechanical work by expanding high-pressure steam from a boiler three times in high-pressure, medium-pressure, and low-pressure cylinders.
The invention of the triple expansion steam engine, which uses the principle of three expansions to do work, had to wait another ten years, and its application on warships was not until the 1880s. Although it was used late on warships, it was this triple expansion steam engine with high thermal efficiency and low fuel consumption that changed the human shipping industry - it was it that brought the shipping industry into the steam age, and with the advantage of low fuel consumption, it completely eliminated sails.
In the simulator, Nanhua's first ocean-going merchant ship used the newly invented triple-expansion steam engine, which was a domestic product manufactured through technology introduction. Zhu Xianhai boldly applied it to ships because he knew that it was the best marine engine before the invention of the steam turbine. Not to mention merchant ships, in the era of ironclad ships and pre-dreadnoughts, it has always been the standard equipment of those warships. Even the famous "Liberty Ship" during World War II still used the triple-expansion steam engine.
"A new type of steam engine,"
Zhu Xianhai smiled mysteriously and said to Liang Mingwei.
"I can provide the shipyard with a technical document for you to study."
Where does the technical information come from?
Once again, Zhu Xianhai opened the system mall. Although the user level of the mall had not been upgraded, there were many more products, including many from the 1870s and even 1880 - that was the time of the last long-term simulation. The mall's time and space restrictions were limited by the simulation time.
Thanks to the mall’s “product upgrade”, Zhu Xianhai has purchased a lot of supplies from here in the past few months. What is the most purchased item?
Of course it is books - there are many more books printed by many publishing houses in Nanhua in the system mall, from the most basic textbooks to natural science magazines, to technical books, all kinds of books are available.
Compared to other goods offered in the mall, one thing is certain: these books are the most valuable possessions.
Although it is not possible to "wholesale", once you have the master book, simple "pirated" printing is not difficult at all.
Because of this, the school textbook problem that had troubled Zhu Xianhai was easily solved. Not to mention primary school textbooks, even the textbooks for technical schools have been printed in hundreds of copies. Even reference books such as the "Chinese Dictionary" and the "Chinese-English Dictionary" that require time and effort to compile are directly reprinted.
Compared with copycat mechanical products, "pirated" books are simpler, but the wealth contained in these books is enormous. They are the hard work of a generation of South China people in the simulator, and even Zhu Xianhai's hope for revenge. For this reason, he is cautious about many leading technologies and technical information.
After all, Nanhua's productivity lags far behind that of Europe and the United States. Even if it can successfully turn advanced technology into products for export to other countries, it is unlikely to make huge profits. After all, it is impossible for European and American countries to sit and watch Nanhua make huge money using patents.
They will also copy and protect their own interests through patent lawsuits, just like the historical "aspirin" patent dispute, the US Patent Office and the court adopted delaying tactics, and by the time Germany's Bayer won the lawsuit, the 20-year patent protection had expired.
The so-called "patent protection" has always had its "floating" space. Who can care about face in the face of money?
Of course, Zhu Xianhai was more worried that advanced technology would become a weapon for the imperial powers to attack Nanhua. After all, with productivity lagging behind Europe and the United States, European and American countries could easily imitate Nanhua's products and give Nanhua a greater blow on the battlefield. After all, the mechanical technology of this era...even the Qing Dynasty could imitate it, not to mention the European and American powers. It would be easy for them to imitate it.
Even if we want to absorb those advanced technologies, we cannot do without foreign technicians!
Looking at some principle-based mechanical books in the mall, such as "Principles of Triple Expansion Reciprocating Steam Engine", Zhu Xianhai still felt a little helpless!
It seems that the triple expansion machine will be released ahead of schedule...
(End of this chapter)
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