Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 581 Philip the Moth
Following in Galileo's footsteps, Philip slowly descended to the underground part of the laboratory.
Without the sunlight and without candlelight or oil lamps in the corridor, the entire view quickly became dim.
However, after turning a corner, his vision suddenly became brighter. After turning another corner, Philip unconsciously covered his eyes with his hands.
After his pupils adjusted to the strong light, Philip gently moved his palm away, and then he saw the source of the light: it was actually a lamp! An ordinary candle or oil lamp could never emit such a dazzling light, an electric lamp!
"Professor!" His Majesty's voice suddenly became shrill with excitement: "When did this succeed? Such a great achievement, why didn't you tell me earlier?"
In the time it took to say this, the lamp that had been emitting dazzling light suddenly flickered a few times, and then a cloud of black smoke and a burnt smell spread out, and the dazzling light was suddenly extinguished.
"Pop~" Galileo skillfully fumbled for the candle and matches in the dark, and then lit the candle with ease: "Your Majesty, please sit down and talk."
"Oh, okay, hey, Professor, this is really exciting!"
Seeing Philip's ecstatic expression, Galileo also smiled, then took out a match, lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and then began to speak in a light but powerful voice.
"About twelve years ago, when the steam engine in the laboratory was ready for practical use, His Majesty explained to us the basic theoretical knowledge of electricity in detail. Well, the nature of electricity, electromagnetic induction, the strength of electricity, resistance... I am ashamed that His Majesty pointed out such a clear path for us, but we still groped for more than ten years, and only recently completed the determination of the voltage difference between different metals. As His Majesty told us more than ten years ago, electricity has positive and negative poles, and only now can it be considered a successful demonstration."
"Of course." The 64-year-old old man took another puff of his cigarette, and his expression became completely relaxed. "With the voltage difference determined, the battery that Your Majesty has been talking about for more than ten years will naturally be born. Then after we get the mature battery, the first thing we will do is to make the electric light that Your Majesty mentioned before."
"But, as you can see, we do have electric lights now, but the light they produce is so bright that it is useless for ordinary lighting. And the duration of the light is so short that it is not even as practical as the ancient torches."
"No, no, no, my professor, it doesn't matter. Any invention is not very practical at the beginning. Moreover, this electric lamp, well, it is actually an arc lamp. I think that a practical electric lamp should have a glass cover, a vacuum environment, and a tungsten filament inside. When the power is turned on, the tungsten filament converts electrical energy into heat energy and light energy in the vacuum environment."
"Ah?" A lot of cigarette ash fell from his gray beard, but the old man didn't care at this moment: "Your Majesty, is this really okay?"
"Haha, my professor, can we just give it a try? We have a vacuum pump in our lab, right?"
"Yes, I have. As for the tungsten wire, I will arrange for the metallurgical staff to make it right away. Your Majesty, how thick should the tungsten wire be? How long should it be? Is it made of alloy? What is the ratio?"
"Hahaha, my professor, I don't know about that. These are things that you scientists have to figure out."
"Sometimes I really don't understand Your Majesty. When it comes to some theories, Your Majesty often speaks very clearly. Its foresight often requires us to spend ten years or even longer to explore, but in the end, we can always prove that what Your Majesty said is correct. However, if Your Majesty really wants to design an experiment yourself , hehe..."
Well, this is the advantage and disadvantage of a time traveler majoring in liberal arts, especially a time traveler majoring in history. However, in general, the advantage is greater: Take the electric light for example. After Edison improved the electric light to make it practical, in order to make the light bulb last longer, it took more than 70 years for relevant professional scientists and technical workers around the world to continuously improve the filament before they finally found tungsten filament to make the filament of the electric light. But I, a time traveler, saved these 70 years with just one sentence!
"Yes, glass cover, vacuum, tungsten filament. Okay, Your Majesty, we will start a new round of experiments immediately."
“Hahahaha, I look forward to you and your colleagues making achievements that will once again advance human civilization.”
"The theories for all these achievements were provided by you, Your Majesty. We just turned them into reality. You are worthy of being the Son of God who was born under the protection of the Archangel. However..."
"Any questions, my professor?"
The old man rubbed his hands awkwardly and said, "Your Majesty, if the tungsten filament bulb you mentioned can really be used for a long time, we will go to verify your electromagnetic induction theory and try to use steam turbines to generate electricity. But before that, we have another problem to solve."
