The steam locomotive in Middle-earth is not much different from the earth's version of the steam locomotive, his volume is still huge for human beings, unlike those giant beasts, this completely man-made product makes everyone present a little shocked, because in the introduction just now, the role of this steam locomotive makes everyone pay special attention to it, and the freight car cooperates with the efficiency of material transportation under the iron furnace, whether it is in the military field or economic construction, it has an eye-opening impact.

Although it has not been practiced yet, for the ministers, if this train is really as powerful as they say, then its value is unlimited, and the dispatch of the army in the past may take a week, but now it can be shortened to less than a day, this magnification gap is extremely amazing.

"Okay, don't just look at it, this steam train has trial rails, where is there a train that is already operating, let's just go and sit together. ”

As he spoke, Lelouch led the people towards a place outside the castle, where a five-kilometer-long standard track had been built, on which there was a steam locomotive, which only dragged three carriages, and under the pressure test, this steam locomotive could drive fifteen carriages to run 60 yards per hour (the current top of the earth is more than 90 cars and nearly 100 carriages run 80+). Fifteen knots is actually not less, his capacity may not even be garbage compared to the earth, but in this Middle-earth, his capacity is enough to be proud, even the mammoth may not be comparable to him, after all, the consumption of the mammoth is much more than that of the train, and the carrying efficiency is not high.

The group walked curiously to the train under the leadership of Lelouxiu, the back carriage of the train is not decorated, except for some fixed hard seats, it is empty, Lelouch does not care about these details, but the people in the church frowned slightly, but seeing that Lelouch did not say anything, they are not good to complain, they can only sit quietly.

The whole carriage was divided into three sections, and the ministers were in these three carriages sitting or standing to watch the scenery outside the car, because there was almost nothing to carry, the speed of the steam locomotive was very fast, but there were some slight bumps, Lelouch who was sitting by the window enjoyed this bump, this was the bump of industry, Lelouch closed his eyes, still by the wind outside the window blowing his face, he felt as if he had returned to the earth, was sitting in the car, walking on the way home.

Take a deep breath, this 'artificial wind' with the fresh air smell of the suburbs, people can't help but feel a little vibrating, the distance of five kilometers is not long, for the steam locomotive is only a few minutes, even if it deliberately drives a little slower, it does not exceed ten minutes, Lelouch is still a little reluctant to get off the car, and as for the ministers, they are completely convinced.

"This steam train is simply a sharp weapon, with this thing, we don't know how much faster we will be able to mobilize troops from the heaven-given land to the central province in the future!"

"Not only militarily, with this train, our future material transportation efficiency will be greatly enhanced, in the future, I am afraid it will be difficult to have a local famine, with this thing, the materials of the entire empire can be regarded as truly completed. ”

Libert and De Cress are the two most authoritative two in the military and internal affairs system, they expressed their opinions, in fact, they said very accurately, and said the core key points, military scheduling, internal material transportation, under the increase of these two things, the development of the empire will definitely go to a higher level, the simplest column, at least the scale of industrial areas and cities can be expanded again, because with the train, the empire can attack more blood and supplies for them, after all, a ton of raw materials per day, no matter how large the industrial area can only do a ton of things, but now it becomes a hundred tons a day is different。

The railway can be understood as the bloodline of this empire, and now that the blood supply of the bloodline has been greatly increased, the empire will naturally be able to have more power.

"The first railway from Baicheng to the capital city of the central province has been built in its entirety, and in order to carry out the experiment, the whole railway is built in sections, and we guarantee that we can have sufficient experience to prepare for each construction situation, and with this experience, we will provide a construction template for the next large-scale railway construction. ”

The person in charge enthusiastically introduced the next plan of the train locomotive, I have to say that the bureaucracy is much more efficient than other forces in Middle-earth, at least every step is carried out according to their own plans, plus the empire has just been established, the work attitude of the personnel is still very certain, at least there will be no laziness.

