sovbooks Chapter 60 The Logic of Process Upgrading
Chapter 60 The Logic of Process Upgrading
Chapter 60 The Logic of Process Upgrading
After listening to Zheng Fuguang's explanation, Liu Yulong basically made a judgment in his mind: "The vibration should be the resonance between the drive shaft and the ship's hull. It is impossible for the drive shaft to be absolutely straight and perfect."
"First, adjust the rotation frequency. If that solves the problem, then it's not a problem with the shaft itself."
"The resonance problem is difficult to solve quickly; simply avoid the specific frequency of the vibration."
"The mismatch between propeller speed and ship speed is likely due to an unreasonable design of the propeller itself."
"There is no simple solution; we can only conduct more experiments, make adjustments based on feedback, and gradually find a suitable form."
"The approach to solving the corrosion problem of steel ship hulls is correct."
"Let's wait for the Metallurgical Department to prepare suitable stainless steel and the Chemical Department to prepare useful anti-rust paint."
"If copper plating doesn't work, try adding some copper to the stainless steel to see the effect. Try every method you can think of."
"Now that we have the converter steelmaking method, we can use various materials to blend alloys at any time."
"As for the other problems, most of them are probably caused by substandard machining precision."
"The principle of a steam turbine is indeed very simple, very simple and straightforward."
"Therefore, theoretically, the power limit is extremely high, far exceeding that of a reciprocating steam engine."
"Anything that seems simple and straightforward often requires a high level of precision in production and processing if it is to be scaled up sufficiently."
"At the same time, while the principle of a steam turbine is simple, the structure of a multi-layered turbine is by no means simple."
"The most troublesome part is the large number of stainless steel blades. They need to rotate evenly and continuously at high speed on a large shaft, at tens of thousands of revolutions per minute."
"If the shaft itself has a slight twist, or if there are slight differences between the blades in the same ring, it may suddenly malfunction or even disintegrate."
"If the machining precision is insufficient, the oil seal and air seal performance will also suffer —"
Zheng Fuguang did not mention the issue of the sealing structure, but Liu Yulong felt it was impossible for it to be completely without problems.
Perhaps the craftsmen were unaware of the problem.
This sealing structure itself takes into account leakage issues; slow leakage of oil and air is considered normal.
The level of production and processing technology only affects the speed of oil and air leakage.
Even if the leakage rate is slightly faster, it can still maintain normal operation.
The amount of oil used for sealing is negligible in the load of a large ship.
The key is that there is an air seal outside the oil seal, and the air seal is even less likely to leak.
The sealing effect is a bit poor; bubbles are just slowly rising from the stern.
As long as water leakage into the hull can be prevented, the design effect will be achieved.
But Liu Yulong felt that the current rate of leakage from this ship was definitely far greater than that of modern warships.
The fundamental problem is that the machining precision is not high enough, and the best design effect cannot be achieved in all aspects.
At this level of processing, most other aspects are passable.
The problem of seawater corrosion cannot be completely solved, and modern steel warships also need to be painted regularly.
The biggest problem is probably the steam turbine; it seems there's no way to make do with it at the moment.
The steam turbine was definitely premature; it should have taken at least fifty years to mature.
It's normal for it to be riddled with malfunctions right now; it would be abnormal if it were completely healthy.
These malfunctions are the price of its leapfrog technological development.
Zheng Fuguang carefully noted down Liu Yulong's words, and then continued to share his and the craftsmen's thoughts: "Your Majesty, the precision of processing is difficult to improve quickly; it can only be accumulated slowly."
"So, is it possible to change the design and first use a reciprocating steam engine to build a propeller ship?"
"The propulsion efficiency of a propeller is significantly higher than that of a steam paddle wheel, making it easy to achieve higher sailing speeds."
"The reciprocating steam engine drives the propeller, and the design pressure of the speed regulating gear is also lower."
Liu Yulong pondered for a moment, mainly considering the choice of technology route and industrial and infrastructure issues: "Yes, this is a more prudent choice."
"It can be driven by a reciprocating steam engine and a propeller."
"Using steel keels, gun barrels, and sail ribs, combined with wooden hulls to build ships."
"This should be the solution that offers the best overall benefits in terms of mechanical efficiency and construction speed."
"Use this approach first to design and build larger ocean-going steam transport ships."
"Steam sailing ships can solve the problem of the monsoon season affecting the shipping cycle around the local area."
"In the future, we will gradually transition to a pure steel hull based on this foundation."
"At the same time, we will build more and larger coal warehouses along the main coastal areas of the mainland and at major shipping routes in Southeast Asia."
"Once a mature shipping route can guarantee the supply of coal, we can produce specialized ships that abandon sails."
These orders covered a wide range of areas, and all the scholars and craftsmen present bowed and accepted the orders, saying, "Your subject obeys the decree."
Liu Yulong continued with the arrangements: "However, the improvement and exploration of large steam turbines cannot stop."
"To speed up the verification and iteration process, we can build a few more machines to conduct experiments simultaneously."
"The problem of machining accuracy is not unsolvable."
"As I've said before, we'll start from three aspects: materials, tools, and standards."
"The Metallurgical Department sought better alloy materials, the Machinery Department improved the design and production of machine tools with higher precision, and scholars worked with craftsmen to formulate more reasonable production processes and standards."
