On the 4th of January, 1872, the operator carefully cleaned all the water and oil stains on the anvil of the hydraulic press. According to the rules, two groups of people were required to clean it twice, and the technicians were required to check it again. The hydraulic press was supposed to be completed by the end of 1871, but now it had been delayed by almost a year. During the testing of the prototype, there was a liquid on the anvil that was not wiped clean. When it was being pressed, the high-pressure liquid shot out from the gap between the parts and the anvil and hit the chief engineer next to the hydraulic press in the chest.
In the 20th century, water knives were invented to cut metal. When the pressure was high enough, the water could easily cut through hard metal. The water that splashed out from the anvil of the hydraulic press carried a huge kinetic energy. Even if the water knife did not have the power to cut through metal, it was enough to destroy the human body. The high-pressure water that shot into the chief engineer's body was like a knife cutting through his heart artery. The chief engineer collapsed on the spot, and there was no time to save him.
When Vézé received the bad news, he was heartbroken. Nowadays, a large number of engineers had attended Vézé's classes, and the outstanding engineers had been personally educated by Vézé. They were all outstanding young people. But industry was like this, and the driving force behind every safety measure was more than one life and a considerable amount of blood.
In addition to strengthening the safety measures, Vézé did not rush the progress. He trained eight new engineers from the technical team. This work greatly delayed the progress, but it also ensured that the casualties would not greatly affect the progress.
Heavy industry was a money-burning machine, a gold-swallowing monster. In this industrial age, where faster movement was required, the lighter the locomotive, the more powerful it was, the better. Increasing the thickness of the wall could make the locomotive sturdy, but it also increased the weight. This was tolerable. Transmission parts such as crankshafts needed a long time to withstand force, so naturally, the stronger and more durable the better. If they used the method of increasing the size of the components to increase the degree of sturdiness and durability, it would really fall into the category of "intolerable".
Alloy smelting technology required a lot of investment, metal crystallization research required a lot of investment, and the use of external forces such as hydraulic presses to improve the internal structure of metals required a lot of investment. All these investments were for the sake of producing some "rods, blocks, and plates".
After all, the United Kingdom was an industrialized country. They had a wealth of experience in the use of low-level materials, and their technology was perfect. It was all boiler steel. The British's train components were better than China's. The British train manufacturing company not only made a lot of money from China by selling the locomotive, but also by selling the components. China's railway relied on thermite welding technology, which the British had yet to master, to reduce construction costs and improve efficiency. In 1872, China stopped importing train parts from Great Britain. What it wanted was to spend money to completely get rid of the increasing demand for British train parts.
When the hydraulic press was being tested, Vézé was inspecting the Department of Internal Combustion Engine of Nanjing Mechanical College. Usually, Vézé's job was to give lectures to undergraduates, masters, and doctoral students. However, he didn't have a degree, so he didn't get a degree. The inspection was mainly focused on the new electric motor project.
In 1866, Lenoir of France designed and built the first practical gas engine by imitating the structure of the steam engine. This was a non-compression, electric ignition, and internal combustion engine that used lighting gas. Lenoir first used elastic piston rings in the internal combustion engine. The thermal efficiency of this gas engine was about 4%.
The British Barnett advocated compressing the combustible mixture before ignition. Later, some people wrote about the importance of compressing the combustible mixture and pointed out that compression could greatly improve the efficiency of Lenoir's internal combustion engine. In 1862, the French scientist Rosa made a theoretical analysis of the thermal process of the internal combustion engine and proposed to improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine. This was the earliest four-stroke working cycle.
The practical application of this four-stroke engine was completed in China. It was a single-cylinder, horizontal, 3-kilowatt four-stroke internal combustion engine. It still used gas as fuel and used flame ignition. The compression ratio was 2.66, and the thermal efficiency reached 14%. It was first used in electricity and public transportation. This time, Vézé inspected a motor with a power of 20 kilowatts and a thermal efficiency of 19% that was completed by the Department of Mechanics.
After the inspection, Vézé inspected the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department's steam turbine department. The steam turbine department produced a product completed by the team led by Vézé. It was a 3-kilowatt steam turbine. The history of the steam turbine was much older than that of the internal combustion engine. In a sense, the windmill was a steam turbine. At least, the principle was exactly the same. In 1629, Italy's GDE Blanka proposed a runner that rotated by a stream of steam impacting the blades. Later, this idea was drowned out by the wave of improved steam engines by Watt. In recent years, after the steam engine reached a bottleneck, people in Europe tried to break through and find other design ideas. There was no doubt that Vézé was very familiar with the steam turbine.
