The winter of Chongzhen's 11th year was earlier than in previous years, so the snow in December was already about an inch thick, and if it was deep in the mountains and old forests, the snow could be several feet thick. Shijingshan is a great attraction in the west of Beijing, the northwest mountainous area is the remaining vein of Taihang Mountain, and the southeast is the endless North China Plain, in the past, this place was mostly the place where the powerful people of the capital played, so there are many places of interest and historic sites on the mountain, and the vegetation of the mountain forest is also quite well protected.

However, as the main road for traffic between Mentougou, Fengtai and Beijing, this place is naturally favored by the Wensi Academy and the Ordnance Supervisor. With the support of the emperor, the Shijingshan Scenic Area, which used to be quiet and lovely, has become an increasingly prosperous industrial base under the mountain.

Shijingshan cannon foundry is located in the southwest of the mountainous area, located in the vicinity of the Jingxi Railway and Yongding River, here is the earliest cannon foundry established by the Ordnance Supervisor, when Sun Yuanhua brought people to enclose the land, he circled out more than 30 acres of land, trying to do a big job here. However, what is embarrassing is that due to the seasonality of the Yongding River's water volume, the hydraulic machinery for processing cannons cannot operate for more than half of the year, and the Ordnance Supervision can only relocate in Tianjin, where the water is relatively abundant, and the Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau is established.

Only a portion of the personnel and machinery of the Shijingshan Cannon Foundry remained, and nearly two-thirds of the land was vacant within a long brick wall. However, today, the processing workshop of the cannon foundry is full of roaring machines and human voices, which overwhelm the silent mountains and forests outside the workshop for a while, and also drive away the bitter cold of winter.

Sun Yuanhua, Bo Jue, Bi Maokang, Jiao Miao, and other officials and experts of the Ordnance Supervisor, as well as physics teachers and students of Yenching University, such as Ye Xiaoluan and Maria Celeste, were all carefully observing the working conditions of the hydraulic press driven by a steam engine. However, the former is more concerned about the stability of the output power of the steam engine, while the latter is more concerned about the operation of the newly built 36-ton hydraulic press.

Galileo designed and built the hydraulic press for the mint, and its power was still animal and water power. However, it was obviously too troublesome to continue to use animal power and water power for the 30-ton hydraulic press required by the Ordnance Superintendent, and when the steam engine was initially finalized, the officials of the Ordnance Superintendent chose the steam engine as the power source of the new hydraulic press.

Scaling up a small 1,200 kg hydraulic press to a 30-ton hydraulic press is also a groundbreaking task, which is not something that can be done by simply enlarging in parts, and of course it is much better than making something from scratch. With the full cooperation of the Institute of Machinery of Wensi Institute and the Ordnance Superintendent, as well as the continuous calculation and design adjustment of teachers and students of Yenching University such as Ye Xiaoluan and Maria Celeste, this large hydraulic press was finally successfully made, and the actual power was larger than the original plan, reaching a pressure of 36 tons.

On the other hand, since the successful trial production of the first condensing pressure steam engine 9 months ago, Bo Jue and other military weapons supervisors and machine experts from the Wensi Institute have absorbed the defects and suggestions fed back from the workshops that use the first type of steam engine in various places, and transformed the second type of steam engine.

The output power of the second-type steam engine is more stable, and the probability of failure is less, while testing, several craftsmen are also nervously measuring the data of the operation of the steam engine, and report to Sun Yuanhua and others: "... The speed of the flywheel is roughly between 43 and 50 revolutions per minute, which is nearly 50% faster than the first type of machine...

According to the above values, the output power of the Type 2 machine is about 9-10 horsepower, which is nearly 2 horsepower higher than that of the Type 1 machine..."

Ye Xiaoluan, who was standing on the side, listened to the data reported by these craftsmen, and quickly calculated in his heart that the coal consumption of the second-type steam engine was reduced by nearly 5 percent, so that the operating cost of the second-type steam engine was reduced.

On the other side, Sun Yuanhua said to Bo Jue beside him: "It seems that adding a sandwich to the cylinder really reduces a lot of heat loss, and judging from the current operation situation, the owners of those cotton textile factories should not have to complain anymore, and the second-type steam engine should be able to be used as a power source for the spinning machine." ”

Bo Jue was not as optimistic as Sun Yuanhua, his eyes stared at the breastplate that was constantly being molded under the hydraulic press and said: "It seems too early to talk about this, unless our output power per minute is stable below 01 horsepower, don't think about any stable output."

Speaking of which, I would like to know even more, when will I be able to allocate funds to build a hammer machine powered by a steam engine when I ask the Ordnance Superintendent for the construction of a hammer machine. ”

Sun Yuanhua responded with some embarrassment: "It's the end of the year now, this year's budget has been used up, and next year's budget hasn't been reported yet, and the Ordnance Supervisor doesn't seem to be able to allocate funds to you for the time being." But I've already spoken to the Academy, and they'll fund you to complete this hammer machine. But are you busy now? In fact, we think that you should focus on improving the performance of the steam engine, maybe it is more suitable. ”

Bo Jue said disapprovingly: "The purpose of developing the steam engine is to solve the power problem. But to develop a better steam engine, we need better processing machines. Now is the era of machines making machines, how many good steam engines can be made by human hands?

