Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 573 Good Days Are Coming

There is nothing much to say about the welcoming ceremony, it is just a standardized procedure. After all, there must be a welcoming ceremony when the head of the unit returns.

The real highlight was the seven-day closed-door meeting that started the day after Xia Lin returned. All middle and senior management of Fuliang had to attend, and no one could go home or go out during the meeting. It was almost a closed meeting.

This meeting obviously aroused the curiosity of the outside world. Xia Lin made such a big fuss when he came back. Some people with a keen sense of smell could already sense that a storm was about to come.

But at this moment, the dean of the School of Science of Ehu Academy listened with a gloomy face as those guys reported how they had cheated Lord Xia of money yesterday.

After listening to it, he really found it funny. Isn't this like showing off one's sword in front of Guan Gong? It's embarrassing... so embarrassing.

"And then? What do you plan to do with the money?"

"We...we're going to have a good meal."

"Eat, eat, eat!" The dean was furious. "You only know how to eat. You're in big trouble now. If Lord Xia remembers you after he's done with his work and you don't come up with something, you're in big trouble!"

"Master, what should we do?"

These people stood there dejectedly. You know, Xia Lin was like an emperor in this small piece of land. After Prince Teng and Lao Guo went to the capital, the Jiangnan Road was nominally ruled by Prince Teng's second son, but the person in power was actually Xia Lin.

"What else can we do? Go make the iron float! And then write down the formula for area and weight!"

"Ming...understood..."

How could these guys dare to be negligent, so they immediately went to the academy's workshop to start studying the iron block.

"To increase the contact area with water, do we just need to flatten the iron block?"

"That should be the case. Let's give it a try."

In order to avoid punishment, the young man's execution ability was comparable to that of a middle school student on the day before school started. A group of people immediately started working in the workshop.

In fact, physics is counter-intuitive most of the time. Something that you think will produce results quickly may require hundreds of years of accumulation, while something that you think requires slow and careful work may pop out of thin air overnight.

Since we know that buoyancy is related to density and contact area, we can use the ductility of iron to knock it outwards. A pound of iron will become thinner and thinner as it is knocked. Although it cannot reach the level of gold foil, it can be said to be as thin as white paper.

However, even though it was so thin, when they put the iron sheet into the basin of water, it would still sink to the bottom. It was just that it floated lightly when it sank, and it did not disappear with a thud like a lump of iron.

"Hmm...it seems to be effective, but if it gets any thinner, the strength won't be guaranteed. Wen Qi, what do you think?"

Wen Qi was the mastermind who deceived Xia Lin. He was also the smartest, most intelligent and most solid person in the group. He did not answer directly, but walked to the water's edge and fished up the iron sheet. After looking at the iron sheet weighing about one pound, he said, "What other ways do you think we can use to increase its contact area with the water?"

The others shook their heads: "It would be meaningless if it were any thinner."

"No." Wen Qi shook his head, his face full of seriousness: "There is something wrong with our thinking."

He walked back and forth along the river bank, carrying the iron sheet, and turned around and said, "My family runs a boat business. The boats are narrow at the bottom and wide at the top. To make the boats stable, they always use heavy objects to press down the boats, and rarely sail empty. So if we cover the outside of the boat with this iron sheet, then wouldn't it be..."

After saying that, he fetched his tools and began to work. He first bent the iron sheet into the shape of a boat, but did not seal the two ends. This U-shaped iron sheet would still sink after being put into water.

They knew that the boat would float after sealing both ends, but why it would sink if not sealed became their focus.

"Hey, do you think there is a force that cancels out the force above and below the water?" Wen Qi looked at the iron sheet sinking to the bottom of the water curiously: "Ordinary boats are like this too, they will sink if they leak, but how can wood sink? My grandfather said that it was pulled down by a water ghost, but I don't think that's the case."

"What could that be?"

“It should also be a kind of force.”

Then he conducted several experiments in this direction and finally found two possibilities. The first is that after the leak, water continued to flow into the cabin through the damaged area, causing the total weight of the hull to increase rapidly. Although the buoyancy will also increase due to the increase in displacement volume after the hull sinks, the rate of weight increase often exceeds the rate of buoyancy increase, eventually breaking the balance and causing sinking. The other is that the core of the wooden boat's ability to float is that its hull cavity structure makes the overall average density less than water. Once the cabin is flooded, the original air is replaced by water, and the mixed density of the hull and water exceeds the density of water. At this time, the buoyancy is not enough to support the total weight.

Then these guys started to have sudden ideas.

They spent ten taels of silver... yes, the ten taels of silver that Xia Lin gave them, and hired a few blacksmiths to make a huge piece of iron sheet for them.

This iron sheet is naturally not formed in one piece. At the middle seam, they used anchors and mortise and tenon structures to form airtight components for sealing. In order to increase the strength of these joints, they added many chambers on it. These chambers are independent of each other and use wood as support inside, which not only increases the strength of each section of the hull, but also verifies their conjecture.

