Open an aircraft carrier to fight against Japan

Lin Yuan said: "You also know that you need to use a ruler when measuring, but what if the rulers used by these two people are of different sizes?"

Emperor Guangxu said with a smile: "This is easy, as long as the two people use the same ruler, isn't it all right?"

Lin Yuan said: "There are only two people, so we can use the same ruler. If what we are building now is not the seven-star blade, but a battleship, how many people are needed to make the parts together? Can these people use the same ruler? ? There are only two parts, the blade and the scabbard, so it doesn’t matter if there is an error in the measurement, but what about the parts on the battleship? There are tens of thousands of them. If there is a big error in one part, it will be a small loss, and it will be far away. gone."

Emperor Guangxu asked: "What should Lin Aiqing say?"

Lin Yuan replied: "We must reform the weights and measures. The weights and measures used in the Qing Dynasty today use Zhang, Chi, and Cun to measure the length. Although the ministry has printed and distributed, but the number is too small, and most of the folks are imitation."

"Ordinarily there is nothing to imitate, because folk rulers are nothing more than measuring land, clothes, houses, and some handicraft workshops also measure sizes. These places do not have high requirements for size, so the accuracy is not high and it is barely enough. But it’s not enough to build warships, so the first step in building warships is to reform weights and measures.”

Emperor Guangxu frowned and said, "Reform weights and measures? Everything changed?"

Lin Yuan replied: "In fact, it is not the case. Private transactions have their own methods. We don't need to interfere. What we want to manage is related to national construction. For example, if the Ministry of Industry wants to build houses, it should use new weights and measures. Arsenals To make weapons, you need to use new weights and measures."

Emperor Guangxu asked: "Then how did you set the standard for this new type of weight and measure?"

Lin Yuan replied: "There is an International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which is responsible for coordinating the weights and measures standards of various countries. They have formulated standards for length and weight. If they join the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, they will manufacture standard rulers and standard weights for the participating countries. We follow the Theirs will do."

Before Lin Yuan finished speaking, Weng Tonghe snorted coldly and said: "We have long had the standard of weights and measures in China. As early as the time of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, the Yellow Emperor set up five quantities to unify the length and weight, and they have been used throughout the dynasties. Why should we Go imitate the appearance of foreigners! Handan is learning to walk, but he has never imitated it, and lost his old steps!"

Weng Tonghe quoted a sentence from "Zhuangzi" here, which means: instead of learning to understand other people's things, he forgot his own things. Lin Yuan thought to himself: "Weng Tonghe, like the intellectuals of this era, all Blind exclusion."

So Lin Yuan smiled and said: "My lord's words are wrong. We follow their standards, and it will be convenient for the two parties to communicate in the future. Otherwise, it will be very troublesome to convert the lengths and weights of each other. It is also very troublesome to use standard weights. We also benefit ourselves."

"Master Weng must be clear that the weights of our Qing Dynasty are not uniform now. The government uses official weights when collecting various taxes; each checkpoint collects import and export duties and uses Guanping weights; water transportation uses water transportation weights , and the people in the market use a kind of weight, and these weights are not uniform, which will inevitably bring about many problems.”

Emperor Guangxu nodded, and said, "Okay, let's follow Lin Aiqing. Lin Aiqing, is this what you mean by the social environment?"

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Not only this, but also timekeeping and calendar, which also need to be reformed."

Emperor Guangxu asked: "What can be changed? Are they also related to building warships?"

Lin Yuan replied: "Of course, the manufacturing of warships requires the coordination and cooperation of various departments. When coordinating, time is very important. If the time of each other is not consistent, it is difficult to determine the time of cooperation. Now our timing method What does it look like? A sundial is used during the day, and a sundial is used at night.”

"This kind of timekeeping method is not suitable for the military industry at all. Think about it, everyone, we can't always carry sundials and hourglasses when we learn the time, so we should change the timekeeping method, and the timekeeping method is just a part of the calendar."

Lin Yuan said: "The so-called calendar is to determine the time elements such as year, month, and day according to the changes of celestial bodies. Some countries and nations use the sun as a reference to time the time. The calendar reflects the changes of the four seasons. It is a solar calendar, such as the Thai and Western countries. ; Some countries use the moon phases as a reference, which is a lunar calendar, as is the case with the Islamic calendar; and although my Chinese calendar uses the moon phases as a reference, it also stipulates 24 solar terms in the calendar, so my Chinese calendar is a combination of yin and yang. calendar."

Lin Yuan continued: "The calendar we use today is the Guimao Yuan calendar revised in the seventh year of Qianlong's reign. I think it's better if we also adopt the Western Gregorian calendar. One day, divide a day into 360 hours, and each hour is divided into six 24 minutes, and this kind of calendar timing is also convenient."

Weng Tonghe frowned, and said angrily: "Nonsense, how can I use the calendar of Western barbarians in my magnificent China!"

Lin Yuan smiled and said: "Master Weng does not know that the calendar we use now, the number of days in a year is also based on the number of days in the year of return calculated by the British scientist Newton. The first emperor can use the Western calendar, why can't we ?”

Weng Tonghe heard that Lin Yuan had moved the late emperor out, so he stopped talking. Emperor Guangxu said: "Well, I will discuss the reform of the calendar with the officials tomorrow morning."

Lin Yuan said: "I hope that the Holy Majesty will entrust me with the management of weights and measures and the calendar. I plan to establish an organization to manage this matter."

Emperor Guangxu nodded and said, "Well, these things are settled, and we can build warships."

Lin Yuan shook his head and said, "It's still a long way to build a warship." Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Does your majesty know how this sword was made?"

Emperor Guangxu said with a smile: "I have heard a lot about the craftsmanship of this sword. According to legend, this sword was made by famous masters."

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Have you ever thought about how to glue two knives together?"

Emperor Guangxu shook his head slightly, Lin Yuan smiled and said: "To stick two knives together, you must use a kind of metal, this metal is easy to melt, put this metal between the two knives, and then put it together The metal melts, and when the metal cools and solidifies, the two knives will naturally join together."

Emperor Guangxu said: "I have also heard of this kind of craft. It seems to be called welding. I heard that this kind of craft is indispensable in shipbuilding. I don't know if it is right?"

Lin Yuan replied: "That's right, this craft requires the use of a substance called 'tin', have you heard of it?"

Emperor Guangxu asked: "What is 'tin'?"

Lin Yuan replied: "Tin is a metal like steel. The melting point of this metal is much lower than that of steel, so it is used as a welding material."