Of course, the word "research and development" is not precise.
To be precise, Li Sheng was trying to recreate the steam engine from his previous life.
Naturally, Li Sheng understood Li Er's thoughts immediately.
When he received Li Er's letter, he didn't even need to read it before he saw the words "Steam Farming Ox". Li Sheng knew what Li Er had planned.
However, this land-based steam engine...
There is obviously still a long way to go before we can evolve to the level of "steam cattle".
Before that, you have to point out a lot of prerequisite technology points.
This thing sounds simple, but in fact it is much more complicated.
But of course...
The biggest difference between Li Sheng and everyone in this era is that he can see the entire technical route.
The first step is to develop what kind of final product should it be? When it comes to choosing the direction, Li Sheng will not make mistakes.
Second, there is the issue of costs and by-products.
As we all know, the reason why Wagyu beef is expensive is not only due to the peculiar breed and hoarding, as well as marketing effects, but also a key point, which is that not every piece of beef can be turned into steak——
Beef that cannot be turned into steak is not considered wagyu, and its market value is completely different.
In other words...
Raising a Wagyu cow means there are no by-products such as beef balls and beef bone soup.
What do you mean? It’s not that Wagyu beef bones can’t be stewed in soup, but because...
This kind of cattle used for steak must be raised on grains so that their body fat percentage can be increased. The cost of raising grains is much higher than that of cattle raised on ordinary grass.
In addition to the steaks sold as "wagyu" in the market, other parts can be turned into money, but the price is definitely not high, at least not compared to the steak itself.
Then... naturally it will not be able to cover the cost of raising Wagyu beef, or turn it into profit.
Industry and technology are actually similar.
If everything is calculated according to the final goal, then an item that is completely ahead of its time will consume a huge amount of resources, which will waste people and money.
But this hugeness is often just a superficial phenomenon.
Because there are many by-products in the entire project, once these products are spread to the public in a planned way, they can produce many economic effects beyond the project.
For example, integrated circuits originally came from the moon landing project.
At that time, a moon landing cost twice the military expenditure of a superpower, all of which were taxes paid by the people.
Such a huge expense seemed absolutely unwise at the time. After all, what would you gain by landing on the moon?
But after this project, the integrated circuits derived from it revitalized the economy of California, and finally created the prosperity of Silicon Valley. Even the outcome of the Cold War was greatly affected by the rise of Silicon Valley.
Of course, it seems...it seems that what made Silicon Valley rise is just the electronic engineers and coders in Silicon Valley themselves. But if there were no previous moon landing projects...
Ordinary wealthy people, how can they have any motivation to develop inherited circuits that cost huge money and have uncertain prospects.
All of this can be traced back to the moon landing project of that year.
Therefore, it can be seen that in all the historical data in the world, any regime with a certain sense of responsibility will basically launch various spectacle projects. They may not be useful at the first time, but they often derive other huge values in the long run.
.
This internal combustion engine project...
In Li Sheng's current vision, it is actually similar.
If the internal combustion engine is to be developed, the supporting industries and advanced technological points will not be just one or two.
It would take an incredible amount of time and money to develop it.
But before that...
We can't come up with an internal combustion engine in a short time, but we can get some primitive versions, such as steam trains, which are not within easy reach...
Of course, Li Sheng knew that this steam train was not easy to operate.
Because before...
When he arrived in Lingzhou, Li Sheng knew that if the northwest was to be stable, it must be included in the economic order of the entire China. For this purpose, good transportation was indispensable.
Therefore, from that moment on, Li Sheng knew that the Tang Dynasty would be inseparable from steam trains sooner or later.
Transportation without trains is nothing but transportation, so of course it has to be arranged.
However, it took several months of trying before Li Sheng finally came up with a bulky steam engine for ships.
This steam engine is actually the original Stirling steam engine that Li Sheng knew in his previous life.
The structure of this thing is very basic. It is actually a metal test tube made of steel or brass, which is set up and burned.
There is water in the test tube, and steam is produced when water is boiled.
The mouth of the test tube is the piston - this is the original origin of the name "piston" - and the other end of the piston is connected to the flywheel and drive shaft, which are the core components of an engine.
The entire Stirling engine uses the steam in the test tube to push the piston, and indirectly pushes the flywheel to rotate, which pulls the transmission shaft to rotate, and finally this transmission shaft drives the tires outside, or the lathe, and so on.
The structure of this Stirling engine is simple to talk about, and it is also very simple to look at the schematic diagram.
But during this period of time, Li Sheng’s research and development really encountered many difficulties along the way——
Then again, if it was as simple as it seemed, Li Sheng wouldn't have to do it, and professors like Wei Ziyu would have done it.
Fortunately, after these few months, Li Sheng finally got it done.
The key technical details are mainly a matter of seals.
If the connection between the piston and the test tube is not tight enough, and the steam directly escapes to push the air, then there is still a hairy piston to push.
This small detail sounds simple to say, but in the industrial history that Li Sheng has studied, it is a technical difficulty that has troubled the entire Western industrial society and consumed countless brain cells of countless science and engineering leaders for a long time.
But since Li Sheng has read the answers and regards them as knowledge points, there is nothing much to say.
The classic solution is to find something called rubber in South America many years after the discovery of the New World. After many stages of development, whether it was a steam engine or other machinery, we finally had a reliable and easy-to-use machine.
of seals.
As for future generations, there is nothing to say. If you bring a bowl of petroleum to you, you can get as many high-quality synthetic materials as you want.
Now there is no such developed petrochemical industry as in later generations, nor is there rubber. But since Li Sheng has studied industrial history, things are not that troublesome.
If I remember correctly, our army used leather instead. What kind of leather was it? Li Sheng tried many kinds of leather in Lingzhou and finally settled on a kind of deerskin.
