Rise of the Argentine Empire

The nuclear industry is a symbol of national misfortune and chaotic wars, yet it is also an important weapon for weak countries to break through technological barriers and control their own destiny.

Saint-Hesse's plan is to lay a good foundation first and help Argentina get back on the road to developing atomic bombs.

In fact, Argentina started from scratch in 1950, purchasing and building research reactors, building basic supporting facilities for nuclear technology, and had a certain degree of development.

Now, the Perón government is committed to developing radiochemistry, metallurgical engineering, and nuclear physics, and training nuclear technicians and physicists. Many nuclear technology experts have basically reached the world's first-class level.

As we all know, Ronald Richter, a civilian scientist, almost paralyzed Argentina's nuclear program, spending more than 100 million US dollars before and after, with almost no results. Not only was there no hydrogen bomb, but even the atomic bomb was not within the research and development plan of Argentina's National Atomic Energy Agency. It can be said that it was just castles in the air.

The reason why Argentina's research and development failed is that it aimed too high. The steps were too big and pulled the egg. It can be said that almost all countries in the world first develop atomic bombs and then engage in hydrogen bombs. There is one country that started at the same time, but that was also done with the support of Soviet experts and the full investment of the entire country.

But Argentina actually wanted to achieve it in one step, developing a brand-new hydrogen bomb architecture.

You should know that there is only one hydrogen bomb detonation model in the world now, which is the TU model.

Commonly known as a big bomb inside a small bomb, simply put, the power generated by an atomic bomb nuclear explosion ignites the hydrogen bomb.

Even the Soviets solved the hydrogen bomb according to this idea.

And Richter is a real good guy. He not only deceived the Perón government but also developed an electronic organ, which was a waste of money.

Even Saint-Hesse hates him a little bit. He plans to find a Jewish killer to kill this guy. The Perón government is preparing to release this guy, but Saint-Hesse can't stand it. Deportation is too cheap for this person.

Such a German can be said to have no value. After killing him, blame it on the Israeli Jews. Anyway, this guy is probably a waste who eats and drinks for free. Living is a waste of food.

After killing him, promote that this guy is a war criminal, which can make the Germans in Argentina follow Saint-Hesse more wholeheartedly to do things.

You can even directly reveal the news to the Israeli Jews and let them do it themselves. You don't need to waste resources.

The big bomb inside a small bomb can be said to require an atomic bomb. Argentina doesn't even have an atomic bomb, let alone developing a illusory new hydrogen bomb architecture. The difficulty can be said to be dozens of times more difficult than the new China's independent production of an 8nm lithography machine in later generations.

At that time, the new China, after several years of leap-forward development, as well as a series of combined punches of industrial investment and subsidies, quickly produced its own world-class lithography machine, completely breaking the blockade of the Americans. The Americans quickly withdrew the lithography machine blockade, but it was too late.

Saint-Hesse recalled that magnificent history. Canada had completely become an American lackey at that time, which is incomparable to the current toughness. The Americans can only engage in inferior things.

Speaking of which, the main hydrogen bomb configurations used by the United States and the Soviet Union are T-U configurations, which can only be detonated by atomic bombs. Hydrogen bombs are a type of nuclear weapon, belonging to the second generation of nuclear weapons, also known as fusion bombs and thermonuclear bombs.

From 1951, the United States and the Soviet Union successively began hydrogen bomb tests. Among them, the United States detonated the first hydrogen bomb in 1951, but the technology was relatively primitive, and the detonation yield was not very large. The hydrogen bomb exploded by the United States in Eniwetok in 1952 was too large and could not be used in actual combat because it was too large and too troublesome to be dropped by bombers.

And the Soviet Union is now putting hydrogen bombs into actual combat. Saint-Hesse remembers that its first detonation yield was only 400,000 tons. Although it was much larger than Little Boy, it was still a bit small because the Soviet hydrogen bomb was small enough to be transported by plane, so it could be used in actual combat.

Under the pressure of the Soviets, the United States also began to manufacture hydrogen bombs for actual combat. To be honest, these two major powers were also stimulated by the false news from Argentina in 1951. Otherwise, these two superpowers would definitely not have developed more powerful hydrogen bombs so quickly.

Saint-Hesse did not recruit many nuclear physicists in the United States, but only obtained some centrifuge equipment. The two most famous laboratories in the American nuclear industry are the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago and the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York.

In fact, the laboratories that developed hydrogen bombs, the Los Alamos Laboratory and the newly established Livermore National Laboratory, have a high degree of secrecy, and Guerrero and others have no way to spy on information in this regard.

So, they can only save the country through curves. While recruiting young physicists in the United States, they are preparing to find opportunities in Canada.

