Li Chengqian's conjecture was not wrong at all, and the reason why the people of the research group invited Li Chengqian to be present was to ask him to send sergeants to block the Wei River waterway for a period of time.

Because, today's R & D team not only to do a working model machine pumping function display, but also to do a steamship application experiment, at present, the research and development of the steam engine, in Datang, belongs to the core secret level of technology, this kind of model machine that does not cover its working principle through the packaging, can not let any irrelevant people see, although not specifically engaged in this research people, may not be able to understand its principle, but also just in case.

According to the actual situation, Li Chengqian put the test site on the Jing River, where there were fewer boats upstream, and the people of the research group loaded all the things on the boat, walked for half a day, and after arriving at the designated position, they began to get busy.

On the big ship, Li Chengqian looked at the thigh-thick cast iron pipes on the deck and asked, "Marseille, how can this iron pipe be pumped in one tube?" ”

"These pipes are just pumping pipes that lead from the lower to the higher places, and we have to connect them with screws and rubber pads, and put a section of the screen below into the water," replied Marseille. ”

"Pumping water from the bottom up?"

"Exactly, the main application function of this pumping machine is to pump the water from the low river into the farmland, or, the water in some deep mines, to pump out, to facilitate the mining of workers, if it is not for the current rubber reserves are not much, the use of rubber pipes is actually more cost-effective.

According to our previous estimates, after it is in operation, it can pump water directly up to 30 meters below, and if the water pipe is placed at a low angle, it can be pumped even further. An iron pipe here is three meters, let's try ten first, the hillside on the shore is almost 45 degrees angle, the height is just over 30 meters, you can move to the slope with the queen to watch. ”

Marseille said that, he saw that the people of the research team were lifting the hollow iron pipes to the shore and connecting them with nuts and rubber pads to make them seal as a whole.

Li Chengqian and Empress Changsun moved to the hillside, here, there is a big guy with a volume of more than two cubic meters has been carried up by several people, the land has been bulldozed, piled on the solid ground and placed, and a long iron pipe that rushes forward has been connected to the front end of the screw pump, and after the water outlet is supported with soil, even if it is installed, its water outlet is naturally the other side of the small hillside.

The principle of the vacuum pumping machine is very simple, the steam engine drives the wheel blades to rotate, evacuates the air in the pipeline, and naturally, the water is sucked up from the following position, the current research group made this, than the earliest pumping machine made in Britain in the sixteenth century, the power is much larger, because, with Sun Xiangfu's theoretical knowledge as the foundation, their initial research direction is suitable for industrial model machines, and the model machines transformed by Watt in the seventeenth century are almost the same, and they are built large enough.

So, when all the iron pipes were connected and the steam engine was ignited and began to work, it was not long before the machine erupted into a roar.

Its operation test, in the laboratory, has been done, and its power has been cut down, made a hierarchical design, although it now looks, it still looks very rough, but the function it should have, it already has, after all, Sun Xiangfu's vague concepts, and some requirements for it, are the things that later generations have explored and applied, which can give it a good practical application and guide the direction.

Empress Changsun was startled by the roar of the steam engine, and was pulled away by Li Chengqian, this model machine burned not coal, but the fuel on the hot air balloon, the purity of gasoline was already very high, and soon, the conveyor belt made of sisal fiber turned the wheel quickly, that is, the impeller installed inside the water pump also began to rotate rapidly.

"Wow~"

Although the iron pipe at the outlet is only thigh-thick, the water that comes out of it feels so turbulent when it is sprinkled down, and as long as the water is lifted up at the beginning, the operation of the whole machine is relaxed.

"Out of the water, out of the water."

As the water in the iron pipe sprayed down the other side of the hill, the cheers suddenly resounded throughout the slope.

"This, this is simply amazing."

Different from Li Chengqian's surprise, Empress Eldest Sun was completely surprised, while Li Junxian, who had no scientific knowledge, was a little confused, why did this thing bang and there was water coming out of the iron pipe!

"Record data, 30 meters of pipeline, 45 degree angle, water status display, strong power, confirm the work application, practical effectiveness."

"In this case, the theory that we will form a group of three cylinders and convert the up and down motion of the piston into the rotational motion of the ship's shaft is also valid."

"Anyway, the quality of the boiler we make is very good, there is no need to worry about the explosion at all, untie the test boat dragged by the big ship, let's install the steam unit and prepare for the test."

Obviously, this kind of pumping machine test, which is extremely simple in working principle, is not the core of what they want to test today, since the working model of the steam engine is running normally in the laboratory, they know that there is basically no problem.

If the theory of axle propulsion proved to be effective, they would theoretically have the technology to build more powerful steam-powered hydroships.

However, it is necessary to make some design to adapt to the bumps on the ship, with the current rough working model machine, it is definitely not suitable for installation on the ship, running around all year round, Sun Xiangfu can't give them too much advice in this regard, they need to adjust a little bit by themselves, and overcome difficulties.

