Chapter 272

Academy.

When was the first Ming society born?

There is no exact statement, but it is certain that before Qinghe Academy, the Ming Dynasty only had schools, but not schools. After the revival, with the great prosperity of the Tianxia Academy, the number of students in the academy increased, and the students organized some groups outside and within the school. The earliest is the Qinghe Sports Association, which was established in Qinghe Academy in the first year of Xingqian. From the following year onwards, some students in academies in Beijing, Nanjing and other places organized associations according to their provincial nationality, such as the Huguang Association, the Shanxi Association, and the Zhejiang Association.

It is in this process that Nanjing Guozijian founded the Daming Science Society in the fourth year of Xingqian, which is the first non-governmental comprehensive scientific group in the Ming Dynasty, bringing together the elites of various disciplines, and it is also a society that is not based on regional compatriots. Soon, this kind of "society" replaced the old fellow associations, and by the eighth year of Xingqian, almost every academy had more than one society.

Nanjing Guozijian Mechanical Society is only one of the many societies in Guozijian, although it is only one of them, but because of the funding of external enterprises and graduated members, he also has a three-story hall belonging to the society in Guozijian.

Every weekend afternoon, in the hall of the Mechanical Society, there will be a seminar, and the topic of discussion is also machinery, is a variety of inventions, improvements, in the past ten years, the Ming industry has been developing rapidly, is also benefiting from this open discussion.

Unlike in another time and space, where Westerners tried every possible means to keep their inventions secret in order to avoid preemptively registering patents for their inventions, scholars of the Ming Dynasty were open to the public in this process, and they were willing to make their innovations public and actively solicit the opinions of others to improve their inventions. And this psychological openness is influenced by the thinking of traditional scholars, especially the importance of reputation, which makes them disdain to snatch the inventions of others and are willing to give guidance to others, which is precisely the traditional influence of teachers and friends in the exchange of scholars for thousands of years.

And this invisibly completely reversed the development steps of scientific innovation in the East, starting from the industrial revolution in Europe with the Jenny machine as the beginning, until Edison, European scientific innovation is often the result of individuals - inventors change history. However, the power of the individual is always limited, and the inventions of many scientists are often limited because of their limited energy, and they only stay in the energy stage.

Eventually, Edison changed everything, leading a team of researchers to conduct experiments rather than a one-man operation. In a sense, Edison invented the "invention" itself. After the establishment of General Electric, industrial laboratories were extended to every plant, and production and research were closely integrated. It is precisely because of this that there was a technological explosion in the late 19th century.

In the Ming Dynasty, in the seventeenth year of Xingqian, although the model of industrialized mass production was applied to the "invention" itself. In the industrial laboratory, "invention" is like an industrial product, which can be divided into various links, put on the "assembly line" and studied by experts in various fields, and finally assembled into a valid patent The system of combining "production and research" has not yet been established. But another "crowd intelligence" model has changed the inventor himself's solo efforts.

Similar to the way in the old days when scholars took out their own articles and poems to ask for comments and guidance, they were applied to invention and creation, and in the society, everyone could come up with his ideas and discuss them with others, and often he could always get some gains.

Standing in the halls of the Mechanical Society, Zhu and Yu watched as the speakers showed off their inventions, some of which occasionally caught his eye. Even at a young age, he could realize that some inventions were indeed "promising".

"This cotton blender is well conceived, blending all kinds of raw cotton with different compositions evenly, and then reducing the cost of cotton......"

Zhu Heyu nodded, while wondering if it was possible to consider investing in this invention, when that person explained his invention, there were people to provide advice on the side, almost everyone who gave advice was from a certain aspect that he was good at, and in the process, that person seemed to have gained a lot.

"Next, Li Yi, who is in the sixteenth grade of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is invited to the stage."

"It's your turn."

Zhu Heyu turned his head and said to his friend.

"Come on!"

