Chapter 93: Song of Electricity (Part 4)

The biography was quite flattering, but reality was much starker. Faraday claimed to be a direct descendant of Fa Zheng, Marquis Yi of the Three Kingdoms period. His father had given him this “name-dropping” name in the hopes of reviving the Fa family’s prestige. However, the name had no other effect than to make people look at him with surprise from time to time. The reason he had boarded the pirate ship was that, at over thirty, he was still manning a substation in a remote suburb of a third-tier city with no prospect of promotion or transfer. D-Day had opened a door for him to potentially restore his ancestors’ glory.

Faraday began studying electric motors in 1630. Since it was not an official project of the Planning Department, it could only be considered his “private research.” Almost every Elder engaged in this kind of private research. After arriving in the new world, it seemed everyone wanted to erect a monument to themselves, to leave something behind for future generations to spread their fame.

However, so-called private research meant no access to controlled materials and specialized equipment allocated by the Planning Department. For Elders engaged in research in humanities, philosophy, or pure theory, this was not a problem; the resources of the Great Library were sufficient. But for those who needed to conduct a large number of experiments, it was a major obstacle. It meant they could only use non-controlled materials. If they hadn’t brought tools and equipment with them in their personal luggage, it was very difficult to use certain equipment and tools. Not only did they have to swallow their pride and borrow, but they also had to find the right time—almost no factory or enterprise wasn’t running 24/7.

When Faraday was conducting his research, he had no silicon steel sheets, not even the most basic copper wire, enameled wire, or mica paper. Therefore, he could only engage in paper research, calculating formulas, modifying drawings, and then making a few models out of wood. Later, Dr. Zhong from the Ministry of Science and Technology learned of his plight and established a “preliminary research on electric motors” project for him, which finally allowed Faraday to move beyond paper.

Using materials obtained from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Faraday made several simple electric motor models—roughly the kind you would make in a middle school physics experiment by winding your own coils, purely to get a feel for it. He also used the ministry’s computing center to simulate his designs. After gaining some confidence, he began to design and manufacture his first experimental motor.

The reason he chose the electric motor as a breakthrough point was mainly because it was the least technically difficult component in the entire power system. An electric motor is much simpler than a generator. Winding copper coils is not very difficult, it doesn’t require a complex cooling system—simple air cooling is sufficient—and the casing can be cast, which was well within Lin’gao’s current capabilities.

Besides the copper windings of the stator, the most important part of the motor is the soft magnetic material in the rotor. This was an unavoidable obstacle. In the old world, this was made of silicon steel sheets. Although anyone with a little knowledge of electricity knew that, in theory, cast iron or cast steel could be used instead of silicon steel sheets, his numerous experiments and calculations showed that the gap between theory and reality was too great. He specially asked Elders from the materials, structural, and mechanical fields to perform calculations. The conclusion was that if substitute materials were used, the resulting motor would be significantly larger than a motor of the same power based on drawings from the old world.

And no one had experience in redesigning motors, nor the will to go all out. The Elders’ mode of climbing the technology tree was a mixture of the Eighth Route Army’s military industry and Warhammer 40K. On the one hand, they tried hard to find substitutes suitable for a low-tech level. On the other hand, they would not alter the original design from the old world if at all possible—especially the overall design blueprint. The Yuanlao Yuan actually had very little capacity for technological innovation; they could only replicate as much as possible.

After many unsuccessful experiments, Faraday believed that instead of expending a great deal of energy to bypass the problem of silicon steel, it was better to tackle the material problem of silicon steel itself. Otherwise, the subsequent problems caused by using cast iron and cast steel would be even more complex.

Although smelting silicon steel was quite difficult, the Yuanlao Yuan had, after all, established a steel industry of a considerable standard. It was possible to smelt silicon steel with this industrial system.

Although they could only produce hot-rolled silicon steel with their existing equipment and technology, and this type of silicon steel had slightly different parameters from the cold-rolled silicon steel of the old world, it was much better than the order-of-magnitude difference with cast iron and cast steel.

That being said, Faraday’s authority did not extend to ordering the steel plant to trial-produce silicon steel. He could only propose this issue at a Planning Department meeting through Dr. Zhong of the Ministry of Science and Technology and have it included in the Planning Department’s “project list.”

Faraday couldn’t wait for the Ma Niao Steel Complex to provide him with silicon steel sheets. He submitted a report through the Ministry of Science and Technology and obtained a few kilograms of silicon steel sheets from the Planning Department’s inventory for trial production.

