After discovering that boiling water could not produce enough steam power, Gawain gave up his plan to build the Earth's classic steam engine.
But that didn't mean he gave up his goal of making a versatile, reliable, and simple powered machine.
He still remembers how in his home world, how industrial mass production razed all inefficient production modes including manual workshops, how roaring machines led the entire human civilization to rise from the land and enter the space age . In the factory, raw materials are poured into the workshop like flowing water, and tons and tens of thousands of products will be spewed out from the end of the machine cluster. The power of the machine can completely change the way a society operates. They can break mountains and crack rocks. They can also fill the sea and flat rivers, they can be more powerful, precise, efficient, and tireless than any single human being, and these qualities that surpass natural people just reflect the true power of human beings.
That is the power of thinking and creating.
Of course, Gao Wen is also very aware of the side effects of industrial production, such as pollution, such as the pressure on natural resources caused by excessive production efficiency, but problems can be solved, but survival is not negotiable, just like human diseases can be cured, but you It is unreasonable to directly refuse to reincarnate to prevent illness...
Therefore, whether it is to survive the natural disasters including the demonic tide, to make life more comfortable in this backward world, or to understand the truth of this world, Gao Wen must upgrade the technological tree Light it up, and in order to light up the technology, the most basic thing is to solve the power problem.
Steam propulsion is a dead end, but many rules in the macroscopic field of this world can still be used, gears can be used, levers can be used, waterwheels can also be used, and thanks to the power of magic, many rules that cannot be used on the earth The technological development that is skipped and needs to be slowly accumulated can be directly advanced here, such as high-quality steel smelted based on magic technology, such as various alloys and crystals that are different from the earth but have exceptional properties. Things have not been fully exploited in this world.
In other words, people in this world have indeed discovered the usefulness of these things in their own technical routes. After all, outsiders are not stupid, but due to the limitation of the worldview, they never thought of using these things in other ways. thing.
Gawain looked at the cylinder structure on the blueprint, he had already marked the structure with a cross, and now he wanted to find a substitute to replace steam to power the entire device.
What he can think of is still the work done by expansion, or the work done by high-pressure airflow, but where do these "sources of power" of high temperature and high pressure come from
He once thought that the Rebecca crystal explosion is also a kind of expansion, as long as it is used properly, the power of the explosion is also a kind of power. The essence of the internal combustion engine on the earth is actually a continuous "safe explosion" (deflagration) in the cylinder. ), then can the explosion caused by the Rebecca crystal also be controlled and guided, so as to become a driving force
But after learning the principle of those crystal explosions, he had to give up this idea.
The Rebecca crystal that explodes by magic is completely different from the gunpowder on the earth, and the two "explosion" processes are also completely different.
The explosion produced by Rebecca's crystal is essentially a "spell". The power of the magic circle drives the energy in the crystal to form an autonomous spellcasting process, and the effect of this spell is "explosion", so when the impact Before the expansion, the Rebecca crystal first produced a spell effect, so if such a crystal was stuffed into the cylinder and triggered to detonate the magic circle, what would be the result
The cylinder will be detonated as a piece of alchemy...
Of course, Gawain can make this cylinder extremely strong, extremely thick, even so strong and thick that it cannot be exploded if it is filled with crystals, then can the explosion magic in it produce a boost at this time
No, it will blow up the relatively fragile connecting rods, pistons and other things as spell-casting materials, as long as these things are within the range of the magic circle, they will not be spared.
What if the connecting rods, pistons, and everything were so strong that they wouldn't blow up, and only the crystals were involved in the magic reaction
Well, this device may really be able to do work at this time, but its volume will be extremely large because the outer diameter of its absolutely explosion-proof outer wall must exceed the casting range of the detonation circle. Depending on the equivalent size of its core, the outer wall It is most likely a ball with a radius of several meters to tens of meters, and it cannot shrink in the slightest. Once it shrinks, a part of the outside of the device is within the range of the explosion spell, and the operator will stand next to it. Be detonated... Human beings are one of the best magic materials.
Even without an operator nearby, the device itself is enveloped in a constant explosion that detonates everything that comes near it.
It doesn't work at all!
And because the "explosion" in this world is so special, the idea of using Rebecca crystals to make guns was also given up by Gawain, at least he gave up the idea of using this crystal to launch: he couldn't use these crystals Stuff it into the barrel of the gun as a propellant, because these propellants will directly create an explosion in the area of effect of the spell during the casting process. When the gun is fine, the person who shot it must have exploded, and the person standing next to it should also explode. …
Then what should he use to do work
Steam doesn't work, explosion doesn't work, fuel... He hasn't heard of anything like oil in this world until now.
Moreover, he had to take into account the processing accuracy of the current world. Even if he designed a usable prototype, it would be a problem if the blacksmiths couldn't knock out suitable parts.
But to be honest, he is not the most worried about this aspect: he still remembers the mithril safe he found in the old mansion in the capital. The complicated magic lock in the safe is actually a very sophisticated mechanism. The ones working in such institutions are not ordinary blacksmiths, but rune craftsmen who specialize in processing magic items and have a higher status than blacksmiths.
