Chapter 73

The warm breeze and sea breeze are blowing slowly, accompanied by the warm summer sun, and the small leaves of the tung trees on both sides of Chang'an Road are gently blown by the wind. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 Compared with the main road like Zhonghua Street, Chang'an Road seems a little deserted, but this is also the characteristic of the Shahekou factory area, compared to the lively Shenyang Industrial Zone, the Dalian Shahekou Industrial Zone only has a few large enterprises such as locomotives, power and shipbuilding, and most of them are under construction, so it naturally seems a little deserted.

In addition to the occasional few factory buildings, the empty industrial area only seems empty, and even most places are overgrown with weeds, which is no wonder that in addition to a few key enterprises such as locomotives and shipbuilding, Dalian does not have too many projects due to limited resources and other reasons, perhaps compared to industry, Dalian is more suitable as a commercial city as a governor's office, but even so, there are still many factories of different sizes in the empty industrial zone of Dalian. After all, the development potential of Dalian, which is conveniently located by the port and railway, is something that no one can ignore.

And in this empty industrial zone, located in Chang'an Road, the "China Floating Company" is one of the enterprises in the area is not very conspicuous, unlike other enterprises, China Airship Company is to receive the Governor's Office to be accurate is the National Defense Science and Technology Commission special funding enterprises, compared to other enterprises, this company does not even have an office building, the so-called factory is actually a few factories, and unlike most similar factories full of machines, these factories are only dozens of female workers, and those female workers operate sewing machines, It seems to be a garment factory, and the women in the factory seem to be extremely busy, and the electric sewing machine is spinning at high speed, sewing large pieces of cloth together.

While the female workers in the factory were busy, in a compartment next to the factory, a young man with eyes stared at the tensile strength testing machine. It seems that experiments are underway.

"Da ......"

As a thread broke, the young man hurriedly made a note on paper.

"How? Is the strength of silk the best? ”

"The tensile strength of the silk thread stranded by multiple strands of silkworm silk is almost close to the iron wire, and it is even stronger than many inferior iron wires, and the tensile strength of the cotton thread is less than a fraction of it!"

Speaking in a stiff Nanjing official dialect, Xie Zhangtai picked up his notebook again and calculated.

"If you change it to silk plain weave as the airbag material of the airship. Compared with the plain weave material made of fine cotton, the weight can be reduced by at least 30%, so that the weight of the artillery balloon is ......"

However, just after the data was obtained, Xie Jintai, who is proficient in mathematics, roughly calculated the results, and began to study artillery balloons at the beginning of the year, and the airbag material used at that time was only plain weave, because the capsule material required to have good air tightness, enough emphasis and as light weight as possible. Therefore, in order to meet the first two, multi-layer materials have to be used, just like the capsule of the artillery balloon produced now is composed of a load-bearing layer and an airtight layer.

"Wouldn't it be too risky to switch to silk?"

Sun Yat-yan, a construction engineer who studied balloons with Tse in his spare time, was very cautious.

"The load-bearing layer has to bear almost all the strength of the capsule, so the cloth is very thick, although the glued load-bearing layer looks a little bulky, but after all, it looks thick and reassuring. If you take the liberty of changing to silk, not to mention the increase in cost. The cloth is so soft, the artillery side may not be at ease when the time comes......"

The reason why he was able to set up a floating company has a lot to do with the army's need for balloons, originally Xie Jintai was just an ordinary company employee, but he has his own hobby for hydrogen balloons and even airships, and has been researching it in private. When he learned that the Army was preparing to study a hydrogen balloon years ago, he immediately became involved in the research.

However, it only took one month, and on the basis of borrowing from Western balloons, Xie Jintai successfully developed a "hydrogen balloon" that could meet the requirements of the army -- a "hydrogen balloon" with an altitude of about 100 meters and a single gondola that could be suspended. Although the balloons he developed were not much different from those developed by the Tongwen Academy, his products were easy to recycle - Sun Yiren, a research assistant, a construction engineer who added a cable reel to the balloons, was exactly what the Tongwen College did not consider, and it was for this reason that he received the army's order.

Thirty detective balloons may not seem like much, but it is enough for Xie and Sun Yiren to establish an airship company, and the ensuing investment from the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense has allowed Xie to devote more energy to the research of balloons, especially the research of capsule materials.

The reason why Xie Jintai will study the capsule material is because the airship generally relies on a number of hydrogen-filled airbags inside to provide lift, and the preparation technology of the airbag capsule material is one of the key technologies restricting the development of the airship, and it is precisely because of this that he will use the airbag material as a breakthrough.

If Sun Yiren can help him in his research, I am afraid that he will test the materials one by one to select the most suitable materials.

