Chapter 743 - Technical Problems
Whether Tieli Mu (Ironwood/Mesua ferrea) was the same as the Tie Li Mu (Lignum Vitae/Guaiacum) that Meng De had mentioned remained a question no one could answer. As for the Tieli Mu in the timber yard, everyone examined it but couldn't make heads or tails of it. Finally, they decided to consult Fa Shilu of the Agriculture Ministry—he counted as the most professional botanist among the Senators.
"It should be the same thing," Fa Shilu confirmed. "This is a tropical and subtropical tree species, common in the mountainous areas of Yunnan and Guangxi; Guangdong also has it. It's often used in Guangdong furniture of this spacetime. Not considered particularly precious."
"Lin Xianming said this is the best timber for shipbuilding, and there isn't much left now."
"From the perspective of shipbuilding demand, Tieli Mu is certainly scarce. But for furniture making, there's plenty. Even in the Qing Dynasty and modern times, it wasn't considered particularly valuable." Fa Shilu called out to an indigenous lab technician wearing a grey coat. "Bring the Tieli Mu sample!"
A few minutes later, the lab technician returned with a specimen box. Fa Shilu opened it for everyone to examine.
"This is a trunk sample of Tieli Mu. How does it feel? A bit oily, right? The oil content of Tieli Mu is very high—seed oil content reaches 79%, almost usable as an oil crop. Moreover, its wood fiber is especially long, making it extremely hard to cut. Its strength ranks among the best in trees. It can not only build ships but also be used for making some mechanical parts. Many of our towed artillery gun carriages, frames, and wheels are made from this. Though processing is somewhat troublesome, the strength is outstanding."
Fa Shilu lectured the group of shipbuilding personnel with fervor and authority.
"In the end, can Tieli Mu be used as ship bearings or not?" Jiang Ye waited for the harangue to conclude before asking carefully.
"That's not my specialty," Fa Shilu said. "Speaking of mechanics—isn't that your expertise?"
The group who had come to consult nearly choked. Didn't this amount to asking nothing at all?
On the road leaving the farm, the group argued about whether to use Tieli Mu as propeller shaft bearings based on Meng De's "heard from someone" information. This was a ship of over a thousand tons. If the propeller shaft failed after launching for sea trials, the vessel would have to re-enter the dry dock for repairs—not only embarrassing but also disruptive to the Transmigrator Group's entire strategic timeline.
"Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. I think we should adopt the most direct method: test first." Jiang Ye proposed modifying one or two current Steam Daihatsu boats to evaluate the effect.
Steam Daihatsu boats all used 12hp steam engines—ready-made powered vessels. However, their propulsion method was rather unusual, employing so-called retractable propellers—essentially equivalent to outboard motor propulsion. The shipyard had adopted this approach to circumvent the difficulties of propeller installation. The cost was a rather complex power unit transmission.
"If the Steam Daihatsu boat can be converted to propeller propulsion, it will have great significance for installing propellers on the 854 Modified—at minimum, accumulating practical experience."
"Right, let's try all the schemes we can think of," Zhou Bili agreed.
After coordination by the Planning Agency, the Navy "generously" provided five Steam Daihatsu boats. This generosity came with conditions: all five were boats that had malfunctioned frequently and were in poor condition during the Pearl River Campaign. The Navy stated that as long as they could be repaired, the Mechanical Industry Ministry crowd could experiment with them however they pleased.
Subsequently, under Zhou Bili's proposal, an "854 Modified Project Technical Group" was established at the shipyard. Several Senator technicians with certain attainments in shipbuilding, machining, and related fields were drafted for participation, stationed at the factory to solve various technical problems on-site and serve as project leaders for the entire "First Shipbuilding Refit Plan."
