I open a history tutorial class in Daming

Chapter 79 Rubber Tree, Steam Engine

Song Shen didn't expect that he just casually said that rubber trees are in Southeast Asia. It turned out that he was wrong without looking up the information. This was very embarrassing.

If he had boasted about this to others in the Ming Dynasty, it would be fine, because no one knew whether rubber trees originated from South America or Southeast Asia. But the problem was that he was in class now, and as a teacher, if he talked nonsense with his students and there were related problems in the questions, it would directly affect the test scores.

Song Shen asked himself if he had any morals. Although he hated what he did, he still had to have the most basic professional qualities.

As a teacher, you have to admit your mistakes, otherwise what if you mislead your students?
So he struggled for a moment, confirmed the information in detail at the beginning of the course, and readily admitted his mistake.

"…There are indeed many good things in the American continent. Otherwise, after the Age of Exploration, those white people would not have occupied this land for no reason."

Song Shen turned on the projector, put the picture of the rubber tree on it, and pointed at it and said:

"Rubber tree, up to 30 meters tall; palmately compound leaves with leaflets, glands at the top..."

The one hundred-word introduction is omitted here to avoid wasting words.

He paused, then said:
"When people cut down this tree, a milky liquid will flow out. This liquid was later called natural rubber, and the tree was named rubber tree."

"So the question is, guess why rubber is so important?"

After all, Zhu Biao was a good student and the youngest among everyone present. As we all know, when the intelligence levels are similar, young people's brains work faster than older ones.

He remembered what he had learned in the last class, so he was the first to raise his hand:

"Sir, you said last time that this rubber tree is very effective in sealing ships. Can it be used to waterproof ships?"

"And you mentioned the Age of Exploration repeatedly. Although you didn't explain it in detail, I think that if maritime navigation develops in the future, shipbuilding technology will inevitably improve. For example, waterproof materials such as rubber will become more important."

Song Shen nodded at him appreciatively:

"Student Zhu Biao, you are very good. You answered very well!"

“The importance of rubber is indeed closely related to its sealing and waterproof properties, which is correct.”

"But it ended up directly leading to the first industrial revolution, which had little to do with shipbuilding, but because someone used it to invent something else called the steam engine."

"I think you will be very interested in this kind of machine, but unfortunately, this is a course that should be taught by a physics teacher. I am a half-baked person, so I can only give you a rough idea."

He tapped his fingers on the computer, and the image on the projection screen changed from a rubber tree to a complex mechanical diagram.

At this moment, Song Shen could only be thankful that he was a science student, otherwise he probably wouldn't be able to explain even such a small science course.

"Let's talk about the function of the steam engine first. Otherwise, if I explain the principle or the cause and effect first, I feel that you are likely to fall asleep."

He then scrolled down to select a few pictures, all of which were black and white photos from the first period of his career:
“The emergence of the steam engine directly led to the emergence of a large number of steam-powered machinery in the First Industrial Revolution.”

"First of all, steam is a form of power. When a steam engine is placed on a ship, you can stop using human labor to row the oars and propel the ship. Just burn coal in the steam engine and the ship will move forward on its own."

"In addition to boats, I think everyone here has ridden in a horse-drawn carriage, right? Before the advent of the steam engine, no matter where you were, the vehicles you used to travel were either human-powered or animal-powered. Either people carried a sedan chair, or horses, cows, or donkeys pulled the carriage."

"After the steam engine was improved and placed at the front of the locomotive, people or animals were no longer needed to pull the locomotive. The locomotive could be moved simply by burning coal, and it was faster and more durable than human or animal power."

Song Shen crossed the previous steamship picture and showed early cars and steam trains:
"The model of a car is actually very similar to that of a horse-drawn carriage, except that the horse power in front is replaced by steam power. But a train is different. Look carefully, there are two tracks under the train, which are completely consistent with the wheels of the train and are made of steel, which reduces friction and increases wear resistance. Therefore, a steam locomotive can drive such a long carriage behind it to travel quickly, day and night, without rest."

"Although this product appeared in the West hundreds of years after the Ming Dynasty, in fact, our country already had the track model thousands of years before it appeared, and the founder was here—"

"The first emperor of Qin, Ying Zheng, established the standardization of the wheel gauge, the standardization of writing, and the standardization of weights and measures. The standardization of the wheel gauge refers to the track!"

He pointed at Ying Zheng who was sitting in the second row.

The latter showed a mysterious smile after being praised.

Ying Zheng understood Song Shen's look and knew he should say something, so he stroked his short beard and manually pressed down the corners of his mouth, then nodded and said:
"Yes, this track looks very similar to the Great Qin Road."

