Chapter 91: The Prototype of the Steam Engine

Chongzhen frowned.

"That being the case, why is output still so low?

If the craftsmen think the pay is too little and won't put their hearts into it, then just give them more silver — wouldn't that solve it? Besides, aren't there still the Directorate for Imperial Accoutrements and the Armory Bureau?"

Xu Guangqi gave a bitter smile. "To report to Your Majesty, the reason for the low output is none other than the barrel itself.

Your servant and Master Dongjiao have tested this repeatedly, and it is indeed as Your Majesty previously said: firelocks with spiraling grooves cut inside the barrel truly shoot farther than those with smooth barrels.

For this reason, over this past month or so, your servant has had craftsmen cut grooves into these ten barrel tubes. It is not that your servant did not wish to produce more, but that our strength truly fell short.

If cast from iron, a single barrel tube is extremely prone to bursting. If forged from fine steel, then never mind the time required to cut the grooves — even boring the tube smooth is a matter of great difficulty.

A craftsman highly skilled in this art, even working day after day without pause, can produce no more than a mere two tubes in a month.

The soldiers of our Great Ming number well over a million. If we were to universally adopt these grooved barrel tubes, I fear one cannot say in which year or month we would finish cutting enough to reach that million count."

Hearing this, Chongzhen was dumbfounded. As far as his own knowledge went, he knew of things like the Chiang Kai-shek rifle, the Hanyang-made, the Type 81, the Type 95, the Type 03 — but his knowledge stopped at merely knowing of them, and even that was largely thanks to the TV dramas of later ages.

If he were actually told to research how those things were made? Sorry, first go get Us a pack of engineering dogs from some institute of technology or university to do the research.

Watching his wish of using World War II rifles to thrash the Jianzhou barbarians about to come to naught, Chongzhen was utterly unwilling to let it go.

He said, "When We perused ancient texts, We once saw recorded that Gongshu Shi built a wooden bird that could fly three days without alighting; the Martial Marquis Zhuge also built wooden oxen and gliding horses that could transport supplies while sparing civilian porters.

From this it is evident that the power of machinery far surpasses that of human labor. That being so, why not build a mechanical device to replace the craftsmen in drilling holes and cutting grooves, working day and night without pause? Would that not be splendid?"

What Chongzhen was thinking of in his heart at that moment were the machine tools of later ages. If there were some five-axis CNC machine tool, even the simplest machine tool, it would surely be far stronger than having craftsmen polish by hand.

Even if the late Tianqi Emperor were still alive, given that carpenter emperor's mind, with just a bit of guidance he could probably whip up a simple machine tool in no time.

Even if, after adopting machine tools, one worker operating a machine tool could turn out one gun barrel a day, then by casually rounding up some craftsmen, a few hundred gun barrels a day would be no problem, right?

No matter how you calculated it, it would be far faster than one man producing two gun barrels a month, right?

In Chongzhen's view, machinery replacing human labor was the irresistible trend.

In the later ages, in the rabbit's den, there were rumors that the parts polished by a Grade-8 fitter were even finer than those finished by machine tool — yet Grade-8 fitters gradually grew fewer, precisely because machinery was steadily replacing human labor.

Xu Guangqi, however, gave a bitter smile. "In reply to Your Majesty, your servant has thought along these lines as well. Such a mechanical device can indeed be built. The sole difficulty lies in the method of driving it.

If this were after the spring thaw, once the ice on the river surface melted, we could use water current to drive it. But now it cannot be done.

If we use oxen or horses as the driving force, it cannot be as steady as water current — now fast, now slow — and problems arise very easily. Your servant has also consulted the Western missionaries, and they too had no good solution."

Hearing this, Chongzhen inwardly shouted with delight! An opportunity to show off like this — how could he possibly cede it to those Western barbarians?

Chongzhen smiled. "Minister Xu, have you ever seen a kettle boiling water?"

Xu Guangqi said, "Your servant has naturally seen it. May I ask what Your Majesty means by this?"

