Chapter 449(1/2)
Don’t judge people by their appearance
Author: Seven Years Period
Don’t judge people by their appearance
Austria Vienna.
With the development of Austrian industry, Franz had felt the need to develop electricity, but the necessary electromagnetic theory had not yet been perfected.
In fact, Faraday had already proposed the theory of electromagnetic induction in 1831, but it was not perfect and was not enough to support the leap-forward development of electricity.
Franz had no problem with improving some technologies, but when it came to proposing systematic scientific theories, he was powerless. Even if he had learned it at the beginning, he would have returned it to the teacher long ago.
The reward has been increased from the original 10,000 florins to 150,000 florins, but there is still no improvement.
Franz actually tinkered with a steam turbine generator by himself, but this thing was not a real steam turbine generator like that of later generations, it was just a steam generator full of steampunk style.
The performance is pretty good, but the failure rate is a bit high, and there is a certain chance of an explosion. Yes, it's like a big explosion. The girls' school next door is about to close again.
The generator designed by Franz was actually modified from a Faraday disk and a Davenport motor, which was actually not very clever.
However, generally speaking, the voltage of the Faraday disk is only a few volts, and the Davenport motor is only a few dozen volts, while Franz needed a voltage of hundreds of volts.
However, there are always more solutions than difficulties. There are many ways to increase the voltage. According to conventional thinking, the first option is to increase the speed.
But it soon proved to be unfeasible, because too high a rotational speed of the disc would cause overheating, or even the linear speed would be too fast, and launching the disc would be like a dart.
It's just that it's much more powerful than darts. In the spirit of curiosity, Austrian scientists have increased the maximum speed of this thing to several thousand revolutions.
Franz didn't know exactly how he got it, but the result was a disk that shot out like a cannonball, punched through glass, and severed a horse's neck.
Since increasing the rotation speed doesn't work, then use the stupidest method to increase the diameter of the disc.
As a result, Austrian scientists and craftsmen built a giant Faraday disk with a diameter of more than ten meters.
In fact, generally speaking, this kind of crazy behavior will be stopped by craftsmen, but Austrian craftsmen seem to have long been accustomed to this kind of unconstrained creation. After all, the analytical engine designed by Dr. Babbage (priest) is no better than this generator.
Small.
However, as expected, it exploded again. The problem was still overheating and it could not operate for a long time.
Then these scientists pressed Franz's refrigerator up again, but with the existing technology, they still could not meet Franz's requirements.
Fortunately, Franz had a third way to go, which was to increase the magnetic field strength and replace the natural magnets with electromagnets. Although it would consume some electrical energy, the voltage finally went up.
But there is still a certain chance that this thing will explode or have various weird accidents.
Although technology has been improving, people are injured or even lose their lives due to accidents every month.
You must know that aluminum is more precious than gold at this time, and electrolytic aluminum is the most efficient method, which is still used today.
Franz doesn't think aluminum is worth more than human life, but even if he wants to stop at this time, someone will continue to try because of profit.
The income from electrolytic aluminum can not only continue to support the experiment itself, but also provide a large surplus. Franz will use the money to improve related technologies and compensate the families of those warriors who gave their lives for this.
That's all he can do. If he really forcibly stops the electrolytic aluminum project, someone will definitely take the risk because the temptation is too great.
Those people do not have Franz's technology and financial resources, and they are even less able to guarantee safety. At the same time, it will also cause the technology to spread further, and even affect Austria's development in turn.
Rather than that, it would be better for Franz to bear all the blame alone. At least those people can enjoy it while they are alive, their families will be taken care of after death, and the country can also benefit from it.
In fact, Franz had invited Faraday to Austria many times to continue his research, but this man was extremely unfavorable to the nobility and royal family.
Faraday was an Englishman and was highly valued by the British government, especially Prime Minister Robert Peel, who personally admired him very much.
When Robert Peel became Prime Minister, he immediately applied for a special pension for Faraday, calling him "the greatest living British scientist."
You must know that before this, only politicians, soldiers, and nobles could receive this honor, not even Sir Isaac who discovered the law of gravity.
Faced with such praise and such kindness, Faraday sternly refused.
Even if he was knighted in the end, he would never take it personally.
When Franz's envoy self-righteously stated those favorable conditions, it was doomed to fail.
Especially after Robert Peel took office, he attached great importance to the British scientific community and did not give Franz a chance to find opportunities. Naturally, he had to give up and wait for the right opportunity.
But it was not all without gain for Franz. He found Zenab Gram's name on the refugee list.
This man is a typical example of a mistake in human history. His invention is more of a discovery than an invention.
During an exhibition, he accidentally connected the wrong wiring, that is, he connected the electricity generated by another generator to the current output end of his own generator.
At this time, he was surprised to find that the current from the first generator entered the armature coil of the second generator, causing the generator to rotate rapidly and the generator turned into a motor.
Then it broke the bottleneck of human use of voltaic batteries and opened a new chapter in history.
