Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 342 Preparations before sailing again ([-])

The expedition fleet led by Li Yi set off from Hekoubao on February 1642, 2, and it was already November 1 when they returned to the mainland. The entire operation lasted 11 months and 20 days.They not only successfully demonstrated the feasibility of this route, but also set up a relay point in the southwest corner and southeast corner of the Australian mainland, and finally succeeded in setting up a passable stronghold in the Far East.

After carefully reading a series of documents such as the logbook, expedition diary, and work report submitted by them, both the staff officers of the Admiralty and the bureaucrats of the Executive Committee all sighed that the experience of these guys can be written into a book. novel.If it weren't for the fact that the plan needs to be carried out in a low-key manner to take care of the emotions of some old local citizens, especially those Livonians and French, the executive committee is ready to hold a celebration meeting for Li Yi and his group.

However, although the celebration meeting was not completed, the internal reference of "Pravda" published two full pages with a special book, so that almost all the people who traveled through knew the process of Li Yi and others' actions.So far, Li Yi's reputation has risen sharply among the cross-travelers, catching up with Lu, Wang, and Guo, who are currently the top three in the navy.

While the executive committee was discussing the details of the next set of action plans, Li Yi had already returned to his private manor on the shore of Lake Luocha in the south, spending his own vacation leisurely with his family.

"Brother Li, this time you guys really made a big splash. I'm very envious of you guys. It's an epic voyage." The newly promoted Navy lieutenant Sang Kai sat on a rosewood chair, He turned his head and said with a smile to Li Yi.He also bought land on the shore of Luocha Lake and built his own manor-style villa. He usually has a lot of contacts with Li Yi's family and has a good relationship, so the two families got together during this vacation.

Li Yi's wife was born in a merchant family in Florence. This was introduced by Julian of the Pasquale family, and it is said that she has a little relationship with the Pasquale family.They have given birth to four children over the years: three sons and one daughter, the youngest of whom is just over three years old.In the past two days, the youngest son seemed to have caught a cold, so he stayed at home to recuperate. Li Yi even specially invited a doctor from the Ming Dynasty to stay at home to take care of his youngest son.This is not Li Yi making a fuss, but the current medical level of the East Coast Republic is too low. If you get sick, you can only suffer from it, because there is no medicine, and you don’t know how to make medicine. With the feeling that a smart woman can't cook without rice.

Therefore, some doctors from the Ming Dynasty became popular. Not only were they given extremely high treatment, but the Ministry of Health even organized them to compile teaching materials to vigorously promote the teaching of Chinese medicine in the country.Of course, Western medicine cannot be partial.Since the start of the chemical industry and the mass production of concentrated sulfuric acid, Chuozhong has trial-produced a large amount of hydrochloric acid, and gradually started in-depth research on organic chemistry, especially the research on the pharmaceutical industry.However, for now, the chemical and pharmaceutical industry has still not made any progress. The North Pharmaceutical Factory located in Jushu Township, Ping'an County has only produced inorganic drugs such as sodium sulfate and ferrous sulfide to fool people, making the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Health They were greatly disappointed.

Li Yi's eldest son, Li Zemin, is nine years old this year and was sent to study in the 41st class of Bingtuanbao last year.Today, he was able to come back after asking the instructor for leave. At such a young age, he was wearing a dark green military uniform, a big cap, small leather boots, and an armed belt tightly around his waist. He looked a bit extraordinary.

However, Li Yi's wife was a little angry about this. She insisted that her son was an aristocrat and shouldn't be fighting in a playground or in a puddle with the sons of farmers.He should learn etiquette, social relations, poetry and literature, and not be like a rude soldier who gets dirty all day long and always has small wounds on his body, making himself feel uncomfortable every time he sees him. It was a heart-wrenching pain.

"I am from a peasant family. Nobles are not as good as farmers if they don't study and work hard. Children have suffered a lot since they were young. When they grow up, they will understand that this is a fortune for themselves." Li Yi sneered at this. He is very gentle, but he is still a **** in his bones, and he is very disgusted with those who play with their mouths all day long and claim to be superior.Therefore, he sent his two sons, a nine-year-old and an eight-year-old, to Bingtuanbao, so that they can learn to be a down-to-earth person from an early age, and not to lose themselves in the wealth and power.

"Honey, Zemin is the eldest son, he should learn how to run the family business." Li Yi's wife Samantha said worriedly, "Our farm in Luochagang, the grape plantation and winery in Xiangshanbao, Henan Township A furniture factory in New China, a sisal plantation in New China, and a store in Florence all require expertise to run, and you have sent our two sons to the Fortress of Corps, refusing to let them learn what high society requires. Knowledge and etiquette, this is very inappropriate. I heard that Bai Siwen's son is able to publish poems in school magazines, and he is very decent in his dealings with others, and those ladies like to stay with him."

