#263 - Technology exchange

It turned out that Carlo's plan to make Madrid a city that never sleeps was very effective.

The news that Madrid never sleeps shocked not only many Europeans, but also many European countries.

Not only Britain and France, but also major powers including Germany, Austria, Russia and Italy have expressed their concern. The people of these countries have also asked the government to build their own cities that never sleep to demonstrate the strength of their country.

While Britain and France were still hesitating, Germany became the first country to take action. As the promoter of the Second Industrial Revolution, Germany's sense of the electric power industry is unmatched by other countries.

The only country that can be compared with Germany in terms of attaching importance to electricity is perhaps the United States across the ocean. However, because the United States is separated from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean, news spreads slower than other European countries.

Other European countries will get the news on the second day of Christmas, but the United States will not receive relevant news reports until the third day at the earliest.

December 26, 1879, Berlin, German Empire.

At this time, the German government was holding a meeting, the main discussion of which was the cost of building Berlin into a city that never sleeps.

Germany is also involved in electrical technology, and some German scientists have developed things like generators and light bulbs. In theory, there is hope for building a city that never sleeps.

Even if the effect is not as good as Spain's City That Never Sleeps, at least a similar one should be built so that the public can be told that Germany is still a powerful and advanced country in the emerging field of electricity.

"Have you calculated the financial budget needed to build a city that never sleeps?" German Chancellor Bismarck looked at the Finance Minister and asked.

The finance minister looked serious and gave an answer that instantly changed Bismarck's expression: "At present, if we build street lights on the main streets of Berlin, we will have to invest at least 60 million marks. If we build street lights in most large cities, we will need at least 500 million marks.

Taking into account the different geographical environments of various cities and the different local electricity demands, we may need to invest more funds.

Overall, this is a completely uneconomical deal, at least for us at the moment. Even if it is just the street lighting system in Berlin, at least dozens of power stations need to work together.

The labor costs for these dozens of power stations alone will require at least thousands of people. It may take several months just to manufacture the generators, and it will take at least half a year to complete all of this.”

Bismarck rubbed his brows, somewhat helpless about the bad news. According to the Chancellor of Finance, building a city that never sleeps would be a huge expense and would take a long time to complete.

“Damn, if it costs so much, why did Spain build the first city that never sleeps before any other country?

Even if Madrid has a smaller population, it must have at least 500,000 people! Berlin needs 60 million marks, and Madrid needs at least 30 million pesetas.

Will the Spaniards grit their teeth and bear the expense of 30 million pesetas just for the little face brought by the city that never sleeps?

This is simply unbelievable. This amount of money is enough to build two of the most powerful ironclad ships. Wouldn't it be better to use it to build a navy?" Prime Minister Bismarck said in disbelief.

For European countries, if they are financially wealthy, the first choice will definitely be to develop industry or the navy.

The size of the navy also measures the strength of a great power. Countries that only have strong armies will not be taken seriously in Europe, unless they are neighbors of these land powers.

No matter how strong the army is, it is impossible to bypass other countries to attack itself, but the navy can do it. This also leads to European countries often considering the navy as the most important branch of the military when measuring the comprehensive strength of a country, and the army as second.

Prime Minister Bismarck simply couldn't understand the Spanish operation. If building a city that never sleeps requires a lot of expenses, why did the Spanish build a city that never sleeps?

"This is a terrible result. Perhaps in the electricity industry, the Spaniards have already taken the lead among all countries. Only in this way can the cost of building power stations and using electricity be reduced, allowing Spain to unscrupulously build a city that never sleeps to attract our attention." German Emperor William I said at this time.

European countries are not fools. Spain is the first to build a city that never sleeps, which also means that Spain is definitely at the forefront of Europe in the power industry.

It is also very simple to judge. If you can also quickly build a city that never sleeps, it proves that Spain’s achievements in the power industry are not outstanding.

But if a powerful country like Germany cannot quickly build a city that never sleeps, it proves that Spain's achievements in the power industry have surpassed Germany and even maintained a large lead.

The German Foreign Minister nodded and explained to Kaiser Wilhelm I and Prime Minister Bismarck: "According to the news sent back by the ambassador to Spain, the Spaniards used unknown high-power power generation equipment. There are less than ten power stations around Madrid, but the electricity generated is enough to illuminate the entire center of Madrid.

It is said that the electricity cost in Madrid has been reduced by more than half, and many factories are considering installing light bulbs to provide lighting at night.

In the era of electricity, the Spanish have indeed achieved a lot. I think we can cooperate with them in this regard and use some of our industrial technologies in exchange for their electricity technology."

