Doomsday: Humanity shrinks 100 times

Chapter 216 Water Base
The construction of the base is proceeding in an orderly manner. The farmland area was opened up first. This mainly requires no technical content and only requires a large number of people.

The current plant species are relatively simple. In addition to wild vegetables, there is only one grape vine, but it does not bear fruit in winter. If you want to cultivate grapes through the sky, you must consider greenhouse cultivation. This is also the next development direction of the planting department.

In addition to the planting area, the residential area inside the base has also been developed. Overall, the construction was very fast, mainly because the materials are ready-made and only some area partitions need to be made in the existing production area.

Food and accommodation are always the most important task, so this part of the construction is completed first.

However, the development of the port encountered considerable difficulties, mainly because the nearby embankment was some distance away from the river bank, making construction difficult.

However, this problem was finally solved after the successful transfer of the symbiont.

The method is very simple. Since it cannot be opened up by human power, just grow it directly.

At present, it seems that symbiotes have huge advantages in infrastructure construction, which can be said to effectively make up for their construction shortcomings in large buildings.

The only regret is that the material of the symbiote is still wood. Although it is much stronger than ordinary wood, it will still have the problem of corrosion over time.

With the help of the symbiote, the port was quickly built, and its next task was to connect the base and the jump tree. It was the most appropriate task for it to handle.

As for the port, the construction of the water mobile base is about to begin. Of course, before that, the power unit of the mobile base must be developed on shore.

As for the manufacture of steam engines, the technology is readily available and only a few difficulties need to be overcome. However, because they have special abilities that can make up for some manufacturing defects, it is still relatively simple.

The most difficult part is actually the manufacturing of the components themselves, such as pistons, gears, connecting rods, water and air inlet valves, etc.

In the end, Lu Yuning had to make these finely crafted items himself. Before the industrial age, he had to make many things manually.

The production of the steam engine went smoothly. They had actually considered many difficulties before. For them, the biggest difficulty was actually overcoming the friction of the object. However, because they had the corresponding superpowers to solve it, this was the easiest to solve.

Moreover, because the friction is zero, the problem of material consumption is also solved. Otherwise, according to their current technological level, such high-intensity operating parts need to be replaced almost every day.

However, Zhang Muyan's friction capacity has an upper limit, so he can only reset the friction of some core components to zero.

With the symbiote, there is no need to worry about the main body of the ship. It can be grown directly. If it is made by manpower, it is not a simple task. First, a keel that runs through the entire hull needs to be made. This alone is enough to stump them.

What's more, the production of the hull is quite difficult, making it both strong and leak-proof. In Lu Yuning's opinion, it is even more difficult than the entire power system.

This step saves a lot of time, but the entire power system must be developed before the hull is made. The main thing is to first determine the minimum area occupied by the entire power system, and then infer the overall size of the entire water base.

The power system is divided into four parts by Zhang Muyan.

The boiler room uses heat sources to generate steam and is divided into several parts: water inlet, water outlet, heating, air supply and air discharge.

The steam system mainly generates kinetic energy through water vapor and pistons, and is also the core device of the entire system.

The transmission system converts the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotation of the steamship blades through gear connecting rods, and the excess kinetic energy can be used to generate electricity.

Braking system, control of the steamship's start and steering, etc. On this basis, it may also be necessary to equip a salvage device such as a winch, and a kinetic energy device for raising and lowering the anchor.

Each part has its own difficulties, and a large part of their previous experience in steam pump development can be used.

There is actually a ready-made technical solution for steamships. After all, they are not technology explorers, they are just climbing the technology tree again.

What they actually need to do is to transform the existing blueprint into a set of equipment suitable for their use, and find ways to obtain some key materials that are currently unavailable through other means.

For example, the piston has been discussed before. Pneumatic devices have extremely high requirements for pistons, but they can be replaced with other materials by reducing friction.

Moreover, the power required by their steamships cannot be compared with that of large ships, so the upper limit of air pressure and energy requirements must be much lower.

Some things can ultimately only be determined through experiments; precise calculations are impossible.

In addition to the kinetic energy device, Lu Yuning also hopes to install a long-range strike device.

This has also been considered before. For a mobile base that can be explored over long distances, mobility can only be the foundation.

The most important thing is to have good defensive and counterattack capabilities. Otherwise, it is easy to spend a lot of effort to make this thing but end up being a wedding dress for others.

Lu Yuning probably has an idea about this weapon system.
Since power can now be generated by steam, it is natural that the pressure generated by steam can also be used for artillery fire.

The kinetic energy generated in this way should have considerable destructive power. Combined with Zou Yun's new ability, it can truly achieve long-range strikes.

Lu Yuning could only provide an idea, and the actual implementation could only be left to the scientific research department to study.

Anyway, if it really doesn't work, Lu Yuning can just get some equipment like a catapult on the boat.

However, this is not as convenient as human power. After all, they now have Wu Dongxi's special abilities, and combined with Zhang Muyan's abilities, they may be able to produce good projection capabilities.

……

The first part of the entire power unit to be made is the transmission unit. Compared with other parts, the transmission unit is actually more difficult to manufacture in terms of components.

This part requires very high precision for the gears and connecting rods, but for Lu Yuning, it is not the first time he has made it, so he is quite familiar with it.

After the components are completed, you only need to connect the parts according to the mechanical drawings drawn in advance.

There are quite a few talented people in this area in the organization. Although they don't understand the construction of ships, they can design this kind of kinetic energy conversion device as long as they understand the principles.

The difficulty lies in converting piston motion into linear motion. According to their design, this part uses a rotary piston mechanism. Lu Yuning has heard of it, but he probably won't be able to do it.

The people in the research department were very interested in this thing. They didn't have any complaints about the manufacture of this steam kinetic energy device. Instead, they were all extremely excited. This was probably the love that science and engineering guys have for machinery.

(End of this chapter)