The old steam engine, which had only thirty revolutions per minute and only five hundred horsepower, tripled its power and reduced fuel consumption by three times.

This is equivalent to a three-fold increase in horsepower from one-third of the original fuel.

It's not just the structure that improves power, but also fuel utilization. However, the fuel utilization rate is still very low, no more than 5% at most, and there is still a huge potential compared to the 20% that was generally exceeded in later generations.

The cost of fuel is equal to 1/9 of the original.

The practical and economic value of the new steam engine is beyond doubt.

Now that the steam engine was produced a hundred years earlier than the West, how could Zhao Yan not be excited. However, if the follow-up scientific research cannot keep up, and the technical blockade is not successful, it will be in vain, and one day it will be surpassed.

"Immediately set up a steam engine manufacturing plant and study the application of steam engines, focusing on steam ships and trains." Zhao Yan immediately ordered after visiting the opening ceremony of the new steam engine.

Then Zhao Yan immediately convened a plenary meeting.

At the meeting, Zhao Yan decided on the "Law on Secrets of Scientific Research and Technology", which stipulates that scientific and technological achievements disseminated without permission shall not be taught to any province or other countries, and anyone who violates this law shall be sentenced to death at the maximum.

At the same time, Zhao Yan once again improved the "Patent Law", individual patents can enjoy 60 years, and the use of patents that have not been popularized within a certain period of time can be forcibly promoted by the political axe. At the same time, a series of patent terms such as priority have also appeared.

The patents that the political axe will forcibly promote and use are all patents with important value, and since they have important value and are not implemented, it means that the patent inventor wants to sell at a price.

The technology of the steam engine, which was classified as top secret at this meeting, was strictly forbidden to be disseminated to any country, and in other provinces of the Ming Dynasty, it had to be applied for.

Any person engaged in the research and development and manufacture of steam engines is not allowed to go abroad.

Zhao Yan strictly guarded against learning the manufacturing method of steam engines abroad, but in fact, as long as the export of manufacturing tools was blocked, and the personnel went abroad, it was impossible for Westerners to obtain steam engines, and even if they could be built, it was very immature.

As for other provinces, as long as there are cards on various roads, such a large thing cannot be shipped without approval.

The ban on transmission in other provinces of the Ming Dynasty is not so strict, but other provinces are not Zhao Yan's territory at present, and they can't collect taxes if they give them a steam engine, so what are they doing!

…… Under Zhao Yan's order, the steam engine manufacturing plant soon began to build, and the manufacturing technology of the steam engine had been determined, and the manufacturing was not as troublesome as it was when it was studied.

At present, the focus of research in production is smelting and manufacturing, focusing on the treatment of steel, as well as the production of weapons, as well as the application of textiles.

In terms of transportation, it is the study of ships and trains.

The Academy of Science and Technology has set up more than 20 applied research groups.

The largest of these is undoubtedly the research group on the application of trains, and the railway laid with wrought iron is already several hundred meters, which is enough for the experiment.

The width of the rails laid by Zhao Yan is 1,500 millimeters, that is, 1.5 meters wide, and Zhao Yan has positioned this width as the standard width for future railway laying.

Relatively speaking, the application of the steam engine in the textile industry has accumulated technology, as long as the steam engine is manufactured, it can be directly put into the production of the textile industry.

The textile industry can also be freed from the constraints on water power.

At the same time, in the production of muskets and artillery, the Ordnance Bureau can also be more convenient with steam engines, and in the manufacture of cold weapons, it can also directly use steam engines for forging, but the technology still needs a certain amount of time to accumulate.

The application aspect cannot be achieved overnight.

Different industries have different situations and the steam engines used are also different.

At the same time, last year, the open-hearth steelmaking method of Handan Iron and Steel Plant was also successfully experimented, and Handan Iron and Steel Plant began to experiment with open-hearth steelmaking method by using blast furnace gas after completing the blast furnace gas collection technology.

After nearly a year and a half of research, he finally succeeded in researching the open-hearth steelmaking method.

This is also the reason why Zhao Yan began to lay railways, using forged pig iron to make railways, which is too labor-intensive.

The advent of open-hearth steel solves this problem.

Before the open-hearth was far away, Zhao Yan had written clearly on the drawings that the hearth of the open-hearth was a groove made of refractory bricks, and the top of the furnace was covered by refractory bricks. There is a charging opening on the front wall of the open-hearth furnace from which the loader fills the charge. Close the door caused by the refractory bricks when smelting. At each end of the furnace are the furnace heads, each with two holes, for the introduction of fuel and hot air, or the use of gas from the furnace.

The raw materials used in open-hearth steelmaking are scrap steel, scrap iron, iron ore and solvents (limestone and quicklime). At the start of smelting, the fuel burns on the surface of the fuel at a temperature of up to 1800°C when it encounters the introduced hot air. The heat is transferred directly from the flame to the charge, causing the charge to melt quickly. At the same time, a part of the molten pig iron is formed into ferrous oxide, and the impurities in the pig iron are oxidized by ferrous oxide and sound into slag. As an excess of limestone is placed in the furnace, impurities such as phosphorus and sulfur form calcium phosphate and calcium sulfide as slag. Secondly, the carbon is oxidized, and carbon monoxide emerges from the molten metal as if the metal is boiling.

