Chapter 1049 The Prototype of Periscope
Using light to mark the direction is a technology that is indeed used in the construction industry and is widely used. In fact, the modern level is just such a thing, but it has become more advanced, electronic, and can also emit infrared rays to illuminate horizontal and vertical crosses to mark vertical and horizontal lines.
However, the carpenter obviously did not know that there was such a high-tech level. What he came up with was actually different from the level.
After drawing a sketch on paper, the guy explained to everyone.
"Look, we can use a bamboo tube with two ends connected, extending it from the top of the shaft. The upper end can be equipped with a calcium carbide lamp as a light source. The light can be shone down along the bamboo tube from above, and then a glass mirror can be installed diagonally under the bamboo tube to reflect the light from above to the front.
"It is best to make a turn at this place below, so that the light shining from above can be turned into a beam of light to shine forward. In this way, our workers in the well can use the light spot in front of the beam as the direction of advance and dig in the direction of the light. As long as the lamp does not move, the digging direction will definitely not deviate! "The man said with certainty.
Everyone looked at the sketch he drew, and immediately understood the principle. They couldn't help but marvel at it, thinking that this kid had a good brain and could come up with such an idea.
However, what none of them expected was that this thing was actually the prototype of a periscope. It reflects the light from above to the bottom through two coaxial lenses at a 45-degree angle. The periscopes used on early tanks and submarines were made using this principle.
"This thing is good, but I'm afraid it won't be cheap, right? And according to the construction method you mentioned, you have to use lights all the time during construction. In this way, one has to be placed at the position of each vertical shaft. How many are needed? And from what you said, there are calcium carbide lamps and glass mirrors. How much does it cost to make one of these things?" An older master next to him frowned and calculated.
"Ahem. "Just then, You Zhi coughed, attracted everyone's attention, and then made a decision.
"I just understood it. This thing is indeed useful. Since it is useful, we can just ask the leader for it. In addition, carbide lamps and other things are definitely indispensable. No matter how expensive they are, we must have equipment. Don't forget, that is underground excavation. Even if you don't use this thing to guide the way, you still have to use lights for illumination. How can you dig without lighting? In my opinion, each vertical shaft must have at least two lamps. If you dig at both ends at the same time, which direction must be illuminated by lights?"
Everyone nodded when they heard it. This was to the point. That was an underground operation, which required lighting. Without lights, what could you do?
Seeing that everyone agreed with him, You Zhi said again, "Since everyone agrees, I will report it to the leader. As for whether to make this kind of tool, how to make it, what materials to use, and how much it costs, these are not our considerations. Let the leader do it, and we just need to do our job well. "
Everyone heard this, this time there was no more doubt or objection, so You Zhi asked the young carpenter to carefully draw a schematic diagram, and explained it with text next to it. Then You Zhi wrote a letter, explaining the construction method they had discussed, and the number of various tools needed. It was Luo Chong's business whether to give them and how much to give. They only needed to report it to the leader.
Two days later, when Luo Chong received the letter, he couldn't help but marvel at it. It seems that this educated carpenter is different. Look, isn't this transferring the knowledge learned from the textbook to practical use?!
However, this pediatric technology of using mirrors to reflect the light path has long been played with by the Comprehensive Research Institute. They are here, especially Ao Fei, the leader of the optics group at the Comprehensive Research Institute.
He is the guy who proposed the pinhole imaging theory and invented the camera together with Qu Bing. Recently, I heard that he is researching some off-axis camera to facilitate quick framing and focusing. He also uses this method of installing reflectors to reflect the light from the two objective lenses to one position. The principles are almost the same.
After thinking about it and looking at the amount of materials they need, Luo Chong decided to directly reject this plan.
There are many ways to locate the position. The thing they want is good, but it is too troublesome to make, and the production cost is also very high. This thing has no other use except digging sewers. It is equivalent to spending a lot of money to build it. A bunch of disposable tools were given to them, which was such a waste.
