1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 254 All American talents are in my possession (third update)

The demonstration was just a minor episode for Liang Yao, and he didn't take it seriously at all.

It's just a small group of factory owners who don't want to pay fines, and it won't cause much trouble. It's not a strike by workers in California.

Liang Yao continued to exchange experiences with a group of mechanics, engineers and inventors at Tingtao Garden.

High-end talents poached from the east have arrived in San Francisco one after another, and some of the inventors have brought their own inventions here to seek investment from Liang Yao.

Liang Yao now has a high reputation in the invention community, not only because he spent 1 million US dollars to establish the Liang Yao Invention Award, but inventors in the American invention community also recognized Liang Yao's inventive ability.

Regarding Liang Yao as an inventor greatly shortened the distance between Liang Yao and these inventors.

The novel gadgets invented by these inventors will incubate many new industries in California. Liang Yao attaches great importance to the arrival of these inventors.

Pinkerton was very professional, and the California Intelligence Agency won the first battle.

The Intelligence Bureau easily obtained evidence from the organizers and small leaders of the demonstration movement that the factory owners maliciously organized and incited demonstrations.

Faced with irrefutable evidence and pressure from banks to cut off loans, the disobedient factory owners quickly gave in.

I paid double the fine honestly.

The factory owners who did not cause trouble were very happy. Seeing the factory owners who made trouble pay double the fine, they felt very happy. They were glad that they had made a wise choice and saved a lot of money.

Of course, the happiest thing is the Department of Finance. The $2.5 million fine collected this time has made California's fiscal coffers suddenly full.

Finance Minister Deng Wenyu laughed from ear to ear when he saw the fines collected.

When the Minister of Education Pearman came to ask for education subsidies, he happily waved his hand and approved the Ministry of Education's budget.

Pillman also left the Department of Education contentedly.

At this time, Liang Yao's Tingtao Garden had become an industrial exhibition venue.

Liang Yao held an inventor salon event in Tingtao Garden.

There are a variety of machinery and industrial equipment placed in the park. These machines and equipment, especially machine tools, represent the top level of American industry in the mid-19th century.

The mid-19th century was a golden age for America's talented people.

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American machine tools are very advanced in the world, not far behind those in the UK.

British factories had a large number of machines left over from the first industrial revolution. By the mid-19th century, these old machines had become a burden.

However, it costs a lot of pounds to replace factory equipment. Therefore, although many factory owners and capitalists in the UK know that the equipment in their factories is outdated, they are reluctant to pay for replacement and continue to make do with it.

Anyway, Britain has no shortage of markets, and the colonies can always sell whatever they produce.

The United States does not have such a burden, and of course it does not have as many colonial markets as the United Kingdom. Therefore, various processing machine tools and milling machines have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

Liang Yao stood in front of a copy engraving machine, to be precise, a copy engraving machine for carving gun butts.

Seeing this copy engraving machine reminded Liang Yao of the machines that would be used to engrave keys on the street in later generations.

The principles of the two are the same, except that the profiling engraving machines of this era were rougher and larger.

Driven by the steam engine, the engraving machine started slowly. As the engraving machine ran, a log slowly took shape under the engraving of the engraving machine, and gradually took on the shape of a gun butt.

After a while, the butt was formed, and Walter took some sandpaper to polish the butt slightly. After removing the burrs on the butt, he compared it with his own handmade butt.

The two gun butts were almost the same, Walter couldn't help but admired them.

When Walter was making the Walter M1852 prototype gun, the butts were all handmade by himself, although his carpentry was pretty good and could rival that of an old carpenter.

But making a qualified gun stock takes at least half a day, and the efficiency is definitely not as good as that of a machine.

"Mr. Blanchard, your engraving machine is so powerful! The efficiency is at least 100 times that of manual work!"

Brand just chuckled and said: "This machine is a machine tool that I fiddled with more than ten years ago when I was improving equipment for the Springfield Arsenal. Of course, some improvements have been made now, and the efficiency is much higher.

.

At that time, the Springfield Arsenal was manufacturing gun stocks too slowly and could not complete the order in time. Since using my machine, the Springfield Arsenal no longer has to worry about not being able to complete the order."

With that said, Blanchard sold his machine to Liang Yao.

"Mr. Liang, I heard that you opened an arsenal in Sacramento. I think this machine of mine will also be useful in your arsenal. How about it? Buy it! You can buy it for only $20,000.

it!"

"I spent 50,000 US dollars. Not only do I want to buy it, I also want to buy its patent. Have you brought the drawings?" Liang Yao asked.

Blanchard didn't expect Liang Yao's appetite to be so big, and then the lion said loudly: "I brought it with me. If I bring the patent, US$50,000 is not enough, at least US$100,000 is needed."

"A maximum of 70,000 US dollars. Apart from me, I'm afraid no arsenal in the United States will buy your machine together with the patent, otherwise you wouldn't have brought the machine all the way to California." Liang Yao began to counteroffer.

Liang Yao can find ways to deceive inventors like Walter who are down and out, and inventors who have not yet become famous like Nobel, for his own benefit.