"The first one was called the Straight Road. It was built two years ago, in the twenty-seventh year. It was very convenient and the carriages did not shake. Zhang Liang should have seen it."

Zhang Liang also nodded.

But neither Ying Zheng nor Zhang Liang had expected this. Except for Song Shen, everyone else was confused and seemed to know nothing about it.

Ying Zheng couldn't help but ask Zhu Yuanzhang next to him:
"You don't know the way?"

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head:
"Never heard of it!" on the podium.

Song Shen knocked on the table and said:
"The road is made of wood. If it is not maintained, it will soon rot under the wind and sun. The continuous wars at the end of the Qin Dynasty accelerated the damage of the road. In addition, the national strength declined due to the wars. The Han Dynasty after the Qin Dynasty was seriously short of horses. Many people used ox carts instead. As a result, the wooden track lost its original function. If it was placed on the road, it would affect traffic."

"It was also for this reason that many roads were gradually demolished. It was not until later generations found the remaining wooden tracks that the mystery of 'the same track for all vehicles' was solved, which had been puzzled for thousands of years."

Ying Zheng was so angry that smoke came out of his head.

The highway he had worked so hard to build was demolished just because of a lack of horses?
Do these fools understand how important Chidao is?

"Stupid! Extremely stupid!"

Ying Zheng slammed the table:

"Starting from Xianyang, there are two main lines of the highway. One goes straight to Yan and Qi, and the other goes to Wu and Chu, all the way to the sea. The distances between all the highways are exactly the same. Because of this, I have ordered that all the carriages be made the same!"

"With the Chidao, any decree or military order issued by Xianyang can be quickly delivered to any place where the Chidao is built, regardless of whether it is sunny or rainy, or whether the road is muddy or not."

"Tear it down. How slow will it be for the order from the capital to be passed down?"

"If you don't have horses, go to the grassland and get them back! Who took it away? You are as stupid as a pig!"

Liu Che dared not say a word——

This thing was probably dismantled by his ancestors of the Liu family. He did use it, but the Chidao was called the Imperial Road in the Han Dynasty, and the meaning was very clear. Only the emperor's carriage could use this road, otherwise it would be beyond the rules.

If Ying Zheng knew about this, he felt that the class would probably end in a fight.

Song Shen coughed twice and brought the topic back to the topic:

"Student Ying Zheng, please don't be angry. Although the disappearance of the Chidao is not a good thing, it is inevitable. After all, it is made of wood and needs long-term maintenance. When the national strength of each dynasty weakens, it will not be able to spare the money to maintain so many wooden tracks at such a high cost."

"But look, isn't this iron track much better?"

He pointed his finger at the screen, where a picture of a steam train running on a track appeared:
"Iron tracks are not as delicate as wooden tracks. Although they also require maintenance, their load-bearing capacity and wear rate are much better than wooden tracks. If the wheels are also made of iron, the wear rate will be doubled."

After saying this, almost all the students in the classroom said in unison:
"Who has so much iron?!"

Iron was a very important and scarce resource from the Qin Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty. Although the iron smelting technology became better and more abundant as the dynasties progressed, due to the lack of productivity, even if there were endless iron mines, they could only sigh in despair.

There is iron ore, but there is a shortage of people to smelt iron.

It's really beyond the ability of a middle-aged man.

Song Shen patted his forehead:
"I forgot to mention that steam engines also played a huge role in smelting technology."

"Now, back to the topic, do you remember what I told you at the beginning? The steam engine provides a power source that can replace human and animal labor. Many industries that require human and animal labor can be replaced by it, and iron smelting is one of them."

The eyes of the people below once again became as fierce as wolves and tigers.

Simply saying that it can drive ships out to sea and replace horse-drawn carts can only be said to provide convenience. For a group of emperors and generals who have not yet witnessed the dramatic changes of the Industrial Revolution, they only have a concept in their minds but do not have a more specific idea.

But if it can be used to smelt iron and do metallurgy, then they won’t be tired anymore!

"Sir, can you tell me in detail how to make this steam engine?"

Liu Che stared at the picture while speaking, his eyes almost glued to the projection screen.

Only those who have fought in a war know how much money and manpower it costs.

He wanted everything now, especially iron! Only with iron could he have weapons, and only with weapons could he replenish the loss, and only then could the soldiers go out to fight without any worries!

Even though the reign of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing had accumulated a huge fortune for Emperor Liu Che, only a fool would not want good things. If there was no other way, who would want to live off the wealth?
Song Shen coughed lightly and smiled:

"Now, are you interested in hearing about the causes, processes and results of the First Industrial Revolution?"

The students exclaimed:
"have!!!"

　There's another chapter coming up later today, I'll post it as soon as I finish writing it, 10,000 words a day!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)