Fox of France

After hearing this, Napoleon grasped the handrail and walked up the steps. Halfway through, he looked down and found Joseph still standing beside him, and said, "Joseph, come up and have a look too."

Joseph instinctively wanted to decline.

"Come on, don't worry, this is a steam locomotive, it won't overturn." Napoleon said again.

"It's strange to believe you!" Joseph thought in his heart, and at the same time thought that the car didn't even ignite, it was impossible to start, let alone the cylinder exploded, so he said to Watt: "Mr. Watt, I remember the above The space should be relatively large, why don't we go up and have a look together. Well, this ladder is a bit steep, why don't you go ahead."

"Haha, Dean Bonaparte, are you worried that I will fall and want to follow me? I am a little older, but it is still no problem to climb such a ladder." Watt laughed.

As Watt said so, he got on the ladder first, and Joseph followed him on the ladder. Several people climbed up and entered the cab.

The cab is indeed very empty. The entire cab is about eight or nine square meters. There is a console on the right side of the cab, with several handles on it, and a rope hanging beside it.

"Is this the cord of the lamp?" asked Napoleon.

"No, it's the siren cord," said Watt. "The light cord is over there, where we come in."

Napoleon nodded, then turned his head to see a closed hatch a little to the left of the cockpit. There is also a small cart and a few shovels beside it.

"This is?" asked Napoleon.

"This is the feeding port of the boiler." Watt explained, "When the steam engine is running, the workers send the coal in for burning. This small cart is convenient for sending the coal from the tender water truck at the back. There ..."

Watt pointed to a pipe next to it and the valve on it, and said, "Your Excellency, this is the water pipe, which is used to add water to the steam engine. Of course, water can only be added when the steam engine is stopped and there is no pressure in the cylinder... "

Napoleon nodded and thanked Watt again. Then they looked around the car again, and then left the locomotive.

In the early morning of the next day, after breakfast, Napoleon and Joseph led the guards to the test site. At this time, the locomotive had left the workshop and came to the railway outside. The morning sun shone on the steel monster and the steel rails. The glass and brass decorations on the rails and the locomotive were all shining in the sunlight.

On a high ground about 200 meters away from the railway, a stand was built. Joseph's explanation for why the stands are so far apart is as follows:

"From this position, you can see the entire test road section, and you can see the performance of the locomotive on the entire road section. If you change to other places, you can only see a little bit. As for the problem of not being able to see clearly from a long distance, you can use a telescope to make up for it."

Everyone believed that Joseph's views were very reasonable, and only Napoleon expressed doubts to his brother in private. And Joseph also honestly admitted that he didn't want to watch at close range, and there was indeed another reason.

"I don't like the smell of soot," Joseph said.

"Hehe..." said Napoleon.

However, the two brothers did not continue to have an in-depth discussion on this issue, because on the railway over there, the "Progress No. 1" locomotive had already started to smoke.

Napoleon couldn't care less about satirizing his eldest brother, although such things always brought him a lot of happiness. He raised his binoculars and looked over there, and asked, "Joseph, Joseph, is this going to move?"

"The steam engine is just starting a fire, and the trailer hasn't been hooked up yet. What's the hurry?" Joseph looked at his younger brother with a country bumpkin look and said, "Besides, if we don't issue orders here, how can we move over there? Hmm, By the way, Napoleon, isn't this command to be issued by you? Didn't you read the process shown to you last night?"

"I saw, I remember, they put up a blue flag for us when they were ready, and at the same time they called us to let us know that they were ready and ready to start, and then we sent out the start with a phone and a red flag. instructions. Why can’t I remember? I just think it’s very fresh..."

Time passed by, and there was still no call from there, and no blue flag was hung.

"How slow..." said Napoleon.

"I've said it a long time ago, let them complete the ignition and pressurization first, you have to watch the whole process yourself." Joseph said, "But the time should be fast."

"It's still... ah, it's moving, it's moving, I'm still..."

"That's to hang up the trailer." Joseph said.

The locomotive below moved slowly, but instead of moving forward, it retreated slowly for a short distance to the side of the trailers.