"The army's balloons don't need to be considered for the time being, after all, they put them on the carriage and collect them on the carriage, and the thick point of the airbag is conducive to the use of the balloon, but it is different on the airship!"

Airship!

At the mention of the airship, Xie Jintai's tone seemed a little excited, and he even walked to the wall and looked at the drawings on the wall, which were a project that he had begun to carry out after the development of the balloon, and even in his opinion, the production of balloons was just to accumulate technology for the airship.

"You see, there is an aluminum keel inside the airship, just like the keel of the ship, and the airbag for more than 20 years is fixed between the keels by a tether, so all that is needed for the outer layer of the airship is a layer of tough enough cloth, it is not impossible to use ordinary plain weave, and the cost is very low, but the problem is that to achieve the same strength, the weight of the cloth is too large, but the airship is ......"

Staring at the drawings of his design, Xie Jintai's gaze seemed a little fanatical, for him, the development of airships can not only bring prestige and wealth to individuals, but more importantly, the importance of airships to the military.

"But the airship is different, his weight requirements are very demanding, I hope to build the airship is not the current kind of aircraft that can only carry a few hundred kilograms, but can carry thousands of kilograms, or even tens of thousands of kilograms of large airship, with this kind of airship, the country with other transport, although thousands of miles away, can still be ...... from the morning and evening"

A few hundred kilograms, this is the load capacity of the airship that Xie Jintai is currently studying, although it is more experimental in nature, but it is precisely because he is full of too many expectations for it that he will calculate the weight in grams. In the production of balloons for the army, a variety of ways to reduce weight were studied, and because of this, the carrying capacity of the airship in the design increased from the initial 300 kilograms to the current 500 kilograms.

"Morning and evening to ......"

Sun Yiren's words made Sun Yiren laugh softly, and then looked at Xie Jintai and said.

"What you said is light, it's not that we haven't tried it, if you use an electric motor, even if it is a 200-kilogram battery, it can only run for a few hours, and it is almost ......."

Although Xie Jintai has adopted the latest scientific and technological achievements, using aluminum alloy as the skeleton of the airship, electric motors as power, and propellers as propellers, it obviously cannot meet his requirements, at least not to meet the needs of long-term flight.

"There will definitely be a way!"

His friend's words didn't discourage Xie Jintai, in fact, if he hadn't been reminded by his friend, how could he be looking for the right motivation like he is now.

"I've heard that now there is a new type of engine in Europe, which is lighter than the steam engine and does not burn coal, and if it is true, maybe it could be considered for use in airships......"

Although Hsieh's invention was adopted by the Army, he was unable to learn about the latest European technology in the magazines they read in the same school as they did, just as he could not learn anything about gasoline engines.

"You're talking about gasoline engines!"

Because of the relationship between friends in the shipyard, Sun Yiren heard them mention gasoline engines.

"Yes, it's a gasoline engine, but although the gasoline engine is not an open flame, after all, it is still an internal combustion engine, and there is really no way to guarantee whether it is safe."

One of the most important reasons why Xie Jintai chose a bulky motor is because the motor is safer, it will never ignite hydrogen, although the chance of hydrogen leakage is very slim, but safety must always be put first, otherwise who would dare to take an airship?

"Renyou, you said that the shipyard has a gasoline engine?"

For the safety issues mentioned by Sun Yiren, Xie Jintai did not say anything, but became interested in gasoline engines, which is no wonder, the test of the electric motor has not been very ideal, and the bulky motor and battery make the actual load capacity of the airship even less than 200 kilograms, which is too different from Xie Zhangtai's expectations.

"Is it a shipyard in Dalian?"

Unlike Sun Yiren, Xie Jintai only came to the Northeast from Hong Kong last year, and he didn't know much about the Northeast, so when he mentioned the shipyard, he naturally thought of the large shipyard under construction a kilometer away.

"It's the Beiyang Shipyard in Incheon, I heard from my friends that they tested an engine that didn't need to burn coal, which was much lighter than a steam engine, and they were planning to put this engine on a ship, and if you want to know, I guess I would have to take a boat to Incheon, and it was ......."

The voice was slightly pressed, and Sun Yiren deliberately emphasized as if reminding Xie Jintai.

"I heard that this project was presided over by the Navy, and I think that unless we can get the support of the Navy first, I guess even if you go to Incheon, you will ...... Chong'an, what are you doing here? ”

Before Sun Yiren finished speaking, he saw that Xie Jintai had already begun to change his clothes, so he hurriedly asked.

"Go to the navy, we haven't dealt with the navy, and the navy hasn't also ordered our balloons, let's go talk to them!" (To be continued.) )