Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones.

Chapter 19 The Electrification Era

For the locomotive, Li Qingsong initially considered using steam power.

After all, this thing is simple and crude, and I have enough technical accumulation.

But after much thought, Li Qingsong finally abandoned this plan and decided to go all the way and directly build an electric train locomotive.

The reason is simple. The electrified locomotive has greater carrying capacity, higher efficiency and can also be a bit faster.

Compared with the steam engine head, it has many advantages.

But this is not the only reason why Li Qingsong decided to launch the electric locomotive.

Another reason is that since various minerals need to be transported on a large scale in the future, not only the consumption end but also the production end needs to be scaled.

It is absolutely impossible to collect minerals by manual labor as before, and even if the clones work themselves to death, they can't do it.

Various mining machines must be put into use to mine enough minerals.

This means that a large amount of machinery and electricity are also needed at the No. 1 Iron Mine, Oxygen Mine, and Tolin Mine.

So, should we build power plants there?
This plan was rejected by Li Qingsong.

At this stage, instead of building more small power plants, it is better to focus on building a large power plant and then supply power to various bases.

Therefore, the construction of the railway line became inevitable. And since the railway line was built, the problem of power supply for the train was solved at the same time.

The second reason is that Li Qingsong’s plan for the future is large-scale mechanization.

Only mechanization can truly promote the development of science and technology. Relying on manual labor, at best it is just a workshop.

Mechanization in the Earth Age was achieved through the use of coal and oil.

But there are no fossil energy sources on Luoshen.

To achieve mechanization, the only solution is to skip the fossil energy era and enter the electrical era directly.

However, since it has been decided that electrification will be used to achieve large-scale mechanization in the future, and electrified locomotives have so many advantages at this stage, why not use them?
In addition, there is another more important factor that is extremely favorable to electrification.

This factor is something that humans in the Earth era have always dreamed of.

superconductivity.

Because of the extremely low temperatures on Luoshen, a superconducting environment naturally exists without any need for special cultivation. Li Qingsong only needs to work slightly on the cable materials to be able to mass-produce superconducting circuits and achieve lossless transmission of power to the grid.

This way, efficiency will be higher.

After considering various reasons, Li Qingsong finally made this decision.

In the No. 1 Machinery Factory, more than 20 clones were constantly making parts by hand, assembling them by hand, and conducting continuous testing.

They are working on how to make an electrified locomotive.

During this process, their brains were working at high speed, constantly combining with the real situation, constantly trial and error, and trying, so pieces of knowledge were generated in their brains and became the knowledge belonging to Li Qingsong.

The knowledge from different sources converged into Li Qingsong's brain, was integrated in his mind, and then fed back to each clone in real time.

The twenty or so clones were silent, without any communication between them. However, if one clone summarized a point of knowledge through experimentation, such as that certain connectors could not be treated with acid, otherwise they would lack strength, this knowledge point would be immediately synchronized with the minds of all the clones.

No need to communicate, no need to tell, all the other clones will avoid this mistake when handling such parts.

If another clone makes a different discovery, it will be immediately synchronized to the minds of the other clones.

The progress of each clone would lead to overall progress. Under these circumstances, the manufacture of the electric loom went extremely smoothly. After all, Li Qingsong's requirements at the moment weren't high; they didn't need to be incredibly intelligent or perform too well.

When the track laying was half completed, the first experimental locomotive was completed.

Li Qingsong maneuvered it onto the rails, carefully used the pantograph to connect the cables, and pressed the button. In an instant, the surging electric energy began to drive the electric motor and dispersed the power to the wheels.

Amidst the friction with the rails, a long train with a total length of more than 30 meters, carrying 3000 carriages and loaded with 600 tons of cargo, began to move forward.

The speed was slow at first, but soon it picked up speed, even reaching a maximum of 40 kilometers per hour.

Faster than the top speed of an unloaded tractor!
"good."

Li Qingsong was filled with relief.

Now, with the electrified locomotive, not only has the problem of cargo transportation been solved, but it has also paved the way for us to leap into the electrical age.

I can even build the electric locomotive for heavy-duty trains, and some crushers, mine cars, ore dressing machines, excavators, bulldozers and the like that use electricity. Is there any problem?

There really is a problem.

Some fixed equipment, such as crushers, mineral processing machines, etc., can be directly connected to the circuit, which is no problem.

However, some movable machines, such as mine carts, trucks, bulldozers, etc., cannot be directly connected to the lines.

But it didn't matter. Li Qingsong already had a solution.

If you can’t connect the line, then use the battery!
Simple lead-acid batteries actually do not require much technical content and can be manufactured even with Li Qingsong's existing technology.

Compared to the Earth, the only difference is that the energy density is slightly lower, the weight is slightly heavier, the safety is slightly lower, and the charging rate is slightly slower.

But it doesn’t matter, it’s still the same sentence, as long as it works.

There is an even more important point.

In the Earth Age, for the sake of environmental protection, many toxic and harmful additives that can improve battery performance cannot be added.

For example, metallic cadmium.

But on Luoshen Star, Li Qingsong doesn't care about that.

Improve performance? Just add it.

After doing so unscrupulously, Li Qingsong discovered that the first battery he produced in the laboratory almost by hand-customization had an overall performance of about half of that of the batteries in the Earth era.

You know, Li Qingsong's overall technology is far inferior to Earth's. But even in this situation, the performance can still reach half!
This surprised Li Qingsong greatly.

"We'll make a batch by hand now and use them as a makeshift. Once the steel mill is fully operational, the battery factory will also have to make a professional one."

Li Qingsong made up his mind.

Work on the railway is still going on in full swing.

As of now, another year has passed and more than 80% of the railway construction has been completed.

There would not be a need for so much manpower in the future, so Li Qingsong mobilized a total of 400 clones, including the 600 new clones born this year, and sent them to three mining sites.

He wants to build three branch bases!

(End of this chapter)