"Come on, try to put these two iron plates together," Roland said.
Anna stretched out her finger and pressed on the seam of the iron plate. Flames spurted out from her finger, and the seam melted at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Reduce the fire, and do it from the back."
She nodded, and did as he said. The two iron plates were joined at 90 degrees, and were firmly welded together.
Roland carefully examined the seam, and found that the effect was just as he imagined — a perfect weld without any flaws. If it was polished a little, and the traces of liquid from the melting of the iron were ground away, the two iron plates were almost no different from a forged body.
"Very good, Miss Anna, this is amazing," Roland couldn't help but praise, "Next, let's connect the other two iron plates."
"What is this? A bucket made of iron? "
"No, this is a cylinder," he corrected.
"Cylinder?" Anna repeated in confusion.
"Yes, it can be used to fill air," Roland pointed to the other square iron plate, "Do you see the small hole on it? Air enters the cylinder through this small hole, and pushes the piston — uh, the piston is an iron plate slightly smaller than the diameter of the cylinder, it can move freely in the cylinder. "
Even Anna was confused by so many new words, "Then these … cylinders, pistons, what are they used for?"
"To make a machine that can move automatically."
The steam engine brought about the power needed for the first industrial revolution of mankind, completely liberating human and animal power.
Its schematic was familiar to every mechanical dog. In simple terms, it was an enlarged version of a kettle. The boiling steam was directed into the cylinder, pushing the pistons and connecting rods, converting heat energy into mechanical energy.
The principle was extremely simple, but it didn't mean it was easy to make. The difficulty was the airtightness of the cylinder and the piston, as well as the production of the gas pipe. Without enough metal processing skills, it was impossible to rely on manual forging to make a qualified cylinder.
However, Anna's ability perfectly made up for the lack of craftsmanship.
Roland only needed to design four iron plates of the same size in advance, let the blacksmith shop cast and grind them, and then use the right angle plate to fix the shape, and then let Anna weld them together, to get an extremely high rigidity square cylinder. With the help of the witches, he didn't have to build a barrel boring machine like the traditional production process, and then process a round cylinder. The same was true for the other large parts, which could be cut into small pieces and then pieced together. In this way, even a small workshop like a blacksmith could work together to produce all the parts needed for the steam engine.
In fact, before welding was invented, people could only rely on bolts or rivets to connect small parts, and the inside of the cylinder had to be smooth, which was obviously not possible with conventional connections.
The only problem was the air duct. The method of making it was nothing special. First, heat a long iron plate until it was red hot, then put it into a grooved mold, and then use a hammer to hammer it into shape. This was also the method of making a front-loading flintlock gun barrel. However, the barrel still needed to be straightened, drilled, and so on, which was a bit more complicated.
The problem was that it was impossible for Roland to call the blacksmith to his back garden, the witches could not be exposed for the time being, and blacksmithing was not his strong point. In desperation, he could only let the Chief Knight do it, while he himself commanded from the side.
In this way, after three days of torment, Roland finally pieced together the first steam engine in his back garden.
"Is this the thing that you said has infinite strength?" Carter frowned as he looked at this strange machine, first of all, he was sure that this thing had nothing to do with the cult's rituals. Every iron lump on it was personally installed by him, making it look like a sealed furnace. If the devil could be attracted to it, then it would be too unreasonable.
But how could a pile of iron lumps move? It looked very clumsy, and it had no feet, could it fly?
But in Roland's eyes, this seemingly simple machine exuded the beauty of industry. Standing on the shoulders of giants, he naturally did not follow the route of Newcomen's steam engine, or Watt's steam engine. His first prototype was a high-pressure steam engine with double connecting rods and sliding valves. Its production was not much more difficult than the most primitive steam engine, the key was some innovation.
"You'll know later."
Roland poured a bucket of water into the steam room, and let Anna light the firewood.
Ten minutes later, the water was boiling, and it began to boil. Soon, a crackling sound came from the cylinder, Roland knew that it was the sound of the cylinder expanding. The iron plate of the piston was relatively thin, so the expansion was larger than the cylinder, and it would eventually be firmly pressed against the cylinder wall.
