At night, in the inn, Lin Youdi was reading at night while falling down. Looking at a stack of information, he couldn't help but become immersed in the divine situation. Originally, such technical information could not be easily read in private residences, but the inn he stayed in was in the military weapon prison, so it was not considered a violation of the regulations.

These technical data are well-known in detail, and the uniqueness of the dual-cylinder steam engine used in artillery factories is introduced.

A dual-cylinder steam engine appeared a few years ago because it is limited to the difficulty of manufacturing large-sized cylinders. Therefore, in order to improve the pumping efficiency of steam pumps, people use two small-sized cylinders to carry the beam together.

With the widespread use of boring machines, the manufacturing cost of large-sized cylinders has been reduced, and the manufacturing accuracy has also increased, so dual-cylinder steam engines rarely appear.

Now, the dual-cylinder steam engine that appeared in the artillery factory has undergone different technological improvements and achieved qualitative change, so the patent application was approved by the Steam Engine Guild.

Lin Youdi is now reading the relevant technology introduction.

The dual cylinders operate at the same time, and the working mode of each cylinder is the same: injecting steam to push the piston to move, then the steam condenses and contracts, the piston goes back, the condensation water is discharged, and the next cycle begins.

So dual cylinders must have dual air paths and double condensation. This is an iron rule, but it is not now.

The steam pump relies on the cylinder piston to drive one end of the lever, so that the other end of the lever drives the pump. If the pump pump is replaced with a flywheel, the reciprocating movement becomes a rotating movement.

The piston connecting rods of the dual cylinders are connected to the left and right sides of the lever respectively. In this way, one cylinder (for now is called Cylinder A) does not actually require steam condensation, because the cylinder at the other end (for now is called Cylinder B) will "press" the piston of Cylinder A back.

Therefore, the cylinder armor can eliminate the condensation step.

The problem follows: the steam in the cylinder armor does not need to be condensed, and it is too wasteful to discharge it like this. So how should we use it?

The technician's solution is very novel, that is, discharge the steam from cylinder A into cylinder B. The steam is finally condensed in cylinder B and discharged in the form of condensation water.

In this way, not only does the double condensation become single condensation, but the dual-driving road also become single-driving road, and the two cylinders have changed from "parallel" mode to "series" mode:

The steam first enters cylinder A, pushes the piston to move, and then enters cylinder B, which also pushes the piston to move, and then condenses, causing the piston of cylinder B to go back. The movement of cylinder B piston is the opposite direction of cylinder A, which just "presses" the piston of cylinder A back.

When the steam engine starts, the lever first moves by cylinder B, and then switches to dual-cylinder mode, so that the machine can operate normally.

This process seems a bit simple, but the actual effect is: the same steam volume is much stronger than a single large cylinder in the use of such a dual-cylinder "series".

Because of the efficiency of steam usage, the new dual-cylinder has increased by at least 20% compared to single-cylinders.

This is a considerable progress. Lin Youdi looked at this number and his heartbeat suddenly accelerated, but the following numbers made his heartbeat faster and faster.

When teaching students' theory, technical schools will inevitably mention a formula: pressure is equal to pressure multiplied by area.

This formula is used in the principle of steam engines, that is, pressure (the output of the cylinder) is equal to pressure (steam pressure) times the area (piston area).

Lin Youdi was very familiar with this formula, and the technicians at the Artillery Factory used this formula as a theoretical guide and discovered a new direction for the development of the steam engine.

The two cylinders, A and B do not need to be exactly the same size. In series mode, the first cylinder A, which receives high-temperature steam, has a piston diameter and a cylinder volume smaller, while the second-level cylinder B, has a piston diameter and a cylinder volume larger.

The principle is still derived from that formula: to keep the pressure unchanged, the area is small, the pressure will be greater, and vice versa:

When high-temperature steam enters the cylinder armor, the steam pressure is the largest at this time, and it acts on the small piston (small piston area), and the final output is assumed to be ten kilograms.

When steam "does work" in cylinder A, the volume becomes larger and the temperature decreases. After entering cylinder B, the steam pressure also decreases. At this time, it acts on a larger piston (large piston area). As long as the piston area is large enough, the output of cylinder B piston can also reach ten kilograms.

In this way, when small and large dual cylinders are used in series, the problem of the reduction of output force due to the secondary use of steam has been well solved. In this improved dual cylinders, the steam actually undergoes "complex expansion" (secondary expansion).

The utilization efficiency of steam has been improved again, so in the "small, large twin cylinder series" mode, the utilization efficiency of steam by dual cylinders has been significantly improved compared to single cylinders.

This is not over yet.

In series, large and small cylinders and single condensation mode, multiple connecting rod devices are required to automatically adjust the inlet and outlet of cylinder A and cylinder B, and coordinate the inlet, steam outlet, steam outlet, condensation, and condensation water discharge of the two cylinders.

At the same time, an automatic device must be used to control the air inlet of the cylinder armor to ensure the following effect: open the valve, let high-temperature steam enter the cylinder armor, push the piston to move, wait for the piston to move to 80% of the stroke (stroke), the valve closes and stops supplying steam to the cylinder.

This is done to save steam and avoid excessive steam entering the cylinder armor, wasting in vain.

However, when the prototype of the new dual-cylinder steam engine was running, the automatic device failed at some point, causing the time to close the valve to be advanced.

The consequence is that ten parts of steam should have been put into the cylinder armor, but the valve closes when only six parts of steam are put into it. Logically speaking, insufficient steam entering will cause the piston stroke of the cylinder armor to be insufficient, and the output will decrease. This abnormal situation will quickly attract the attention of technicians.

However, it did not.

Because the output of cylinder armor is still normal.

The technicians discovered this problem later when they were inspecting the machine, and then became surprised: How can six parts of steam give the piston a power that only ten parts of steam can produce?

There is only one reason, that is, people underestimate the power of steam expansion, so they believe that ten parts of steam can push the piston to reach its maximum stroke.

As a result, new improvements emerged, and steam was used more effectively. Finally, the new dual-cylinder steam engine in the "complete state" has increased the steam utilization efficiency by at least 50% compared to the single-cylinder steam engine.

This is an amazing improvement, so it is natural to obtain a patent. Lin Youde then remembered the steamship. He felt that if the steamship was replaced with such a steamship, the speed would definitely be significantly improved.

In addition, he also came to a helpless conclusion from this information: the power of steam expansion may have been ignored.

This means that over the years, so many steam pumps have actually wasted steam and a lot of coal burning.

The technical research team of the steamship ship consumed countless energy and countless days and nights of overtime work, as if they had become aimless reckless actions, with a deviation in the development direction and insufficient application of knowledge.

After putting down the information, Lin Youdi suddenly felt his eyes hot and wanted to cry.

Theory determines the development direction of the technical route, and their theory is not good, so the development of the steamship has taken a detour and is getting farther and farther away from the destination.

Knowledge must be flexibly used, but they stick to the so-called "iron law", their ideas are restricted to death, and they fall into technical stubbornness, and they cannot get around it. They face various technical difficulties and are weak and powerless.
Chapter completed!