"I remember that horses weren't so delicate that they got sick every forty hours, did they? Even the most delicate thoroughbred. Rockefeller couldn't help but ask when he heard engineers boasting about the engine's "high reliability" of failing only once every forty hours.

"Ah, Mr. Rockefeller, that's because no horse has been tested for forty hours of continuous running. If anything, I'm sure that whatever the horses, including the most valuable thoroughbreds and Arabian horses, certainly don't need to be repaired, but are simply scrapped. Moreover, even if this machine fails, it is generally quick to repair it, at most an hour or two is enough, in fact, compared to the time it takes to condition the horse, this is nothing. As soon as he heard Rockefeller's question, the engineer immediately defended his baby.

"Very well, Mr. Hewitt, but will this machine last forty hours if it is running at full capacity?" Scrooge asked, if it can run continuously for forty hours at full load, then this machine can be regarded as quite reliable even if it is put into future generations.

Engineer Hewitt, who had been frowning, immediately became dumbfounded, and after a while, he said, "Mr. MacDonald, you know that if you want it to run at full capacity and keep it stable, then the supporting heat dissipation or something has to be completely changed. Otherwise, it only takes a few minutes to reach a full load and the cooling system will be overwhelmed. And then lubrication and many other systems go wrong. So, forty hours at full capacity, while not technically impossible, is impossible to do as a machine to be put on a wagon. And it's not necessary, 20 horsepower at full load, which can even make a wagon run at 60 kilometers per second, according to our calculations. My God, can you imagine that in the bustling street, there is a horse-drawn carriage that has been running at a speed of 60 kilometers? ”

"It was a disaster." Rockefeller imagined the scenario for a moment, and then said so.

"That's right. And a good cooling system costs a lot of money. We thought, since we don't need to run it at full power for long periods of time, we don't need a very powerful cooling system, which would also save a lot of money. Engineer Hewitt said. Obviously, the concept of "cost control" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

In the beginning, the engineers designed a fairly tall water cooling system for the gasoline engine, including a water tank, copper heat sinks, a water pump to speed up the flow of cooling water, and a fan mounted in front of the heat sink. The results of the test run also proved that this thing is very efficient. However, after cost considerations, and finally under the direct care of Scrooge, the final heat dissipation system is like this.

The cooling system is still water-cooled, but the volume of the tank has been reduced by a third, and then the area of the heat sink has been reduced by half, and the material has been changed from brass to cast iron. The fan in front of the heat sink has also been eliminated - it is installed in the carriage anyway, and when it runs, there is naturally an oncoming wind blowing in it. In addition, the water pump that accelerates the flow rate of the cooling water has also been eliminated and replaced with a siphon, so that the cooling water rises by the hot water and the cold water descends by its own physical characteristics in the cooling system.

After such simplification, the effect of the entire cooling system is of course greatly reduced, with the original system, this machine can run continuously for a long time at the highest power, but after replacing with this simplified version of the cooling system, at the highest power, this machine can work continuously for less than ten minutes to have problems. However, after this simplification, the cost has also been reduced to less than a quarter of the original cost.

In fact, such a cooling system is really not a black heart, because in the original history, Ford later launched the famous Ford Model T car with wheels in the United States, and the cooling system used was exactly the same thing as this one: no water pump, no fan, and cast iron heat sink.

"Has this thing been tested in a car?" Rockefeller asked. Obviously, Rockefeller had a great interest in things that could greatly increase the sales of oil.

"We put it on a horse-drawn carriage and then installed some of the necessary handling to make a petrol engine-powered car, which has been tested a bit. The situation is not bad. ”

"Alright, Hewitt, take us to see the car." Scrooge said.

……

The proving ground is actually a stretch of road outside the Dashi Yàn. It's snowing a little now, but there's no snow on the road. So the test car can still be pulled out and run to the bosses to see.

It was an obvious conversion from a four-wheeled carriage, and the basic structure of the carriage was still retained, except that the coachman's position had been moved from the outside of the carriage to the inside of the carriage, and the seat in the position where the coachman had been seated had been removed, and the six-cylinder, 4.0-liter displacement, 20-horsepower gasoline engine was placed there. Then it was connected by a belt and a box, behind which a propeller shaft protruded and connected to the rear wheels of the carriage.

"What's this box?" Rockefeller asked.

"Gearbox." Scrooge replied. In fact, most of the technical requirements for this car were proposed by Scrooge, and of course the specific details were implemented by those engineers. For example, the clutch, such as the gearbox, such as the differential, such as the accelerator and brake, such as the rearview mirror, ....... Although he was not a professional automotive engineer, Scrooge still knew what was on the cars of later generations.

