Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 296: The invention of the electric light, thousands of households fly to the sky! [Please subscribe]

Although Zhu Xiongying, Zhu Tan and several other students from the University of Science and Technology participated in electrical appliance research, they were not the heads of the Electrical Appliance Research Institute.

Li She, the current director of the Electrical Research Institute, is an inventive talent discovered in recent years after the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to science and technology.

This man was a landlord of moderate size. He was sent to school at a young age, but he did not like Confucian classics such as the Four Books and Five Classics. Instead, he was addicted to all kinds of miscellaneous books, especially those involving "strange skills and tricks."

After he became an adult, Li She often invented various things - although most of them were not practical, there were occasionally one or two that were useful, which made him famous in the village.

However, due to his poor management skills, he lost the family wealth bit by bit and the family's fortune quickly declined.

If nothing unexpected had happened, Li She would most likely have died in poverty due to his obsession with inventions and creations, with his wife and children separated from him, and his name would have been completely unknown in history books.

However, during this time and space, he was recommended by local officials because of his love of invention. Not only did he become a minor official of the ninth rank, but his talents were also recognized.

Of course, for Li She, perhaps the greatest happiness is to learn various scientific knowledge and understand many magical technologies.

Therefore, Li She admired Liu Kuan very much, almost treating him like a god.

"Your humble servant, Li She, greets the Director!"

Upon learning of Liu Kuan's arrival, Li She hurriedly greeted him with two officials from the research institute and bowed to him.

Liu Kuan said, "No need to be so polite—didn't your previous report say that the newly developed light bulb can provide stable lighting for 48 hours? Take me to see it."

"Yes."

Li She responded and took Liu Kuan to the yard where light bulbs were specially studied.

In fact, the main work of the Electrical Research Institute now is to study electric lights. The electric fan proposed by Zhu Tan before has been completed. However, when using human or animal power, the energy efficiency is quite low, which is not as good as direct manual fanning.

Since then, the institute has focused most of its energy on the research of electric lights.

When people in China in later generations mentioned electric lights, they would first think of Edison and believe that the electric light was invented by Edison - after all, that's what it says in the textbooks. When he was a child, Edison found the most suitable filament through countless experiments and then invented the electric light.

But in fact, in the history of the invention of electric light, Edison was a later generation, and his success was achieved by standing on the shoulders of many predecessors.

As early as humans mastered the principles of power generation, some people began to think about using electricity for lighting.

Around the beginning of the 19th century, someone invented an early electric lighting device - the arc lamp.

Arc lamps didn't even have bulbs, their light was dazzling, they were unsafe, their lighting time was short, and they consumed a lot of electricity, but it's undeniable that they were early electric lights.

Edison wasn't even born at that time.

After another half century of exploration, it was not until the middle of the 19th century that someone invented the electric light bulb made of light bulb and carbon filament. After optimization, it could illuminate for more than 400 hours.

It was another twenty or thirty years later that Edison became one of the many inventors who studied the electric light.

His contribution to the electric light was finding the carbon filament that was most suitable for making electric lights, and the tungsten filament that was even more suitable for making filaments than carbon filaments.

But in fact, neither of these two things was done by Edison himself, but was completed by two scientists in the laboratory who were assigned by him through teamwork. It was just that the patent finally belonged to Edison.

It would be more accurate to say that Edison was a capitalist rather than an inventor.

Liu Kuan was led by Li She into a dark room in the courtyard that was specially used for electric lighting experiments, and he saw the "electric light" inside.

Although Li She could see the electric light every day, he was still quite excited when he looked at it at this time.

He said, "The filament of this lamp was made from carbonized Japanese bamboo according to your instructions. It has been used for nearly 72 hours. Although the light is slightly dim, it is still much brighter than an oil lamp!"

Li She was proud of the carbon filament lamp invented by this research institute, but he didn't know that in Liu Kuan's eyes, this carbon filament lamp was simply weak.

Before Liu Kuan traveled through time, tungsten filament light bulbs had almost disappeared in China. Liu Kuan had only seen tungsten filament lamps before he was a teenager. He had the impression that their light was dim, and it was difficult for him to do his homework under the light at night.

But the light from the carbon filament lamp in front of me is obviously much dimmer than that of the tungsten filament lamp. It is just brighter than the oil lamp, but the range of light is larger.

However, when seeing this carbon filament lamp, Liu Kuan couldn't help but recall the nights of later generations illuminated by various bright lights, and his eyes became a little moist for a moment.

At this time, Li She continued, "According to the principles of electric lights taught by Yuan Zheng, the brightness of the light is related to the filament, and the lifespan of the light is related to the filament and the gas inside the bulb."

"We currently have two main research directions for filaments: one is carbon filaments, and the other is tungsten filaments. We are still trying to refine pure tungsten, but we don't know when we will make a breakthrough."

"As for the production of light bulbs, with our current level of gas evacuation and replacement technology, we can only do this step."

"So, this carbon filament bulb is already the best product we have so far with our filament and bulb technology. If we want to significantly improve the quality, we must achieve a qualitative breakthrough in both filament and bulb production."

Liu Kuan nodded. "If this carbon filament lamp can be used stably for three days, it will be considered quite valuable. You can consider optimizing the production process to make it as convenient as possible."

