龙尾车提水效能研究——兼论明清时期欧洲龙尾车缘何未能取代中国龙骨车

A Research on the Water-lifting Efficiency of the Archimedean Screw:Why It Failed to Take the Place of the Traditional Chinese Water-lifting Device in the Ming-Qing Era

明末传教士熊三拔与徐光启合编《泰西水法》,西方水利机械龙尾车藉此传入中国。虽然龙尾车得到徐光启等明清士人的大力赞赏,但始终未能在中国广泛应用。文章从提水效能的角度对龙尾车的提水能力进行了理论分析,比对了龙尾车与中国传统提水机械龙骨车之间的优劣,发现龙尾车的提水能力与其形制大小密切相关,其机械效率远不如龙骨车;在明清时期的个体小农经济生产方式主导下,提水效能的不足很可能是龙尾车未能被广泛应用的重要原因之一。

In the late Ming Dynasty, the Jesuit missionary Sabbatino de Ursis worked with Xu Guangqi in compiling the book Taixi shuifa （ 泰西水法, Water Methods from the Grand West）, through which the western water-lifting device longwei che （ 龙尾车, Dragon-tail Pump）, the Archimedean Screw, was introduced into China. Although the device was greatly appreciated by a number of Ming-Qing scholars such as Xu Guangxi, it did not win a wide application in China. This thesis try to conduct a theoretical analysis into the water-lifting ca- pacity of the Arehimedean Screw from the perspective of mechanical efficiency. After Comparing this device with the traditional Chinese water-lifting device longgu che （ 龙骨车, Dragon-bone Pump）, it found that the wa- ter-lifting capacity of Dragon-tail Pump is closely related to its geometrical shape and structure, and its mechanical efficiency is much worse than that of the Dragon-bone Pump. The lower water-lifting efficiency may well be one of the most important reasons why Dragon-tail Pump was not widely applied during the Ming and Qing period when the social production was still dominated by the small-scale farming of individual land owners.