"The three can promote each other, that is, they can continuously cycle and upgrade."
"By continuing to do it, we can continuously improve our precision engineering capabilities."
"The reason we're having you continue working on large steam turbines is to use this machine, which has the highest requirements for machining precision, as the target and benchmark, and to continuously train and improve the machining capabilities of all relevant departments."
"The processing capabilities gained from this are certainly not limited to this one special machine; they can be used in all industries to comprehensively improve the performance of all factories, machines, and products."
Zheng Fuguang and the other relevant scholars and craftsmen once again bowed and accepted the order: "Your Majesty's words are absolutely correct."
The craftsmen did not question Liu Yulong's statement because they thought so too.
Their only concern was that if the emperor didn't support them, they wouldn't have the money to conduct research.
In games, leapfrog technological research usually only results in the penalty of being ahead of the curve, and then you get a specific technology as the final outcome.
However, in reality, the process of solving the problems arising from leapfrog R&D is the process of comprehensively improving the technological level of related industries in order to achieve the established goals.
Some modern countries have gone through such a process, which may be painful, but the pace of development is equally rapid.
Liu Yulong estimates that if the craftsmen of the Han Dynasty had achieved mass production of large steam turbines, then all the machinery and equipment from the late 19th to the early 20th century would have been easily mastered.
This period could be quite long, ranging from five to ten years, or even twenty or thirty years.
Even if it takes twenty or thirty years to achieve, it is still a huge step forward and a leading position compared to other countries.
It still has the most difficult industrial base to catch up with.
At the same time, it doesn't mean that there will be no effect before the final goal is achieved.
While there may be occasional leaps in the development of processing technology, most of the time it is a slow and continuous process.
The levels of metallurgy, machining and manufacturing, sealing devices, and ship design and construction will all continue to grow throughout the cycle.
Liu Yulong is willing to leverage national-level resources to continuously upgrade such fundamental technologies.
In Liu Yulong's view, it would be irresponsible to abandon the research and development of a technology simply because it lacks an industrial foundation.
Waiting for the so-called industrial base to mature naturally is like waiting for species to mutate and produce useful plants and animals.
To use cooking as an analogy, the pots, pans, fuel, and cooking utensils are all ready, as are the oil, salt, and seasonings. The vegetables are washed and chopped, so you can start cooking right away.
In this situation, it can be considered that there is a "complete industrial base" and that you can directly make what you want to make. This is the research difficulty of various modern small inventions.
In serious and formal scientific research projects, there are always some key technologies that are missing and need to be tackled simultaneously during the research and development process.
For example, if the vegetables haven't been washed or chopped, you need to process them first before you can cook them.
The tricky part is that most of the materials are missing, so you have to gather all the materials yourself before you can start.
For example, if you haven't bought any vegetables or seasonings, you have to buy them first before you can cook.
The most troublesome situation is when there are no conditions available and nowhere to buy them.
We had to forge our own iron pots, grow our own peanuts to press oil, and grow our own vegetables.
But no matter how difficult it is, it can be solved.
If any item is missing, start filling in the missing item; if all items are missing, start filling in the missing items from scratch.
Even if there's no vegetable garden, you can clear land; if there are no seeds, you can find suitable wild grasses to cultivate.
Although it is very slow, it is at least as fast as artificial breeding.
It is countless times faster than simply sitting and waiting for wild species to mutate naturally.
Those who abandon technological innovation without an industrial base are industrial infants nurtured by the most powerful industrial foundation in modern times.
If one were a time traveler, even if they traveled to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, they should use the lost-wax casting method to try and create a simple steam engine.
With the first prime mover, we can use it to continuously upgrade the technology and processes, putting the overall productivity of society on a fast track.
If we were to travel back to the Stone Age of primitive society, we should develop bronze smelting technology as soon as possible and enter the Bronze Age.
The resulting ideological problems are certainly problems, but they are not the most important ones. Once the problem of productivity is solved, the ideological problems can be solved as well.
In the eyes of materialists, matter is primary and spirit is secondary.
Social existence determines social consciousness, and ideas develop along with the development of productive forces, entering a fast track in tandem.
Just as the theory of evolution emerged after the Industrial Revolution was largely completed.
In the early 19th century, various machines rapidly iterated and upgraded, resulting in many machines that were very similar in form but had significant differences in function and efficiency, operating simultaneously in the same market.
The coexistence of multiple generations of machines with subtle differences reminded Darwin of the subtle differences between species, and from the upgrading and iteration trajectory of machines, he further thought that species may also undergo iterative upgrades.
During his global voyages, Darwin observed similar species with subtle differences around the world, searching for evolutionary pathways within these species to verify his hypothesis about "species evolution."
Liu Yulong is a materialist who considers ideological issues, but he is not particularly worried about them.
The existing artisans and scholars of the Han Dynasty will take into account the technological innovations in society and modify and upgrade the traditional culture and ideas they are most familiar with.
Liu Yulong can offer guidance at crucial moments to prevent them from going astray, just as he guides the craftsmen in their research now.
Because materialists believe that people cannot imagine things they have not seen, and that the mind and thought are a reflection of reality.