Fox of France

As the most important steam engine manufacturer in the UK, Bolton-Watt Company will naturally not miss such a grand event as the Pakistan Fair. So as soon as I got the news that France will hold the Pakistan Fair, I immediately went to the French embassy and made a request to book an exhibition hall at the Pakistan Fair. Because they had a lot of business dealings with France before, they received special care and got a prominent booth in the exhibition building. Many other businessmen who applied for booths with them could only get a so-called "semi-open-air" booth.

After paying the deposit for participating in the exhibition, Bolton asked his son Bolton Jr. and Watt to go to France to see it together. Watt is very proficient in all kinds of machinery, but he doesn't like to discuss business with others. It wasn't because Watt didn't understand business—after all these years of partnering with Bolton and doing so much business, how could he not understand? But he prefers to spend his time researching machinery rather than bargaining with others.

It is said that there will be many machines for sale at the Pakistan Fair that no one has seen before, and Watt is full of interest in this, so he must go. As for Bolton, there must always be someone who can make a decision in the company. Moreover, Bolton is old and travels far away. If he catches a cold, gets flu, and then develops pneumonia, well, that era is far from the invention of a ventilator. Mr. Bolton will not be able to survive in the UK anyway. On the day of the flight.

But just letting Watt go is not enough. When Watt got there, once he saw all kinds of machinery, how could he care about talking about business? So Bolton asked his son Bolton Jr. to go with Watt.

The two men landed in Calais with a group of assistants, as well as many samples and models. They stayed one night at the "Reception of Exhibitors of the Pakistan Fair" in Calais, and then boarded the two four-wheeled carriages that the reception helped them contact, and headed towards Paris.

Along the way to Paris, Watt saw more electric water pumps and small processing plants using electricity. The various small metal products in the "London Businessman" newspaper are basically processed in these small processing factories.

"What kind of secrets are there in the motor and generator? I really want to see." Inside the carriage, Watt said to Bolton Jr.

"Yes, but the French are very strict in this regard. These things are basically not allowed to be sold to foreign countries," said Bolton Jr., lowering his voice, "A friend of mine told me that the Navy wants to Way to steal an electric motor from here, and many people died because of it..."

"What happened next?" Watt asked.

"After the sample was stolen back, we first tried to connect it to the battery, but found that it had three wires. No matter which two wires were connected, the motor would not turn. Then when we disassembled, the motor There was an explosion, and several people were killed. Now, we only know that there seem to be a lot of painted copper wires in this thing, which are twisted in a special way. As for why and how it can move, we still have no idea. Nothing is known. People in the Admiralty and Cambridge University are said to be working hard on it, but nothing seems to come out."

"Oh." Watt responded, and then said, "Actually, I think there is nothing wrong with using a small steam engine."

As a businessman who has mastered a lot of steam engine patents, he certainly doesn't like the heresy of electric motors. It's a pity that he still doesn't know much about electric motors, so it's hard to find a specific reason to attack it. Still, it made Watt happy to know that the Admiralty guys weren't making much progress on the subject.

A few days later, Watt and the others arrived in Paris.

Watt's first impression of Paris was cleanliness. In this era, big cities in Europe were generally very dirty, and Paris was no exception. At that time, European city residents would even throw feces and the like directly on the street. After a long time, the street was even higher than the houses on both sides. As for the smell, dust, etc., you can imagine for yourself.

Things changed a bit after the revolution. Due to the tension of saltpeter caused by the blockade, the revolutionary government also regarded human excrement as an important strategic resource (this can be used to produce saltpeter) and forcibly expropriated these strategic resources in Paris. So it became illegal or even criminal to dump the excrement and urine directly on the street (Robespierre's time).

When Napoleon came to power, the problem of saltpeter was basically solved, but this strategic resource collection system was preserved, but the use became compost. In addition, in order to pave the way for the "Roman Empire" in the future, the Ministry of Truth has been using various methods to boast about the civilization of the Roman Empire, and pile up some reliable, unreliable, and even unreliable things. to the Roman Empire.