Prime Minister Bismarck glanced at William I. Seeing that William I had no objection, Bismarck nodded and made his decision: "Let the ambassador contact the Spanish government and ask about the prices of Spanish power generation equipment and electric light technology.

Even if the cost of a city that never sleeps is high, we have to keep up. Electricity brings more than just lighting. If we can achieve good results in the power industry, perhaps Germany can have a brighter future. "

At this time, Prime Minister Bismarck still had great power. With his order, the German government also became busy and carried out its own work.

Unlike the decisive German government, France, which has a deep hatred for Germany, is now in a dilemma.

As a powerful country bordering directly on Spain, the news of Madrid, a city that never sleeps, was the first to reach France.

Before the French government could respond, the impatient Parisians launched a march, demanding that the government build a city that never sleeps to demonstrate France's strength.

The Parisian people's march made the French government panic, and even important government officials did not dare to appear in public.

The people of Paris who couldn't find the government turned their guns on the city hall and surrounded it. After all, the Paris city hall is also the government, so it is absolutely right to condemn them.

At this time, the official who served as the mayor of Paris was livid. He tried to contact the government by telegram, but they responded by asking the Paris government to handle the matter on its own.

Isn't this ridiculous? How will the Paris city government deal with this? Should they build street lights in the streets and alleys of Paris according to the opinions of the people?

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is a huge expense. Even if the Paris municipal government is relatively well-off, it is absolutely impossible to bear such a huge expense.

You know, the political systems of European countries are relatively clear. The Paris municipal government is relatively wealthy, but it is also responsible for the construction and maintenance of the entire Paris infrastructure, as well as the salaries of all Paris municipal government officials.

As the largest and most prosperous city in France, Paris has the highest fiscal revenue of all French cities. This also makes it difficult for Paris to obtain financial grants from the government, and various expenditures are generally covered by fiscal revenues withheld by the municipal government.

No matter how rich the Paris municipal government is, it is impossible for it to bear the cost of building street lights alone. Because of the Franco-Prussian War, the urban area of ​​Paris suffered varying degrees of damage.

The reconstruction of the city alone left the Paris city government with a huge debt, which took several years to pay off.

If the Paris city government were the only one to build street lights, by the time the lights were completed, the citizens of Paris would have been replaced by many generations.

While expressing his dissatisfaction and resentment towards the government, the mayor of Paris ordered officials to lock the doors of city hall to prevent dissatisfied citizens from rushing into the city hall directly.

The military strength of Parisians is no joke. If the citizens were allowed to storm the city hall, no one could guarantee what would happen.

The mayor of Paris does not want such a march to turn into an armed conflict and eventually into a bloody revolution.

According to past experience, whether the revolution is successful or not is not important. What is important is that once the revolution breaks out, the first to bleed will be the officials of the Paris city government.

The different attitudes shown by various governments towards the city that never sleeps in Madrid actually reflect their understanding of the power industry.

There is a reason why Germany became one of the fastest-growing countries during the Second Industrial Revolution. The entire country is extremely sensitive to the electric power industry. They have long seen the changes that the electric power industry has brought to industrial technology and attach great importance to such technology.

As for Britain and France, it cannot be said that they do not attach importance to it. The problem is that building a city that never sleeps requires a lot of capital investment, and the large-scale use of electricity will also affect the existing industrial system.

Carlo did not pay too much attention to what happened in other countries. After all, after the successful debut of the City That Never Sleeps, Spain was also quite busy.

The success of the City That Never Sleeps also means that electricity has officially entered the commercial era, and people can spend money to experience this new energy.

Of course, the cost of electricity was still relatively high at that time. Even though the cost of electricity generation has been reduced after the advent of high-power generators, the cost of electricity generation in Madrid is still as high as 1.6 pesetas per kilowatt-hour.

Power plants need a certain amount of profit to continue operating, and there are also large losses in the transportation of electricity.

This also resulted in electricity bills in Madrid reaching 2.5 pesetas per kilowatt-hour, and ordinary people faced relatively high costs when using electric lighting.

According to the power of the electric light, a 15-watt light bulb consumes 0.015 degrees of electricity per hour, and a 35-watt light bulb consumes 0.035 degrees of electricity per hour.

Assuming that a household needs to install 4 small light bulbs, and each bulb is lit for an average of 1 hour per night, the electricity cost for each household will be as high as 0.15 pesetas per day, or 54.75 pesetas per year.

The average annual income per capita in Spain is only 139.71 pesetas, and the annual electricity bill for each household is almost 40% of the average annual income.

To give an example that is easier to understand, suppose someone in the future has a monthly income of 5,000 yuan, which is 60,000 yuan a year. According to the electricity cost in Spain at that time, this person would have to pay nearly 24,000 yuan a year, which is absolutely exaggerated.