Just like his father's encouragement, Zhu Heyu made a gesture of encouragement to his friend with a fist in his right hand, although Li Yi didn't know what this gesture meant, he still felt the encouragement of his friend, took a deep breath, and walked to the stage with a model of a steamer.

"I've seen all of you."

After saluting, Li Yi took a deep breath, looked at everyone and said.

"As we all know, since the steam engine was improved in the sixth year of Xingqian, the steam engine has been used on a large scale. From weaving cloth to trains, the following year came from land to water, and so the steamship was invented. ”

Pointing to the model of the ship on the table, Li Yi continued to introduce the ship.

“…… The "paddle wheel" of the ship is similar to a waterwheel, and most of the "paddle wheel" is exposed to the water, and the paddle wheel is driven by a machine and the webbed board is paddled in the water. The front creates high pressure, the back creates a vortex to create low pressure, and the pressure difference between the front and back creates thrust and pushes the ship away...... However, the structure of the paddle wheel is complex, and it is greatly affected by the wind and waves, if the boat encounters the wind and waves, it will swing left and right, and the density of air and water is 800 times different, and the huge paddle wheel goes in and out of it, and it is easy to be damaged. ”

In Li Yi's explanation, Zhu Heyu, like everyone else, listened very carefully. The steamship has its conveniences, but it does have its drawbacks.

"This is also the reason why the use of ships has been restricted, especially in sea voyages, although there are now sea vessels, but because of the strong wind and waves at sea, the application of sea vessels at sea is limited to a certain extent, and at present, only offshore routes will use paddle wheels......

That's because of the efficiency of the steam engine, well!

Listening to Li Li on the stage attributing the limitation of the application of ships to the paddle wheel, Zhu Heyu muttered to himself in his heart. As the prince, he is very clear that the navy has been experimenting with steam ships, and the coal consumption of steam engines is the fundamental reason why the application of steam ships is limited, and the navy is currently exploring ways to reduce the coal consumption of steam engines, at least until this problem is solved, it is impossible to be applied on a large scale in the ocean before the cost of ship transportation does not form an advantage over the cost of sailing ships. The reason why the coastal route and inland river route use steam engines is because they need to enter and exit the port frequently, which can easily replenish coal, and the inland river is limited by wind and countercurrent, etc., the steamship naturally has its advantages.

By no means the reason for the paddle wheel.

However, the people naturally have no way of knowing this conclusion, although they are also doing everything possible to reduce the coal consumption of steam engines.

"So, I wondered if I could replace the paddlewheel with another machine to drive the ship."

Obviously, Li Yi's idea attracted everyone's attention, no one interrupted him, and in the eyes of everyone, Li Yi came up with another model.

“…… Archimedes, an ancient Greek mathematician and physicist, invented a cylindrical spiral water lifter in order to solve the problem of water irrigation on the Nile. A plurality of blades are installed on the axis of rotation, each blade has a certain angle of attack to generate lift, and as soon as the shaft rotates, the water is sent out. This kind of spiral water lifter can be used to transport water, according to the reaction force principle proposed by Dr. Newton, things that can carry water can also push the boat away, this kind of spiral water lifter is small in size, and it can be continuously propelled underwater, and it does not need to go in and out of the water like a paddle wheel, and its efficiency will naturally be much improved......"

As soon as Li Yi's words fell, someone over there said.

"Yuntai, your idea is very good, but this kind of device needs to be installed underwater, which may also require holes in the hull, and the sea water is pervasive, I don't think any captain will approve of opening holes in the hull."

"You can consider installing it on both sides of the ship, just like a small paddle wheel, but it's ...... under the waterline."

"On both sides, it is still necessary to drill holes under the waterline, after all, the transmission shaft still has to cross the hull, on one side is the impact of the water flow, on the other hand is its own vibration, that is, no matter how tightly sealed, in the end the transmission hole will definitely be deformed, and there will be water seepage......

While everyone was expressing their opinions, Li Yi removed the paddle wheel from the model of the steamer, and then installed a screw lift to the stern.