"Isn't this boiling water? I didn't expect it to really be a furnace, "Carter muttered.
When the cylinder was filled with steam, a scene that made Roland very excited appeared. The piston began to push the connecting rods outward, and when the movement reached the apex, the other connecting rod pulled the sliding valve, and the steam pushed the piston inward. The two connecting rods rotated back and forth with the wheel, and with the increase of firepower, the speed soon reached the peak.
The machine issued a harsh roar, and the exhaust spat out white gas, with an unstoppable momentum.
"This is what you said … the power hidden in nature?" Anna asked blankly.
Chief Knight's face was full of disbelief, the last big iron wheel was installed with a lot of effort, but now it was spinning as fast as a feather. Standing next to it, he could even feel the air stirred up by the wheel – this could only mean that the strength of the iron lump in front of him had reached an amazing level.
A trace of uneasiness gradually rose in his heart.
His Royal Highness said that it could replace human and animal power, if it wasn't a lie, when it replaced the horses pulling the chariot, with this brute force, I'm afraid that even ten Knight would find it difficult to resist.
It took fifteen years to train a qualified Knight, but it only took three days to make such an iron furnace. Counting the time it took for the blacksmith to build the parts, it would only take a week.
It didn't need to be fed, it wasn't afraid of cold and hunger, and it wasn't afraid of arrows and swords. As long as the front was installed with a ram, it could rampage on the battlefield.
In this way … is there still a need for the traditional Knight to exist?
*****
In the evening, when Roland returned to his bedroom, he once again saw Nightingale.
This time she didn't wear a hood, sitting at the table with a smile on her face, fiddling with a few pieces of parchment. "It seems that the rumors outside really can't be trusted. They say that the 4th Prince is ignorant and has a bad character, but in fact, he is not much worse than a court master. Is this the drawing on the paper the design of the iron furnace? You call it … the Steam Engine, right? "
I'll go, can't you give me some privacy? You want to come and go as you please, do you think this is your home! Roland's heart was full of criticism, but on the surface he still acted as if nothing had happened, "It's a design, but without Anna's help, it's just a drawing."
"What can it do?"
"A lot, transporting ore, draining water, smelting iron, forging, as long as you need to use a lot of strength, it can play a role."
"Then I'll accept it," Nightingale rolled the parchment and put it into her robe, "The Witch Cooperation Association also has people who can control flames."
"Hey –"
She waved her hand to stop Roland's protest, "Of course, I'm not taking your things for free, you first take a look at this." She put a small white ball on the table.
Roland walked over, picked it up with his fingers, and found out that it was actually a roll of paper.
He gently unfolded it and glanced at it, "This is …"
"A secret letter sent by pigeon," Nightingale said in a joking tone, "The recipient is your maid Tyr, tsk tsk, it seems that your harem is not stable."
"I haven't touched her," Roland frowned.
Tyr, in his memory this woman seemed to have been with him for a long time. Originally the 4th Prince was very interested in her, but failed several times to harass her. Now that he had come to Border Town, he might as well promote her to the position of head maid and have her serve him personally. Her room was arranged next door. I didn't expect her to be a spy arranged by my brother and sister?
Although this letter was not signed, but judging from the content, it was most likely written by my brother and sister. The letter said that the last failure made the master very unhappy, and that the next time Longsong Stronghold was in turmoil, they would never allow another failure. Well, in fact, you have succeeded, he thought, otherwise I wouldn't have become Roland Wimbledon.
This letter was unlikely to be forged by Nightingale, because only those who participated in this conspiracy would clearly know the first assassination plan. And if Nightingale wanted to kill him, there was no need to go through so much trouble.
"Did you steal it from her?"
"Your maid isn't that stupid, she wanted to burn it after reading it. It's a pity that I happened to be behind her when she read it, "she made a swapping gesture," So, what are you going to do? Do you need my help to "deal" with it? "
Roland naturally understood what she meant by "deal", he hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded, "I'll have to trouble you." He really didn't have the confidence to do this kind of thing himself, "If you can … ask for me, who is behind her."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
