Chapter 232: Steam Engines and Boilers
Several people were checking the glass factory's production progress—not just flat glass, but also the glassware production line. The orders from the Guangzhou station were mostly three different sizes of glass wine bottles. In modern glassware manufacturing, glass bottles were made by automated blow-molding on assembly lines, easily producing hundreds of identically-sized standard bottles per minute. The Bairren Glass Factory was still hand-casting—actually, the apprentices performed much better in this regard than some clumsy otaku transmigrators—but the best daily record was only about 200.
"We should really design an automated bottle-making production line," Zhan Wuya said. "With manual production, how many workers would we need to meet demand?"
"Wait until the flat glass finishes annealing, then talk about manpower." Wang Luobin's face glowed in the firelight. "The grinding requires far more manpower than making glass bottles."
While they were talking, Li Di brought Marine Squad soldiers from Bopu, using rowboats to tow floating rafts carrying over a dozen barrels of materials.
"Grinding materials have arrived. Sign for them." Li Di exhaled. He was soaking wet—when crossing shallows, he'd had to lead by example, jumping down to push the raft to avoid smashing it on rocks.
"These are all collected by the Navy. Digging sand was quite a chore. You'd better give us discounts on anything we order in the future." Li Di didn't forget to tout his contributions.
"Sure, the sand is all graded?"
"Already done. Coarse to fine, sieved with the screens you provided. Three grades total, three barrels each. Should be enough for you. Plus three barrels of diatomaceous earth."
When grinding glass, you first used coarse sand, then fine sand, then specialized ultra-fine blue glass abrasive—which the transmigrators couldn't process themselves, so they substituted with the finest sand.
After this series of grinding was complete, a roller with handles on both ends would be wrapped in wool felt, then dusted with diatomaceous earth or corundum powder for final polishing—there were local reserves of diatomaceous earth.
The entire polishing process was not only laborious but time-consuming, which is why the glass factory was also among the earliest customers of Watt and Boulton's steam engines. To save manpower, the transmigrators naturally had to turn to this industrial miracle device.
"How's your steam engine coming along? Our mechanical group is planning to copy one." Zhan Wuya finally openly made designs on Li Di's secret.
Li Di's steam engine was a small kit obtained from America—in the US, it was a toy for steam engine hobbyists, similar to ultralight aircraft kits that many people assembled.
"It works now, but the horsepower is very low—only 12 horsepower," Li Di said. It had taken him nearly three months to assemble. The structure was compact and lightweight, installable on the Navy's large rowboats.
The mechanical group decided to examine this machine, so the entire team went to Bopu and saw the machine installed in the Navy's boat shed.
"We can't handle this. Let's start with the simplest Watt engine," Zhan Wuya said this after examining Li Di's machine. The steam engine's principles didn't exceed their knowledge, but many of the processing methods and materials used couldn't be supported by transmigrator industry.
"This machine is quite portable. Pity we can't make it," Zhou Bili said after looking. "Its boiler is very sophisticated, the piping is all steel, many parts are welded..."
"Without welding, how do we make boilers? And high-pressure fire tubes, rubber seals—we didn't bring much rubber anyway, and there aren't ready-made specifications we can use..." Li Di grew troubled.
"What the hell weird ideas are you getting?! Steam engines have never needed rubber seals!" Xiao Bailang spat. "Not just in Newcomen and Watt's time—even in the compound-expansion era, nobody used rubber seals!"
"Indeed not needed," Zhan Wuya said. "As for materials, we don't need steel either. Early steam engines had no steel at all—just cast iron or wrought iron, hammered by hand. Our materials and processing capabilities would make Watt's eyes pop."
He sighed: "But we don't know riveting. Without riveting, we'd need welding—which we can't afford." Zhan Wuya wasn't skilled in this either—he had complete welding equipment and had stocked some consumables, but welding rods, acetylene, and such couldn't be replenished. Use a bit, lose a bit.
"Heh, speaking of riveting, not to brag, but I'm probably the only one here who knows how," Zhou Bili said proudly.
"You do?" Zhan Wuya recalled this Zhou Bili was just a mechanical repairman, a sheet metal specialist. Though he worked on aircraft maintenance—which sounded impressive—it wasn't much use to transmigrators.
"Aircraft still have quite a bit of riveting. So I took an interest and often tried it myself," Zhou Bili said.
