usatvline Chapter 80 A Layman's Quick Thinking
Chapter 80 A Layman's Quick Thinking
Chapter 80 A Layman's Lucky Idea
Cao Shanfeng was a fifth-rank craftsman in the Mechanical Department of the Gewu Academy.
He is from Shangqiu, Henan Province. He started working for Liu Desheng with his older brother when he was a teenager, and it has been more than 30 years now.
Originally responsible for machining and maintenance, I've been spending these days in the testing workshop repairing equipment.
While Hall and Colt were familiarizing themselves with the various machines in the workshop, Cao Shanfeng was debugging machine tools not far away.
While Cao Shanfeng was working, he would occasionally look up and observe them, watching them for quite some time.
Having figured out what they were researching and finished his own work, he went to the office of Qin Yang, the director of the Military Industry Department.
After exchanging greetings, Cao Shanfeng briefly explained his purpose: "Chief Engineer Qin, I have something to ask you about."
"What are those foreign devils doing with breech-loading rifles? Did our Emperor order them to do this?"
Qin Yang casually agreed: "It can be considered the emperor's decree, but the emperor did not personally receive them."
"The emperor saw their guns and thought they had some merits, but he was not very satisfied because they couldn't hold their breath."
"All breech-loading guns have this problem, it's just a matter of size."
"Does Engineer Cao have any ideas on this? You can share them and let your colleagues in the Military Industry Department give it a try."
Cao Shanfeng actually had an idea: "President Qin, do you know how to connect things like boilers, steam boxes, and steam pipes?"
Qin Yang subconsciously said, "Use rivets? And then add asbestos rope? And rubber or some other kind of sealant?"
Cao Shanfeng immediately explained, "Those old boilers used to be all riveted together."
"In reality, it relies on expansion. The internal heated steam pressurizes the body, causing it to expand outwards and hold back the outside."
"Squeeze it tight inside and out, and it won't leak air. You don't need anything else."
"So when the steam engine is turned on, it leaks air everywhere, but once it gets hot, it basically stops leaking air."
Qin Yang had an idea almost instantly: "Cao's idea—can this kind of expansion seal be used on guns?"
Cao Shanfeng pulled out two short tubes, one slightly thicker and one slightly thinner: "I want to put this thinner one inside the thicker one."
"The gunpowder is lit inside the thin tube, and when it explodes, it will push outwards, so these two tubes will definitely be sealed off."
"It's just like the base-expanding bombs that our emperor made."
"It's best to use thin copper pipes inside and thick steel pipes outside, with copper pipes being the most effective."
"This short section of pipe doesn't require much copper."
Qin Yang thought about it for a moment and felt that this design seemed to have great potential: "This method should be feasible. Engineer Cao, hurry up and find someone to get it done!"
"The breech-loading gun is good in every way, except that the seal is not good, which results in poor range and power."
"If Engineer Cao can solve this sealing problem, it will definitely be a great achievement."
Cao Shanfeng immediately waved his hands and said, "I repair boilers and machines, I don't know how to handle guns."
"We're not very familiar with this area within the military industry division either, so Chief Engineer Qin will have to find someone to do it."
Qin Yang took the two short tubes from Cao Shanfeng and walked around the room twice: "I'll do the design myself! Consider it a collaboration between the two of us!"
"I was responsible for the design of the firearm itself, while Engineer Cao was responsible for the technical support of the key sealing design."
"How does Engineer Cao view this?"
Cao Shanfeng immediately said, "With Chief Engineer Qin personally handling this, how could it not work? It's definitely going to work!"
"I have an idea: you can do the rest of the work, then we don't need to consider it a collaboration anymore."
Qin Yang smiled and said, "Ideas are very important. If you have the right idea, you've already won half the battle."
"So, Engineer Cao, don't be modest. If this matter succeeds, Engineer Cao will deserve at least half the credit."
Cao Shanfeng laughed too: "Of course our old emperor is right, but Chief Engineer Qin is really good at speaking, you're so polite————"
Qin Yang and Cao Shanfeng exchanged compliments before sitting down to seriously discuss the plan.
"How can this nested design of the two tubes be implemented in firearm design?"