That is, if the lower hull is divided into airtight parts, is it possible to use the buoyancy of the hull to maintain balance and reach the shore without capsizing even if more than half of the hull is filled with water?

Their way of playing is very novel. These few days happened to be holidays, so many students from the School of Science came to watch the fun. People are like this, they get itchy when they see the fun. Under the chatter of a group of professional players and with the investment of pocket money, the design of their iron boat became more and more complicated and bigger.

"No, it has to be overturned. Such a supporting structure cannot withstand shaking." This is what the civil engineering guy from the School of Science said: "The internal frame must be stable and have a buffer, otherwise it will fall apart in a short time."

"The outside of the iron sheet should be treated in advance. Try using sealing wax, scratch the iron sheet and then try painting it. Just cover the outside with a layer." This was the advice given by a senior who studied chemistry and made pesticides.

"I don't know anything. Here are 1,500 taels. Take them." This was the valuable advice given by Dugu Douya who came to join in the fun...

By the way, Douyazi always appears in the academy during this period. She has nothing to do anyway, so she might as well be a temporary transfer student here to study. You know, she is also a Jinshi, so there must be no problem with her IQ, and she looks young. Although the child is three years old, she still looks like a high school student.

As the saying goes, many hands make light work. Now that they have the idea, the manpower and the money, this thing is progressing incredibly fast. Originally, the materials for shipbuilding had to be processed in advance, but they didn't have that much time, so they just bought a ready-made ship and dismantled it.

More than eighty blacksmiths were hired to forge the iron sheets. In just four or five days, the skeleton of an iron ship with an unprecedentedly complex structure appeared in front of everyone.

Then the frame is covered with iron sheets. Because it is a segmented design, each watertight compartment is built independently. After the watertight compartment is built, the outside is covered with skin, which can greatly increase the strength and anti-shipping degree of the hull.

The ship is not big, about 1 feet, or about 7 meters in length, and more than feet, or about five meters in height. The deck width is a standard three-meter deck, which is a : ratio to the hull.

The construction cost is relatively cheap because iron sheets are very cheap, and even with the processing costs included, it is still cheaper than a wooden boat.

But the weight is a bit exaggerated, even more than twice as heavy as an ordinary wooden boat.

When Xia Lin finished the closed meeting and a group of people walked out of the yamen, Xia Lin originally said that he wanted to go back to have a good meal, but when he just passed the dock, he saw a group of people gathered there.

He strolled down to see what was going on. Before he could squeeze in, he heard the crowd shouting, "Go down, go down!"

Then, a sharp friction sound was heard. Xia Lin recognized it as the friction between the pads and bricks when a new ship was launched into the water at the dock.

Then there was a muffled sound, and water splashed all over the sky, even turning into drizzle, falling all over Xia Lin's head and body. He finally squeezed into the crowd, and when he saw what was in front of him, he was stunned. He looked back and found that the calendar on the dock showed that it was correct, just seven days.

How come someone built an ironclad ship during the seven or eight days when I was isolated from the world?
This large iron ship with a full metallic luster swayed from side to side after launching into the water and then stopped steadily. Xia Lin could see that its waterline was much deeper than that of ordinary ships of the same size, which meant that its own weight was very large, so it obviously couldn't be used as a cargo ship. But looking at this... Would it be better if an engine and a ram were installed?
He thought that was the end of it, but who knew that more than a dozen strong men jumped into the water, swam towards the iron ship with hammers and chisels in their hands, and began to chisel according to the engraved markings on the side of the ship.

Everyone on the dock cried out in pain. This was a good ship, an iron ship that had never been seen before, and they just started to dent it like this. It was such a pity.

But the people below did not stop, and soon holes were drilled in the hull one by one. The river water quickly poured into the cabin. Normally, the boat should have sunk at this time, but a magical thing happened. The boat did not sink! It just had a deeper waterline, but it was still firmly on the river.

At this moment, the nearly two hundred students and a dozen teachers who participated in the design and construction couldn't help but cheer.

Hit the reef but don’t sink!
Xia Lin's eyes widened immediately: "Watertight compartment?"

His movements seemed a bit too loud, and someone turned around to look at him. After a while, they recognized him and shouted excitedly: "Master Xia! It's Master Xia! Master Xia is here!"

Then, the people within 20 meters of Xia Lin dispersed in a flash. Xia Lin could only wave at everyone helplessly, then walked to the dock and pointed at the iron boat that was riddled with holes: "Who built this?"

At this moment, the students began to push Wen Qi out with ill intentions. When Wen Qi saw Xia Lin, his face turned red. He said cautiously and timidly: "Xia...Master Xia, I didn't know it was you that day..."

Xia Lin just smiled but didn't respond. He grabbed his arm and pried open his hand. He saw the criss-crossing wounds on it. They were obviously cut by sharp iron sheets. Some places were still bleeding and some were infected and swollen due to soaking in water.