Zhou Ke of the Ministry of Mechanical Industry was appointed project leader. Since others in the project group couldn't work full-time at the shipyard, he served as the standing personnel. Zhou Ke had graduated with a major in Machinery and a second major in Thermal Engineering—both somewhat related to shipbuilding. His benchwork and lathe work foundations were solid, and he loved making ship models, making him the most suitable Senator to take responsibility for the shipbuilding project group.
Zhou Ke was a sturdy figure with a round face. Though titled project leader, he actually didn't know much about shipbuilding—like Zhou Bili and others, Senator engineers from the Mechanical Industry Ministry took turns serving as resident guides in various industrial enterprises, rotating through all types of factories. He had become a typical "Generalist" who "could do anything."
The first order of business after taking office was solving the transmission shaft and propeller problems.
The engineering group first hauled a Daihatsu boat onto the slipway. Though the boat had only fought in Guangdong for two months, barnacle attachments on the bottom had already become quite numerous. Shipwrights first carried out bottom cleaning work. Subsequently, Sun Li led a team to dismantle the steam engine and boiler on the Daihatsu boat for overhaul.
Propellers were relatively easy to solve. Though they hadn't brought actual propellers with them, they had complete sets of CAD drawings for various propeller designs. Jiang Ye's idea was to fabricate one directly using the machining center, then use that for sand casting to make molds for mass manufacturing. Zhou Ke felt this was making a mountain out of a molehill.
"Don't we have motorized boats on the Fengcheng? There are propellers among the spare parts—use one of those as a model for sand casting."
Xiao Bailang first made a clay mold using the propeller, then cast a hard mold, and finally cast the first small boat propeller using cast iron.
Zhou Ke had the computer perform center of gravity and center point alignment calculations. After obtaining the data, holes were cut in the hull to install shaft sleeves and shafts. He installed a Tieli Mu bearing on Test Boat No. 1. The result proved Tieli Mu was feasible. During sea trials, the shaft sleeve did indeed take on a small amount of water initially, but it stopped before reaching the point of requiring bailing.
However, the Daihatsu boat was after all a small vessel of only dozens of tons and 12 horsepower. The 854 Modified had a displacement exceeding 1200 tons and a 500 horsepower steam engine. Not a single person in the entire project group dared guarantee that using a wooden shaft bearing on such a ship would be reliable.
Next, they tried various shaft sealing methods. In fact, the dynamic sealing methods everyone suggested were technically feasible. But each had various problems: some exceeded their processing capabilities, others suffered from inadequate material quality. Broadly speaking, the design philosophy far exceeded processing capability and material levels.
Packing seal was the simplest among all sealing methods, and the effect was passable—water intake speed wasn't especially fast. With pumps on board, this bit of water intake wasn't a significant problem, particularly with a steam engine to power the pumps. However, the heat dissipation problem had no good solution throughout. Five hundred horsepower, several hundred revolutions per minute—the heat generated by friction was severe, roughly equivalent to a small electric heater of one or two kilowatts. Without heat dissipation measures, reaching red-hot temperatures was common.
Finally, Zhou Ke decided to adopt a liquid oil seal with circulation cooling. The sealing oil tank would be positioned above the propeller transmission shaft, slowly injecting oil into the stern tube by gravity. The oil had sufficient pressure to slowly leak outward through the stern tube, thereby resisting seawater infiltration. The oil itself would cool the transmission shaft. Most of the oil would be recovered by a pump, externally cooled, and reinjected into the oil tank for circular use.
The structure of this oil seal was relatively simple; somewhat more complex were the oil recovery pipeline and power. Moreover, the lubricant could be castor oil or coconut oil—both available from the Planning Agency.
"Are you certain this plan works?" Zhan Wuya studied the model Zhou Ke had brought to his office.
"It works." Zhou Ke opened the model—very simple but large scale—to fully display the details. "We conducted installation tests on Test Boat No. 5 and also land operation tests and water platform tests. Cooperating with pumps, the water leakage rate of the stern tube using oil seal is completely within controllable range. The only question is whether coconut oil or castor oil can be fully supplied. After all, recovery isn't 100%—there's some loss. Sealing oil needs continuous supply."