Of course, it is to manufacture this model machine, this more than 100 top talents from Jiuyuan County School and many manufacturing industries, it also took more than half a year, all kinds of racking their brains day and night, I don't know how many times they failed, before it finally took shape, and the time for meeting and discussing in the research room is several times more than the time they normally rest and sleep at home.

However, Li Chengqian, looking at the water flowing down the hillside, told the eldest grandson about the benefits of this pumping machine, "Queen Mother, you see, this is the power of science and technology, it can solve the irrigation problem in our fields, in the future, our losses caused by the threat of drought will be reduced a lot, and the work efficiency of the mining industry can be improved a lot." ”

Empress Eldest Sun nodded, "But if this thing is put into private applications, it can indeed benefit the people, but they don't seem to be keen on it, but is there anything else to experiment?" ”

Soon, they got the answer here in Song Xiaoyu, he was named by Sun Xiangfu to go to Lantian Vocational and Technical College to study, and now, he is already the top technician of the shipyard, after being accepted into the research group, he has imagined countless times that in the future, he can build a steam engine ship without livestock pulling gears, and today, it is finally possible to realize, and the boat used for testing is designed and built by him.

In the stern of the ship, a place much larger than the pumping steam engine had been set up, and the ship, though not large, had a very large movable rudder to make its steering very nimble, and he would be the pilot of the ship after the steam unit had been installed.

After a short time, the steam engine that was pumping water was stopped by everyone, and Li Chengqian and Empress Changsun also returned to the big ship and watched the assembly of the three-cylinder steam engine that they couldn't understand at all.

This thing has also been in the laboratory, theoretical verification, but really installed on the ship, connected to the ship, to drive the high-speed rotation of the propeller, its technical difficulty is much higher than that of the pump, in the power test and safety, but also need to be actually tested to know, as far as the current working model machine is concerned, its whole, are exposed, can not withstand too much bump or impact, of course, this is also to facilitate the research group of people to observe and adjust.

"Okay, except for the driver and the people from the power research team who stay on the ship, the rest of the people go on the big ship to observe."

After the assembly was completed, the leader of the research group, Marseille, gave an order, and the members of the research group got on the big boat one after another, and Li Chengqian was also very excited to stand in a row with them, looked at the small boat equipped with the engine, and asked, "If this experiment is successful, then, in the future, how many miles can our ship go in a day?" ”

Yu Jie of the production team replied, "It depends on how powerful the steam engine is, and how much weight the ship is, if you use this three-cylinder steam engine and this light wooden boat with a load of less than fifty stones, I am afraid that it will be very fast, theoretically, an hour, at least a hundred miles." ”

"A hundred miles in an hour?" Li Chengqian opened his mouth wide in surprise and said.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, Xu Shou, a famous shipbuilder in China, in the Anqing Manufacturing Bureau, built a steamship called 'Huanghu', which is 55 feet long, with a displacement of 25 tons, that is, 50,000 catties, about 400 stone load, and its speed in the Yangtze River is 25 miles per hour, an hour, that is, 50 miles.

The wooden ship used for the test, not to mention the weight of 400 stones, even if you add a few people on it, it is only about 1,000 catties, more than a dozen stones, and the three-cylinder steam engine it uses, although it is not very large, but the power should be no worse than the single-cylinder steam engine in the Qing Dynasty.

Sure enough, after the steam engine ignited and began to roar, the ship moved forward quickly, even if it sailed against the water, the speed was not inferior to that of a war horse, and in an hour, it could definitely drive a hundred miles.

"Quick, adjust the power, the power is too strong, the hull is unstable." Grabbing the rudder of the ship, feeling it like an airship, Song Xiaoyu, who was speeding on the water, shouted.

Soon, the small boat that had been thrown off the water wheel with a buffalo to pull the bearings for several miles adjusted to the lowest power, turned from the Jing River, and quickly drove back down the river. Then after a certain amount of adaptation, they were not so afraid that the boat would go too fast, and adjusted the power again, back and forth to test, the section of the river blocked by the forbidden army, exactly about twenty miles, they used two different power in an hour, along the water, against the water ran three times back and forth, as for the strongest power, they did not dare to use such a wooden boat to test, because it was too fast.

At this time, all the members of the research group on the ship let out a burst of crazy cheers, jumping around excitedly, not caring at all about Li Chengqian and Empress Changsun in front of each other.

"Is this considered a successful experiment? So how fast is it, exactly? Li Chengqian had never seen a boat that could run so fast on the surface of the water, and he was a little confused.

Yu Jie explained, "Looking at their test records, after conversion, you can roughly know. ”

After a while, on the small boat that was parked by the big ship, Marseille took the lead in taking some recorded data and walked on the big boat, and suddenly, several members of the research team who were responsible for the calculation quickly calculated the data.