Chapter 159: The Spring

Of course, never mind—I said from the start that although special abilities defy common sense, they still have their own internal laws; as long as we keep summarizing, someday we will be able to use special abilities to rebuild our world just as we once used physics and chemistry.

Tang Jing's words always carry a hint of allure.

Of course, even in the apocalypse, the hypnotic brainwashing of positive energy still has some positive significance.

At least for now, everyone is full of hope for the future.

Aside from the plastic foam, Chen Mu was still most interested in that mouse.

To be honest, this mouse doesn't match the style of the other items, and it looks broken, having been placed in the cardboard box as a spare part that fell off.

However, the boys' interest in the mouse is purely triggered by memories of computer games; in terms of material, there's actually nothing novel about it.

Tang Jing, on the other hand, was quite interested in those two tape measures.

With a flat square plastic casing, the internal steel tape can be pulled out and automatically rewound; I'd guess all the boys have used this thing as a weapon to play with.

Many people might even have cut their hands on it.

What special use does it have?

Seeing Tang Jing staring at the large tape measure, Chen Mu asked curiously.

Our craftsmanship is already fairly mature, but in the process of industrialization we still lack something extremely important.

What?

Energy.

Hmm.

That's a good point, but Chen Mu didn't understand why looking at a tape measure would make her think of energy.

Like oil and natural gas?

Pretty much, but we can't actually use those things yet.

What does that have to do with the tape measure?" Chen Mu asked, puzzled.

The function of energy is nothing more than providing heat and power, especially the latter, which is also why the invention of the steam engine could greatly drive the Industrial Revolution.

Tang Jing sighed: 'Too bad we currently don't have this kind of special ability.'

Providing energy and power?

Hmm.

Doesn't the class monitor count?

Heating metal blocks and making explosives are certainly decent energy sources, but it's currently hard to use them as power; what we lack most is exactly this—otherwise, at least the elevator wouldn't need to keep bothering Lu Shanshan and the others, and the cranes on the shelves would also need power to operate.

Would it be feasible to burn iron blocks to boil water and then build a simple steam engine?" He Ying asked.

In principle it's feasible, and given Chen Mu's current ability precision, as long as we break it down step by step we can definitely build a steam engine suitable for our use.

Then let's do it that way?

It's not that simple." Tang Jing sighed; "Don't you remember me saying that when you scale down machinery proportionally, it might not still work? This is especially true for steam engines—not that they definitely can't run, but even if they do, their effect would be very limited.

Why?

Because we can't provide it with a continuous energy source. For the simplest example, a full-sized steam train carries enough coal to run several thousand kilometers, but a toy‑train‑sized locomotive—do you think its little coal supply could still let it run several thousand kilometers?

A steam engine can be built, and using the class monitor's ability to boil water is also feasible, but at our scale the duration is a major problem; fundamentally, ordinary combustion has a minimum limit, which prevents us from infinitely subdividing fuel to achieve longer burn time.

Chen Mu listened, finding it increasingly hard to follow, but he still grasped the general idea.

Put simply, our biggest problem is storing energy.

Yes, lighting a fire is easy, but making the energy it produces output evenly and continuously is what we should strive for." Tang Jing concluded.

So what does this have to do with the tape measure, exactly?

Because I've thought of an ancient and simple way to store energy.

Chen Mu first froze, but following Tang Jing's gaze toward the tape measure, a few seconds later he suddenly understood.

A spring?

Exactly." Tang Jing smiled: "When it comes to sustaining a small amount of energy output, the first thing that comes to mind is a mechanical watch.

Wind it a few times and it runs for days.

Yes." Tang Jing smiled.

Why didn't I think of that earlier?" Chen Mu slapped his own head.

Making a spring device would be a good power choice for either the elevator or the shelf crane.

Of course, Wei Dalei himself is a huge power source, but as a human he can't stay in one place forever.

Having Old Wei wind the spring wouldn't that be an excellent way to store power?

Tang Jing smiled: 'Even if we thought of it earlier, it wouldn't help—the material needed for a spring is best carbon steel; we only have stainless steel now, and although we could make it, the efficiency would be much lower.'

What about this tape measure then?

The material of a steel tape measure is basically the same as that of a spring, which is why I had this idea.

Then let's get started right away.

Don't rush; the idea is simple, but actually implementing it still involves many problems.

Tang Jing said: 'If it were just a child's wind‑up toy car, it wouldn't mean much; we need uniform, continuous power output, and since a spring's force is greatest at the start and then gradually diminishes, we must constantly adjust the torque lever, just like the internal structure of a mechanical watch.'

That would be very complicated." Chen Mu, who works as a parts processor, felt a bit troubled.

Indeed it will be difficult; just those big and small gears alone would keep you busy for a while, and the precision required for these parts is extremely high—if they're off by a bit, the whole device becomes useless.

……

With the idea that making it earlier means using it earlier, Chen Mu began working on the spring that very afternoon.

He first teamed up with Wei Dalei to take a tape measure down from the shelf, then disassembled it and pulled out the inner steel tape.

After finishing that.

The next day, Tang Jing took out a sheet of paper on which was drawn the mechanical diagram of a certain spring device, with all dimensions clearly marked.

This drawing almost filled the entire notebook, with the dimensions of every tiny part densely marked inside.

It's hard to imagine this was achieved in just one day.

With paper available, Tang Jing no longer needed to draw diagrams for Chen Mu on the ground and walls.

After the simplest experimental wind-up device was finished, everyone gathered to try it out. This was the most primitive wind-up spring, made with just a simple plastic casing, but it was huge—almost as tall as two people.

It had a winding hole fitted with a butterfly-shaped handle.

Everyone came up and tried it once.

As a result, among the seventeen people of Qiming, except for Wei Dalei, not a single person could turn it.