Chapter 8 Chapter 8 "Compasses" and "Planets"

The road led again up the hill, and when they reached the top, the travelers had before them a picture which none of them had ever seen.Which giant has slipped into the textile factory and spread thousands of bolts of colorful stuff on the ground?The farthest hills seemed to be covered with strips of calico, with tiny flower dots printed on them: black, white, yellow, green, red.The nearer ones had peas printed on them.They fit so tightly that they cover the entire ground.Nearer the ground was covered with large circles of different colors.The yellow and red circles are shining in the middle of the green field, which is particularly vivid.

"It's as if someone specially used a compass to draw a line on the ground and then painted it in color." The little thumbtack said. "Who can use a compass to draw a line on the earth?" Quan Zhi replied. "Let's drive closer and we'll understand." The further the car descended from the mountain, the more unclear the circle became, until it almost disappeared.The road on which the car was speeding became as smooth as a forest road.Poppies grew on both sides of the road.All was as it was on a ride in the woods, only here instead of the trunk were long green stems, on which red poppies glistened in the sun.The car passed through clumps of carrots, strawberries, and yellow dandelions.Then, another field of poppies.

"Probably some people who eat poppies live here." Xiao Hualian said. "What is this that eats poppies?" asked Quan Wu. "Well, those who like to eat poppies. Everything here, whether poppies or carrots, must be grown by them." "Who would plant such a large piece? They can't eat it all in a lifetime." The car quickly drove out of Poppy, and our travelers saw a strange machine not far from the road, like a snowplow and a tractor. This snowplow slowly walked in circles and cut the grass. .Just stop the car and see how it works. Getting closer, the travelers saw a hair clipper-like device on the front of the machine.The machine keeps mowing the grass, which immediately falls under the knives.The knife kept cutting it into small pieces, and then sent it on a conveyor belt between two toothed drums, which rotated rapidly, as if chewing it with their teeth.The chewed grass just disappears inside the machine.

As soon as the machine was turned on, the ground was plowed, so that a plow was supposed to be inside the machine, but it was not visible from the outside.Behind them are mechanized rakes, which loosen the plowed land like ordinary rakes.The word "compass" is written on the machine. The most surprising thing is that the machine is not driven by a human.There was no one in the seat behind the steering wheel.Quan Zhi and his friends carefully looked at the machine from all directions, but they didn't even find anyone. "This thing is really good!" Xiao Hualian said. He was about to express his surprise, but realized in time, and retracted his words.

The little thumbtack was not too enthusiastic about the machine, she said: It's time to move forward.However, little ignorance must figure this out.Looking more closely, he saw a pole wrapped with a wire rope in the middle of the field.One end of this wire rope is tied to the side of the machine, and the machine is tied to walk in a circle like this.The wire rope is slowly released and stretched, and the circle drawn by the machine is getting bigger and bigger. "Ah, that's it!" Quan Zhi was very happy. "Well, let's see what happens after the wire rope is finished."

It didn't take long for the machine to draw the last largest circle, stop by itself, and whistled: "Doo-boo! Doo-boo! Doo-boo!" A whistle sounded from a distance, as if in answer.The siren stopped.Not long after, there was a rattling sound, and the travelers saw a little man riding a funny tracked motorcycle coming.The little man jumped out of the car and greeted the travelers politely: "Perhaps you are interested in the operation of 'compass'?" "What's this? A lawn mower?" asked Omniscient. "No, they call it the Universal Circle Automatic Seeder," said the little man. "The combine cuts the grass, loosens the soil with the plow, sows the seed with the mechanized seeder inside, and finally, levels the field. That's not all. As you probably have seen, the grass is sent to Put it into the combined machine, chop it up, knead it softly, and mix it with chemical fertilizers—fertilizers that are very beneficial to plants. When digging the ground, put the top dressing agent that promotes plant growth together with the fertilizer. With it, we can Harvest two, three, or even four times. I also said that I missed a little bit. There is a vacuum cleaner on the front of the machine, behind the mowing mechanism. Its purpose is to suck up the weed seeds that may be mixed with the dust on the ground. Weeds After the seeds are ground by a small mill, they also become fertilizers. The ground grass seeds will not grow again, so they are not harmful to the crops. In this way, the combined machine can not only plow, sow and harrow the land, but also fertilize the ground. Fertilize it and kill weeds. That's why it's all-purpose."

