"It can be used to pump water, sir. There's often accumulated water in coal mines, and manual drainage simply isn't fast enough. With this steam engine, as long as someone keeps the fire going, it can continuously pump out water." William became very excited when he talked about the use of this thing.
However, Charles, who listened to him, became even more confused.
"Pumping water? So, is this thing a steam engine or a water pump?"
"Of course it's a steam engine. It's just using a steam engine to drive this independent water pump," William said with certainty. "First, open the valve to add gas to this egg-shaped container. When it rises to the highest point, add cold water. As this part drops, the other egg-shaped part rises, and it will immediately pump out water."
After William's gestures, Charles actually understood the general idea of what was happening.
In his standard, this was still just a water pump, but one powered by steam. It mainly utilized the lever principle. The two egg-shaped containers were essentially cylinders. In the middle was a fan-shaped balance lever.
The counterweight on its left side lifted the right piston, and at the same time, steam entered the cylinder below the right piston. When the piston rose to the top of the cylinder, the steam intake valve was closed, and cold water was sprayed into the cylinder to condense the steam, creating a vacuum.
The atmospheric pressure above the piston pushed the piston down, lifting the water pump rod on the left side of the lever, causing the water pump installed deep in the mine to draw out water.
Because the cylinder diameter was larger than the water pump's cylinder diameter, even though the pressure on the cylinder piston was only equal to atmospheric pressure, it could still draw water from tens of meters deep.
This kind of steam engine, without a doubt, could only perform pumping operations and could not do anything else. It was completely different from the steam engine Charles needed, which could serve as a power device.
"Are there any other steam engines? Are there any steam engines used in textile machines now?" Charles continued to ask William.
William didn't know how a steam engine could be used in textiles, but he still honestly replied:
"There shouldn't be any other steam engines. This Newcomen atmospheric steam engine can only be used for suction and lifting water. Our original coal mine's steam engine was even improved by Engineer Smeaton, making it more efficient than the old Newcomen steam engine. It's already the best steam engine available now."
Seeing William's pride in the crude steam engine in the drawing, Charles didn't say anything more. He just took two blank sheets of paper and, following William's drawing, drew two designs for his own steam engine. He wasn't a technical worker, nor did he intend to invest much energy in technical research. The only thing he could do was to set some requirements and plans in advance for real technical workers. After drawing these two blueprints, Charles believed that in the short term, he probably wouldn't need to, nor would it be possible to, invest much more energy in science and technology.
The first drawing had few modifications, only one point, but it was an absolute leap forward. It was to remove the egg-shaped container that served as the water pump and place the remaining power-generating egg-shaped container horizontally. A very simple change transformed the vertically lifting lever into one that could push back and forth.
This way, by simply adding a crank to a textile machine or other corresponding machinery, the piston could achieve reciprocating motion, eliminating the need for a counterweight at the other end. The biggest achievement of this was the ability to apply the steam engine to other fields; the engineering technology itself had no significant improvements.
As for the second drawing, Charles drew it with a frown. This was because the efficiency of the current steam engine was simply too low to meet Charles' needs.
The steam engine William drew still had a manual intake valve, which was clearly too labor-intensive. So, in the second drawing, he enlarged the combustion chamber, then drew several cylinders in series, each with an independent pushing lever arranged on a single rotating shaft. He then connected the control valves of the cylinders to the pushing levers to create a linkage effect.
When steam entered halfway, the lever pushed to close the intake valve, using only the subsequent expansion force of the steam to continue pushing the piston to the top. When the steam cooled, causing the piston to return, steam was also admitted halfway, thereby increasing steam utilization and achieving automatic control of the intake valve (double-acting steam engine).
He also additionally equipped this device, which had multiple cylinders and numerous linkage levers, with a steam pump to quickly extract water and excess steam during condensation. At the same time, he noted that the cylinders could be wrapped with cotton covers or similar materials to reduce heat loss and improve steam utilization.
Compared to the first drawing, the second was undoubtedly much more complex. Anyway, William nodded frequently at the first one, but for the second, he just stared blankly, not knowing what to say.
In fact, the technology in the second drawing was not much more advanced than the first; it simply made extensive use of levers and mechanical principles, making the structure a bit more complex. In terms of unit efficiency, it might even be slightly lower than the first. Its only advancement was having more cylinders and a larger combustion chamber, which increased overall power, making it a high-power steam engine that could serve as a power device for ships or trains.
