Take the warehouse back to the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 219 Improved Steam Engine

As the fire below the boiler grows stronger, the steam in the boiler is also violently generated.

The steam in the boiler is sent to the cylinder by the connected pipe, and the piston in the cylinder reciprocates under the neat push.

The piston is connected to the connecting rod, which is connected to the crankshaft, which is finally connected to the outer gear.

Every time the piston reciprocates, the gear rotates once.

However, as the fire grew larger, the valves on the connecting pipes between the cylinder and the boiler suddenly began to emit a large amount of steam.

At the beginning, although there was steam leakage from the valve, it was still controllable.But as the firepower intensified, the connection between the valve and the pipeline also began to emit gas, and there were signs of intensification.

"No, the steam is leaking." Zhao Wen became nervous as he saw the steam at the valve getting bigger and bigger.

"Hurry up and wrap it with cotton cloth!" Zhao Wen pointed at the connection, the valve that was emitting steam, and shouted anxiously.

Several craftsmen hurriedly took the prepared cotton cloth from the side, wet it in the bucket, and rushed towards the valve.

But before they rushed over, there was a puff, and the connection was instantly sprayed away by high-pressure steam.

For a moment, the broken pipe kept spraying steam outside, and the cylinder stopped for a moment.

Seeing this, the craftsmen hurriedly backed away.

But the scorching steam still sprayed on a person's calf.

"Ah!!! My legs, my legs!!!"

For a moment, the craftsman who was hit by the steam fell directly to the ground, hugging his calf, howling in pain.

Seeing this, Zhao Wen hurriedly yelled at the craftsman behind him: "Save the people first, and put out the fire under the boiler for me as soon as possible."

As soon as Zhao Wen's voice fell, the craftsman behind him rushed towards the fire under the boiler with a wooden basin filled with sand.

Because there is a boiler above the fire, Zhao Wen is afraid that if water is used, the boiler will be scrapped immediately if it is cold and hot.

A moment later, the fire under the boiler was extinguished directly by the sand.

The craftsman who was scalded by the steam was also pulled back.Fortunately, there was nothing serious, and the burnt area on the calf was not too large. After applying the herbal medicine to treat the burn, it would be fine after a month of recuperation.

After the boiler and pipes cooled down, Zhao Wen stepped forward and looked at the cracks in the pipes.

"The sealing of the spherical valve is still not good. The connection between the valve and the pipeline was directly torn by the high-pressure steam. If this happens again when the steam engine is in use in the future, it will be bad."

Zhao Wen caressed the tear on the pipe, and heaved a long sigh, his face full of helplessness.

In order to prevent the pipe from leaking, the pipe is cast.

In this way, gaps will inevitably appear when the valve and pipe are welded.

After all, there is no electric welding in this era, and welding is very backward. Instead, molten iron is directly poured on the junction of valves and pipes.

But in this case, it is inevitable that the welding will not be tight.

After all, using this method is easy to cause the outside to appear to be welded successfully, but the inside is not necessarily welded.

In addition, there are no polishing machines and rubber in this era, so the sealing of this spherical valve cannot be guaranteed.

Under the repeated impact of high-pressure steam, cracking is inevitable.

"My lord, the boiler is cracked."

Just as Zhao Wen was thinking wildly, Sun Yuanhua's voice suddenly came over.

Zhao Wen turned around and walked towards Sun Yuanhua anxiously.

"My lord, do you see that the connection between the top of the boiler and the boiler is cracked?" Sun Yuanhua stepped on a ladder, pointed to a tiny crack at the connection between the top of the boiler and the boiler, and turned to Zhao who was standing opposite. Wen said.

Zhao Wen stepped on a ladder, looked at the crack on the top of the boiler, and frowned tightly.

"It seems that there is still a welding problem." Zhao Wen stroked the crack on the top of the boiler and sighed.

Although the boilers are all cast, it is impossible to cast a hollow boiler at one time.

So Zhao Wen divided the casting boiler into two parts, one part is the boiler body except the boiler cover, and the other part is the boiler cover.

When the two parts are cast, Zhao Wen will have them welded together with molten iron.

But when the molten iron is cold, it will condense quickly.

It is possible that the molten iron will condense before it penetrates into the gap.

