Chapter 130

Splash--

The 1-meter wide, 2-meter deep canal was immediately filled with clear flowing water, constantly washing the large water wheel in the pool.

Driven by the flowing water, the huge water wheel soon started to turn, eventually maintaining an extremely fast rotating speed.

"It can actually spin so fast?"

Xia Xian had just arrived and had seen many water wheels before, but it was the first time seeing one spin so fast. He knew it was all thanks to a tiny little thing--the bearing.

In Li Yao's words, the bearing could reduce friction, though he didn't understand what friction was. Anyway it was something that made the wheel very smooth and effortless.

"Close the gate!"

The sluice gate dropped down. The water flowing down from the mountains passed through the overflow pool and into the canal next to it, then flowed down the mountain.

Li Yao was very satisfied with this large water wheel. It was worth the nearly 3,000 taels of silver spent and over a month of work to build this big guy.

With this large water wheel, she could do a lot of things.

First of all, she would make an automatic fan.

She had people bring over a speed control device and connect it to the central shaft of the water wheel, then connect it to a huge fan.

Whether they could enjoy automatic cool breeze depended on this fan.

"Open the gate!"

Water flowed back into the wheel pool. But this time the water wheel started up very slowly.

Li Yao watched the fan blades, wishing she could lend them some strength.

But with the transmission of force, the blades eventually began to turn, faster and faster, until the naked eye could no longer discern their movement clearly.

Buzz buzz buzz--

With the high-speed rotation of the blades, a strong wind was blown, blowing her hair flying and clothes flapping loudly.

"Such a strong wind!"

"Yes, I wonder how these blades can spin so fast," someone curiously asked, "At least 10 times faster than the water wheel!"

To be precise, 13.2 times faster!

As for the reason, it was naturally because of a speed control device assembled with gears. This was not any advanced knowledge for modern people, but akin to magic for these ancient people. "Feels so cool!"

Hearing that the fan was successful, He Xiaoya walked out with her bulging belly to enjoy the cool breeze together.

"Don't overdo it, or you'll catch a cold."

"Oh."

Although she wanted to keep enjoying the wind, He Xiaoya soon returned indoors. But Li Yao had her leave the windows open to let in a bit of cool air.

"Xiao Si."

"Here I am!" Wang Xiao Si nimbly scurried to Li Yao.

"I'm not calling you, I'm calling your uncle Si."

Wang Xiao Si pouted.

Since the other three had gone off to be soldiers, there was no one left at home to play with him, leaving him very bored.

Wang Yuanbang walked over from the crowd. "Sister-in-law, what is it?"

"I will have two smaller versions of this fan made. Have them installed in the bicycle workshop. Go take a look at where would be good to install them, and prepare the foundations in advance."

"Oh!"

It was already midsummer, and the weather would soon hit peak heat. The bicycle workshop was especially unbearably hot, with occasional heatstrokes happening.

Having large fans installed would surely delight the workers.

"Master," Xia Xian saw that Li Yao was done with things, so he took out the iron block and presented it before her. "Take a look at how it turned out this time."

Together with Xia Xian, Li Yao went to the blacksmith workshop. Xia Xian added coal to a boiler and worked the bellows. The steam quickly powered a steam engine to drive a grindstone to spin rapidly.

This was a very crude grindstone made of granite. It was barely better than nothing.

Scrape scrape--

Li Yao ground the elongated iron block into a plane iron.

It felt like it might work this time?

With the simple lathe ready, Li Yao clamped the plane iron and tried turning a casting iron block.

With the sounds of sanding, iron scraps scattered everywhere until the casting iron was machined into a smooth cylinder. The plane iron remained intact.

"Success."

Xia Xian was overjoyed, almost moved to tears.

He really didn't want to keep doing things he had the skills for but couldn't fully utilize. He desperately wanted to swing a huge hammer and forge some steel blades, or even kitchen knives if nothing else...

But he knew that was impossible.

The master's mind contained countless fantastic ideas, and these concepts required many odd and delicate small parts to form.

He reckoned he would never have a chance to forge kitchen knives again in his life.

"Master, what's next?" "What you've done before," Li Yao said. "Now with the lathe and plane iron, the inner and outer rings of bearings can be machined more finely to achieve higher precision."

Improve the bearings?

That was simple, but Xia Xian didn't think it would be so simple.

"Then what?"

"Then replace all the lathe bearings with high precision ones, and continue producing even higher precision bearings."

Xia Xian: ...

"When the lathe precision reaches its limit, it can be used to produce parts like cylinders, pistons, seals, screws etc. of even higher precision," Li Yao said, "then make lighter steam engines."

Xia Xian knew the tasks Li Yao arranged for him would be tedious and tasteless.

"If you find it troublesome, take on some apprentices," Li Yao said. "There are many young people in our village who attended night school and are decent at math. Teach them and you can relax more."

Wouldn't that be "teaching them to starve the master to death"?

"Don't worry about someone replacing you," Li Yao said. "When the steam engine is improved to a certain degree, you'll be responsible for researching all kinds of alloys. That will be a long and tedious job, so be mentally prepared."

Xia Xian: ...

...

Capital city.

Emperor Liu Ling of the Daling Dynasty had grown old, and his health deteriorated day by day. Naturally he would spend this hot summer at the royal summer resort.

Today was Liu Ling's birthday. Despite the sweltering heat, court officials still came to the resort to celebrate his birthday.

Crown Prince Liu Chen was worried his father's health couldn't take it, so after a few key officials presented their birthday gifts, he dismissed everyone.

"Wait."

Liu Ling was in good spirits today with decent health, so he wanted to keep a few officials to discuss state affairs.

"Father, let's do it tomorrow instead," the crown prince persuaded. "Today is Father's birthday. Discussing politics would spoil the mood."

"Let's do it now. I'm going to the hot springs tomorrow."

At Liu Ling's insistence, the left and right chancellors, grand commandant and other key officials came to an elegant garden.

Several towering trees with lush branches and leaves blocked most of the sunlight. Together with the cool mountain breeze, one could not feel the summer heat at all.

"Please sit."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for granting us seats."

"Tell me," Liu Ling said, "what major events have been happening in my realm recently?"

Right Chancellor Zhu Zilin spoke first. "Your Majesty, the drought has passed and the land is blessed with good weather for harvests. Local governments are governing effectively. There are really no major issues."

"So the country is prosperous and people living in peace?"

"All thanks to Your Majesty's blessings." Zhu Zilin said, "Also, the northern tribes' aggression has relatively weakened this year, allowing my border troops some respite."