"What is it? Is there anything I can do?"
"Insulating materials for wrapping wires, Your Majesty. Currently, we use either shellac or rubber to wrap wires. Shellac works very well, but the production is too small and the price is very high. As for rubber, the quantity is larger, but on the one hand, it must be shipped from plantations in South America, and the cost is not low. On the other hand, the melting point of rubber is too low, and it will soften at around 120°. There is no problem with this simple closed circuit assembled with batteries now, but in the future, when the voltage is really high and the current intensity is high, it will be extremely unsafe to transmit current remotely. In this way, even if the tungsten filament light bulb that Your Majesty mentioned is really realized, it will not have widespread practical application."
"... Well, what you said makes a lot of sense." After listening to Galileo's words, Philip couldn't help but think of the Battle of Santiago in southern America last year: the Spanish fleet, which had an absolute advantage in numbers, ultimately failed to defeat the Ming expeditionary fleet. The fundamental reason was that they had no way to deal with the opponent's 5,000-ton giant.
However, without electrification, there is really not much point in increasing the tonnage of tin cans.
However, now that electric lights and searchlights have seen the light of day, it seems that the large-scale ironclad warships will not be a big problem. But if the circuit safety is not guaranteed, what if there is a problem with the circuit and the warship is set on fire from the inside? Shellac can be used, but in the future, all the warships of the empire will use shellac to lay pipelines. What about the price of the warships?
No, we must find a wire conduit outer covering that is safe, cheap and can be supplied in large quantities and in a stable manner.
What's the outer covering of electrical conduit in the future? Oh, plastic.
Hey! Plastic? Thinking of this, Philip suddenly had a bold idea.
…
In November 1628, Ibrahim, who had just returned to Istanbul after completing a local agricultural survey in the Mesopotamian region, once again received a handwritten letter from Philip.
“Dear Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, I am writing to discuss with you the possibility of technology exchange and a hidden alliance between the EU and the Ottoman Empire.
I have seen polyester being very popular in the Apennines. Since PET has already been developed, I think PE, PP, PVC, PAS and ABS will all be developed successfully or will be developed sooner or later. There is no doubt that this is an industry with extremely high profits, which is worth any capital going crazy for.
Unfortunately, I used to study history and have no idea how high-molecular polymers such as plastics are produced. In this regard, I can only express my deep admiration for your outstanding knowledge.
However, although I am far behind you in natural science, thanks to the great and talented team of scientists in Europe, we have completely tamed and made electricity practical.
At this point, you should understand what I need. Yes, I need you to give me the formula and production method of various insulating plastics. For this, I am willing to exchange a full set of electrical technology.
My colleague, I say it again, we do have to fight to the death, but I hope that the two of us will be the final opponents. Before that, we must unite and defeat the Chinese emperor in the East. After all, China in this era is too powerful. If the Chinese take advantage of the situation when we are both defeated, it is not a matter of Western civilization failing, but the entire Caucasian race will fail!
Therefore, I once again sincerely propose to you the request of a hidden alliance between the two sides. After that, on the surface, we are still enemies, but this is just a means for us to use each other to consolidate our domestic rule. In fact, I will take India through the Suez Canal. Of course, I will take a few strongholds and build a few naval bases , but I promise that this is all - in fact, no fool will march to Baghdad through the desert of the Arabian Peninsula. And you can rest assured and boldly develop the black soil of Ukraine, the vast plains of East Europe, and take over the rich Persia while His Majesty Abbas is about to die.
My colleague, I am making this suggestion to you with great sincerity. If you reject my two proposals...oh, the profit of plastic is too high, so high that any capital will be crazy about it. If you plan to sell plastic products to the whole of Europe, then the final result must be that the EU will do its utmost, even if a million people die, to defeat your crazy attack.
Of course, I would not do such a thing unless it was absolutely necessary, for the reasons I have already explained clearly. That would exhaust both of us and lead to our being easily defeated by our Chinese counterpart. So, my counterpart, why don't you accept my suggestion? As long as our two countries form an implicit alliance, our positions in our respective countries will be very stable, and at the same time, the technology of our two countries will usher in rapid development, and eventually complete the crushing of Eastern China.
Please accept my suggestion, this is a win-win agreement.
Looking forward to your affirmative reply.
The utmost respect for your fellow man, Philip."