"You woman doesn't understand." Li Yi waved his hand impatiently, and said, "You know too little, and you don't understand the essence of this society. You will understand later. Look at Wang Qinian, Lu Ming , Wang Tiechui, Zhu Liang, Xie Hansan and others from the army, which one of them sent their children to the Bingtuanbao? If you are really worried, you can teach Zehai carefully. He is only three and a half years old, and the family property will be handed over to Let him take care of it."

Samantha sighed, knowing that she couldn't convince her husband. Fortunately, her husband didn't send her youngest son to the Guards Corps of the Executive Committee known as the "Corps Prison". She had enough time to educate him into a Classy gentleman.

In fact, Li Yi's behavior is not uncommon among the time-travelers today, especially almost all of those military families sent one or two of their children to the Bingtuanbao.In this way, a few generations later, a military aristocratic group will be formed with the descendants of these descendants who have joined the army for generations and their descendants of followers in this time and space as the core. foreign policy.

Sankai's wife, Fontana, came over and held Samantha's arm. The two women who were also from Italy took their children to prepare food on the grass by the lake, leaving the two men to stay there and chat freely.

"Xiao Sang, you are fast enough." Li Yi sat on the chair and raised Erlang's legs, pointed at Sang Kai with his finger, and said: "This modern factory just came out with a propeller propeller boat, and you stared at it." Got it. The day before yesterday I saw your letter of appointment in the Ministry of the Navy. I was still very surprised. You were not an adjutant on Lu Ming’s ship. How did you get transferred to be the captain of a ship called “Crossing the Sea”? Take a closer look. , I'll fuck it, no wonder, it turns out that the "Crossing the Sea" is also a multi-functional expedition ship. But how did they solve the underwater seal of the propeller shaft? Is it reliable? Will the ship not leak?"

In fact, the Navy has long wanted propeller-equipped ships.It's just that Hyundai Special Shipyard has been unable to solve the underwater sealing and oil leakage problems of the stern tube before, so it has not produced this kind of ship for a long time, but has continuously produced two paddle wheel test ships to verify its performance.However, the navy and the modern factory have not given up the research on the propeller propeller, because its reliability is much stronger than that of the paddle steamer.

This time, a group of engineers in Hyundai Factory finally trial-produced the underwater seal of the propeller stern tube after collective discussion and repeated tests.The seal is composed of three parts: the seal chamber, the shaft sleeve and the paddle shaft. The shaft sleeve is made of bronze, the paddle shaft is made of ordinary carbon steel, and the propeller is made of cast iron.

At first, everyone thought of the iron pear wood produced in Central America as the material of the bushing. However, considering that they had to travel thousands of miles to buy this precious tree from the Spaniards, they decided to try the bronze bushing with good thermal conductivity. Back iron pear bushing.The bushing has good thermal conductivity and is very wear-resistant, and can perfectly assume the function of the bushing.In order to reduce the friction between the propeller shaft and the bushing, we also sintered a layer of graphite bronze on the surface of the propeller shaft (add 8% graphite, 6% tin, and 10% lead to the copper) to reduce the friction between the two Coefficient, but also can play a good role in sealing.

Oil lubrication is used between the bushing and the paddle shaft.In order to prevent the leakage of lubricating oil, the engineers of Hyundai Factory worked together to process some oil retaining threads from the outer surface of the propeller shaft.Because when the oil adheres to the smooth paddle shaft, it is easy to be thrown out due to the rotation of the paddle shaft. The faster the paddle shaft rotates, the faster the oil leaks.However, when the outer surface of the paddle shaft has threads, when the paddle shaft rotates, the lubricating oil that wants to leak out will be blocked by the threads, thereby staying in the sealing cavity.Of course, we have also designed a double insurance, that is, several spring sealing rings are installed at the front end of the sealing chamber, which not only prevents the leakage of lubricating oil, but also blocks the entry of sea water, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

However, some people also suggested that instead of lubricating oil, many graphite rings can be added between the bushing and the paddle shaft, which can not only play a lubricating role, but also play a good sealing role.Because of the characteristics of graphite, it is a substance with self-lubricating effect, and it is also a very ideal sealing material, which can still be applied under high temperature, high pressure and high speed.In this design, the graphite ring actually acts as a sliding bearing and sealing material, and some modern aero-engines use this lubrication method.

After comprehensively listening to the opinions of all parties, Wei Hua, the director of the modern factory, decided to build two ships directly, using different designs of propeller underwater seals.One uses iron pear wood bushing + a steel paddle shaft sintered with a layer of graphite bronze, lubricated with lubricating oil; the other uses bronze bushing + a large number of graphite rings, no lubricating oil, try both Know which is better.The Ministry of Communications quickly approved and agreed with their opinions. Therefore, Hyundai started to build two steam engine sailboats propelled by propellers, "Duohai" and "Fubo", and they were successfully completed at the beginning of this month.

(End of this chapter)