The Rise of the European Emperor

The counterfeit version of the Watt steam engine produced by Da Vinci, the body part is okay, and the functions are similar, but the boiler is a bit bulky and the efficiency is not high. This is also Marin's pot, because Marin had only seen the model of the Watt steam engine in his previous life, but he had never seen what the boiler looked like.

In this way, under the command of Marin, a half-baked man, even though Da Vinci was extremely smart, he didn't have the brains to improve the boiler. Moreover, he was busy teaching again later, and had no time to improve the boiler.

However, although the boiler has crude benzene and low efficiency, the effect is basically achieved. It may not work for trains and ships, but it is sufficient for industrial use.

Right now, Da Vinci's version of the Watt steam engine also rotates at 50 revolutions per minute. This speed may be far inferior to the small table fans of later generations (at least 500 revolutions), but it can barely be used in industrial production. At least, faster than manual, and durable enough.

The only problem is that the stability is relatively poor, it keeps shutting down and needs maintenance. Obviously, this is the reason for the imperfect design, as well as the backward processing technology.

Therefore, for the current Da Vinci version of the Watt steam engine, each machine must be equipped with 10 craftsmen who are dedicated to watching the machine and are ready for maintenance at any time.

This is a bit like the drivers in Huaxia after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Why was the driver a high-level occupation in China before the 1990s? Because people not only have to be able to drive, they must also be able to repair cars. At that time, the quality of domestically produced cars was very poor, and it was common for them to break down halfway. If a driver who doesn't know how to repair a car can easily be left halfway. Therefore, the drivers at that time were all masters in car maintenance, and they solved all problems by themselves. Fortunately, there were very few cars at that time, and it was not easy to hit a car that broke down halfway. Otherwise, it is easy to die if it breaks down on the highway...Of course, there were no highways at that time, only rough and ordinary roads.

A master who can drive and repair cars is naturally a high-level talent in that era, and also a high-paying talent. It is a very popular occupation for that grandma.

The same is true of the steam engine that Marin just came up with. It is common for something to go wrong after running for a few hours. Therefore, he has equipped each steam engine with 10 craftsmen, and when there is a problem, they will take a wrench to work on it...

Speaking of which, a complete set of tools such as wrenches, pliers, and screwdrivers were all copied by the copycat king Ma Lin. Now, every Beihai craftsman basically has a toolbox, which can be used to repair various machines at any time.

However, there are not many kinds of machines these days, only a fake version of the Watt steam engine, which is very crude. Therefore, there are not too many wrenches and screwdrivers of various sizes in the toolbox of Beihai engineers. Because there is only one type of steam engine, it is enough for everyone to prepare one type of tool.

Although this kind of machine is often lying down, Marin can do a lot of things with the machine. For example, Marin never forgets the drill barrel and the drill barrel!

Just set up the rails,

Find a good quality drill bit, and you can start drilling the gun barrel. Although the speed of the steam engine is extremely slow, it is completely incomparable with the impact drills of later generations. However, as long as you have patience, there is no problem drilling a few barrels a day.

As for the barrel, Marin was a little uncertain. Because drilling the gun barrel requires a very thick drill bit, this is difficult to handle. The caliber of the gun barrel is small, and the drill bit is easy to get. If it is not possible, just go to Africa to get some diamonds and use it as a drill bit. And the gun barrel... Where did such a big diamond come from...

However, it is not impossible, Marin can use wear-resistant high manganese steel to make extra large drill bits. Then, the mild steel steel column is drilled pipe. However, high manganese steel will become soft when preheated. Therefore, you have to stop and cool down after using it for a while, so as not to be unusable after high temperature softening. As a result, the drilling speed of the gun barrel may be very slow. However, the quality of the artillery processed in this way is absolutely outstanding.

Marin remembered that during the Franco-Prussian War, the Krupp artillery was a steel column that was repeatedly forged with a high-pressure hydraulic press, making the internal structure of the steel column very tight. Then, drilling was carried out, and finally a Krupp steel gun of good quality was obtained, which beat the French army so hard that they could not take care of themselves.