"After the lighting test of this bulb is completed, you write a relevant report and submit it to me. I will recommend credit to the Electrical Research Institute." By saying this, Liu Kuan approved of the carbon filament lamp developed by the institute.

For a moment, Li She and other officials and craftsmen present could not help but show joy on their faces.

They had toiled for over six months to develop the electric light, and even with the information Liu Kuan had provided, they had failed many times before achieving this result. Now that their efforts had been recognized and they were about to reap the rewards, they were all incredibly excited.

Afterwards, Liu Kuan went to other parts of the institute to take a look and learn about the work in other areas.

Before leaving, Liu Kuan said to Li She, "You can hand over the follow-up research work on the electric light to other researchers in the institute. I will assign you another research and development task."

Li She knew that he could learn a lot of useful knowledge from Liu Kuan in every research and development task, so he was very active.

Hearing this, he couldn't wait to ask, "Excuse me, Director, what is the research and development task?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "It's okay to tell you in advance—develop a wireless telegraph."

"Wireless telegraph?" It was the first time that Li She heard this term and he did not understand its meaning for a moment.

Liu Kuan said, "Remember I told you that electric current can be converted into electromagnetic waves, and a wireless telegraph is an electrical device that changes the electric current, converts it into electromagnetic waves, and then transmits messages to the outside world."

"If a wireless telegraph can be successfully developed, even if two parties are thousands of miles apart, they can communicate and exchange information in a very short time through wireless telegraphy."

"It can be said that wireless telegraphy plays an extremely important role in many aspects, such as military affairs and transportation. Once it is completed, we will all have made great contributions!"

Li She imagined the application prospects of the wireless telegraph described by Liu Kuan, and immediately realized that this invention was indeed of great significance. He couldn't help but tremble slightly with excitement.

He then asked somewhat unsurely, "Director, can we really develop a machine that's almost as powerful as a magical weapon?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "People used to think that only gods could control electricity, but now we have it, haven't we? If so, why is it impossible for us to invent wireless telegraphy?"

"First, you must hand over the research work on carbon filament lamps. Once that is done, I will give you the relevant information on wireless telegraphy."

After saying that, Liu Kuan patted Li She on the shoulder to show encouragement and left.

In fact, in the original history, wired telegraph came first, and wireless telegraph came more than half a century later. Wired telegraph only needs to transmit information through the on and off and length of electric current, which is much simpler than wireless telegraph.

The invention of the wired telegraph occurred even before the practical use of carbon filament lamps.

One of the reasons why Liu Kuan asked Li She to directly develop wireless telegraphy was that he knew that wireless telegraphy would inevitably replace wired telegraphy in the future.

The second reason is that it was a last resort - although wired telegraph is simpler, its transmission relies on wires.

With the current technological level of the Ming Dynasty, it is possible to lay wires in a small area, but if you want to lay long-distance wires, you must at least be able to make wires with rubber shells and harvest rubber on a larger scale.

Considering the time and labor costs, it would be better to develop wireless telegraphy directly...

After leaving the Electrical Research Institute, Liu Kuan did not return to the Tiangong Institute, but instead visited the Hot Air Balloon Research Institute.

Since the hot air balloon experiment ended two years ago, Zhu Xiongying, Zhu Tan and other students of the University of Science and Technology have rarely participated in hot air balloon research.

Therefore, this research institute is currently under the charge of someone else.

This person is not an unknown figure in history like Li She, but a famous historical figure of the Ming Dynasty. Even now, this person is quite famous.

He is the Earl of Dongning of the Ming Dynasty, Tao Chengdao!

Tao Chengdao's original name was Tao Guangyi. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he was the principal of Tao's Academy in Wucheng, Zhejiang. He was initially interested in alchemy, and later turned to the study of firearms.

After Zhu Yuanzhang captured Wuzhou, Tao Chengdao presented him with several firearms. He used firearms and gunpowder to repeatedly achieve remarkable feats in battles, and was therefore granted the title of Wanhu by Zhu Yuanzhang. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, he was even granted the title of Earl.

Tao Chengdao has been in charge of the firearms-related work of the Arsenal. Liu Kuan actually had contact with him a long time ago, but not much.

It was not until later that Tao Chengdao heard that the hot air balloon test was successful that he took the initiative to contact him and asked Lao Zhu to leave the Ordnance Bureau to take charge of the subsequent research work on the hot air balloon. Only then did Liu Kuan's contact with him gradually increase.

After the two got to know each other, Tao Chengdao proposed an idea - whether it would be possible to use rockets to send people into space.

He even proposed a seemingly feasible flying design - the Flying Dragon Chair.

That is, make a chair-like vehicle, install multiple rockets underneath, and send people into the sky through gunpowder thrust.

Liu Kuan was shocked when he heard this idea.

I first subconsciously suspected that Tao Chengdao was also a time traveler, but then I denied it.

Then he connected it to his memory of a famous person who flew in the Ming Dynasty, and was also the first person in the world to fly - Wan Hu!
Finally, he remembered that Zhu Yuanzhang had conferred the title of Wanhu on Tao Chengdao (according to the Yuan Dynasty system), and then he suddenly realized that the "Wanhu" who later flew into the sky in the Ming Dynasty was most likely the Tao Chengdao in front of him!
　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)