African Nationhood

Rudolf Diesel has been living a very prosperous life recently. The diesel engines and marine engines he developed have been very successful, and South China has also issued him a patent certificate.

Although he has not yet applied for a patent abroad, the Ministry of Culture and Education has promised him that foreign patent certificates will still be applied for in his name.

But the premise is that he must obey the arrangements of Nanhua Kingdom and cannot reveal the secrets of the diesel engine at will.

There was nothing he could do if he disagreed with this. After all, the majority of the patents were in South China.

In just a few years, the patent fees he obtained from Nanhua Kingdom alone have amounted to hundreds of thousands of yuan, which is basically of no use to him.

Because Nanhua Kingdom provides him with all scientific research expenses, he only needs to put in his energy.

Nowadays, the successful development of marine engines is already a huge success for him.

Seeing the successful commercialization of the machine he invented gave him a sense of accomplishment.

He also experienced it personally in a submarine powered by a diesel engine and felt what it was like to travel under the sea.

Diesel locomotives are now making progress, but they are still some way off from commercial use.

Today he is going to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to attend a research and development meeting on diesel locomotives. This meeting needs to decide the driving method of future diesel locomotives, whether it is direct drive or indirect drive.

He went out early and drove a military vehicle toward the junction of Panshi Street and Kruger Street.

……

When Speaker Paul Kruger passed away two years ago, Chairman Shi specially changed "Upper Church Street" to Kruger Street at the State Council.

At the same time, Speaker Paul Kruger was buried in the National Cemetery in the south of the city, so that people can pay homage to the former Boer president and Speaker of South China at any time.

……

After parking the car, Rudolf Diesel quickly walked into the industrial and commercial building and found that there were many people attending the meeting today.

He looked hard and discovered that Director Zheng Tingxiang was also walking towards the conference room. The Director of the Metallurgical Department yawned as he walked.

So he quickly caught up with Zheng Tingxiang and patted him.

"Hi, Zheng."

Zheng Tingxiang was frightened and his sleepiness disappeared instantly. When he saw that he was a great inventor, a smile appeared on Zheng Tingxiang's face.

"You're here, how are you busy lately?"

Rudolf Diesel smiled and nodded, "Busy, but not as busy as you. Why are you so sleepy?"

Zheng Tingxiang simply shrugged, "I don't want to either. The cabinet is about to hold a mid-term target meeting, and we need to prepare a summary report."

After hearing the other party's pain, Rudolf Diesel smiled happily and said: "Fortunately, I am not an official of your Nanhua, so I don't have to work overtime to cope with your assessment."

Zheng Tingxiang patted the German on the shoulder, "I want to tell Minister Wang to bring you into our department so that you can also experience the hard work of dealing with inspections."

Rudolf Diesel shook his head, "Zheng, you can't scare me. I can go to Chairman Shi. He will relieve me of all administrative work. I still like to study my machines freely."

Zheng Tingxiang laughed, "Let's go in and have a meeting."

The conference room was already full of people, mostly Chinese and a small number of white people.

Everyone was talking to each other, and most of the issues discussed were matters in their respective fields, so the whole conference room was noisy.

Rudolf Diesel had just sat down when he saw Minister Wang Zhongyi pushing open the door and walking in. Everyone stood up and signaled.

Minister Wang Zhongyi waved his hand, "Everyone, please sit down. I only have my ears with me today. You are the protagonist. Director Li, please preside over the meeting."

Li Jingmai, director of the Department of Heavy Industry, who was sitting on Wang Zhongyi’s right, nodded, “Okay, this meeting mainly discusses what kind of driving method the diesel locomotive will use.

Because this research is mainly conducted by Mr. Diesel, this meeting is also equivalent to a report meeting. Mr. Diesel, please talk about your research results.

In addition to department and bureau-level officials from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, those attending this meeting were also engineers and technicians from the railway system.

We hope to unify our R&D ideas through this meeting so that we can continue our R&D direction in the future. "Rudolf Diesel opened his notebook and began to speak.

“After preliminary research and development tests, I believe that it is not suitable to use direct drive for internal combustion locomotives, but should use inter-drive mode.

