Chapter 92: Vision For The University
Looking at the demonstration device of the generator and electric motor that he had personally made before his eyes, Gramme couldn’t help but shed tears.
As an explorer in the electricity industry, Gramme devoted his entire life energy to experiments in electricity, thinking incessantly about achieving results in his electricity research.
The results were already there now, but they were born because of a few words from Carlo, which also gave Gramme many emotions.
“Your Majesty, you are the true meritorious official in the electricity industry. If electricity is fortunate enough to be adopted by countries all over the world, you will play a crucial role in human progress and world development.” Gramme said to Carlo with some emotions.
“No, this is not my merit.” Carlo shook his head and gave the merit to Gramme and the electricity researchers: “This is the result of your efforts. I just provided an idea.
Without your long-term research in the electricity industry and the manufacture of generators that could be used for experiments, my idea would ultimately just be an idea.
Mr. Gramme, all the researchers participating in this experiment, you are the meritorious officials of human progress.
To celebrate the new results of the electricity experiment, I will prepare a celebration banquet for you, and each of you will receive a check from the Royal Bank.
Gentlemen, please continue to work hard. I will not treat your merits poorly, and Spain will not forget your contributions!”
Carlo’s speech won the favor of everyone in the laboratory. Not to mention anything else, the numbers on the checks represented real gold and silver, and even these experimenters whose wages had greatly increased were reluctant to refuse.
Moreover, they had no reason to refuse. Carlo had placed all the merit on their heads, and they had instantly become Spain’s meritorious officials.
For these experimenters, Carlo still adopted the method of winning hearts.
After all, they had come from France thousands of miles away to Spain, and Carlo would not treat these researchers willing to join Spanish nationality poorly.
After encouraging the researchers in the electricity laboratory again, Carlo walked out of the electricity laboratory quite satisfied and went to the neighboring engine research office to check the progress.
Since he was already inspecting the experimental area, it was better to visit both laboratories and also check the experimental progress of Benz and the others on engines.
The engine laboratory was much quieter than the electricity laboratory side. After all, the total number of employees added up to less than a sixth of that side.
However, Benz, Daimler, and Maybach working in the engine laboratory were all world-renowned figures in posterity. Carlo’s expectations for the engine laboratory were no less than those for the electricity laboratory.
After all, the uses of engines were quite extensive. Besides relatively common means of transport such as airplanes and cars, they could also be applied to agricultural machinery like tractors and military weapons such as fighter jets and tanks.
If engines were researched well, they would provide enormous help to both civilian and military fields in the future. Although Carlo did not expect Benz and the other two to develop any particularly powerful engines, as long as they could maintain a certain lead in the engine research field of countries around the world at present, or stay in the top three level, it would satisfy Carlo’s expectations.
Anyway, there would be more talents in the engine field later, and it would not be too late to win them over one by one then.
Currently, engines, like electricity, were in the initial stage of startup. Even famous engine research and development personnel like Diesel were now only in their teens.
Walking straight into the engine laboratory, Benz and the other two quickly noticed Carlo.
“Your Majesty!” The three saluted one after another, the surprise on their faces unconcealed.
“The electricity laboratory has achieved results, so I came to see your research by the way.” Carlo said with a smile.
Hearing Carlo say this, Benz and the others immediately felt a sense of urgency. The electricity laboratory and the engine laboratory were built at the same time, and their arrival in Spain was only a few days apart from Gramme and the others.
But in just these few days, the electricity laboratory had already achieved results, and it was the kind of results that could alarm Carlo.
Meanwhile, their engine laboratory was still intensely researching and designing, clearly far behind the electricity laboratory.
“Your Majesty, our four-stroke engine is already in the design and experiment stage. It is expected that related products will enter experiments within two years, and relatively complete four-stroke engines will begin testing within five years.” Benz hurriedly reported the progress of the engine laboratory.
“Four-stroke engine?” Carlo asked.
“Yes, the four-stroke engine will consist of four piston strokes: intake stroke, compression stroke, power stroke, and exhaust stroke.
In our conception, if such a four-stroke engine can be realized, the thermal efficiency will increase from 11% of atmospheric engines to more than 13%, and it can effectively reduce the mass and volume of the engine.
If such an engine can be realized, perhaps we can explore related vehicle improvements based on such an engine.” Daimler continued to introduce.
Speaking of the four-stroke engine, this was a research that Daimler and Maybach had already started in Germany.
The so-called thermal efficiency is also easy to understand; it can be seen as the proportion of the engine’s output power to the input fuel.
The thermal efficiency of current common atmospheric engines is only 11%, which also means that about 89% of the fuel is wasted—this is quite an exaggeration.
Another point is the volume of atmospheric engines, which is not very suitable for installation on carriages for vehicle modifications.
If atmospheric engines are used, the manufactured vehicles would be too bulky. Because of the overly large volume, the vehicles not only look cumbersome but also move quite heavily.
Such cumbersome vehicles are not as good as carriages, which is why a large number of factories are exploring engine improvements.
As the heart of a vehicle, the advancement of an engine also relates to the advancement of the vehicle. If the engine has any problems, it is like a person having heart disease, which is fatal for the vehicle.
Carlo nodded, but he was somewhat dissatisfied with the progress of the engine research office.
Having products enter experiments in two years and perfected experimental products for testing in five years—doesn’t that mean that perfecting and starting to use the four-stroke engine would take at least five years or more?
“Isn’t this timeline too long? Can it be compressed a bit more to see the finished four-stroke engine earlier?” Carlo frowned and asked somewhat dissatisfied.
