Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Beiyang 1917

Volume 2 Beijing Story Chapter 199 The Secret of Du Laal

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    At the end of January 1917, the ninth batch of US aid arms arrived in China. This was the second batch of the second phase of the US$100 million loan. It was still American arms and equipment for five brigades. Japan accelerated the delivery of artillery. The first  The artillery purchase orders subcontracted to Japan through a batch of U.S. aid arms purchase lists were finally delivered in full by the end of January.

    With the arrival of the ninth batch of US aid arms, there is also a complete set of production equipment of an aluminum plant with an annual output of 10,000 tons of electrolytic aluminum that Wang Geng recently purchased. Whether it is for the China Aircraft Manufacturing Company that Wang Geng has worked hard to build, or for the China Aircraft Manufacturing Company,  For Ford Motor Company, aluminum alloys were indispensable materials, although in 1918, whether they were airplanes or automobiles, they were basically steel structures plus wood structures.

    The reason why Wang Geng does not plan to mass-produce imitations of the se5 and dh4 aircraft is because he wants to build more advanced aluminum alloy structures and skinned monoplane fighters and reconnaissance bombers in the future. Of course, the engine is always a problem, V-type  In this era, engines are still mainly liquid-cooled. Air-cooled radial engines have just appeared in Europe and are still far from large-scale application.

    The French designed the monoplane very early, but due to the low power of the piston engines in this era, although the Germans secretly developed the aluminum alloy material first, the Allies have not yet mastered this technology, and the monoplane  The aircraft has poor practicality due to its small engine power and far insufficient lift. This is why biplanes and even triplanes dominate the sky.

    For Wang Geng, when he left the United States and returned to China last year, the research directions assigned to each branch of the technology research and development center under Manhattan Industrial Bank, except for Garland's small arms experimental center and Dr. Curry's medical research and development center, the rest were aluminum alloys.  Research center for craft projects.

    Although Wang Geng can't remember the specific formula of aluminum alloy. In fact, in the previous life, aluminum alloy had countless labels and formulas for adding different metals, but Wang Geng really can't remember that much. He only knows that there are pressure aluminum alloy and cast aluminum alloy.  Pressure aluminum alloys are divided into two categories: non-heat treatable and heat treatable. They are generally used for surface structures of objects, such as car compartments and aircraft skins.

    Cast aluminum alloys can be divided into aluminum-silicon alloys, aluminum-copper alloys, aluminum-magnesium alloys, aluminum-zinc alloys and aluminum rare-earth alloys. Among them, aluminum-silicon alloys include simple aluminum-silicon alloys (which cannot be strengthened by heat treatment, have low mechanical properties and poor casting properties).  Good), special aluminum-silicon alloy (can be strengthened by heat treatment, has high mechanical properties and good casting performance), cast aluminum alloy is used in the cast state, and automobile and aircraft engines can be made of cast aluminum alloy.

    Some aluminum alloys can gain mechanical properties, physical properties and corrosion resistance after heat treatment.

    In fact, as early as 1906, German metallurgist Alfred Wilmer tried to add other metal elements to aluminum and finally invented an alloy containing copper, manganese, magnesium and aluminum.  He also discovered that this aluminum alloy has a magical effect, that is, it will automatically become very hard when left at room temperature for 4 days, making it very suitable for manufacturing transportation vehicles and other industrial equipment.  Because this aluminum alloy was industrially produced in Dura for the first time, it was named Dura aluminum!

    The problem is that the formula and hardening process of Duralumin are strictly kept secret by the Germans. The Germans use Duralumin to make a rigid airship with a speed of 100km/h and a range of more than 200km. It has a strong deterrent effect.  .  Allied military experts are troubled by this.

    In Wang Geng¡¯s previous life, the secret of Duralumin was not revealed until after World War I. The world immediately began a craze to develop airships using aluminum alloys. Aluminum was known as the ¡°flying metal¡± and entered the aviation industry market.  The invention of Duralumin provided an opportunity for the development of the aluminum industry.

    Now, Wang Geng wants to make aluminum alloy appear on his aircraft and cars in advance in China. Of course, the most important thing is the aircraft. As far as China's current steel production is concerned, Wang Geng has given up any idea of ??building an invincible fleet to compete for supremacy at sea.  With hard work, the Japanese Navy was not built in a day, and the British Navy is an unshakable presence, including the US Navy.

    When Japan built a Yamato ship, the steel materials could be used to build 20,000 Zero fighter jets. Wang Geng planned to focus on building the army and air force. Of course, at this time, it was only called the participating army air force, but the air force was indeed the king.  Geng's priority is to develop the arms. Although the imitation and research and development of aircraft engines and car engines will take time, Wang Geng's determination remains unchanged!

    Facing the vast land of Siberia, Wang Geng could not imagine the scene of his half-million participating model troops facing a flood of more than three million Soviet Red Army troops. It must have been a nightmare. In the previous life, the Japanese interventionist army had occupied the Soviet Union.  Russia's Far East region lasted for seven years, and it successively invested 11 divisions, accounting for almost half of Japan's standing forces at the time.

