Fox of France

Around the tall "Pantheon" is a wide square. Like the road from here, the ground of this square is also paved with cement. Small stones of various colors are embedded in the cement to form pictures. Most of these pictures are themes of ancient Greece and Rome, such as capnus and the nymphs, such as the shepherd prince and the three goddesses, such as Minerva and the owl, and such as Augustus and Cree. Opatra.

In this square, there are quite a few iron shelves erected, and these shelves are covered with a layer of oiled canvas—this is probably the so-called "semi-open-air" booth. At this time, the exhibition has not officially started, but many people are already busy here.

Watt looked around again and saw two small houses at the entrance of the square. There were signs on the small houses with the same content written in French, German, Italian, Russian and English: "Exhibitors Reception place". It's just that one hut is marked "Peace Palace", and the other is marked with a square.

"Mr. Watt, according to the exhibition notice, we need to register at the reception desk over there first, and then the relevant staff will lead us to see our booth." William Murdoch took out a small notebook and opened it After taking a look, he said this to Watt while packing up the notebook.

"Okay, let's go there." Watt said, waving the cane in his hand.

So several people walked towards the "Peace Palace" reception together. As soon as they walked outside the door of the reception desk, a waiter greeted them.

"Gentlemen, are you here to exhibit?" the waiter said in French with a courteous smile.

"Yes, we have an invitation letter." William Murdoch went up and said. In this era, French is a very common language, and William Murdoch will also, but his spoken French is not very good, and he speaks a bit stuttering.

"What country are you from, sir?" asked the waiter.

"We're from England," said William Murdoch.

"I represent France, and I welcome you all." The waiter immediately switched to English and replied, "Please come with us."

Several people followed them into the small room. There is a long table in the small room, and a clerk sits behind it. The waiter led Murdoch over and said to the clerk, "These are guests from England."

Murdoch handed the invitation letter in his hand to the clerk, the clerk glanced at it, nodded, then picked up an official seal next to it, stamped it on the invitation letter, then took out a small bag, stood Standing up, holding it in both hands, handing it to Murdoch with a smile.

"Your booth is at No. 8. Here are the precautions for participating in the exhibition. You can take a look first to understand it." The clerk also said in English.

Murdoch took the bag and asked: "Where is our booth, can I go and have a look and do some preparations?"

"Pierre, who brought you here, will take you there. If you don't understand anything, you can ask him directly." The clerk replied.

"Gentlemen, please follow me." The waiter named Pierre also said.

"A clerk or even a waiter can speak several languages. This is really..." Watt was a little surprised, so he followed Pierre and asked him: "Young man, have you read a lot book?"

"Mr. Watt," Pierre already knew that this gentleman was the famous Watt when he just registered, "I am studying at the business school of the University of Paris. Knowledge is far from enough, and you must participate in more social economic activities in order to become truly talented.' So he helped us find a job here. He said that we can gain a lot of knowledge here, which will be of great help to us in the future. development is of great benefit.”

"Then the one who was in charge of the registration just now is also like this?" Bolton Jr. asked.

"Yes, the one just now was one of my classmates." Pierre replied.

"Very good, very good." Watt nodded. His own achievements are mainly obtained in various practices. Now that he heard that the professors at the University of Paris put so much emphasis on social practice, he felt that he had gained a bosom friend, so he smiled at Pierre and said : "Young man, when will you graduate?"

"Probably next summer," Pierre replied hastily.

Watt took out a business card and handed it to him: "If you were interested in our company at that time, you could come to our branch in Paris. Our company now has a lot of business in France, and we need people like you." talent."

Pierre quickly took the business card with both hands, thanked Watt, and then led Watt and his party to the larger Pantheon named "Peace Palace".

"Gentlemen, this is the main venue of this event - the 'Peace Palace'. Everyone should be able to see that it is modeled after the 'Pantheon', but it is larger than the Pantheon. The reason why it is called the 'Peace Palace' ’ because of the sentence engraved on the lanyard of the main entrance—” Pierre pointed to the Latin text on the lanyard, but explained in English, “‘Free trade is the guarantee of world peace.’ Well, These are the words of Monsieur Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul."

