1840Indian rebirth

"Has your theory of electrical signals been published?" Prince Albert asked.

Ma Shao: "Yes, it is one of my recently published works."

Prince Albert smiled: "I heard that you have recently contributed to a large number of works intensively, including several books?"

There was a hint of helplessness in Ma Shao's smile: "In fact, I have basically written these a long time ago, but before that, I had no chance to publish them... I have to thank the British academic community for its tolerance."

"Haha," said Prince Albert, "that's how science should be."

"You are right."

Mashao tried to make the British royal couple understand his own theory, or the original historical theory of Kelvin. This seemed a bit troublesome.

Fortunately for Prince Albert, as the president of Cambridge University, although his scientific literacy is not as good as that of real scientists, it is still much better than that of ordinary people. Moreover, he seems to have a strong interest in natural science and listens very attentively.

So after some explanation, Albert partially understood Ma Shao's idea.

As for Her Majesty the Queen, her reaction reminded Ma Shao of a kind of student he often encountered in his past and present lives. The teacher responded very positively, nodding from time to time, or saying things like "understand", "right" or even "choose a".

But an experienced teacher could tell at a glance that she actually didn't understand.

She mostly watched, watching her husband chatting and laughing with the magical Indian scientist, and then they both let out royal and elegant laughter.

Fortunately, Ma Shao actually doesn’t have to do this.

Just like some entrepreneurs in later generations, they don't need to make investors understand their ideas at all, and it would be better not to even understand them. Telling a good story that is eye-catching is enough.

So after Prince Albert had a little understanding of his theory, Ma Shao began to describe various beautiful scenes in the telegraph era.

"...If you look at the world in the future, it will definitely be a world of telegraphs. When telegraph cables cross the four oceans, even if it is as vast as the British Empire, you can receive news from any corner of the country within a day. Even,

In the future every British citizen will be able to hear the voice of their monarch in the electrical signal."

Even with the telegraph, compared with the future information age, the speed of information transmission at this time is still extremely slow, and it is likely that the transmission over a distance of tens of thousands of kilometers will take more than ten hours intermittently.

However, this is still a historic leap. The huge organism of human society has finally begun to develop a keen electromagnetic nervous system.

"Can telegraphs still transmit sounds?" Queen Victoria asked curiously.

Ma Shao: "It's not possible yet, but I believe it won't be long before scientists can solve this problem. At least, I already have some ideas about the technology of copying and preserving human voices."

The production of a gramophone is extremely simple. As long as he is willing, he can make one now. The only thing is that the sound quality is very poor, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a total loss of sound quality.

"Really?" Queen Victoria didn't seem to believe it.

Ma Shao smiled: "Of course, Her Majesty the Queen, when I complete the experiment, I will definitely let you see the machine that can preserve human voices."

The topic returned to the telegraph, and he added: "Before officially establishing a transoceanic telegraph, you can try to establish a cross-ocean telegraph first. For the British mainland, there is no doubt that the English Channel is an obstacle that the telegraph must cross."

Prince Albert: "Yes. I read about the underwater cables in New York Harbor where the Americans wrapped the wires in rubber and then put them into lead pipes to carry telegraphs across the water to Governors Island and Castle Gardens...

…But I asked some scientists and engineers and they generally agreed that such a solution would not work in the English Channel, let alone the Atlantic Ocean.”

"They are right." Ma Shao nodded, "The American plan cannot meet the needs of cross-sea and trans-oceanic telegraphs. If we want to allow telegraphs to cross the strait, first we should improve the material of the cable. I think we can use ancient pagodas.

The glue covers the wire and it has good insulation..."

Queen Victoria seemed to have thought of something: "Gutta percha, isn't that what is used to make new golf balls?"

The two main uses of gutta-percha in the 19th century were to make submarine cables and to make golf balls.

However, Ma Shao never pays attention to golf. In his opinion, foot-picking reflects the nobility of primates better than this sport.

"Really?" he said casually.

Queen Victoria smiled and said: "Indian scientist, it turns out there is something you don't know. Golf balls made of gutta percha are a new thing that has only recently appeared."

Ma Shao described some ideas about the production and laying of submarine cables.

Prince Albert pondered for a moment: "If you were to complete the construction of the cross-English Channel cable, how much money and time do you think it would take?"

"Twenty thousand pounds, one year at most." Ma Shao thought for a while.

This is actually a quite conservative estimate. However, upon hearing this answer, Prince Albert couldn't help but his eyes lit up and he beamed with joy.

The prince immediately said: "Well, I will help you contact France. After getting permission from France, you can immediately lay the cable between Dover and Calais, France. What do you think?"

"What an honor."

Ma Shao had a long exchange with the British royal couple and had dinner together. After leaving Buckingham Palace, he immediately made the cross-English Channel cable his next main job.

He estimated that the project would cost between 10,000 and 20,000 pounds, which was not a small sum, but he did not mind paying for it himself.

Because Ma Shao knew that he could definitely build the cross-English Channel cable, and after it was built, the cable would bring him a steady stream of income, both monetary and non-monetary.

Funds are not a problem, and neither are people.

After all, the great scientist Baron Kelvin, who played an important role in the history of telegraph crossing the ocean, is now by his side.

"From Dover to Calais?" After learning about Ma Shao's plan, Kelvin was a little surprised. Although they had discussed a lot about the cross-ocean telegraph, he didn't expect Ma Shao to put it into practice so soon.

"Let me guess how long this cross-ocean cable is, maybe twenty-five miles?" He thought for a moment.

Horse Whistle: "Your guess is quite accurate, Thomson, but I prefer this statement - forty kilometers."

"Okay." Kelvin nodded, "Sounds like a big project."

Ma Shao smiled slightly: "I think you are not a person who will be scared by this project. What do you think, do you want to build the world's first submarine cable with me?"

Kelvin did not answer, but asked instead: "I heard that you just registered a company related to electricity. Is this preparation for this?"

"That's right." Ma Shao nodded.

“What did you name this company?”

"General Electric."