In this way, the effect of welding will be greatly reduced.It is very likely that the outside looks welded, but the inside is not welded.

Although nothing happened at the beginning, as the pressure inside the boiler increased, the gap would be flushed open by the high-pressure steam inside.

Zhao Wen walked down the ladder slowly, pointed at the boiler and the pipes, and said in a deep voice: "Put this thing down for me first, I want to see how to weld these two things together perfectly. together."

When welding such cast iron pipes in later generations, the methods used are basically cold arc welding.

But in this era, not to mention cold arc welding, there is not even ordinary electric welding. It may be even more difficult to weld the boiler cover and body perfectly together.

When the boiler was put down, Zhao Wen had someone knock off the lid and body of the boiler with a sledgehammer.

Zhao Wen looked at the knocked-off boiler lid with a pensive look on his face.

Sure enough, the boiler cover and boiler body were not completely welded together.

Judging from the signs of molten iron solidification, the molten iron did not completely penetrate the cracks at all, and the best effect was only half penetrated.

And the worst penetrated only a thin layer.

"It's no wonder that there are cracks. It's because the welding was not completely welded, and the molten iron didn't penetrate into the gaps at all. It's strange that there are no cracks in this level of welding."

Zhao Wen squatted on the ground, looking at the seal, his face was full of worry.

"With the technological level of this era, it is simply impossible to completely weld these two things together." Zhao Wen scratched his head, sighing in his heart.

"If this doesn't work, how can I do it? Is it possible that I have to screw the boiler cover on like a screw?

Even with this method, according to the industrial level of this era, it is impossible to process qualified threads at all.

What's more, this boiler is made of high-carbon steel, so it is impossible to carve a perfect thread without three or five months. "

Zhao Wen stood up from the ground, patted the dust off his hands, his face was full of worry.

"My lord, what should we do now?" Sun Yuanhua looked at Zhao Wen and asked in a deep voice.

Judging from the previous performance, this steam engine is completely capable of operation.

And as long as there is coal, the steam engine will continuously provide sufficient and stable power for processing the gun tubes of the gun in the future.

But now it seems that this steam engine still has a little problem.

Zhao Wen kept circling around the boiler, looking at the knocked-off boiler lid, with a solemn expression on his face.

"Since the molten iron can't all enter the gap, why not just thicken the joint when connecting the boiler cover to the body?

Since it can't penetrate, I will thicken it on the outside. As long as it is thick enough, it will definitely be able to seal it perfectly. "

Because the water injection port of the boiler and the window for observing the steam are in the same place, the speed of water injection can be slower.But in this way, the holes on the boiler can be reduced and the possibility of air leakage can be reduced.

Zhao Wen did what he said. He directly took out the blueprint of the steam engine and threw it on a huge table in the small yard.

Holding a charcoal pencil, he kept changing the drawings.

After a while, Zhao Wen handed over the drawings to Sun Yuanhua.

"This is where I modified it. You change it to the current general specification. After the modification, reprocess a boiler according to the modified appearance. Now this boiler can be returned to the furnace."

Zhao Wen pointed to several changes on the drawing and said to Sun Yuanhua.

Sun Yuanhua took the drawing and examined it in detail.

After a while, Sun Yuanhua said in a deep voice, "My lord, it's okay, just leave it to me."

After solving the boiler problem, there was only one valve problem left.

This steam engine needs a lot of valves. Today, only this valve is disconnected. If it is not improved, other valves may be disconnected tomorrow.

In short, if the valve problem is not solved, the steam engine will still fail.

The connection is easy to deal with. Make the ball valve bigger and make it thicker when welding, so that the problem of air leakage at the connection can be solved.

The tightness of the connection has been solved, but the ball valve is still leaking.

Because the connecting rod of the valve is not sealed with rubber, a small amount of steam will leak out when the steam engine is started.

If this problem is not solved, then a lot of the valves on the steam engine will probably be exposed. In this way, the steam pressure in the steam engine will be reduced a lot.

"There are no rubber gaskets, what should I use? I remember that pure copper thin gaskets can also play a sealing role.

By the way, I can soak the pure copper gasket with raw varnish, and then stack them together, so that the sealing effect should be enhanced a lot. "

Zhao Wen's eyes lit up, and he suddenly thought of an excellent solution.

