1855 United States Tycoon

The Franco-Prussian War came to an end. There are two winners in this battle, one is Prussia, and the other is the McDonald family. Through this battle, a series of products of the McDonald family have won widespread attention in Europe, among which radio and steel have received the most attention. Nowadays, almost all European countries are in contact with the McDonald family, hoping to purchase related technology or products for radio transmitters. A large number of orders have flown in like a snow flake, which makes Dorothea, who is responsible for wireless communication. She couldn't keep her mouth shut all day happily, although her workload has greatly increased, but she seems to be more energetic. Now, she still wakes up from time to time in her sleep, but now her dream is no longer hunger and scarcity, but countless orders and boxes after boxes of gold.

Compared to Dorothea, who was excited, Catherine seemed much calmer. MacDonald Steel is also very popular. The steel they produce is low-cost and high-quality. It is with their technology that German Krupp can produce those light and powerful artillery, which lies in the great battle of the Austrians. Prevail. Today, Krupp Steel's business is booming, and the McDonald family, as an important shareholder, has also benefited a lot. And what Krupp got was only alkaline converter technology, the real killer, open hearth technology, has always been firmly grasped by the McDonald family.

Nowadays, British and French people come to talk to them about the transfer of alkaline converter technology. Considering the current high tariff environment, it is not the time to export steel directly, so the establishment of joint ventures through the transfer of technology is also one of the current means to obtain benefits. And considering the low cost in Europe, Catherine even wanted to go directly to Europe to build a factory. It's just that this proposal was rejected by Scrooge.

The French are now the most enthusiastic about alkaline converters, because France has always had a problem, that is, the poor quality of iron ore. And it was a company, not a pauper with no two money in his pocket like a small three. So Catherine finally bought this technology at a very good price.

On Saturday, after dinner, it’s time for family members to gather together to discuss the family’s business every week. The elder Joseph and his wife discovered very early that the complexity of today's business has far exceeded their ability to understand, so they have completely ignored these things. So after dinner, the old couple went for a walk in the garden and let the four Juniors stay there to discuss.

As usual, the four people each talked about what happened during the week for which they were responsible, and then the others put forward their own opinions and suggestions and discussed with each other. This family meeting should be over. But today, when this process is completed, Scrooge has thrown a new topic.

"Next year in Paris, France, the World Expo will be held. This is a big event. All kinds of technologies and commodities from all over the world will be displayed here. For us, this is also an opportunity for us to open up the European market. . So, I want to discuss with everyone what preparations our McDonald family should do."

Scrooge looked at everyone and said, "I asked Bond to sort out some materials about the World Expo. You can check it out." Scrooge handed the somewhat bound documents to the Carrolls. And Dorothea. Several people flipped through the information under candlelight.

"I won’t say much about the significance of the World’s Fair. Taking the British fair in 1851, it almost opened an era. Catherine, you will also have an impression. The technology of China has been developed by leaps and bounds, and finally created one wealth of legend after another. The Paris Exposition in 1855 also had the same effect. This time, as far as we have learned, the theme of this exposition is'labor "History", the first time a systematic classification method was used in the layout of this World Expo. They divided the exhibits into ten categories for easy viewing. About this category, you also have it in your information. Think about it, how can we participate in this event to get an instant success."

Everyone didn't speak, only the rustling of the paper was heard in the room.

After a while, Dorothea spoke first.

"It would be great if we could move between our iron towers," Dorothea said. "It must be more spectacular than the Crystal Palace."

"The prototype of that tower should be in Paris." Scrooge thought silently, "It's just that it was in Paris many years later. But now that there is his own trouble, it is estimated that the Eiffel Tower will disappear."

"We can take a model over." Carroll said.

"What is the meaning of the model. It is so difficult that we can still say to the audience:'You can imagine it as a giant more than three hundred meters high.'" Catherine said, "A model is far worse than the Crystal Palace. "

"There are several great inventions under study in the big laboratory." Scrooge said, "For these two projects, we have invested half a million dollars in. Now many of these projects have had results, and some , Is also progressing smoothly. I think some of them should make our exhibition hall look extraordinarily different."