"Can I go up and sit?" Rockefeller asked.

Hewitt turned his head to look at Scrooge. Scrooge asked, "There's nothing wrong with safety, right?" ”

"I don't know." "The testing wasn't over, the safety testing wasn't even over. Mr. MacDonald, the seat belts you mentioned haven't been installed yet. So ......"

"Alright then, let's take a look." As soon as he heard that safety was not guaranteed, Rockefeller immediately retreated. As the saying goes, "the son of a daughter does not sit in the hall". They won't do this kind of dangerous thing.

Senna, the driver, stepped forward and prepared for a test drive. The first is to start the engine. In later generations, starting the engine was as simple as inserting the key in and turning it, and some cars were even equipped with so-called keyless start or even remote start. But in this day and age, the way to start a gasoline engine is much simpler and crude. In this car, there is no battery-based starting circuit at all, and the way to start the engine is to shake directly with a rocker.

Senna plugged in the joystick and shook it vigorously. Driven by the rocker, the engine spun and then roared. Senna pulled out the joystick, inserted it into a jack next to the engine, and then got into the car, skillfully put the gear, and then slowly lifted the clutch, so that the engine of the original car emitted a puff of black smoke, and then began to move forward.

"Well, that's good." Scrooge said, "Can it be any faster?" Now this speed is no faster than a horse-drawn carriage. Ah, Mr. Hewitt, have you tested all these features for top speed and cornering? ”

"The cornering function has been tested, it is more agile than ordinary carriages, and the top speed has not been tested." "There are too many people on this stretch of the road to run too fast, or you won't be able to stop the car." ”

Scrooge looked at the carriage with the engine, and nodded understandingly, the car was like a normal carriage, with four wheels narrow, only about the thickness of the wheels of mountain bikes in later generations. Such narrow tires can provide very little grip, and it is strange that they can brake the car at a fast speed. What the? Carriages, you say? How fast can that thing run? And that thing is missing the engine, transmission system, fuel tank and transmission system, and the overall weight is much lighter, and the inertia is naturally smaller. Of course, no problem.

"It's a little cold today, and there's no one on the road, but it's just the right time to try and see how fast you can drive." Hewitt said.

By this time, Senna had already run a long way along the road.

"There's a fork in the road ahead and we usually make a turn there and drive back. You see, he's slowing down and preparing to make a U-turn. Hewitt said again.

Sure enough, Senna slowed down, then turned around and drove this way, and when he was still more than a hundred meters away from Scrooge, he began to slow down significantly, and then the car slowly stopped more than ten meters away from Scrooge.

"Senna! There aren't many people on the road today, so why don't you just test how fast this car can go? What do you think? Hewitt said to Senna, who was still sitting high in the cab.

Senna looked at the road ahead, and there was not a single pedestrian in sight. "Well, I'll try." Senna said. In fact, he also wanted to see how fast the car could go.

Senna continued to drive the unhorse-drawn carriage for several hundred meters, until the "carriage" was as small as a small pushpin in Scrooge's field of vision, then he turned the front of the car, then shook his hand on the steering wheel, and then slammed the accelerator pedal all the way down......

Scrooge saw the car begin to slowly move towards him, of course, this slowness was Scrooge's opinion, and he had seen too many speeds faster than this in later generations. He himself had a record of speeding to 18 on the highway and was deducted from the ticket. At this slow pace, he didn't feel it at all.

But in Rockefeller's eyes, this was not the case, and he felt that the car was simply too fast, as fast as it was flying. As the car drove past him, the wind made him feel like he was about to lose his footing.

At this time, Senna lowered his gaze slightly, and saw that the pointer of the speedometer was almost forty. Nearly forty miles of speed, which is definitely a high speed that humans have never reached before this. "I'm already the fastest moving person in the world. It's like flying close to the ground. Senna thought.

But at this moment, out of nowhere, a stray dog suddenly appeared. Senna slammed on the brakes as he slammed in the direction to avoid the dog. If it was Scrooge driving this car at this time, he would never have done such a move. He'll just make the car run straight into it. Because at higher speeds, such a move will only cause the vehicle to lose control. Guidance zhì rollover and other malignant. Accident. And if you hit it straight up, the most you can do is add a dish to dinner.

So in Scrooge's sight, the car flipped over and rolled a full circle on the road before stopping. This is how the first car accident in human history occurred.