In addition, only the large forging hammer driven by the machine can we efficiently and stably process wrought iron parts, reduce the cost of the machine, and make the machine affordable for more factories. And the more machines there are, the wider the range of use, the more we can know what is wrong with these machines, so as to make better machines.

What's more, such a water press driven by a steam engine has reduced the cost of armor production by nearly one-third. With a large forging hammer driven by a steam engine and a drilling machine driven by a steam engine, I am sure that the cost of flintlock muskets will be reduced by 30% and the manufacturing speed will be increased by about 10 times. In this way, the ex-factory price of flintlock muskets can be reduced to 10 yuan each, isn't this a good thing for the ordnance superintendent? ”

Sun Yuanhua could only continue to reassure: "Okay, okay, when the budget comes down next year, I will definitely spend money to redeem this project from Wensi Academy." But now you spend their money on research, the Wensi Academy has made more money on the steam engine project than we do, as long as you tell them that the hammer machine can speed up the mass production of the steam engine, they will definitely meet your requirements.

At present, our Ordnance Superintendent and the manpower of the Wensi Academy can install less than 20 steam engines a month. However, after 10 years of the scheduled steam engine contract, His Majesty was extremely dissatisfied with this speed, and already planned to outsource the installation and maintenance business from next year, and the Ordnance Superintendent and the Wensi Academy were only responsible for the design, manufacture and installation of steam engines.

Shen Tingyang of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau wrote to His Majesty every day, requesting that the steam engine manufacturing technology be transferred to them, and that they should be responsible for the promotion of steam engines in the Jiangnan area. Gonggong Xu and the stewards of Wensi Academy are now in a hurry. ”

Bo Jue disagreed with this in his heart, and he still supported the emperor at this point. The purpose of his research on machines is, first, for his own hobbies; The second is to save manpower and replace those workers to do the most difficult and dangerous work. The improvement of the steam engine not only helped the factory owners to find an alternative to natural energy, but also played a great role in agriculture.

But no matter how good the machine is, if it can't be generalized, it's just a pile of scrap metal. The production capacity of the steam engine is gradually expanding with the determination of the production process. However, it is difficult to expand the number of people who install steam engines quickly, which results in less than one-third of the steam engines produced each month being pulled out of the factory.

As a result, a problem arose that was very troubling to the Ordnance Superintendent and the Bunsi Academy, as the parts of the steam engines produced by the machine-building factories were constantly crowding the warehouses, and the factory owners outside were coming to the door with bags of money*, and they had sent all the men they could mobilize, but they were still unable to meet the needs of the factory owners.

In such a situation, Bo Jue naturally thought that the instructions issued by the emperor were correct. After all, installing a steam engine is not making a steam engine, and the maintenance personnel of the old steam pumping machine and the craftsmen of some folk machine factories can master the installation technology of the steam engine with a little training.

Of course, the consequence of this is that the Ordnance Supervisor and the Wensi Institute will lose part of the installation costs, which is naturally a little distressing for Sun Yuanhua and Xu Xingsheng. However, for Bo Jue, who only studied and was not a homemaker, he was very happy that the machine he developed could be quickly popularized and become a powerful tool for factory owners to create wealth and local drought and flood drainage.

However, after staying in the capital for so long, Bo Jue finally learned a little sophistication, and did not refute Sun Yuanhua's complaints in person, but echoed a few words lightly.

Soon the wrought iron cuirass molded by the hydraulic press was slightly processed by the craftsman and sent to everyone, and the teachers and students of Yenching University could only look at the novelty, but for Sun Yuanhua, an expert in the weapons superintendent, the quality of these wrought iron cuirasses still amazed them for a long time, which was almost comparable to the cuirass created by skilled craftsmen.

And it takes at least 3-5 days for a skilled craftsman to make such a cuirass on his own. Processing in assembly line mode, each person on a production line is only 1-2 pairs per day. In front of the hydraulic press, even if the processing time of the front and back stages is added, a pair can be produced every 3-5 minutes, and an hour can be worth the output of the previous production line for a day.

This is really great news for the Ordnance Supervisor and the Wensi Academy, which already feel the problem of manpower shortage. However, Sun Yuanhua still held back his excitement, walked up to Ye Xiaoluan, Maria Celeste and others and asked, "... If we want to build a hydraulic press of more than 100 tons now, how long do you need to design it? ”

Ye Xiaoluan asked with some surprise: "But the 36-ton one has only been built, and if the cuirass is suppressed, isn't this tonnage enough?" ”

Sun Yuanhua hurriedly shook his head and said: "Of course, the hydraulic press of more than 100 tons is not used to suppress the cuirass, I plan to use it to die cast the blast embryo." Now the cannon is poured by the casting method, and the success rate of ** cannon is higher, but the success rate of large-caliber cannon is lower. I'm going to make a cannon after the model of the *tube, but the barrel can be forged with a hydropower-driven hammer, not the cannon embryo, and if you use a hydraulic press of more than 100 tons to die-cast, you may be able to achieve a similar effect..."

Ye Xiaoluan is not very familiar with the requirements of weapons, but he now knows the design of the hydraulic press. After exchanging opinions with Maria Celeste, she said to Sun Yuanhua: "There is nothing wrong with designing a hydraulic press of more than 100 tons, but we suggest that the water be changed to oil, and the conductivity of the liquid will not change, but it can make the life of the machine parts longer." ”

Sun Yuanhua nodded and said, "As long as you come up with the design drawings, the Ordnance Supervisor will definitely fully cooperate with you..."