Chapter 264: , Wonders

As the most important steam engine manufacturer in the UK, Bolton Watt will naturally not miss such a grand event as the Pakistan Fair. So as soon as I got the news that France will host the Pakistan Fair, I immediately went to the French Embassy and made a request to book an exhibition hall at the Pakistan Fair. Because they had a lot of business dealings with France before, they received special care and got a booth in a prominent position in the exhibition building. Many other businessmen who applied for their booths with them could only get a so-called "semi-outdoor" booth.
After paying the deposit for the exhibition, Bolton asked his son Bolton Jr. and Watt to visit France together. Watt is very proficient in all kinds of machinery, but he does not like to talk business with others. It's not because Watt doesn't understand business—how could he not understand after so many years of partnership with Bolton? But he is more willing to devote his time to researching machinery instead of using it to bargain with others.
It is said that there will be many machines for sale at the Pakistan Fair that everyone has never seen before, and Watt is full of interest in this, so he must go. As for Bolton, there is always someone who can make a decision in the company. Moreover, Bolton is old and travels far away. In case of catching a cold, flu, and then forwarding it to pneumonia, well, that era was far from the invention of the ventilator. Elder Bolton could not support Britain to breathe anyway. The day of the machine.
But just letting Watt go does not work. When Watt got there, when he saw the various machines, how could he even bother to negotiate business? So Bolton let his son little Bolton go with Watt.
Two people brought a group of assistants, and many samples and models, and landed in Calais. After staying at the
Reception for Exhibitors of the Palestine Fair
in Calais for one night, I got into the two carriages that helped them contact the reception and headed towards Paris.
On the way to Paris, Watt saw more electric water pumps and small processing plants that used electricity. The various small metal products in the "London Businessmen" newspaper are basically processed in these small processing plants.
"What is the secret of motors and generators? I really want to see." Inside the carriage, Watt said to little Bolton.
"Yes, but the French are very tight in this regard. These things are basically not allowed to be sold to foreign countries," said Bolton, lowered his voice. "A friend of mine told me that the Navy thought The method stole a motor from here, and many people died for it..."
"What happened?" Watt asked.
"After the sample was stolen back, we first tried to connect it to the battery, but found that it had three wires. No matter which two were connected, the motor would not turn. Then when it was removed, the motor There was an explosion, and several people were killed. Now, we only know that there are a lot of painted copper wires in this thing, entangled in a special way. As for why it can move, how can it move, we still I don’t know anything. It is said that people from the Admiralty and Cambridge University are working it, but there seems to be no result."
"Oh." Watt replied, and then said, "Actually I think there is nothing wrong with using a small steam engine."
As a businessman who has a lot of patents on steam engines, he certainly doesn't like the heresy of electric motors. It's a pity that he still knows too little about electric motors, so that it is difficult to find specific reasons for attacking it. However, knowing that the Admiralty guys have made no progress on this issue still makes Watt very happy.
A few days later, Watt and the others arrived in Paris.
Watt's first impression of Paris was clean. In this era, big European cities are generally very dirty, and Paris was no exception. At that time, European city dwellers would even throw feces and the like directly on the street. After a long time, the street surface was even higher than the houses on either side. As for the smell, dust and so on, you can imagine for yourself.
The situation has changed a bit after the revolution. The saltpetre tension caused by the blockade caused the revolutionary government to treat human excrement as an important strategic resource (this can be used to produce nitrate) and compulsorily expropriate these strategic resources in Paris. So abandoning the directly on the street becomes illegal or even criminal (Robospierre's time).
When Napoleon came to power, the saltpetre problem was basically solved, but this strategic resource collection system was preserved, but the use became compost. In addition, in order to pave the way for the "Roman Empire" in the future, the Ministry of Truth has been using various methods to preach the level of civilization of the Roman Empire, and pile up some reliable, unreliable, and even unreliable things Go to the top of the Roman Empire.
