Chapter 160 The irresponsible director of the Gunpowder Bureau

Joseph couldn't help but sigh a little when he thought about unifying the measurement standards.

Speaking of which, the French Academy of Sciences, at the suggestion of several academic leaders, has long been preparing to form a "Standards Committee" to unify measurement standards - speaking of which, the French scientific community is very forward-looking. , the first metrics initiative across Europe.

However, due to the terrible efficiency of today's bureaucracy, the Academy of Sciences' application for funding has not been discussed for several years, and the Standards Committee has nothing to do.

Historically, it was not until after the Great Order that this matter was implemented with the support of the National Convention.

The efforts of the French Standards Committee also promoted the formulation of world metric units and paved the way for French industrialization.

But for now, the "Standards Committee" is just an idea. Joseph knew that he had to intervene in this matter, otherwise he might not be able to see a unified unit of measurement in ten or eight years.

This damn bureaucracy in France... Joseph shook his head secretly. Once we have our hands free, we must rectify the official system as soon as possible!

It was not until dinner time that Joseph finally got the two ordnance factory supervisors to roughly understand the concept of "standardized production."

Standardized production was basically common sense in later generations, and even small workshops in the countryside would follow this standard when producing. However, at the end of the 18th century, this was an extremely advanced concept, and it was not easy for the two supervisors to accept it.

In addition, Joseph also talked about some business management skills, which increased their learning pressure.

Joseph was also exhausted at this time. He even drank a large glass of water to relieve the discomfort in his throat caused by the overloaded work. Thinking of having to continue tomorrow, he felt a headache.

According to the current progress, it will take at least half a month to complete the knowledge of standardized production.

I have spent so much effort, but only trained two people, Garman and Martinier. Isn't this cost-efficiency ratio a bit too low?

It’s about “lecturing” anyway, so why not teach a few more people at once?

He immediately thought that he might be able to directly open a course on "Industrial Enterprise Management", which would definitely be more efficient than teaching them one by one by himself.

So who should we find to be the first batch of lecturers?

When Joseph thought of business management, the figure of Vergneau immediately appeared in his mind - Vergneau had previously completed potato promotion and came to report to him, and then stayed in Paris to enjoy the Fashion Week, and happened to have not returned to Bordeaux yet.

Venio is a business owner himself and also runs a plantation. He is also good at preaching and has a high work enthusiasm. He is very suitable for spreading advanced concepts of industrial management.

Even his Girondin friends were well suited to the task.

In the early stage, let them go to industrial development zones to teach factory executives. Later, they can open a course at the University of Paris to train professional managers.

This is much more scientific than traditional family management.

Perhaps France's industrialization technology capabilities and production capacity will not be able to match those of the UK in a short period of time, but in terms of management, it can definitely surpass it in advance!

Optimizing management models often improves production efficiency more than new technologies.

Thinking of this, Joseph summoned Emang and ordered: "Please send someone tomorrow to find Mr. Vergno, the one who helped me promote potatoes in Bordeaux."

"Okay, Your Highness, I am very impressed with Mr. Venio."

"Oh, by the way, there is also his friend, I think his name is Jean Sonnet, let him come too."

"Okay, Your Highness."

Joseph was about to end his teaching and go back to the Palace of Versailles for dinner when he suddenly caught a glimpse of the ordnance factory manager recording the quality inspection requirements he just mentioned: all guns must be fired with live ammunition at least five times before leaving the factory.

He immediately thought of the production progress of the copper flash caps that matched the flash cap guns, so he looked at Martinier and asked: "Mr. Martinier, do you know how the production of the copper flash caps is going over there?"

The latter hurriedly said: "Your Highness, I went to the Royal Gunpowder Bureau to ask the day before yesterday. They said that it will take about three or four months before the first batch of mercury fulminate can be trial-produced, and then the copper flash caps can be delivered."

The Royal Bureau of Gunpowder is a French department responsible for the research, development and production of gunpowder. Explosives such as mercury fulminate naturally have to be produced by them.

"Three or four months? So slow?" Joseph frowned when he heard this.

Martinier said: "They seem to say that they have tried it several times, but they all failed."

"Okay, I understand." Joseph sighed helplessly. Mercury fulminate is a technology that the British mastered ten years ago. I also introduced the synthesis method of mercury fulminate to the Royal Gunpowder Bureau, but they still can't figure it out?

Noon the next day.

In the Palace of Versailles, in the Crown Prince's drawing room, the assistant director of the French Royal Powder Bureau and the production manager stood awkwardly in front of Joseph, grimacing as they kept explaining.

"Your Highness, you did tell us the synthesis method, but... the specific ratio of raw materials, process, etc., we still need to explore slowly."

The thin production manager nodded repeatedly: "Yeah, you know, you need to be extremely careful when experimenting with this kind of high explosives. We have also discovered before that highly toxic gases will be produced during the trial production process. Fortunately, no one was injured."

Joseph was also a little helpless. He only knew that mercury fulminate was obtained from the reaction of mercury and nitric acid, and that it required crystallization and cooling, but he had never done it himself - in his previous life, making explosives only took three years to start, and there was no limit.

But he didn't expect that after gathering the research and development efforts of the entire Gunpowder Bureau, there would still be no progress after a month.

If it comes to other things, it's a big deal to buy technology directly from the British, but for military-related things like mercury fulminate, they don't sell it at all.

Joseph looked at the executives of the Gunpowder Bureau with a stern face: "Even so, it won't take three or four months to complete the trial production, right?"

The assistant director said cautiously: "Your Highness, if our director is here, it will probably take up to a month.

"You know, he was the one who presided over the testing of this new type of explosive before. However, he took a long leave at the beginning of the year, so..."

Taking leave at the beginning of the year? Joseph frowned, it's almost April now! This director is really laid-back. Does he not want to do this?

He said coldly: "Who is your director? Let him come to see me immediately!"

The production manager whispered: "Yes, it's Mr. Lavoisier..."

"Wait a moment, I'll go find him right now."

"Wait!" Joseph heard the name and raised his hand to stop him. "You mean, Mr. Lavoisier? The Lavoisier who discovered oxygen?"

The two executives looked at each other and nodded: "Your Highness, it is indeed our director who discovered oxygen."

“He also wrote masterpieces such as ‘Introduction to Combustion’.”