Later, when radio technology was invented, someone made up such a joke: One day, Lucien received a report that an archaeological team had discovered copper wire at a certain site in ancient Rome. Lucien was very happy and said: "Great Rome, it's all started to use electricity!" However, when he rushed to the scene immediately, he realized that it was a misunderstanding, and the thing was not copper wire at all. So Lucien became more and more happy, and he said: "The great Rome is already using radio!"

The Ministry of Truth boasted that one of the contents of Rome was Roman public health, so as part of the revival of the "Roman spirit", public health was raised to a very important height, and after the discovery of pathogenic bacteria, this issue was further emphasized Napoleon took the opportunity to promote the so-called Paris Reform Movement, calling on the people of Paris to spend half a day every week doing voluntary labor to clean up all kinds of garbage accumulated. The First Consul even personally took part in voluntary labor with a shovel every week. Whenever this time, the shout of "Long live Napoleon" would resound through the sky.

Relatively tidy and clean streets are the first impression of Paris to Watt. Watt soon noticed another difference between Paris and London. Paris had far fewer chimneys. This is true even in factory districts.

"It must be the damn electric motor." Although the soot-free air in Paris is obviously sweeter than London's, Watt and Little Bolton are now hoping to burn the electric heresy to death with a single fire, Just like the British burned Joan of Arc back then.

He stayed in Paris for two nights, and on the second day, Watt went to the University of Paris for a round, and by the way, had a lively chat with Lavoisier, who happened to be at the University of Paris, on some scientific issues. Watt actually wanted to meet Joseph Bonaparte, another great French scientist, but Lavoisier told him that Joseph was not in Paris now, and he seemed to have gone south.

"Probably something related to electricity. But he will come back as soon as possible. You can definitely wait for him at the Pakistan Fair. After all, many businesses there are also related to him." Lavoisier said.

When Watt bid farewell to Lavoisier and left, Lavoisier told Watt: "If you go to the venue tomorrow, pay attention to the road leading to the venue, that road is very interesting."

Because of this sentence, Watt has been guessing all night, what is "very interesting" about this road.

After dawn, after the carriage he was riding on this road, Watt immediately discovered the difference of this road. This off-white road seemed to be paved with a whole block of boulders, and it was cut very evenly. The carriage ran on this road with almost no ups and downs.

Watt told the driver to stop the car. He got out of the car, then knelt down directly regardless of his image, took out a monocle from his jacket pocket, put it on his right eye, and studied the road carefully.

"Is this supposed to be cement?" Watt said.

Cement is not too rare. There was (this is really) natural pozzolan cement in ancient Rome; the British had also created "Roman cement" before. However, because "Roman cement" has high requirements for raw materials, the cost is not low and the price is expensive. If "Roman cement" is used to make such a long road, how much will it cost?

So Watt immediately realized that the French must have invented a cheap cement.

"It's cement." At this time, the assistant William Murdoch who got out of the car with Watt also made such a judgment.

"It's such a wide and long road, how much cement does it cost, the French are really..." Little Bolton said.

"Maybe the French invented cheap cement." Watt said, "Matthew, you should pay attention at the Pakistan Fair. If this product is sold, there should be a market. Although we mainly sell our own steam engines, but If there is something good, we don’t let it go. Of course, it’s better to buy technology and produce it ourselves.”

Little Bolton nodded yes. Watt put the monocle on his nose back into his pocket, and re-boarded the carriage with Bolton Jr. and his assistant William Murdoch.

During the ensuing journey, several people have been discussing how big the market for low-cost cement might be.

An hour later, they arrived at the venue. Several people got off the carriage, and a huge Roman-style building appeared in everyone's eyes.

This is a building very similar to the Roman "Pantheon" in shape. The front is a rectangular colonnade with twenty-six huge columns, and the situation inside is not clear from here. But it's definitely a building that's bigger in scale than the original Pantheon.

"Napoleon's First Consul took office for a long time, even if he started to build it as soon as he took office, such a building can be completed in such a short period of time. The level of technology contained in it is really shocking. This is really a spectacle of this era." Watt said to Bolton Jr. at the same time, his mood became inexplicably heavy.