Chapter 242: Electrification And Internal Combustion Engines
After confirming that Tesla would lead a life of alternating between work and study at the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, Carlo no longer hesitated and arranged a work position and study major for Tesla.
Although Tesla was versatile in scientific research, he was most famous for his abilities in alternating current and radio.
For this reason, Carlo decided to have Tesla join Gramme’s Electricity Laboratory to engage in related research on electricity and engines.
Currently, Gramme’s Electricity Laboratory was researching long-distance transmission of electricity and energy storage, and it was believed that Tesla’s joining would allow Gramme to discover more inspiration, perhaps promoting the use of electricity in Spain even earlier.
In addition to working at Gramme’s Electricity Laboratory, Tesla also had to continue pursuing a master’s degree in physics, mathematics, and mechanics at the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences.
Carlo personally promised Tesla that as long as he could successfully complete the master’s degree studies in the three majors within three years and achieve excellent results, Carlo would allow Tesla to establish his own laboratory for his own research.
Hearing that there was hope to establish his own laboratory, Tesla immediately agreed. Although Tesla was currently just a university graduate who had just graduated, establishing his own laboratory was an irresistible temptation for any scientist who loved scientific research.
To prevent Tesla from being at a loss after entering Gramme’s Electricity Laboratory, Carlo specifically instructed Gramme to personally guide Tesla through some electricity experiments, allowing Tesla to understand the electricity laboratory.
Because of Carlo’s instructions, Gramme attached great importance to Tesla, who joined the Electricity Laboratory midway.
Although the other party was just a 22-year-old university graduate, Gramme saw Tesla’s potential in brief contact.
Gramme had long complained to Carlo about the lack of high-end talent in the Electricity Laboratory. Although Tesla was young, he was indeed a reliable talent in electricity.
For this reason, Gramme had no dissatisfaction at all about needing to take time out of his busy schedule to help Tesla master the various data and information of the Electricity Laboratory. On the contrary, he hoped that Tesla could quickly adapt to the rhythm of the Electricity Laboratory under his guidance and contribute more inspiration and ideas to the experiments of the Electricity Laboratory.
Scientific research, besides relying on scientists’ abilities and talents, also greatly tests scientists’ imagination. Sometimes the success or failure of an experiment really comes down to a single thought; a seemingly insignificant idea might determine the success or failure of the experiment.
As a famous mad scientist of posterity, Tesla’s talent in scientific research goes without saying. Although he had just joined the Electricity Laboratory, he often proposed questions in experiments that others could hardly think of, which indeed effectively accelerated the experimental progress of the Electricity Laboratory.
After more than ten days, Gramme personally reported to Carlo about Tesla’s performance over these ten-plus days and praised Tesla as a once-in-a-century genius in the electricity industry.
After learning that Tesla was pursuing graduate degrees in physics, mathematics, and mechanics at the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, Gramme personally requested Carlo to serve as Tesla’s graduate advisor in physics and mechanics.
Having an academician from the Royal Academy of Sciences willing to serve as Tesla’s graduate advisor was certainly a good thing.
Moreover, the person willing to serve as advisor was Gramme, a pioneer in the electricity industry and a renowned scientist of this era.
Without the contributions of Gramme and other electricity pioneers to the electricity industry, there would be no current war between Edison and Tesla.
Without the current war, there naturally would be no commercialization of electricity. Although this might be somewhat exaggerated, the contributions of Gramme and other electricity pioneers to the electricity industry were by no means small; they too deserved praise and acclaim.
Currently, Gramme’s Electricity Laboratory had already achieved quite a few research results, the most important of which were the electric motor, generator, and light bulb.
The most prosperous street in Madrid had fully installed streetlights, with free lighting from 6:30 to 10:30 every evening.
As for the late night after 10:30, there was naturally no need for streetlights to provide lighting. After all, this era was different from posterity; those out in the middle of the night were either government and official personnel or some dangerous elements.
From the reactions of Madrid citizens currently, people quite liked the streetlights that provided lighting at night.
Of course, to provide four hours of lighting for this most prosperous street in Madrid, Gramme’s Electricity Laboratory had built two large thermal power plants on the outskirts of Madrid, barely meeting the lighting needs of one street.
Some large conference rooms of the government and Carlo’s Royal Palace also had lighting from light bulbs, and the electricity consumed by these light bulbs was supplied by other thermal power plants.
Although current electricity was mostly used only for lighting, lighting alone could fully demonstrate the role of electricity.
Before the birth of the light bulb, people’s lighting methods basically relied only on fire sources. Whether kerosene lamps or torches, the flames they produced were dim and constantly flickering.
