Chapter 270 High Pressure Gas Cylinder
After the meeting, Roland left Barov alone.
"As you can see, there are important people in the chemical laboratory and Graycastle Industrial Company. Next, I plan to produce soap and perfume on a large scale. These also require a lot of manpower." The prince said bluntly, "Wait for most of the townspeople If you pass the primary education assessment, you will get at least next year, and there are only six or seven hundred people, which is not enough. I need more people."
"If recruited from the fortress..."
"No," Roland interrupted, "After the city is built next year, the fortress will be integrated with the town as a whole. This is equivalent to taking money out of the left pocket and putting it in the right pocket. I need more people from outside the western region."
"This..." Barov was a little confused, "I'm afraid it's not so easy to solve. If you go to other cities to find people, the local lords will not sit idly by."
"Don't go to the city," Roland dipped his finger into the glass, dipped some ice water, and gestured on the table, "I don't know if you have noticed that since the end of the Demon Moon, Graycastle has been in a state of war. Middle. Including Timothy attacked the southern border several times, causing the Eagle City to be burned, and the surrounding villages and small towns were severely damaged. Then the northern border was conquered, and Duke Ace was deprived of the title and territory of the Duke of Ace for treason. Finally, the east This sea attack," he slammed the table twice, leaving a cloud of water stains, "has greatly affected Sea Breeze County, Jinsui City, and Ravensrow Castle, not to mention the surrounding small towns. Just from the number of people who fled to the capital, we can see how heavy the loss was."
"You mean..." Barov showed a thoughtful expression.
"Propagate the western region," the prince smoothed out all the water. "In the past six months, only the western region has been at peace. There has been no compulsory recruitment, nor has it been invaded by war. Especially the first point, Timothy's wanton use of civilians in combat, for sure They will recruit and even plunder civilians in various places, and no one can guarantee that this kind of thing will not happen to them next time, so a safe place isolated from the flames of war is the main point of our propaganda.”
"I probably understand," he thought. "Are you planning to attract civilians from other small towns and villages by promising no forced labor, no hard labor, and at the same time providing housing, food, and stable jobs?"
"Almost," Roland nodded with a smile. Quick thinking and strong receptivity have always been the strengths of ministerial assistants. "And we must also focus on promoting the preferential treatment that literate people can enjoy. I think there must be some desperate people in these places." More knights and nobles are willing to come to the western region to try their luck."
Whether it is a village or a town, it is almost the territory of a small noble. In times of peace, no matter how barren the land is and how poorly managed it is, you can always fill your stomach with a few acres of land. But if the population loss is serious during the turmoil, life will be difficult to continue. At this time, there is a safe place to go, and most people should be tempted. Anyway, even if the territory is left unattended, it will not be taken by others. After this period of time, go back and take over the territory with money and mercenaries.
As for how to publicize, he believes that the other party has its own way.
"But Your Highness, in this way, it will cost a lot to accommodate these personnel, and the food purchased from outside cannot be interrupted," Barov hesitated. "In case something happens to the caravan, the city hall treasury will be closed soon Dried up."
"Well... what you said makes sense," Roland rubbed his chin. The most important task of the new political force is to establish prestige and confidence in the hearts of the people. If they suddenly fall into the predicament of not being able to pay their salaries, the good situation will take a turn for the worse. "How about this, you go back and make a plan first, and wait until the caravan and the town complete the transaction for the next month and the treasury is full before implementing it."
"As you order, Your Highness," Barov stroked his chest.
After explaining the task, Roland returned to the office and began to think about how to complete Margaery's balloon order.
The unit price of a thousand golden dragons is higher than that of a steam engine, but its cost is much lower. The airbag is mainly drawn by Soraya, and the hemp rope and bamboo basket are all cheap. In fact, Roland has already trial-produced a simple sample in the yard of the arsenal: a hydrogen balloon that can carry both Lightning and Maggie into the sky at the same time.
After repeated consideration, he finally abandoned the hot air balloon plan. Gas needs to be obtained by dry distillation of coal. The equipment occupies a large area, and manufacturing is also very troublesome. In addition, coal has to be imported from other towns. Small-scale production is extremely uneconomical, and it is far inferior to hydrogen. As convenient and easy to get.
The trial product is made of one-sided water coating, and the paper behind it is burnt after painting, so that the entire airbag is so light that it has almost no weight, and its flexibility is also very good. In the test, the inflated balloon is not afraid of rain, impact, and fire. Maggie turned into various birds and pounced on it without leaving a trace. Only an iron needle can pierce the millimeter-thick balloon. coating. Due to its extremely light weight, a hydrogen balloon with a diameter of about two meters can carry an adult into the sky.
The only difficulty lies in how to solve the inflation problem of the high-pressure hydrogen cylinder.
The DC motor used to electrolyze water to produce hydrogen must not be sold. After connecting a motor to a steam engine, it can inflate all the hydrogen balloons, which is obviously not cost-effective. If you want to continuously earn gold dragons from big dogs, you must have high-pressure gas cylinders that can be inflated repeatedly.
The gas cylinder itself is not difficult, the material is not enough to make up the wall thickness, pig iron or wrought iron can be used, anyway, with Anna around, precision machining is not a problem. The key is to inflate the air. The pressure of the gas storage cylinders of later generations is above 20mpa. It is undoubtedly a fantasy to get in with an air pump. Ten unicorn arms are useless, at least a high-pressure air pump is needed. If the pressure in the bottle is not enough, the hydrogen balloon cannot be filled at all.
The high-pressure air pump is divided into piston compressor and turbine compressor. The former belongs to the technology tree of internal combustion engines, while the latter belongs to the category of turbines. No matter which one is developed, it is a time-consuming and labor-intensive project. Until the evening, Roland finally came up with the simplest solution: self-inflating the bottle.
What gave him this inspiration was a piece of news that he had read before traveling: a vendor selling hydrogen balloons on the street used a modified liquefied gas tank to store hydrogen, and an explosion caused a tragedy. The reason is that the vendor directly reacted dilute sulfuric acid and aluminum in the bottle to produce hydrogen without calculating the amount of reaction. As a result, the pressure in the tank was too high and the tank shattered.
The self-inflating method is to pour dilute sulfuric acid and active metals into the bottle to replace the hydrogen. Zinc is commonly used in the laboratory, and aluminum produces the most hydrogen by weight, but neither of them exists in this era, so Roland still plans to use iron to react. Lucia can separate extremely high-purity iron, and the reaction speed at room temperature is slow. The problem can be improved by heating and increasing the contact area (such as iron sheet, iron powder), and a coating inside can resist the corrosion of the bottle body by acid.
Thinking of this, he immediately drew a simple sketch on paper. In order to reduce air leakage, the high-pressure gas cylinder should be integrated as much as possible, so the body of the cylinder is integrated, and there is only a raised threaded hole at the top, which can be screwed. Into the gas nozzle with valve.
After injecting the reactant from the hole and tightening the gas nozzle, the continuously generated gas has nowhere to go, and the pressure inside the bottle can reach a very considerable value. When in use, as long as the valve is unscrewed, the hydrogen will rush out and rush into the airbag. Reflushing is also very convenient. Remove the gas nozzle, dry the water, clean out the ferrous sulfate crystals inside, and then pour the reactant again.
Considering that dilute sulfuric acid is also an alchemical product, the inflation price obviously cannot be set too low.
Just set at fifty gold dragons for one charge, ten charges for one time, Roland thought. (To be continued.,, your support is my biggest motivation.)