"That shouldn't be a problem. As long as you can ensure most oil is recovered—anyway, the chemical engineering people can utilize any oil. Used sealing oil can at least be made into soap." Zhan Wuya knew that whether castor oil or coconut oil, the Planning Agency's inventory held significant reserves. Especially coconut oil—since establishing the Sanya base, supply had been quite stable. As for castor oil, the Central Administration Council had mobilized students through the Ministry of Education to extensively plant this crop at home and school using fragmentary land. Until mineral oil became available, castor oil counted as quite good industrial oil.
Zhou Ke said excitedly: "Excellent! The next step is solving the large propeller problem."
"One more thing." Zhan Wuya picked up a thick file bag from the desk. "This came from Qian Shuiting—regarding rigging."
"Rigging? Wasn't it decided to adopt square sails?"
"According to this Qian Shuiting, full square rigging has very demanding requirements for sail-handling sailors..."
"We already decided to use power machines to handle sails."
"According to him, full square rigging cannot achieve fully mechanized sail handling; a considerable workload still requires sailors to climb masts. He suggests switching to a so-called easier-to-operate..." Zhan Wuya couldn't recall the term for a moment—Barquentine style—"Forget it, you know anyway. He's written it all very clearly inside, with drawings included."
"Understood. I'll notify the sail-making workshop when I get back."
Zhan Wuya continued: "Also, you need to submit a report requesting manufacture of steel wire ropes and fine iron chains of the following specifications." He handed over a document. "Huang Tianyu told me yesterday that both are necessary items for power sail handling auxiliary equipment, but the industrial department has never produced these. It amounts to 'special demand manufacturing'—you, as project leader, need to formally propose it."
"Understood. I really hadn't realized mechanized sail handling was possible."
"According to General Wen, the last and most modern steel large sailing ships—used to transport bulk cargoes like wheat, guano, and Chilean nitrate—needed only 20-some sailors. Fully mechanized sail handling. It would be excellent if we could have such ships someday."
After Zhou Ke left the office, he proceeded to the "Fire Kiln"—everyone called the department managed by Xiao Bailang by this name. Industries related to fire in the industrial system—kilns and casting—all fell under his management. From firing crystal-clear bone china and glass to "silly-big-black-coarse" large castings, from industrial equipment to personal sanitary ware—nothing escaped his purview. Over two years, the formerly handsome Xiao Bailang had become wizened and darkened.
Xiao Bailang was currently organizing workers to make clay molds for a wooden propeller. This wooden propeller had quite a pedigree—it was a "prototype" manufactured by the machining center. The Planning Agency's warehouse held some reserved large and medium propellers—spares prepared for the Fengcheng and other modern ships. But Zhou Ke didn't know if they were suitable. So he had first asked someone to optimize and select the propeller type matching the 854 Modified hull form, then extract corresponding CAD drawings for specific optimization modifications, and finally input them into the machining center to manufacture a full-scale wooden mold.
Workers first made a clay mold using this wooden mold, then made a hard mold through sand casting based on the clay mold. Afterward, the wooden mold was carefully preserved.
For propeller material, based on experience from making small boat propellers previously, they directly adopted Aluminum Brass. Though the Transmigrators couldn't yet smelt aluminum, aluminum sources were widespread and smelting technology not terribly demanding—self-production was relatively easy. Compared to other non-ferrous metals like Manganese Bronze and Nickel Aluminum Bronze, sources were much more accessible.
Newly smelted and cast Aluminum Brass ingots transported from the Metallurgy Ministry workshop were piled beside the crucible furnace, awaiting melting and casting.
"Casting takes only a day; making the mold is particularly laborious!" Xiao Bailang exhaled wearily. His face was grimy, a black, oily labor protection mask hanging around his neck. "I need to talk to Zhan Wuya—we need bigger crucible furnaces for continuous casting." He looked at Zhou Ke. "You aren't going to equip every type of ship with a unique propeller, right?"
