Chapter 68 Chicken Bus

As for shovel picks and other things, it is not a problem. In order to concentrate, the sea wolf now concentrates limited blacksmiths on boats, cannons and shooting to produce firearms and ships. For ordinary tools like this, the sea wolf has stopped producing for a long time, but these things are indispensable, so it is ordered. In the form, it is customized in some iron fields or blacksmith shops on land, and then directly transported back to the sea wolf's territory for delivery.

Even the cold weapons, knives, axes, long guns, hooks and other things used by the sea wolf are secretly customized on land, and then transported back the equipment for use by the sea wolf.

In doing so, the limited blacksmith was basically liberated from the work of building simple tools and devoted to more important work, which continuously improved the production of sea wolves and greatly improved the equipment level and combat effectiveness of the sea wolf.

And this kind of thing is left to the iron field and blacksmith's shop on land, which also allows the sea wolf to establish business relations with many places on land, reduces manpower consumption and does not affect the normal use of sea wolf.

However, there are some troubles with the vehicle problems that are indispensable in road construction projects. Sea Wolves now have carpenters. In addition to construction, furniture and weapons, they can also produce some vehicles, even some artillery vehicles, and sea wolves can also produce their own.

But at present, the vehicles made by carpenters are mostly bulky and heavy two-wheeled oxcars. This kind of vehicle is strong enough, but it is heavy and has higher requirements for roads. Nowadays, the output is not large. It is only a few vehicles for each village, so that the immigrant village can use it to transport some large quantities of goods. Use of things.

However, these cattle carts need to be pulled by animal power, and it is necessary to occupy cultivated cattle. If they change to manpower, it will be very laborious, and they will not be unable to enter the construction site during construction.

Therefore, if you want to carry out road repair projects, it is necessary to use some light human vehicles. This kind of vehicle must be easily driven by manpower, and the carrying capacity must not be too small. It must also be able to walk on very narrow roads, and the road requirements must be low.

After thinking about it, Yu Xiaotian only thought of the unicycle, so he asked the carpenter workshop to try out a few unicycles.

The carpenter's workshop was not ambiguous, and immediately started to make several unicycles and sent them to Yu Xiaotian for inspection.

After Yu Xiaotian looked at these unicycles, he was quite disappointed, because there were not many applications of unicycles in the south, and the unicycle styles made by these craftsmen did not meet his requirements. Moreover, when these unicycles were actually used, they still seemed very clumsy, the center of gravity was not easy to grasp, and the balance was not very good. It is difficult to push, and users will soon be exhausted.

Even if the users are mostly slaves and hard labor, in such projects, Yu Xiaotian still feels that he can provide them with some convenient tools to use, which is not to sympathize with those hard labor and slaves, but can effectively improve efficiency and repair the road as soon as possible.

So Yu Xiaotian had no choice but to fight in person. With the help of the shape of a chicken bus commonly used in rural areas before the 1970s, he drew several structural diagrams of the unicycle to adjust the center of gravity as much as possible to make it easier for the unicycle to load goods. It is controlled by users and consumes less effort. This kind of chicken bus is also a kind of unicycle, which is easy to manufacture and more suitable for use on rough roads.

Originally, bearings have not been invented in this era. For this kind of unicycle, the axles are reluctant to be made of iron. They are made of hard iron pear wood, or lychee wood, which are lubricated with a little oil. The friction itself is very high, and it can be pushed. It's very laborious. If the center of gravity is not controlled, it will be difficult to push, and it will be easy to overturn.

So the wooden workshop made several unicycles according to several drawings drawn by Yu Xiaotian, which basically reached Yu Xiaotian's satisfaction. Although this thing is a little simple, it is still lighter and easier to control than the previous batch of unicycles, and after testing, This kind of unicycle based on the deformation of the chicken bus can carry 200 to 300 catties of goods at a time, which can be driven by one person and basically meets the requirements of Yu Xiaotian.

Listening to the squeaky friction sound when the wheelb was pushed, Yu Xiaotian felt that it would be great if bearings could be made now!

Apart from these civilian vehicles, they will become much lighter and faster after using bearings. If they are used on gun trucks, they will become more convenient and move faster.

Originally, sea wolves lacked animal power. In the Ming Dynasty, when the Eastern Tartars did not make trouble, they could still introduce some Mongolian horses to meet military needs, but now Liaodong has been occupied by Jiannu, and Mongolians have been subdued by Jiannu, causing Daming to lose important horse supply land. Now Daming's horses have become very expensive. Most of them are used in the army.