"The smaller rear tube should be the chamber, and the larger front tube is the barrel. The chamber and the barrel are connected by a movable joint."
"To achieve the following: push forward, engage, lock, fire, pull back again, lift, load propellant and ammunition —"
"Isn't this the same as the Franz breech-loading cannon? It's basically the same cannon as the small one."
"But the precision of the Franco machine is poor because it leaks air very badly."
"However, the Franconian machine did not use copper tubing for expansion and sealing."
Qin Yang was in charge of ordnance design and had some knowledge of various weapons, both ancient and modern.
Following the line of thought provided by Cao Shanfeng, they quickly came up with the idea of the franc gun, a type of shotgun made in the Ming Dynasty in imitation of the Portuguese.
(A small breech-loading cannon. The cannon has an open bottom and a very short, matching cannon, which serves as the breech and the main cannon as the barrel.)
Once Qin Yang had a basic idea, he immediately sent someone to find a intact Franconian machine and bring it to his office.
Qin Yang, following the structure of the breech-loading cannon, discussed with Cao Shanfeng how to apply it to muskets.
It took more than twenty days to complete the design and make the sample.
On May 27th of the second year of the Hanchang era, Qin Yang and Cao Shanfeng went to the firing range to test the new gun sample.
The two fired a few rounds each with the new gun and their old muzzle-loading rifle, and quickly came to a conclusion that left them both speechless:
The new gun is virtually indistinguishable from a muzzle-loading gun in terms of range, accuracy, and even bullet penetration.
However, its rate of fire significantly exceeded that of a muzzle-loading rifle, reaching the typical level of a breech-loading rifle.
Muzzle-loading rifles typically have a rate of fire of three to four rounds per minute, and their structural design determines their maximum rate of fire.
And this new gun is now firing more than five rounds per minute.
With the soldiers becoming more proficient in their operations, or after further improvements, there should still be room for further enhancement.
Qin Yang and Cao Shanfeng stood there stunned for a while at the firing range, then immediately went back to explain their achievements to Zheng Fuguang, a scholar from the Academy of Natural Sciences.
Zheng Fuguang listened to the two reports with a look of astonishment: "What did you say? The breech-loading gun is almost completely leak-proof? The expected rate of fire can be doubled?"
"Are you serious? Are you talking in your sleep?"
Cao Shanfeng said excitedly, "We'll report back after we've tried it! Mr. Zheng, you can come with us and try it again!"
Zheng Fuguang found it hard to believe, but the two men in front of him were both legitimate craftsmen.
The two explained very carefully, and also introduced the theoretically feasible sealing design principle.
So Zheng Fuguang went to the shooting range with the two of them.
Zheng Fuguang personally checked the time on the clock, and Qin Yang personally loaded and fired the gun, achieving a score of six shots per minute.
The key point is that its accuracy is basically the same as that of a muzzle-loading gun.
Zheng Fuguang watched the results from the side and clicked his tongue in amazement. Then he tried it himself and fired a few shots, achieving a rate of five shots per minute. He personally confirmed the basic parameters of the new gun.
Indeed, as the two men said, it truly possesses both the rate of fire of a breech-loading rifle and the power of a muzzle-loading rifle.
After testing the gun, Zheng Fuguang fiddled with the movable chamber, looking at the narrowed front of the chamber and the exposed brass tube. He couldn't help but mutter to himself, "So the seal was completed so simply. How come no one has ever thought of this before?"
Qin Yang chuckled and said, "It must be because there were no boiler craftsmen to observe and study firearms design in the past."
"Cao Shanfeng, the engineer, knew about boiler sealing methods and happened to be studying the gun sealing technology at the Military Industry Department."
"He immediately came up with this idea to me, and together we made it."
Cao Shanfeng immediately chimed in, "It's all thanks to Chief Engineer Qin's brilliant design. He immediately came up with the idea of building those mother-and-child cannons. I have no idea how that idea could be applied to guns."
After listening, Zheng Fuguang sighed with emotion: "Indeed—we still need to encourage frequent exchanges between craftsmen from different departments—"
"Something that one department can't figure out even if they lose all their hair, another department might already know perfectly well."