Mature physicists are on file with the US intelligence agencies. Saint-Hesse originally established a shell company called Enco Electric, with only one or two people on staff.

As a result, when recruiting, he found that he could not find suitable engineering personnel and was often regarded as a scam company. Moreover, Sain and others were engaged in finance and were not familiar with the electrical industry, nor did they have suitable people.

Saint-Hesse had no choice but to come forward and change this shell company into a real company. Fortunately, he now has enough money, and electrical companies can also sell electrical appliances.

Electrical, electronic, and electrical industries can all be involved, and the United States has enough talent and markets for development. In contrast, Argentina is not good, with not much foundation.

Saint-Hesse has also contacted Siemens and General Electric and bought the canned food production lines they produced.

Developing electrical appliances and electronics is also easy. Start with the home appliance industry first. The United States does not lack talent and equipment in this regard.

First, set up the headquarters in New York, and the company name is also changed to New York Enco Electric Company.

The first step is to find an office building as the headquarters.

Setting it in Manhattan is too extravagant. Finally, Saint-Hesse found a large office building near Blackwater Company in Queens and rented three floors as the headquarters.

Then start hiring people and advertising.

Soon, Enco Electric's advertisements were published in major newspapers in New York.

Saint-Hesse is recruiting management personnel with factory experience, production department, human resources department, finance department, and engineering department. Soon, a small team was formed.

Then, Saint-Hesse plans to start producing some small appliances, which are cheap, require less investment, and the United States must have existing production lines.

Wolf Heim, please arrange for the engineering department technicians to hold a technical meeting in the conference room on the third floor at 10 o'clock later.

Saint-Hesse walked to Wolf's workstation and said to the supervisor.

"Yes, boss."

Soon, a group of people gathered around Wolf. Everyone was a little curious. When they were recruited, they were fooled by Enco Electric, and when they arrived, they found that it was just a new company that had been established for a few months.

If Saint-Hesse hadn't boasted so much and the salary was more competitive, these people would have run away long ago.

"Heim, what do you think the boss will be meeting about later?"

A technician named Ou Wei asked. He came from Philadelphia Peco Power Company and actually had no experience in developing electrical appliances and electronics.

"We'll know later."

Wolf didn't care too much. To be honest, he didn't know what Enco Electric was planning to do after being here for a few days. His bones were a little rusty.

Wolf used to be a workaholic, but General Electric laid off the entire department at the end of last year, and he could only lose his job. Enco Electric made him a supervisor and gave him a higher salary than all the companies he interviewed, making him cherish this job very much.

"Everyone should work hard and don't worry."

Encore's working environment was quite good. Although Queens wasn't as bustling as Manhattan, it was home to many who worked there, making commuting convenient.

After a while, the engineering department filled the conference room on the third floor.

"Hello everyone, you all know me, I'm Tom Cruise, the owner of Encore Electric. I've called you all here today to prepare for our next product."

Saint-Hesse took out a stack of papers and had the secretary distribute them. They depicted two items: a rectangular thin box and a large blocky object.

"This is our next target, which I call a cassette tape. It's only 1/4 the size of Philips' existing compact cassette players. The tape is enclosed in a plastic shell on both sides, maximizing data protection, with each side capable of holding 30 to 45 minutes of stereo music."

Saint-Hesse's words stunned everyone present. Could cassette tapes be made that small?

"Boss, is this technology feasible?"

Wolf's family also had a cassette radio, but it was bulky, huge, and expensive.

"Yes, it's entirely feasible. I estimate we can produce a tape sample in half a month."

"The purpose today is simple: to produce a smaller cassette player. You can experiment with the cassette tape according to the drawings; take your time. I've already contacted 3M to custom-produce plastic-based tape coated with brownish-red magnetic iron oxide. You're responsible for realizing the shell and the components inside."

Based on his memory, Saint-Hesse designed the appearance of cassette tapes and players from later generations. If these guys couldn't handle this, he would have to replace them.

"Boss, is this our first product?"

"Yes, I want to see results in a month. We've already started preparing injection molding machines and factory buildings outside the streets. You're responsible for coordinating with the mold factory. I want the product debugged and launched within two months, and we'll develop four different appearances simultaneously."

"Yes, Boss. We're using transistor design, so the timeline is tight. And we need authorization from Bell Labs? And you also want to develop a radio and a recorder, right?"

In 1950, the first "PN junction transistor" was invented.

"Yes, two products in total, focusing on the recorder and supplementing with the radio. Apply for patents in the company's name simultaneously."

"Don't worry about the patent. We have proper authorization. Just design with confidence."

The inventor of the transistor was a man named Shockley. In a couple of years, he would found Shockley Semiconductor, indirectly contributing to the birth of "Silicon Valley" in the United States.

