When Napoleon heard this, he grabbed the handrail and went up the steps, and when he was halfway there, he looked down and saw that Joseph was still standing by, and said, "Joseph, come up and have a look." ”

Joseph instinctively wanted to excuse himself.

"Come on, don't worry, this is a steam locomotive, it won't overturn." Napoleon said again.

"It's strange to believe you!" Joseph thought in his heart, and at the same time thought that the car had not even been ignited, and it was impossible for it to start, let alone explode the cylinder, so he said to Watt: "Mr. Watt, I remember that the space above should still be relatively large, why don't we go up and have a look together." Well, this ladder is a bit steep, or you should go ahead. ”

"Haha, Dean Bonaparte, are you worried that I will fall and want to pick me up? I'm a little older, but it's okay to climb a ladder like this. Watt laughed.

So saying, Watt went up the ladder first, and Joseph followed him up the ladder, and several men climbed up and entered the cab.

The cab was really empty, about eight or nine square meters, and on the right side of the cab there was a console with a couple of handles and a rope hanging next to it.

"Is this a cable for an electric light?" Napoleon asked.

"No, it's the whistle cable." Watt said, "The cable of the electric light is over there, where we enter the door. ”

Napoleon nodded, then turned his head again to see a closed hatch a little to the left of the wheelhouse. There was also a small cart and a few shovels next to it.

"What is this?" Napoleon asked.

"This is the feed port of the boiler." Watt explains, "When the steam engine was running, workers were sending coal in from here to burn. This small cart is convenient for bringing coal from the coal water truck in the back, where ......"

Watt pointed to a nearby pipe and the valve on it, and said, "Your Excellency First Consul, this is a water pipe, which is used to fill the steam engine. Of course, water can only be added when the steam engine is shut down and there is no pressure in the cylinder......"

Napoleon nodded and thanked Watt again. Then they looked around the car again and left the locomotive.

Early the next morning, Napoleon had breakfast, and together with Joseph, he led his guards to the test site. By this time the locomotive had left the building and was out onto the rails, and the morning sun shone on the steel monster and the rails, and the glass and brass decorations on the rails and locomotive shone in the sun.

On a high ground about 200 meters or so about 300 meters away from the railway, a grandstand was erected. Joseph's explanation for why the stands were made so far is as follows:

"From this position, you can see the entire test section and you can see how the locomotive behaves on the entire section. If you look elsewhere, you can only see a little bit. As for the problem of not being able to see clearly at a distance, you can completely use a telescope to make up for it. ”

Everyone agreed that Joseph's opinion was quite reasonable, and only Napoleon expressed his doubts to his brother in private. And Joseph honestly admits that he doesn't want to see it up close, and there are indeed other reasons.

"I don't like the smell of soot." Joseph said.

"Hehe......" said Napoleon.

However, the brothers did not continue to discuss the issue in depth, because the "Progress 1" locomotive had already begun to smoke on the railroad over there.

Napoleon could not care less about being sarcastic about his eldest brother, although such things always brought him a lot of joy. He raised his binoculars and looked over there, and asked, "Joseph, Joseph, is this going to move?" ”

"The steam engine is just on fire, and the trailer is not hung up, what is the hurry?" Joseph looked at his brother with a hillbilly look and said, "Besides, if we don't give orders here, how can we move over there?" Well, by the way, Napoleon, isn't this order meant to be given by you? Didn't you look at the process you showed you last night? ”

"I looked, I remember, when they were ready, they hung a blue flag at us, and at the same time used the phone to inform us that they were ready to go, and then we used the phone and a red flag to give the command to leave. How come I don't remember? I just think it's fresh......"

As the minutes ticked by, there were still no phone calls or blue flags.

"It's slow......" said Napoleon.

"I've said a long time ago, they should be allowed to complete the fire pressurization first, you have to see the whole process yourself." Joseph said, "But it should be fast." ”

"In the end...... Ah, it's moving, it's moving, I'm still ......"

"That's to hang up the trailer." Joseph said.

The locomotive below moved slowly, but not forward, but slowly retreated a little further to the side of the trailers.