Riveting was the most widely used metal joining method in the industrial age. It was more convenient and reliable than traditional forge welding, and strong enough. Especially in shipbuilding, riveting remained the main shipbuilding technique through World War II. Even the super-battleship Yamato was connected rivet by rivet, with welding only used in very few non-critical areas.
Since the 1950s, welding technology had advanced rapidly, eventually replacing riveting in many fields, to the point that few people mastered this skill in modern times. Zhan Wuya clearly remembered that when Shanghai's Garden Bridge was dismantled for renovation, finding workers who could install rivets took considerable effort.
"It's all up to you!" Xiao Bailang clapped his shoulder.
"Wait—I can't do riveting work alone. A team of two to three is needed. Plus specialized equipment." Zhou Bili gestured.
"Fine, I'll assign some mechanical workers to learn from you."
Zhou Bili immediately started a training class in the machinery plant's workshop. Zhan Wuya had some iron plates and beams brought over for demonstrations.
Based on his list, the machinery plant first fabricated a complete set of equipment: hammers, a portable furnace with bellows, and rivets.
Generally, material was first mechanically drilled. Then the plates to be joined were overlapped. Riveters usually worked in teams of three: one rivet heater who first heated rivets in the furnace until red-hot, then passed them to the riveter with tongs, who hammered the rivet into the rivet hole.
Since furnaces weren't very portable, when building large riveted components, the heater passed rivets by throwing them. This required juggler-like skills for both throwing and catching.
No matter how large the object being riveted—even a super-battleship like Yamato—its hull was built this way by riveters, one hammer blow at a time.
"At this rate, how many riveters do we need to train?" Zhan Wuya exclaimed when he saw them take several minutes to finish the first rivet hole.
"Take it slow. This is skilled work too."
Li Di witnessed this scene and seriously doubted whether he'd live to board a 10,000-ton battleship.
Zhou Bili apparently sensed everyone's disappointment: "Don't we have an air compressor?"
"Yes."
"With an air compressor, riveting work becomes much easier. The hammering process can be done with a pneumatic hammer driven by the compressor. Then you only need one riveter."
"Once our industrial level improves, we can use hydraulic riveting machines too," Zhou Bili said. "But that's difficult. Let's make do with manual work for now."
The first riveting worker training class began. At Zhou Bili's request, some children were selected from the apprentices to serve as rivet heaters—in the past, heaters were the rivet apprentices' positions.
Mastering riveting technology meant being able to manufacture the steam engine's key component—the boiler.
Regardless of which type or principle of steam engine was used, an efficient boiler was obviously one of its core components.
The boiler's role extended beyond powering steam engines. Industrial hot water, steam, and heating all required boilers—the transmigrators' relatively high living standards were largely thanks to boilers. Without boilers, transmigrators would have to wash with cold water and eat rice with burnt bottoms cooked over open flames...
The boiler itself was simple in principle. The wagon-type boiler used by Watt's steam engine served for nearly 150 years, still functioning until 1850. Of course, its thermal efficiency was poor.
The Machinery Department planned to replicate a fairly successful design of that era: the Lancashire double-flue boiler invented in 1844, which was subsequently widely adopted. After continuous small improvements in design and materials, it served modern industry well into the 20th century.
The Lancashire boiler had large capacity and could provide stable steam flow. It was an atmospheric-pressure boiler that couldn't provide high-pressure steam, so its evaporative power was relatively weak with limited applications. However, its technology was simple and mature, with no manufacturing difficulties—it was riveted from low-carbon steel plate, but could also be made from rolled wrought iron, which was significant for transmigrators with limited steel production.
"Why not try fire-tube or water-tube boilers? The difficulty shouldn't be greater than the Lancashire boiler. We can also reference the locomobile's boiler."
The fire-tube boiler was invented in 1829 by the Frenchman Séguin and Britain's Stephenson company, originally for steam locomotives. Fire-tube boilers and the subsequent water-tube boilers could generate very high steam pressure—important for powering large ships, locomotives, and even power generation.
"All the locomobiles are running 24 hours. They won't let you disassemble them for reference."
"No need to disassemble the locomobiles—we're clear on fire-tube and water-tube boiler structures," Wang Luobin said. "The key is whether the materials can pass muster. These are high-pressure boilers. Without high-pressure boiler tube reserves, and with our self-produced steel tubes' performance—"
(End of Chapter)