On May 7, 1853, the first steam engine. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

April 28, 1854, the hundredth steam engine.

February 17, 1855, the hundredth steam engine.

In 21 months, in just 21 months, there were more than 200 steam engines in the factories in the three provinces under the jurisdiction of the Governorate. Among them, more than 180 units belong to enterprises run by the governor's government, and the other more than 10 units are several private silk reeling factories and yarn factories. These steam engines drove machines in factories and pumped groundwater in coal mines to bring fresh air to the mines, and factories of all sizes needed steam engines to power them.

But without exception, these steam engines were purchased, some made in England, some made in the United States, and even made in Hong Kong and India, both of which were assembled from British-made parts.

Amid the roar of the steam engine, the first steam engine manufactured by the Hanyang Arsenal was put into use, and for the newspaper, it was just a report the size of a tofu block, but Zhu Yifeng knew what this steam engine meant. Although the iron plates and pipes used in this steam engine were made in England, this was the first domestic steam engine.

Historically, China's first steam engine was supposed to have been born eight years later at the Anqing Ordnance Institute, that is, a year after Zeng Guofan founded the Ordnance Institute, which both manufactured the steam engine, compared to the speed of the Hanyang Arsenal seems too slow. But this kind of slowness is necessary, compared with the undisciplined manufacturing of the Anqing Ordnance Institute, the steam engine used to drive the press in the shell workshop in front of him is a standardized steam engine - its parts are standardized and interchangeable, and when the arsenal produces the same kind of power machine in the future, it can be produced with its drawings, and when it is damaged, it only needs to replace the parts, and it will not be like the British steam engine, which needs to be re-measured and specially customized. This is the advantage of the American-style manufacturing system, and it is also the inevitability of industrial production.

Looking at Xu Shushan, who was full of ambition, Zhu Yifeng said with a smile.

"Shushan, thank you for your hard work! Thank you! ”

This thank you is from the bottom of my heart, after all, if there is no Xu Shushan to preside over this factory, which is both an arsenal and the only "machine mother factory", how can this factory go steadily step by step to the present, it seems that it is not as "rapid" as the arsenal of the late Qing Dynasty, but in fact, it is different from the factory of the late Qing Dynasty that has not changed its workshop for decades, and now the Hanyang Arsenal is moving towards a modern factory step by step.

"This is what I should do!"

Compared with before, Xu Shushan is now more cautious, as a "relative of the emperor", after the birth of his nephew, he knew that his situation was more delicate, and he naturally became more cautious, and even now he rarely leaves the arsenal and focuses on the production of the arsenal.

Nodding slightly, Zhu Yifeng didn't say anything, he knew why Xu Shushan's caution was, of course he also appreciated this caution, after walking into the bullet production workshop, he bent down and picked up a yellow and clear bullet case from the box, to be precise, only half of the bullet shell was processed, pinched it in the palm of his hand, and was reluctant to throw it away for a while.

This small extruded metal cylinder, after a few more extensions, will be made into a shell. This humble little thing represented a fundamental military change, and its appearance would even completely change the face of warfare, and it was this small cartridge case that gave birth to magazine rifles and automatic firearms in the decades that followed.

“…… We designed the bullet case to be 60 mm long and 11 mm caliber, which is the same caliber as the Han-style rifle......"

When Xu Shushan explained that it took months to develop the bullet casing, his eyebrows finally showed some pride, which was extremely rare for him who had always been cautious.

"According to the calculation of production capacity, Chen thought that it should be able to produce 2,000 rounds of ammunition per day, and considering the defective rate, there should be no problem in producing 600,000 rounds per year!"

What the!

600,000 rounds!

This figure sounded a bit mocking to Zhu Yifeng's ears, it took so long to produce only 600,000 rounds of ammunition per year, and according to the design capacity of the arsenal, each rifle was only allocated ten rounds!

"Less is less, but it will slowly increase in the future, and now the engineers in the factory are designing new machine tools, which are all made of copper yuan presses, and each bullet needs to go through dozens of processes from punching to making, and the output is naturally limited."

"And how much does it cost?"

"The cost of each bullet is more than 10 copper dollars, and the factory must be added to at least 15 copper dollars......"

Sky-high ......

Thinking that the Han-style rifle only costs 10 silver dollars per box of 750 bullets, and the average cost of each bullet is less than 1.4 copper dollars, which is ten times more expensive, it is obviously a sky-high price, but Zhu Yifeng can only smile helplessly.

