Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1044 1039 [Electricity Middle Ages]

On the first day of the first lunar month in 1145 AD, the Ming Emperor officially changed the era name.

Starting this year, the Yellow Emperor's calendar was added to official documents, historians' notes, and educational institutions. According to the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the "Emperor's Chronicles" and the "Huangji Jingshi", this year is "the 3842nd year of the Yellow Emperor".

At the same time, Emperor Zhu changed the era name to "Shenfu", which was the "First Year of Shenfu".

It was also established as a ancestral precept that future Ming emperors would only have one reign title in their lifetime for the convenience of official and private use.

The imperial seal, called the Divine Talisman, has been completed. This thing is not used for stamping, but only for large-scale events. Moreover, it is not convenient to use it for stamping, as it weighs a full nine pounds and nine ounces.

The main body of the jade seal is made of a whole piece of Hetian jade, and the raw material comes from Gaochang.

A colorful dragon lies on it, its body made of various metals, and its scales inlaid with gemstones. Two oriental pearls are dragon eyes, and one South Sea gold pearl is a dragon ball. The various materials come from all over the country, and some even come from Dali and Tubo.

The wooden box used to hold the imperial seal is made mainly of Annan rosewood.

There are eight large characters in insect-bird script engraved on the jade seal: "Carrying the will of Heaven and responding to the people, may you live long and prosper forever."

After many years, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty held a suburban sacrifice again, mainly to tell the heaven, earth and the ancestors that the Ming Dynasty had remade the imperial seal and established the Yellow Emperor's era.

In April, the construction of Luoyang City was completed.

By the way, the water conservancy system inside and outside the city was improved again, making it more convenient for citizens to use water, and strengthening the river embankment to prevent frequent waterlogging.

While improving the water conservancy system, they also took the opportunity to build a small hydroelectric power station.

The DC generator has a power of about 10 kilowatts, which is equivalent to a medium-power household diesel generator.

Don’t think it’s too shabby. In another time and space, the world’s first hydroelectric generator had a power of only 4.5 kilowatts.

On the day of the start of filming, Zhu Ming invited civil and military officials and students from the capital to watch the ceremony.

The emperor didn't come.

In fact, there is already a hydroelectric generator in Wangchuan Valley, with a power of less than 5 kilowatts, which has been running for half a year. It was a prototype made by Zhu Guoxiang through repeated experiments. After the test was successful, it was copied to Luoyang and the power was increased.

Unfortunately, the invention of the electric light failed!
To be precise, it was half successful. The carbon filament light bulb was successful. It was made entirely by hand and added with inert gas, but the life of this thing was too short.

Zhu Guoxiang certainly knows how to use tungsten wire, but the question is how to purify tungsten?

The most difficult thing now is not the purification method, but the fact that we don’t know what tungsten ore looks like, and we don’t know which mineral to use to extract it from.

In fact, purifying platinum is very simple, and it can also be used to make filaments.

But the question remains, what does platinum ore look like and where can we find it?
In the Ming Dynasty today, the development of science and technology is distorted, and chemistry lags far behind physics. The discipline of chemistry requires countless scientists to slowly discover, experiment and accumulate.

The hydroelectric power station was built on the southwest side of the imperial city, where there was a clarifier for the imperial city's water.

Chengcao is equivalent to the sedimentation tank of a water plant. China has had it as early as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. At the Yangcheng ruins of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, not only sedimentation tanks were discovered, but also ceramic underground water supply pipes.

This sedimentation pond on the southwest side of the Luoyang Imperial City was mainly used to provide drinking water (including washing) for palace maids and eunuchs. As for the royal family members and officials working in the imperial city, they naturally drank well water in the palace. The main purpose of doing so was to prevent poisoning.

After improving Luoyang's water conservancy last year, a total of 24 sedimentation tanks were built inside and outside the city, and a large number of new ceramic underground water supply pipes were laid.

Urban water safety has been a top priority since ancient times.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty, the largest water supply source for Hangzhou was the West Lake, but people often dumped feces and garbage there. In order to rectify this, the court directly punished two eunuchs and dismissed them for polluting the water source by washing horses in the West Lake.

But next to the sedimentation tank in the imperial city, Zhu Guoxiang sent people to build a two-level water tower. It was not an iron can, but more like two oversized reservoirs.

They are not very high either, the first level water tower is 15 meters and the second level water tower is less than 5 meters.

The generator is installed between two water towers, with a height difference of about ten meters. At this height, only about 10 cubic meters of water per second are needed to provide kinetic energy for a 0.06-kilowatt generator.

The initial method of delivering water to the water tower was very primitive. The eunuchs used manual power to pump water, pumping it up little by little.

More than a dozen eunuchs took turns to shake the rope for seven days and seven nights. In order to speed up the process, they even used pulleys to lift buckets of water up one by one.

At this moment, the first-level water tower has been opened, driving the generator to work.

The water that flows down falls into the secondary water tower, providing water for the newly laid tap pipes in the imperial city - mainly used for washing items. For example, officials can wash their hands by turning on the faucet, but if someone wants to drink the water directly, that's also possible.

Civil and military officials, as well as students from the Imperial Academy and the Prefectural Academy, were all watching intently.

"Your Majesty, you can turn on the electric water pump."

"open it."

The more than ten-meter-high water pipe that draws water to the water tower is made entirely of copper.

One of Zhu Guoxiang's students had already become a technician in the Ministry of Works. Now this technician, along with a few clerks, connected the pump to the copper water pipe and then pushed it up to turn it on.