In contrast, the light bulb provided more stable lighting and was much brighter than kerosene lamps and torches. If not for the problem of electricity transmission, some factories on the outskirts of Madrid were already considering purchasing light bulbs for lighting.
If factories could equip a large number of light bulbs, it would also mean that factories might be able to implement day and night shifts.
Summer might not matter much, but in winter when it got dark early, the role of the electric lamp was still very obvious.
With lighting from light bulbs of sufficient brightness, workers could ensure their safety when producing at night. After all, only by seeing the environment around them clearly could workers stay away from more dangerous places.
Gramme naturally knew the main reason hindering the commercialization of electricity; currently, the Electricity Laboratory was vigorously researching electricity transmission and energy storage methods.
Of course, there was also the power issue of generators. The current maximum power of the Electricity Laboratory’s generators was only 5KW, enough to drive one small electric motor or light hundreds of light bulbs.
Plus the resistance and electricity consumption during transmission, at most three-quarters of the electricity produced by the power plant was utilized, with one-quarter consumed in the transmission process.
To meet the electricity needs of the Royal Palace and government buildings, the thermal power plant near the Royal Palace installed 3 sets of thermal generators, with a maximum power generation capacity of 5KW, which was absolutely the largest power plant in the world.
But due to transmission losses en route, even this world’s largest thermal power plant could only meet the electricity needs of the Royal Palace and government buildings; the slightly farther Parliament Building was out of reach.
To promote the commercialization of electricity right now, one would have to build a thermal power plant at every factory and place needing electricity.
But that was absolutely impossible, and it was precisely this major limitation that made it difficult for electricity to be promoted and commercialized.
Taking advantage of the opportunity of Tesla joining the Electricity Laboratory, Carlo once again approved more research and development funds requested by the Electricity Laboratory and required the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau to collect more electricity talent for the Electricity Laboratory across Europe, striving to solve the electricity transmission problem in a shorter time.
As long as the two major problems of electricity transmission and power generation capacity were solved, current electricity could enter the commercial era.
After all, to put it bluntly, the commercialization of any technology evolves gradually; it was impossible to wait until the electricity system rivaled that of posterity before entering the commercialization stage.
When electricity entered the commercialization and full promotion stage in the future, Gramme’s Electricity Laboratory would be reorganized into the Spanish National Electricity Company, responsible for promoting the use and commercialization of electricity throughout Spain.
In the future, the industrial bases in Madrid, Seville, and Barcelona would all vigorously promote the use of electricity.
The electrification era prompted Germany and the United States to successively become brilliant pearls of the world, and Carlo naturally wanted Spain to get a share.
The British Empire, as the biggest beneficiary of the First Industrial Revolution, had currently enjoyed enough glory and splendid history.
Now it was time for Spain to enjoy this feeling; Spain must become one of the promoters of electrification and one of the biggest beneficiaries of electrification.
This was still very much possible to achieve. Although Britain had established a quite massive industrial system through the First Industrial Revolution, it also gave birth to a large number of factory owners and capitalists who became rich due to industrial development.
For countries like Germany, the United States, and Spain wanting to promote electrification, it would be easier than promoting it in Britain.
Because electrification, compared to the technologies born from the First Industrial Revolution, was completely a brand-new technology.
If Britain wanted to fully promote electrification, it would have to completely replace the equipment and factories of the First Industrial Revolution.
Completely replacing industrial equipment meant massive expenditure and would also affect the production of those factories and the interests of factory owners.
Would those capitalists with money in their eyes agree to do so? Of course they would not.
Britain only needed to continue using First Industrial Revolution technology to achieve steady growth in its industry. Since that was the case, why take the risk to use electrification technology?
Although new technology had more potential, it often also symbolized more problems and potential hidden dangers.
It was precisely because of such reasons that Britain ultimately failed to keep up during the Second Industrial Revolution, with its industrial scale successively surpassed by the United States and Germany.
The British Government might have seen such problems, but they were unable to change them. Fully promoting electrification would mean standing against the existing factory owners and capitalists, which was absolutely impossible for Britain currently.
Because it would hurt Britain’s foundation and make the massive industrial system of the British Empire instantly very vulnerable, even possibly triggering greater internal strife and crisis.
In addition to paying an extra research budget to Gramme’s Electricity Laboratory, Carlo also paid a research and development fund to Benz’s Automobile Laboratory.
Nearly four years had passed since Benz manufactured the prototype of a simple car, and the Automobile Laboratory had achieved more results in these four years.
But due to insufficient industrial level, cars currently could not achieve mass production, with annual production volume only a few hundred vehicles.
As of now, the Spanish Government had cumulatively purchased over 400 cars, nearly half of which became dedicated vehicles for cabinet ministers and managers of some important government departments.
Although these simple cars still had many problems, they were much faster than carriages in terms of speed.
