Boosting his morale, the young man took out a piece of paper and said, "It's like a problem of heat expansion and cold contraction, a craftsman has come up with a solution, and he is now trying." Everyone pondered it for a while and thought it was feasible. ”

Jian Chen took the notebook and looked at it, and the young man explained: "Thermal expansion and cold contraction must exist, and the craftsmen knew it before. Since the ratio of thermal expansion and cold contraction of the two materials is different, it is entirely possible to try to use the two materials to pull each other to achieve a balance. ”

There is a delicate structural diagram drawn on the notebook, and the entire pendulum completely subverts Jian Chen's cognition. On the whole, it is indeed a pendulum, but when you subdivide it, it uses a fence-like structure to change from a one-dimensional line pendulum to a two-dimensional plane pendulum.

The shortcomings of a single material with a one-dimensional line pendulum are solved by a two-dimensional planar pendulum. The whole pendulum is no longer a single line, but a length-specific face made up of multiple lines.

The shape of the whole pendulum is like an inverted concave character, and there is a hanging line in the middle of the inverted concave character. The two sides of the inverted concave are made of the same material; The two in the middle of the concave characters are made of another material; The middle drooping strip of the inverted concave is made of the same material as the outermost one.

When the sagging strip in the middle becomes longer due to heat, the two adjacent dissimilar materials will turn this length into an "excessive" length.

No matter which individual side becomes longer in the concept of one weft, the total length of the two-dimensional plane pendulum of the whole remains unchanged, and still exercises the meaning of the length in the periodic formula of the single pendulum as a whole.

The young man said: "The idea is basically right, and everyone understands it after explaining it." Now the problem is to try different materials, calculate the proportion of expansion that becomes longer, and then use division to calculate the length ratio between the two materials. It's just that there is some trouble in the materials, and it is better not to rust easily, but not as soft as gold. Again, this measurement also requires more accurate measurement tools, and we have to wait for the news from the balance and scale. It is said that a naturalist discovered a new silver-like metal that does not rust easily, but it is scarce and may require a large sum of money. ”

Chen Jian looked at this delicate structure of turning one dimension into two dimensions again, and praised: "As long as it can be done, this can really be called an exquisite design." The kind of ore metal you mentioned, I'll find someone to do it, and I still have some acquaintances in the capital or the school palace. The craftsman who made this suggestion should make a note, knowledge is money, and when the time comes, it is inevitable that he will have to evaluate his merits. ”

"Well, the five problems mentioned before, as long as one can be solved, will be remembered. Mr. Chen, it seems that the problem of the pendulum is expected to be solved in a few months, but please don't be too hopeful about when such a clock will be made. Maybe three years, maybe five years, maybe even ten or twenty years. ”

Jian Chen nodded and said, "This province is from this province, I can afford to wait for the time being, and now I will be thirty soon." Even if it is twenty years, it will only be fifty by then, and it will still be possible to ride a boat immediately, and the most accurate map of the world can still be drawn at that time. I can afford to wait. ”

said that he could afford to wait, but in fact he was very anxious.

The marine clock is the most anxious thing for Chen Jian personally, and before he heard the craftsmen talk about the difficulty of manufacturing, he thought it was the easiest of the five things, and he didn't know how much simpler it was than the steam engine.

However, it was only after he left the workshop that he went around elsewhere that he realized how wrong his subjective assumptions were.

Compared with the nautical clock, which seems to have made little progress for the time being, and the difference is thousands of miles, the research speed of the steam engine is much faster.

Regardless of practicality or efficiency, the craftsmen here have developed a variety of ...... Models, as well as a clumsy and extremely inefficient primitive steam engine that has been put into use, has replaced horse-drawn waterwheels and ore-smashing animal hammers in mines, but only in mines because the energy consumption is too high and the efficiency is too low.

This most primitive steam engine, which has been tried and used, reveals the most rugged and primitive clumsiness, relying on steam to push up the piston, spraying cold water into the steam, condensing the steam into water, artificially creating a vacuum, and then using atmospheric pressure to press the piston back.

Because the principle is like this, the efficiency is extremely low, and it is so large that no one can afford to use it anywhere else except for the coal mine.

The heat in the steam is all gone, and the next time it is raised again, it will be generated by the heat of new coal combustion, and the condensing chamber and cylinder are all in one place, and each time it is equivalent to reheating, if the efficiency can be high, it will be a ghost.

But even so, it is still a huge progress, although the practicality is really not very high, but it declares that the big cake that Chen Jian painted at the beginning is really not delusional.

Nan'an's Coal Mining Consortium is already using this terrible smoky primitive machinery in its own mining area – about the power of a horse, and the advantage is that it can be used 24 hours a day, and the coal can be used locally.

The explosive method and the railroad road greatly reduce the cost of coal before transportation, and the coal in the eyes of the coal boss is not the same as the coal in the eyes of the rest of the workshop owners in Mincheng. In Nan'an, coal is cheaper than horses, but it may not be necessary to transport it to Mincheng.

Compared with this clumsy and primitive water-cooled vacuum steam engine with extremely low efficiency, the steam engine model made of various copper and iron handmade files derived from the glass steam engine model displayed by Chen Jian in the Xue Palace can be said to be a hundred flowers.

