PFC Chapter 79 Pressure
Chapter 79 Pressure
Chapter 79 Pressure
The construction of factory facilities and the preparation of personnel and materials all take time to complete.
While the Institute of Physics was preparing these things, Babbage, Hall, Colt, and others followed the large Han engineers who were working with them and found a place to settle down temporarily in the Institute of Physics.
When modern designers find factories to produce drawings and customize products, they often need to make samples first to confirm the processing performance indicators. In the early to mid-19th century, designers even had to test them by hand.
Therefore, engineers such as Babbage, Hall, and Colt were all skilled craftsmen. Babbage, a wealthy man, personally assembled his first difference engine using a machine.
In the view of Babbage, Hall, and others, traditional mechanical equipment and materials have no "standards".
Let alone similar equipment used in different factories, even two pieces of the same type of equipment in the same factory will most likely have very obvious "uniqueness". There are almost no two pieces of equipment that are exactly the same.
The skills of the craftsmen working in the factory, the methods they are accustomed to using for drawing design and processing blueprints, and the steel materials used daily in the factory are all devoid of any "standards".
If designers don't personally handle the equipment or try manufacturing samples themselves, and simply provide design drawings for craftsmen to process independently—
The final product often turns out to be quite different from what was envisioned, and most of the time it is simply unusable.
When Babbage and other engineers entered the sample processing workshop of the Gewu Institute and came into contact with the machining equipment and materials used by the Dahan Gewu Institute, they immediately confirmed one thing.
Just as the officials of the Military Industry Department said, the Han Dynasty's steel supply was indeed extremely abundant.
Babbage, Hall, and Colt were together, surrounding the forging hammers they were about to use.
He turned the lathe and boring machine around a few times, observed the shape of the main structure, and gently tapped it with tools to check it.
Then, unable to resist watching his companion's reaction, he muttered, half to himself and half to vent, "This—it really is almost entirely steel—"
"Yes, wherever there are requirements for the properties of metal, it is all made of steel."
"Only structural components that do not affect performance when made of cast iron, such as counterweights and flywheels, are made of cast iron."
The accompanying interpreter from the Court of State Ceremonial looked speechless: "You're making a fuss over nothing—go check the materials, the steel we need is all in the warehouse here—"
Babbage and his two companions went to the materials warehouse next to the workshop and saw piles of steel ingots, steel plates, steel columns, steel pipes and other materials of various specifications, enough to make Babbage's difference engine.
After confirming that the supply of materials was plentiful, the three soon discovered an unprecedented situation.
The specifications of these materials in the warehouse are highly consistent.
In particular, there was a pile of rectangular steel plates, all of which were cut neatly and had very smooth surfaces.
Hall walked up to the pile of steel plates and lifted the top one with both hands.
Then, with one eye closed, tilt your head to observe from the side.
The black surface has a faint blue glow, and can even reflect the shadows of people around it.
Hall had Colt hold the first plate while he lifted the second one, finding it to be exactly the same.
Babbage seemed to have noticed something as well, and he joined in to observe, muttering, "Wow—with such uniform rolled steel plates, it will be so much easier to manufacture them with machines—"
Hydraulic rolling mills have been around for over two hundred years, and steam rolling mills for several decades.
However, because there are no universal standards in this era, each machine has its own "personality".
It is very difficult for craftsmen to obtain high-standard boards with uniform performance.
Babbage, Hall, and the others were very pleased to see a large pile of highly uniform material.
After putting down the steel plate, Babbage and the other craftsmen went to look at other materials, occasionally letting out exclamations of surprise.
The artisans and scholars of the Han Dynasty gradually became accustomed to these things, starting from the time of Liu Desheng.
More than 20 years ago, they followed Liu Desheng's instructions to make everything as uniform and standardized as possible.
With the advent of converter steelmaking technology and the widespread use of steam-driven rolling mills, forging mills, and other processing machines, material standardization has reached a new level.
Large quantities of homogeneous steel ingots and steel plates are direct results.
The craftsmen are now standing nearby, watching Babbage and his ilk accept new things with a startled and bewildered expression.
Many people held back their thoughts, thinking that even scholars and elites among the barbarians were so ignorant.
Others might think the opposite: just how messy must the things these people use be?
Babbage and his team toured the materials warehouse and, among a large pile of materials that surprised them, discovered something that was most unbelievable: a collection of seamless steel pipes.
Hall held two gun barrels, each two feet (800 mm) long and three centimeters (12 mm) in diameter.
He examined it closely, noticing the rifling inside, and exclaimed in horror, "This—there's absolutely no trace of forging or joining; it looks like it was formed by cutting a long tube—"
"How are these readily available gun barrels made in such large quantities?"