After inspecting these products in high spirits, Vézé was about to give a speech to strengthen technical confidentiality and guard against arrogance and rashness. The secretary ran to Vézé and said, "Governor, the British business delegation and the people from the Ministry of Commerce are arguing again! The British ambassador has been requesting to see you for several days in a row. "
Didn't they just stop importing British trains and train equipment and reduce the amount of cotton and woolen textiles imported from Britain? Was there a need to be so agitated? Vézé's good mood was greatly affected. Of course, Vézé was also very clear that these few products from Britain were the main products that China bought from Britain in the past ten years. The once barely balanced trade between China and Britain immediately became unbalanced because of this reduction.
"Let the Ministry of Commerce talk to them. We reduced the imports because we no longer have that much demand," Vézé replied.
"Britain threatened to raise special tariffs on us." The secretary continued to narrate the information.
"Hehe." Vézé sneered at this threat. "Raise tariffs? How much is he planning to raise it? We haven't even worried about the 43% tariff imposed by the United States. How much are the British planning to raise the tariff to? Two hundred percent? Tell the Ministry of Commerce not to worry. The British will just say a few words. Even if they really raise the tariff, we don't really have to be afraid of them. "
After the secretary left, Vézé suddenly became excited. Originally, the speech was just a routine speech. Now, Vézé was full of emotions and gave a speech about technical confidentiality to the Mechanic profession. After the Second Industrial Revolution was the era of rapid technological advancement. In this era, it was even more difficult to keep technical confidentiality, so it was especially valued by the country. With so many technological breakthroughs in China, it was necessary for them to keep the technology secret.
After the inspection, Vézé returned to his office. The Minister of Commerce, Chen Xin, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zuo Zhidan, were waiting at the door. As soon as they saw Vézé, Chen Xin said angrily, "Commander in Chief, the British want to resolve a business dispute with us!"
"Look at how angry you are. Did they threaten you militarily?" Vézé laughed. To be able to anger a minister in China like this, it meant that the British were even more flustered. Vézé was already very happy to be able to make the British so flustered.
The three sat down in the office. Li Xin immediately said, "Commander in Chief, the British want our market to be completely open to the British. Especially state-owned enterprises, they must have their own purchasing rights, and the British must have the right to do business with state-owned enterprises. "
"Oh..." Vézé felt that these words were very familiar. In the 21st century, the Americans had similar requirements, and the British were actually similar. Vézé laughed and said, "We don't have state-owned enterprises that don't want to do business with them."
When Li Xin saw how careless Vézé was, he was also angry and amused. "Ha, Commander in Chief, I said the same thing. However, the British simply said that if our government can't make sure that British products make up a certain proportion of our state-owned enterprises' procurement, we will be violating free trade. "
"Haha! Haha! " Vézé could not help but laugh. "Chinese enterprises, especially Chinese state-owned enterprises, must buy British products. Is this free trade?"
Hearing this extremely sarcastic remark, Zuo Zhidan smiled bitterly and said, "I heard from the British that China's state-owned enterprises are equivalent to the British royal family holding the shares."
"What a joke!" It was rare for Vézé to express his opinion without listening to the whole thing.
"Your Majesty, don't be angry. Everyone knows that the British are talking nonsense," Zuo Zhidan quickly comforted.
The Minister of Commerce, Li Xin, continued, "Commander in Chief, state-owned enterprises are the foundation of a country. They control the economic lifeline to ensure that there are no problems with the economic operation. You have said it so many times, how could we not know this? "
Vézé's gaze swept across Zuo Zhidan and Li Xin's faces. He did not continue to say anything on this issue. Instead, he asked, "Then, after you refuted the British, what did the British say?"
Li Xin said, "The British said that if China's state-owned enterprises are Commander in Chief's enterprises, then they have to do business with Commander in Chief. Since the state-owned enterprises are China's enterprises, and Chinese state-owned enterprises are not willing to buy British products, this means that China's attitude towards British free trade means that the British absolutely cannot accept China's national policy! "
After hearing this clear and clear statement, Vézé was not angry, let alone excited. If the Minister of Commerce was right about what the British said, this was the first time Vézé had heard China's national policy so clearly. The British was right. China's state-owned enterprises were implementing China's national policy. Faced with such a question, Vézé could not help but think of something that had been troubling him for a long time. Was China's policy the national policy, or was it Vézé's policy? Vézé did not want to see the latter. It was not that Vézé did not have confidence in himself, but if the national policy became Vézé's personal policy, there would be too many executors under Vézé who had their own ideas. Some of these ideas would be contrary to Vézé's original intention. Using Vézé's name to do things that were contrary to Vézé's original intention was something that Vézé could not turn a blind eye to.
Zuo Zhidan did not know what Vézé was thinking. Seeing that Vézé was not saying anything, he could not help but say, "Your Majesty, the British representative also mentioned the First Great Smoky War. At that time, the British reason was to restore free trade. I think the British are threatening us, but I'm not sure if the British are just saying it, or if they will really do something. "
"I think there must be something wrong with the British. Otherwise, they would not be so agitated. At least for now, I think the British are not just saying it, "the Minister of Commerce, Li Xin could not help but say.
"Then let's wait and see," Vézé made a judgment.
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