The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 94 How Simple Can a Wired Telegraph Be?
After Zhu Jianxuan's fleet sailed out of the Yangtze River estuary, it first joined up with the first small-scale escort fleet near Chongming Island.

The escorted immigrant fleet continued to sail south and met up with the waiting main escort fleet at Zhoushan Naval Port.

Also joining the fleet were two exploration ships from Captain James Cook.

Although the Ming Dynasty had signed a peace treaty with Britain, the treaty had not yet been formally approved by the British King and Parliament.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty was very tough and did not release the prisoners immediately, on the grounds that it had not yet officially accepted Quebec, Montreal and other regions in North America.

Although the British delegation was quite angry about this, they had no choice but to return to London.

Cook himself was once stationed in Yingtianfu, but his two ships were not docked at the inland port of Yingtianfu, but were always kept in the more spacious Zhoushan Naval Port.

Before Zhu Jianxuan's fleet set off for North America, Cook obtained Zhu Jianxuan's permission and order and returned to Zhoushan in advance with his accompanying translator.

Captain Cook would be Zhu Jianxuan's subject in the future, so he was allowed by the emperor to follow Zhu Jianxuan directly to America.

In the future, I will return to London from America, exchange duties with the British Navy, and then return to America. I will follow Zhu Jianxuan forever.

Cook took the emperor's instructions, accepted his original subordinates, accepted his original exploration ship, and waited for Zhu Jianxuan's fleet to arrive.

The full-scale war has stopped after all. The escort fleet of this immigrant fleet consists of only twenty battleships of level three or above, and forty frigates and auxiliary warships of level four and below.

The overall size is only one-third of the North American fleet.

However, after these warships arrive in North America, they will never return to the Ming mainland again.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty has decided to establish the North American Governor-General's Office. This fleet will join the North American Governor-General's Office fleet and be stationed in Central America for a long time.

After the immigrant fleet joined the main escort fleet, Zhu Jianxuan also moved to the escort fleet's flagship, Changfeng, with his servants, disciples, craftsmen, and guards.

Changfeng was one of the Ming Dynasty's largest dozen battleships, with a displacement of more than three thousand tons.

The internal space is the largest in today's era, so the living conditions are naturally more comfortable, and it is also more convenient for Zhu Jianxuan to give lectures and do experiments.

After the fleet left Zhoushan, Zhu Jianxuan once again gathered all the students and craftsmen in the Changfeng conference room to start the second class on principles of natural sciences.

After the formal class started, Zhu Jianxuan’s disciples were very excited.

After all, they were all boys of 11 or 12 years old. They got very interesting things in class, and the process of doing the experiment was more like a process of playing.

The craftsmen were obviously much calmer than last time.

Because they have been verified in practice, Zhu Jianxuan's theories are correct, at least they have not been falsified yet.

This only means that Zhu Jianxuan had verified it himself before.

What Zhu Jianxuan proposed is not a simple hypothesis, but a scientific theory derived from experiments and calculations.

The craftsmen led by Song Wendao have realized that a new and more comprehensive set of natural science theories is being rapidly established under the leadership of Zhu Jianxuan.

We are all direct participants in this process.

Their interest in learning increased again, and they were once again glad that they had decided to follow Zhu Jianxuan.

The craftsmen led by Song Wendao have all quickly changed their mindset and started to put themselves in the position of ignorant students.

They really knew almost nothing about the content of Zhu Jianxuan's second class.

This time, Zhu Jianxuan started his explanation directly from electromagnetic induction and spent almost a whole day going over all the introductory knowledge of electromagnetism.

This time the craftsmen were confused throughout the whole process.

Can electricity and magnetism be put together to establish a connection?

Is the theory of electricity really that simple?

If the craftsmen could still discuss and join the falsification process with the basic knowledge of thermodynamics and chemistry, then the knowledge of electricity was almost completely new.

Most of the knowledge is directly beyond the current era.

