Fox of France

The large exhibition halls in the middle are almost furnished. Although the exhibition has not officially started at this time, many people have already visited there. Some of these people are interested in the models of the products displayed in these exhibition halls, while others are very concerned about the layout of the exhibition hall itself.

Anyway, things like arranging the exhibition hall and arranging the exhibits did not require Watt and Bolton Jr. to do it, or even their mouths—William Murdoch was already instructing others to prepare for the arrangement of the exhibition hall.

Since there is nothing wrong with standing here, Watt said to Bolton Jr., "Matthew, shall we go and have a look?"

Little Bolton naturally wouldn't object, so he nodded and said, "Okay, Mr. Watt."

Then he turned his head to Pierre and said, "Ah, young man, I forgot to ask your name just now."

"My name is Pierre Abelaire. You can just call me Pierre." Pierre replied quickly.

Little Bolton nodded and said, "Okay, Pierre, Mr. Watt and I want to have a look around, can you be our guide?"

"Mr. Bolton, this is not a problem. It is my job to serve you." Pierre quickly replied.

So the two were led by Pierre to the brightest area in the middle.

"Mr. Watt, Mr. Bolton, there are three main exhibition halls here, namely Lorraine Steel, Fortress Cement, and Bonaparte Arsenal. Which exhibition hall shall we go to first?"

"Ah, let's go to Lorraine Steel first." Little Bolton said, this company has a lot of business contacts with them, and they are more familiar with this company. Others did not object to this, so the group went to the booth of Lorraine Steel first.

The booth of Lorraine Steel covers a large area, and the most conspicuous thing on the entire booth is the huge frame model of the Peace Palace.

The highest part of the entire frame model is more than three meters high, and it is all made of steel bars. Watt watched the model carefully. Because at this time, there is no official launch, so there is no staff responsible for explaining. So Pierre cameo as a commentator.

"Mr. Watt, Mr. Bolton, this is the scale frame model of the 'Peace Palace'. If we remove all the bricks, cement, stone and other things from the entire 'Peace Palace', then you will be one and The model in front of me has exactly the same frame. Just like the human body is supported by bones, the 'Peace Palace' also has its bones, and the steel buried in the cement is its bones..."

"This kind of structure, this kind of construction method, can be used on other large buildings." Watt said, "Lorraine Steel really makes money."

"Currently only it has the low-cost steelmaking technology. With this technology alone, they can make money even in bed." Bolton Jr. also lamented.

Watt nodded and said: "It's a pity that they don't want to share technology, but if it were us, we wouldn't want to either—only fools would."

While speaking, several people walked around the huge "Peace Palace" frame model, and then a small bridge model appeared in front of them, which was also supported by a thick steel structure.

"What bridge is this, Pierre?" Watt asked.

"This is one of the proposals for a new bridge over the Seine, but right now, there is no such bridge in the world." Pierre replied.

"If this bridge becomes real, I'm afraid it will consume more steel?" Bolton Jr. interjected.

"It should be. So I heard that Lorraine Steel is preparing to build a larger steelmaking plant." Pierre replied.

"Oh, Matthew, you know what? If we build a bridge like this in London, it will be hard to achieve that favorite song of your father's."

In addition to the model of the building frame, various metal blocks are also placed on the booth of Lorraine Steel. These metal blocks are also accompanied by simple technical instructions. Including all kinds of cast iron and steel with different properties. These things, Watt and the others have seen them in the transaction with "Lorraine Steel" before.

Coming out of the exhibition hall of Lorraine Steel, Watt and his party went to the exhibition hall of Fortress Cement. In the center of the exhibition hall of Fortress Cement, there was a large block of cement. There are many potholes on this cement block, which are circled with white paint and accompanied by a short explanatory text.

"The 24-pound cannon is 100 meters away." Little Bolton walked up to the cement block and carefully inspected a small hole on it. , Only such a small hole was made. Mr. Watt, do you think this is true?"

"This must be true." Watt replied, "Don't talk about the 24-pound cannon, it is even bigger. The power is actually not as great as you imagined, Matthew. The wooden planks of the battleship are even strong enough to block them. , and these cements, when faced with shelling, the biggest problem is not hardness, but whether they will burst. I guess this fast cement must have a steel frame inside. With this, the cannon does take such things, Not much can be done. Well, the name of their company is Fortress, and this thing is indeed very suitable for building fortresses."