The reasons are as follows:
1. Convenient for train starting

The traction load of the train is very large, especially when the train is starting.

It is obviously inappropriate to use the same mechanical transmission for trains as cars, and use the clutch to gradually increase friction and gradually increase torque. In this way, the clutch plate will burn out after only a few uses.

Frequent replacement will not only waste efficiency but also cost money and is uneconomical.

If electric transmission is used, the diesel engine is used to drive the generator to emit alternating current, and then the rectifier outputs direct current, which is supplied to the drive motor on the running part to drive the wheels to rotate.

The start of the motor is soft, the greater the external resistance, the slower the rotation, the greater the output torque, which is suitable for the starting characteristics of the train.

In this way, people will not easily notice the strong shaking when the train starts when riding the train.

2. Motor drive is more suitable for locomotive traction
We know that both are internal combustion engines, and diesel engines are more powerful and rougher than gasoline engines.

Therefore, if a diesel engine is to be used normally, it must be equipped with a "speed governor" that can automatically adjust the fuel supply. Only in this way can it be ensured that it will not stall due to changes in resistance.

The train cannot use the clutch, so naturally it cannot use the transmission. In addition, even if the diesel engine increases the fuel supply, the diesel engine power will only increase, but the output torque will not increase significantly. In order to ensure that the engine does not stall, the driver must " Downshift".

But there are no clutches and transmissions on the train, so the entire logical closed loop does not hold.

The motor starts softly and slowly. The greater the external resistance, the slower the motor rotates and the greater the output torque, which is more suitable for locomotive traction.

3. Safety considerations
When driving a car, if we don't control the steering wheel, we will find that the car will deflect in one direction.

This is a characteristic of mechanical transmission, whether it is a diesel engine or a gasoline engine, this problem exists.

The wheels of the train are mounted on a rotating bogie. If a diesel engine is used for direct mechanical transmission, the bogie will always deflect to one side, which will greatly affect the safety of train driving.

4. Electric drive is more in line with scientific principles
Inspired by Chairman Shi, we discovered through experiments that there is a mathematical connection between the traction performance of the locomotive, the traction force of the locomotive's wheel axle and the running speed. We call this the "locomotive performance traction curve".

I call the wheel circumferential traction force of the locomotive F, and the locomotive running speed V. You can take a look at this relationship curve. "

After Rudolf Diesel finished speaking, he took out a chart and handed it to the staff in the conference room.

After the staff hung up, Rudolf Diesel stood up, pointed at the chart and explained: "Theoretically, the most ideal locomotive traction performance curve F=f(V) is an ideal "hyperbola."

This relationship facilitates starting, accelerating, sustaining and stopping the locomotive.

After long-term experimental research by our team, the traction performance curve of electric locomotives is relatively close to the ideal hyperbola.

The locomotive traction performance curve F=f(V) in which the internal combustion engine directly drives the locomotive wheels is not an ideal constant power hyperbola.

It is not suitable for the traction characteristics requirements, so the power of the internal combustion engine must be converted into a hyperbolic mode by the transmission device.

I have finished my speech. If you have any questions, you can ask them and I will try to answer them. "

After Rudolf Diesel finished speaking, he sat down. Director Li Jingmai looked at the conference room and found that it was completely silent. He smiled silently. The German's speech was too crisp, and the engineers below did not even touch it. If you have been in contact with it, there can be no problem.

Even if there is, I will only bring it up when I encounter it at work in the future. It is impossible to bring it up for the time being.

Li Jingmai and Wang Zhongyi looked at each other and announced directly: "Since everyone has no problems, the argument about the driving method of diesel locomotives ends here. If you encounter problems in the future, you can communicate with Mr. Diesel privately.

So Mr. Diesel, when will your team's diesel locomotive be able to produce a prototype? "

Rudolf Diesel thought for a while, "The prototype should be manufactured within this year, and Professor Tesla is helping us in our group to research the rectifier and direct-actuated motor system.

As long as this part is solved, our prototype car will be considered a success. "

Wang Zhongyi nodded, "Well, let's wait for your good news." (End of Chapter)