The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1617 Propeller

After their defeat in the Mediterranean naval battles, the British began naval reforms. Despite the government's poor financial situation, the British Navy was determined to undergo a comprehensive overhaul.

The British began trying to build larger ships and equip them with more cannons and thicker armor.

The British have long been capable of doing these things, but the main reason they haven't changed is the lack of power in their ships.

Of course, before that, there was the question of whether the iron-hulled ships would sink. But now they no longer needed to worry about that, since the Austrians had already verified that the iron-hulled ships not only wouldn't sink, but would also gain a greater advantage in naval battles.

As for ship propulsion, the British invented a larger steam engine, but it still couldn't compare to the steam turbine.

In fact, the British at this time still had no concept of steam turbines. They only thought that the Austrian steam engines were larger. British engineers were quite proud of their steam engine technology and even disdained to learn from the Austrian Empire's technology.

Franz had not anticipated this. He had expected the upcoming naval battles to be exceptionally fierce, which was why the Austrian Empire was building ships at an alarming rate, hoping to overwhelm its opponents or at least match the British in terms of the number of new warships.

When Franz heard that the British were still continuing their previous practices, his first thought was that the enemy was using smokescreens to deliberately mislead the Austrian Empire into underestimating them.

Franz continued building ships until the British unveiled their new warships.

Although the situation was different from what Franz had anticipated, even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit, especially since the opponent was not a rabbit, but Britain, the world's maritime superpower.

The Austrian Empire did not adjust its shipbuilding plan, but continued to expand its navy step by step.

The most debated topic within Britain was whether to use propellers or paddle wheels.

In several naval battles, the British fleet, which used steam paddle wheels, was defeated by the Austrian Imperial Navy, whose new warships used propellers.

Although the Royal Navy had many reasons, such as being outnumbered, ambushed, and attacked from both sides, the undeniable fact is that it suffered a naval defeat.

In fact, even now, the British are not entirely clear on why they were defeated by the Austrian Empire. There are theories about tactics and morale, but those clearly do not conform to capitalist theory, so the theory of equipment has become prevalent.

The enormous paddle wheel was very conspicuous, so the discussion was exceptionally heated.

However, the equipment manufacturers were unconvinced, and they even presented actual data.

Propellers are very prone to deformation under water pressure during actual operation, and are more susceptible to corrosion by seawater, which can lead to serious consequences such as breakage.

Furthermore, propellers are only 30% efficient, while paddle wheels are close to 50%, so the claim that Austrian warships were faster because of propellers is utter nonsense.

This is not just something British experts made up. Historically, the British Navy did conduct similar experiments and concluded that paddlewheels made better use of steam power and could save more fuel.

This is mainly because early propellers were mostly made of cast iron or bronze, which were neither hard nor tough.

The efficiency issue is mainly due to material and design problems. The British side lacked the means of precision machining, and the overly crude propellers reduced propulsion efficiency.

In addition, unlike paddle wheels, propellers cannot share the vibrations. The hull has to bear all the kinetic energy, so it is easy to damage the hull. The huge vibrations often damage the steam engine.

Furthermore, the gears of this era were very primitive and easily damaged, while propellers had less torque, so their higher speed naturally made them more prone to gear failure. While paddle wheels had a longer torque and wasted kinetic energy, their slower speed made them more stable.

The Austrian Empire used steam turbines with greater kinetic energy. How did they solve the above problems? The key lay in the shape of the gears.

The Austrian Empire used helical gears, which were not particularly difficult to design, but for people at the time, it was a possibility that had never been imagined.

Helical gears were considered defective by engineers at the time, and no one would have imagined that the key to everything lay in these oddly shaped gears.

Of course, the Austrian Empire's advantages were not limited to this: precision machining of parts, inexpensive steel, multi-functional alloys, and more advanced concepts.

All these factors combined made it very confusing for the British to catch up.

Besides the technology itself, there are also some practical problems.

The Royal Navy has long-term contracts with its suppliers, and large quantities of parts and modification equipment are still piling up in the suppliers' warehouses.

If the Royal Navy were to back out now, not only the suppliers, but the entire supply chain would be affected.

Furthermore, propellers were, after all, a new technology, and both the government and the public were skeptical of them. The example of the Austrian Empire doesn't prove anything; it only shows that the Austrians didn't encounter problems on the battlefield.

Paddlewheels have decades of proven experience in Britain, something propellers lack.

Finally, and most importantly, the modification of the propellers required a large financial investment, which was a challenge for the British government at the time.

Therefore, Britain's new warships were still paddle steam warships. Although they were improved in terms of power, firepower and protection compared to traditional sailing battleships, they still faced a huge problem.

That was the vulnerable paddlewheel. If the paddlewheel was hit, the warship would almost instantly lose steam power and would then have to rely on the sails.

Indeed, the British had already realized this in previous naval battles, so their new warfare tactics were all powered by both sails and paddle wheels.

The problem is that the power of sails is too small, especially in an era when warships are becoming increasingly larger. Using only sails for propulsion is tantamount to crawling.

After much deliberation, the British finally decided to cover the paddle wheels with a layer of iron. Regardless of whether it would provide any protection, at least they had taken some precautions.

While this may sound abstract, the Royal Navy is facing a difficult situation. They are too large, their missions too demanding, and the government is unwilling to fund them, so for now, they have to make do.

Even so, if the British were determined to concentrate all their naval warships, no country in the world could stop them.

Even though the Austrian Empire was a few years ahead, the British still far surpassed the rest of the world in terms of the number and total tonnage of new steam warships, exceeding the total of all other countries, including the Austrian Empire, by 50%.

However, in terms of super-class battleships exceeding 5000 tons, the British had an advantage in numbers, but their total tonnage was slightly inferior.

These super-class battleships are precisely the decisive force in future naval warfare.