In the early research of the history of electricity, the biggest difficulty was that electric current had no entity, and the biggest limitation was the lack of a stable, safe and controllable power source.

So although the principles of electricity are relatively simple, the progress of early electrical research was very slow.

The most important application of electricity today is the lightning rod.

Lightning can be released early to avoid destroying buildings, but lightning is completely uncontrollable.

In Zhu Jianxuan's previous life, there was a 99% probability that Franklin's kite-induced lightning experiment was fabricated.

But it was not compiled by Franklin himself, a connoisseur of new-age readers.

Franklin didn't realize that water in reality is basically conductive, and it is impossible to isolate the electric current with a ribbon.

Due to the lack of relevant knowledge, some people in history actually believed it.

A Russian scientist conducted an experiment according to Franklin's theory and was struck to death by lightning.

It was not until the advent of the Voltaic pile in 1800 that the world had the first stable generator and electrical research entered a new era.

Now Zhu Jianxuan directly came up with a completely mature and clear theory of electromagnetic induction.

Then he directly took out the motor schematic.

Generators and motors can be considered the same device to some extent.

By using other machines to drive the rotor to rotate, electricity can be generated, and by connecting an external power source, the rotor can be directly driven to rotate.

Zhu Jianxuan also explained the concepts of current and voltage, and directly took out the schematic diagram of a simple mechanical voltmeter and ammeter.

Zhu Jianxuan didn’t know how to make a mechanical electric meter, but he could deduce the design ideas based on the principle of electromagnetic induction.

When electric current passes through metal, it will make the metal magnetic. If it is placed in a concave magnet, the metal will rotate on its own. At this time, a spring is used to fix the metal to prevent it from rotating.

By determining the size and weight of the metal, together with a suitable pointer and a table, the electrical energy intensity can be marked by the degree of deflection of the pointer after power is applied.

The structures of ammeters and voltmeters are similar. When connected in series in a circuit, it is an ammeter, and when connected in parallel with an electrical appliance, it is a voltmeter.

However, a large resistor must be connected in series inside the voltmeter to share the voltage, otherwise the voltmeter will burn out directly.

The principle of the electric meter is actually the same as that of the motor. The electric meter is an ultra-small motor, but it is always in the starting state and can never complete a circle.

A pointer is fixed on the shaft of the motor, and a table back plate is added behind the pointer to mark the power intensity.

Similar to a voltmeter, a motor connected in parallel to the circuit is required for normal operation. If it cannot rotate after being powered on, it will quickly burn out. After the main course of the day, Zhu Jianxuan arranged another experiment or homework, asking the craftsmen to lead their disciples to make motors and meters separately.

Zhu Jianxuan's ship carried machine tools and various tools and equipment used in King Wu's laboratory.

These machine tools are the most precise in the world.

Zhu Jianxuan set up a scientific laboratory in Daming and led hundreds of senior craftsmen for eight years.

The research project that consumes the most time is to continuously improve the Ming Dynasty's steel smelting technology and mechanical processing technology.

The upgrade of machine tool technology is the top priority in improving mechanical processing technology.

According to Zhu Jianxuan's assessment, the accuracy of the latest machine tools used in the King Wu Laboratory should have reached the level of the late nineteenth century.

The craftsmen around Zhu Jianxuan are also among the best in the world.

They use machine tools to hand-rub motor and meter parts, and it is not too difficult to hand-make motor coils.

If the requirement is just to make a machine that can discharge continuously or rotate continuously, without requiring to find the most efficient coil and the most reasonable design, the difficulty itself is not high.

So the craftsmen, together with Zhu Jianxuan's disciples, spent half a month to complete Zhu Jianxuan's "homework" this time.

Thirty-two craftsmen and thirty-two students were divided into eight groups after working in pairs. They finally made four motors, two ammeters and two voltmeters.

It’s time for “homework checking” or “acceptance of experimental results”.