"Your Excellency the First Consul, the 'Progress No. 1' will tow nine trailers this time, each of which has more than 50 tons of coal on it, plus the weight of the trailer itself, the 'Progress No. 1' will tow more than 500 tons of weight." Watt explained on the side.

"Ah, it's already a big ship." Napoleon said, "Can you pull it?" ”

"There is no problem according to the calculations." Joseph said.

"Oh." Napoleon didn't ask anymore.

It took another time for the trailer to be marshalled, and by the time the sun had already risen, the blue flag had finally been raised, and the guards in charge of staring at the phone had also received a call from that side, which was ready.

"Okay, let's get started!" Napoleon shouted.

The signal was given, and soon a long whistle was heard from the other side. Even on the high ground a few hundred meters away, the voice could be heard clearly.

"Now you know how right our position is here, right? If we were down there, it would be ......," said Joseph, "and I tell you, Napoleon, that no one knows better than me how to choose a proper spot for the stands." ”

"Shut up, stop arguing," said Napoleon, holding up the binoculars, "the car moves!" ”

Indeed, after the whistle sounded, the train began to move slowly forward.

"Why is it so slow? Much slower than a horse-drawn carriage. Napoleon said, "But to be able to pull so much at one time is far more efficient than a carriage." ”

In the original history, those earliest steam locomotives, although there was already a practice of adding a circle to the inside of the wheels and getting stuck on the rails, but because they did not have decent suspension, (the point is that there were not enough spring steel, cheap enough) wheels and everything were rigidly connected directly to the body. As a result, the steam locomotives of that time were a little faster, and they would jolt very hard, and the wheels would even jump directly off the rails, causing the car to derail.

In addition, most of the rails used by those locomotives are so-called wrought rails, and they weigh less than 10 kilograms per meter. Compared to the steel rails used in today's Progress 1, they are light and soft, and the steam locomotive runs a little faster, and with a little more bumps, the impact of the wheels is enough to bend and deform the rails. So those locomotives at that time really couldn't run the carriages, not because the power was not enough, but because they didn't dare to run fast at all - if they ran fast, they really killed people!

But these problems, in the "Progress No. 1", are not present, whether it is the locomotive or the trailer behind, there is spring suspension, which not only increases the comfort of the vehicle, but more importantly, it allows the wheels to always be firmly attached to the rails. Avoided derailment caused by wheels jumping up and falling out of the tracks.

The track used in the "Progress 1" is also a heavy-duty track made of steel, and its bearing capacity is far from being comparable to those wrought iron tracks. Never like those bargains, running and running, and then there is the problem of cheating. So it would be a joke if Progress 1 couldn't outrun the carriage. The reason why Napoleon felt that he was not as fast as the horse-drawn carriage at this time was entirely because the "Progress 1", like all trains, had a poor ability to accelerate and decelerate. But as long as you run a little longer, the speed will gradually come up, and the speed of the "Progress No. 1" train will definitely exceed that of the horse-drawn carriage.

The train whistled again, and began to pick up speed surrounded by swirling steam. Napoleon looked at it and nodded: "Yes, yes, it runs quite fast, no less than a carriage!" Such a big thing, dragging so many goods, running so fast! That's great! Joseph, could it be a little faster? ”

By this time, however, the train had already begun to slow down. Because the six-kilometer experimental track is still a little shorter, it is not enough for this train to reach the highest speed. The maximum speed tested in this experiment was 30 kilometers per hour, which is not the highest speed, but in this day and age, it is already a very fast speed.

"This thing should be able to hold people, too." Napoleon said, "This thing is so useful, Joseph, when will you get that land battleship out for me?" ”

"The thing?" Joseph pouted, "Let's wait a minute, let's build a railway network that connects the whole country to important locations, and make money." Well, you see, the train is heading back, and when the train stops, you still have a speech. But when it comes to land battleships, well, there are railways that are also very strategically valuable, we can call them 'defense railways', and then ......"

"Then you build it from the War Department's account, and you use it, right?" Napoleon said, "Even if I have no problem here, are you sure that General Canot would agree to such a thing?" ”

"General Kano?" "Just tell him that this thing is very important for the military, and then tell him that in peacetime, by renting to private enterprises, you can recoup your investment, and even make a little money, I think he will agree." ”