afterglow

Chapter 597 Chapter "Arithmetic Cabinet"; unusual movement - the enemy's counterattack horn?

Since the war broke out, the problem of too few heavy cruisers has been plaguing the Ming Navy, causing considerable trouble in actual combat.

The naval treaty certainly restricted the designers' creativity, making heavy cruisers less cost-effective, but it was ultimately indispensable.

For example, if the enemy sends a detachment led by a heavy cruiser, you must at least send a force of the same level or higher to respond.

However, when the war broke out, the Ming Navy had only six heavy cruisers, which were simply not enough on the vast front line stretching from India in the west to Australia in the south and Hawaii in the east; high-speed battleships were too valuable to be mobilized thousands of miles for a trivial matter.

Finally, the Ming Navy waited patiently for the Chenghua-class special battleship to be put into service, which finally resolved the original predicament.

In addition to the three unique light battleships Chenghua, Hongzhi and Zhengde, the Ming Navy also gained two other major forces.

In the 37th year of Zhichang, with the expiration of the naval treaty, the Ming Navy planned to start building five unrestricted cruisers - intending to make up for the previous debt in one go.

当时设想的方案有好几种，例如：3座三联装208㎜主炮、1.4万吨级的；4座三联装208㎜主炮、1.7万吨级的；3座三联装240㎜主炮、1.85万吨级的。

The first option is essentially an improved version of the Wuyishan class, which the Ming Navy is not interested in - after all, without the restrictions of the treaty, it should naturally be larger and stronger.

The navy argued internally for several months and only decided to adopt the third option, the Qinling class, at the end of the year.

At this time, the Advisory Council had already approved the budget for the following year and was unwilling to make any changes, only promising to add a temporary appropriation bill later. As a result, it was not until the 38th year of Zhichang that the Advisory Council approved the appropriation bill for four of the five ships.

However, during that period, after weighing the pros and cons, the Navy found that its ocean-going delivery capabilities were also insufficient and needed to be strengthened, so it built several large troop transport ships, large landing ships, and high-speed oil tankers.

Therefore, only two Qinling-class ships were started, and the other two have only existed on paper.

The two Qinling-class cruisers, the Qinling and the Nanling, have been completed and commissioned and are undergoing adaptive training.

With these two and three Chenghua-class ships, the Ming Navy no longer had to worry about being stretched when forming a detachment fleet.

"Is the Chenghua-class armor enough to defend against the enemy's heavy cruiser's guns?"

The layout of the main guns being placed all forward seems a bit strange to Zhou Changfeng, but it is said to have many advantages.

"Of course. The main armor belt is eight inches thick and has a twelve-degree inward inclination. It is estimated that the penetration capability of the main guns of American heavy cruisers is no more than 200 millimeters, which is no problem." The deputy designer replied confidently.

"It sounds like he can fight two at once."

"This ship is a battleship after all. If you encounter a heavy cruiser, it's best to turn around and run away. Even if it's three against one, it's still very risky."

Zhou Changfeng looked at the Zhengde ship anchored not far away and said, "It seems that Britain and the United States are going to have a headache. This ship is not good at suppressing the upper part, but its ability to suppress the lower part is extraordinary."

"Yes, this is the wonderful thing. Senior Dong's handwriting is really wonderful."

Even though the triple-mounted 320mm main guns are old, they are still not something a mere Treaty-class heavy cruiser can withstand. It's just so unreasonable.

In the Battle of Guadalcanal-Tulagi Strait, the Yuan Xing scored three hits on the Salt Lake City, directly destroying the heavy cruiser.

Therefore, for the captains of British and American heavy cruisers, the best strategy after encountering the Chenghua class is to run away - they cannot penetrate the opponent, but the opponent can severely damage them with one blow.

When we returned to our hotel, good news suddenly came.

Someone came to report that they had found the person or thing related to the "electronic tube computing equipment" according to Zhou's request.

"Yanshan College of Science? Not bad, not far away. Let's notify them in advance and we can go there early tomorrow morning."

"Yes."

Are there really experts? I wonder what the computers that ordinary people will build will look like. I hope they won't be in vain.

It was freezing cold in Shuntian in winter, with the north wind raging and snowflakes flying outside, but inside Yin Hotel it was warm and even a little hot thanks to the heating.

Take a nice hot bath, change into a loose robe, pick up a newspaper and read it, and the busy and tiring day will pass.

Zhou Changfeng fell asleep in anticipation.

the next day.

Due to the snow on the road, the convoy, which set out before dawn, stopped and started frequently and finally arrived at noon.