Although this electricity bill is the electricity cost for the entire family, it is a large expense for any civilian family.

What's more, people use electric lights for much longer than one hour on a daily basis. As the time of electricity use increases, the cost of electricity will also continue to increase.

According to Spain's current per capita income, less than one-tenth of the people in the whole of Spain can afford electricity. These people are basically aristocrats, capitalists and some middle-class people with higher incomes.

The good news is that although only one in ten people in Spain can afford electricity, a considerable portion of this one in ten lives in Spain's capital, Madrid.

This is also the reason why Carlo planned to build a city that never sleeps in Madrid, because these nobles do not feel sorry at all when spending money, they really use the electricity.

After the City That Never Sleeps became big news throughout Europe, Spanish nobles also dreamed of installing a large number of street lights and electric lights in their castles and estates.

These bulbs not only provide lighting, but also show the strength of the castle manor owner to the outside world.

Just on the second day of Christmas, dozens of nobles contacted Gram's power company in various ways, requesting the company to lay circuits for their castles and manors and install corresponding street lights and electric cannons.

That is to say, Carlo established the power company for the commercial use of electricity, otherwise these nobles would have no way of finding out the existence of the power laboratory.

In response to the nobles' request, after consulting Carlo and obtaining his consent, Gram nodded and agreed to cooperate with them.

The Electric Power Laboratory has not provided Carlo with any income so far. Although scientific research cannot be stingy, Gram still wants to prove his worth by earning income.

Although only a few dozen nobles wanted to lay circuits and build street lights in their manors and castles, these nobles were basically great nobles above the rank of duke.

These great nobles all have one thing in common, that is, they have countless castles and manors, and often not just one castle or manor needs to lay circuits.

These nobles consume much more electricity than ordinary civilians. The street lights in their castles and manors are sometimes even on all night long, which is a considerable source of income for power companies.

What Carlo didn't expect was that the Spanish nobles were not the big customers of the power company, but the German government was the real big customer.

No matter how rich the nobles were, their goal was only to have dozens or hundreds of street lights plus a small power station to provide electricity for the street lights.

The German government's requirements are different. The German government directly requires ten large power stations plus a thousand street lights. They obviously want to build a city that never sleeps, just like Spain. This also means that the German government has made up its mind to invest a lot of money.

Of course, the German government did not intend to invest too much money in street lights and electricity. The German ambassador made a request to the Spanish government, that is, to exchange Spanish electricity technology for industrial technology that Spain did not have.

These industrial technologies include Germany's latest steelmaking technology, the most advanced artillery technology, and some chemical and medical related technologies.

Carlo is still very interested in these technologies and is willing to exchange them for Spain's existing electricity technology.

The reason for being willing to exchange is not only that the industrial technology provided by Germany is indeed attractive, but also that the power technology currently mastered by Spain will soon be updated, so there is no need to cling to this technology.

Unlike Spain's existing light bulb technology, which is still the earliest carbon filament light bulb, Gram's electrical laboratory has begun researching light bulbs made of other materials, and it is expected that new products will be available soon.

The new product is not only brighter than carbon filament light bulbs, but also has a longer service life. It is for this reason that Carlo is willing to hand over the existing light bulb technology to Germany, as it will be eliminated sooner or later anyway.

The same is true for generators. Unlike Gramm's ring-armature generator, the two-phase generator developed by Tesla has greater potential, and the current power generation capacity is only the initial level.

If everything Tesla said in his last report to Carlo is true, then Spain will soon welcome high-power generators with a power generation capacity of more than 50KW, and will naturally look down on the current pseudo-large generators with a power generation capacity of only 26.5KW.

Technology is changing so fast. After the transition from a ring-type armature generator to a two-phase generator, it is inevitable that the power generation will be greatly increased in a short period of time.

The increase in power generation also means one thing, that is, more powerful light bulbs and electric motors are now available.

The reason why the electric power industry is only a hypothesis is that the power of previous generators was too low to drive higher-power electric motors.

This also means that if factory owners use electricity as energy, the cost of electricity alone is enough to drive the factory bankrupt.

However, with high-power generators, this situation will be greatly improved. When Spain has generators with a power generation capacity of more than 50KW, the cost of power generation in Spain will be less than 1 pesetas, and the cost of electricity for the public can be controlled at around 1.5 pesetas.

Under such circumstances, more households and factories will be able to afford electricity, and there will be real hope for the electric power industry and the electric power era.

Coupled with the industrial technology and related information exchanged between Germany and Spain, Spain was definitely able to become a promoter in the Second Industrial Revolution, and its industry and economy achieved significant development.

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