"Very good." Watt nodded, "I like this sentence very much."

"Mr. Watt," Pierre said with a smile, "we are the same, there is no one who does not like 'free trade' for those who are interested in engaging in trade."

While talking and laughing, Pierre led several people into the "Peace Palace". Just like the Pantheon, there is not even a single pillar inside the huge hall. However, this hall is larger than the hall of the Pantheon.

Watt himself is an engineer. Although he is not a construction engineer, he also knows how difficult it is in terms of engineering technology to maintain such a large dome without installing a column.

Also like the Pantheon, there is a large hole in the center of the dome for lighting, but this hole is bigger and glass is installed. Because of the existence of this skylight, coupled with the huge floor-to-ceiling windows around the exhibition hall, the light conditions in the exhibition hall are quite good, even brighter than most houses.

Watt looked up, surveying the dome, and the structure that supported it, and mentally calculating its weight.

Generally speaking, there are many precedents in architecture for creating a super large dome without letting it collapse. For example, Gothic churches are a model in this regard. Such buildings usually use a structure similar to an arch bridge, transferring the weight of the vault to the load-bearing walls next to it. However, the load-bearing walls of this structure will be under a lot of pressure. Therefore, this type of building often builds support structures on the outer walls perpendicular to the main walls. But when they first came in, they didn't see such a structure.

Of course, the dome of the Pantheon didn't use this kind of trick either. The dome was directly poured with volcanic ash cement as a whole. But this dome is much larger than the one in the Pantheon. How are they supported? Could it be...

As if seeing Watt's doubts, Pierre said again: "Mr. Watt, you must have noticed this hall. The diameter of this hall is a full sixty meters, which is much larger than the famous Pantheon. But this hall In the middle, like the hall of the Pantheon, there is not even a single column. This is because the entire dome adopts a new construction technology-steel bone cement structure. The entire dome is welded by high-quality steel It is made of a whole, and then poured with cement. Whether it is steel frame or poured cement, the closer to the middle, the thinner and thinner, because steel can provide much higher strength than other materials, so the whole The dome is much lighter than other similar structures."

Pierre's explanation confirmed Watt's conjecture—the dome was indeed supported by steel.

"Not only the dome, but also the walls and the large pillars outside are actually made of steel and concrete. Although this 'Peace Palace' is an ancient Roman-style building, its core is the most advanced modern technology .” Pierre introduced with a proud tone.

"How much good steel will this consume? Wouldn't it be good to sell these steels to me and make them into advanced steam engines?" Watt couldn't help thinking, "But it seems that the French produce a lot of steel."

"Young man, where is our booth?" Although Bolton Jr. was a Bolton Jr., he was already fifty years old, and he was too old to be Pierre's father. So he could just as well have called Pierre "boy."

"Ah, please follow me." In the hall, there were small spaces separated by wooden boards. The spaces in the middle are the largest and have the best lighting. And Watt's No. 8 position is slightly off, but it is also in a very conspicuous place.

"It's right here, Mr. Watt and Mr. Bolton." Pierre took them to the corresponding positions, "This space belongs to your company during the exhibition. Your company can arrange it according to your own wishes, but Those regulations in the "Exhibition Regulations" must not be violated. The relevant regulations are in the document given to you just now. Do you need me to introduce you to the gentlemen?"

"No, no need." Little Bolton shook his head, "We have already obtained a copy of this document from your country's embassy in our country. In addition, there is also an authoritative explanation of the document in the "London Businessman". We've all figured it out."

After he finished speaking, he raised his head and looked around, and then asked, "May I ask, which manufacturers belong to those positions in the middle?"

"The positions in the middle are all enterprises of the military-industrial complex, such as Lorraine Steel, Fortress Cement, and Bonaparte Arsenal." Pierre replied.