"Everyone, take a look, steam actually contains huge energy."
Zuozhuang Academy, Zuo Mengeng demonstrated the function of steam to the students.
With the increase in population, the number of students in Zuozhuang Academy has increased, reaching more than 500, making it just like a small school.
As long as Zuo Mengeng is in Zuozhuang, he will definitely find time to teach.
There are some things that only he can teach.
Even if he is not proficient, he can broaden children's horizons and thinking.
For example, steam, electricity, aerodynamics, etc., he taught these children little by little.
As children grow up, some of them will inevitably devote themselves to studying related subjects because of their interest.
He just sows the seeds and waits for the harvest.
The reason why he presented the concept of steam engine to the children this time was not because he took the initiative, but because he was forced by the enthusiasm of the craftsmen.
Zuo Mengeng felt for the first time why the military is the driving force behind the development of science and technology.
This time during the development of heavy artillery, a problem arose that no one had expected.
That's because as the caliber increases, the inner bore of the barrel cannot be bored.
If it is cast like a red cannon and fires round shells, then the requirements inside the barrel will not be so high.
However, the new army's requirement is to be able to fire long-cylinder explosive shells, and the technological requirements for the inner wall of the gun barrel have reached a very stringent level.
The craftsmen gathered together to brainstorm and came up with an idea.
That is to build a lathe, then install a connecting rod on it, and use the connecting rod to drive the boring tool to boring the inner wall of the gun barrel.
After the lathe came out, the effect was very poor.
Because the connecting rod cannot remain stable during its forward and backward movement, and the rotation speed cannot be fast. Once it is too fast, the connecting rod will melt due to high temperature.
At that time, everyone asserted that it was impossible to achieve the gun barrel required by the military.
A craftsman named Luo Hong refused to admit defeat and spent three months in the workshop. He came up with a way to completely solve the problem of unstable connecting rod and high temperature, and made the gun barrel meet the requirements of the military department in one fell swoop.
After Zuo Mengeng went to see it, he was dumbfounded on the spot.
Do you want it to be so powerful?
Even the ball and the bar were found.
Yes, Luo Hong's solution is to use balls to replace the original trapezoidal connecting rod. This allows the connecting rod to tightly engage with the machine during movement, and there is no problem of shaking.
Because of this invention, Luo Hong was promoted to master craftsman on the spot and received a heavy reward of five hundred taels of silver.
But the emergence of ball connecting rods has brought a new problem.
That is, the current water conservancy drive cannot fully exert the performance of the ball connecting rod. Craftsmen urgently need a larger and more stable output power to complete the upgrade of the foundry industry.
When the question came to Zuo Mengeng, he immediately thought of steam engines.
When it comes to steam engines, people will naturally think of Watt. But in fact, the idea of steam application has a much earlier history.
As early as the first century AD, the ancient Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria invented the steam ball, which is recognized as the earliest prototype of a steam engine.
Zuo Menggeng mentioned this matter to Deng Yuhan, and Deng Yuhan also became interested and began to develop a pressure cooker.
Yes, the source of the invention of the steam engine was the pressure cooker.
European scientists of this era already knew the relationship between air pressure and boiling point. However, it would take more than forty years for the pressure cooker to be invented by French doctor Papin.
Deng Yuhan took over the work and formed a research team with several young people such as Zhang Lingxi and Hou Fangyu. Xu Ruolin and Zuo Xianmei provided them with calculation assistance.
But the problem is that Xu Ruolin has a translation job, and Zuo Xianmei has a financial job, so the help they can provide is very limited, which seriously affects the progress.
There was nothing Zuo Mengeng could do about this.
And he knew very well that even if Deng Yuhan and others' work went smoothly, the steam engine would not be born in a short time.
The steam engine is one of those works that has a very simple theory but very high technological requirements.
It is easy to make a steam engine that has no practical effect, but it will be a long way to put the steam engine into practical use.
In fact, this is also due to the insufficient memory inherited by Zuo Menggen.
He did not know that it was precisely because of the application of connecting rods in machine tools that Watt had the cylinder that could build a steam engine.
If he knew, he wouldn't have to start cultivating relevant talents from the very basics.
Seeing the cork of the spout fly more than ten meters away under the pressure of steam, the students were amazed and went up one after another to test it one by one.
When Zuo Mengeng raised his head, he saw a large group of people coming from a distance, and said to the students: "Be careful not to get burned when you are doing the experiment. Also, you are not allowed to play with young children, you know?"
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Those who were taught steam knowledge by him were all over the age of fifteen. They were too young to be able to master such a dangerous thing.
