I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 589 Strategic Materials (Requesting Double Monthly Tickets)
The "Indomitable" was slowly towed to the dock, and everyone was silent.

Joseph took Borda, Sane and others on board to check, and saw that the crankshaft of the steam engine was broken due to overload, and it was lying there like a deformed monster.

The stern cabin was littered with flying wood fragments, which were probably the main shaft that had been shattered due to severe vibration.

He made detailed measurements and records, and left the ship to return to the design studio when he saw Murdoch running over excitedly, breathlessly saying, "Your Highness, it's been five hours!"

"What five hours?"

Murdoch turned and pointed to the hull laboratory in the distance: "The new propeller has been running for 5 hours without any malfunction!"

Joseph was overjoyed and hurriedly got on a carriage with everyone to check it out.

In a laboratory as big as a basketball court, there is a glass "fish tank" that is more than one person tall and filled with water.

The LJ52 steam engine on the side was roaring, driving a cylindrical wooden shaft through a set of gears into the "fish tank". The propeller at the end of the bearing stirred up a lot of bubbles, but it was only trembling slightly, like a beast being held down by a hunter.

Murdoch signaled to his partner Sandel, who was adding coal to the steam engine.

The latter glanced at the clock and said, "Five hours and 5 minutes. Everything is normal."

Cheers suddenly broke out all around, and designers and technicians clapped their hands in celebration: "Thank God! Finally succeeded!"

"I know that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's design will succeed."

"This thing will make our warships at least ten years ahead!"

Joseph's face was also full of surprise. He turned to Murdoch and asked, "Did Mr. Garman use some new technology?"

Yes, after the propeller vibrated continuously, he invited his father's master, Mr. Gaman, the top watchmaker in France.

Let Garman use the technology used to process watch bearings to make propellers, which is the highest processing precision that can be achieved in this era.

Murdoch nodded. "Yes, Your Highness. Mr. Garman said he improved the polishing method and changed the wood used for the spindle."

"Oh?" Joseph was a little surprised that Garman actually knew about materials science. "What kind of wood did he change?"

“I didn’t ask him about this.”

Joseph said to Emmanuel, "Please go and invite Mr. Garman."

Half an hour later.

The watchmaker looked at the propeller that had been running safely for more than six hours, and excitedly made the sign of the cross on his chest: "Thank God! It must be you who guided Miss Berenice to come to me!"

Joseph blinked, "Miss Berenice?"

Borda said hurriedly: "Your Highness, that seems to be the maid assigned to Mr. Garman by the shipyard."

Joseph looked at Garman and said, "Mr. Garman, did the maid help you with your work?"

"Yes, Your Highness." The latter nodded vigorously, "You mentioned before that the main shaft should be made of wood with uniform wood quality and as high hardness as possible.

"I was mumbling this unconsciously after dinner last week, and Miss Berenice heard it and told me about a very hard wood - guaiac wood."

"Guaiac wood?" Joseph thought he had heard the name somewhere before. "She said it was the hardest wood she had ever seen, and the natives of Jamaica used it to make axle sleeves for oars. And she happened to have a piece of it at home."

Garman said, looking at the still spinning propeller: "That's it. I didn't pay much attention to it at first, but when I saw the wood, I immediately realized that it was definitely the best spindle material!

"It is not only hard and not easy to deform, but also oozes oil by itself. If you use it to make a main shaft, you don't even need additional lubrication.

“I processed it into a spindle, and I didn’t expect it to be so useful!”

Joseph suddenly had an idea. It could seep oil by itself and was very hard. It seemed to be the "destroyer life-saving shaft" mentioned in the news in later generations.

He remembered that the news said that the destroyer imported by a certain country's navy had a design defect, which caused the main shaft to wear out easily, but they could not buy imported parts. Finally, the old craftsman used a kind of wood that could absorb oil by itself to make the main shaft and replaced it, thus solving the problem himself.

He forgot the name of the wood, but it was probably guaiac.

If this thing can serve as the main axis of a 3,000-4,000-ton warship in the future, it will definitely be more than enough to deal with frigates of less than 400 tons in this era.

Joseph pondered, "It seems that the previous vibration problem is not only due to the insufficient machining accuracy of the propeller, but it is also likely accompanied by slight deformation of the main shaft under the action of rotation, resulting in asymmetric forces on both sides."

Chief designer Sane continued: "It is also possible that the spindle's hardness and strong deformation resistance, coupled with its self-lubricating properties, make up for the problem of propeller processing accuracy."

Joseph immediately realized that this guaiac wood would become a strategic-level raw material.

He asked Emmanuel to call Miss Berenice over and asked, "Where did you get that piece of guaiac wood?"

The maid seemed very nervous. After she stammered for a long time, Joseph finally understood that her father had been a sailor in the Caribbean and saved a Jamaican businessman, who gave him a large piece of spice, which was the guaiac wood.

After her father returned home, he learned that this thing was very valuable, so he kept it at home as a decoration until it was bought by Garman.

Joseph immediately gave her a bonus of one thousand francs and instructed the intelligence agency to tell her and her family about the confidentiality regulations.

Joseph then found a botanist and asked about the origin of guaiac wood.

"Your Highness, as far as I know, this thing should be produced in Jamaica." The latter said, "Occasionally, spice or medicinal herb merchants bring it to Europe to sell."

"Jamaica?" Joseph frowned.

That was a British colony. It seemed that we needed to stock up a batch as soon as possible before the British understood its use.

A week later, the shipyard bought several more guaiac wood from the medicinal herb market. Garman processed them into full-size spindles and installed them on the Indomitable.

The midday sun shone on the calm surface of the Brest Bay, and the "Indomitable" appeared in front of everyone with a brand-new power system.

This time it took only 25 minutes to cleanly overtake the paddle boat used for comparison testing, and sailed for four hours before finally stopping due to a steam engine failure.

At this time, the paddle boat had been left behind by it for more than 20 kilometers.

This time, Joseph looked at Murdoch and smiled, "Well, it's up to you now. You have to at least make sure it works stably for a day without any glitches."

He did not blame Murdoch. After all, the high-pressure steam engine technology has only been developed for more than a year, and this is an ultra-high-pressure version. It is rare to have the current stability.

The latter looked at Sandor and said uncertainly: "Your Highness, this may take about two years. After all, such a high-pressure model is rarely used in other places."

(End of this chapter)