0p0 Chapter 500 Popular Science - Was the power of the treasure ships sailing to the West steam-powered?
Chapter 500 Popular Science - Was the power of the treasure ships sailing to the West steam-powered?
The previous article mentioned that the heroine wanted to go to America.
I would like to insert a piece of scientific knowledge here.
Let’s first start with whether the steam engine was invented in the Ming Dynasty.
Currently, there are several clear records when searching for terms related to steam engines.
In 1690, Frenchman Denis PaPin invented the first piston steam engine.
In 1698, British military engineer Thomas Savery invented a pistonless steam pump based on the work of his predecessors, using the steam pressure difference to extract mine water.
In 1705, Thomas Newe-en of England invented the air steam engine.
In 1765, Watt of Britain developed a separate condenser and made a single-acting steam engine.
In 1769, the steam car was born.
The above timeline is currently very clear, with a complete process, and it has developed very rapidly. In just eighty years, the invention and application were completed in an all-round way.
Here we add an incident that is not far from the Western series of operations.
It happened in the 1672th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty, that is, in .
That year.
Belgian missionary Ferdinand Verbiest built a "steam car" for Emperor Kangxi.
Just from the timeline perspective, this "steam car" was invented 18 years earlier than the first steam engine in the West, and nearly a hundred years earlier than the birth of the first steam car.
At that time, this Nan Huairen brand steam car had no practical value in transportation. It was just a mechanical toy that Nan Huairen gave to Kangxi.
The car was two feet long, with four wheels, and a stove and a steam boiler in the middle of the car. The copper steam boiler was similar to a modern kettle, flat at the bottom and round at the top, with a spout on top that sprayed steam.
The principle of the whole car is to use the steam jet effect of a certain temperature and pressure to push the impeller and thereby drive the rotation of the shaft, and finally transmit power through gears to drive the car forward.
The real object is now in the Palace Museum, and it is something real that everyone can still see.
Nan Huairen, a missionary, came to China in 1658, stayed there for 30 years, and finally died in China.
The entry speaks highly of Nan Huairen, saying that he brought Western knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, physics, geography, mechanics and artillery to China, and made important contributions to the calendar reform, astronomical instrument manufacturing and cannon casting to defend against the enemy in the early Qing Dynasty, objectively promoting the modernization of Chinese science.
When I looked at this big brother’s timeline, I found it even more outrageous.
From 1658 to 1672, in just over ten years, he created a steam car out of thin air?
On what theoretical basis did he build the steam car?
How could he make a steam car in one step when the so-called Western steam engine had not yet been invented?
What's more, what's outrageous is that, even if it was just a prototype, would it be difficult to make a steam car that could actually be put into use based on the technology at the time?
However, there were no subsequent records throughout the Qing Dynasty, either official or private.
However, the industrial renaissance in the West flourished after Nan Huairen's death.
The steam engine gave birth to the Industrial Revolution. The sudden innovation in production methods rapidly widened the economic gap between different regions and laid a solid foundation for Britain to become a maritime hegemon.
Even a hundred years later, the Qing Dynasty was still learning advanced science and technology from the "West".