Next to this large, pitted concrete block are smaller cement blocks of various colors, with explanatory text beside them, but these texts are a little smaller, so that Watt needs to put his monocle again. Take it out.

"The product line of Fortress Cement is quite rich." After reading the introduction text with his head down, Watt straightened up, put the monocle back into his jacket pocket, and turned to Little Bolton, "I think this thing is really worth talking to them about. Let’s talk. Even if you can’t get technical authorization, you can get agency rights, it’s also very good.”

However, the exhibition has not yet started, and the staff in the exhibition hall of Fortress Cement are just temporary workers in charge of maintenance. Watt's idea of ​​meeting the company's senior management cannot be of much help-in fact, These temporary workers don't even know who the upper echelons of the company are.

"Matthew, some people make money on their knees, some people are stronger and have better things than others, so they can make money standing up, and some people, such as Lorraine Steel and Fortress Cement, monopolize some businesses, That's just lying down and making money." Watt couldn't help but sigh.

"I don't know how the 'Bonaparte Arsenal' over there makes money." Little Bolton said.

"Bonaparte Arsenal" is different from the two idiots lying around doing business and making money. Although theoretically speaking, the quality of the products of "Bonaparte Arsenal" has been proved by Napoleon's war and the practice of "brave people who pursue freedom" everywhere, but their service attitude is the best. of. Even though it is not yet officially launched, the staff there are still very enthusiastic and willing to introduce these essential necessities of "travel at home, murder and set fire" to any visitor in detail.

And among their exhibits, there are indeed some very interesting things that have never appeared elsewhere before, such as steel rifled guns.

In the middle of their exhibition hall, there is such a steel cannon. Watt noticed that the designation of this gun was not the same as that of previous cannons.

Cannons in this era are generally marked with the poundage of the shell, but this gun is marked with the caliber. A plaque next to the gun reads: "75mm Cannon Type 1800."

This is still a front-mounted recoil gun, not because the rear-loading gun is technically too difficult. In fact, after the steelmaking technique, the difficulty of rear-loading is no longer insurmountable. The main reason why this artillery still adopts this model is that "Bonaparte Arsenal" is a technology-leading company, and like many other technology-leading companies, it has the so-called "toothpaste squeeze syndrome". That is to say, there are more advanced technologies tomorrow, but these technologies must be locked in a safe, and first use less advanced things to make more money.

The 1800-type 75mm cannon is a typical squeezed toothpaste product, a typical toothpaste cannon.

Compared with the bronze cannon, this cannon is very small, smaller in size than the six-pound bronze cannon commonly used by the Army. According to the description next to it, although the length of its barrel is obviously longer than that of a normal six-pound gun, its body weight is also a little smaller than that of a six-pound bronze gun. The weight of the 12-pound gun mount has increased.

"How many pounds does this gun fire?" asked Bolton Jr. to the serviceman standing aside.

"This gun is a rifled gun," replied the attendant. "The shells of a rifled gun are not spherical, but nearly cylindrical. This gun can fire many kinds of shells for different purposes, and these shells, Because of different uses, their length and weight are also inconsistent, so this gun is not easy to mark with the weight of the shell. Instead, it can only be marked with the diameter of the muzzle."

"I think the caliber of this gun is not big, but the marked price is quite high. It can almost match two six-pound bronze guns. Is this too expensive?"

The price of the six-pound bronze cannon that Bolton Jr. mentioned refers to the price after a copper shortage occurred throughout Europe due to electricity demand. Therefore, this toothpaste cannon is indeed very expensive.

"Sir, we can mark such a price, naturally because this gun is more powerful than two six-pound bronze guns. First of all, because of the use of rifle technology, the shooting accuracy of our guns far exceeds that of ordinary guns. Bronze Cannon. For example, a best 12-pound bronze gun, under the control of the best gunner, can accurately hit a mill about a kilometer away, but with our gun, only a little With training, the gunners can hit the windows of that mill with precision."

"Then, can this gun be sold to England?" asked Watt.

"Why not? We didn't have a war with Britain, why not?" The staff member replied, although in his heart, he didn't think selling weapons to Britain was a good thing. But the above has already decided on this question.

"Anyway, it's just an incisor...a backward weapon with a certain new technology, what's the big deal." Someone said this when persuading Napoleon to sell steel cannons to foreigners first.