On the sixth day of September in the second year of Xingqian, the prototype of the steam engine was born in Qinghe Academy.

Three years later, the separating condenser was invented.

In four years, the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Nanjing Guozijian invented a crank gear transmission system called "Sun and Planet", and successfully applied for a patent in the name of Guozijian. In the same year, the technician invented the parallel four-link mechanism.

Five years later, the centrifugal governor was invented. The steam engine cylinder indicator was invented.

In the twelfth year of Xingqian, Qinghe Arsenal invented the high-pressure steam engine, although it was originally only 5 horsepower, its volume was only 1/25 of the traditional steam engine, which is unimaginable......

From the second year of Xingqian to the seventeenth year of Xingqian, in the fifteenth year, countless engineers, academies and factories improved the steam engine not only in the improvement of the structure and manufacturing process, but also completed the design of many steam engine control devices, so that the steam engine tended to work more stably. As a result, the textile industry, mining industry, metallurgical industry, paper industry and other industrial sectors have successively used steam engines as power.

Steam ships, steam locomotives, and finally this series of inventions, brought the Ming Dynasty to the steam age, and the pace of this era has not stopped, in the continuous improvement, the efficiency of the steam engine has been continuously improved, and its application range is becoming more and more extensive. It is precisely because of this that many people and enterprises invest a lot of energy and financial resources to improve the steam engine and improve its efficiency.

Xinneng steam engine factory located in Tianjin, is one of the dozens of steam engine manufacturing plants in Daming, Tianjin, is the earliest application of steam engine, from the initial bottom pressure steam engine, and then to the current higher efficiency of the high-pressure steam engine, because of the cold weather, in the north, the steam engine has been welcomed by enterprises, but in the initial use, because the steam engine sometimes fails, so it always needs to be repaired, large factories often have special engineers for their maintenance of steam engines, but small factories can only hire outsiders, In addition, some parts need to be manufactured in-house, from repair workshops to factories, and many small steam engine factories have developed in this way.

The Xinneng Steam Engine Factory is no exception, as the owner of the factory, Li Dongshan, although only graduated from middle school, but quickly mastered the maintenance of the steam engine, at the beginning only to help people overhaul the steam engine, from the preparation of parts, to the production of steam engines, four years ago, they imitated the small high-pressure steam engine of the General Machinery Factory. Although many special parts are handmade by Li Dongshan and two fitters in the factory. But this high-pressure steam engine still opened the market for the Xinneng steam engine factory and gained a foothold in the steam engine market.

Now the steam engine is a seller's market - as long as it can be produced, it can be sold, but even so, Li Dongshan is not satisfied with imitating the high-pressure steam engine, he also wants to design a better steam engine, unlike other factories, after Xinneng gained a foothold, he hired a number of engineers with high salaries to design a new type of steam engine for the factory.

From new boilers to new steam engines, in the past few years, although the scale of new energy has not expanded, only a few dozen steam engines and dozens of boilers are manufactured every year, but the performance of its steam engines and boilers has been continuously improved.

"In today's steam engines, high-temperature steam is injected into the cylinder while the piston is pushed upward; When the piston runs to the top of the cylinder, the piston moves up and down by steam, but the efficiency of the steam engine still does not go up. It's still too inefficient. I think the problem is the steam that goes into the condenser. ”

Zhou Hongda looked at Li Dongshan and continued.

"If we imagine that we remove the condenser of the steam engine and let the expanded steam go directly into the atmosphere, what kind of picture will we see?"

Actually, this picture is not difficult to imagine.

It can even be said that they have all witnessed it, because steam locomotives do not have condensers; The steam coming out of the cylinder is sprayed directly into the sides of the car. Therefore, everyone has seen a picture at the railway station or by the railway, a huge locomotive roaring in, rumbling across the tracks, while snorting steam, and dragging two white mist rushing out on both sides of the locomotive.

"A steam locomotive without a condenser will be discharged after the steam has worked, but apparently the energy of the steam has not been completely squeezed out after passing through a steam engine, and on the steam engine this energy flows into the condenser along with the steam that rushes out of the cylinder, that is, runs away; And this part of the energy that ran away could have continued to propel the engine......"