"Go to the medical school to treat your wounds first, and then come back and tell me how you came up with the idea of ​​the watertight compartment design."

When the students heard the word 'watertight compartment', their eyes lit up. They had not yet decided on a specific name for the structure, but who knew that Lord Xia's casual remark would be so faithful, accurate and elegant.

The ancestor of the sect is the ancestor of the sect after all.

Xia Lin, who had just finished a meeting, didn't even go home but squatted on the dock to start studying the structure of the ship with his students.

I have to say, these guys are really bold and daring. After the hull was dismantled bit by bit to reveal the structure inside, Xia Lin was truly eye-opening.

"Who can tell me about the design concept?"

Xia Lin called out, and an older student came out and said shyly, "Wen Qi came up with this idea first, and then we worked on it all night. He said his family was a sailor, and that the most feared thing about a ship was not damage, but capsizing after damage. So I thought of the theory about mechanical engineering that I had read in the ancient books of the Mohist school, which said that everything is yin and yang, that is, balance. So I thought of this yin and yang cabin, with two watertight cabins staggered, one high and one low. If the lower one is damaged, the water will sink after entering the hull, and the next water will enter the upper layer, so that the left and right sides will be balanced. If water enters the front and back, the hull will tilt up, so that the excess water will flow into the opening on the lowest layer through the channel set up on the top and be discharged. In this way, unless the hull is completely broken, the ship will not sink in a short time."

Xia Lin nodded repeatedly as he listened, and applied the principles of yin and yang to the design concept, which not only fully utilized the fluidity of water, but also increased the safety of the ship and provided more rescue space.

To be honest, this design concept has even approached or reached the design concept of future ships.

It is said that the ancients only accumulated relatively little basic knowledge but never made any mistakes in wisdom. Once they were enlightened, even if they were not time travelers, they could do some things that would make people's scalps numb.

After this student finished speaking, a bunch of people began to talk about what they did on the ship and their various design concepts.

For example, the heat treatment process ensures the hull structure, and the future evolution direction of the anti-rust coating. Some people even say that they can try to design a steam-driven propeller here to replace wind power.

These things are extremely imaginative in this era, and are completely the dreams of young people.

"Allocation." Xia Lin didn't waste any words and pointed directly: "I'll give you a special project. Within one year, implement all your ideas!"

This kind of boss who didn't say anything and just kept giving out money caused a buzz in the dock. It felt exactly like one sultry afternoon in senior year of high school when the head teacher suddenly walked in during a sleepy study session to announce a fire inspection and the whole school had to rest until Monday.

Xia Lin looked at the jumping teenagers with a look of relief in his eyes. He finally understood why so many people wanted to protect him after he made a mistake.

Isn’t this how the sect elders feel when they see the sect’s young prodigies? They are truly willing to die.

At this moment, he glanced around and saw a boy eating soup dumplings in the corner of the crowd. He tilted his head and walked over: "What are you doing here? Are you also participating in the design?"

Douyazi shook her head: "No."

"So why are you joining these kids in making trouble?"

Douyazi glanced at the broken iron ship and said, "I paid for it."

"Very good!" Xia Lin patted her chest: "Very energetic."

"Go away, don't force me to slap you here."

Afterwards, Xia Lin looked at the iron ship at the dock for a long time. The students all went to eat, and only a few people were left wandering around the dock. But Xia Lin just squatted there eating the leftover soup dumplings of Douyazi with a dazed look in his eyes.

Although it is very simple, it is obviously the prototype of an ironclad ship. The power source is not difficult, it is just a steam engine. Sealing is not a difficult task either, the technologies of tin sealing, lead sealing, etc. are very mature, and the refining level of coke and coal is not a problem now.

"What are you thinking about?"

Douyazi came over and touched his butt with his foot: "You have been squatting here for half an hour."

"Yeah." When Xia Lin stood up, he almost fell down. In the end, he could only lean on the pillar next to him. He raised his chin and said to Douya: "Do you know what this means?"

"what?"

"It." Xia Lin took a deep breath, "It represents a new era, a new era that is completely difficult for you to understand."

"New Era? I don't understand."

"If you don't understand, then learn." Xia Lin glanced at Douyazi and said, "Why are you here all day when you're not at home taking care of the kids?"

Douyazi was unhappy at this moment: "Without me hanging around, can you have your new era? Damn it, you are crossing the river and destroying the bridge, right? This is my money!"

"Okay, okay." Xia Lin nodded: "When the time comes, Sydney will be called Universiade City."

"What a mess." Douyazi rolled her eyes: "I'm going back, are you going back?"

Xia Lin chuckled a few times and followed Douyazi's footsteps: "What's up? Are you lucky today?"

"Climb." Dugu Dayun glanced at him and said, "I'm having my period, don't bother me. Go find your Tang Bao, she's had a high fever these days."

(End of this chapter)