"Since the production capacity is limited now, it is still mainly paper shell bullets for the time being, and the production equipment of metal bullet shells is slowly improved, and the cost can always be reduced in the future......

Yes, you can't become a fat man by eating in one bite, everything has to be done slowly, didn't the metal extensive shell slowly become mainstream until around 1875?

In the middle of this factory, the machine roared, the roar of the machine tool kept ringing in the ears, this was a steam engine being built, this steam engine seemed to be a little different from the steam engines of the past, it was only about two meters high, it looked like a small steam engine.

"This was ordered from another factory?"

Zhu Yifeng asked casually.

"This is a new type of steam engine commissioned by Manager Huang of the Electric Light Company to be manufactured by the arsenal before going abroad, well, a three-expansion steam engine, and the high-pressure steam coming out of the boiler first pushes the first and smallest piston. When this piston begins to retract, a portion of the expanding vapor is driven into the second cylinder to push its piston, so that the expanded vapor from the first cylinder continues to be used. The third cylinder uses the steam ...... that expands in the second cylinder"

Just as Xu Shushan was explaining, Zhu Yifeng only felt that the noise in his ears had disappeared, and his senses were amplified at this moment, and the floating dust in the air seemed to be able to see clearly.

Not again!

"Now do you know how I helped you?"

What the?

When the words of that voice came, Zhu Yifeng's heart was suddenly puzzled.

"They can see the inventions, they can see how they are made......"

In the explanation of "it", a name came to Zhu Yifeng's mind - Nikolai? Tesla, has it been mentioned in some documentaries that he also "saw" those "inventions"? In fact, this seems to explain why his invention was not theoretically precededent. His gifts are almost supernatural, perhaps, as he says, "seeing them in a dream".

Don't...... Huang Tao saw the "three-expansion steam engine"?

What is a "triple expansion steam engine"?

It was the final obsolescence of this efficient steam engine that led human navigation into the age of real steam, and now it seems that this efficient steam engine is about to be manufactured, and what does this mean? With the "triple expansion steam engine", power plants can generate electricity at a cheaper cost, ships can get rid of sails, and even the weakest fleet can lease the "triple expansion steam engine" to become the most powerful existence of this era.

It's just a very ordinary steam engine technology, and six years later, Daniel Adamson of England will invent it...... It's just that it took nearly 20 years to promote and apply!

Zhu Yifeng muttered to himself, but now he didn't just care about the steam engine, but how much help he could give himself, because he had said before that he couldn't give much help.

"I see, you are helping me through some kind of conscious influence, with the help of their "invention", right? ”

"Yes!"

The voice was still the same neutral as before.

"This way you can avoid some problems."

It is to avoid suspicion from the outside world, all inventions are invented by "individuals", this is a reasonable "invention and creation", Huang Tao "invented" the three-expansion steam engine, of course, under some unknown "reminder".

"Oh, such help is reasonable, and it will not arouse suspicion from the outside world!"

But if "it" is capable of doing this, will it sway their will?

"You can rest assured, the will of human beings cannot be controlled, just as it cannot control your will, for other people, limited by time and space constraints, it is impossible to achieve this goal, in fact, if the distance is more than 1 meter, the other party cannot even be affected......"

"It" seemed to be able to sense Zhu Yifeng's worry, so he took the initiative to explain that his ability was very limited, but Zhu Yifeng was a little skeptical about such an explanation.

After all, it is indeed too unreassuring, from the initial appearance of "it" to the current "elusive", it always makes people doubt the intentions of "it", and what makes Zhu Yifeng even more worried is whether "it" will hurt himself, or what purpose he can achieve with himself.

“…… Because it takes energy, I can't give you more help, so the help is limited, and even for them, I can only give a reminder, in human terms, it's like a flash of inspiration, whether they can understand it or not depends on him. ”

In this way, "it" really can't help himself much, just like Huang Tao, if he doesn't understand the steam engine, the "flash" of spiritual light may be ignored by him. However, for these, Zhu Yifeng does not care.

"There is no such thing as a free dinner, no matter how much help you give, I'm curious, what do you want?"

Finally, Zhu Yifeng faced "it" for the first time and asked the questions he cared about.

"Something you want from me, to be exact! What do you want to borrow me for? After all...... There are not many Lei Feng in this world! (To be continued.) )