"Your Excellency the First Ruling, 'Progress No. 1' will tow nine trailers this time, and each trailer has more than 50 tons of coal on it. Adding the weight of the trailer itself, 'Progress No. 1' will tow more than 500 tons of coal. Weight," Watt explained on the sidelines.

"Ah, this is already a large sea ship." Napoleon said, "Can it be pulled?"

"There is no problem according to the calculation." Joseph said.

"Oh." Napoleon stopped asking.

It took a while for the trailers to be formed, and the sun had already risen, and the blue flag was finally raised over there, and the guards who were in charge of watching the phone also received a call from there, and they were ready Telephone.

"Okay, let's start!" Napoleon shouted.

The signal was sent out, and after a while there was a long whistle from the other side. Even on high ground hundreds of meters away, the sound can be heard clearly.

"Now do you know how correct our position is here? If we were down there, the sound would be really..." Joseph said, "I tell you, Napoleon, no one knows how to choose a suitable position for the grandstand better than I do." gone."

"Shut up and stop arguing," said Napoleon, holding up his binoculars, "that car is moving!"

Indeed, after the whistle sounded, the train began to move forward slowly.

"Why is it so slow? It's much slower than a carriage." Napoleon said, "But it can pull so much at a time, and its efficiency is far better than that of a carriage."

In the original history, although the earliest steam locomotives had the practice of adding a circle on the inside of the wheel and stuck on the rails, but because they did not have decent suspension, (the key is not enough, not cheap enough The spring steel) wheels are directly mounted on the body with rigid connections. This made the steam locomotive at that time a little faster, and it would bump very badly, and the wheels would even jump directly from the rails, causing the vehicle to derail.

In addition, most of the rails used by those locomotives are so-called wrought rails, and the weight per meter is less than 10 kilograms. Compared with the steel rails used by "Progress No. 1" today, they are light and soft. The steam locomotive runs a little faster, and if it bumps again, the impact force of the wheels is enough to make the rails bend and deform. So those locomotives at that time could not outperform the horse-drawn carriages, not because of lack of power, but because they didn't dare to run fast at all - if they ran fast, they would really kill people!

But these problems do not exist in "Progress No. 1". Both the locomotive and the trailer behind have spring suspension, which not only increases the comfort of the vehicle, but more importantly, it makes the wheels always Can be firmly attached to the rail. The problem of derailment caused by the wheels jumping up and falling outside the rails is avoided.

The track used by "Progress No. 1" is also a heavy-duty track made of serious steel, and its bearing capacity is far from that of those wrought iron tracks. It’s absolutely not right for those cheap ones to bend while running, and then there will be a problem of derailment. So if "Progress No. 1" can't outrun the carriage, it would be a joke. The reason why Napoleon felt that he was not running as fast as the carriage at this time was entirely because "Progress 1", like all trains, had poor acceleration and deceleration capabilities. But as long as you run a little longer, the speed will gradually increase, and the speed of the "Progress No. 1" train will definitely surpass that of the carriage.

The train blew its whistle again, and began to speed up gradually surrounded by the lingering steam. Napoleon nodded again and again: "Yes, yes, it runs very fast, no less than a carriage! Such a big thing, dragging so many goods, and running so fast! This is really great! Joseph, it can still Faster?"

But by this time, the train had begun to slow down. Because the six-kilometer experimental track is still a little short, it is not enough for the train to reach the highest speed. The highest speed tested in this experiment was 30 kilometers per hour. This is not the highest speed, but in this era, it is already a very fast speed.

"This thing should also be able to hold people." Napoleon said, "This thing is really useful, Joseph, when will you get me that land battleship?"

"That thing?" Joseph curled his lips, "wait a minute, let us build a railway network that can connect important locations across the country, and then we can talk about it when we make money. Well, look, the train is heading back Open, wait for a while when the train stops, you still have something to say. But when it comes to land battleships, well, some railways are also of great strategic value, we can call them 'defense railways', and then... ..."

"Then allocate funds from the account of the Ministry of War to build, and then you use it, right?" Napoleon said, "Even if there is no problem here, are you sure General Carnot can agree to such a thing?"

"General Kano?" Joseph said, "You just need to tell him that this thing is very important to the military, and then tell him that in peacetime, by leasing to private enterprises to collect rent, the investment can be recovered, and even a little bit can be earned. Think he'll agree."