"Nothing of the sort. I'm preparing to use this propeller for a stage. Ships of 1200 tons and ships of 500 tons using the same propeller should work fine. Larger ships will use twin-propeller propulsion."
"Mm." Xiao Bailang settled onto a stool. Immediately a young girl wearing blue overalls brought a large mug of bubbling salty soda water, which he drained in one gulp. Zhou Ke noticed this girl had fresh short hair covering her ears and distinct, lovely features—but her figure was unusually full-bosomed, the rare "child-faced, huge-breasted" type. He couldn't help wondering: since when were there such premium goods available when purchasing Life Secretaries?
"Heh heh, jealous, aren't you?" Xiao Bailang looked at him sideways.
"This girl is pretty nice—why haven't I seen her before? Did someone open a back door for you?"
"This is S-Class. You only spent C-Class money, so naturally you only get a dark-skinned sister to play with." Xiao Bailang said smugly. "I didn't use any back door—I won the lottery."
"I don't believe your dogshit luck is that strong! The Executive Committee gang definitely opened a back door for you!"
"What 'opened a back door'!" Xiao Bailang flew into a rage of humiliation. "If fate is bitter, don't blame the Executive Committee." Saying so, he tilted his chin toward the girl. "Come, sing one for the master! Make these losers furious."
The girl dared not neglect and hurriedly sang a Cantonese ditty unknown to the visitors. Workers stood more than three zhang (approximately 10 meters) away from Xiao Bailang with respectful awe, listening to the ditty—this Chief Xiao's concubine sang ditties beautifully, and everyone enjoyed listening. Moreover, all felt heartfelt admiration for Chief Xiao's heroic spirit in bringing a woman to work in the workshop.
The girl's voice was delicate and tender, making Zhou Ke's heart sway. He couldn't help feeling secretly jealous. Did the Executive Committee really pull some strings in maid distribution? Although given Xiao Bailang's working conditions, getting an S-Class maid was deserved—but such black-box operations should be resolutely stopped! He was already dissatisfied with the Executive Committee's tendencies; now he became even more suspicious.
As for the large transmission shafts, connecting rods, and cranks used to drive the propeller, the Bopu Arsenal was responsible for their manufacture. They had large forging machines—originally installed for forging cannons but also used to forge some large workpieces. These forging machines were cruder than equipment brought from the old spacetime, but far exceeded the brought equipment in machine size and forging capacity. The Arsenal's forging workshop was also the busiest in the Manufacturing Directorate, forging day and night. Some of the iron keels and ribs for new ship construction were also forged here.
Inside the Arsenal, steam engines intended for ships were still being manufactured. Because steam engine and boiler finished products were bulky, industrial layout had positioned the manufacturing workshops for both within the Arsenal to facilitate transport and installation. Some standardized parts were provided by the Bairen Industrial Zone.
All Transmigrator steam engines thus far used Lancashire boilers to supply steam—these boilers had been improved and installed with surface condensers, able to provide distilled water for the boiler and ensure continuous operation.
Lancashire boilers could also supply steam for marine steam engines—just with poorer efficiency, requiring more boilers to provide the same power. This was uneconomical for ships with limited space. So Sun Li and others responsible for steam engine manufacturing had received a brand new task: develop new high-pressure boilers for marine steam engines to provide steam with greater unit pressure. If the new model boiler imitation succeeded, it would provide a foundation for manufacturing higher horsepower steam engines. After all, the power provided by a 500hp steam engine was still too limited.
After consulting the materials, everyone decided to follow the historical path of technological improvement and trial-produce Fire-tube Boilers. These adopted a cylindrical shell and flues. The unit pressure provided by this boiler far exceeded Lancashire boilers—so much so that the original cast iron pipes had to be replaced with low carbon steel pipes to ensure safe operation.
(End of Chapter)