Chapter 105: Gradual Progress

“I think we should hold off on this for a while,” Wu De said after reading his report.

“Why hold off?” Zhan Wuya said eagerly. “This is a major breakthrough.”

Wu De shook his head repeatedly. “It’s too early to call it a major breakthrough. You’re from the industrial sector yourself. Can you ensure a stable production with a certain qualified product rate with something that has been piled up with concentrated manpower, especially Elder technicians, regardless of cost? And although someone in the 19th century made a practical generator using magnetite as a permanent magnet, I’m afraid we can’t be so optimistic about our ability to make it. I won’t even mention whether these things can be mass-produced. What if your Great Leap Forward project is halfway through, and the generator and transformer manufacturing suddenly fails due to problems with the permanent magnets and silicon steel sheets? Wouldn’t your electrolytic copper workshop become useless?”

According to Lin’gao’s existing power generation capacity, if they were to really build this electrolytic copper workshop, all the electricity in Lin’gao would have to be used to ensure continuous production. Temporarily compressing the county’s electricity consumption could only be a short-term solution. For long-term use, new power supplies were indispensable.

“Electrolytic copper, non-ferrous metals, are all things we need most,” Zhan Wuya said. “And the financial sector wants to mint coins, which also requires electrolytic silver. This gap is even larger. It’s unsolvable without an electrolysis process. And caustic soda…”

“My personal opinion is that we still need to develop electricity. But we should proceed step by step, starting with the simple things, first with 19th-century technology, then 20th-century. A Great Leap Forward is likely to cause problems,” Wu De said with a frown. “I remember that in the 19th century, generators of several hundred kilowatts could be made with low-carbon steel and iron cores. Forcing the use of these things that can’t even be considered defective products to make equipment, I’m afraid there will be frequent equipment explosions and sudden power outages.”

“Then wouldn’t all our efforts be in vain?”

“It’s not in vain. At least we have accumulated production experience and trained our team. And we have verified the possibility of the production process. At least we can smelt qualified ferrosilicon, and at least we can make not-so-qualified silicon steel.”

Wu De’s words were not his own idea, but the result of the advice of many Elder technicians. Although many indigenous industrial technologies of the “vegetable substitute” type had been developed, the leap in this “indigenous method” was too great, and quite a few people were afraid of taking too big a step and pulling a muscle.

“Is this the opinion of the Planning Department?”

“Yes,” Wu De said. “I’m not disagreeing with your plan, but after a comprehensive evaluation, the Planning Department believes this plan is too adventurous. I hope you can come up with a more appropriate plan that can ensure stable production. We can’t afford to mess around.”

“What about the electrolytic copper workshop?”

“As long as you can come up with a relatively stable power supply plan… we must base it on existing mature technology… we can discuss it again.”

“Alright, I agree,” Zhan Wuya shrugged helplessly. “I hope the silicon steel sheets that have already been produced can be used.”

“No problem. They can be used experimentally. And I hope the trial production of silicon steel sheets will continue until the industrial sector can stably produce qualified silicon steel sheets. As for the electrolytic copper workshop, as long as the electricity problem can be solved, I will approve it.”

A few days later, the Manufacturing Directorate held another power work conference. After a day of closed-door consultations, a new plan was finally produced. In the new plan, the electrolytic copper workshop would be launched as planned. At the same time, an independent, off-grid power station would be built for both the electrolytic copper workshop and the chemical electrolysis workshop. The power station’s design was roughly based on the one built by the London Electric Supply Corporation in Deptford in 1887, which was designed and built by Ferranti.

The original Deptford power station was equipped with two Ferranti-type alternating current generators with a working voltage of 5,000 volts, driven by 1,250 horsepower steam engines. There were also four Ferranti-type alternating current generators with a working voltage of 10,000 volts, each driven by a 10,000 horsepower steam engine. The power generation of this station could meet the electricity needs of most of London at the time, but the electricity demand at that time was mainly for electric lights.

The power generation of this station was small by modern standards, a typical example of being big, crude, and heavy. But its advantage was that the material cost requirements were extremely low. All the equipment in the Ferranti power station had nothing to do with the technological difficulties of silicon steel and the like. Not only did the generator itself not use silicon steel, but the transformer also did not use silicon steel, and even the rotor winding was not electrolytic copper.

Moreover, its original design could also carry out 10,000-volt high-voltage transmission, which was very suitable for Lin’gao’s current industrial capacity.

Lin’gao’s industrial capacity could not yet manufacture a 10,000 horsepower steam engine, but a 1,000 horsepower steam engine was not a problem. Faraday and the others decided to install four generators in each power station, with room for expansion for another six. As for the manufacturing of the generators, the result of the discussion between the power sector and the industrial sector was a fifty-fifty split. In each power station, two generators would use low-carbon steel, and two would use the low-grade silicon steel produced this time that had passed the magnetic performance test. This way, if any one plan had problems, it would not be a total wipeout.

