Chapter 657: Technology
Chapter 643 Technology
Entering the late 19th century, the Second Industrial Revolution began to take full force, and technological innovations emerged.
As the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, Austria was the first to enjoy the dividends of scientific and technological progress, the domestic economic development train directly ran on the fast track.
By the end of 1877, eighty percent of Austrian cities had been popularized electricity, and the rest of the cities were also in the process.
This speed exceeded everyone’s imagination, leading to the fundamental reason for all this to happen, is the progress of science and technology.
No one had expected another breakthrough in power generation in such a short period of time. The power of generators has increased, and coal consumption has been reduced to 450 grams to 630 grams per kilowatt hour.
The difference is so wide, mainly because of the quality of coal. Austria’s power plants are all privately owned and naturally do not need the government to standardize coal use.
Secondly, it is the gap in power generation technology. Different power plants, power generation technology is also beginning to pull apart, a new round of survival of the fittest is about to start.
At the same time as the cost of power generation fell, the Austrian metallurgical industry also made a breakthrough. The price of copper on the market fell dramatically, leading to a drop in the cost of wire production.
This significant drop in costs made the establishment of power supply networks no longer a dream and laid the decisive foundation for the universalization of electricity.
The spread of electricity brought about not only a revolution in lighting technology, but also a revolution in industry. Machinery and equipment using electricity as a source of energy sprang up.
In addition to electricity, there was also the development of the internal combustion engine. This epoch-making invention swept the steam engine into the dustbin.
Of course, it took time, and now the steam engine is still the mainstream of the age. Even Austria, which was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, had just begun to experiment with internal combustion engine equipment.
But the potential of the internal combustion engine has been seen by everyone. Capital is profit-driven, and after realizing the great potential of the internal combustion engine, the number of companies developing internal combustion engines increased rapidly.
Especially for companies engaged in the manufacture of machinery and equipment, if they do not embark on a new power research and development program, it is not keeping up with the times.
Quantitative changes cause qualitative changes, and more people involved will always produce results. For example: the internal combustion engine automobile was born in advance.
Of course, limited by the power technology, this era of internal combustion engine cars, there is no practical value. Running on thirty or forty kilometers, have to maintain the car once, obviously does not have economic value.
The automobiles that were put into use in the market were all steam engine powered automobiles. However, because they were too noisy, had inflexible brakes, and were prone to accidents when encountering unexpected situations, they were banned from use in cities.
Although steam engine cars were bulky, inconvenient to use, and ran relatively slowly outside, the carrying capacity was still good. This kind of black technology equipment is usually active in the mines.
Occasionally, there are also unafraid of death of the tycoon, using this steam engine version of the large car. This is not to think big can not, if the size of the car is small, where to put the steam engine?
Franz never admired these warriors. Without their death-defying spirit, Austria’s automobile industry would not have developed so quickly.
As the saying goes, when there is a market, there is production. It was only after realizing the needs of the landed gentry that automobile companies began to develop internal combustion engine cars.
Of course, there were also those who ran off the beaten track. As far as Franz knew, there were also people working on electric cars.
Instead of installing an electric battery, which was not available in this day and age, they just installed a small generator and then an electric motor for the power system.
Franz did not know whether he could make it or not. Anyway, this kind of car, the final size is certainly not small.
If the volume is big, the weight will also go up. If you want to run, then you can only increase the power of the electric motor, and by the way, you also have to increase the power of the generator.
This is a vicious circle, these days, the more power the mechanical equipment, the larger the volume, the self-weight increases, the problem again feedback back.
In this respect, this kind of super-age car has already lost its market competitiveness during the development process.
Scientific and technological innovation is worth encouraging, even if the final failure, that can be summarized lessons learned.
After seeing this news on the news, Franz just laughed it off, with no intention of interfering.
For an enterprise to survive in the long run, it would not work without taking a few detours and learning lessons.