As he walked out of the school, the group of people happened to be in front of him.
Oh, good guys, if you look at the past, basically they all have white skin and blue eyes.
Deng Yuhan happily introduced Zuo Mengeng.
"Left, this is the priest of Luo Yagu. He was ordered to send these people to Dengzhou to help Brother Sun."
Zuo Mengeng understood.
These Europeans were probably recruited by Sun Yuanhua to help him cast cannons.
Alas, he still took that path after all.
Zuo Mengeng has already obtained the information.
As in his previous life, Sun Yuanhua incorporated Geng Zhongming's tribe from Dongjiang Town and arranged for them to be sent to Dengzhou.
Of course, Sun Yuanhua also had difficulties in this.
On the one hand, Sun Chengzong's order had to be obeyed; on the other hand, Denglai's troops were seriously insufficient. After the defeat of Li Mengming and Dong Dacheng, there were still small groups of White Lotus sect rebels running around in Denglai.
Zhang Keda had only a few people under his command, so he could only hold on to Dengzhou. In order to supplement his troops, it was a helpless move to introduce Dongjiang Town.
A missionary who was nearly forty years old came forward and was very close to Zuo Mengeng.
"Zuo, I have heard of your deeds for a long time. Having someone as knowledgeable and wise as you in the East is the gospel of this ancient land."
Zuo Mengeng didn't know much about Luo Ya Valley.
"Mr. Luo, welcome to Shandong. If you need anything here, just tell me."
His enthusiasm made the missionaries very happy.
After Luo Yagu's introduction, Zuo Mengeng learned that there were both missionaries and Portuguese mercenaries in this group.
There are a full 27 people in this group, including artillery experts and military instructors, which shows Sun Yuanhua's ambition.
It's a pity that as a technical talent, Sun Yuanhua is too poor politically.
However, among these Westerners, there was a person from the Ming Dynasty, which surprised Zuo Mengeng.
"You... aren't you the disciple of Mr. Wei?"
The person Zuo Mengeng saw was the scribe who followed Wei Wenkui to declare war in Xu Guangqi's mansion that day.
It's strange, why did the disciples of Wei Wenkui, who were very hostile to Westerners, mix with Western missionaries?
When this was mentioned, the man felt a little embarrassed.
"Xue Fengzuo, a native of Yidu, thanks Zuo Shenzuo for saving Sangzi."
Although Zuo Mengeng and King Heng collapsed under the city of Yidu, in any case, the emergence of the new army prevented Yidu from suffering from the White Lotus Sect, and the local people were very grateful to Zuo Menggen.
"Zuo Shenzuo didn't know that the dispute between the teacher and Xuan Hugong has come to an end. The Western calendar is indeed unique. The teacher was frustrated by this and has returned home to study it with concentration. I want to know the truth, so I studied it with the priest of Luo Yagu."
He is actually an idiot, with such a pure attitude toward learning.
However, Zuo Mengeng still agrees with this spirit.
"The way to learn is to seek truth and be pragmatic. Mr. Xue has mastered the essence and will surely achieve great success in the future."
This is Zuo Mengeng's ignorance and ignorance.
In fact, Xue Fengzuo's knowledge was definitely second to none in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and he was truly knowledgeable.
This man was born into a scholarly family, and he inherited his family education from a young age, and later learned the traditional Chinese astronomical and calendrical methods.
During the Tianqi period, he traveled to Dingxing County, Baoding Prefecture, and learned the "King of Lu" studies from Lu Jishan and Sun Qifeng.
After that, he learned Chinese calculus from Wei Wenkui, and then he learned from the Italian missionary Roya Gu.
Not to mention this, in the future he will study with the Polish Munigor and master Copernicus's "On the Movement of Celestial Bodies".
Xue Fengzuo learned from many talents and learned the essence of the East and West. He was proficient in astronomy, mathematics, geography, water conservancy, art of war, medicine, and music.
It's a pity that he was born at the wrong time, otherwise he would have been a great person in history.
He didn't know this and only regarded Xue Fengzuo as an ordinary person.
"Zuo, I want to take everyone to see our new astronomical discovery, is that okay?"
Having been in China for a long time, Deng Yuhan already knew that Chinese people have the habit of cherishing their broomsticks. So he wanted to share the discovery of Uranus with his friends, so he asked Zuo Mengeng for his opinion.
Of course Zuo Mengeng wouldn't care if it didn't involve military secrets.
Moreover, these people are all great talents, and communicating with them will definitely bring a lot of benefits.
"The sky belongs to all of us, right? So this kind of sharing is my honor."