Chapter 739 The Steam Engine That Never Stops
The researcher who asked the question was naturally overjoyed by Luo Chong's praise, and the others were even more impressed by Luo Chong's imagination and association when they heard that Luo Chong could draw inferences from the question and come up with several power sources.
No wonder the leader was so amazing, he could easily create such a practical thing, his imagination was simply invincible, they only knew to use acetylene for lighting and welding, but they didn't expect that this thing could actually be used as a power source, and it was used as fuel, which was what the leader told them.
Without further ado, the special lecture on the steam engine was the main topic.
"I have already said that why not choose other fuels as the power source, because our current processing level is not high enough. The simple structure of the steam engine has a high fault tolerance rate. Even if it is not very rigorous, we can try to make it, and its use cost is also the lowest.
Others, whether acetylene, tung oil, or alcohol and gunpowder, are not the most suitable things as fuel. Fuels that need to be refined are too expensive. On the contrary, coal mines have a large reserve and can be used as long as they can be dug out. It is enough to boil water."
The researchers below nodded and had an intuitive understanding of Luo Chong's ideas.
"It's not enough to talk without practice. I have asked the glass workshop to create such a set of transparent steam engine models so that everyone can understand the principles more intuitively. Now who wants to come forward to operate it and show it to everyone."
After Luo Chong finished speaking, all the hands were raised. It seemed that he had completely mobilized their interest. He himself was not afraid of anything, but he was afraid that these people under him would not be interested in steam engines.
But now the atmosphere in the class is very good. Luo Chong directly pointed to someone and asked him to come forward to operate.
The man bowed respectfully to Luo Chong, called him "chief", and then bowed slightly to the people under the podium, and then began to look at the things in front of him.
The steam engine model that Luo Chong asked people to make was not a whole, but only a delicate wooden frame with a flywheel installed on it. In front of it was a piston connecting rod and a cylinder blown out of transparent glass. In front of the cylinder, there was a small glass bottle filled with water, which was used to replace the boiler. The cylinder was connected to the cylinder with a gas-conducting translucent rubber tube.
The heating method was to use an alcohol lamp for external heating. This thing was a common tool for experiments. The Han tribe had no shortage of glass and alcohol, so they simply took this opportunity to make it.
The researcher who came up began to operate under Luo Chong's command. He added half of the water to the flask, then connected it to the cylinder, put the shelf in place, lit the alcohol lamp with an open flame, adjusted the flame height, and then moved it under the flask.
Who began to slowly heat up, and some hot air suddenly blurred the empty inner wall of the flask. The people below also lay on the table and stretched their necks to watch.
"Everyone can come to the front to watch. Be quiet and don't crowd too much."
Luo Chong smiled and looked at them. In order to let everyone see clearly, he specially asked them to come forward to watch.
Everyone was very excited when they heard this. They quickly stood up and gathered around the podium, surrounding the podium.
The flask was not big. The half bottle of water in it was quickly heated up and began to slowly emit many small bubbles, but it was still a little short of boiling.
Someone asked impatiently, "Chief, is the startup speed of this machine a bit slow? It feels slower than the windmill and waterwheel."
"Slow? It doesn't matter if it's slow. If it can be started in the time it takes to boil water and then run for a whole day, the startup time can basically be ignored. Moreover, its fuel consumption is not large, and it doesn't waste much energy." Luo Chong explained with a smile, and at this time the water in the flask began to boil.
In the small flask, hot water was bubbling and rolling, and a large amount of water vapor began to look for a breakthrough. However, the closed flask had no other channels for the steam to escape, and finally it could only flow into the transparent glass cylinder along the translucent yellow rubber tube.
This is a model of a reciprocating steam engine. The air inlet on it is connected to the piston connecting rod. There is a switch device to control the air inlet channel, and it is also connected to the waste discharge port.
However, as a large amount of water vapor poured in, the white hot steam did not push the piston, but went out directly from the exhaust port. The flywheel remained motionless, which was very embarrassing.
"Chief, this? What should we do next?" The researcher who came up to take charge of the operation looked at the scene in front of him and spoke to break the embarrassment.
Luo Chong thought about it. Does this thing also need to be cranked like a single-cylinder diesel tractor to provide some inertia for the flywheel? So he listened to him.
