Scrooge left the matter of negotiating with the British to Donald, and he did have other important matters of his own. Later generations of people tend to see Scrooge as a monster, largely because Scrooge is still energetic even in his old age, and his thinking is still so creative, you know, under normal circumstances, with age, the brain's processing power will decline significantly, so, you look at those professions that rely heavily on the brain's processing power, such as scientists or something, their most fruitful age is concentrated in the prime of life, even if it is Newton and Einstein, after the age, There won't be any great accomplishments.

Scrooge's performance in science today is largely in line with this pattern, and over the years there have been far fewer scientific papers written by him, or by whom he was the first author. But any scientist working in a laboratory at the University of Cleveland admits that the old man has an astonishing insight into the development of science and technology, and although he has grown older, his response to some mathematical problems has declined a lot, but that insight has become more and more significant. Many times, the old man's insistence on the direction of research is not favored by most people, but the final history has proved him right again and again.

Now, for example, the old man is pushing forward a series of shipbuilding-related research projects: low-cost steam turbines, or reciprocating steam engines with better performance at high speeds, as well as welding instead of riveting, standardizing ship components, and so on. Now, Scrooge is regularly staying in the University of Cleveland lab.

"Mr. MacDonald, and honorable people. After careful research, we came to this conclusion. Charlotte, a naval engineer, is giving a presentation on a pre-research project that he was in charge of.

"In terms of our original design requirements, the technical advantages of a low-cost steam turbine over a triple-rise reciprocating steam engine were not obvious, at least, not obvious or even non-existent in the preset environment. It would be difficult to reduce the cost to such a point that it could be compared to a reciprocating steam engine. Therefore, I suggest that in this project, we should use the main force on low-cost, high-speed reciprocating steam engines.

Ladies and gentlemen, our new power system requires a carrier that can carry about 8,000 tons of cargo, while retaining good seamanship, well, that is, being able to run a route across the Atlantic, and be able to reach a cruising speed of more than 17 knots and a top speed of about 20 knots. The way for a ship to obtain speed is nothing more than two things, the same is more suitable for high-speed sailing, for example, Mr. MacDonald presided over the design of the Alaska gold transport ship, its speed is very amazing even now, but this kind of ship obviously does not meet our current requirements. First of all, the transport capacity of such a ship is too small relative to its displacement, and its seaworthiness, especially in high sea conditions, is really average. In the end, this thing is too expensive. We know that this boat can achieve such high speed under limited power conditions, because it uses a very large aspect ratio, which is very good for increasing speed, but it will increase the cost, deteriorate the seafaring performance, and reduce the carrying capacity at the same tonnage. From an economic point of view, this type of ship is not suitable for ordinary merchant ships.

The second way is to increase the power, theoretically as long as the power is large enough, even if the boat type is unreasonable, it can run fast. Of course, the same issue here is cost. We know that steam turbines are more thermally efficient, and if they are used for a long time, they can save a certain amount of fuel costs, but the pre-study requirements emphasize that this kind of ship only needs to be used for a short time, only needs to be used continuously on the Atlantic route for about three years, so the fuel savings are almost worthless compared to other things. The sustained high-speed performance of a steam turbine is much better than that of a reciprocating steam engine, but the components are manufactured with higher precision requirements, and even if we try to do so, there is limited room for cost reduction. The reciprocating steam engine is indeed inferior to the gas turbine in terms of energy density and continuous high-speed performance. However, the reciprocating steam engine with a cruising speed of more than 17 knots required in our design goal can be easily achieved at the expense of the engine's life expectancy, as well as a top speed of more than 20 knots. In short, if we do not have high requirements for the life of the ship, we can improve its high-speed performance at the expense of the service life of the reciprocating steam engine. Doing so can even further reduce the cost of such engines. So, I think it's better to choose a reciprocating steam engine than a steam turbine for a new general-purpose merchant ship. It's technically easier to implement, and it's also cheaper. ”

Although I don't understand why Scrooge made such a strange performance request, a general-purpose transport ship only needs to operate for three years. However, Charlotte knew that he didn't have to worry about this kind of thing, he just needed to take his team and design a ship that met the requirements. And the design of this ship is only a small part of the huge plan.

