African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 356 Railway

   On the second day, after resting all night, they had a simple meal in the cafeteria of Anka Village, and everyone continued on their way. As the carriage drove, Anka Village gradually faded out of everyone's sight.

Slowly, the farmlands and plantations came to an abrupt end, and turned into a desolate savannah scene again. The straight gravel roads in the wilderness looked particularly abrupt against the backdrop of the surrounding wilderness. This feeling is similar to that built in the farmland Like a subway station, it feels lonely.

I don't know how long I walked, a long object suddenly appeared on the south side of the road. From a distance, it looked like a river lying on the horizon and extending east and west, but it was raised on the ground, and it was very regular. It should be It's something artificially built.

  As the carriage continued to move forward, everyone felt that the object was not simple. It gradually approached the road, getting closer, and it seemed that there was no end to it.

After the building finally paralleled the road, everyone could see its whole picture clearly. Two ballasts paved on the ground with crushed stones were about ten meters wide in parallel, and there were strips of trimmed stones on the stones. The thick wooden strips, the wooden strips seem to be thick iron bars with red rust.

  Everyone started to discuss: "What is that?"

  Aryan popularized science to them: "That's the railway."

   "Railway?"

"Yes, a rail transit, like a road, can transport people and goods, but instead of a horse-drawn carriage, it is a locomotive spraying steam, and the locomotive is pulling cargo boxes behind it. You just need to know that this is a kind of road. That's it."

   "Mr. Aryan! The thing called the railway on the opposite side is the source of its name, right? But is there really a car that can run on it!"

Aryan: "Yes, but they are not called iron bars, but rails. You should be familiar with such things as rails. They are very common in some mines, but they used to be wooden rails, and they were used to pull mine carts. Mineral, later the British took the lead in improving this kind of track, and then applied it on land to form a railway. In fact, there are things with similar principles in the Far East, but that kind of track is concave, and the ruts run inside (Qin Chi Road), while the railway It's convex, and the wheels are specially designed to run between two rails."

   "What are the wood and gravel laid under the rails for? Can't they be laid directly on the road?"

"The wood is called a sleeper, and the stones laid at the bottom are called ballasts. Their function is to withstand the pressure of the rails, because a steam locomotive is quite heavy, and it is pressed on the rails. If there is nothing underneath, the rails will collapse." It will cut into the dirt like a knife cuts through tofu."

   "So that's it, so we can understand!"

  Aryan went on to say: "Not only that, the ballast can also cushion the shock and stabilize the ballast bed, and can also achieve the effect of reducing noise and quickly draining water."

   "How much pig iron is needed for this kind of road?"

  Aryan: "I don't know, but it is indispensable. This kind of railway is often calculated in kilometers, and many railways in Europe and America are calculated in thousands of miles."

  Aryan's words caused everyone to be stunned. It is really impossible to imagine how much iron this thing called a railway would consume.

  By 1870, the total length of the world's railways exceeded 210,000 kilometers. Among them, the United States and Germany were emerging powers in railway construction, Britain and France played steadily, and the relatively backward Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia's railways also made great progress.

The 60 kilometers of East Africa's first railway is nothing in the world, and it is even lagging behind many colonies. Moreover, after the completion of the first railway, it has not been opened to traffic so far. It has been idle for a while since it was built. .

  So some people noticed this and asked: "Mr. Aryan! Then why didn't you see the steam locomotive you mentioned running?"

   "I'll ask Mr. Vilix this question first." Then Aryan turned his head and communicated with Vilix in German.

   After a while.

"Okay, now I know the general situation. The railways in the Kingdom of East Africa are technically deficient because the standards are different from those of most countries in the world. This has resulted in the railway in front of us, which is called the First Railway in East Africa. After the completion of the First Railway, I have been waiting for the locomotive to be developed, but Mr. Alex told me just now that the finished locomotive has completed the final test in Austria and will be officially shipped from Austria to East Africa for trial operation next month."

  In the end, Hechingen Vienna Energy and Power Company persuaded Ernst to maintain the original plan. After all, everyone has worked so hard for so long, and the results will soon be produced. How can they change their attention casually.

  Where is Austria! Everyone doesn't know, but according to Aryan, this railway is now just a spectacle but not a useful one.

   "Mr. Aryan, the role of this railway sounds no different from that of a road. Why do you have to spend so much effort to build a railway? I think it would be good to build a few more roads with this spare money."

Aryan: "Then you are completely wrong. There is a big difference between railways and roads. Let me tell you this. The carriages we make now rely on horses to provide power, and horses consume food and eat and drink. Stretching and sleeping, physical strength will also be consumed along with the distance, and the pulling is not much, but there are not so many problems on the railway. The locomotives running on the railway are powered by steam engines. You should all know how powerful the steam engine is. It’s over, and the steam engine only needs people to keep filling coal into the boiler to generate energy continuously.”

   Everyone came to East Africa by ship, so they have seen the big smokestack of the steam ship.

   "Mr. Aryan, that big chimney on the ship!"

Aryan: "Yes, that's the thing, just like boiling water will cause steam to hit the lid, the water vapor will form a high pressure in the closed space, repeatedly pushing the piston, the piston drives the gear and the crankshaft, and finally makes the wheel run , If you have seen the steam engines used for survival in the textile factory, you can probably understand its operating principle more intuitively."

  Textile mills are indeed the easiest place to get access to steam engines, especially in the Far East. In fact, the first railway in the Far East was built by British capitalist Durand outside Xuanwu Gate in Beijing in 1865. The British "run on the railway with a strange car at a very fast speed" in order to win the approval of the Qing government. However, instead of being appreciated, this railway caused panic among the rulers of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the commander of the infantry army to dismantle it on the grounds that "I lost my danger, harmed my fields and hindered my Fengshui". China's first railway died in this way.

  This railway has existed for a very short time, so many people have never seen it. On the contrary, there are many textile factories in the Far East. After all, the impact it brings to people is not as shocking as the railway.

When seeing a steam engine-operated machine in a factory for the first time, most people will admire: "Excellent skills." If they see a steam locomotive for the first time, it will cause fear. The British writer Dickens had very complicated emotions about railways. He admired the great power of the railway, but also was afraid of this uncontrollable force. In Dombey and Sons, Dickens described the powerful destructive power of the railway by describing the changes in "Stage Garden": "Traces of earthquakes can be seen everywhere." Using "earthquake" as a comparison, it vividly shows the railway construction belt. The sense of destruction that comes from it also implies persistent damage that is difficult to recover after the catastrophe. The author also uses negative words such as "crumbling", "messy", "messy" and "dilapidated" to make readers feel the brokenness and chaos brought about by the construction of the railway, which has a huge visual and psychological impact.

  (end of this chapter)