In fact, pure copper has good ductility. Even in later generations, there are many people who use pure copper thin gaskets as sealing gaskets.

Due to the backwardness of industry in this era, high-purity pure copper may not be produced.

However, soaking pure copper thin gaskets with raw lacquer and then superimposing them will also have a good sealing effect.

……

After the boiler modified by Zhao Wen was rebuilt, Zhao Wen led Sun Yuanhua and the craftsmen to start experimenting again, but this time the experiment was very successful.

The overall operation of the steam engine was good, and the welding seams at each joint were thickened by Zhao Wen.

A gasket made by Zhao Wen was also added to the valve.

When the rebuilt steam engine started to run, Zhao Wen's eyes were fixed on the entire steam engine, for fear of any accidents.

This time the effect was good. Although there was still a small amount of steam coming out of the valve, the leaked steam was almost negligible.

As for the plumbing connections, nothing went wrong again.

"Continue to add coal." Zhao Wen said to the craftsman behind him, watching the gears spinning faster and faster.

Several craftsmen hurriedly took shovels and added coal to the bottom of the boiler.

When the waste steam that has done work in the cylinder is discharged from the one-way valve above the cylinder, a whistling sound is emitted.

"duo~"

Zhao Wen was intoxicated when he heard the voice.

"Have you heard that? This is the sound of industry. This steam engine has finally succeeded. With the steam engine, what else can I not make? Trains? Ships? Do you want anything? With the steam engine, I can build it in batches Weapons and armor. At that time, the armor will be directly made into plate armor.

With the magic weapon of the steam engine, it would not be a problem to arm an army of hundreds of thousands in the future. "

Looking at the high-speed steam engine, Zhao Wen gradually showed a crazy smile on his face.

With the sound of the whistle, a thick steam was discharged from the cylinder.

For a time, the entire cylinder was filled with steam.

"Successful, successful, finally successful." Sun Yuanhua pointed at the rapidly rotating gears, his body trembling violently.

"Is this the power of ghosts and gods? It's really unbelievable that the power of water vapor can be extracted for us to use."

A group of craftsmen gathered around the cylinder, pointing at the rapidly rotating gear on the cylinder, talking about it.

"Add coal, keep adding, this coal can't be stopped." Zhao Wen said hastily, seeing that the fire under the boiler was a little weak.

"By the way, Sun Yuanhua, you should compile a booklet as soon as possible with the specific procedures for installing the steam engine and the specifications for the use of the steam engine.

When the steam engine starts to be applied on a large scale in the future, your booklet will be distributed quickly. Zhao Wen turned around, looked at Sun Yuanhua behind him, and said in a deep voice.

Sun Yuanhua cupped his hands and said in a deep voice, "Yes, my lord."

"By the way, find me some large trucks now. I'm going to transport this steam engine to the ironworks now." Zhao Wen said suddenly.

"Yes, my lord!"

After a while, Sun Yuanhua led a few craftsmen and drove a few huge flatbed carriages into the courtyard.

"Stop heating now. After the boiler cools down completely, disassemble it for me and transport it to the ironworks."

Zhao Wen pointed at the bottom of the burning boiler and said in a deep voice.

Two hours later, the steam engine was slowly transported into the ironworks.

The workers working in the ironworks looked at the iron bumps on the carriage, put down their work, and surrounded them with curious expressions on their faces.

"What is this? What is the iron lump on the carriage? Is it going to be returned to the furnace?"

All of a sudden, countless ironworkers began to talk about it.

Sun Yuanhua looked at the workers who were arguing, and hurriedly opened his mouth and shouted: "Aren't you finished your work yet? If you don't work quickly, what are you watching? If anyone is watching, the wages will be directly deducted."

When many workers heard that their wages would be deducted, they hurried back to their respective jobs.

Zhao Wen walked around in the ironworks, and then stopped in an open space.

Zhao Wen pointed to this open space and said to Sun Yuanhua, "Just install the steam engine here, and build a factory building on this open space in the future. This factory building will produce steam engines first, seven or eight first."

"Yes, my lord."

Sun Yuanhua cupped his hands at Zhao Wengong, and then yelled at the workers who were about to drive the carriage.

(End of this chapter)