Chapter 1982: Invention and Creation

Clap! Clap! Clap!

The crowd looked toward the sound of the applause and saw Liu Zheng walking over: "Your invention is quite good; it will solve many computational problems for us."

"I think we should..." Liu Zheng's words were not yet finished.

This Difference Engine suddenly emitted a metallic snapping sound, and a component, unable to withstand the stress, cracked apart.

The entire Difference Engine began to emit white smoke.

Babbage looked at his Difference Engine, no longer able to operate it, and a sense of disappointment flashed through his heart.

Liu Zheng said: "Mr. Babbage, this is bad news, but we have some good news: we now need a new Difference Engine."

"And you will become the creator of this new Difference Engine. I will find the best craftsmen for you to cooperate with your design."

Hearing this, Babbage, who had been very disappointed, was now full of spirit.

He looked at Liu Zheng, his voice almost trembling with excitement as he said: "Is that true, sir?"

"Yes," Liu Zheng nodded affirmatively.

The crowd erupted into thunderous applause for this celebratory event, and amidst this applause, Liu Zheng turned and left...

In fact, in his original world, the Difference Engine had always been a controversial thing.

Although its creator had built a functional Difference Engine, it had huge differences from the Difference Engine he had envisioned.

The massive Difference Engine he conceived was divided into three parts.

The first part was the 'Storage' made of gears; it would store data for the Difference Engine. Each gear could store ten numbers, and this array composed of gears could store a total of one thousand fifty-digit numbers.

The second part, which was called Operation, was equivalent to an assembly line in a Factory; it would perform calculations using the meshing, rotation, and translation of gear brackets, and the architecture here would directly determine the speed of the Operation.

The third part, and also the most important, was the Operating System. In Liu Zheng's understanding, it was like software on a Computer or the operating system of a mobile phone; every command needed to be completed through such an Operating System.

This already possessed the prototype of a modern Computer.

According to his understanding, this kind of design that transcended the era was designed during the Steam Age, but by the time it appeared, it was already the space age.

This kind of Difference Engine was equivalent to the earliest Computer, but such a design was too cumbersome; current techniques and technology could produce such a precision instrument as the Difference Engine.

Liu Zheng knew that he might not be able to witness the debut of a true Difference Engine, but that did not mean he would not research it.

Even though the Difference Engine had all kinds of defects, people still truly researched this machine and used it for a long period of time.

Regarding such research, Liu Zheng hoped to provide the greatest support; after all, this world was not his original world, so perhaps they could actually research it?

One must always hold onto a little hope.

After finishing the matters regarding the Incandescent Light Bulb and the Difference Engine, Liu Zheng turned his head and arrived at the Engine research room.

The Generator had already made progress, but there had been no progress on the Engine side.

He could not help but feel anxious; the research of the Engine would directly change the entire world.

It would change the blood of industry from coal to Petroleum. According to Liu Zheng's investigation, he had already discovered a large amount of Petroleum in places controlled by the East India Company.

Once the Engine was released and this Petroleum was extracted, their Longyan national strength would be elevated another step.

But the current Internal Combustion Engine had encountered obstacles in research; the research of the Internal Combustion Engine was not as simple as imagined.

Ever since the fuel problem was solved last time, they had been researching the heat dissipation and lubrication problems of the Internal Combustion Engine.

When a large amount of fuel inside the Internal Combustion Engine burned, it would release extremely high heat; if it were not released, it would inevitably cause the Internal Combustion Engine to be scrapped.

Liu Zheng arrived at the Engine research room: "Has the heat dissipation problem been solved?"

The director managing the entire Engine research room said: "We have cut Waterway, Oil Circuit, and Air Circuit into the cylinder block of the Internal Combustion Engine, specifically to regulate heat dissipation."

"The Waterway of the Engine is the heat dissipation part we cut out, but this kind of Waterway heat dissipation cannot very well ensure that the internal temperature of the Internal Combustion Engine is dissipated in time."

"The Engine we developed often deforms because of this reason. Now we are conceiving a new type of Engine material; it must be high-temperature resistant and wear-resistant."

Liu Zheng nodded: "Perhaps you can try a Cast Iron cylinder block."

"Cast Iron?"

The crowd had never heard of this material.

Liu Zheng almost forgot that this world never used the two characters for Cast Iron to refer to Pig Iron.

"That is Pig Iron. You know, the hardness and heat resistance of this material are very good; it is a very cheap and practical material for manufacturing cylinder blocks."

The crowd frowned and said: "Sir, the processing of Cast Iron is a very difficult thing for us right now."

"And our Internal Combustion Engine requires very high precision. If we use Cast Iron, I worry that our precision will not be under control."

Liu Zheng sighed and said: "This is the best solution for now. Try using Cast Iron; other materials are not that easy to use."

The researchers could only say in the end: "It will have to be this way then."

Liu Zheng asked again: "How is the research on the Transmission going?"

Hearing about the research on the Transmission, the crowd looked ashamed.

Although the principle of the Transmission was not difficult, achieving the ability for the Transmission to freely control gears was not so easy to realize.

The Transmission they developed generally only had one gear, similar to the kind of Transmission on a Bicycle that only considered increasing speed.

But according to Liu Zheng's requirements, it had to have six gears and five speeds.

One of the gears also had to allow the entire Transmission to rotate in the opposite direction, which truly made things difficult for them.

"We haven't made much progress. Our people have already calculated the data, but the production and assembly of the parts have not yet succeeded."

Hearing this, Liu Zheng nodded and did not blame these personnel at all.

The research of the Transmission was inherently more complex than the research of the Internal Combustion Engine; it would be a miracle if it could be researched so quickly.

The director had always been full of doubts about the research of the Transmission. He was very curious: if it was just to simply control speed, one only needed to control the air intake of the Internal Combustion Engine, so why go to the trouble of researching some Transmission?

Moreover, these two things clearly did not look like they could be assembled onto a Bicycle.

If such a flashy Transmission and Engine were assembled onto a Bicycle, what exactly would such a Bicycle have to be designed like?

He could not imagine it, and in the end, he could not help but ask: "Sir, why must we research a Transmission? Even if this thing is useful, it won't have much of an increase on the operating speed of our Internal Combustion Engine."

Liu Zheng looked at him and said calmly: "Its function is not just this. Continue the research; when you truly combine the Internal Combustion Engine and the Transmission together, you will know."