Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 1278: Chapter 1183: The Genius Questioning His Own Life

The next day at noon, Joseph and the Marquis of Salz discussed the expansion plans for Brest Naval University.

This is a school that teaches ship design and construction, as well as nautical astronomy, rather than a military academy.

Currently, France’s largest ship specialty university only enrolls 130 students annually, covering 15 specialties.

Joseph plans to double the size of the school. Especially since ships have started using steam engines, the demand for skilled technicians has been increasing daily, and talent cultivation must keep pace.

“We could hire some of the older technicians from the United Steam Engine Company as professors…”

Joseph was speaking when Eman came quickly, bowed, and said, “Your Highness, Mr. Trevisick has arrived at the shipyard, and he has also brought two steam engines.”

Joseph nodded, “Please have him wait for me in the main design room.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Half an hour later, Joseph arrived in front of the design building, where Trevisick and three assistants immediately came forward to greet him, bowing in salute.

Joseph smiled and nodded to them, then indicated toward the inside of the design room, “I thought you would arrive earlier than me.”

Trevisick hurried to catch up, “It was pouring rain in Saint Malo, and I was worried the steam engines would get soaked, so I waited there for three days.”

He said as he pointed to the four carriages parked in the middle of the yard, surrounded by a dozen guards, “Fortunately, they all arrived safely.”

“When can they be installed and tested?”

“It would only take half a day, Your Highness.”

“Very good.” Joseph entered an office on the second floor, gestured for Trevisick to sit down, and waited for Eman to close the door before continuing, “Your main task this time is to design a train. Namely, a steam locomotive running on tracks.

“I remember you designed a steam locomotive about six years ago, or perhaps earlier.

“If you improve upon it using the latest 98-horsepower steam engine, do you think…”

“Please wait a moment.” Trevisick suddenly bent down, took a stack of drawings from the leather case he carried, and spread them in front of Joseph, “Actually, I redesigned one in my spare time over the past two years, but I didn’t expect the power of steam engines to increase so quickly, so it only has 75 horsepower.”

Joseph looked at him in surprise, then turned his gaze to the table full of drawings.

To be honest, this was a very strangely designed train, as if four wheels were directly inserted into a horizontally placed boiler, with two smaller steering wheels at the front.

The drive shaft extending from the cylinder was connected to a complex set of gears, transmitting power to the rear wheels. On the other side of the cylinder, there was a huge flywheel for energy storage.

The driver’s position was behind the boiler, operating the train through a few control levers, not even leaving room for a seat. He also had to be responsible for putting coal into the boiler.

Meanwhile, due to the considerable height of the boiler, the driver couldn’t see the front of the train, so Trevisick had to set a “lookout” position in front of the boiler.

When special situations occurred ahead, the lookout would shout reminders for the driver to take appropriate action.

Fortunately, Joseph was mentally prepared and smiled nodding at Trevisick, “You designed it very well.”

He meant no hint of sarcasm. Trevisick didn’t have any convenient advantages; he figured it all out on his own bit by bit, achieving this level is a true genius among geniuses.

“However, I think there are still some areas for improvement.” Joseph pointed to the wheels first.

The wheels on the drawings had a groove on the metal wheel surface, apparently to allow the rails to fit into the groove to ensure the train wouldn’t derail while running.

“For example, here. Simply having an inner side flange can ensure the wheel grips the rail, which can substantially reduce friction between the wheels and rails.”

Trevisick thought for two minutes, finally nodding with admiration, “Indeed, Your Highness, how did you come up with such an ingenious design? It surely deserves a patent.”

Joseph thought to himself, of course, it was copied from the future, but he only waved his hand, “You can apply for a patent along with the train parts later.

“Oh, and the contact surfaces of the wheels and rails are best designed as conical surfaces with the inside thick and outside thin. This way, the rolling radius of the outer wheel increases on turns, while the inner radius decreases, achieving differential steering.”

Trevisick’s eyes were already wide open, as he hastily took out a notebook and began jotting down notes.

Joseph had experienced situations like this many times and was accustomed to it, so after Trevisick finished writing, he continued, “Installing the front wheels directly on the boiler will cause deformation of the boiler, maybe even crack it. It’s better to design a flatbed under the boiler to bear its weight, connecting the wheels below.

“That way, the cab can be larger too…

“The cab is where the person driving the train is. If you’re worried the driver can’t see the front, you could protrude the cab to the right, allowing the driver to look up from the side to see forward…

“Then the lookout could be canceled.

“Instead, he should enter the cab to take charge of feeding coal into the boiler. That will be an exceptionally laborious task.”

He let the designer digest for a moment before pointing to the boiler on the drawings, “The most crucial point. You could flip the boiler, making the cylinder face downward, so the wheels can be driven directly by the pistons, eliminating many transmission gears. Of course, this requires some modifications to the steam engine, like moving the chimney to the bottom…

“Hmm, yes, when flipped it would be upward…”

By seven o’clock in the evening, when Trevisick walked out of the office with two densely-written notebooks, he was starting to doubt reality.

His meticulously designed and adjusted steam locomotive over two years seemed, in the eyes of the Crown Prince, like a child’s scribble full of flaws and deficiencies.

He could be sure that after the improvements specified by the Crown Prince, the steam locomotive—oh, the Crown Prince called it a train—would at least see a 40% performance boost. As for stability and durability, he didn’t even know how many times better it would become.

He glanced again at the notebook in his hand and muttered to himself, “Is this really something I designed?”

Starting the next day, Trevisick guided the shipyard technicians in the morning familiarizing themselves with the structure and performance of the LJ98 steam engine, and in the afternoon, he began receiving guidance from the Crown Prince to improve the train.

In the evenings, he and his assistants redrew the plans based on the Crown Prince’s suggestions to continue modifying them the next day.

In truth, Joseph didn’t truly understand trains but was just describing an old-style train he remembered from the future to Trevisick.

After a busy week, Joseph finally smiled and nodded, seeing the wooden train model Trevisick had made.