However, it doesn't seem to be useful right now. It is enough to get some bronze cannons by using the iron mold casting method, and it is a waste to make such a good forged cannon. Because, there is no such powerful shell with a high chamber pressure in the later generations. With the current needs of black powder and iron ball shells, casting cannons are enough.

But for the barrel, you can consider drilling a batch. After all, forged and rolled barrels are really of average quality. In order to ensure safety, the barrel wall of the forged and rolled barrel needs to be made very thick. In this way, the weight is greatly increased virtually. The soldiers carried heavy rifles, which also took a lot of energy. If you use a barrel drilled with a forged steel rod, you don't need to use such a thick barrel, and you can save a lot of weight.

For example, the Mushiq super musket weighs about 10 kilograms, which is 20 kilograms! And the 0.76-inch imitation brown bass rifle made by Marin weighs more than 5 kilograms, which is more than ten kilograms.

The modern rifles with drilled barrels of later generations, such as those made in Hanyang, have a total weight of only 3.16 kilograms because of the use of drilled barrels, which is about 2 kilograms lighter than the current imitation brown bass commonly used in Beihai.

Of course, the caliber made in Hanyang is also much smaller. After all, that was with smokeless gunpowder. However, if a drilled barrel is used, it will definitely be possible to reduce the weight of the gun body by more than one kilogram.

Moreover, Marin is now able to manufacture single-base smokeless gunpowder-B gunpowder. Although the output is not large, several small-caliber barrels can also be drilled out for use. For example, it can be used to make a Minie rifle...

In the era of black powder, the biggest trouble with rifled guns was that there were too many gunpowder residues, which were difficult to clean. If it's a musket, it doesn't matter. After firing a pound of lead bullets, just poke them with a cleaning rod, or even wash them with water. As for rifled guns, a lot of gunpowder residue is directly stuck into the rifling, which is difficult to clean. Moreover, there is the danger of hanging lead.

Marin remembered that during the Civil War in the old United States, the rifled guns of the US military had to be cleaned up after an average of 100 rounds were fired. Otherwise, the rifling is blocked and it is easy to cause the bore to explode. Even if the black powder with the least impurities in the middle of the 19th century is used as the propellant, the barrel must be cleaned after every 250 rounds of bullets. Otherwise, if the chamber is blown up, it may be damaged... And the medical level during the Civil War... Hey, if you get shot in the leg, you can saw off the leg, and if you get shot in the arm, you can cut off the arm... And, it's still a barber who does it...

The early Maxim machine guns also had problems in this regard, so they have not been able to be promoted. The Maxim machine gun can shoot 600 rounds per minute on average, but in the era of black powder, the barrel needs to be cleaned every 250 rounds. In other words, the Maxim machine gun can only fire for 25 seconds, so it needs to stop shooting and clean the barrel... Isn't this nonsense?

Therefore, although Maxim designed a machine gun in 1883, it did not really have practical effects until smokeless gunpowder became popular.

What? You said the Gatling gun appeared during the Civil War? Come on, that's a multi-barreled machine gun. A machine gun has seven or eight barrels, and the rate of fire is only 200 rounds per minute at the beginning. Even after shooting for 1 minute, an average of 20 to 30 bullets were fired from each barrel, which was enough time to clean the barrel.

Therefore, high-speed machine guns have no practical value until the promotion of smokeless gunpowder. But the chamber pressure of smokeless powder is much higher than that of black powder, so a stronger forged and drilled barrel is required.

Therefore, Marin planned to use the steam engine, which was not yet stable, to drill a batch of forged drilled barrels for him, specially for the marksman troops who used smokeless gunpowder. As for ordinary musketeers, let's use ordinary heavy barrels that are forged and rolled first. Anyway, the black powder chamber is lowered, and the forged and rolled barrel is enough...