Castle of Black Iron

'Dual-drive engine?'

If it was told by an engineer, the 5 people in the parlor would not be surprised; however, it was told by Fire Dragon Hermit...

Watching Zhang Tie's tower-like figure which was as powerful as a violence machine in ancient times and his bald head which only lacked the slogan "I'm the boss", the 5 people in the room widely opened their mouths at the same time.

"Did...did...Hermit...invent it?"

The eldest man in the room asked Zhang Tie with a dumbfounded look.

"Yup, don't I look like a scholar? Knights should be muscled with the simple mind?" Zhang Tie goggled at the old man. The old man immediately felt an overwhelming stress and almost had a pee.

"No...no...I didn't mean that...I mean...Hermit..."

Being intense, the old man stammered. Only in a few seconds, the old man's forehead had been covered with big sweat drops.

"Hermit, please forgive us. Clan head Yan means that the one who could design this machine is definitely a top expert in this line. As we've not seen such a knight who excels at making machines, after Hermit took out the design drawing, we all admire you; at the same time, we are shocked too much as we've not imagined that Hermit is able to weld both the pen and the force. Amazing!"

It was Sun Qiming who helped the old man explain.

After hearing Sun Qiming's explanation, the old man who was still extremely jealous about Sun Qiming just now threw a glance at him out of gratitude immediately. At the same time, he wiped off the sweat from his forehead and hurriedly nodded, "Yes, yes, that's what I meant. Hermit's talents...are too admirable!"

Actually, after entering the parlor, the 5 people had been in a competitive state. Even though, Sun Qiming still hoped to give the old man a favor when he was in trouble. Given this point, Zhang Tie found that Sun Qiming was benevolent and tolerant. Therefore, Zhang Tie felt that this man matched his junior sister apprentice Lv Shasha pretty well.

"Hmm, glad you mean that!" Zhang Tie nodded as he threw a glance at Sun Qiming and said, "Before promoting to a knight, I've been interested in the dynamic system very much. After promoting to a knight, due to my great spiritual energy, I could skim over 10 lines in one second and remember all the contents that I've ever read. After learning the predecessors' experience and knowledge, I even made a great breakthrough in this aspect..."

Actually, because of the greater longevity and spiritual energy of knights, knights in Taixia Country excelled at many aspects such as music, art and painting; however, as their military exploits were greater and more influential than that in these aspects, knights were usually known as great fighters.

It was not strange that a knight excelled at making machines; if a knight could keep this interest for 100 years, he or she would definitely become a top expert in this industry. As none of those at present knew Zhang Tie's real age, they were shocked by Zhang Tie's invention too much.

"We're too slow-witted, Hermit, please reveal the secret of this machine to us..." Sun Qiming bowed deeply towards Zhang Tie.

"Well, I will tell you about the key parts of this machine!" Zhang Tie replied as he turned solemn and started to make an introduction to these people referring to the design drawing.

This dual-drive engine was very important for Zhang Tie. Now that the 5 people at present were selected to produce this machine, if they didn't figure out the designing mindset and the key technical principles, they would face problems for sure. Therefore, it's necessary for him to introduce it to them.

"Someone of you said that this machine was an internal combustion engine, yet more like an external combustion engine. It's right. This machine is really both an internal combustion engine and an external combustion engine because it has the essences of the both!" Zhang Tie pointed at the cylinders on the design drawing and said, "The designing essence is on the cylinders..."

"As the traditional internal combustion engine before the Catastrophe would give out a great amount of heat when in combustion, the entire engine would be in a very high temperature, which would further impact the running of the engine. Therefore, engines before the Catastrophe had to be matched with various water-cooling systems or wind-cooling systems so as to lower the temperature of the engine when running. As for many internal combustion engines before the Catastrophe, after they were lit a few minutes, the temperature of the water which was used to lower the temperature of the engine would rise rapidly, even boil up. As for people before the Catastrophe, it was pretty normal!"

"According to the literature about engines before the Catastrophe, in a period before the Catastrophe, drivers of small-power tractors with only dozens of power horses would always take three items: the handle of the engine, which was used to run the tractor; second, a huge water tank, which was used to lower the temperature of the cooling system of the tractor in case that the engine would be damaged due to high heat; third, chicken eggs, which could be cooked in the water cooling system and provide the driver a meal..."

"In this age, when steam and heat became the main driving forces, this water cooling system would be a joke and a great waste. Take the common gasoline engine before the Catastrophe as an instance, the output power only accounted for 20-30% of the total heat of the burning fuel. The output power of the diesel engine would vary from 30-45% of the total heat of the burning fuel. The heat that escaped from a common gasoline engine would account 70-80% of the total heat of the burning fuel. Of course, it was a joke for designing a water cooling system at the cost of such a waste of heat. From the beginning, most of the internal combustion engines before the Catastrophe were suffering from a great loss of heat. Traditional internal combustion engines could not make full use of the energy of the burning fuel at all..."

