1855 United States Tycoon

The first batch of nickel-iron alkaline batteries began to be put on the market within a month after completing the test in the laboratory. And the response has been good, but because there is currently no other car manufacturer in United States except McDonald, this battery naturally cannot be used for the starter motor and car engine as expected in the original plan. The lights are powered. But even so, it is still quite marketable, and under the promotion of Morgan, this thing has begun to be used as a backup power source for various electrical equipment.

Because in that era, the stability of power supply was completely incomparable with modern times, and power outages were simply commonplace at the time. In modern times, you don’t necessarily experience so many power outages in a year, and you can be notified almost every time before a power outage. But in this day and age, if the electricity does not stop every week, people will feel that it is simply abnormal. But people have become more and more accustomed to the convenience brought by electricity. This is true in life and production. Therefore, at that time, many companies or households (of course, richer households) would take some measures to deal with power outages. For example, at that time, most factories would equip themselves with a generator. As for families, although the McDonald Consortium has launched small generators based on gasoline engines, the price of that item is still a little higher. Sorry, but families who can afford it will find it too noisy when it runs. In contrast, they are more willing to use battery packs. Responding to Life's power outages has also become an important direction for Morgan and Edison to promote their batteries. Although it is more expensive than ordinary lead-acid batteries, Edison and Morgan thought of a good way to promote him, that is, to promote its safety and convenience.

General lead-acid batteries require frequent replenishment of electrolyte, which is troublesome to maintain. And because the electrolyte in the lead-acid battery is sulfuric acid, and in order to facilitate the replenishment of the electrolyte, it is necessary to open an opening on the battery. Once over-used, liquid leakage and gas leakage (volatile sulfuric acid gas) are likely to occur, so naturally there will be a certain degree of danger. In addition, there is almost no shortage of extremely dangerous saboteurs-bear children in human beings at all times. In any era, there are always accidents caused by bear children's mischief every year. In modern times, the bear children would throw firecrackers into the holes of the manhole cover, and burn through the concrete floor slabs of their homes with homemade thermite. In that era, the bear children also randomly connected the positive and negative poles of the battery pack, or randomly added impure water to the battery.

Such a mess of things will naturally cause a series of disasters. You can often see fires, explosions, etc. caused by these messy reasons in newspapers, as well as various articles on how to use lead-acid batteries safely.

So Morgan and Edison began to promote the safety advantages of own's new battery. For example, even if it is short-circuited occasionally, a large amount of hydrogen will not be emitted and cause an explosion (of course, a short-circuit will cause other problems, such as overheating and fire, but both Morgan and Edison are very disciplined. This is not mentioned.) In addition, it does not need to replenish the electrolyte as often as lead-acid batteries, which naturally reduces the chance of accidents.

Of course, the price of this battery is a lot more expensive than ordinary lead-acid batteries, but for those wealthy families, if they choose to be more expensive and safer, many people still choose the latter. of. This is especially true of the kind that has a group of bear kids at home. So Edison's battery sales are really good.Edison also developed an electric car on this basis. After the car was fully charged, it ran a full 100-mile trip when it was shown. However, because almost all the load of this car is used to load the battery, compared with the car, this thing has a limited future, but it is just a gimmick to prove the performance of the battery. Today, Edison values ​​most of the research and development of the gasoline engine that has just begun.

...

"Morgan's new battery seems to be selling well." Scrooge said to Dorothea with a grin.

"Well, to say, Edison's level is really good. This kind of battery does have his uniqueness." Dorothea also praised Edison generously. Being able to look at the strengths of others objectively is the quality necessary for those in the upper ranks. Those in the upper ranks can be partial, but not necessarily fair everywhere. This is because partiality and unfairness can sometimes guarantee their own interests. But if one cannot even look at people objectively, how can one know when to be partial and when to be fair? Therefore, the clever masters, such as the past Han Gaozu asked Chen Ping to appoint and promote management officials, Chen Ping received bribes and used power for personal gain, but did not let a mediocre person in the position; Zhang Juzheng was the first assistant, and the illicit bribes were combined, but it did not prevent him from using most of the money. Virtuous. On the other hand, where are the few people who have been thrown into the water and broke things? If you can't see people fairly in your heart and see each person's strengths and weaknesses clearly, how can you become a qualified person at the top?