    In the previous life, at the peak of 1918, there were nearly 70,000 Japanese troops occupying the Far East at the same time. As a result, they spent seven years in disgrace and coughed with the Soviet guerrillas and achieved nothing. In the end, they were driven out by the Soviet Red Army.

    Wang Geng studied the internal affairs of Soviet Russia in his previous lifeIn history, we have to mourn for the 500,000 White Guards led by the cowards Kolchak, Denikin and Semyon. Those who participated in the White Guards were all professional soldiers and Cossack officers from the Tsarist Russia era. In terms of individual soldier quality and military command quality  Much stronger than the Soviet Red Army soldiers who can only shout "Ula".

    Sadly, in the previous life, in March 1918, 500,000 White Guards followed Kolchak across the Ural Mountains and rushed towards the Volga River Basin. In less than a year, they were killed by the 3 million urgently mobilized Soviet Red Army.  Pigun pissed himself back in despair.

    When Wang Geng was doing research in his previous life, he discovered that during the Soviet-Russian Civil War, the White Guards suffered as many as 500,000 casualties. They were not defeated, they were wiped out, while the Soviet Red Army on the opposite side suffered more than 1.5 million casualties!

    Even a good hunter can't fight off so many wolves. Wang Geng has no intention of fighting the Soviet Union's human sea tactics, nor does he intend to let his model army to fight with the guerrillas. Making full use of firepower and its own advantages is what the model army has been doing since its founding.  This concept was instilled into the heads of division and brigade commanders!

    The participating armies don¡¯t compete with the enemy to see who has more aircraft and cannons!  Who has more tanks and armored vehicles?  Restore the eastern section of the border between China and Russia to what was delineated in the Treaty of Nerchinsk between China and Russia. From the Gelbiqi River, a tributary of the Heilongjiang River, to the Outer Xing'an Mountains and up to the sea, all Lingnan is Chinese territory!  Since it is Chinese territory, it must be taken back!

    If by then the Soviet Russian guerrillas are noisy in the territory recovered by China!  Although the three major disciplines of the Model Army - the Nine Points of Attention to Discipline - must be implemented unremittingly, the participating army will have another slogan for the stubborn invaders who invade Chinese territory!  That means welcome to hard labor in Siberia!

    Wang Geng chose Xiaoyi County in the Luliang area of ??Jinzhong, Shanxi Province as his electrolytic aluminum base. It is the location of China's largest bauxite mine and has a large amount of coal. Chunghwa Aluminum Company was officially established at the end of January. The ownership structure is the same as that of China Steel.  Similarly, coal is used to generate electricity, and then electrolysis is used to produce aluminum and aluminum alloys.

    Speaking of the electrolytic aluminum method that brought aluminum into industrial application, we have to mention the two people who invented the electrolytic aluminum smelting method.  They were young men who were both 23 years old at the time - Hall (Charles Martin Hall) from Ohio, USA, and Erou (Paullovistous Saintherroult) from Normandy, France.

    In 1886, Hall and Elu accidentally put alumina into molten cryolite and passed in direct current to electrolyze metallic aluminum.  This method no longer needs to consume expensive metallic sodium as a reducing agent, the cost is greatly reduced, and the output and quality are also greatly improved.  This is the famous Hall-Herou electrolysis method that is still used today.

    There are many coincidences between these two people. They were born in the same year and made major discoveries in the same year. The patent application dates are only 2 months apart. Hall applied for a U.S. patent on February 23, 1886, and Elu applied on April 23.  French patent, application form was sent to the U.S. Patent Office on May 23.  Of course, the US patent has been given to Hall.  This is a coincidence.

    Both scientists died young in 1914, at the age of 51, from typhoid fever.  If penicillin had been available at that time, I wonder if such a tragedy could have been avoided!

    If it weren't for the appearance of Wang Geng's butterfly, in the previous life, the Nanman-Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd. of Little Japan discovered bauxite in Fushun in 1924 and established the Fushun Aluminum Factory in 1938. By 1945, a total of more than 45,000 tons of electrolytic aluminum had been produced.  The output was only over 6,000 tons. In 1945, Lao Maozi occupied the Northeast and dismantled all the workshop equipment back to Russia!

    History will not repeat itself. The large-scale use of aluminum alloys in cars and airplanes will have to wait until the end of World War I to reveal the secret of Germany's Dura aluminum. At this time, aluminum chemical scientists at the Technology R&D Center under the Manhattan Industrial Bank,  Under the guidance of Wang Geng, through countless experiments and explorations, the aluminum alloy material with the physical properties of Duralumin that Wang Geng requested was finally produced at the end of December 1917!

    Of course, the mere output of the laboratory is far from enough, and Wang Geng, like the Germans, does not intend to let the code of Duralumin appear in the public eye at this moment. Therefore, even the laboratory and American experts, as well as Vivila,  All the equipment of a medium-sized electrolytic aluminum plant that I bought was shipped to China along with the ninth batch of arms!
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report