Zhu Jianxuan asked the craftsmen to bring a bicycle, support it with a steel frame, and use the rear wheel to drive an electric motor as a generator.
Two rubber-covered wires lead out of the generator and are connected to another motor placed next to it, which serves as an electric motor.

Two blades are installed on the motor shaft of the electric motor, turning it into a simple electric fan, with two voltmeters connected next to it.

Zhu Jianxuan asked a young craftsman to pedal a bicycle, and the wheels of the bicycle drove the generator to rotate and generate electricity.

The voltmeter started moving immediately, and the electric motor also started to rotate at the same time, driving the two blades to blow out a continuous cool breeze.

This structure seems to be looking for trouble, so the craftsmen can just pedal a bicycle to blow the air directly, which is more efficient than blowing air like this.

But the craftsmen present could imagine that the two sets of equipment could be separated by a long distance.

You can use a steam engine or water wheel to drive a generator inside a factory or on a river, use wires to bring electricity into the room, and then use an electric motor to blow air into the room.

Or it can directly drive textile machines, lathes and all equipment requiring power.

During the process of checking the work and verifying the electromagnetic theory, Song Wendao and other craftsmen felt like they were dreaming.

The motor itself is not a very complicated structure. Simply by rotating continuously it can generate a stable current, which in turn can drive the motor to rotate steadily.

The children found this process very magical.

He even took the initiative to change shifts with the bicycle craftsman. He pedaled the bicycle hard himself, watching the fluctuations of the ammeter and voltmeter pointers, and watching the changes in the speed of the fan opposite.

But some old craftsmen find it difficult to accept this seemingly simple reality.

"Is this how electricity works?"

“Is electricity generation and electric drive so simple?”

"We can now directly control the magical lightning with such a simple device!"

"So if we have the principle of electromagnetism, what else can we do with a steam engine?"

"Yes, we can use the waterwheel to directly drive the generator, and use the electric motor to drive textile machines and other machines..."

"Steam engines are still needed. They can be used to provide continuous power. They are much more stable and powerful than water wheels. At the same time, water power is not available everywhere."

Zhu Jianxuan patted the shoulder of an excited student and said to these amazing craftsmen with a smile:

“The principle of electricity is so simple, it is a subject that can teach you everything.

“So this is just the beginning, and there are more results waiting for us to achieve.

“I will now give you the simplest idea, let’s think about it together.

"The connection and disconnection of electric current, and even the different lengths of time the current is connected, what can this state be used for?"

The scene was quiet for less than three seconds, and then the child next to Zhu Jianxuan suddenly screamed:

"It can be used to pass messages! Just like flag signals and drum beats!"

Other craftsmen and students also reacted immediately and thought of another biggest characteristic of electricity.

Many people's eyes widened instantly.

Zhu Jianxuan also gave the answer without hesitation:

“The speed of electric current is so fast that we humans cannot imagine it. It can travel thousands of miles in an instant.

“As long as we start from Yingtianfu and lay a wire to Paris, we can transmit the message across the entire Shenou continent in a few minutes.

“If a few cables were laid across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, it would also be possible to send messages directly from New York to London.

"So the next class assignment is to make this device that sends and receives information."

The principle of the simplest wired telegraph is very simple indeed.

Different basic information can be defined simply by varying the length of time the circuit is connected.

Just like a computer's binary code, it only needs the simplest zeros and one or two numbers to express an unlimited amount of information.

As long as the sender and receiver agree on a coding table, one number corresponds to one Chinese character, and the sender and receiver each hold a copy.

The sender then looks up the table, converts the Chinese character information into digital information, and sends it to the recipient thousands of miles away.

The receiver records the digital information and then looks up the Chinese character encoding table to translate the original information.

Of course, this is only a theoretical situation. The actual situation of long-distance information transmission is slightly more complicated, and the current must be of sufficient strength and relatively stable.

So after having the generator, the telegraph can indeed be produced directly.

However, for applications over relatively long distances, it will still take some time to solve the engineering problems.

Today, three chapters with 10,000 words were completed.

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(End of this chapter)