Anna circled around the prototype twice and accurately stated her first feelings.

"Really...... Small. ”

"But there's an indescribable beauty," Selene mused, "especially the dense pipes around it, which are like tentacles. 」

Roland couldn't help but laugh, the two looked at it from completely different angles, but the conclusions they reached were extraordinarily appropriate, and they both expressed the characteristics of the new machine succinctly.

Compared to the first cast-iron steam engine that Anna made, the prototype was more than ten times smaller in size, which was due to the great leap in processing technology, but the main thing was the omission of the boiler.

At present, the steam engine of Neverwinter has been developed to the fourth generation, but the boiler part has not changed much - whether it is burning coke, firewood, or heavy oil, a huge combustion chamber and steam generator are inevitable. Now, instead of a rectangular steel box one meter long, half a meter wide and less than twenty centimeters thick.

This box is also the core of the whole system.

Although in simple terms, it is to put the Rubik's Cube and water into a container to achieve the fusion of combustion and evaporation, neither the almost harsh sealing requirements nor the high-pressure pipeline shell can withstand the initial frontier town. In other words, even if you can get the relics of the radioactive tribe at that time, it is estimated that the role it can play is no different from that of others.

At one end of the steel box are three ritual cubes inlaid side by side as a source of power for the machine, and at the bottom is a layer of lead to block the excess rays. More than 10 heat pipes are neatly arranged at the top of the smooth shell, which return from the bottom after passing through the secondary water tank and the heat dissipation condenser, and its "heating-energy-cooling" cycle process is completely closed, and does not exchange with the outside world.

Of course, this size is not the limit of the new steam engine.

Water is simply the easiest and cheapest medium to obtain and can be made smaller at the same power if it is replaced by other more efficient media, such as liquid alkali metal.

It's just that the principle prototype mainly verifies the feasibility of the scheme, and Roland finally resisted the urge to do it in one step. After all, in the event of an overheating leak, if the alkali metal in the vapor state is mixed with the water vapor, the entire laboratory will be blown up into the sky.

The pipes that protrude from the heating chamber will continue to transfer the heat generated by the cube until the secondary tank boils, and the process will be no different from that of a normal steam engine, using the technology that Neverwinter has already matured.

And the part that Selene admires the most is the condenser pipes evenly distributed on both sides of the body - in order to obtain a large enough heat dissipation area, each pipe is twisted and twisted, hundreds of turns, and it is not contrary to say that it is tentacles.

If the current steam engines are stupid and black, this principle prototype can be called small and exquisite, especially the silver-white core box and those maroon red thermal conductive copper pipes that are enough to refract the human face, which are much more dazzling than its predecessors in terms of color and brightness. Even a layman who knows nothing about industry can tell at a glance how high or low it is.

In terms of craftsmanship alone, it is enough to deserve the title of a work of art.

"So...... Let's get started?" Roland looked at the two of them.

Anna nodded, and put her hand on the lever, "Let's come along." ”

Selene hesitated, but finally lowered her beard and gently placed it on the hands of the king and queen.

"Rubik's Cube Steam Engine Principle Prototype Test, Three, Two, One, Start-"

With Roland's countdown, the lever clicked to the maximum limit, and the linkage mechanism simultaneously pressed down the switches of the three Rubik's cubes, and the landmark new generation of power source began its first operation.

However, there was silence and nothing seemed to have happened.

"Ugh...... Did you fail?" Selene hesitated, looking at the unresponsive machine.

"No, let it burn a little longer. Roland replied calmly.

After about two minutes, the core box trembled slightly, and a soft yellow light from an "indicator" located on the pipe - it was a pressure gauge made of stickman relics, which indicated that the pressure inside the pipe was changing.

The heat transfer process was significantly slower, and after nearly five minutes of waiting, steam finally gushed out of the secondary tank and pushed the piston to run slowly.

As the temperature in the tube increases, the speed of the steam engine flywheel increases, and the pump of the condensing system is also activated, which is mainly used to increase the speed of fluid circulation in the tube and pump the cooled heat transfer medium back into the core box. At this point, the new machine has completed a complete cycle and officially entered the operating state.

"It looks like it's working pretty well," Anna sighed, a shallow smile on her face, "but it's a little slower." ”

"This is also a common problem with steam engines," Roland nodded, heat transfer takes time, even if it is replaced with a more efficient heat medium, it is not as good as an internal combustion engine that can be activated by a dozen fires. In addition, since it theoretically requires at least three water tanks to maintain the cycle, it is much larger than an internal combustion engine, no matter how small it is. Coupled with the fact that the ritual Rubik's Cube consumes uranium flakes too quickly, this prototype has little practical value.

But any industrial product is like this, step by step.

As long as Seline can solve the problem of persistence, its distinct advantages cannot be ignored - mature technology allows it to be put into production quickly, it is light enough to fit on most vehicles, and it is ubiquitous without increasing the burden of fuel, etc. Even if durability issues do not improve for a while, ships built on the basis of new power sources can save a lot of space to store fuel and thus carry more cargo or weapons.

Half an hour later, the steam engine was running at its limit, the whole body was shaking, and the snorting of the exhaust port turned into a high-pitched whistling. Obviously, the core box composed of three Rubik's cubes is a bit too powerful for this steam engine, and Roland pulled the lever back to first gear, which is equivalent to turning off the two Rubik's cubes, before the prototype stabilized again.

This is followed by lengthy reliability tests.

This step will last about a week, and it is also the most likely part of the problem, after all, the principle of the new machine is very simple, it is not difficult to make it move, but it is difficult to run it for a long time and stably.

Staying in front of a clanging steam engine was a tedious task, but for Roland it became a decompression. Sitting in the courtyard with Anna, chatting and paying attention to the dynamics of the prototype, it was as if the two had first known each other, relaxed and peaceful.

At some point, Selene quietly left the lab, leaving him and Anna alone in the courtyard.

The latter rested his head on his shoulder, and the noise of the machine seemed to become very distant.

"If it succeeds, we'll be one step closer to the world you once was, right?"

"Well, it's going to be a lot shorter - you know, there's no similar technology in that world. ”

"Can you realize the kind of four-wheeled car that you said can be driven by one person?"

"Yes, if you like, I can design a simple one for you to try your hand at first. ”

"Alright!" Anna's voice jumped for a moment, "by the way, what are you going to name this machine?"

"Does it have to be a name?" Roland laughed.

"Of course. Her expression was extremely serious.

"Okay then, Black Technology No. 1 and Rubik's Cube Power, which one do you choose?"

"Where is it dark...... Really, I'll pick the latter one. But how do you distinguish the difference in the model number?"

"Simple, a festival Rubik's Cube represents a cylinder, and the principle prototype is called a three-cylinder Rubik's Cube power, how about it?"

"Something was strange. ”

"Don't worry about the details......"

The laughter of the two mixed with the sound of the machine, forming a melody that lasted for a long time in the courtyard. 8)