Li Dongshan was intrigued by Zhou Hongda's words, and after saying so much, he finally got to the point.

"And what do you think?"

"My idea was simple, just add one or two more cylinders."

"Add cylinders?"

Li Dongshan was stunned, in the past few years, he has always believed that increasing the pressure of the steam engine is the basis for increasing the power of the steam engine, and he never thought of adding more cylinders. But Zhou's suggestion still piqued his interest.

"That's right, since the steam discharged from the cylinder still contains energy, then we can naturally use this steam to continue to drive the engine, flowing through one cylinder, two cylinders, or even three cylinders, in short, to squeeze out all the power of the steam as much as possible, so that the power of the steam engine will naturally be increased to the limit."

Zhou Hongda, who graduated from Haihe Mechanical College, although he did not graduate from a famous school, has participated in the imitation and improvement of steam engines many times in the past few years. Its technical level has improved rapidly, and it has a lot of experience in the development of steam engines. It was because he understood the principle of the steam engine that he came up with this idea.

"Director, my idea is like this......"

Pointing to a simple sketch, Zhou Hongda explained.

"Unlike a normal steam engine, I call it a multi-steam engine, which means that the steam expands multiple times and consists of a number of single-acting cylinders of increasing diameter, let's say two or three cylinders. The high-pressure steam coming out of the boiler first pushes the first and smallest piston, and the steam first does the work in the high-pressure cylinder. When this piston begins to retract, a part of the expanded vapor is discharged through the pipe into the second cylinder to push its piston, and the steam discharged from the high-pressure cylinder may not be able to push the high-pressure cylinder, but it should be able to push the medium-pressure cylinder and let it continue to do work, so as to continue to use the steam that expanded in the first cylinder. The third cylinder uses the steam that expands in the second cylinder, and the steam discharged from the medium pressure cylinder can continue to work in the low pressure cylinder. These graded work methods can make more efficient use of the energy of steam......"

In Zhou Hongda's explanation, Li Dongshan's eyes were fixed on the simple drawing in front of him, imagining its working process in his mind, and soon, he pointed out the crux of the problem.

"There is no problem with discharging steam into the three cylinders of high pressure, medium pressure and low pressure in turn, but the question is how to transfer the force generated by the action of the piston to the propeller shaft in succession. Now it is a cylinder, of course, there is no problem, but add another one, high-pressure cylinder and, medium pressure cylinder plus low-pressure cylinder, the force generated by the three cylinders is also different, and there is a difference between the front and rear of steam transmission, how to concentrate the power generated by the three cylinders on a transmission shaft? ”

The factory director's inquiry made Zhou Hongda say with a smile.

"The problem is simple, improve the propeller shaft. I improve a straight shaft into a crankshaft! ”

A great invention is sometimes inspired by a flash of inspiration, just like the multi-expansion steam engine and crankshaft imagined by Zhou Hongda, even he himself did not think of what kind of changes his invention would bring. But one thing is for sure, the invention of the multi-expansion engine fundamentally changed the steam engine and promoted the development of the steam age.

A few months later, in the eighteenth year of Xingqian, when the first three-expansion steam engine manufactured by Xinneng reached an astonishing 500 horsepower in operation, it immediately caused a sensation in the steam engine industry, after all, before that, even the most efficient steam engine had a power of only 200 horsepower at most under the same size, and the coal consumption was much higher than that of this multi-expansion engine.

Almost at the same time that Xinneng received an order for more than a dozen units, a customer came to his factory, this customer was not very conspicuous, and it seemed that there was not much difference from ordinary customers, he was just there to ask about the technical problems related to the multi-expansion steam engine.

Soon, the visitor made his decision.

"Can you build a bigger triple expander?"

He then gave a specific size. Looking at the size given by the customer, Li Dongshan said with some doubts.

"On a ship?"

Only a steam engine on a ship would be so large, and the height was restricted.

"Yes."