Companies like Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel were born as a result. Saint-Hesse hadn't considered investing in Shockley and Fairchild, but Intel was a good option, though that would probably be more than a decade later.

Saint-Hesse's goal was to build an electrical company and then develop civilian nuclear technology, nuclear power generation, etc., eventually transferring the technology to Argentina.

"Okay, Boss."

"As long as this R\u0026D project goes smoothly, I will give each participant a bonus based on their contribution. The total bonus this time is $50,000."

Saint-Hesse planned to give them some incentives to increase their desire to work. There was no other way; giving money was the best.

The engineering department was also excited. They had to keep working at such a generous company with high salaries. Everyone was full of energy.

Currently, semiconductor technology was just starting. Products like televisions and recorders were beginning to adopt transistor technology. Transistor radios hadn't been developed yet. Saint-Hesse needed to seize the opportunity and continue expanding the engineering department's scale.

The transistor radio was the second generation radio after the vacuum tube radio.

Compared to vacuum tubes, transistors were smaller, lighter, more shock-resistant, longer-lasting, and consumed less power. Radios could be made small and had relatively stable performance.

As long as the internal settings were done this time, there was nothing to fear. By changing a few shells, they could have several models with various styles of tape players at different prices, from low to high.

With the first product, Saint-Hesse had also secured the factory building and bought it. He cooperated with General Electric to debug production equipment. The materials for the engineering plastic shell were readily available.

The main shell colors were silver and black, and the design was relatively tough.

In an era without rock and roll, it mainly targeted family customers, considering most customers and people.

"In an era without integrated circuits, we can only mess around with these backward processes."

It was unknown when integrated circuit technology would be invented. That would be the truly great place of the Third Industrial Revolution, a small circuit board.

Of course, with transistors, integrated circuits were not far away. Saint-Hesse would just do some small business first.

A recorder was enough to keep him busy. Saint-Hesse named the engineering department the Recorder R\u0026D Team.

Saint-Hesse wasn't idle. To speed up research and development, he continued to recruit engineers, constantly expanding the engineering department. The engineering department was divided into a radio team, an internal design team, a debugging team, a production liaison team, and other departments.

They cooperated to speed up research and development, and Saint-Hesse was investing a lot of money.

While the recorder project was advancing, Saint-Hesse immediately formed a television project team, planning to carry out television research and development.

The third team synchronized with the television project was the washing machine team, which was Saint-Hesse's real purpose.

The engineering department quickly increased to more than 60 people. Fortunately, Wolf did have some management skills, and Saint-Hesse increased the engineering department's bonus to $200,000.

Most of the newly recruited personnel had relatively rich R\u0026D experience. Saint-Hesse gave his ideas: first develop black and white televisions, then color televisions.

They purchased a pile of televisions on the market for reverse engineering and optimization.

This was actually the idea of Japanese companies, only making improvements and not doing initial research and development.

… …

At the end of January, Encore Electric had expanded to more than 200 people and had also set up a branch in Toronto, where a washing machine project development was also established.

Saint-Hesse also established a washing machine-affiliated research institute in Toronto, specializing in gas diffusion methods to study uranium raw material purification.

There are now two major cities in Canada, Toronto and Montreal. Canada's nuclear industry is also very strong. Encore Electric is ostensibly involved in the development of civilian nuclear energy.

Which country outside the five permanent members of the Security Council is the most powerful in developing civilian nuclear energy? It can be said that it is Canada. Canadians have not completely followed the Americans. They have close relations with the United Kingdom, but the British are currently struggling to protect themselves and are facing two super powers with bad intentions. No matter who it is, they will have to kneel.

The British "shit stirrer" without a strong backing has lost its original ability.

In fact, as far as hydrogen bombs are concerned, it is basically impossible for Argentines to develop a TU-structured hydrogen bomb, and the only structure in the world that can match it is New China. Argentina is not yet strong enough to do this.

You have to eat one bite at a time, and you can only take one step at a time. Saint-Hesse's small goal is to establish several nuclear physics research institutes in the future, starting with uranium extraction.

Argentina is not short of raw materials for hydrogen bombs. The Potassium Triangle Plateau has the world's largest lithium resources. Saint-Hesse can gradually intervene in the thermonuclear fusion industry by developing the lithium industry. This can only be said to be left to fate.

As for whether it will be possible to produce hydrogen bombs in the future, the possibility is very small, unless Argentina can really swipe the Fog City Orphans copy. This is unlikely in terms of both possibility and other aspects.

Because what follows is the more powerful American Fury Sea Mad Waves copy, and a Third World War may break out.

Argentina can have atomic bombs, but hydrogen bombs are basically a crime. Unless Argentina has the strength of the five major hooligans.

Developing bombers and missiles is enough. Hydrogen bombs are not something Saint-Hesse should consider.