“Your Majesty, it’s not that we don’t want to compress the time. It’s really that the laboratory here is seriously short of manpower. Most designs and tests need to be done by us personally, wasting at least half of the entire research and development cycle.
If there were enough manpower available, I am confident that Your Majesty could see the finished four-stroke engine within three years, and it would be a product that has undergone experiments and possesses stability and applicability.” Daimler said somewhat helplessly.
If it were in a previous German company, although they were the specific research and development managers, they at least had sufficient available manpower at hand.
Unlike now in Spain, although the specific treatment was indeed unquestionable, the available people under them were really too few.
The more than ten or twenty people that Carlo had painstakingly assembled had too little understanding of engines; they still needed time to learn and grow.
And during this time, the research on the four-stroke engine was almost entirely done personally by Benz and the other two.
It was already very difficult for three people to develop a complete four-stroke engine, let alone compress the time cost, which was even more difficult.
Carlo nodded; he also knew about the current manpower shortage in the engine laboratory.
“On the manpower side, I will find a way to solve it. At least within two years, the number of personnel in the engine laboratory will increase to more than 100 people. I will also invite technical experts in engines from all over Europe to strive for our four-stroke engine to come out earlier.” Carlo reassured.
Although the engine field was currently only in the startup stage, this did not mean that related talents in engines worldwide would be few.
Not to mention anything else, through quite generous immigrant conditions, it was still possible to attract over a hundred related talents; it’s just that the quality would definitely not be as high as Benz and the other two.
However, the current engine laboratory did not really need people with very high abilities; mid-to-upper level ones who could lend a hand would be sufficient.
Benz and the other two had already been tested in history; in the fields of cars and engines, they were not only top talents but absolutely excellent talents or above.
Moreover, the four-stroke engine was originally their research; it was just at the Otto company. Now coming to Spain, with Carlo’s even stronger support, it was believed they would develop the four-stroke engine even earlier than in the original world and manufacture experimental vehicles based on the developed engine.
Hearing Carlo promise to increase the engine laboratory’s researchers to more than a hundred within two years, Benz and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Some experiments really couldn’t be done with just this few people; pooling wisdom would greatly increase the feasibility of the experiments.
Thinking of this, Carlo also felt a bit of a headache.
Now it seemed that current Spain had too big a gap compared to Italy.
Although Italy’s overall level was not great, Northern Italy’s industry and economy were relatively good, and the original Kingdom of Sardinia also attached great importance to talent cultivation.
Although Italy did not have as rich a talent reserve as Britain, France, and Germany, it had completely sufficient mid-to-upper level talents.
Spain was already far behind in this aspect. Spain not only lacked top talents but even pillar-like talents in laboratories were very scarce.
It was one thing that there were not many physics and chemistry majors in Spanish universities, but most of them were superficial, making it hard to cultivate sufficiently excellent physics and chemistry talents.
After leaving the experimental area, Carlo headed straight to the Royal Palace.
To improve Spain’s situation of lacking talents, Carlo decided to build a university specifically for cultivating physics and chemistry talents.
Carlo had already thought of the name of the university: Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry. Just from the name, one could tell what the university’s focus was.
To express the importance attached to this university specializing in physics and chemistry, Carlo decided that all excellent physics and chemistry talents absorbed by Spain in the future would teach at this university, striving to cultivate more potential stars in physics and chemistry for Spain.
After informing Butler Loren of this idea, Butler Loren also highly agreed and gave his reasons: “I think building such a university is very necessary, Your Majesty.
With the word ‘Royal’ in it, it can also let the excellent graduates cultivated by this university understand for whom they should work and for whom they should serve.”
“Do we have enough funds? If we are to build such a university, when is the earliest we can start enrolling students?” Carlo nodded, further firming his idea to build a university.
However, building a university from zero to existence still required a long time. Whether it was the construction of school facilities, especially laboratories for experiments, or the purchase of teaching materials, the introduction of some relatively famous university teachers and professors, all were very important.
Without good teachers, such a university would find it hard to cultivate sufficiently excellent graduates. To win over those sufficiently excellent physicists and chemists worldwide, funds were indispensable, and even some extra conditions had to be promised.
“It should be no problem.” Butler Loren nodded; he was clear about how much funds the royal family currently had: “If building a university from scratch, it is estimated that it would take at least three years to open for enrollment.
But if modifying relatively suitable existing buildings and only constructing related laboratories, it should shorten the time cost to a certain extent.
However, to build a university that can continuously cultivate talents, paying a certain amount of time is inevitable.
I estimate the university’s construction time will be at least 2 to 3 years, and the total funds we need to pay will start at least 10 million pesetas.” Butler Loren answered.
Carlo nodded, not surprised by this huge amount of funds.
Actually, building the university itself did not cost much money; the biggest costs were constructing laboratories and purchasing teaching materials and experimental equipment.
The biggest expenditure was introducing the university’s teachers and professors to make them willingly cultivate sufficient excellent talents for Spain.
However, as the academy developed and gained certain international fame, it would attract more people to apply.
Even if it could not maintain a balance of income and expenditure, having such a university that could continuously cultivate excellent talents was quite important.
It was not that Carlo did not trust those universities in Spain; the problem was that their own majors did not have much role for Spain.
Several universities were famous for literature and art categories—what did current Spain need so many literature and art people for?
For current universities, physics and chemistry were the top priorities, and medical treatment was also very important. Next was education, which could cultivate more excellent teachers, in turn cultivating more students for Spain to apply to universities.
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