Chongzhen assumed an expression as if reminiscing, as if lost in memory, and said, "When We saw a kettle of water come to a boil, the lid kept rising and falling, opening and closing.

We imagine that once the water boils, something must have changed compared to before it boiled, and thus there is a certain force continuously pushing the lid open, and when the force is spent, it falls back down. So it repeats, over and over.

Let us do it this way. Our merely talking about it here is not intuitive. Let us go to the kitchen and observe a kettle boiling water."

Once they reached the kitchen, Xu Guangqi, heedless of his own status, directly found a kettle himself and began heating water.

After a while, once the water boiled, white steam kept billowing from the spout, and the lid began bobbing up and down, rising and falling.

Chongzhen said, "Go and plug the spout."

Xu Guangqi, hearing this, stepped forward again and plugged the kettle's spout. With this done, the amplitude of the lid's rise and fall grew markedly greater.

Chongzhen spoke again. "Find something to weigh down the lid and seal it tightly. Everyone withdraw from the kitchen."

Once Xu Guangqi had done as instructed and used something to press down the lid as well, he followed Chongzhen and the others in withdrawing from the kitchen.

After a short while, a muffled "Bang!" sounded from within the kitchen. Startled, Fang Zhenghua bellowed, "Protect the Emperor!"

A crowd of Inner Depot agents hurriedly drew their blades and formed a human wall, shielding Chongzhen within. Chongzhen, however, wore an utterly unruffled expression and said coolly, "Come, let us go in and take a look."

Fang Zhenghua, however, dared not step aside. He signaled for the agents to enter the kitchen first and check. Only after the agents had turned the kitchen over, confirming there was no danger, did they clear the way, and Chongzhen, Xu Guangqi, and the others then entered.

Inside the kitchen at that moment, everything was in complete disarray. The kettle that had been perfectly fine moments before now lay overturned; the object that had been weighing down the lid, along with the lid itself, had flown off to one side.

On the roof beam there were traces of having been struck.

Chongzhen smiled. "It seems the power of this kettle is not small."

Xu Guangqi also smiled. "Your Majesty's heaven-bestowed brilliance — your servant cannot match it. For this guidance, your servant is deeply grateful and will engrave it upon his heart.

So long as the lid is not sealed tight, this rising-and-falling motion can be used to drive all manner of mechanical devices. It is simply a matter of enlarging the kettle."

Chongzhen smiled. "We are no sage; it is merely a matter of observing more and pondering more. The talented and learned men of our Great Ming number well over a million.

Once We return to the palace, We shall order men to post imperial proclamations, broadly summoning the realm's talents to research this object together with Minister Xu."

Xu Guangqi, for once joining in the spirit of the moment, offered flattery: "Your Majesty is sagacious and enlightened. It is only that this object was brought about by Your Majesty's guidance to your servant.

If it were to be called something like 'kettle machine,' it would sound rather unseemly. Your servant boldly requests that Your Majesty bestow a name upon this object."

Hearing this, Chongzhen inwardly praised Xu Guangqi for knowing how to handle people. It seemed these researchers' skill at bootlicking was not bad at all.

As long as he named this thing himself, wouldn't he thereafter be the Father of the Steam Engine? Watt, Edison — all of you can get lost and go play in the mud!

Chongzhen did not feign modesty and said directly, "Since this object takes as its principle the boiling of water in a kettle, utilizing the force of boiling water evaporating into vapor as its drive, would it not be fitting to call it the steam engine?"

After the assembled ministers had finished a round of flattery, Chongzhen spoke again.

"Additionally, Minister Xu should broadly recruit craftsmen to jointly research methods of steelmaking, to see how to increase the output of steel and iron, and to produce these firelocks and cannons in great quantity.

Hmm, the name 'firelock' is not very pleasing to the ear. Henceforth, let them be called guns."

Today I'm not seizing the dragon throne, just saying a word. Work has been too busy these past two days; I can only guarantee one update a day. I'll resume two updates as quickly as possible.

(End of chapter)