Imperial County Magistrate

Chapter 805 Hot Air Balloon

"Wait a minute! Wait a minute, Mr. Zhao..."

Watt screamed excitedly and finally roared out. Zhao Kang, who was in a state of excitement, came to his senses and put Watt down.

"What's wrong?"

Watt shook his head as Zhao Kang carried him and ran all the way, almost making him vomit.

After finally recovering, he looked at Zhao Kang and said with a wry smile: "You ran the wrong way. That place is some distance away from Yangzhou City."

"You didn't tell me earlier!"

Carrying Watt and running back to Yangzhou City, Zhao Kang was very excited. If what Goudan and others exploded was really oil, then there would be something to play with!
This is industrial blood!

After riding a fast horse and running wildly with Watt, Zhao Kang saw a group of people from the Firearms and Steam Institute surrounding something in about half an hour.

He got off his horse and ran over quickly, when he heard someone talking in the distance.

"What the hell is this thing? It's slimy and looks like oil!"

"I don't feel like it. Look at this black trash. How can there be such oil?"

"But it can catch fire just like kerosene! Maybe it's some new kerosene?"

"Why don't you throw a torch and go down and have a look?"

"I think it's okay. Who can give me the torch?"

"Okay!"

Zhao Kang was almost frightened out of his wits and shouted loudly.

Everyone was so frightened that they turned around and when they saw it was Zhao Kang, Li Goudan and Nobel quickly ran over.

He shouted in surprise: "Master, you are back, come and see what this thing is?"

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, damn, let me see!"

Rushing to the front, Zhao Kang saw a deep pit with a radius of one meter, and a pile of black goo was emerging from the pit.

Zhao Kang looked at it for a long time and was not sure. Li Goudan squatted over and asked with interest: "Master, what on earth is this?"

"I'm not sure either."

There was no other way. He had the opportunity to see something like crude oil in his previous life, so he wasn't sure whether it was oil or something else. He could only ask: "Did you blow this up?"

"No!"

Li Goudan smiled and said: "A few days ago, we were experimenting with new gunpowder and weapons and blew up this hole. This thing came out of the ground. It's scary."

"We caught some and found that it could still be lit! The black smoke was so thick that it would be good for making a fire, but it's quite disgusting."

"Get some and take a look. Also, you guys, put out your torches quickly. If this is really oil, if it explodes, we will all go to heaven!" Zhao Kang said angrily.

Nobel was very excited when he heard this: "Mr. Zhao, are you saying this thing can explode?"

"If it is really oil, it will explode. Let's get it up first and take a look."

Zhao Kang frowned as he spoke. The smell around here was really unpleasant, like rotten eggs.

The people from the Firearms Institute fished out a barrel of black sticky substance, and Zhao Kang stirred it with a wooden stick, constantly recalling the knowledge about petroleum in his mind.

But he didn't have any clue, so he fell down a little on the ground, took out the fire stick and tried to light it, and the flames rose in a flash.

"It's flammable and has a pungent smell..."

Looking at the flames and the black smoke floating up into the sky, Zhao Kang murmured to himself, which seemed to be very similar to the description in his memory.

Thinking of Zhao Kang, he shouted: "Goudan!"

"Here you are, sir." Li Goudan came up.

Zhao Kang: "Send someone to inform Sun Fang to mobilize troops from all over the country to garrison here and protect this place for me!" Li Goudan was a little surprised: "Master, is this thing so important?"

"It's probably oil." Zhao Kang nodded.

Nobel Kwat and others came up, their eyes full of curiosity: "Mr. Zhao, what is oil?"

Zhao Kang thought for a while and explained: "Petroleum is a very important resource. It can burn and explode, and it can refine gasoline, diesel, liquefied gas and other things."

"But the technology required for these things is too high, and we can't do it with our current science and technology."

As he spoke, Zhao Kang looked at Watt: "Watt, what kind of flying things did you just tell me to study?"

Watt hurriedly said: "It's like this, Mr. Zhao, I have been studying Feitian recently, and I accidentally discovered a magical phenomenon, that is, it will grow bigger when it is hot and shrink when it is cold."

Zhao Kang: "Thermal expansion and contraction? How did you find out?"

"So it's called thermal expansion and contraction?" Watt looked at Zhao Kang in amazement. As expected, Mr. Zhao knows too much. It seems that he often...

Facing Zhao Kang's question, the foreigner's face suddenly turned red, and he looked around and saw that there were all men around him.

He said with a sneer: "I have no money to go to a brothel recently, so I have to rely on my hands. Then I found that when it gets bigger, it's hot, and when it shrinks, it's cold."

Zhao Kang was shocked. Why did you discover the thermal expansion and contraction when you were rewarding yourself?

There were bursts of strange laughter all around.

Watt hurriedly said: "In addition to thermal expansion and contraction, I also discovered that steam rises when burning."

"So I thought, if that's the case, could we use the kinetic energy generated by steam to propel something into the sky? Then maybe we could fly."

"The power brought by the burning of kerosene cannot be achieved, but this oil seems to be able to."

"You are planning to make a hot air balloon." Zhao Kang couldn't laugh or cry.

Everyone was very curious, and Nobel asked: "Master Zhao, what is a hot air balloon?"

"A thing that can fly in the sky, but it's not steam but uses the principle of thermal expansion and contraction of air..."

Zhao Kang explained, and Watt's eyes instantly became fanatical: "The air expands when heated to produce buoyancy. I really want to understand it, but..."

He was in a tangle. When Zhao Kang saw this, he said, "Let's go back first. I'll teach you how to make something and you should be able to fully understand it."

The group packed up and returned to Yangzhou City carrying the bucket of stones.

"What on earth is Mr. Zhao going to do?"

As soon as he arrived, Watt, whose mind was filled with thoughts of how the hot air balloon would take off, couldn't sit still.

"Don't worry, prepare some things first."

Soon the paper, bamboo strips and paste were delivered, and Watt watched Zhao Kang paste up the paper lanterns.

It took Zhao Kang about half an hour to get everything done, and everyone around him was full of curiosity.

"Here, hold the four corners of this lantern. Be gentle and don't let me tear it."

As Zhao Kang spoke, he scooped oil under the lantern and started lighting it when it was almost full.

Black smoke rose and flames burst out. Watt's eyes widened. He watched the paper suddenly flutter, and an idea flashed in his mind.

Zhao Kang looked at the burning condition of the fuel in the base of the Kongming Lantern he had made, watched the lantern slowly bulge, and ordered people to start lifting it up slowly.

"Mr. Zhao, I feel like it's going to fly!" Watt shouted excitedly.

"Let go!" Zhao Kang said coldly.

The four people holding the lantern let go, and in everyone's shocked eyes, the Kongming Lantern slowly floated towards the sky.

(End of this chapter)