But an inventor like Blanchard, who has a successful career and is already famous, will not be willing to succumb to others.

When the Springfield Arsenal wanted to hire Blanchard, Blanchard rejected it. In the end, he only accepted the Springfield Arsenal's invitation and agreed to design improved machines for the arsenal.

However, it would be a good choice to cooperate.

"make a deal!"

Blanchard looked like he was at a disadvantage and gritted his teeth and agreed.

After the deal was concluded, Blanchard sold a barrel drilling machine and rifling machine to Liang Yao, preparing to provide Liang Yao with a full set of services.

"Mr. Liang, take a look at my barrel drilling machine and rifling machine."

After Liang Yao looked at Blanchard's barrel drilling machine and rifling machine, he shook his head repeatedly.

He just said to a young man on the side: "Howe, show Mr. Blanchard our barrel drilling machine and rifling machine."

Speaking of young people, Frederick Webster Howe, who just turned 30 this year, is 9 years older than Liang Yao.

Although Howe is still very young, he has already made considerable achievements. In his early 20s, he invented the profiling machine, deep hole drill and rifling machine.

Later scholars believed that Howe's invention of the profiling machine was the beginning of the American machinery manufacturing industry catching up with Britain.

Howe showed Blanchard its barrel drilling and rifling machines, two machines that Howe had designed and built while serving as superintendent of the Robbins-Lawrence factory.

The Robbins-Lawrence factory was a factory in the United States that specialized in designing and producing machine tools, but the Robbins-Lawrence factory no longer exists.

After the Robbins-Lawrence factory was acquired by America Group, it merged with several other acquired machinery companies, including Bridgeport Machinery Company, which manufactured sewing machines, to form a large machinery company: General Machinery Company.

Hao served as the technical director and vice president of the new General Machinery Company. He followed the factory's equipment and original team and came to California with Liang Yao's fleet.

General Machinery Company is now also a company that Liang Yao focuses on cultivating.

After seeing Howe's barrel boring machine and rifling machine in action, Blanchard was humbled.

"Your barrel drilling machine and rifling machine are indeed better than mine, but why have I never heard of such a good machine before?"

"This is the latest machine. The Robbins-Lawrence factory only manufactured the first prototype of a barrel drilling machine and the first rifling machine in February 1851, and sent them to the Crystal Palace in London for the first World's Fair.

These two days are machines that have been improved after the Robbins-Lawrence factory was acquired by the American Group, and there is only one of them in the United States. Of course you have never seen it." Howe explained to Blanchard very humbly.

Blanchard stared at Hao for a long time, looking at Hao's young face, and couldn't help but sigh: "Young people are scary. Now that you have Mr. Liang's help, your future will be limitless. You will definitely be better than an old man like me."

"Senior will always be my senior. He was my idol when I was a child. It is my honor to see you in person in California today," Hao said very modestly.

“Improvements in barrel drilling and rifling machines are not the work of me alone, but the work of the entire R&D team at General Machinery, especially my two new apprentices, Platt and Whitney, whose abilities

He is no worse than a master like me, and he has provided many constructive suggestions for improving machine tools."

Blanchard patted Hao on the shoulder very appreciatively, said a few words of encouragement to Hao, and then said to Liang Yao: "Mr. Liang, you have so many talented people, Pratt and Whitney."

Where are the young men? I want to see these two young men."

Liang Yao was noncommittal and looked at the inventors, engineers, and mechanics who were chatting and exchanging in the manor. He really had the feeling that all American talents were at his disposal.

Although he spent a lot of money to recruit many of these talents from various companies, he felt that the money was well spent.

Liang Yao waved to the young man who was tinkering with a milling machine and shouted, "Pratt, Whitney, Mr. Blanchard would like to meet you."

Pratt and Whitney, who were inseparable, heard this and walked over together to say hello to Blanchard.

Platt and Whitney were hired by Liang Yao from Colt.

As for why Colt was not purchased directly, the reason is also very simple.

First, Samuel Colt himself did not sell, and second, Colt was no longer a small company at this time.

Colt's Hartford, Connecticut, factory alone has 1,500 employees and provides 1,500 local jobs.

Colt is a company that the Connecticut government pays special attention to. After learning that Liang Yao purchased the factory, the Connecticut government also lobbied Colt to block the acquisition.

A similar situation was encountered when acquiring the Robbins-Lawrence plant in Vermont.

In order to successfully acquire the Robbins-Lawrence factory, Liang Yao finally thought of a way to transfer part of the production capacity of the Boston Butterfly Sewing Machine Manufacturing Factory to Vermont and open a branch factory in Vermont to provide local jobs and contribute tax revenue.

The Vermont government did not object to the acquisition.

In this era, local trade protectionism is prevalent in the United States, and politicians in each state are very shrewd.

But it's all worth it.

The names Pratt and Whitney may be unfamiliar to many people, but when it comes to the name Pratt & Whitney, everyone will be familiar with it.

This company was founded by Pratt and Whitney in 1865.

After the company was reorganized into a conglomerate in 1925, the aircraft engines produced by Pratt & Whitney became world-renowned.

(End of chapter)