Yanshan University of Science is a private university whose predecessor can be traced back to an academy hundreds of years ago and has a long history.

The elegant and ancient campus environment is very quiet, and the snow-capped mountains add to the elegant atmosphere.

Here, Zhou Changfeng was surprised to see the so-called "vacuum tube computing device" and its creators - four students.

Because the Department of Mathematics often has to carry out boring and complicated calculations, teachers and students are fed up with it, especially those partial differential equations which are really disgusting.

Therefore, a student named Cheng Tianyi determined to invent a machine to assist or even completely replace the lengthy calculation work. He believed that the existing mechanical relay computers had no development potential and the computing speed had an insurmountable bottleneck, so he decided from the beginning to invent a "more electrified faster computing machine."

He gathered several like-minded friends and also brought along his girlfriend, Zhong Ying, who was studying physics. The four of them successfully used electron tubes, capacitors, and wires to make what they had envisioned.

The college’s laboratory building is very large. Zhou Changfeng saw the so-called electronic computer on the third floor, which they called the “arithmetic cabinet.”

This is a crude device the size of a wardrobe. You can see messy rolls of wires and electron tubes on it. There are also two electric fans facing it, apparently to dissipate heat.

It seems that the desire to be lazy is the driving force for progress. But... I remember that ENIAC was as big as an entire room?

Zhou Changfeng recalled the appearance of the world's first electronic computer and asked thoughtfully, "What is its structural design?"

"Reporting to the general," Cheng Tianyi was calm and introduced, "Logic elements are vacuum electron tubes. When using them, insert the cassette with holes in it, inject the initial calculation values, and temporarily store the digital information with capacitors. Then, use the steel needle to make holes and output the calculation results at the other end. That's basically it."

"Is it in binary?"

"Correct."

“Why use capacitors to store data?”

"Well... Your Excellency, the school doesn't have much funding, and the electron tubes are too expensive, so we can just use cheaper capacitors instead."

Zhou Changfeng was silent for several seconds, looking thoughtful. He pointed at the "arithmetic cabinet" in front and asked, "How fast is the calculation speed? How many additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions are there per second?"

Cheng Tianyi shook his head and said, "This machine is only designed to solve partial differential equations. It can't do what you said." Zhong Ying behind him whispered a few words of reminder, and Cheng Tianyi hesitated and said, "If we redesign a machine of the same size as this one, it should be able to do a hundred additions or three multiplications per second."

“How much funding did the school give you?”

"I gave him 4,000 last year and 1,200 this year."

"Okay, I'm optimistic about this thing." Zhou Changfeng praised: "Have you applied for a patent? If not, go and apply for it quickly. The military will intervene to provide funding later. The Ministry of War will allocate 150,000 yuan first."

"So many?!" Several students were surprised when they heard this.

"You have to make a bigger and more complete one within two months. It must be able to calculate multi-order partial differential equations, both linear and nonlinear." Zhou Changfeng, who was in a very good mood, promised them: "The military wants to requisition this achievement, but the patent fee will not be small."

The "arithmetic cabinet" consists of a total of 402 vacuum tubes to perform digital logic operations. Each group of adders is composed of 16 vacuum tubes (subtraction operations are converted into additions through binary complement), has data input and output capabilities, and uses binary.

Therefore, although the "arithmetic cabinet" was very simple and was just a handicraft of a group of students, it already contained the basic elements of the von Neumann electronic computer - binary principle, processor, memory, input device, and output device.

In comparison, the famous ENIAC electronic computer, which was invented a few years later, used 18800 vacuum tubes and could perform at most 5000 additions or 400 multiplications per second.

As for today's mechanical relay computers, their capabilities are far less powerful than this.

Harvard University in the United States is designing and manufacturing a fully automatic, high-precision large-scale mechanical relay computer ASCC-Mk1, or Harvard Mark One.

It can perform three additions per second, but a multiplication takes 3 seconds and a division takes 6 seconds.

【Picture】

In order to improve, adjust and verify the theoretical model of the nuclear program, one of the sub-plans of the Jinwu Project was to build a large mechanical relay computer, at a huge cost.

The machine has been designed and manufactured by Ziyun Precision Instrument Co., Ltd. It contains 9.4 mechanical components, is driven by a 7.5-horsepower electric motor, and is expected to weigh 6 tons. It can perform five addition operations per second with an accuracy of up to 5 decimal places.

It can be said that the electronic computer, which is still in its embryonic stage, has already demonstrated its outstanding advantages - the computing speed is extraordinarily fast!

