Ever since she became husband and wife with Marin, Angela began to hope that she could conceive and give birth to the heir of the uncle. Then, somewhat nervously, she started ordering the tailor to make some spare baby clothes.
Moreover, I used to like to travel by car, but I have become cautious. In Angela's words, the carriage was too bumpy, and the sound of friction between the wheels and axles was also very harsh.
Marin didn't know how to persuade Angela, he felt that Angela was overreacting. But what left Marin speechless was that since Archbishop Rovere's lover Lucrezia and youngest daughter Felice came to East Frisia, Angela took her mother and sister and liked to take them to various places to visit. .
In fact, in addition to caring for her family and being happy with them, Angela also has some small thoughts of showing off. You know, Felice has been a competitive master since she was a child, and she was always dissatisfied with Angela. Because the eldest sister died early, there were only two sisters left who often fought over each other. Now, if she finds an opportunity to show off her status as the countess, Angela will naturally not let it go.
Therefore, Angela often took her mother and younger sister to "inspect" various places, receiving the admiration and cheers of the subjects, and by the way stimulated her younger sister Felice...
Felice was indeed very angry, although, in East Frisia, it was much better than in the landlord's house in the countryside of Genoa, and her mother didn't have to be a mother anymore. However, Felice felt extremely inferior in her heart. No other, because Felice has married a fool under the witness of God. A fool never dies, Felice is the fool's wife. And her second sister, Angela, who was unconvinced since she was a child, was also fleeing, but she was able to find an earl to be her husband even after fleeing, she was really mad at her...
However, Felice was very obsessed with the good life her sister gave her. You know, in the Genoese countryside, she is just a maid-like figure who takes care of a foolish husband. The reason why the local rich man chose her as his daughter-in-law was because his son was a fool and no one would marry him, so he chose Felice who had fled. In fact, the local rich man clearly regarded Felice as a maid who took care of his son for the rest of his life...
You know, Felice's nominally foolish husband has an IQ of only a three-year-old child. He only knows how to eat, drink, and even go to the toilet, and Felice has to serve him...
Moreover, it is said that they are rich peasants in the country, and Felice's mother and daughter don't eat well there. They eat black bread every day and occasionally eat some meat. It's not like in my sister's palace, where I eat very delicious delicacies that are said to come from the East every day, and I can also wear all kinds of beautiful clothes. Felice was going crazy with jealousy, and she wished to replace her sister and become the wife of her brother-in-law Marin.
However, due to the two years of hard life, Felice has become a little dark, and her appearance is not as beautiful as Angela's. Therefore, the chances of Marin falling in love with her and not wanting Angela are really very small...
Therefore, Felice had no choice but to follow her mother and sister depressedly, and while her sister was showing off, she accompanied her on a tour of East Frisia...
However, Angela was very dissatisfied with the bumpy carriage. So, in the name of protecting the child that might be in her womb, she urged her extremely smart husband, Marin, to quickly invent a carriage for my old lady that does not bump or rattle the axle... In her eyes, her husband is omnipotent of…
Marin had no choice but to start to enter the memory mode, imagining how to make the carriage not bumpy...
In fact, it is also simple to say, no bumps, just install large springs on the support frame between the axle and the carriage. Instead of harsh friction, just install anti-friction bearings between the axle and the wheel...
But it's easier said than done...
First of all, to manufacture springs, special spring steel is required. In addition, the process of manufacturing springs is also relatively troublesome. Coiled springs are easy to shape, just wrap a piece of hot wire around a post to make it easier to shape. However, post-annealing and other treatments are more troublesome.
Marin didn't study mechanics in his previous life, so how could he know the specific processing process? If he can know the principle, he is considered to be knowledgeable. Therefore, how to ensure the elasticity of the spring and how to restore the original shape after being stretched is also somewhat troublesome.
In fact, the simplest coil spring, some watchmakers have come up with similar models. However, they are made of ordinary iron wire, which has no practical value. Because the spring made of ordinary iron wire is difficult to return to its original shape after deformation.
Only springs made of spring steel can be guaranteed not to deform easily after special treatment. Therefore, before making springs, Marin had to get the legendary spring steel first...
Marin doesn't know the formula of other spring steel, he only knows 65 carbon steel. Among them, this steel contains manganese. Fortunately, Marin's men bought pyrolusite in Hungary, which was enough for Marin to carry out research.
However, as the Earl, where would Marin study it himself? So Marin pushed the matter to Da Vinci and a group of Italian watchmakers...
These technical geeks seem to be very interested in springs, and they gladly accepted it...
When they figure out the right spring steel, Marin will arrange craftsmen to use thin iron rods, burn them red, bend them into large coil springs around the pillars, and then anneal them to become special springs for carriages.
After handing over the spring research and development to Da Vinci, Marin himself went to a blacksmith to process ball bearings...
Bearings are much easier to do than springs. Of course, the premise is that Marin is doing the simplest ball bearings with caged balls. In the previous life, Marin started riding a bicycle since he was a child, and god knows how many times the bicycle has been repaired. Therefore, Marin is very familiar with the bicycle bearings with caged balls.
The simplest caged ball is the space between two steel rings (inner ring and outer ring), divided into 12 blocks (or other numbers), and a steel ball of the same size is placed in each block. Then, put a layer of steel shell (cage) on the outside. The double-layer steel ring containing steel balls is not in direct contact with the cage, but the protruding steel balls are in contact with it. These steel balls are all oiled, and there is very little friction between them and the cage. It's just that after a period of time, the casing must be disassembled and some oil added. Because, if there is a lack of oil, the steel balls are easy to wear. If it wears out, you need to replace the steel ball...
Of course, modern steel balls are made of alloy steel, which is very wear-resistant. However, Marin is in this era, of course there is no very wear-resistant alloy steel. Therefore, Marin directly used cast iron to manufacture ball bearings.
Whether it is the inner ring, the outer ring, or the rolling elements and the cage, they are all cast iron. Moreover, modern bearings are all machine-made, so small bearings are also easy to manufacture. And Marin obviously doesn't have a machine, so he can only use the method of foundry casting. So, he could only make bigger bearings. Therefore, the carriage bearings were made slightly larger. The steel balls on the bicycle, which are smaller than soybeans, were cast into cast iron beads the size of glass balls by Marin's arrangement of foundry craftsmen...
As a result, because the iron balls were too big, the "cage ball" could not hold 12, but only 6...
Then, when choosing lubricating oil, Marin directly and luxuriously chose thicker butter...
However, according to the test results, this most primitive "cage ball" bearing, although bulky and ugly, works very well. At least, after installing it on Angela's carriage, the carriage will no longer have the "creaking" axle friction sound.
However, the spring steel developed by Leonardo Da Vinci and others has not been available for a long time. Therefore, the time to reduce the flexibility of the carriage will naturally be postponed...
As for using inferior springs made of iron first, Marin does not consider it. Because, after the spring is taken out, it only needs to directly support the carriage. If the material is too poor, it is easy to cause the spring to break. If this is the case, it is easy to cause the carriage to overturn and cause an accident. Marin didn't dare to let Angela take risks. It would be bad if it broke. Therefore, he would rather wait for Da Vinci and the others to come up with qualified spring steel than to use ordinary materials to make car springs...