"Scrooge, stop selling it, what kind of thing is it, and is there anything comparable to the telegraph?"

"Yes, it is a great invention that can bring light to the night-electric light!"

"Electric light? What is that?" Carol asked.

It is indeed a light bulb. Think about it. In Scrooge’s previous life, almost every elementary school student knew that one was used to explain "failure is the damn thing to succeed", "persistence is victory", and "there is a will." The story of a similar point of view: Edison invented the electric light.

The electric light is not complicated in principle, but it uses the thermal effect of electric current to heat a piece of filament to an incandescent state and then emit light. But in actual operation, there are a series of problems. The first is the choice of filament. Everyone from later generations knows that filament should be made of metal tungsten. Because tungsten is the metal with the highest melting point, it is more able to withstand high temperatures during work. So it is said that some traversers wore the United States in the Gilded Age like Scrooge, and then ran to tell Edison that tungsten wire must be used!

In fact, in the original history, in order to invent the electric light, Edison did thousands of experiments. He did not have the idea of ​​using metal tungsten as the filament material. It was just that tungsten was very hard. Under the technology conditions at the time, he wanted to The difficulty of drawing tungsten into a thin wire is really not a little bit.

So Edison finally chose the carbon filament carbonized from bamboo. Under the technology conditions at that time, it was definitely the most correct choice.

The second problem encountered in Edison's development of electric lights was the efficiency of the air extractor. The filament can not be exposed to the environment with oxygen, because after the temperature ascending, even the metal will have a violent oxidation reaction with oxygen. The income is more clear, but it will burn. So Edison came up with the idea of ​​evacuating all the air in the bulb. In this way, there is no oxygen in the bulb, and the filament will naturally not burn out due to the oxidation reaction. However, at that time, the efficiency of the air extractor was very limited. As a result, there was still a lot of oxygen remaining in the bulb, which caused the filament to burn out quickly. In fact, the lifespan of the first practical light bulb manufactured by Edison was only forty hours. The important reason for this is that the air is not pumped cleanly.

But for this problem, Scrooge has a corresponding solution. That is, first vacuumize as much as possible, then fill in nitrogen that will not support combustion, and then evacuate, and then add high-purity nitrogen, so that after many cycles, the residual oxygen in the electric bulb will naturally be very little, and the amount is not enough. In order to affect the safety of the filament.

After solving these two major problems, the development of electric lamps became easier all at once. It became another great invention that changed history in the big laboratory.

The development of the electric lamp bypassed the trouble of vacuuming, but a derivative of it allowed Scrooge and Edison to honestly study high-efficiency vacuum pumps. This derivative is called an electron tube. Many radio equipment rely on the function of this kind of thing. If at any time, there are electron tubes, then Scrooge's radio station will be truly perfect. Only then can new media such as wireless radio become possible. Therefore, the problem of the air extractor must be overcome, because if it is not solved, the technology tree behind it cannot be lighted up.

In addition to the electric light, the invention of the telephone and the phonograph was also put on the agenda. Compared with electric lights and electronic tubes, these two things, whether it is a telephone or a phonograph, are much less difficult to develop. So the whole research is relatively smooth. Today, the invention of electric lights and telephones has been patented, and the phonograph is still being further improved. But Scrooge is sure that the phonograph will definitely be patented and form a product when it comes to the Paris World Expo. I just don’t know the progress of the tube.

"I hope that by that time, there will be available electron tubes. With these, we will definitely be able to use this World Expo to cause a sensation and make countless money as a result." Scrooge said at last.

"Ah, is this true?" Dorothea said.

"Of course, I will run another big laboratory tomorrow. If you are interested, I can take you to see it."

"Okay." Dorothea said, "I hope these things are as good as you said. So that we can fill the underground vault sooner."

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