"It's ......"

Li Yi's movements made everyone stunned, and Zhu Heyu looked at the model, and his eyes suddenly lit up, and he even took the initiative to step forward, staring at the model without a bright wheel.

"The side is on the side of the ship, so it naturally has to withstand the impact of the current, and it will be more difficult to seal the hull, but what if it is put in the stern? Like this......"

Pointing to the extra two pitches of the propeller at the stern, it looked similar to the Archimedes screw pump, but only two pitches. Li Yi explained with a smile.

"At least, there will be no frontal water impact, and the difficulty of sealing the propeller shaft will be doubled, and with proper design, I believe that the sealing of the propeller shaft can be completely realized to meet the needs of navigation."

"According to the principle of the Archimedes screw pump, the more pitches the higher the efficiency, but when applied on ships, there are too many pitches, and the difficulty of manufacturing will increase exponentially, so my current concept is to use a two-pitch spiral, of course, if necessary, the number of spirals can be further increased in the future."

Of course, the people in the society did not let him go because of Li Yi's explanation, but according to their respective expertise, they put forward the possible problems faced by the propeller used as ship propulsion, such as the vibration problem when the steam engine is used on the ship, the wear of the propeller shaft bearing under the waterline, the propeller shaft seal, the thrust bearing, etc., and so on.

In the discussion of everyone, Zhu Heyu's eyes were staring at the steamer without the paddle wheel, he once attended a naval meeting with his father, and the navy in the naval meeting had a report pointing out that the technical limitations of the steamship applied to the navy, the exposed paddle wheel is the best target for the enemy to attack, if the paddle wheel warship is used, then the enemy can focus on attacking the paddle wheel of these paddle wheel warships, once the paddle wheel is destroyed, its losses must be extremely heavy. In contrast, the biggest disadvantage of the paddle wheel - low efficiency, on the contrary, is secondary.

The first thing naval warships need to consider is protection. However, even so, the Navy still developed paddle steamers, after all, ships have advantages that sailing ships cannot match, especially in offshore waters, but the Navy's paddle wheels are protected by steel plates when exposed to water, and their structures are stronger.

"Actually, you can use a propeller!"

Although his father's words were very small at that time, Zhu Heyu still remembered that there was "propeller" in his father's words.

What is a "propeller"?

Zhu Heyu didn't know, he had also asked curiously, but his father just smiled.

"Someone will invent it in the future."

Although it was just a conversation between father and son, and even in his memory, it had long faded away, but now Li Yi's invention reminded Zhu Heyu of his father's words at that time.

Could it be that this is the "propeller" that my father mentioned?

Perhaps, I can build two "propeller battleships"!

Thinking that the Jin Navy still did not have its own warship, Zhu Heyu almost instinctively chose steam power, after all, he had heard his father mention that warships using steam engines would eventually eliminate sailing ships, and even iron-hulled ships would also eliminate wooden-hulled ships.

Although there are no iron-hulled ships yet, but because of the supply of wood, the navy has tried to use steel to make ship ribs to replace the old wooden ribs, and the most difficult thing to obtain for warships built with wood is the wood needed for key parts such as ribs. This kind of wood is not only expensive, but also small in quantity, and even often has a price without wood, which directly affects the shipbuilding of the navy. Compared to these woods, steel is much cheaper, and steel is malleable and can be forged at will. So the Navy has tried to use iron ribs as early as a few years ago, and the tests have been very successful, and in the past few years, newly built warships have often used iron ribs.

Maybe consider the iron shell! Using steel as armor strengthens the ship's defenses.

Iron ribs, iron hulls, if you add steam engines and propellers, what kind of warships can be built?

For Zhu Heyu, who took the 5 million taels of silver given by his father and didn't know what the bad money was, when Li Yi came down with the model, he said to him with a smile.

"Yuntai, are you interested in building a propeller-propelled ship to test it?"

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