If the business operator’s vision is not good, or his own judgment is not good enough, then sooner or later it will be finished. There is no value in saving such a business.
Half a step ahead is genius, one step ahead is madness. Being several steps ahead, Franz doesn’t know what it is anymore, and will probably turn into a martyr!
Who knows? Many scientific and technological innovations are unintentional, and in case a company gets lucky and makes other valuable by-products on the road to death, it can make an equally big profit.
For example: to make electric motors smaller and more powerful; or to make generators smaller, these are existing industrial conditions can be realized.
There are many other similar over-the-top projects, such as the electric-powered train.
In the end, the development of electric trains failed, but accidentally came up with streetcars.
This is also considered lucky, spend huge amounts of money on research and development of the Austrian railroad company, directly changed to do the inner-city transportation.
Trams are obviously more competitive than horse-drawn buses and steam buses, and there are already a number of cities in Austria that have adopted this advanced mode of transportation.
Unlike later generations, it takes several years, or even more than ten years, to promote a project from its birth to its use.
Nowadays, capitalists are undoubtedly much more active, and it usually takes only a few months, or at the longest one or two years, after the introduction of a new product, to promote it to the market.
The main factor is still profit; many industries are just starting out now, and there are not so many interest groups to get in the way.
Horse-drawn buses and steam engine buses are mostly government-funded and subsidized infrastructure projects, and with the availability of more advanced and lower-cost streetcars, the Austrian government naturally won’t turn them down.
There have been successes, and naturally there have been failures. For example: a big tycoon came up with the “Moon Landing Program”, Franz can only sigh that the rich can do whatever they want.
In this era want to land on the moon, or go to bed early, in the dream on the realization.
This project has just begun, no results for the time being. But the momentum is quite big, it is said that there are dozens of tycoons in the country to fund, ready to open the interstellar era of mankind.
If this project can persist for a hundred and eighty years, there may still be a possibility of success, and if you want to generate economic value, perhaps this time will have to be extended by a factor of two.
In any case, this spirit of scientific research was still worth encouraging.
If nothing else, the Moon Landing Program should receive the 1878 Austrian Award for Best Scientific and Technological Innovation, while the Interstellar Program will receive the Most Promising Project Award.
These awards, all of which were specifically established by Franz to encourage scientific and technological innovation.
There were only two conditions for declaration, any one of which could be met: one, the project had already achieved milestones; and two, the project investment exceeded one million guilders.
Of course, there was another prerequisite, that is, the scientific research project must be beneficial to humanity.
Award-winning projects can apply for free research space, water and electricity costs are halved, and the local government will also vigorously cooperate with the project team.
Not to mention tax exemptions. All research projects in Austria are eligible for tax exemptions. The prerequisite is to accept the government supervision of scientific research funds, to prevent the use of scientific research money laundering.
Theoretically speaking, no matter whether the project can be successful or not, as long as it draws a big cake, gains social recognition, and is willing to pour money into it, then it is possible to win the award.
The moon landing program and even the later interplanetary program are all money-smashing projects and have gained wide social recognition.
This is only an honorary award, and the difficulty of winning is not that big. The real scientific research awards were still the scientific and technological contribution awards issued by the royal family, and in addition to cash awards, there were also knighthood awards.
Only the award must have a good scientific research results, if it is a theoretical research, it must also be recognized by the scientific community collectively.
“Scientific and technological contribution award” is not every year, awarded once every three years, regardless of field, only look at the results of science and technology.
Overseas scientists can also apply, Franz is not to refuse.
Of course, this is the theory, the Austrian local military field scientists, the same can be awarded, overseas military field scientists have no chance.
No way, the award is to test the success of science and technology. Military technology are strictly confidential, can not in order to win the award, the results to the Austrian people to see it!
Can people really believe that the Austrian award judges are so knuckleheaded that they won’t bring these technologies for their own use?
If someone really did, Franz naturally would not begrudge this reward. Including the subsequent impact, he is willing to cover.
(End of chapter)