The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 471: Improvements to the Steam Engine

The Emperor frowned slightly. "I heard that you gave the book to Kang Yinggan, and then nothing happened?"

"Your Majesty, Prime Minister Kang was busy with state affairs. At that time, the Qing army was besieging Shenyang, and all internal and external affairs depended on Prime Minister Kang to maintain, so he had no time to take care of it..."

Song Yingxing's method of finishing off the enemy was also very clever, as he wanted to kill Kang Yingqian at the same time.

Liu Zhaosun was still unaware of the grudge between Song Yingxing and Kang Yingqian. He stepped forward to help Song Yingxing up, his eyes cold and he said:

"He thought the book you presented to me was some kind of whiz kid and burned it. I wish I could burn Kang Yinggan to death!"

Song Yingxing was silent as a cicada and stopped talking.

The palace maid Amber brought tea, and the emperor gave it to Song Yingxing to drink. Glancing at the swaying figure of the beauty, Liu Zhaosun's mood improved slightly.

Song Yingxing's expression remained unchanged, and the Emperor then asked:

"What's the book about?"

"Steam and Oil Extraction and Refining."

The time traveler was slightly stunned. When Zhang Dong reported this to him, the emperor didn't take it seriously. He just thought it was some treasure collected by Song Yingxing, an authentic work of Huaisu, a famous Tang Dynasty artist.

"Steam engine?"

When Liu Zhaosun said this tremblingly, he felt that everything in front of him became a little mysterious and no longer so real.

"Your Majesty, it is indeed a steam engine,"

Liu Zhaosun muttered to himself, "I wonder which reckless time traveler left this space here, or perhaps it was the person or group that caused the Wanggongchang explosion.

A thick stack of encyclopedias was burned by the murderer Kang Yingqian.

"Forget it, God doesn't bless me."

The retired emperor sighed deeply, his heart filled with resentment.

"Your Majesty, I can remember the contents of the book. I have had a photographic memory since I was five years old."

As expected of the man who wrote "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature." "Good!" Liu Zhaosun was overjoyed. He patted Song Yingxing on the shoulder and issued an important order to the disgraced technocrat:
"Then begin manufacturing. The rubber used by the red-haired barbarians to redeem the people has been delivered. I will provide you with money, food, manpower, and the workshop's craftsmen are at your disposal. You must build a steam engine within two months. If you succeed, you will be promoted to the cabinet. If you fail, you will be sent to prison."

Song Yingxing kowtowed in thanks, secretly astonished. The emperor had a far-reaching plan, having begun planning this six months earlier. The emperor had released the East India Company sailors back to Jakarta and demanded not only money and food from the company but also a large amount of rubber.

In fact, many time travelers said that rubber was needed to invent the steam engine, but steam engines never use rubber seals.

Rubber is simply not suitable for sealing at high temperature and high pressure.

Liu Zhaosun speculated that the best way to seal steam engines now is to use copper movable rings, which is technically feasible and can be sealed with copper gaskets at the cylinder head and tail.

"I obey your command. May I ask, Your Majesty, what is the purpose of this machine?"

The Emperor smiled, a rare moment on his face, and said to the technocrat:

"If used to behead people, it should be able to kill more people."

~~~~~
The creation of a steam engine in the early seventeenth century was not a fantasy.

The principle of a steam engine is not complicated. Steam structures are not something fancy; the ancient Egyptians used steam engines to open and close temple gates.

Miniaturization is the problem.

Smelting level, fine processing, sealing technology, none of these conditions can be missing, and of course, the Qi workshop has them all.

Watt improved the steam engine by adding a condensation system (this requires knowledge of physics, and since Song Yingxing had read mechanical textbooks, it should not be a big problem).

The Qi State workshop already had medium-scale steelmaking technology, and the metallurgical technology was basically OK.

The principle of the steam engine is indeed easy to understand, but it is still very difficult to make a practical machine. The Newcomen steam engine was used for more than 70 years, and it took Watt nearly 20 years to improve it before it was completed.

Song Yingxing is under a lot of pressure.

He only had two months and failed to make a sample, so he had to go to Zhang Dong for further education.

There's nothing I can do about it, this is life.

(End of this chapter)