Although there was a lot of luck, it was the result of thousands of practices, and he was indeed very talented and could modify the alternator (but he did not pay attention to it at the time).
It's a long story that this man will be on the refugee list. His father is a Belgian civil servant who lives in the Jeunes-Bodenet region (in Liège).
However, due to some changes in history, Belgium was partitioned after the Luxembourg crisis. Austria received the Principality of Liege that originally belonged to Belgium. After a major purge, his father was laid off.
Franz did not want to make any major changes, but the senior officials of the Austrian Empire were not at ease with the new territory, and various commands from a distance caused complaints.
A major change of blood was just one of their cunning operations. Others, such as reforming the tax system, reforming the military system, and building military fortresses, simply raised Franz's blood pressure and almost overturned all of his established strategies.
As a result, Gram's father had no guarantee of life, but unexpectedly had an adventurous spirit, so he sold the family property and went into business with others.
Unsurprisingly, they were deceived and lost all their money. The Gramm family had no choice but to apply for refugee asylum and move their family to Austria, and even had to consider emigrating overseas.
Because Gram's grades were very poor, his parents had difficulty in having children, and he had no skills. The Austrian government was eager to throw this kind of person to the colonies or Hungary to fend for himself.
Fortunately, Franz had been looking for talents to research generators and had long listed him as a key target. However, because of his poor academic performance, the Austrian intelligence agency dared to report to Franz after repeated confirmations.
The achievements of this scientist whose name can be left in history are really bad, so bad that it is hard for people to believe that he will become a scientist.
There were fifty students in the class, and he ranked forty-ninth. Almost all the teachers rated him poorly.
Franz looked at this useless family and could hardly find any reason to keep him. He simply stopped looking. Franz would support Gramm.
But before that, he still planned to see this genius in person, but his first impression was that the 17-year-old Gram was not as tall as the 13-year-old Franz.
Although he was wearing clean clothes, he always gave people a very sloppy look. He didn't dare to look up at others, which made him look very cowardly.
Then some simple tests began, which were of course conducted by professionals. Although they were simple, they were only suitable for a small number of people.
As expected, Gram was almost useless as his teachers said, but he only had some unusual talents in mechanical assembly methods.
A complex mechanical clock has hundreds of parts and follows seven or eight drawings. But Gram only saw the machinist dismantle it once and then reassemble it perfectly.
This talent made the mechanic with more than 40 years of experience shout, "It's impossible. He must often disassemble this kind of mechanical clock, or he must have worked in a watch shop all year round to be able to do this."
So the old master changed to something more complicated - Babbage's Difference Engine. Although it was an early model, its complexity was not comparable to that of ordinary clocks.
An hour and a half later, Gram assembled the simple difference engine.
Franz could only sigh, "Isn't this a genius? At least this memory and association ability are far beyond ordinary people."
Franz then showed Gram the latest generator at the time, hoping he could give some feasible suggestions.
This is of course a foolish dream.
However, Franz still sent him an invitation to become a special citizen of Austria, enjoying free tuition and living allowance.
Gram was very excited to receive such an invitation. After all, it was much better than going to Africa or Hungary to open up wasteland and farm.
But Gram seemed to have some misunderstandings. He only wanted to be a senior technician and did not want to go to school. He just wanted to stay with those old masters as an apprentice.
Franz's head is full of black marks. If he just wanted a skilled worker, would he need to go to such great lengths?
Franz does not think that high-level technicians are bad, but as the times progress, it will become more and more difficult to change the world through pure technological innovation.
Theoretical knowledge is necessary, and experts with a lot of practical experience and rich theoretical knowledge are what Austria needs in the future.
In short, Franz had high expectations for it, which should at least exceed its historical performance.
Therefore, Gram had to go back to school. However, due to his poor foundation, he was asked to repeat junior high school after many suggestions.
Of course, in order to ensure that he would not go astray, Franz hired Gram's father as an Austrian civil servant.
His only job was to supervise Gram's studies and conduct practical studies two days a week.
At this time, Gram suddenly made a request. He wanted to have a competition with Franz. This was because in the stories he had heard, the descendants of such great nobles were usually just idle talkers.
Gram wanted to see if that was true, and whether he could defeat the prince as easily as in the novel.
The result was that Gram couldn't laugh at all. Franz was stronger than him in every aspect, even his strength was completely incomparable. The seventeen-year-old was beaten by the thirteen-year-old and was unable to fight back.
Especially when the two sides were testing weapons, the other side actually broke his own shuriken.
"That's solid," Gram sighed in his heart.
Franz laughed disdainfully and thought to himself.
"The judges, judges, and even the audience are all mine! What do you win with?!"
Gram, who just now thought he was a genius, felt as if he had been poured cold water on him, and went to complete the enrollment procedures with his father.
"People's hearts are evil!"
At this time, Austria was still enjoying the dividends brought by technological innovation, and could even lead the world in some industries for a long time to come. However, Franz still had some concerns. After all, the times were developing, and he could still take advantage of them.
There are not many ways left.
To be continued...