plumnovel #206 - Spring centrifugal pump
#206 - Spring centrifugal pump
"What's going on?"
Jeanne hurriedly rode her horse over, and before it had even stopped, she gracefully dismounted.
Pascal, who had come along, also dismounted amidst the sound of hooves.
Horn smiled awkwardly, "There's a problem with the salt well depth calculation. We need you to weld another section of iron pipe for us."
Picking up a piece of iron, Jeanne stepped forward, squinted, and tiny sparks of lightning began to dance in her hand, with intense white light erupting from between her fingers.
The edge of the iron pipe began to melt rapidly, fusing with the new pipe, leaving what looked like a thin black ring around the joint.
Unlike the initial grand display of lightning erupting from her palm, Jeanne's control over lightning had improved significantly after a long period of electrical welding.
Thus, a sturdy iron pipe, about ten meters long and as thick as an arm, was welded together.
"Good," Horn clapped his hands, signaling everyone to pay attention. "Insert the iron pipe into the salt well, and then start filling it with water."
Filling the pipe with water first was necessary because Horn wasn't using the primitive Newcomen steam engine's double donkey-head pumping structure, but instead directly using a centrifugal pump.
Since saltwater didn't have the viscosity of petroleum and didn't require handling high-pressure fluids, why not use a more efficient centrifugal pump structure?
"This is the clockwork engine pump you mentioned?" Pascal reached into the iron pipe and fiddled with the impeller. "It feels no different from the blower in the salt stove."
"There are differences, of course," Horn pulled Pascal away, directing the beastmen to install the pump on the salt well's iron pipe. "The blower's blades are straight, while mine are curved."
"Is there a difference?" Jeanne asked, puzzled, watching the pump being assembled.
Horn smiled, "Of course, there is. Curved blades generate centrifugal force when rotating, and if the direction is correct, they can fling the water out, creating a vacuum in the center of the pump.
To fill this vacuum, atmospheric pressure will push the water up from below, and then it will flow out from this outlet."
Pascal circled the ugly contraption, feeling like it was just a lump of iron composed of iron parts, disks, and gears.
He could even hear the echoes inside when he tapped it with his thick knuckles.
Several laborers were still carrying buckets and pouring water into it, until the entire pipe was filled.
After circling a couple of times, Pascal thought for a moment, "Are you saying that you can use this fan to blow wind element and suck the water up?"
"Yes."
"That's impossible," Pascal immediately shook his head. "I know you might have been inspired by an elephant's trunk drawing water, but that's only a small amount of water.
In reality, the suction required to draw well water is too great. We once had a sorceress who could mold wind elements and tried to draw water from a well by extracting air.
But this powerful sorceress, capable of blowing down 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of rock, only managed to raise the water a foot before she couldn't hold on. Could it be that your pump is stronger than a sorceress?"
"Did you cover the wellhead when you were pumping? Were there any gaps in the well wall?"
"We didn't cover the wellhead," Pascal retorted. "Does it matter whether there are gaps in the well wall?"
Horn was speechless, unsure how to answer. Should he explain everything from Newton to atmospheric pressure?
It seems like it's time to write a book on natural common sense and scientific methodology, maybe call it 'The Mathematical Principles of Natural Theology'?
"Don't look at the advertising, look at the results," Horn pushed Pascal aside, walked to the starter of the clockwork centrifugal pump, and grasped the crank, which was about the size of a tractor's starting handle.
At this moment, Horn couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement. He had been searching for this kind of industrial machine for so long, and finally, there was a glimmer of possibility.
After learning that this world had no coal, no sulfur, and that water vapor would inexplicably permeate the void, he had almost given up.
But it's true that what you search for everywhere is often found unexpectedly.
The steam engine brought the first industrial revolution to humanity, quickly surpassing water and animal power, liberating human hands and productivity.
Could this clockwork centrifugal pump, with a structure resembling a large clock disk, be this world's steam engine?
The centrifugal pump consisted of three parts: a clockwork box made of orichalcum springs and star-forged gears, curved blades inside the clockwork pump, and a long pumping pipe.
The orichalcum spring in the clockwork box was mounted on an escapement speed-regulating mechanism and connected to a star-forged gear about one meter in radius, which was connected to a common cast iron gear with a radius of 10 centimeters.
When large and small gears mesh and transmit power, the gear diameter is inversely proportional to the speed, so when the large gear rotates 200 revolutions per minute, the small gear can rotate approximately 2,000 revolutions per minute.
Horn only needed to input enough energy to make the 2-pound gear rotate 200 revolutions per minute to this 2,000-pound star-forged gear.
According to the kinetic energy formula, Horn's input starting energy was only about one-thousandth, and the rest was provided by the aether inside the gears.
This was just the theoretical value; the actual speed was estimated to be less than 1,500 revolutions per minute, but that was enough.
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In addition, Horn discovered an interesting point: although Shiloh said that if it was cranked, it would draw a small amount of mana every so often,
under the control of the clockwork and escapement mechanism, it no longer needed to draw additional mana, only the loss was higher.
Horn slowly turned the clockwork key until it was fully wound, then took a deep breath and released his hand: "Gear machine, start!"
Amidst the creaking sound of the clockwork friction, the clockwork key began to slowly rotate, and under the escapement speed-regulating mechanism, it turned extremely slowly, while the massive star-forged gear began to rotate rapidly.
In the sound of gears constantly meshing, the pipe began to vibrate with a buzzing sound, and the sound of tidal water flow echoed continuously in the pipe.
In Pascal's incredulous gaze, the brine at the bottom of the well gushed out like a fountain, while the beastmen busily used basins to catch it.
The King's Hand of Gadarki anxiously and with heartache directed the clumsy beastmen catching the brine: "Oh, it's not inserted properly, it's full, it's full, ah, it's about to overflow."
Standing next to the gears, the strong wind generated by the giant gears blew Horn's bangs into a middle part.
Pascal approached slowly, as if in a dream, reaching out as if to touch the gears.
"Careful," Horn warned, "Yesterday, a vagrant helping with the debugging got his hand caught in it. If Das hadn't acted quickly and chopped off his forearm, he would have almost lost his life."
Speaking of this, Horn couldn't help but feel some emotion. He had never imagined that Shiloh's actions would be so fast.
After Horn told her the principle, she drew the design in one day, made prototypes and modified them in two days, and then cooperated with Jeanne to successfully create the first trial version in another two days.
Jeanne stared blankly at the machine in front of her.
What if this thing was mounted on a carriage, and then ramming horns and spikes were added to the front? What would happen when facing knights?
Perhaps only the legendary Grand Knights could compare to it?
Excluding the crafting time of the star-forged gears, even without readily available materials, this thing would only take a little over a week to manufacture and assemble from scratch.
Then how long does it take to train a knight? Ten years, or twenty years, not to mention the Grand Knights who stand at the top of all transcendent knights.
Perhaps, this is the hope of fighting against transcendent knights?