This is also good news for the Ordnance Bureau and the three armed forces: at least they will no longer have to worry about calculating artillery projectile data tables.

Zhou Changfeng felt the rising heat from hundreds of electron tubes in the "arithmetic cabinet" and the two electric fans whirring beside him. He was undoubtedly in a very good mood today.

But his good mood did not last long.

In the afternoon, he came to the air force base in the southern suburbs to inspect the ongoing aircraft confrontation tests.

The Hawaiian Expeditionary Force captured a complete P-11A fighter on November 25. After completing its mission in the evening, the plane got lost and circled in the vast ocean, and finally landed on the westernmost island of Kauai by accident.

The Ming army was overjoyed and immediately shipped it back to their homeland.

The Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of War and the Air Force immediately organized an evaluation team, and several designers from Shuntian Shangxing Aircraft Company also joined.

They found that the overall design of the Mustang was simple and clear, the internal mechanical structure and instrument equipment were properly arranged, and the laminar airfoil was impeccable, combining aesthetics and performance.

Also present at the scene were several engineers from Messerschmitt, who were responsible for directing the maintenance and support of the Bf-109F4 for foreign trade.

Everyone was amazed and several designers from Shangxing Company were impressed by it.

When Zhou Changfeng arrived, this P-51A, under the control of the test pilot, had already destroyed the Air Force's Type -J and the Type -G that had not yet been put into production. The Navy's most powerful Type Yuan carrier-based destroyer was also completely defeated.

"Are we all going to be killed?" said a pilot unwillingly.

Uplink had to produce the prototype of the SX-102 fighter jet it was developing - the result of a high-performance liquid-cooled engine fighter program.

This prototype was not even painted and underwent additional fine polishing, which finally resulted in a 50-50 situation in a simulated air combat at medium and low altitudes.

Tests have shown that any fighter jets equipped by the Ming Air Force and Navy are at a disadvantage against the P-51A. The latter has very balanced performance, with a maximum speed of 600 km/h. Its only weakness is that it has only one stage, one speed supercharger, and its performance plummets after the altitude exceeds 5000m.

However, the air combat zone in the Pacific battlefield was mainly at medium and low altitudes.

The evaluation team then conducted a confrontation test using a purchased Bf-109F4, and the result could only be described as a draw or a slight advantage.

The Germans were relatively calm and thought it was no big deal because there were already newer models of the Bf-109.

However, the Germans will probably regret it soon, as they don't know that the British are now trying to replace the original Allison engine with Merlin.

"The Mustang crisis is well-deserved." After listening to the assessment team's description, Zhou Changfeng asked in a deep voice: "How should we deal with it? Everyone, please share your ideas."

"Mr. Zhou, our country's aviation industry started late and has a weak foundation. Now..."

"This is nonsense, no need to continue."

Zhou Changfeng did not expect to gain air superiority, but he had to at least ensure a 50-50 situation and not let his side be the only one to be bombed.

There was a long silence in the room, so long that you could hear a pin drop.

After a while, a designer wearing glasses hesitated and said, "I will work harder on the design of the model, and study and optimize it in depth, but a good cook cannot cook without rice. If the engine is not up to standard, it will not work. I hope the court will pay attention and give full support."

"We have already put in a lot of effort, but we will work harder." Zhou Changfeng nodded and sighed, "Let's work together to resolve this threat as soon as possible."

The Ming Dynasty's military industry department had long since given up on developing the DB600 engine. Over the past year or so, it has been concentrating on studying the BMW 117 and the Hispano-Suza 12Y. Both of their improved models can output a nominal 1200 horsepower, which is pretty good.

Among them, most people believe that the latter has greater development potential.

Therefore, after exchanging opinions, representatives of all parties decided to abandon the BMW 117 and then vigorously develop the French Hispano-Suiza 12Y/Z, switch to four valves to improve ventilation efficiency, and apply direct injection technology, which theoretically can achieve 1450 horsepower.

As for the air-cooled radial engine, because it is easier to increase power due to its structure, we are now working on a 2000 horsepower level.

Good things come alone, bad things come in pairs.

When Zhou Changfeng was worried about the fighter jets, another shocking news came -

Recent radio monitoring reports show that the US military may have unusual movements in the southwest Pacific, and the target is most likely the Marshall Islands. The garrison stationed on Tarawa Atoll also reported that the US military's recent aerial reconnaissance has been abnormally frequent, which seems to confirm this point.

(End of this chapter)