Take the car Carlo rode as an example. The car Carlo rode was equipped with the latest engine developed by the Engine Research Office, requiring maintenance only once every 350 kilometers on average.
Even though Carlo’s carriage compartment was modified, with steel plates embedded inside and the carriage compartment area enlarged, this car specially provided for Carlo could still reach a speed of about 25 kilometers per hour.
It was not exaggerated for a faster warhorse to reach 25 kilometers per hour, but for a carriage, such speed was somewhat exaggerated.
Because of equipping a large number of simple cars, communication between Spanish government departments became more convenient. Previously, visiting between two departments by carriage might take about half an hour.
After means of transport became simple cars, travel between two departments could be completed in just over ten minutes, greatly saving the time officials needed to go back and forth between various departments.
Carlo’s specially modified car could still reach 25 kilometers per hour, while those not exaggeratedly modified, or basically unmodified cars, could basically reach about 30 kilometers per hour.
Currently, officials within the government were quite satisfied with such cars, and some officials had even proposed purchasing a car for private use.
Considering that such cars needed inspection every 300-plus kilometers to prevent problems during driving, Carlo ultimately rejected the officials’ proposal.
However, Carlo also issued an order to Benz and others: to quickly improve the stability of the engine and try to increase the stable driving distance of the car from 350 kilometers to over 500 kilometers.
From the perspective of the car’s speed and power, such cars already played a quite important role. But due to poor engine stability, they would occasionally break down.
This also made it difficult for cars to enter the commercialization step. Carlo had the Spanish Government purchase over 400 cars for public use, partly to provide more relevant data for the Automobile Laboratory through extensive experiments.
Gramme’s Electricity Laboratory was Spain’s hope for promoting electrification industry, while Benz’s Automobile Laboratory was Spain’s hope for leading the world in internal combustion engines.
The importance of electrification went without saying, and the importance of internal combustion engines was in no way inferior to electrification.
Future heavy weapons like airplanes and tanks all used internal combustion engines as power sources, and cars and other machinery also extensively used internal combustion engines.
If Spain could advance on both electrification and internal combustion engines, Spain would truly have the confidence to compete with superpowers like Britain and Germany.
If Spain could lead the world in the research and development of tanks and airplanes, it could ensure huge benefits for Spain in the two future world wars, thereby truly becoming a superpower.
Besides improving the stability of the four-stroke engine, Benz and others’ task was to explore as much as possible the assembly line production method proposed by Carlo, thereby increasing car production volume.
Carlo gave a deadline: to promote the commercialization of cars before 1885, bringing Spain’s cars to the global stage.
Before that, Benz and others at least needed to ensure that the manufactured car products would not have problems in a single 500-kilometer trip or 15 consecutive hours of driving.
To facilitate timely repairs for car owners after problems arose, the Automobile Company after the Automobile Laboratory’s reorganization would also need to build repair shops in Spanish Autonomous Communities and even European countries, helping car owners quickly check for car problems and repair them.
Only after doing these things could cars officially achieve commercialization. Because only by solving problems arising during car use would people be willing to buy cars.
Otherwise, no matter how much potential or role cars demonstrated, if problems were not solved, no one would buy them.
In addition to building repair shops, Spain also needed to establish related energy supply stations in various places. No matter what kind of energy-powered internal combustion engine, it needed continuous energy replenishment to provide power.
The four-stroke gas engine used by Benz’s Automobile Laboratory currently could be said to be one of the best engines in the world, but its thermal efficiency was only about 11% to 13%.
Such thermal efficiency was obviously quite backward compared to posterity engines that easily exceeded 40%.
The so-called thermal efficiency was actually the utilization rate of the thermal energy consumed by the engine. Such data also meant that even very advanced engines in posterity had thermal efficiency less than half, with a large half of the fuel wasted.
And in this era, because the thermal efficiency was only a pitiful 11% to 13%, it meant at least 87% of the energy was wasted.
Although regrettable, there was no way around it. Engine thermal efficiency could only improve with continuous advancement of technology and the repeated scientific research and efforts of relevant experimental personnel.
Before technology improved, even if Carlo was willing to invest money, changes in this aspect would not be much.
Fortunately, the important future energy petroleum was currently still in an undeveloped state. There were large oil fields in the Middle East yet to be discovered, and Spain had hope of obtaining some land in the Middle East through various means, thereby controlling certain petroleum reserves.
This land in the Middle East was currently mostly uninhabited desert, so obtaining a piece of land was relatively simple.
The only great power colonizing the Middle East was Britain, and it was also within the sphere of influence of the Ottoman Empire. For Spain, as long as it obtained permission from the British, taking a piece of land in the Middle East was not a big problem, even easy.
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