After looking at the steam locomotive, Lelouch finally began to look at the last finished steam engine, this thing can only be regarded as a small thing, Lelouch does not attach much importance to it, just to explore the expansion of the application of the steam engine, it can be understood that the empire for the future use of the steam engine, first casually engaged in a steam engine as the power of the machine to experiment, this thing is the steam water lifter.

In this regard, Middle-earth has always been with the earth, because on the earth, the first practical application after the invention of the steam engine is the steam water lifter, although the steam water lifter is the simplest, but its principle is the core principle of the entire steam industry:

The first steam-applied device on Earth, the steam water lifter, was developed by an Englishman named Savrey, who was granted a British patent in 1698 under the title "Friend of the Miners". He fills an egg container with steam, then closes the inlet valve and sprays cold water on the outside of the container to condense the steam inside the container to form a vacuum. Open the water inlet valve, the water at the bottom of the mine is sucked into the container through the inlet pipe by atmospheric pressure, close the water inlet valve, reopen the steam inlet valve, and press out the water in the container through the drain valve by steam pressure. When the water in the container is emptied and filled with steam, close the inlet and drain valves and re-spray the water to condense the steam. This repeated cycle, with two egg containers working alternately, can be continuously drained.

The Sufrey water lifter relies on the suction power of a vacuum to draw water to a depth of no more than six meters. In order to draw water from a mine at a depth of several tens of meters, a water lifter had to be installed in the depths of the mine and the water could be pressed to the surface with a high steam pressure, which was undoubtedly difficult and dangerous at the time.

In 1705, Newcomen and his assistant Cali invented the atmospheric steam engine to drive a separate water pump, known as the Newcommen atmospheric steam engine. The steam engine was rapidly popularized first in England and then on the European continent, and its modifications were still being manufactured until the early 19th century. The thermal efficiency of the Newcomen atmospheric steam engine is very low, mainly due to the loss of a large amount of heat due to the condensation of steam on the wall of the cylinder that has just been cooled by water when the steam enters the cylinder, and is only popularized in coal-producing areas where coal prices are low.

In 1764, James Watt, a British instrument repairer, noticed this shortcoming when he repaired a model of a Newcomen steam engine for the University of Glasgow, and in 1765 he invented a steam engine with a condenser separate from the cylinder wall, and obtained a British patent in 1769. In the early days, Watt still used a balance lever and tie rod mechanism to drive the water pump, and in order to remove the condensate and air from the condenser, Watt installed an air pump. He also added a sandwich to the outer wall of the cylinder, which heated the cylinder wall with steam to reduce condensation losses.

Watt's creative work led to the rapid development of the steam engine, which he made the machinery that could only lift water into a steam engine that could be used universally, and multiplied the thermal efficiency of the steam engine, and greatly reduced coal consumption. Watt was therefore the improver of the steam engine.

Since the late 18th century, the steam engine has been widely used not only in the mining industry, but also in smelting, textiles, machine building and other industries. It allowed British textile production to increase fivefold in more than 20 years (from 1766 to 1789), provided the market with a large number of consumer goods, accelerated the accumulation of capital, and placed urgent demands on the transport industry.

The experiment of using the steam engine as the propulsion power on ships began in 1776, and after continuous improvement, by 1807, Fulton of the United States made the first practical paddlewheel-propelled steam engine ship "Clermont". Since then, the steam engine has been used as a propulsion power on ships for more than 100 years.

In 1800, Trevisick of England designed a high-pressure steam engine that could be mounted on a larger car body. In 1803, he used it to propel a locomotive that ran on a circular track, and to get people who liked novelty to ride and charge them, which was the prototype of the locomotive. In 1829, Stephenson of England continued to improve locomotives, creating the "Rocket" steam locomotive, which towed a carriage carrying 30 passengers and reached a speed of 46 km/h, which attracted the attention of various countries and ushered in the era of railways.