Zhu Heyu did not hide his thoughts.

"I want to put it on the boat because it's so powerful, you know, the more power you have, the faster the boat will be! Moreover, there is room for further improvement in this steam engine, and if it is improved, it will definitely be more suitable for sea navigation! ”

Looking at Li Dongshan, Zhu Heyu pointed to the model and said.

"You see, the steam that is discharged from the low-pressure piston can be re-entered the boiler for heating after being continuously depressurized during the work process, which is very important especially for ships at sea. Ships at sea had to conserve water, as it could not replenish water for a long time, while steam engines on land could constantly refill water. So, I hope that you can improve it and think about bringing the exhaust steam back to the boiler, so that not only can you reduce the water consumption, but you can also reduce the coal consumption even further. ”

Although it was just a reminder, it made Li Dongshan's eyes light up, and even his breathing paused, not only because the customer's suggestion was a valuable suggestion, but more importantly, the customer's words made him realize that he could completely explore another market - marine steam engines!

There will be more and more steam ships, and if he enters the marine steam engine market now with the triple expansion steam engine, then he will have the opportunity to use this advanced steam engine to achieve the expansion of new energy plants.

"Childe, you should know that this suggestion of yours is a very valuable suggestion for Xinneng."

Li Dongshan looked at the young boy in front of him and said, looking at the other party carefully, only to find that he was surprisingly young, at most only sixteen or seventeen years old, if it weren't for the other party taking out the promissory note of the Royal Bank, he wouldn't even dare to talk about this business with this son.

"Well, so, I'd like to be able to work with you further."

"Further cooperation?"

Li Dongshan looked at this young man in surprise, not understanding his consciousness.

"Before coming to Tianjin, I have looked through the information of Xinneng, you have added a lot of equipment in the past two years, but the scale is still very limited, in the past, the annual production capacity was about 60 steam engines, some of which still need to be outsourced, and now the production of three expansion engines, because the structure is more complex, so it can only produce 40 units at most, but considering the increase in the power of the steam engine, the profit margin will increase more than twice, but even so......"

Looking at Li Dongshan, Zhu Heyu smiled.

"The banking community is willing to lend to you, but it doesn't exceed your capital, they prefer to make investments, but the terms are very harsh, am I right?"

For Zhu Heyu, who began to take advantage of the holidays at the age of 13 to watch the investment of managers in his own bank, he is well aware of the characteristics of bankers' investment - profits, and they will reduce the share capital of the enterprise as much as possible, so as to increase their own share capital. Even companies like Xinneng that have mastered new technologies are no exception.

"To tell you the truth, I don't plan to accept investment from the bank."

Li Dongshan's refusal made Zhu Heyu say with a smile.

"Because their opening conditions are not good, if I am not mistaken, their investment should be 500,000 yuan, but they require about 50% of the capital, well...... Maybe it's going to be 700,000 yuan, after all, your factory needs to be further expanded, so that your equity is only 40% at most, maybe a little less, and in the future, they will invest more, right? ”

"Childe is smart!"

Li Dongshan smiled bitterly. In the past, there are indeed many banks that are willing to invest in new energy, but the conditions are too harsh, even more demanding than what the son in front of him said.

"Gao Ming can't talk about it, it's just that I have been in the bank for a few months in the past, and the banker can't afford to ...... early."

With a smile on his face, Zhu Heyu looked at Li Dongshan and said.

"I can give you an investment of 700,000 yuan, only 49% of the shares, and will never interfere with the operation of Xinneng, but every year I will send a representative over to calculate the return due, in other words, everything in the factory is up to you, I just sit back and take the profit."

Widening his eyes in surprise, Li Dongshan didn't expect the other party to offer such generous conditions.

"Really, really?"

Facing Li Dongshan's surprise, Zhu Heyu just smiled.

"We can write it into the contract, but I have an additional request, that is, when the time comes, I need Xinneng to invest in the construction of a branch factory in the area I designate, and the funds needed to build the branch factory are completely provided by me, and Xinneng can provide the technology, how about it?"