Later, when radio technology was invented, someone made up such a joke: One day, Lucien received a report that a certain archaeological team had discovered copper wires at a certain site in ancient Rome. Lucien was very happy and said, "Great Rome, it's starting to use electricity!" However, when he rushed to the scene immediately, he realized that it was a misunderstanding, and that the thing was not copper wire at all. So Lucien became more and more happy. He said: "The great Rome is already using radio!"
The Ministry of Truth boasted that Rome’s public health was part of the revival of the
Roman spirit
. Public health was raised to a very important level. After the pathogenic bacteria were discovered, this issue was even more emphasized. Napoleon took the opportunity to promote the so-called Paris Transformation Movement, calling on the people of Paris to spend half a day every week in voluntary labor to clean up all kinds of garbage. The first ruling party even took a shovel to participate in voluntary labor every week. At this time, the cry of "Long live Napoleon" would be heard.
The relatively neat and clean streets are the first impression of Paris on Watt. Watt quickly noticed another difference between Paris and London. Paris had far fewer chimneys. This is true even in the factory area.
"This must be a electric motor." Although the sooty air in Paris is obviously sweeter than that in London, no matter whether it is Watt or Little Bolton, they all hope to burn all electric heretics to death with a torch. Just like the British burned Joan to death.
Stayed in Paris for two nights. The next day, Watt went to the University of Paris for a round trip. By the way, he had a conversation with Lavoisier, who happened to be at the University of Paris, about some scientific issues. Watt actually wanted to meet Joseph Bonaparte, another great scientist in France, but Lavoisier told him that Joseph was not in Paris now, and he seemed to have gone to the south.
"It's probably something related to electricity. But he will come back as soon as possible. You will definitely be able to wait for him at the Pakistan Fair. After all, a lot of business there is also related to him." Lavoisier said.
When Watt left from Lavoisier, Lavoisier told Watt: "If you go to the meeting place tomorrow, you should pay attention to the road to the meeting place. That road is very interesting."
Because of this sentence, Watt wondered all night about what is "very interesting" about this road.
Waiting until dawn, after the carriage he was riding on this road, Watt immediately discovered the uniqueness of this road. This gray-white road seemed to be paved with a monolithic boulder, and it was cut very smoothly. The carriage ran on this road with almost no ups and downs.
Watt asked the coachman to stop the car. He got out of the car, and then he kneeled down in disregard of the image, took out the monocle from his jacket pocket, placed it on his right eye, and studied the road carefully.
"This should be cement, right?" Watt said.
Cement is not a rare thing. Natural volcanic ash cement was present in ancient Rome (this is true); the British also made "Roman cement" before. However, "Roman Cement" requires high raw materials, so the cost is not low and the price is high. How much will it cost if "Roman Cement" is used to make such a long road?
So Watt immediately realized that the French must have invented a cheap cement.
"It's cement." William Murdoch, the assistant who got out of the car with Watt at this time, also made this judgment.
"Such a wide, such a long road, how much cement it takes, the French are really..." Little Bolton said.
"Maybe the French invented cheap cement." Watt said~EbookFREE.me~Matthew, when you arrive at the Pakistan Fair, pay attention. If this thing is for sale, there should be a market. Although we are mainly selling our own steam engines, if there are any good things, we should not let it go. Of course, it is better to buy the technology and produce it directly. "
Little Bolton nodded and said yes. Watt put the monocle on his nose back into his pocket, and got back into the carriage with little Bolton and assistant William Murdoch.
In the ensuing journey, several people have been discussing how big a market low-cost cement might have.
After an hour, they arrived at the venue. Several people got off the carriage, and a huge Romanesque building appeared in everyone's eyes.
This is a building very similar in shape to the Roman Pantheon. The front is a rectangular colonnade with twenty-six huge columns, and the situation inside is not clear from here. But this is definitely a building larger in scale than the original Pantheon.
"How long did Napoleon take office as the first governor? Even if you start to build it from the very beginning, you can complete such a building in such a short time. The level of technology involved in this is really shocking. This is really a wonder of this era. Watt said to little Bolton, and at the same time he felt heavy inexplicably.