"Pinch the rubber tube at the air outlet to increase the pressure inside the cylinder, and then use your other hand to turn the flywheel to provide some initial inertia."
The researcher quickly performed the operation according to Luo Chong's requirements, pinching the outlet tube, and the steam pressure inside suddenly increased. The water vapor without an outlet gathered more and more, and finally had nowhere to escape, so it had to push towards the only movable piston.
"It works."
Everyone around was enlightened, and the operator did not dare to delay, and quickly turned the flywheel with his other hand. The next moment, under the action of steam and connecting rod, the flywheel began to rotate non-stop.
"Quickly loosen the air outlet pipe." Luo Chong reminded him quickly.
When the operator loosened the air outlet pipe, the flywheel began to accelerate under the back and forth push of the steam, and the small wheel on it also began to whirr.
"Wow, it really works, and it turns so fast."
"Look at this exhaust pipe, it's interesting too, it's still rumbling, exhausting air in puffs."
"The machine can be driven by boiling water and fuel. If that's the case, doesn't it mean that as long as we keep adding water and fuel, we can keep it working? That's really amazing."
"If this thing works, I'm afraid the price of firewood will go up."
"Pfft, your train of thought is really unique."
"No matter, no matter, we are studying machinery, and the price is not our business."
Everyone exclaimed in amazement when they saw the pocket-sized steam engine model in front of them that can be held up with two hands.
After the entire R&D team had visited the steam engine model, Luo Chong also began his formal lecture.
The first goal of the R&D team was to develop a small source-powered reciprocating single-cylinder steam engine, not to be installed on a locomotive, but to provide motive power for a lathe, to provide favorable conditions for the development of a better steam engine. After all, with a lathe, the processing of some precision parts can be guaranteed in quality.
The single-cylinder reciprocating steam engine, which is the legendary steam engine improved by Watt, changed the single-stroke motion of the earliest Newcomen steam engine to a double-stroke motion, which more than doubled the efficiency of the steam engine. As a result, the steam engine was promoted on a large scale.
Luo Chong's idea was also very simple. In the absence of precision processing machinery, the processing machinery should be developed first.
This steam engine mainly consists of a boiler, a high-pressure cylinder, a reciprocating piston and its connecting rod, and finally a flywheel that provides the main power.
The flywheel is then connected to the unpowered machinery with a belt or gear to give it artificial power.
The R&D team is already quite familiar with the use and understanding of this structure, and they understand it very quickly.
Everyone regards the famous saying of Luo Chong, the first scientist of the Han tribe, as the truth, which is the so-called: art is explosion, industry is boiling water, and equipment is spinning
. The project they are studying now is actually to use boiling water to make the machine spin.
Luo Chong is responsible for the design and overall thinking, and the researchers are mainly responsible for using the existing technology to manufacture what Luo Chong needs. Both parties use their talents and soon get the research work on the right track.
The manufacture of the boiler is completed by steel plate stamping, drilling, hot riveting, and welding. This is the link with the lowest technical difficulty. The main requirement is fine workmanship, which can be completed using existing technology.
The boiler is divided into two parts as a whole. Because it is a fixed vertical boiler, it looks cylindrical as a whole, like a huge capsule standing up, nearly the size of a person. The upper part is a water tank, and the lower part is a fire pit. Several metal pipes are connected to the outside to transport water vapor.
The most complex reciprocating cylinder is cast in wrought iron using the most sophisticated lost wax casting technology.
The cylinder does not need to withstand the same chamber pressure as the artillery, so there is no need to use cast steel materials. Cast iron is enough to withstand it, and wrought iron is softer,
which is convenient for grinding the inner bore of the cylinder. The structure of the cylinder is also a cylinder, which is designed based on the existing artillery boring machine technology of the Han tribe. The rectangular cylinder is not impossible, but it is not so tight at present. You must know that the degree of sealing is an important indicator of parts such as cylinders.
At the same time, Luo Chong also clearly taught the researchers about the relationship between mechanical energy and piston cylinders, allowing them to absorb it directly and apply it in their own practice in the future.