Rune craftsmen are equivalent to blacksmiths and carpenters who have received advanced training. Although they do not have the ability to cast spells, they do have some knowledge in the field of magic. They are usually "workers" trained by magicians to make magic props for themselves.
Their craftsmanship is superb, able to forge things more sophisticated and complex than ordinary iron, and they know how to safely process various magical materials.
Although the number of rune craftsmen is small, and it costs a lot of money to build things (mainly the cost of magic materials), but if they can help themselves create a prototype, it is still worth it.
Among the one hundred technicians from the capital, there are rune craftsmen...
While Gawain was thinking, two familiar auras appeared in his perception, and the curtain of the tent was lifted, and Rebecca and Hetty walked in together.
"Ancestor (Master Ancestor), are you looking for us?" The two of them almost spoke in unison.
"Yes," Gao Wen didn't talk nonsense, and directly pushed the blueprint forward, "Pick up a chair and sit here yourself, you guys have a look at these things."
Rebecca ran to move a big chair, while Hetty made a casual move, and the Evocation Hand grabbed a chair from the corner of the tent and flew towards it, stunned Rebecca. of.
But soon, Miss Tietou's little disappointment was attracted by the drawings that Gao Wen showed.
"What is this?" Rebecca's eyes sparkled, "There are many wheels and connecting rods... Is it also a water wheel?"
"No, it's a... machine that can generate power," Gawain explained casually, "My ideas are limited, and I want to hear your thoughts. Imagine a machine, driven by the most basic magic unit, that can generate power. Stable and reliable power, such as making the wheel rotate continuously, such as driving the hammer to move up and down. Look at these connecting rods and wheels, and this structure is called the crankshaft. These things can convert the linear reciprocating motion and the rotating motion of the wheel... "
Gawain patiently explained his thoughts, Hetty became thoughtful after hearing this, and Rebecca's eyes sparkled: She became very interested in these imaginative designs!
The concept of a mechanical device driven by magic power is actually not new. This world with extraordinary power has natural advantages in many aspects, and naturally there are many things that are "beyond the age" in Gao Wen's view, such as magicians. The magic puppets produced, the automatic gates activated by keys in the treasure house in the mountain, and the magic locks that can identify the user's identity that I saw in the capital, these are all applications of magic organs, and many of them can even be used with "" Black technology" to describe.
But Rebecca instinctively felt that the "magic power mechanism" proposed by Gawain was completely different from those things.
Most of its structures are intuitive and direct mechanical structures that do not require magic power to participate.
Its function and purpose are extremely simple, it is to provide power, and this power is to prepare for the next level of machinery.
It is standardized, standard, and clear, abandoning all the parts that allow craftsmen to "play freely", replacing them with digital indicators that are as precise as magic rules, and strive to achieve their goals in the most reasonable and concise way, unlike those traditional ones. Like rune craftsmen or mages, they will put a lot of patterns on the magic items they create, and they will try their best to hide those really useful runes in the complicated encrypted lines, for fear of being seen to and understand.
Rebecca thought hard for a long time, and there was one word she often said to herself in her mind: versatility.
Just like Magic Net One, this device is also "universal".
It is not designed as a treasure or a work of art, but like those Rebecca crystals fired in the kiln area, it needs to be large and reliable.
After Gao Wen explained his thoughts, he finally pointed to the crossed cylinder structure: "Now there is only one step left: it needs an initial power source to make this 'piston' move. Expanding gas to complete this process, so this sealed 'cylinder' was designed, but you don't have to be limited by my thinking From a magical point of view, what kind of spell do you think can create a non-stop, as long as there is an energy supply, Cyclic propulsion?"
Rebecca grabbed the chair, shaking her body back and forth: "Carve an ultra-small hurricane circle in it? Blow it hard?"
Hetty also frowned, thinking seriously: "It's not realistic, the hurricane circle is too complicated, and the airflow it can induce is limited in a closed environment..."
While talking, she casually condensed a translucent evocation hand beside her, but then dispersed the magic: "It would be easy to push inside with the evocation hand, but unfortunately this is a very special Spells, there is no corresponding magic circle, and... it feels weird to have an evocation hand pushing around inside the machine."
"Hand of Evocation..." Rebecca rolled her eyes and thought about it, and suddenly she seemed to open her mind, "Oh, it doesn't have to be airflow... It's even okay without this thing called 'air cylinder'?"
Looking at Rebecca's brighter and brighter eyes, Gao Wen couldn't help but feel happy: the silly roe deer is going to make a contribution again!
Hetty also became curious: "What did you think of?"
Rebecca gestured happily: "Auntie, do you still remember that there was a spell that I couldn't learn..."
Hetty: "Apart from fireball, which spell did you learn back then?"
"No, at that level of tricks, you thought I would be able to learn it no matter how stupid I am," Rebecca waved her hands vigorously, "Later, I secretly drew runes in my gloves to pretend that I could cast spells, but you Hang up and fight with dad..."
Gao Wen: "..."
Is it necessary for this girl to be happy when she says this? !
And Hetty obviously remembered what the "trick" Rebecca was referring to: "Repulsion trick?" 8)