"My dual-drive engine could fix this shortcoming of the traditional internal combustion engine to the most extent; meanwhile, it would combine the water cooling system of the traditional internal combustion engine with our current steam driving system. The key part of this combination is in the cylinders of the traditional internal combustion engine..."

"...When the fuel starts to burn with air in the cylinders, the reciprocating pistons in the cylinders would start to move by pushing the connecting rod to make strike movements. From this perspective, it's an internal combustion engine. On the other hand, look at the cylinders; they're different than that of the common reciprocating piston engine before the Catastrophe; namely, when the fuel burns in the cylinders, the power caused by air expansion would pass to the pistons in the cylinders and push the piston and connecting rod to make mechanic movements. Besides air expansion, the burning fuel in the cylinders would bring heat which could further pass to the steam water cooling system in the periphery of the cylinders and heat the water; as a result, the burning fuel in the cylinders could heat up the external combustion engine..."

"The core of this dual-drive engine is its cylinders, which are greatly different than that of traditional internal combustion engine in the four aspects, namely, the layout of cylinders; the selection of the material of cylinders; the cooling system of the cylinders and the empty layer design in the periphery of the cylinders..."

When Zhang Tie talked about it, he became very attentive and professional. The audience even forgot that Zhang Tie was an earth knight and was gradually immersed in Zhang Tie's introduction.

...

"...being different than the material of the cylinders of common internal combustion engines, the material of the cylinders of this engine has to be wearable and hard enough; in order to pass the heat from the combustion chamber to the neighboring water cooling layer smoothly, it needs to have a very high thermal conductivity. Therefore, according to the Fourier heat conduction law of metals, the best material of the cylinders should be super-dense, double-layer, LV 3 aluminum alloy. This kind of aluminum alloy should experience a four-phase hot-dip coating in the water cooling layer. This technology is consistent with that of many Faerie-dragon limos..."

"Additionally, as the exhaust pipe of the internal combustion engine would take away a great amount of heat, the design of the exhaust pipe of this engine is a bit special. It adopts the circular and built-in designing mindset. After the engine is booted, it could accomplish the secondary heating for the heat in the steam power system using the high heat in the exhaust pipe."

"Therefore, the burning fuel in the cylinders could activate the pistons in the cylinders and the steam power system outside the cylinders at the same time. The efficiency of this engine is unrivaled. The displacement of its cylinders is 18.5 L. Comprehensively, the power density of its cylinders is...its cylinders' compression ratio is..."

"The internal combustion engine part has been reinforced through the two-stage turbocharger device. Its separate output power could reach 940 horsepowers while the steam power system could bring 610 horsepowers. The two sets of output power systems could be used separately; one serves as the driving force system, the other could be connected to the steam weapon module; we could also use a differential gearbox to output the power from the two sources to the same direction so that it could reach its maximal output in an aspect in a certain period so as to respond to different situations. If we don't connect it to the steam weapon module, the whole set of engine could be less than 800 kg in weight as the metallurgical material processing is unprecedentedly advanced..."

As Zhang Tie had been desiring for such an engine for so long, he introduced it very carefully; precisely, very considerably.

When Zhang Tie was introducing this engine, his spirit had long flown to the smoky and bloody Selnes Theater of Operations...

Zhang Tie had too many memories about Selnes Theater of Operations as he had bled too much over there.

This engine was exclusive for the first type of propeller-driven airplane in the Black Iron Age...

When Zhang Tie was explaining the design principle of this set of engine, he had a hypothesis in mind——if there was such an engine in Selnes Theater of Operations, there would be a propeller-driven airplane being driven by this kind of engine. What would be the result of the battle in Selnes Theater of Operations then? Would the airship troop in Selnes Theater of Operations have a better result?

Undoubtedly. If there were such an engine and such a kind of airplane at that time, the result across the Selnes Theater of Operations would be rewritten for sure. The demons might still be able to break through the human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations; however, they had to suffer much more losses than humans. Humans might still have to evacuate from the Selnes Theater of Operations strategically in the end; however, many tragical casualties should have been avoided.

'The honor of Selnes Eagle that I gained in Selnes Theater of Operations is more like the real reflection of the tragedy of the allied human forces especially the human airship troop in the Selnes Theater of Operations.'

'How could I shock the command of the allied human forces on a subcontinent and gain the great honor only by killing some wing demons in the air by myself? It's a bit ironical and helpless!'

The reason for this situation lay in that the demon air forces had an overwhelming advantage over human airships and air troops if the knights on both parties were excluded. In many situations, what waited for human airship troop and those brave glider drivers were absolutely a one-sided massacre when they encountered wing demons...

At that time, glider drivers could definitely be rated as the bravest and most respectable arm of services with the biggest casualty in Selnes Theater of Operations, if there was such a rating item.

As the only air cavalry in Selnes Theater of Operations at that time, Zhang Tie was clear that dauntless human glider drivers almost covered their blood about one million square kilometers in the sky above the entire Selnes Theater of Operations.

Selnes Theater of Operations was the elegy that human glider drivers and airship fighters played in Waii Subcontinent at the cost of their lives and blood...