Nanming: I can build wonders

After much deliberation, Zhu Kezang finally made the decision to choose silk.

As a fabric made of protein fiber such as mulberry silk, silk has the characteristics of high strength, good air tightness, moisture resistance, acid and alkali resistance, and the greater advantage is that pure silk does not generate static electricity.

The only problem is that silk is very expensive, causing the cost of airships to skyrocket.

Generally speaking, even the worst silk costs more than five silver dollars each. As for the airbag of an airship, even if Huangluzhuang and the others reduced the size a lot, it is only 30 meters long and four meters in diameter, and still requires [-] pieces. Silk, this costs three hundred silver dollars.

This is only a single-layer airbag. In order to prevent the hydrogen from escaping, the airbag must be made of at least three layers of silk.

Considering the cost issue, Huang Luzhuang decided to use silk only for the outer layer of the airship airbag, and the two inner layers were made of cotton, and glue was used to seal the cotton and silk.

In order to prevent the airbag from falling if there is a slight air leakage on the surface, the entire airbag interior is divided into twenty compartments to prevent danger.

To be on the safe side, Huang Luzhuang also used China's ancient fire-retardant paint formula to paint the interior of the airship and each airbag with three layers of paint to ensure absolute safety.

These fire-retardant paints were used on battleships in the past. They are very effective but also expensive.

It cost almost a thousand silver dollars to make an airbag, which was a huge sum of money, and it made the craftsmen feel distressed.

But this is just the beginning. The airship's gondola needs a large load and needs to fly at high altitudes. Naturally, it cannot use a rough rattan gondola like a hot air balloon.

So Huang Lvzhuang presented several plans to Zhu Kezang, and Zhu Kezang chose the thin steel plate plan.

A closed pod is made of thin steel plates and firmly fixed under the air bag.

As for the pitch and steering of the airship, a pair of horizontal sails and a vertical sail are placed between the back of the gondola and the air bag for control.

But the most difficult problem was the battery problem. Huang Luzhuang specifically contacted Mei Wending, the chief astronomer, mathematician, and chemist of the Ming Dynasty, but he couldn't solve it.

Historically, Mei Wending was the "No. 1 mathematician" and "the founder" of the Qing Dynasty. He was hailed by the world's science and technology history circle as one of the "three world scientific giants" along with Newton of England and Takawa Seki of Japan.

Such a great talent, Zhu Kezang specially discovered him to lay the foundation for the chemical world of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, Zhu Kezang did not ask him to build castles in the air.

Zhu Kezang was a science student, and he directly taught Mei Wending his junior high school chemistry knowledge and periodic table of elements.

With these sharp tools, the research of the Ming Dynasty Royal Chemistry Laboratory was successful.

The two quickly used the principle of producing electricity from the reaction of lead and sulfuric acid to create a large and practical battery.

In order to prevent corrosion, they padded the wooden box with a large amount of cotton and placed a semi-sealed glass vessel.

A glass vessel is filled with dilute sulfuric acid, and two lead-based grid plates filled with sponge lead and lead dioxide filled are inserted.

The grid filled with spongy lead is the negative electrode, and the grid filled with lead dioxide is the positive electrode. It can be used directly as long as it is connected to the motor.After the battery is used, it can be recharged by a generator for recycling.

The two were very happy when they got this battery. After many tests at the Royal Chemistry Laboratory, they found that as long as it was fully charged, the battery could continue to discharge for up to half an hour.

As long as a few more battery packs are connected in parallel on the airship, it can be used continuously for a long time.

Two electric motors and a large blade fan are installed on the top of the iron frame, and their position is slightly lower than the hanging basket to prevent the blades from scratching the air bag.

The energy source for the electric motor is six sets of batteries connected to the back of the hanging basket.For safety reasons, they also installed a small generator and four sets of linked hand cranks in the gondola. If the battery runs out of power, the battery can be charged manually.

This airship can be said to have assembled the most advanced technology of the Ming Dynasty.

After a series of installation and debugging, the airship was finally completed, and its first test flight took place in the autumn of 1700 in September.

The weather was very good, neither hot nor cold, with a wide view and no wind or rain.

The test flight members were from the Royal Air Force of the Ming Dynasty.

Three of the officers were the first founding members of the Ming Dynasty Air Force.

Their nicknames are Kong Er Lengzi, Ding Gua Kuai, and Li Da Da.This test flight was very grand, and Zhu Kezang personally supervised the flight.

Soon the tethering rope was tightened, and the driver shouted "Left main unit test" with a trembling tin trumpet.

The left main engine started, but nothing else started, and the airship began to circle.

"Left full rudder test!"

"Right full rudder test!"

"Air bag pressure test!"

"Right host test!"

"Left co-pilot test!"

"Right co-pilot test!"

"The whole machine is up!"

The airship began to slowly take off.

After the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty Air Force received the cable into the gondola, they threw away the sandbags around the gondola in order to speed up their progress.

Hydrogen airbags are very sensitive to weight. Eight sandbags each weighing twenty kilograms were thrown down, and the airship suddenly rose a lot.

Now they are at least 300 meters in the air.

Kong Erluzi saw white clouds floating slowly, and below them, the entire houses in Yingtian City had turned into matchboxes, and the people had turned into little ants.

Even at such a high level, one can still see how well the urbanization of Yingtian City is developing.

Endless buildings as far as the eye can see!

However, they can't stop here.

"Let's start, let's drive towards the sea." Li boldly ordered.

"Yes!"

The soldier in charge of driving handed over his hand and turned on the switch of the electric motor. Then several soldiers started to control the vertical rudder and began to turn. As planned, the airship slowly turned to the east.

"I can control the direction freely, it's a success!"

"Long live!"

There were cheers on the ground, and everyone cheered as the airship rose into the sky and turned around to fly towards the sea.

Today was a big day, and many court officials put down their work and came to watch the airship's first flight.

This is no different than a hot air balloon. Such a large airship can carry quite a few people!

Looking at the airship flying further and further away, Huang Luzhuang, the chief scientist of the Ming Dynasty, couldn't help but sigh: "Without His Majesty's guidance, no matter how long we work hard, we would never be able to build such a terrifying thing."

Qiu Hui, the retired Minister of War, stared closely at the airship and said to Zhu Kezang: "Your Majesty, how many bombs can this thing hold?"

Zhu Kezang thought further. Historically, airships played no role on the battlefield because of the birth of anti-aircraft guns and aircraft.

But in this era, airships have no natural enemies.

Could the Ming Dynasty use airships to transport paratroopers in batches and bring magic soldiers down from the sky?

(End of this chapter)