After consulting a large amount of information, Faraday believed that with their current technological level and material science capabilities, there was no need to start from the most basic electric motors step by step. Instead, they could directly start with mature electric motors from the old world. These motors had ready-made drawings and process manuals available for use.

However, trial-producing an electric motor was not something he could do alone. So he roped in Qian Liushi. The two of them discussed it and decided to adopt the Y-series three-phase squirrel-cage asynchronous motor from the national standard of the original world. This type of motor was technologically mature, widely used, and had a large amount of reference material available. Moreover, from over thirty years of experience in the original world, this type of motor was proven to be reliable. Once trial production was successful and the technology was verified, they could mass-produce motors between 0.75kW and 37kW.

To trial-produce this motor, he found a few more Elders from the mechanical and materials fields to help. Using the workshops and equipment of the Ministry of Science and Technology, they got to work. Finally, in the autumn of 1632, they successfully trial-produced the first Y-series three-phase squirrel-cage asynchronous motor made in this world, naming it “Guangming No. 1.” Of course, “Guangming No. 1” could not yet be considered truly “made in Lin’gao.” Not only was its silicon steel from the other world, but even the copper wire for the windings was made from electrolytic copper brought from the old world. The copper they smelted in this world was all fire-refined copper, completely unsuitable for motor windings.

However, this achievement proved that the power department was fully capable of self-producing electric motors, which greatly boosted the confidence of everyone in the department. Minister Chang Kaishen, when approving Faraday’s application for materials and funding, said meaningfully, “The electric motor experiment is an urgent task!”

However, the main players, Faraday and Qian Liushi, were not so confident. They knew that as long as the steel company couldn’t produce silicon steel, all their achievements were just castles in the air. The series of motors they planned to mass-produce required silicon steel sheets ranging from a few kilograms for the small ones to about a hundred kilograms for the large ones. It was impossible to rely on the Planning Department’s reserves for so much silicon steel; they had to rely on self-produced silicon steel.

Everyone knew that the performance of self-produced silicon steel could not be compared to the silicon steel from the old world in the Planning Department’s inventory, but they had no idea how big the difference was. Besides, hot-rolled silicon steel sheets were mainly used for generators in the old world.

This power conference was initiated by the Planning Department. Many people in the power department hoped to coordinate and solve these technical problems one by one at the meeting.

Looking at the chaotic, whispering conference room, Faraday’s gaze fell on Qian Liushi, who was sitting not far away. His partner was also a “technical backbone” of the power company. He had originally worked in generator construction and installation and was considered the most knowledgeable person about generators in the power department. He was someone who had both seen pigs run and eaten pork, a key player in the construction of the Bairen Hydroelectric Station, but that was all. Both of them were “ambitious” figures in the power department—though neither of them would admit it.

Qian Liushi’s decision to transmigrate was a moment of madness. He had spent two years in the international engineering department of a power generation equipment company, working on the construction and installation plans for power stations. Due to the international financial crisis, his project’s funding chain broke, and the contract was terminated. He was idle at the time and started browsing forums, where he became interested in the topic of transmigration. Later, he came to the training camp on a business trip and, on a whim, never went back. By the time he resigned, it was too late to turn back. He could only follow this path to the end.

Fortunately, he felt it was a pretty good choice. Since he had joined the transmigration organization relatively late, everything was basically ready by the time he arrived. And he had already given up all his wealth to join, without even a pledge of allegiance. His suggestions to purchase various water turbines, steam turbines, boilers, gas turbines, and various types of generators were all rejected because a single machine would cost hundreds of millions. Fortunately, he had previously obtained a large number of manufacturing drawings for various power generation equipment and facilities, which gave him a little confidence that he had bought his ticket. Unfortunately, the smallest generator set in his drawings had a capacity of 5000kW, and the next smallest was 35,000kW, while the transmigrators currently lacked the ability to manufacture even a 500kW generator, which often made him sigh that he possessed a dragon-slaying skill but had no dragon to slay.

As the clock hand gradually pointed to 1 o’clock, the Minister of Energy, Chang Kaishen, who was entrusted by the Planning Department to chair the meeting, walked up to the podium. Elder Chang was only in his thirties, but his hair was already showing signs of thinning. He spoke slowly and deliberately, with a slight Zhejiang accent.

“Comrades, I, entrusted by Director Wu De of the Planning Department, am here today to preside over this power work conference. I hope everyone will speak freely at the meeting and make their own contributions to the electrification of the Yuanlao Yuan! In this new year, let us strive for a new life and new work!”