"We must report to the Emperor as soon as possible that at the next regular meeting—no, let's go now."
The three of them rode together in a carriage, carrying the gun, into the palace.
When the three of them got out of the carriage at the palace gate, they startled the captain at the gate, who instinctively raised his gun.
Zheng Fuguang quickly grabbed the gun horizontally and moved forward, pointing the muzzle to the side: "Captain, don't be nervous. I am Zheng Fuguang, a Grand Academician of the Academy of Natural Sciences. I have a major project improvement to report to the Emperor."
"It's this spear in my hand. The captain can arrange for someone to carry it, and also send someone to the palace to report."
The captain breathed a sigh of relief when he recognized Zheng Fuguang and immediately went to report as Zheng Fuguang had suggested.
Not long after, Zhang Lexing came out with a group of captains.
He accepted the rifle brought by Zheng Fuguang and entered the palace with Zheng Fuguang and the other two.
Liu Yulong received Zheng Fuguang and the other two at the West Palace and also accepted the new rifle they had brought him.
Looking at the handle protruding from the side of the top of the barrel, Liu Yulong subconsciously assumed they had created a "bolt-action" rifle.
This thing really does look very similar to a bolt-action rifle.
It has a bolt that moves back and forth, and a handle that extends from the side.
But after listening to Qin Yang's explanation, I realized that this thing was not a bolt-action rifle, but a precision-machined "Frangipani".
The movable chamber is indeed a typical early breech-loading design, and the Hall M1819 also has a similar design.
The Hall effect rifle has a completely separate bolt and chamber, and can even be disassembled as a whole for use as a pistol. This structure makes it difficult to seal.
(The Hall M1819 breech-loading rifle, with its breech opened and tilted upwards, resembles a small pistol hidden inside a rifle.)
What looks like a bolt on this rifle is actually a chamber that can move back and forth, corresponding to the gunpowder loading mechanism on a breech-loading machine gun.
The part that forms the chamber appears to be significantly larger than the bolt.
The barrel is made of steel, tapered at the front, and has a slightly smaller diameter copper tube embedded inside, which is about half an inch longer than the barrel.
Most of the operating methods are very similar to those of bolt-action rifles.
When the bolt handle is facing upwards, the entire chamber can be pushed forward, and the narrowed part of the chamber is inserted into the expanded part at the breech of the barrel and nested together. The copper tube continues to extend forward into the depth of the barrel, allowing the chamber and the barrel to be tightly connected.
Move the handle to the side, wed it in front of the fixed structure, and pull the trigger to fire.
After firing, lift the handle upwards and then pull it back to the bottom to pull out the copper tube.
The subsequent operation is different from that of a bolt-action rifle.
Continue to pull the handle back, causing the front of the gun barrel to tilt upwards, exposing the copper tube inside the barrel.
Manually load gunpowder and projectiles into the copper tube, press down, and then push forward again.
Copper pipes will wear out, so they need to be replaced regularly.
This gun still uses separate-loading ammunition and still requires a separate percussion cap for firing.
The most vulnerable part is the connection between the hammer and the trigger, which is wrapped around the moving chamber, and the matching firing port that rotates with the chamber. If the two are not aligned, it will not fire.
Overall, the manufacturing difficulty is not high, and it is on par with traditional breech-loading guns.
The biggest design difference from other traditional breech-loading guns is the copper tube that works together to achieve the expansion and sealing effect.
This thing shouldn't be considered a bolt-action rifle; it still has a conventional breech-loading rate of fire of about six rounds per minute, roughly equivalent to the rate of fire of conventional breech-loading rifles like the Hall M1819.
Currently, it has only half the number of early bolt-action rifles such as the Dreiser M1841 and Chassepot 1866, and one-third the number of later mature bolt-action rifles such as the Mauser Kr98k.
If compared to a bolt-action rifle, the copper tube is equivalent to a cartridge case fixed to the top of the bolt, and loading ammunition is equivalent to reloading on the spot.
It is this brass reusable cartridge case that gives it an extremely high sealing effect, equivalent to a bolt-action rifle using metallic cartridges, meaning it is almost airtight.
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