The idea of this ship reference comes from the "free wheel" of later generations. In World War II, the Americans produced almost three thousand universal freighters in one go. It was by virtue of this kind of freighter, which could produce quickly, even faster than the German submarine sank a freighter, that the British were able to support the pillar and not be crushed by the Third Reich.

When it comes to submarine warfare, although the German wolf pack in World War II seems to be more famous, the real most threatening is the unrestricted submarine warfare of Germany during World War I. Because throughout World War II, the German submarine forces never sank more merchant ships than the newly built merchant ships of the allies, but in World War I, for a long time, the German submarine forces really did this. If it weren't for the fact that the British later made a breakthrough in technology and adopted more reasonable tactics in terms of tactics, the Germans' infinite submarine warfare would have really almost allowed the Germans to win.

And in this time and space, Scrooge provided the Germans with a lot of things that could further improve the combat effectiveness of their submarines, such as the "civilian transport submarine" that had just signed an agreement, with this, the ability of German submarines to continue to switch to combat will be greatly improved, with this, I believe that the German Navy's ship forces can do better than in history. And the more the Germans and the British lost both, the better it would be for the United States and for Scrooge. For this reason, Scrooge was even thinking about whether to help the Germans get out of the wolf pack tactics invented by German Admiral Dönitz in World War II in advance? Anyway, the key tactical shortwave radio is now a rotten street thing. Moreover, MacDonald has also made good progress in aircraft technology, and in another year or two, it is entirely possible to launch an aircraft that can be used on warships, and by that time, the means of dealing with wolves - escort aircraft carriers will also be available. And how much wealth can these bring to the family.

Of course, now is not the time. However, after the war starts, according to the development of the war situation, when necessary, it is actually quite good to do such a thing through some well-intentioned people.

Scrooge was born in 1844, at least this body is, by now, he is 63 years old, Scrooge knows that the biggest opportunity to make money in the world is the war, and he can't catch up with the Second World War, so he must seize the opportunity of the First World War to make more money.

"Charlotte, what are your considerations when it comes to building quickly?" Scrooge asked. For such ships, the ease of construction is even more important than the low price, because as soon as the war begins, the struggle on the sea transport line becomes a struggle for the speed of construction and the rate of sinking. Although Scrooge wanted Germany to beat the rest of Europe to pieces, he did not want Germany to win. This was because, in the short term, because of the superiority of British surface ships, Germany could not have much business with the United States during the war. Therefore, it is naturally impossible for it to borrow from the United States and Scrooge on a large scale. If he wins, won't all the debts Scrooge lend in the future be wasted? In the long run, neither the United States nor Scrooge can tolerate the emergence of a united Europe in the world. On this point, they are very much in line with the UK.

"Mr. MacDonald, in order to increase the speed of production, we have some ideas in the design." Charlotte replied, "First of all, we set a fixed standard for all kinds of parts, and consider the ease of production of most of the parts, try to use as few complex forms of parts, and appropriately reduce the requirements of machining accuracy, so that most of the parts in this kind of ship can be handed over to some other enterprises with low technical level OEM, so that when necessary, many parts can be ordered in any machine factory in the United States to order the main parts." As for the engine. You know, even if it's a short-lived version, the key components in it are not something that ordinary companies can produce. But given its versatility, I mean, unlike nowadays, when there are so many ship types, and there aren't many of each model, the result is that almost every ship's steam engine is almost custom-made. In this way, of course, production is slow. Our ships use the same steam engines, and the steam engines on each ship are exactly the same as those on the other, so that we can prepare a special production line for them for mass production, so that the speed can naturally be greatly increased. In addition, in terms of shipyards, we can also design shipyards that are specifically optimized for this type of ship, so that shipbuilding can be further accelerated. ”

"Very good." Scrooge said, "Charlotte, I think this type of ship, we can call it a 'Charlotte' standard freighter." Charlotte, you'll go down in history for this kind of ship. ”