In comparison, it would be fine to give them some more calcium carbide lamps. The lamps would not break down anyway and could be used at any time. It was not like they would be useless after digging the sewer
. However, after rejecting their plan, they had to be told about this solution, otherwise these guys would not know how to work.
Luo Chong improved their plan by replacing the bamboo tube with a wooden frame made of four wooden strips, and then adding a wooden frame to the mouth of the well, into which the wooden frame could be stuck.
When positioning is required, the direction can be found by aligning the pull wire on the surface with the wooden frame above, and then placing an electric lamp at the end of the wooden frame at the bottom of the well . The stone lamp has four light-shielding baffles on the four sides. When you need to point in a certain direction, just put a board with an opening there to let the light pass through and shine in the direction that needs to be excavated.
In this way, you only need some cheap wood. The lamp is meant to be used, so it is not a waste. It can be used to guide the direction and for lighting, killing two birds with one stone. The key is that it is cheap. Anyway
, it is disposable. It is useless to be particular about it. You might as well make do with it according to Luo Chong's method. The sewer thing is not much different. It is fine as long as water can flow.
So, when Luo Chong sent his opinions back to them and explained the reasons for the rejection, You Zhi and the craftsmen also reacted.
"Yes, the leader is still thinking far ahead. It's not that this thing can't be made, but it's too wasteful. This thing is disposable. After digging the sewer this time, it will not be used in the future. "
Yes, the method the leader mentioned of using wooden racks and wooden frames for positioning is also feasible. Although the carpentry is a little troublesome, it is not difficult to make. The key is that it is cheap. After using it, we can take out the lamp and chop up the remaining wooden frames and racks for firewood."
Everyone nodded in agreement. Then, they could start digging as soon as the calcium carbide lamps were in place.
But now that they had slaves, there would be no problem digging. At most, they would measure the streets and find the location of each vertical shaft. It would be the same to dig the vertical shaft first. So after everyone finished discussing, they quickly started to act.
It must be said that using slaves to dig sewers is a bit too fantastic. The language barrier makes communication a problem. Moreover, these are newly captured slaves who are unruly and disobedient. It is definitely not possible to ask them to dig sewers now.
However, there is a place that is very suitable for them, that is, various material storage points, such as kiln factories.
To build such a huge palace, it is definitely necessary to have a lot of bricks and stones. Apart from other things, the walls of the palace alone require a lot of bricks. These are made of soil dug out of the artificial lakes in the palace. The amount of soil excavated for the entire project is very large. Part of it is used to lay the foundation for the palace, and the other part is used to burn bricks.
A large number of slaves were sent to brick kilns and wood processing plants. To be honest, although a palace has not been built in more than a year, a lot of materials have been stored. As long as the manpower is gathered, they can start work immediately.
At the same time, more than 2,000 old slaves were sent to the construction site of the cross-sea bridge in the southwest of the capital. The officials in charge of escorting these slaves also conveyed Luo Chong's order that these old guys were not of much value, so they did not need to cherish them. Any hard and dangerous work could be handed over to these old slaves to do, and there was no need to regret if they died of exhaustion or explosion.
Zhu Ping, who was in charge of the bridge project, immediately understood what Luo Chong meant. This meant that he did not intend to let these old slaves leave the construction site alive. That would be easy to deal with.
They could just exploit them to death. So, after discussing with several people in the project command group, they immediately sent all these old guys to the mine to mine stones.
Since the entire bridge is a reinforced concrete structure, a large amount of crushed stone is needed as a mixing raw material. Based on the principle of taking materials nearby, their stones are all mined at the north end of the bridge, that is, the stone mountain on the coastal side of the mainland.
When mining stones at the beginning, people had to use hammers and steel chisels to dig holes. Now the engineering team has all replaced them with quick tools such as pneumatic hammers. Now with this group of old slaves, the way of working has changed immediately.