The R&D and production of electric motor projects were all cut. At present, electric motors were not an urgent project. All resources were first put into the manufacturing of generators.

The development of permanent magnet materials would continue. Although permanent magnet generators were not the trend, permanent magnets had a wide range of uses, and it was acceptable even as a technological reserve.

As for the production of silicon steel, this R&D project was retained. It would be undertaken by Elder engineers, who would regularly conduct trial production of silicon steel, extensively search for technical data and process manuals, and conduct more production experiments to see if they could find a production process that could maintain a high yield and magnetic properties.

Another matter was to upgrade the equipment of the rolling mill and intensify the training of workers. At present, the equipment of the rolling mill was incomplete, and there were too few usable rolling mill workers. In the past, this was limited by the small available population, and it was difficult to allocate enough manpower. Now, the industrial sector was preparing to recruit workers in large numbers to increase the operating rate of the rolling mill and strive for full-load operation of various equipment. This was first to meet the current large gap in the supply of various low-level profiles, and second, it could also promote the improvement of workers’ skills.

“Now we have to give people and things again,” Wu De thought, looking at the plan. “They even specified that they need several hundred young women as winding workers. Hmph, don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking.” He thought that this would increase the quota for the industrial sector again. The supporting upgrade of the rolling mill alone was another bottomless pit. Even if the equipment of the rolling mill was produced by indigenous methods, not to mention the technical difficulties, the consumption of steel and cement alone was a huge investment.

“We’re just adding water to the rice and rice to the water,” he sighed. Heavy industry was a bottomless pit. There was only investment and almost no output, but the industrial system couldn’t run without it.

“Teacher Wang, Headmaster, this Australian school truly teaches without discrimination. There is much we can learn from it.”

On this day, Huang Bingkun was again at the Jasmine Pavilion, egging on Liu Dalin and Wang Ci to go and talk to Hu Qingbai and the others in charge of education for the short-hairs, so that the gentry of the county could visit the Fangcaodi School. “The stones of other hills may serve to polish the jade of this one.”

Huang Bingkun’s eagerness to have Liu Dalin and Wang Ci negotiate with the short-hairs was, of course, not because he was “leaning towards the Great Song,” nor was it, as some speculated, that he was in a hurry to jump on the Australian ship. In the current situation, everyone knew that the heavens of Qiongzhou Prefecture were about to change. It was hard to say whether Chairman Wen would declare himself king in a few years. Although the Australians never mentioned “he can be replaced,” in this “old revolutionary base area” of Lin’gao County, there were quite a few people who were eager to become followers of the new dragon.

In the past, Huang Bingkun was most afraid of being misunderstood as fawning on the short-hairs. He often intentionally or unintentionally expressed the spirit of “I am a scholar of the Great Ming and will never associate with the overseas barbarians.” But recently, he no longer publicly declared his political leanings.

In the past, his “clear-cut” attitude could get the overt or covert appreciation and recognition of many people. But as the situation changed, those who had praised, recognized, and echoed him began to remain silent, even unwilling to be with him. Some even began to “advise” him in a roundabout way to be careful with his words.

The reason for this change was not that the Australians were engaged in a literary inquisition or suppressing public opinion, but that the Australians in Lin’gao were becoming more prosperous day by day, with a vibrant and bustling atmosphere. From the gentry and large households down to the common people, as long as they had not colluded with bandits and pirates and become “objects of dictatorship,” they had more or less benefited from the market prosperity and social stability. And the future of the Australians seemed immeasurable. In contrast, Huang Bingkun’s “integrity” had become an annoying “lack of awareness of the times.” It was not surprising that he was gradually being cold-shouldered. By now, apart from a few good friends in the county school, Teacher Wang, and Scholar Liu, few people paid attention to the second young master of the Huang family. The Huang family village, once a “pillar” of the county, had also become insignificant. Now, everyone recognized that the Liu family village’s Master Liu, who had been the first to marry into the Australian community and join the Tiandi Hui, was the number one gentry in Lin’gao.

Huang Bingkun’s desire to go to Fangcaodi was neither to fawn on the short-hairs nor simply to see how the Australians ran their schools. He had another purpose. Since the day he saw the piles of armor and banners left behind by the defeated government troops, he knew that the short-hairs could not be driven away in a few years. So he came up with the idea of letting the Huang family’s children study at Fangcaodi.

In his view, what the Australians relied on was their “techniques.” He did not admit that the Australians had any “learning.” The Australians’ “sturdy ships and powerful cannons,” “ingenious and strange skills,” and all their actions in governing Lin’gao were just “techniques.” This group of people did not understand the teachings of the sages. No matter how advanced their techniques were, they were no different from the ways of beasts and birds.