"Watt, why are you here?"

Duke shook Watt's hand and asked in surprise. With the use of Duke, handshake etiquette is now popular in Stormcastle. Moreover, this kind of physical contact is easy to shorten the distance between the upper layer and the lower layer, and it is easier to increase trust and affinity.

Maybe Watt didn't expect Duke to come to a place like the mine, so he replied excitedly: "Tell the lord, I am here to experiment with the pumping function of the new steam engine, if everything goes well, the drainage efficiency will be ten times more than before, and the output of the mine will be able to double in the future!"

When he heard Watt's words, Duke was also stunned, he has been doing so much recently, so much so that he has forgotten about the steam engine. I remember that I went to the steam laboratory last year, and got the news that the steam engine was about to be successfully developed and was undergoing the final air tightness inspection and debugging.

As a result, I didn't expect to see the practical application of the steam engine today, which is a very happy thing for Duke, after all, the steam engine represents the future of Stormcastle, which is a power revolution!

"Watt, hurry up and take me to see it. ”

Without the slightest hesitation, Duke asked Watt to take him to see the successful steam engine of Stormcastle. If he could achieve the miniaturization and power he had in mind, then Duke would directly mass-produce the steam engine instead of the unstable hydraulic machinery. If it is even possible, Duke wants to directly develop a steam train to connect several very important strongholds, such as Storm Fortress, Hydro Factory, Mine, and Storm New City, so that the cost of transportation materials can be greatly reduced.

"Your Lord, come with me. ”

Watt didn't hesitate at all, after all, he had long wanted to show his research results to Duke.

The two men came to a mine with a steam engine about three meters long and two meters high. This steam engine is very close to the model of the steam engine that Duke later saw in the museum, and the layout and workmanship are basically reciprocating workmanship during the Industrial Revolution. In other words, this steam engine already has all the practical value, as long as it is miniaturized a little bit and placed on trains and ships, there is no problem at all.

If it weren't for the fact that the steam engine was working, Duke would probably be tempted to pounce on it and give it a big hug. After all, this is more than a year since Duke came to this world, and he really saw an industrial mechanized product!

At this time, Watt also began to excitedly introduce his step of the steam engine: "Lord Lord, in the past, the steam pumping machine in the mine, a single boiler was about the same size as this steam engine, especially in terms of huge cylinders, resulting in a very large volume. ”

"The larger the cylinder, the more difficult it is to seal, and in the conventional steam engine, the valve was closed after the steam was introduced into the cylinder, and then cold water was sprinkled into the cylinder, and the steam condensed to create a vacuum. The air pressure on the other side of the piston pushes the piston. A rod deep into the shaft is attached to drive a pump in the mine. The movement of the piston of the steam engine is transmitted through this rod to the piston of the pump to pump the water out of the well. ”

"But this pumping method is extremely inefficient and the internal pressure is very low. The steam engine of mine adopts the principle of high temperature and high pressure, and uses a reciprocating workmanship structure, and the efficiency has far exceeded that of the previous old-fashioned steam engine. What's more, the size of this steam engine will be easier to shrink in the future, and I even imagined that one day, if we put it on our storm wagon, as long as there is coal, it can release its power continuously, and it will completely get rid of the limitation of animal power!"

Listening to Watt's excited introduction, Duke didn't know what to say at this time, because he didn't expect this day to come so suddenly. At the same time, the emergence of the Watt steam engine can be regarded as a solution to the urgent need of Storm Castle, after all, if you want to build and produce Storm Armor on a large scale, the demand for raw materials will be very huge.

Even if Stormcastle has tens of thousands of miners in operation, it is difficult to meet the current construction needs of Stormcastle with the production efficiency of this world. In particular, cement, steel, and other ores, basically once the full force starts, there will be a shortage of supply immediately.

As for coal, there is no shortage of coal, because Fort Storm has an excellent open-pit coal mine, which saves some troublesome mining periods, and only needs humans to transport it. This is also the reason why the storms and winters in previous years were able to grit their teeth and survive the winter, and those simple shacks in the valley of the fort were carried by burning coal for heating, otherwise I don't know how many people would freeze to death in a winter.

The reason for the inefficiency, in addition to some common drawbacks in the agricultural society, the biggest problem is the drainage of mines. You must know that excavation can be forcibly replenished by the number of people, but the problem of water accumulation in the mine cannot be drained while digging, and it is necessary to wait until the water in the mine is discharged to ensure that the excavation can continue.

More importantly, the water in the mine cannot be solved once and for all, and the infiltration of mountains and groundwater is emerging all the time, so it takes almost 24 hours to prepare for drainage. Steam engines can be a perfect substitute for human beings, because they do not get tired and can maintain high-intensity operation 24 hours a day.

Once the mine drainage problem is solved, then the excavation efficiency of the mine will be greatly increased, and there will be no need to worry about raw materials for the full construction of Storm Castle next!

"Watt, you've done a very nice job this time. Now that Storm Castle is running out for time, you can build as many as you can in a hurry to miniaturize and improve, preferably with steam pumps in every mine. ”

Duke's top priority now is raw materials, so the miniaturization of the steam engine can be completely slow, even if it is so large, as long as it can increase the power and horsepower, Duke is completely acceptable. Because his next plan was to put the steam engine on the train or the ship, both of which were acceptable for the size of the steam engine.

Duke had even seen the steam locomotive a few times, and the volume was no smaller than the steam engine in front of him, so this volume was completely feasible. As for the steam carriage, Duke only joked, he knew that no matter how much the efficiency of the steam engine was improved, it could not become the best power source for the carriage, and only the development of the internal combustion engine in the future would make the miniaturized power source have a transformative development.

Therefore, solving the urgent task is the most important thing, and everything else can be slowly advanced!