Before each quarrying, the Han tribe would first make holes for the blastholes and then load gunpowder, but the dangerous task of firing the blastholes was given to the old slaves. Even if a few people were killed on the spot, the Han tribe would not lose anything. After the stone mountain collapsed, the old guys would be asked to move it to the car and finally sent it to the gravel area to be broken into pieces.
The progress of the bridge project was undoubtedly much faster than that of the capital. After all, in order to provide various materials here, it can be said that more than 80% of the water transportation power of the Han tribe was invested.
The three materials of concrete, the gravel was taken nearby, the river sand was pumped up from the sandbar in the middle reaches of the Liuyang River, and the cement and steel bars were all shipped from Xingang County. There were always ships transporting materials on the Liuyang River every day, and there were more than 10,000 craftsmen here. If there was no immediate effect, it would be a waste of resources.
Fortunately, they did not disappoint Luo Chong's expectations. After investing a huge amount of resources and time, after more than two years of construction, the prototype of the entire bridge has been vaguely visible. At present, at least more than half of the entire cross-sea bridge project has been completed.
The total length is 23 kilometers, with more than 500 groups and more than 1,000 piers. Now more than 750 piers have been erected, and only the deep-water channel in the middle has not yet been built.
It's not because it's difficult to build piers, but because of time. When the bridge was designed, it was required that the piers in the middle of the bridge should be able to pass under the three-masted sailing ship. The mast of the three-masted sailing ship is tens of meters high. In order to let the ship pass, the only way is to blow up the reef at the channel location, which is the dark bridge that will appear on the sea surface at the beginning and end of each month.
Therefore, the construction team can only conserve their energy every month, stockpile a large amount of explosives and craftsmen, and wait for the two days at the beginning and end of each month when the tide of the strait recedes, and then rush to the middle to blow it up once. However, there is only such an opportunity in a month, so you can imagine how difficult this task is.
In fact, the key is the problem of technology. The Han tribe does not have suitable underwater explosives or usable diving equipment. Each time, they can only blow up once in shallow water or at low tide. If they had modern diving equipment and powerful underwater high explosives, they would have blown up this section of reefs long ago.
However, with the construction of the bridge, the bridge decks on both sides gradually extended to the middle, and it became easier for the construction team to supply materials and personnel.
Now the southern end of the bridge, that is, the side of Qiongzhou Island, has extended five kilometers from the shore to the sea, of which two kilometers are on the shore and three kilometers are in the sea.
The north end of the bridge, which is close to the mainland, has also extended 11 kilometers into the sea. The entire 23-kilometer cross-sea bridge has now completed 16 kilometers. If it weren't for the construction difficulty in the middle that seriously delayed the time, it is estimated that the bridge should be closed in another year.
But don't underestimate this 11 kilometers, it has saved a lot of trouble in material transportation. Before there was no bridge deck, if you wanted to pour cement, you had to transport it from a ship. The sea was rough and there were reefs below. If you were not careful, the ship would run aground on the reef or break the bottom of the ship and leak and sink. The risk factor was high, and the amount of transportation each time was not large enough.
But after the bridge deck was built, the construction team directly moved the concrete mixing area to the bridge. Cement, sand, and gravel can be transported to the front line of the construction site one by one, and it is much more convenient to pour. In the past, it was laborious to lift it from the ship to the mold, but now it can be poured from the bridge deck from a high position.
Moreover, as the workers gained more experience, the efficiency of the construction team in tying steel bars also caught up. Many craftsmen also spontaneously invented some small tools and gained a lot of experience in pouring concrete.
Now, with the increase of two thousand slave workers and the upcoming large-scale machinery and equipment, it can be expected that the progress of the project will inevitably speed up. Even if it cannot be completed in two years, it is estimated that the bridge deck will be able to be closed in three years.
However, this is a dual-use railway and highway bridge. The full closure is only the first phase of the project. It may take another ten or eight years for the railway to be open to traffic.
(End of this chapter)
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