A buzzing sound was heard, and the clerk on the water tower quickly shouted, "Water is coming, water is coming!"

The officials and students were stunned.

The cabinet minister Fang Mengqing died of a sudden illness last year while in office. Hu Anguo is currently the cabinet minister. Pan Lianggui was transferred to the position of Minister of Personnel, and Wei Liangchen was transferred to the position of Minister of Revenue.

Hu Anguo was inexplicably shocked: "I've heard that the emperor has the ability to control electricity. This is truly mysterious!"

The student representatives were mentally prepared, as some of them had been playing with battery stacks (primitive batteries) for nearly two years.

For Zhu Ming and Zhu Guoxiang, these were just minor incidents.

Moreover, it is impossible to use the water tower to generate electricity and then drive the pump to raise water forever. At critical times, water must be pumped up by manpower. But this is a good start and it is convenient for life in the imperial city.

Under the water tower, water pipes are laid. They are all wrought iron pipes, painted on the outside to prevent rust, and the joints are cold-welded with zinc-tin alloy (traditional cold welding uses lead-tin alloy).

Zhu Ming smiled and walked towards the faucet: "Everyone, please watch."

A eunuch brought a piece of scented soap, Zhu Ming turned on the faucet, tap water flowed out, and the emperor began to wash his hands with soap.

Everyone likes it very much. It is so convenient.

Zhu Ming asked: "Does anyone know the principle of this tap water?"

The students were eager to answer, and one of them bowed first: "Your Majesty, this is the effect of water pressure. The second-level water tower is more than ten feet above the ground, and water will naturally gush out of the water pipes on the ground."

"You're good at physics," Zhu Ming asked with a smile, "What's your name?"

The student happily replied, "My name is Li Yue, courtesy name Duzhi, and I am currently a student at the Imperial College."

Zhu Ming nodded slowly.

Although it was just verbal praise, it made other students envious.

Zhu Ming said to the officials: "The officials of the cabinet and the court can use this tap water in the future when they work in the imperial city. The water pipes have been laid to the harem and various palaces. If there is a fire, water can be quickly released from the pipes. Remember not to waste it. The water in the water tower is limited. Electricity cannot fully meet the demand. We have to use manpower to pump water every once in a while."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The senior officials bowed hurriedly.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "Let's go home today and try again."

Everyone resigned.

Officials working in the imperial city returned to their offices.

The construction has been going on for two months and they know where the taps are to be installed.

At the Privy Council, Li Bao turned on the tap, put his mouth close to the water and drank directly from it, grinning, "It's like spring water gushing out from the mountains."

"You don't mind it being dirty." Yang Zhi expressed his disgust.

"The water that has passed through the sedimentation tank can't be that dirty," Li Bao said after washing his hands. He then stepped back. "You guys try it too."

After a while, an official from the Ministry of Works came over and said, "Generals, you can go to the toilet and take a look."

Wang Yuan asked, "You guys have been messing with the toilet for a month. We have to use a toilet bucket. What has it become?"

A group of military officers ran to the outhouse of the Privy Council out of curiosity, only to see a whole row of squat toilets there.

If foreigners saw this, their eyes would probably turn red.

This thing for taking shit is actually made of ceramic!
The clerk pressed the flush button and water flowed into the squat toilet.

The generals understood and praised this method. With the incense in the toilet, there was no odor at all - in the high-end toilets in ancient times, incense was burned every day to drive away odors.

The officials used squat toilets, but Zhu Ming himself used a sit-down toilet.

At this moment, he sat on the toilet and enjoyed himself for a while. After flushing the toilet, he returned to the Chuigong Hall to review memorials.

This feeling is so refreshing, with a toilet and toilet paper, it's like experiencing modern life again.

We have to build one or two more water towers. After all, the imperial city is too big, and the tap water will run out after a while. I'm afraid that the generator won't be able to cope with it.

Moreover, if we build a water tower, we can also add a generator to drive electric fans and so on.

Installing ceiling fans in the offices of the emperor and officials does not consume much electricity and provides great comfort in the summer.

If you want to generate electricity continuously, you have to build dams.

Unfortunately, with current technology, the loss rate of long-distance power transmission is too high, so a small dam must be built nearby.

Zhu Ming is sending people to Xuzhou to select a site, which is the largest iron smelting base in the country. If a hydroelectric power station is built in Xuzhou, with electricity, coal, and iron ore, the development will surely advance by leaps and bounds.

Zhu Ming muttered, "According to European calculations, it should be the Middle Ages now. The Middle Ages with hydroelectric power stations, it's fucking outrageous to think about it!"

Cabinet, toilet.

Several cabinet ministers were playing with the flush toilet. No one wanted to persuade the emperor not to indulge in material things, and no one wanted to persuade the emperor not to engage in large-scale construction projects.

They loved the running water and flush toilets.

We need more of this kind of wasting time and large-scale construction!

Li Hanzhang even said without a teacher: "Can we intercept the Yishui River at Yique Gate and build a dam to continuously drive the generator? Then build a few water towers and lay water pipes throughout the city so that all the people can use tap water and flush toilets?"

The cabinet ministers were stunned.

It seems... okay.

Ling Guxu pondered and said, "We must carefully investigate the terrain so as not to affect the people upstream and downstream, nor affect the navigation of the Yishui River."

Hu Anguo joked, "The Dragon Gate is also there, just a little downstream of the Yique Gate. If we build a dam there to generate electricity, I'm afraid many failed scholars will curse that the court has prevented them from making the leap to the Dragon Gate."

"Hahahaha!" Everyone laughed when they heard this.

(End of this chapter)