When the reaction is almost complete, add oxygen absorber and remove the slag regularly. When the smelting is about to be completed, the composition of the steel should be checked according to the pre-furnace analysis. Technetium-smelting steel flows from the tap port into the ladle, from which it is injected into the mold to cast into products or ingots.

After many failures, the Handan Iron and Steel Plant finally summed up the perfect open-hearth steelmaking method.

The advent of open-hearth steel has made a huge leap in the efficiency of steelmaking, which is hundreds of times faster than the currently used steelmaking methods.

The current steelmaking method is forging, although the efficiency is much higher than the previous efficiency, but the labor intensity is still very large, and the output is not very high.

After using an open-hearth furnace, it is directly formed into steel after being baked.

It only takes 6~8 hours for a furnace of steel to be made.

Of course, open-hearth steel is still inferior to the converter steelmaking method of later generations. For example, a steel mill with an annual output of 12 million tons of steel only needs to build 6 pure oxygen top blowing converters of 250~300 tons, and if you build an open-hearth, you need 30~40 large-scale open-hearth furnaces of 500 tons.

And in terms of fuel utilization, the open-hearth furnace is not as high as the converter.

However, the converter is a high-tech product and cannot be built at present. At the same time, there are many steel grades that cannot be produced in converters, but open-hearth furnaces can be produced.

In the first month, Zhao Yan gave a new production task to the Handan steelmaking plant, and next year it must build a blast furnace with an annual output of 30 million tons of iron and an open hearth furnace with an annual output of 5 million tons of steel.

This may sound like a high yield, but it's not even a fraction of what it will be.

As long as there is enough steel, are you afraid that you won't be able to use it?

So much infrastructure needs to be built with steel, and wars are also used with steel, and the more steel the better.

Zhao Yan runs to the Academy of Science and Technology every day, and issues research projects from time to time.

Maybe today I think of this, and tomorrow I think of that again.

Anyway, this year's finances are very abundant, so a few more research projects will be established, which is Zhao Yan's reaction after he became rich.

It is not to repair the palace, but to start research work in various aspects.

In electricity, the Academy of Science and Technology has studied to a good degree.

First of all, the electric lamp has been successfully studied, and this success is not the arc lamp that was previously studied, the light of the arc lamp is very strong, not suitable for home use, and the cost of use is also high.

Electric lights are actually not difficult, most materials are made into filaments, and after the air in the bulb is emptied, it can be lit for a few minutes, dozens of minutes.

With cotton, it can be bright for two or three hours.

The use of bamboo charcoal as filament can be lit for 400~1000 hours, mainly depending on the variety of bamboo.

There is no need for tungsten lamps now, and bamboo charcoal is fine.

This time, the Institute of Science and Technology researched the bamboo charcoal lamp, which was found from the south, and finally selected one of the varieties, which can last for 1,000 hours.

The average person only lights up six hours a day, and 1,000 hours is enough to use it for 166 days.

In fact, the light bulbs used at home may only be lit for three or four hours a day.

The light bulb in the factory may be lit for 12 hours a day, which can be used for 83 days.

Zhao Yan remembered that the most suitable bamboo for making filaments was a variety of the book, but the 1,000-hour electric light was about the same, so there was no need to go to the book for those 100 or 200 hours to import.

And the price of this bamboo charcoal lamp is very cheap.

Bamboo charcoal naturally does not need a few dollars, the light bulb is not a few dollars, the production is relatively simple, with a hand-cranked evacuator to pump the light bulb into a vacuum, and the outside is an energizing device.

The cost of a light bulb is only five copper plates, and the maximum number of copper plates sold is a dozen copper plates, which the average family can afford.

Although the research on light bulbs has been successful, batteries are still used.

Therefore, Zhao Yan ordered the research project of hydropower and thermal power generation.

Hydroelectric power is the use of water power in rivers to generate electricity, thermal power is the use of steam turbines to generate electricity, now the new steam engine has been invented, as long as it is changed, the steam turbine will also come out.

At the same time, Zhao Yan also started the project of developing wire insulators.

Wire insulators can be painted, or rubber, and there is no plastic yet.

Thinking of plastics, Zhao Yan started the research on oil and natural gas exploitation and oil refining.

At the same time, the study of telegraphy is also very good.

With the direction given by Zhao Yan, the telegraph is not something that needs too high tech, and it is estimated that it will not take long to study it.

In order to supply the research needs, Zhao Yan set up a material collection team to collect various minerals and materials in various places, and then classified and stored them to supply the experimental needs of Denglai Science and Technology Institute and Denglai University.

In just the first month of the eleventh year, Zhao Yan spent five million taels of research funds on scientific research, which is simply an astronomical amount.

It is not surprising to say that infrastructure construction uses a few million, but it is naturally an astronomical amount to spend five million taels on scientific research, and it has not reached the stage of engaging in too profound things.

Much of this expenditure is used to build infrastructure, such as material collection, and the construction of laboratories, etc., and at the same time, more than 50 research groups have been set up.

(To be continued)