"Then why did you tie the machine to the post?" Quan Mo asked. "In order to make it operate without a driver." said the little man. "The rope that ties the machine to the post is connected to the steering wheel's control system. The tightness of the rope adjusts the steering wheel, making the circle the machine walks in different sizes. Once the rope is fully released, the machine stops automatically and starts to whistle. .The driver came to the United Jet after hearing the siren, and drove it to another field." After all, the little man driver untied the rope, sat behind the steering wheel, and drove the combined machine to another pillar.Here he tied the combination machine to the rope again, got out of the car by himself, and blew the whistle twice.The Combine machine rustled and began plowing the fields around the pillars.

"It's so interesting!" Quan Zhi was very surprised. "Could it be that a machine understands a whistle? How does it know that you need to start the whistle when you blow it?" "Of course the machine doesn't understand anything," said the driver. "However, if you study physics, you should know that sound is transmitted by the vibration of the air. In the middle of the machine of the Combined Engine, there is an instrument that converts the sound waves of the air into electrical energy. With electrical energy, you can start Various machines in the joint aircraft. For example, the brakes are opened after one whistle, the motor is started after two whistles, left turns are made after three whistles, and right turns are made after four whistles..."

At this time, a siren sounded from a distance, "Doo-oo! Doo-ooo! Doo-ooo!" "Oh," said the driver. "This is the end of the 'Planet' operation! You have to hurry. Do you want to see the 'Planet'? It's not far from here, and it will be there in a minute." Everyone agreed, and was about to get into the car when the little man said it was best to go on his motorcycle.It's really strange to travellers, the seat of the motorcycle is so long that all four people can sit down.The driver sat down first, followed by Don't Know, Little Thumbtack, and finally Little Painted Face.

The little man started the motor, and the motorcycle slid along the ground at a speed so fast that everyone couldn't breathe.Indeed, after a minute or a minute and a half they were at the side of another Combine, which had finished plowing a circular field and had stopped there.The driver blew the whistle to drive the Combine to the other post and set it to work again.On the side of the Joint Engine is written in beautiful words: "Planet". "Is this a machine with another structure?" Quan Mo asked. "No, the structure is exactly the same." The driver replied.

"Then why is that one called 'Compass' and this one 'Planet'?" "Each of our machines has its own name, because it's much more beautiful than writing various numbers on the machine." "You manage two machines at the same time? Running back and forth from 'compass' to 'planet' on a motorcycle? ' asked the little thumbtack. "No, I have ten machines, 'centrifugal', 'centripetal', 'gyroscope', 'compass', 'snail', 'mill', 'windmill', 'orbit', 'satellite', 'planet'. " "Can you take care of all ten machines?" Little Pushpin wondered. "It's not difficult at all. I still have spare time to read or bask in the sun. But to be honest, these machines are old and have a lot of problems." "What's wrong with it?" Quan Wu asked curiously. "First, their range of activities is too small, because they are controlled by ropes. The ropes cannot be stretched infinitely. Therefore, the machines have to be replaced when they are old, the land to be plowed is not large, and the production efficiency is also very low." "Can't it be done without a rope?" Quan Mo asked. "Of course. In the latest modern machines, wireless electromagnetic communication is used instead of rope control. A powerful wireless electromagnetic is installed in the center of the ground, that is, a magnet that can function at a long distance. This is also installed on the steering wheel control system of the combined machine. A kind of wireless electromagnetic, but the size is relatively small. The closer the two magnets are, the greater the suction force is, and the greater the angle of steering wheel rotation is. The farther they are apart, the smaller the suction force, and the smaller the steering wheel rotation angle. The machine starts out making small circles around the central radio, and with each turn the circle gets bigger and can be infinitely large. If you want, I can show you this radio-controlled combination cultivator in operation. " "Is it far?" Xiao Hualian and Xiao Pushpin asked. "Very near. Let's just go up that little hill, and we can see everything from there." Everyone happily agreed, and set off on a tracked motorcycle.