Humans Shrunk 100 Times

"Why?" Chen Mu couldn't understand for a moment.

"Having just one principle is not enough for many things. The invention of the Stirling engine was before the internal combustion engine, but its real development came much later, and one reason for that was right here.

Due to the particularity of its structure, the vaporization of the liquid lubricant used will condense on the regenerator, causing blockages. This problem troubled manufacturers for countless years until advances in materials science finally solved it.

"Now, pistons are mainly made using high polymer compounds like polytetrafluoroethylene and fillers like graphite. This way, they can achieve self-lubrication at temperatures as high as 250 degrees, perfectly solving this problem."

By this point, even Dong Junwei and the others couldn't fully understand.

Chen Mu asked, "So, you're saying this thing can't use lubricating oil and can only rely on the material itself to solve the friction problem?"

"That's the idea."

"No wonder you need Xiao An's help," Chen Mu nodded.

"Yes, like I said before, we could make many mechanical devices a long time ago, but until certain key technical problems were solved, they would just end up as a pile of scrap metal."

Tang Jing said, "Lubrication and heat dissipation have always been the most troublesome issues. Now with An Ruosu, we have actually solved many technological challenges, and the machines in the future will only become more advanced."

"There's still another issue," Chen Mu said, "Since it's an external combustion engine, it must have an external heat source. Are you planning to use the captain's metal heating ability?"

"Yes."

"But how do you implement it specifically?"

"Wrap the outer part of the cylinder's hot chamber with metal and then heat it. The biggest problem now is the captain's ability.

"Although the temperature can be sustained for 24 hours, it gradually decreases over time, so the actual usable time is not that long."

Saying this, Tang Jing looked at Dong Junwei.

Dong Junwei felt a bit embarrassed, hesitated for a moment, and said softly, "Now, I can make it last for 26 hours."

"Not enough, Captain!"

"You have to work harder!"

"Everyone else is making progress, why are you standing still!"

"..."

It was a rare opportunity for Dong Junwei to educate others, and everyone was excited.

The room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

An Ruosu and Yang Li looked at Dong Junwei, whose face was flushed from being teased by everyone. They couldn't believe this was the highest authority of the Dawn.

"Since that's the case, when will you start the construction?"

The technical issues will be resolved by Tang Jing, and Chen Mu was ready to continue being the toolman.

"Tomorrow, I guess."

...

The engine is the heart of industrial civilization, and its importance is self-evident. The landmark of the first industrial revolution was the replacement of human power with steam engines.

Early the next morning, after Chen Mu and He Ying finished their practice, Tang Jing hurriedly pulled Chen Mu aside.

The required materials had already been prepared by Wei Dalei. Tang Jing handed several detailed dimension-marked drawings to Chen Mu.

Their collaboration was based on this mode.

First, Tang Jing would either draw or describe the needed components, and they would make all the parts together. During this process, they would continuously adjust until a device or machine was produced.

The weaving machine they had just completed a few days ago was the peak product of their collaboration.

But after having An Ruosu, Tang Jing found the original weaving machine unsatisfactory and planned to build a new one.

The previous one was a relatively primitive manual shuttle weaving machine, which was very large and labor-intensive to operate. The initial running experiments were done by Wei Dalei, but he was too big to handle such tasks properly.

Now that the engine project had begun, if everything went smoothly, weaving could be mechanized instead of relying on manual labor. Of course, the entire weaving machine needed to be rebuilt.

In terms of structure, the complexity of the weaving machine was even higher, but the precision requirements were not as strict as those for the engine.

On the first morning, Chen Mu made more than ten cylinders, but each one was rejected by Tang Jing, either due to insufficient smoothness or incorrect dimensions.

There was no good way to improve in this aspect, except for trial and error. During the process of manufacturing new products, this stage was inevitable. Once successful once, subsequent attempts became much easier.

In the following days, Chen Mu focused on manufacturing the parts designed by Tang Jing, while Tang Jing spent her spare time repairing several previously built elevators with An Ruosu, specifically reducing friction between certain components.

Reducing friction was a vague concept; in reality, the situation was very complicated.

Firstly, An Ruosu had to directly touch the surface of the object with her hands to carry out polishing. Therefore, many already built places needed to be disassembled and rebuilt by Chen Mu.

Secondly, the polished surface had improved glossiness and feel, but it was difficult to discern with the naked eye. If An Ruosu made a surface with very low friction on the ground, it would almost be like a trap—anyone stepping on it would slip and fall.

Lastly, reducing friction didn't mean eliminating it entirely. The smoothness depended on the material of the object itself and An Ruosu's strength.

Now, her ability's limit was acceptable, but her mental endurance and workload capacity were relatively weaker.

On the third day, Chen Mu finally made a cylinder that satisfied Tang Jing. Although it was only a part of the hot chamber, having a good start would make the subsequent steps smoother.

On the fifth day, the cylinder was completed.

On the seventh day, the piston was completed.

After these two parts were finished, the next step was to connect them with An Ruosu. The parts between the piston and cylinder needed to be precisely matched to achieve both sealing and minimal friction.

Of course, the latter was no longer a problem now.

On the tenth day, the prototype of a Stirling engine was basically complete.

Everyone gathered around the machine, all showing looks of astonishment.

Compared to the previous clockwork device and elevators, this engine was clearly more sophisticated and had a sense of technology. The stainless steel casing gleamed with a silver light, the nearly perfect wheel, the sturdy and powerful connecting rod and piston... All of these seemed to foreshadow a bright future for Dawn.

Next was the test run.

Tang Jing passed the metal block heated by Dong Junwei through the shaft into the external hot chamber of the cylinder.

However, after waiting for a while, the machine showed no signs of movement.

"What's going on? Did something go wrong?"

"Don't worry; slow responsiveness is indeed a major drawback of this type of engine."

Sure enough, after waiting for more than ten to twenty seconds...

The piston inside the cylinder finally started to move.

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