At the end of the 19th century, with the rise of electric applications, the steam engine was once the main power machinery in power stations. In 1900, there was a steam engine power station with a single power of five megawatts in New York, USA.

The development of the steam engine reached its peak at the beginning of the 20th century. It has the advantages of constant torque, variable speed, reversibility, reliable operation, convenient manufacturing and maintenance, so it has been widely used in various fields such as power stations, factories, locomotives and ships, especially on warships, and has become the only prime mover at that time.

The history of the development of the steam engine is the best way for Lelouch to learn from the development, Lelouch has almost seen all kinds of steam things sprung up in the whole empire, a large number of steam factories on the land out of the water source, can be better arranged anywhere, industrial fireworks, unhindered spread to the entire continent.

Even the navy, which Lelouch has never had the opportunity to develop, will make cross-era progress with the help of the steam engine, directly crossing the Age of Discovery, from the Middle Ages to the Age of Steam.

"These things are so powerful, what the hell do they eat?"

Nevsky looked at these steam engines and asked with great curiosity, which caused Lelouch to laugh, but the person in charge did not dare to laugh, but said with a smiling face:

"Actually, their principle is very simple..."

The steam engine is mainly composed of cylinder, base, piston, crank connecting rod mechanism, slide valve distribution mechanism, speed regulating mechanism and flywheel. The cylinder and base are stationary parts.

In a steam boiler, water is boiled into steam through the combustion process. Through the pipes, the steam is sent to the cylinder. The valve controls the time when the steam arrives at the cylinder, enters the slide valve chamber through the main steam valve and the throttle valve, and is controlled by the slide valve to alternately enter the left or right side of the cylinder to push the piston to move. The steam pushes the piston inside the cylinder to do work, and the cooled steam is introduced into the condenser through the pipe to re-condense into water. This process is repeated constantly while the steam engine is in motion.

A general steam engine has three cylinders forming a group. The steam engine directly converts the up and down motion of the piston into the rotational motion of the ship's shaft. The new steam engine also contains a small turbine, and the steam coming out of the cylinder can also use its waste heat to propel the turbine to improve the efficiency of the entire drive. This turbine is also connected to the ship's propeller shaft.

That is to say, the steam that comes out of combustion squeezes the machine that can be rowed, and the machine moves under the impetus of the steam, which always provides a thrust, and then people find a way to accept this thrust in the outside world and use it, and then the whole process of the steam engine comes out.

Although Nevsky and the others heard this introduction, although they still did not understand it, it did not prevent many intelligent people from understanding that this thing was just something they had not thought of, at least they understood why these machines were called steam engines.

"So what is the horsepower of these steam engines?"

Lelouch asked suddenly, and the person in charge said quickly:

"Take the medium-sized steam engine as an example, at present, our steam engine can reach 75 revolutions per minute, and the power of a single engine is 20 horsepower!"

Although this data is not very high, but Lelouch did not force it, after all, these things cannot be ascended to the sky in one step, it needs to be taken slowly, just like in the case of the earth dedicated to industrial civilization, the earth's steam engine also has its own development, for example, even at the end of the 18th century, the watt steam engine only has 40~50 rpm, the speed of the early 20th century reached 100~300 rpm, and individual steam engines reached 2500 rpm. In terms of power, initially a single engine had only a few horsepower, and a marine steam engine at the beginning of the 20th century could reach 25,000 horsepower.

So Lelouch is not in a hurry, the starting point of the current steam engine is already a little higher than that of the earth, which is a good phenomenon.

After inspecting the steam factory, Lelouch and the others walked towards the White City, today's scene gave these ministers a great shock, whether it was internal affairs or military affairs, even Nevsky was a little thoughtful, after all, he understood the meaning of the thousand-ton press, he asked himself that even if he was himself, it was difficult to have such a strong force, but now, there is it here.

(End of chapter)