In fact, I have always stubbornly believed that Watt's improvement of the steam engine has truly become a mechanical power that can be manufactured and used on a large scale, which is the greatest invention in human history. It is an engine that can replace manpower, animal power, wind power and water power to form a self-enclosed and controllable self-circulation system, which completely liberates human beings and makes it possible for human beings to use and transform nature with great power.
If there were no practical steam engines, it would be impossible to imagine what trains, steamboats and Ben Ci's internal combustion engines would look like later. The improvement and large-scale application of the steam engine prompted pure theorists to sum up and discover profound truth along this clue. For example, because of the use of the steam engine, French and German scholars discovered thermodynamics, and theoretically turned the mechanical problem of the steam engine into a computable mathematical and physical problem.
It is the appearance of practical steam engine that makes mankind bid farewell to the era of relying only on natural power and begin to move towards the mechanical era of self-made power. The engine of the steam engine has had a great influence on the process of human history, and since then it has created a new era of rapid development of science, technology, culture and art in human society. This is the industrial revolution that people have been talking about.
It was a great era, an era full of passion. Even today, in the new era created by rocket engines and nuclear energy, we will still think of great but truly ordinary people like Watt, Modley, Joule, Faraday and Ben Ci more than 200 years ago. It is interesting to observe carefully the reasons and conditions for the formation of that era. At the same time, we can also make an in-depth review. Why can't a great nation like us, with such rich historical and cultural traditions, invent and create these things that have become common sense in people's eyes today?
Looking at this problem from the improvement process of steam engine may give you some answers, at least some enlightenment.
Students in China relished a story: Little Watt saw the kettle boil and lifted the lid of the kettle. He was amazed at the power of steam, so he lost in thought, indulged in it, worked hard and finally invented the steam engine. In fact, this is a white lie, which does not conform to historical facts. I don't know where the educators in China got these materials. As long as they have a little basic scholarship spirit, know the basic scholarship rules and look up western history books, they can get the answer immediately: as early as before Watt was born, there were steam engines in Britain, and they were already used in mines and other enterprises.
Who invented the steam engine? Unknown; At present, it is known that Papan, savery and newcomen in Britain initiated the British mining enterprises to manufacture and improve steam engines, among which savery manufactured the first steam engine that can be used. This is like who invented many technologies in the course of human history. In fact, it is already difficult to verify. After all, the inheritance of culture is a historical process, and it is also a process of promotion. For example, people in China generally believe that eunuch Cai Lun invented papermaking, but this is also nonsense. As early as before Cai Lun, China people had papermaking, and so did Egypt, which was much earlier than China. Cai Lun just integrated these technologies and used them in the palace, so they went down in history. Did his invention create composition geometry? It's really hard to calculate.
Even so, the reformers Papan, Savili and newcomen remained in history, and they also obtained their own patents at that time. It is conceivable that if there is no reliable system to protect the interests of these patentees, it is really a problem whether the invention of the future watt-hour machine will appear.
Therefore, the first one is: only a good system can have a good result. Everyone is realistic and needs benefits to survive; When his interests are in a state of insecurity, no matter how high his moral level is, he can't go hungry and make inventions by himself.
Watt is just an innovator, not the inventor of the steam engine. There was no great theoretical creation in his life. In fact, he is an experienced senior technician or engineer with basic knowledge of mathematics and physics. When he first came into contact with the steam engine, he was only a repairman in the instrument factory. At that time, it was the time to use newcomen's steam engine. At that time, the steam engine improved by newcomen was used to take water from the mine, but its thermal efficiency was very low and it consumed a lot of coal. Watt was valued by a wealthy business owner because he was good at technical improvement, and accepted the task of improving newcomen's steam engine. Watt found that newcomen steam engine has several defects that lead to its low thermal efficiency: first, the outer wall of the cylinder dissipates too much heat, and the steam is wasted; Second, the cooling system is unreasonable and steam is wasted; Third, the gap between the piston and the cylinder is too large, up to half an inch. In order to seal the piston, the piston is sealed with water, which causes a waste of steam.
These problems are concrete and true, so to speak, there is nothing profound. However, when we go into the details and study carefully, we will find all kinds of problems. Theoretically speaking, the power of steam is huge, so it is not a profound theory to use it to push the piston to do reciprocating linear motion. It can be put into application, but after so many years of improvement by so many excellent people, Watt still found so many defects. What kind of genius is Watt? How can he see the defects behind these things that people take for granted?
It is because he goes into details and doesn't believe in the experience handed down from history. The essence of concrete analysis of specific problems is to try to get rid of empiricism. The inheritance process of artisans in China is mostly an empirical historical inheritance. The so-called unique skills are passed down from generation to generation, so that later generations regard the previous generation as gods, and even put the original inventor in a shrine as an inviolable fairy, which is completely mythical, as if that ancestor knew everything. At the same time, the self-creation and improvement of disciples are strictly restricted by various schools. Once a change is found, it is called "strange skill and cunning", and the school prohibits or even expels it.
