Chapter 23 (1/2)

Chapter 23 New source of power

“Come on, try to join these two iron plates together,” Roland said.

Anna’s finger pressed on the iron seams. A flame was ejected from her finger, melting the interface at a speed visible to the eyes.

“Reduce the firepower and start again with the reverse side.”

Anna nodded her head and did it once more. The two iron plates were firmly welded together at a 90-degree angle.

Roland carefully examined the interface and found that the effect was just as he had imagined – a perfect weld without any flaws. With a little polishing, the fluid traces of molten iron could rub off. There was no difference with a modern welding technique.

“Very good, Miss Anna, simply excellent!” Roland excitedly exclaimed, “Next, we should also weld this two iron panels together.”

“What is it? An iron… bucket?”

“No, it is a cylinder,” corrected Roland.

“Cylinder?” repeated Anna, puzzled.

“Yes, the cylinder can be filled with air,” Roland pointed to another square piece of iron, “Do you see the small hole above it? The air can enter the cylinder through that small hole, and push the piston. Well, and since the piston diameter is slightly smaller than the cylinder’s diameter, it can move freely inside. “

Even the genius Anna, in front of so many unknown words, had question marks above her head, “these… cylinder, piston and so on, what do they do?”

“They are needed for the purpose of manufacturing a machine that can move automatically.”

The steam engine brought the first industrial revolution, it was the driving force behind human development, completely replacing humans and animals in the workforce.

It was a schematic diagram that each mechanic engineer was familiar with, to describe it in simple words, it was a larger version of a kettle. After boiling the water, the produced steam would be induced into the cylinder. There, it would push a piston that is connected to a pole. Like this, thermal energy was turned into mechanical energy.

The principle was very simple, but it did not mean that it was easy to manufacture. Its difficulty laid in the sealing of the cylinder and piston, as well as the production of the gas pipeline. Without proper metal processing skills and only relying on manual forging, manufacturing a usable cylinder would only be a dream.

However, with the help of Anna’s ability, he could make up for the lack of their manufacturing skills.

After much advance planning, Roland came up with a design using four iron plates of the same size, like this, so the smithy could easily grind it. Then the iron plates would be welded together at a 90-degree angle by Anna. Like this, it was possible to get a highly stiff square cylinder. With the help of Anna, he didn’t need to use the traditional production process. They created first a tubular boring machine, and then post processed it to create a circular cylinder. The other big parts, too, could be divided into small pieces and then welded together. In this way, it was even possible to produce them in a small workshop. In this way, they were able to produce all of the components required for the steam engine.

In fact, prior to the invention of welding, people could only rely on connecting small pieces by bolting or riveting. Since the internal cylinder must be smooth, normal connection methods obviously couldn’t do this.

The only problem was the gas pipeline. Its production process was nothing special, it needed to be heated up until it was red, and then the groove could be hammered into the right shape; this was also the method to produce a front-loading flintlock gun barrel. Later the barrel just needed straightening and counterbored rifling etc., nothing that was too complicated.

The problem was that it was impossible for Roland to call the blacksmith into the castle’s back garden, since it was still not known that Anna hadn’t been executed. Blacksmithing was not one of their strengths, but in a desperate attempt, they had to let the chief knight do it, under Roland’s own command.

After waiting for three days, Roland finally had the first steam engine ever standing in his back garden.

“This is the powerful machine you were talking about?” Carter frowned while looking at the strange machine, but he had affirmed first hand that this machine had nothing to do with magic. Each of the iron plates were personally molded by himself, and to him, it only looked like a sealed furnace. It was impossible for the devil to have any interest in it.

But how could it move a pile of lump iron upwards? It looked very clumsy and had no feet, was it possible that it could fly?

But in Roland’s eyes, this seemingly simple machine exuded the beauty of the modern industry. Standing on the shoulders of giants, he naturally did not need to invent the Newcomen steam engine — or the Watt steam engine, instead he built an improved steam engine. His first prototype was already a high-pressure steam engine with a dual connecting rod and a slide valve. To MakE it better than most of the original steam engines, the key laid in some of newer innovative ideas.

“Soon you will understand it.”

Roland poured a bucket of water into the steam room and told Anna to ignite the firewood.

Ten minutes later, the water was at a rolling boil. Soon, a creaking sound could be heard from the cylinder. Roland knew it was the sound of the thermal expansion of the cylinder. The thin iron piston’s expansion was far greater than the cylinder’s and it would eventually press firmly against the cylinder wall.

“Isn’t this a water boiler? I did not think it would really be a furnace,” Carter muttered.