Charles also knew that with the current level of craftsmanship and William's knowledge, it would not be possible to immediately understand and manufacture the steam engine in the second drawing. However, the key to improving the steam engine lay in increasing efficiency, and Newcomen's steam engine was simply too inefficient.
Charles only knew that Watt, as a child, saw boiling water and thought of a way to improve steam engine efficiency, but he didn't understand the principle. The only thing he knew was that in the 20th century, the method to improve efficiency was to use high-pressure steam.
High pressure involved sealing performance, which was undoubtedly impossible to achieve at the 20th-century level now. Therefore, before finding Watt's high-efficiency steam engine, to truly apply the steam engine, one could only adopt the design in the second drawing: add more cylinders.
In fact, Charles' improvement of the steam engine was a matter of helplessness. He didn't know much scientific knowledge and wasn't very interested in these things, but some things were essential for his future development.
One was steelmaking, and the other was transportation. These were the primary problems he had to solve after setting the dream of becoming a steel magnate. If he couldn't solve them, he would only be able to honestly return to Scarlet Manor to be a manor lord, and he wouldn't even be able to be a wealthy manor lord, because without steamships, the wheat he grew couldn't be transported to the prosperous East to be sold.
With the design complete, there was originally nothing left for these workers to do, but Charles still needed to purchase some supplies, so he decided to have them wait one more day and go to Pittsburgh with the wealthy merchants from Philadelphia who were preparing to select land. Their wages would still be paid.
Philadelphia truly lived up to its reputation as the largest city in North America, with a complete range of supplies. Of course, this was relative to people of that time. Charles bought this and that, quickly spending most of his two hundred Spanish gold coins, but he had pretty much bought everything he could.
During this time, a discovery made him very regretful: Philadelphia actually had a patent office. Moreover, this patent office was not North America's patent office, but a British patent application and rights protection point in the Colonies. It was now deserted, but some patented technologies had become widely known, and North America's own patent office had not yet been established.
Charles naturally felt a bit regretful. Currently, North Americans generally had a weak sense of patent protection. If he had known this earlier, some things he could have simply obtained the technology from the patent office without having to research them himself.
Continuing to shop, only the glass instruments from the original plan remained. He had initially intended to buy some for experiments, but Charles' own talents were certainly not enough. Specific operations would definitely have to be done by someone who understood chemistry.
Currently, no chemist was willing to go to Pittsburgh, and naturally, no one was willing to follow him to pick out items. So, after looking around in the general store for a long time, he still left with James and the others, strolling leisurely.
"Hehe! These things are too expensive, aren't they!"
A hoarse voice suddenly sounded behind Charles.
"What?" Charles, deep in thought, trembled with fright and quickly turned his head to look at the person speaking behind him.
"Hey, I said, these things are all too expensive. If you buy one or two, it's fine, but if you buy more, most people can't afford them," the person behind him repeated.
It was a young white man with a small scar on his face, messy hair, a scruffy beard, and clothes that were generally clean and tidy, though some areas were stained with unknown spots. He seemed to have been startled by Charles' quick turn and appeared a bit nervous.
"Uh, yes," Charles nodded awkwardly.
He glanced at the sir behind the counter in the shop, wondering how such a person appeared here.
"Excuse me, are you…"
"Haha! My name is Buffalo Kiel, and I'm the owner of this glass and general store. That's the manager I hired." The man smiled kindly at Charles.
"Oh, Mr. Kiel, hello!" Charles reached out and shook his hand, explaining, "I originally needed a chemist, but unfortunately, none of them are willing to go to my hometown of Pittsburgh, which is why I'm not buying anything."
He concluded in his mind that this sir probably saw his good attire and wanted to drum up business, but had unfortunately picked the wrong person. So, he prepared to leave after the pleasantries.
"Oh? You need a chemist?" Kiel became interested after hearing this. "In North America, real chemists are hard to find."
"Haha! Could it be that you are…"
"Indeed! Our family has a chemical factory in Birmingham, England. But my brother, James Kiel, and I are both members of the Lunar Society, who are Dissenters. Due to a chemical accident, I not only got a scar on my face, but I also had to flee to North America," Kiel said, shaking his head sadly.
"A chemical accident? So, you really are a chemist?"