The volume and diameter of cylindrical piston cylinders are actually very particular. The larger the diameter of the cylinder, the greater the thrust of the steam on the surface of the piston, and the more powerful the machine is, which is the so-called large torque.
For cylinders with small diameters and long lengths, the power that the machine can provide will also decrease accordingly due to the reduction in the surface area of the piston. This is inevitable, but as the cylinder body is elongated, the stroke of the piston will also become longer accordingly.
When such a cylinder is made, the torque will be relatively small, but the horsepower is sufficient, that is, the pulling force is not large, but the legs are faster.
It doesn't matter which of the two cylinders is stronger or weaker. It's still Luo Chong's famous saying that there is no good or bad equipment, it only depends on where it is used.
If you plan to use it to pull stones in the mine, then the greater the pulling force, the better. At this time, the cylinder with a large diameter has an advantage. If you want to use a steam engine to make a table saw, then what you pursue is the speed of the saw blade, as long as it is fast enough. Anyway, you don't need much force. It's just sawing wood. Why do you need so much effort? At this time, a cylinder with a smaller diameter but a longer stroke will be better.
Because the steam engine developed this time is used on machine tools, the speed is pursued, so Luo Chong chose a single reciprocating cylinder with a long stroke and small diameter.
Lost wax casting, and then use a windmill vertical boring machine to grind the inner wall of the cylinder.
The matching cylinder piston is directly made of a set of thin copper-iron composite plates without any rubber, because the steam engine does not need rubber for sealing.
The sealing principle of this piston still uses the most basic thermal expansion and contraction phenomenon. The main piston components are composed of several round thin iron sheets assembled together. The diameter of the iron sheet is almost equal to the inner diameter of the cylinder body. As long as it can be put in, it doesn’t matter if there is a little gap. Of course, the tighter the better.
After such an iron sheet piston is put in, when the steam engine starts, the piston plate contacts the high-pressure and high-temperature water vapor. The tightly fitted iron sheet expands due to heat, and the diameter will be slightly larger than the cylinder body. At that time, the piston will firmly press against the cylinder wall to form a completely sealed environment.
As for the copper sheets added on both sides of the iron sheet piston, they are mainly used to help the iron sheet heat up quickly, because the thermal conductivity of copper is faster and better than that of iron. The reason why copper is not used directly, but the copper-iron composite method is used, is because the strength of copper is not enough, it is still too soft compared to iron, and the wear resistance is not very high.
In addition, the reciprocating switch steam pipe uses a copper column as a switch. This thing is relatively small and can be made solid. In this way, the heat conduction and lubrication of the copper column are obviously better than steel, and it is very suitable to be placed in this key position.
Other flywheels and connecting rods are directly forged with good steel to increase the service life. As for the power flywheel, it is directly cast with sand molds and wrought iron. Anyway, it is the least important thing. If it breaks, it can be replaced.
In terms of the transmission belt, it is actually not the responsibility of this team. Luo Chong has other arrangements. He directly handed it over to the rubber research and development team of Huxin Island, asking them to use sisal fiber as the core and mix it with rubber with high friction, strong toughness and low elasticity to make the transmission belt.
As long as the idea is correct and there are indicators proposed by Luo Chong, then the rest is to spend money and resources and use a lot of experiments to find the correct results.
So Luo Chong is not worried about this. There is no difficulty at all. It only takes time. It will be done sooner or later.
After the research project was on track, Luo Chong no longer needed to stay here, so he returned home and began to handle the daily affairs of the Han tribe.
The Han tribe did not have many affairs that needed Luo Chong to handle, because there were local officials in charge of each place, and he only needed to take charge of the overall situation and lead the direction. In his spare time, Luo Chong actually wrote books. He wanted to write down as much knowledge as possible from his previous life, so that he could leave some wealth for the Han tribe.
As I was writing, time slowly arrived at the end of June of the second year of the Han tribe's Jianyuan reign. A giant eagle flew from the Zhudao embassy and brought another letter to Luo Chong, saying that the embassy's currency promotion was going smoothly, but the amount of currency required was too large, and hoped that the tribe would continue to mobilize coins to supplement it. At the same time, the Xin tribe seemed to have saved enough money and hoped to immediately trade for the two sailboats promised by the Han tribe.
(End of this chapter)
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