Qiming 1158

Chapter 1413 The Steam Engine

After the third major purge, Su Yonglin still has a lot of things to do.

In addition to government affairs, he also has to spend part of his time in the technical department to pay attention to how far the technicians have progressed in tackling the technology he expects.

From the current point of view, in addition to successfully realizing the technical difficulties of coking, steelmaking and firearm manufacturing, the technical departments of the Ming Dynasty still have many other technical problems.

For example, Su Yonglin hopes that they will study the practical steam engine.

In the Ming Dynasty in the ninth year of Hongwu, steam engines were definitely not without a market. If a steam engine that could be put into the market was successfully developed, this advanced machine would definitely be used in a large number of mining farms in the Ming Dynasty in a short period of time.

Steam engines were first used in mines to help miners work and to remove underground water from mines.

In the current Ming Dynasty, because of the movement of using coal as a daily raw material promoted by the imperial court, the demand for coal in the Ming market has soared, and the soaring demand for coal is reflected in the emergence of more and more coal mining farms.

The emergence of a large number of coal mining farms provided a large number of jobs for the Ming Dynasty, and a considerable number of surplus rural laborers in the main coal-producing areas left the land and entered the workshop, choosing to become a full-time worker, and the number of the working class has been expanded.

The more the working class, the more urgent the demand for industrial production technology, and once there is a breakthrough in industrial technology, it will be put into production and use at the fastest speed.

In the coal mine work area, with the development and excavation of mineral deposits, it is natural to go deeper and deeper into the ground, but once it goes underground, it will face the problem of mine groundwater.

In some extremely dangerous situations, groundwater can even threaten the lives of workers.

Faced with these problems, without the help of more advanced production tools, the staff and managers of the coal mines used their brains to find ways to use human and animal power to carry out drainage work.

Due to the difficulty of drainage, the working group of the Ministry of Industry also taught them how to use the pulley block at their request to help them save effort.

Pulley block drainage is now the mainstream drainage method in many mining areas, which improves production efficiency in a certain sense.

However, compared to the large-scale groundwater system, whether it is human or animal power, even if the pulley block is added, the displacement is still a drop in the bucket, far from enough.

Therefore, when coal mines are faced with groundwater interference, mining factories often need to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to drain water, which will reduce production efficiency and greatly increase production costs. The output of coal on the market cannot be increased, and the price is difficult to continue .

Sometimes, due to practical reasons, many coal mines have to give up some mining areas with too much groundwater and choose to develop other mining areas.

This will also result in a waste of resources in a certain sense.

Under such circumstances, Su Yonglin felt that it would be very meaningful to be able to launch the steam pump in time, and it would be welcomed by the miners. If the steam pump was realized, then the threshold of the industrial age would be at hand for the Ming Kingdom. .

The working principle of the steam engine is actually very simple, and it is not difficult to do. Even the technicians of the Ministry of Industry have built a research steam engine the size of one person, which has basically realized the operation principle of the steam engine and can realize the pumping work.

Through steam, filling and condensation, Su Yonglin watched the steam engine drain a tank of water with his own eyes. That scene gave Su Yonglin a sense of blunder and excitement that went beyond the times.

To be honest, compared to the amount of groundwater in the mining area, this steam engine is like a child scooping water in a river with half a gourd.

The small amount of water pumping and the limitations of the realization conditions make this steam engine no market value, and it must continue to improve and continue to improve until it has market value before it is truly successful.

However, the realization of the principle makes Su Yonglin particularly excited, because they have found the right direction, then as long as a lot of energy is invested in continuous improvement, the day of success will definitely come.

With the first success, more successes will follow, and the production status of the entire Ming Kingdom will undergo huge changes.

In order to realize the steam pump, Su Yonglin invested millions of dollars in the technical staff of the Ministry of Industry, and gave the green light to their demand for raw materials, but the progress so far is still limited.

At the end of October, Su Yonglin inspected the Ministry of Industry, especially the work progress of the steam unit, and found that they had made a series of improvements to the steam pump, which more than doubled the work efficiency of the original version of the steam pump.

However, it still has no market value, and is easily damaged. It is also difficult to operate. For generally deep mines, it is still difficult to penetrate deeply and needs to be improved.

The members of the working group were very frustrated and felt that they were sorry for Su Yonglin's efforts and such strong financial support.

Many departments need to use the money after approval by the Ministry of Finance, and they keep a close eye on it. However, when the Research Department of the Ministry of Industry needs money, it almost makes a request in the morning, and in the afternoon, someone comes to send the money, giving them the green light.

In the face of such preferential treatment and attention, these technicians who master the most advanced technology can not give corresponding results, they feel very sad.

Su Yonglin can only continue to encourage them and tell them that the development of science and technology is not achieved overnight, don't worry, let them develop steam engines in the direction of bigger, faster and stronger, and let this brand-new power equipment bring a better tomorrow to Daming .

Looking at the steam pump that can complete the pumping action, what Su Yonglin sees is full of hope for the future.

In October of the ninth year of Hongwu, this was the beginning of everything.

Su Yonglin has no doubts that these excellent technicians can finally break through various limitations and successfully manufacture a steam engine with market value, and will continue to add a lot of investment.

He hopes that at this time next year, he can see a “Friend of Miners” that is friendly to miners and can be put into mining workshops, bringing dawn to the transformation and leap of productivity in a real sense.

When the cold wind in Zhongdu started to blow recklessly, Su Yonglin received two messages.

First, Dali sent people to pay tribute.

Second, the Khwarazm country sent people to pay tribute.

It was within Su Yonglin's expectation that Dali State sent people to pay tribute.

Because the army led by Su Haisheng and the Eighth Corps under Xu Tong's construction and training caused great pressure on the Dali Kingdom, it was a matter of course for the Dali Kingdom to come to pay tribute and find out what Daming's cards were.

But what is the meaning of Khwarizmo country coming to pay tribute?
According to the report of the Skynet Army spy who returned from "doing business" in Xiliao, Su Yonglin learned that the Khwarizimo country was in the west of Xiliao.

The western territory of Xiliao has expanded to Central Asia, which has caused great pressure on the Abbasid Dynasty, the Gur Dynasty and other countries, and has a great influence in Central Asia.

The country of Khwarizm also lived there, separated from Daming by thousands of mountains and rivers.

It cannot be said that there is no intersection between this country and Ming Dynasty, and it can also be said that there is no interaction. In history, there has been no intersection since the Tang Dynasty. It has been three to five hundred years. What are they doing here to pay tribute at this time?
A simple gift, or...

Hope Daming will launch a military attack on Xiliao?
Is there a lot of discord between Khwarazm and Xiliao?
Su Yonglin had some thoughts of his own on this.

Then he announced that he would first receive the envoy of the Dali kingdom, have a talk with the envoy of the Dali kingdom, and then go to meet the envoy of the Khwarizmo kingdom.

(End of this chapter)