The water network in the south is dense, which is not suitable for riding. In addition, even the military is rarely equipped with horses, and the rich are unwilling to serve such animals, which makes it difficult for the south to find useful horses. Even if they are available, the price is ridiculously high.

Therefore, sea wolves have always lacked horses and can only use cattle as the animal power to pull vehicles, but the artillerymen of the barracks are obviously not suitable to use cattle as the animal power to pull cannons. Although the cattle are powerful, they move too slowly, and they are relatively easy to be shocked. Once they go to the battlefield, It will be easily frightened.

Therefore, the sea wolf's artillery can only use manpower to replace horses to haul artillery.

Even if Yu Xiaotian now takes carpenters and blacksmiths to make a much lighter gun truck than the gun truck currently used in the mainland of Daming on land, it has greatly reduced the weight of the cannon, but such a gun truck still looks very heavy and clumsy when used.

Even the light 12-pound mountain howitzer they are currently equipped for the war camp is not heavy. Every time they march in the field, each gun has to be equipped with 30 gunners to tow these cannons. In this way, it is impossible for the gun trucks to keep up with the team. When they come down a little farther, the artillerymen What is tired is the fart flow. Once you fight, this kind of gun still belongs to the retreating gun, and pushing the gun is also heavy physical work, and the artillery can be said to be very, very hard.

Therefore, bearings are also a very urgent thing for Xiaotian. Once bearings are manufactured, the friction between the wheels and axles will be greatly reduced when the gun truck moves, so that when the gun truck is moving, it will reduce a lot of manpower consumption and save the physical strength of artillery, so that it can Put yourself into the battle with physical strength.

There is nothing we can do to replace animal-power horses. You know, in the Napoleonic era, a company of artillery was only a war horse with cannons, and there were 110. Yu Xiaotian didn't dare to think about such a number of horses now, even if he was currently controlled. All the horses on the territory have been gathered, and I'm afraid there are no 30 or 40 horses, and even a single artillery platoon is not enough.

Looking at the wheelb, Yu Xiaotian took out his notebook and recorded the bearing, but if he wants to produce bearings, at least solve the problem of bearing steel. The steel used for bearings also needs to be made of high carbon steel, which needs to be quenched. Like the current raw and cooked iron, it is impossible to make bearings at all. Kind of things.

Thinking of this, Yu Xiaotian couldn't help sighing again. When will he produce steel by himself? It seems that this steelmaking problem still needs to be solved as soon as possible. Only by solving this problem can we break through the various bottlenecks formed by all parties and make new breakthroughs in his industrial development.

As for the too advanced steelmaking furnace, he will definitely not be able to make it now, so even if the upper soil blast furnace is more polluted, the waste is greater, and the product quality is slightly worse, it is acceptable. At worst, it will be gradual. After the industrial development reaches a certain level, it is not too late to upgrade the technology.

I thought that after the chicken bus variant unicycle came out, the problem would be solved, but the wooden workshop gave Yu Xiaotian a bad news.

Making this kind of chicken bus is not too difficult for a wooden workshop. Even the frame can be made by the stupidest carpenter, and it can be guaranteed to be made into one or two hundred vehicles quickly.

However, there is a problem in making wheels. In this era, making wheels is a special craft, which can't be done by any carpenter. If the wheels you want to make are strong, durable and round, you must have a special wheel maker to make them.

The wheels of this era are basically made of wood. Iron is rarely used to make wheels. At most, some cooked iron sheets and nails are used to strengthen the wheels, but the main materials are still made of wood, and the requirements for wood are also relatively high.

If ordinary carpenters are asked to make wheels, the wheels will not be durable, the load-bearing capacity will be poor, and the axle will be easy to break.

So this must be done by special craftsmen who make wheels, but the problem is that the sea wolf does not have enough craftsmen to make wheels. In the wooden workshop, there are two people who can make wheels on Nanri Island, and there is only one in Danshui City who can make wheels, including the chicken cage, and there is only one special one. The craftsman who made the wheels.

These craftsmen who make wheels are usually not too busy. They mainly make some wheels for gun vehicles. The wheels used in the turrets of naval guns are all small wheels. This is easier to do, but the guns used by soldiers and the wheels of the vehicles used to transport goods must be big wheels, which is more troublesome and must be strong. , the load-bearing capacity should be strong and the roundness should be good.