This is a typical way of thinking of farmers in farming countries.
Therefore, the second rule is: don't be confused by other people's theory and historical experience, but go deep into specific problems, think about the essence and shortcomings of traditional experience, turn it into your own, and then bravely transform the previous experience. Don't be intimidated by those charming words and slogans. They speak so well, although it may be because of historical limitations that they can't uncover deeper problems, but more often, they may be liars with the purpose of confusing you. Everything in the world needs to be filtered by your own brain before you can believe it. When you don't understand, your best way is to look first and then think. If you can't figure it out, you may wish to question it, but you must not take it as truth and apply it everywhere. In that case, you will hurt yourself.
In this regard, Watt has carried out fruitful and targeted transformation of the steam engine. He added insulation to the outer wall of the cylinder; An independent condenser outside the cylinder was invented to cool the exhaust gas of the cylinder. Install double air intake system to change the one-way work of newcomen steam engine piston into two-way work (newcomen steam engine jacks up the piston to do work once after steam intake, but does not do work on the return trip, and then jacks up to do work after steam intake); A new size of tight fit piston is put forward. Unfortunately, in those days, it was impossible to process and manufacture closely matched pistons. It was not until many years later that the manufacturing technology made great progress that people invented the piston ring and completely solved this problem.
Watt's invention was patented. In this regard, the thermal efficiency of the steam engine is greatly improved, the coal consumption is reduced, and the cost is greatly reduced, so that enterprises in areas with high coal prices can also use the steam engine. However, Watt did not stop technology research and development. In fact, at this time, he has fallen into a state of technical intoxication, and his thinking depth and creative thinking activity are already in a hot state. In the following time, it took Watt 20 years to transform a steam engine that only does reciprocating linear motion into a mechanism that can rotate through a connecting rod mechanism. It turns out that steam engines are the linear motion of pistons when steam pushes upward, so they are widely used to lift water in mines; Watt, on the other hand, looks further and thinks about how to apply this clumsy thing to a wider range of industries. For example, the textile industry at that time was built by rivers, in order to use water power to rotate the textile machine. After Watt invented the steam transmission mechanism that transformed linear reciprocating motion into rotary motion, the textile industry began to use Watt steam engine in large quantities, thus beginning the great textile revolution era.
However, more complicated thinking made Watt discover more shortcomings and invent more things. These are the greatness of his not being superstitious about traditional experience. For example, he found that although the thermal efficiency of Watt's steam engine was improved when it was used, once the firepower was increased, the piston would move faster and faster, which was very dangerous and difficult to control. What shall we do? Through hard experiments, Watt invented a centrifugal governor to automatically control the speed. Simply put, through the control of the telecentric gear, when the vehicle speed is high, it will automatically slow down; On the other hand, when the speed is low, it will automatically accelerate. In this way, a stable speed is possible.
If Watt doesn't have a stable environment, we can't imagine how he can continue to invent deeply. At the same time, if Watt can't gain historical knowledge and experience, we can't imagine how he can improve the steam engine. If, at that time, something similar to the anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution happened in Britain, newcomen's steam engine was smashed as a gift, and historical figures such as Papan, Savili and newcomen were classified as reactionary figures for criticism-just as we granted a large number of Kong Laoer in those years and prohibited the dissemination of their knowledge. Do you think Watt can still invent these things?
Therefore, the third rule is that all cultural and scientific achievements have the characteristics of inheritance, and they need special people to study, summarize and transform them in depth. When the tragedy of knowledge blind date occurs in society, this society and this nation should commit suicide. If this society and this nation even strongly oppose the professional and specialized lifestyle of intellectuals, and use the peasant-style small-scale peasant thinking of "intellectuals are also workers and should be combined with workers and peasants" to limit the nobility of intellectuals, and viciously attack intellectuals for not distinguishing between grains, it shows that this society is an anti-knowledge peasant society, an empirical society and a backward low-level agricultural society.
Later, Watt made great achievements, entered the Royal College, became a famous figure in Britain, enjoyed a high social reputation and became a technical authority. However, technological progress always keeps going. People continue to advance along Watt's achievements, inventing more advanced steam engines one after another, and applying steam engines to a wider range of industries. However, at this time, Watt's inferiority complex came out-this can be called everyone's inferiority complex: jealousy prevents others from surpassing themselves. He once blocked the invention and popularization of double-barrel steam engines and high-pressure steam engines, and also laughed at others' efforts to drive vehicles with steam engines. Of course, he didn't succeed in the end. These things were invented and manufactured. Moreover, the appearance of small boilers and more sealed steam engines announced the possibility of the invention of steamboats and trains.
Why didn't he stop success? Because of the social system. After all, he did not become a king, nor did he have the terrible absolute power to kill others easily. So, in the final analysis, everything is because of the system.