"Edison is an amazing talent." Scrooge replied. Edison, the king of inventions in history, is not only an excellent inventor, but also a good businessman. Compared to another genius with the same name, Nikola Tesla, Edison may not be better than him in science, especially when the technology advances further, Edison's lack of theoretical foundations drags him down. Many hind legs, at least compared with Tesla, Edison's scientific level is obviously inferior. But Tesla was almost suppressed by Edison for most of his life. To a large extent, the reason is that in addition to being an inventor, Edison is also a fairly business-minded businessman. In contrast, Tesla is much worse in this respect. Many of his research projects are Too much derived from own hobbies, rather than sensitivity to the market. Moreover, Edison was not as unfavourable as Tesla. For example, in history, Tesla had a patent for alternating current in his hands, a good thing that could make a lot of money, but because he did not want to be exploited by Morgan, the workers announced that they would give up alternating current. Patents. It also declared that the advancement of science and technology should be shared by the people of the world. In contrast, Edison was equally exploited by Morgan. It can even be said that he was played with by Morgan almost all his life. Most of his epoch-making inventions also fell into the hands of the Morgan consortium. But Edison would not be like Tesla, rather than wattless, announcing the abandonment of the patent on electric lights, let him belong to the world.

"In this time and space, Edison was actually controlled by Morgan again. Is this considered historical inertia?" Scrooge even had time to think.

"In a few months, Edison's battery problem will arise." Scrooge said to Dorothea with a smile.

"Oh? What did you do?" Dorothea immediately became interested.

"I didn't do anything. It's just that their battery itself had a problem." Scrooge said.

The so-called problem of the battery itself refers to the problem that nickel-iron alkaline batteries are extremely affected by temperature and perform poorly under low temperature conditions. Although Scrooge came across, he doesn't know much about the weaknesses of this battery. He only knows that this kind of battery has not been widely used in later generations, and believes that this is definitely not without reason.

After Edison's new batteries were put on the market, the people of the Macdonald Consortium would naturally buy some for a test, so the weakness of this battery was exposed to Scrooge.

"Their low-temperature performance of this battery is very bad, much worse than the lead-acid battery. It will not take long, maybe another month or so, the first cold snap will come. And by that time, our electric heaters will also It’s about to come out. At that time, as long as we pull the switch normally, everyone will immediately find their battery problems. Now, let them succeed for a while, and it will also make Morgan more willing to contribute to their other projects. Investment." Scrooge finally said.

...

"Mr. Morgan, our battery factory has brought us more than 30,000 US dollars in profits recently." Edison said to Morgan proudly, "This number is not large, but it is close to allowing us to recover the money on this project. I have invested, but I think its future prospects are very good. In the end, the benefits we can get will definitely be far greater than this number. Of course, compared with the entire laboratory, it is still very insignificant. But I think This will definitely increase the confidence of those who are concerned about the laboratory."

"Thomas, we have always had confidence in you and your team." Morgan smiled kindly to Edison, "This is a good start, but the more important project is the gasoline engine. How is this project going? ?"

"We have successfully imitated one. From the performance point of view, there is still a slight gap between it and McDonald's products, but I think these problems are easy to solve. Of course, because of some patent problems, we do not May directly imitate McDonald’s gasoline engine, but I already have some ideas to bypass McDonald’s patent barriers. However, these practices will damage the balance of engine performance or increase costs.” Edison replied.

"Affecting the balance of performance? What does this mean?" Morgan asked.

"That's...For example, using certain technology, we should be able to make our engines reach the level of McDonald's engines in terms of power performance, or even slightly exceed them, but we are likely to have to pay for it. Reliability, or the price of fuel economy." Edison explained.

"In other words, in terms of overall performance, it is difficult for us to surpass the McDonald's engine?" Morgan asked, "In this case, we should not simply emphasize a certain performance in order to gain an advantage in this performance. For example, power. I remember that when Scrooge was promoting his rear-loading gun, he engaged in a shooting competition. As a result, his rifle became famous in one fell swoop. We can also engage in similar competitions like this. For example. Say, if our engine is particularly powerful, we will engage in a speed car or something. Do you have confidence in this requirement?"

"This is actually not a problem, but the cost of such an engine must be very high. The market prospects may not be very good." Edison said.

"First create a reputation, and then consider the issue of making a fortune. So we can sell these vehicles at cost prices. With my support, you don't have to worry about financial issues." Morgan said.

This reason convinced Edison, but in fact, Edison did not understand Morgan's idea. In fact, at least for a short period of time, Morgan did not think about making too much money by relying on cars. But he can reduce the profit margins of the entire auto market through such disruptive behavior. Of course, there is no need to talk to Edison too much for this purpose. Because this is not entirely consistent with Edison's interests. In the original history, Edison had always been controlled by Morgan, and it was not without reason.

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