Colt also held two gun barrels, and after observing them for a moment, he felt something was amiss.
Holding one in each hand, he gently tapped them together in front of his eyes, and after listening to the sound, he exclaimed in a low voice, "This is also made of steel? How can gun barrels be made of steel?"
Upon hearing Colt's words, Hall realized that the barrel was made of steel: "A steel barrel! How can such a thing exist!"
Gun barrels in this era were mostly made of wrought iron, which were hand-rolled into tubular shapes by blacksmiths using wrought iron sheets.
Most of the time spent processing firearms is spent on barrel rolling.
Even the most skilled gunsmith can only produce two rifles in a month.
If mild steel is used for rolling, the processing difficulty will increase dramatically, and the manufacturing speed will decrease again.
Now the Han Dynasty has a large number of readily available gun barrels, which seem to be made of steel rather than wrought iron.
That would greatly increase the speed of gun production and significantly improve the performance of firearms.
Overwhelmed with astonishment, Hall couldn't help but ask the burly craftsman accompanying him, "How are these steel gun barrels made?"
The craftsman shook his head and waved his hands, saying, "We don't know either. It was shipped directly from outside. The gun factory doesn't ask about that."
"You don't need to worry about it, just focus on designing the other components."
Colt speculated, "There must be a dedicated factory with many workers specializing in processing gun barrels."
"It may have been cast directly into a crucible and then forged using specialized tools."
"Whatever the reason, it's a good thing for us."
Hall nodded slowly: "That's true. The biggest problem in the past was that the production of gun barrels could not be completed quickly by machines."
"If there are a large number of prefabricated barrels, then this problem doesn't need to be considered."
After observing the materials, Hall and his colleagues took a batch of samples using a handcart and transported them back to the processing workshop.
After getting started operating Dahan's processing equipment, they soon made new discoveries.
The processing equipment used by Dahan is highly consistent with each other.
After Hall and Colt spent the morning working in the workshop, when they had lunch together, Hall muttered to himself with some self-doubt: "Dahan's machines are standard, and Dahan's materials are uniform. They're not even on the same level as those in Europe and America."
"Our work has become simpler, but it also makes our value less apparent."
Colt, however, was very happy and said, "I don't have to spend time adjusting the processing machines or specially selecting materials."
"Most of the things here are ready to use, and the workers can start working right away."
"What we need to do is design, design the most convenient, easy-to-use and inexpensive firearms."
"The latter requires process flow design, which is Mr. Hall's forte, and exactly what Dahan wants."
Hall still felt immense pressure: "The guns provided by the Great Han Institute of Physics are not significantly different from our designs, and even have many advantages."
"They can also use these machines and materials, and there's very little we can do anymore."
"Only experience in production planning can provide this —"
Hall considered what he was about to say, but did not say it aloud.
In his self-introduction, Hall claimed that he could design and manufacture firearms with replaceable parts for the Great Han.
We can build a dedicated gun manufacturing plant for the Han Dynasty, and construct gun production facilities that even children can operate.
In fact, a large part of their confidence comes from improvements in production and processing equipment.
The key is to standardize the processing equipment and improve its adaptability to various materials.
However, it has now been discovered that Dahan's production and processing equipment is of a very high standard and has basically achieved standardization.
The materials used are also highly uniform, so the equipment does not need to be highly adaptable.
Aside from the additional design improvements I've been asked to make, all I can do now is break down the production process, design the production flow, and set up the production line.
Production process design is crucial in modern factories, but Hall in this era failed to recognize this, always feeling that there was too little he could do.
Hall is feeling immense pressure and can only put in his utmost effort at work.
After becoming familiar with Dahan's processing equipment and materials, they used the Han-style rulers and compasses provided by Dahan Gewuyuan to redraw the design and production drawings for the standard Chinese characters.
The barrel length was changed from 0.525 inches, which was determined by the amount of ammunition, to 3 li (a unit of length) in the Han system, which was determined by the prefabricated barrel. The length was also directly taken from the 2 chi (another unit of length) in the Han system of the prefabricated barrel.
After producing and processing several Han-made prototype guns, we will then consider how to improve the sealing effect of the gun barrel and how to set up a production line that is as efficient and stable as possible.
Babbage and other research-oriented engineers were very happy and relaxed at this time.
They all felt that the Han Dynasty had excellent production and processing conditions, excellent material conditions, and excellent basic conditions for scientific research.
Babbage had no doubt that the giant could build the difference engine.
While Babbage was working with Dahan's processing equipment and redrawing the blueprints using Han-style rulers and compasses, he had already begun to consider the design of the next generation of differential engines.
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