Since this was a bidding demonstration, there were not many people present.
Kexer had the Royal Guards keep all unrelated personnel outside. Mr. Murdoch, the Chief Technician of the United Steam Engine Company, personally pushed open the door to the Demonstration Workshop and bowed as he invited the Crown Prince inside.
Trevithick, who oversaw the research and development of cylinders and pistons, followed beside Joseph and continued introducing the progress of the new Steam Engine model:
"...After using the special steel from the Namur Royal Ironworks to make the connecting rods, crankshafts, and pressure pipes, its pressure resistance has indeed improved markedly.
"Actually, we can now produce a model that stably delivers sixty-one horsepower. However, Mr. Murdoch believes that the increase in power is limited, while the cost of mass production is too high."
He was referring to the first-generation Manganese Steel smelted by the Namur ironworks. Its strength and wear resistance had improved significantly over ordinary High-carbon Steel. After Murdoch applied it to the Steam Engine without making any other major adjustments, the power output increased by eighteen percent.
Trevithick continued, "At present, the greatest limit on increasing power is the terrible performance of Cast Iron Boilers. If you are lucky, they can withstand 0.7 MPa of pressure. If you are unlucky, they can barely reach 0.5 MPa, and it is difficult to test this in a short period of time."
Murdoch had already explained to Joseph that cast iron meant liquefying iron, pouring it into molds made from sand and soil, then removing it after it cooled. This process left tiny air bubbles inside the parts during casting, while different areas cooled at different rates. Once the pressure rose, they could easily burst apart.
The solution was to use Cold Forging to create the rough boiler blank, then