Chapter 134 Electrification Imagination (Happy New Year!)

Arthur acted very quickly. In just the next day, he assigned hundreds of indigenous people to Theodor Kobel and Ludwig Duerr to help them build new laboratories and research bases, and also Give them a start-up capital of 100,000 pounds to purchase research equipment and research expenses.

At the same time, Arthur also asked Butler Hunter to assist in acquiring and calling a large number of aviation professional and aerodynamics books from the Australian National University and even Europe, and used them to give Theodor Kobel and Ludwig Duerr , and it will also be used for research by more aviation experts in the future.

If it weren't for the current shortage of manpower, Arthur would even like to open an aviation major at the Australian National University to train more aviation industry talents in Australia.

There is no need to worry about this matter for the time being. After more aviation professionals are attracted from Europe, there will be manpower to start it.

In order to make other countries and forces think that Theodor Kober and Ludwig Duer's Aeronautical Research Institute was researching airships, Arthur even used a lot of Australian workers to build new airships. Not only The airship construction plan was announced to the outside world, and it was even announced that after the airship was successfully constructed, a public experiment would be conducted in Australia.

This move aroused the curiosity of many Australians, and also successfully made the aviation laboratory still under construction and the airship that has not yet started construction well known in Australia.

Of course, this is indeed what Arthur wants to see. Although Australia seems to be calm at present, no one can guarantee whether there will be spies from other countries in Australia.

If Australia achieves certain achievements in airship construction, it will naturally attract the attention of the great powers.

If most of the investments of the great powers in the aviation industry can be attracted to airships, then Australia will also be able to seize some of the opportunities in the development of aircraft.

On October 19, 1902, after more than five months of preparation, the Australian diplomatic mission set sail, aiming directly for Europe.

This diplomatic mission is much smaller than last time, and the person in charge is only Foreign Minister Andrew, and is also accompanied by officials from other departments.

This diplomatic mission has two purposes. In addition to carrying samples of new cars to the British Empire and the German Empire to seek support from the two countries to jointly open car factories, it is also a diplomatic mission to discover more talents in Europe. The purpose of the group.

Since Australia's independence, both old and new industries in Australia have not escaped from the current situation in the UK, which is rejection and disdain for new technologies.

Yes, the British Empire, which emerged in the first industrial revolution, fell behind other countries in the second industrial revolution and was surpassed by the United States and Germany in industry.

You must know that many emerging technologies in the second industrial revolution were first born in the UK, but British entrepreneurs were unwilling to apply these new technologies and processes into production.

Britain is an old capitalist country and the mother country of the Industrial Revolution. Many factories in the UK have existed for hundreds of years, and their equipment is outdated.

In the eyes of those British capitalists, it was not cost-effective to dismantle old equipment and replace it with new machines, which also hindered the progress of British industry.

At the same time, because the gap in raw material costs and labor costs between Britain and the major colonies was too large, capitalists would rather transport large amounts of capital and equipment abroad than update the production equipment and technology of local British companies.

Although the export of capital has brought huge profits to Britain, it has also restricted British industrial production and progress.

As one of the former colonies of the United Kingdom, Australia received a lot of capital investment from the United Kingdom before independence. Even now, some British capitalists and entrepreneurs come to Australia to open factories every year for Australia's low raw material and labor costs.

In the UK, a skilled worker's annual salary is at least fifty pounds, and if the job is a scarce one, the salary can be doubled.

But in Australia, ten pounds is already the per capita income level. Even if the economic situation has improved, workers' wages will not exceed fifteen pounds.

What a huge gap is this? There is a difference of thirty-five pounds per year in the salary cost of a skilled worker. Coupled with cheaper labor costs and resources, this is why British capital will flow out.

This is a good thing for Australia, but it also has some drawbacks.

Fortunately, in recent years, most of the capital outflows from the UK have been in new technologies. However, before Australia became independent, and even earlier, the factories and enterprises established by British capital in Australia used old technologies. Many factories in Europe have entered the era of electrification, and some factories in Australia are still using the first industrial technology. Revolutionary technology.

Naturally, Arthur cannot tolerate the limitations that technological gaps bring to Australia's industrial development, so Australia's next step is to fully electrify.

Although there is currently a shortage of electrification talent, deploying electrification will be simple for Australia.

Currently, the two most commonly used power generation methods are thermal power generation and hydropower generation. Among them, thermal power generation is more widely constructed because there are no terrain restrictions.

Of course, thermal power generation is not without its flaws. Thermal power generation requires a large amount of coal as energy, which also limits the construction of power grids in many coal-deficient countries.

However, Australia does not lack coal mines, which also has certain inherent advantages for the development of electrification.

The person Arthur preferred was Tesla, a great man forgotten by the times.

Unfortunately, Tesla had already become an American at this time and had already made achievements in electrical fields.

Even though Australia made many efforts to woo it, Tesla only agreed to go to Australia as an American expert to guide the laying of AC network.

But this is enough. Tesla's alternating current patent is completely free, which can also save a lot of money for laying circuit networks in Australia.

As for Edison's direct current, Arthur didn't even think about it. Putting aside the controversial issue of Edison's identity as the inventor, the huge flaws exposed by direct current made Arthur destined not to adopt it.

Because Arthur wants to achieve full electrification in Australia, this diplomatic mission has an additional purpose, which is to attract some electrical experts and talents in Europe.

Of course, this is not difficult. There are many experts in electrical appliances in the UK alone, but British capitalists do not pay much attention to these technologies.

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