Once the idea is developed, the brain hole cannot be stopped, anyway, each model has a bonus to be gained, and the theoretical basis already exists.

Sealed thermal expansion and cold shrinking machine model that does not exchange with the outside world, reciprocating steam engine model of brass, and low-pressure engine model of brass that can drive connecting rods...... Strange things were placed in front of Jian Chen, making Jian Chen realize that he was really thinking wrong—compared to the seemingly simple marine clock, this seemingly complex steam engine was no more difficult than the marine clock, but it was still a long way to go in terms of practicality.

After a group of craftsmen showed Chen Jian the clumsy coal-burning steam engine used to lift water, strike iron, and forge it, Chen Jian asked, "Don't you think this thing can't be used anywhere else except in the coal mine?" ”

The craftsmen laughed, "I definitely know, but the problem is not ours." We have ideas, ideas, and even how to drive the connecting rod of the spinning machine after the appearance of the steam engine, but the problem is that the rest of the problems are not in our hands. ”

"Who's in charge?"

"Mr. Chen, now that we've come to this point, there's really nothing we can do about it. If you look at the models made by these handmade files, any of them are better than the one shown to you now, but you can't make them. Even if it's the most simplified way, we haven't thought about it, but if we can't dig out the cylinder, what can we do? ”

"Yes, you look at these models, we can dig them out with years of practice, we can make them out of brass with the lost wax method, we can use a file to repair them with our eyes little by little, and my hands are the measuring sticks...... But if you really want to make something practical, the size of two or three people, you can't use your hands. ”

"After you told us about this thing, we felt that the truth is really simple and will be useful in the future, but the problem is that it is easier said than done. There is no problem with the block iron, there is no problem with the connecting rod, there is no problem with water injection, and there is no problem with reciprocating air exchange, but the cylinder cannot be dug out...... It's like a cannon, it's too easy to blow up. ”

Jian Chen smiled and said, "It's come to this point? ”

"Let's just say that. We don't take this money for nothing, there is a connecting rod structure in the ancient books, we have been playing for hundreds of years, this technology is not difficult for us, just a little bit of it. Ironmaking, stirring, block iron or ingots, we have them all. Sealing and lubrication are not a problem. But digging cylinders, we also tried, but it was too difficult. If you want, we can't spend more than ten years getting it out for you by hand, but it's useless. ”

Chen Jian said: "Can't you use the boring machine for digging the gun chamber? ”

"It's not that it can't be used, it's that now we can only repair the barrel of the cannon and not dig the chamber. If something is so long, it will definitely deflect and disturb when it is really dug up, and this degree of precision is not well controlled. We all know that Mr. Chen's most expensive place here is these five places, the boring machine is still trying, and the weights and measures are also constantly refined, when these two sides solve their problems, our side will soon give Mr. Chen what he wants. So the problem is not with us, it's with that side. ”

"In other words, they have given a new boring machine for digging the barrel, and after the accuracy is determined, you can give me the finished product?"

"Of course. Now we have almost everything except the cylinders, but the most important things are not. Even if you have that thing, you need to experiment with what kind of cylinder you dig and how big the diameter is. The things we can try now are pretty much the same as making a model, and you're going to want it or not, so we'll just have to wait for news from there. ”

"Something that controls the amount of air coming into the valve has also come out?"

"It's out, it's those young people who came from a professional background. After measuring the gravity you said from the single pendulum, this group of people even wrote out the formula, and when the time comes, they can calculate it according to the requirements of the formula, and they can calculate it if they know how to calculate. ”

The craftsman looked at Jian Chen's face in disbelief, and said with a smile: "Mr. Chen, we are craftsmen. As long as you can knock out the things you draw on the diagram by hand, we can knock them out for you. We have a lot of sparkling things, and we have them too. Although I don't dare to say that I know what it is and why it is, there is not much difference between this thing and a horse-pulled machine, it is nothing more than that the horse is spinning in circles, and this is reciprocating up and down, and the force head is replaced with a connecting rod in the direction needed. We have been using this thing since the mill, the water wheel, and the hydraulic bellows, and it is really not difficult. The hard part is how to turn the horse into this iron lump. What you think is difficult is not necessarily difficult for us craftsmen. What you think is simple may not be simple for us. ”

"You're so confident?"

"It's not self-confidence. If you want to say that it is immeasurable and flawless all at once, we dare not say. But if you want to say that you don't want to blow up, you can move, you can burn coal, and you can have the strength of a horse, as long as the problem of the cylinder is solved, we dare to guarantee it. ”

Jian Chen nodded hurriedly and thought for a while: "Since this is the case, then you can do something else before the boring machine and weights and measures are completed." ”

"What's the matter?"

"Use the skills of files, brass, lost wax, soldering, and reeds to make a few gadgets. I'll think about what to do, but it's all intricate things that are not practical, can be done by hand, and cannot be copied. ”

"What's the use?"

"I want to open a universal exposition, through your hands and these delicate models, so that more people can see the future, see that the future I promised or depicted is not out of reach, and let some people open their eyes early to see the world in 50 years."

"Why do you have to look fifty years from now?"

"Shocking."

"Why don't you wait fifty years to see it?"

"It's late."