As it turned out, good things do come in pairs. Not long after the Ceuta Treaty was signed, Carlo received another piece of good news: Mr. G
As it turned out, good things do come in pairs.
Not long after the Ceuta Treaty was signed, Carlo received another piece of good news: Mr. Gramme's Electricity Laboratory, after several months of effort, successfully manufactured both an alternating current generator and a direct current generator.
Carlo was not at all surprised by the speed at which the Electricity Laboratory manufactured the generators.
Previously in France, Gramme had already manufactured two types of generators and was quite skilled in the principles and specific manufacturing processes of generators.
Although he had come to Spain, with Carlo's strong support and some colleagues he had worked with in France, the speed of manufacturing generators would not only not slow down but would even accelerate.
After all, the earliest generators did not have overly precise equipment, let alone small generators used for experiments. For Gramme, manufacturing such a generator was completely without difficulty.
Carlo was also quite excited upon learning that the generators had been successfully manufactured.
Although the current generators might seem quite rudimentary in later generations, this was Spain's first step in exploring electrification.
As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning. Only after the generator was developed could Spain's path to electrification truly begin.
With generators came electricity. For Carlo, figuring out how to utilize this new energy source, electricity, was not a difficult task either.
To some extent, the principles of generators and electric motors are similar. One converts kinetic energy into electrical energy, while the other converts electrical energy into kinetic energy.
Besides generators, Carlo was even more familiar with another tool that widely uses electrical energy: the light bulb.
Education from later generations made Carlo deeply remember that the material ultimately used in light bulbs was tungsten filament.
Although current technology might not be able to produce a qualified tungsten filament suitable for use in light bulbs, what does this have to do with Carlo?
Carlo's task was to propose the tungsten filament light bulb as a concept to experts researching light bulbs.
As for how to produce tungsten filament and experiment with tungsten filament light bulbs, that was something for scientists to consider, and unrelated to Carlo, the King.
Considering the importance of electricity for the future, the idle Carlo decided to personally visit the Electricity Laboratory to see how the research there was progressing.
Fortunately, the Electricity Laboratory was not far from the Madrid Royal Palace. Sitting in the Royal Family's exclusive luxurious carriage, enjoying the attentive service of the maids, Carlo quickly arrived at the Electricity Laboratory in the suburbs.
"It is indeed much grander than before," Carlo said, already seeing the newly built entire experimental area from the carriage. It had been significantly improved since his last visit.
Both the Electricity Laboratory's main experimental building and the Engine Company's engine research laboratory were built properly.
Because it was a new building, the overall appearance was quite impressive. The V-shaped complex located in the center of the entire experimental area looked quite grand, standing out like a crane among chickens in an experimental area where floor heights were all below three stories.
Leaving the two maids to stay in the carriage, Carlo took some guards towards the Electricity Laboratory.
In order not to disturb Gramme and others' electricity experiments, Carlo specifically did not inform the Electricity Laboratory of his arrival, which resulted in no one greeting him in the direction of the Electricity Laboratory.
However, Carlo didn't care about such formalities. If the Electricity Laboratory had research results, that would be something worth celebrating for Carlo, and the reason why Carlo established the Electricity Laboratory.
Having visited the experimental area before, Carlo was also quite familiar with the location of the Electricity Laboratory.
After instructing the troops stationed on the outskirts of the experimental area to continue patrolling without making a fuss, Carlo entered the Electricity Laboratory.
The Electricity Laboratory was quite lively at this time. After the two generators were manufactured, Gramme and many colleagues began discussing the utilization of electrical energy.
It was indeed possible to generate electricity with generators, but the question was how this electricity should be used.
Or, to put it another way, how could it be proven that electrical energy was a more effective and cheaper energy source?
Currently, there were two areas of exploration for the use of electricity: one was lighting, and the other was a power source.
However, both of these explorations were in their initial stages, and it was difficult for electricity to prove its usefulness, which was why electricity professionals had not been taken seriously until now.
Even if generators could be manufactured and electricity generated, the problem was that electricity currently had no use.
It was possible to store the generated electricity using lead-acid batteries, but what was the point of that?
If electricity could not be used well, then electricity was useless.
Leaving a few guards waiting outside the laboratory door, Carlo heard the lively discussion inside as soon as he pushed the door open.
"Looks quite lively," Carlo said with a smile.
Gramme and the others inside the laboratory also heard the sound of the door opening and Carlo's voice. They quickly looked up and saw that Carlo had entered the laboratory.
"Your Majesty!"
Everyone stopped their discussion and bowed to Carlo.
There was no other way. The current Carlo was the big patron of the Electricity Laboratory. All the research funds for the Electricity Laboratory were provided by Carlo, which made everyone respect Carlo from the heart, and they wished they could use various ways to increase Carlo's research funding.
"Please forgive me, Your Majesty," Gramme also appropriately stepped forward and expressed his apology to Carlo: "I did not receive notification from the Royal Palace, which is why I did not go to greet you."
"It's alright, Mr. Gramme. I instructed it. Your experiments are more important," Carlo nodded with a smile, not caring about these formalities.
"I heard that both generators have been successfully manufactured?" Carlo looked towards the laboratory with a curious gaze, searching for the generators.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Gramme quickly explained, "We have manufactured direct current generators and alternating current generators, and are currently exploring the use of electricity.
Your Majesty, please look, these are the two generators we are using for experiments. They can both produce electricity after testing."
Carlo looked at the two small testing devices, not showing any disdain, but rather a look of curiosity and satisfaction: "Do you have any equipment that can store electricity now?"
"We have lead-acid batteries, Your Majesty," Gramme continued to introduce: "Currently, we are storing electrical energy with this type of battery, which can ensure that we have a certain amount of electricity available for experiments when the generators are not working."
The lead-acid battery was invented in 1859 by the French physicist Gaston Planté. It was originally related to electricity, and coupled with the fact that Gramme and others had worked for a French electricity company, it was natural for them to have come into contact with lead-acid batteries.
After all, this was currently the only rechargeable battery in the world, more advanced than the earlier Voltaic pile and Daniell cell, and more suitable for various research projects in the Electricity Laboratory.
"Where are you at now? Are there any difficulties at the moment?" Carlo immediately inquired.
Although Carlo's knowledge of electricity was not extensive, if placed in 1870, over 150 years ago, the little knowledge he had in his mind was still quite useful.
Just a tungsten filament light bulb alone was enough to save Spain several years of detours in lighting, as current light bulb research was basically leaning towards carbon filament light bulbs.
Electricity would slowly begin to develop, followed by the war between direct and alternating current involving Edison and Tesla.
In fact, direct current and alternating current each had their advantages and disadvantages, and they were used in different scenarios. Even in later generations, although people mostly used alternating current in daily life, direct current was also used more frequently in Industry.
It was a pity that Tesla was still too young at the moment, otherwise, Carlo would really have considered bringing Tesla to Spain to work on electricity.
It would be good to give Tesla a few years to grow and not interfere too much with his development. When Tesla became an adult in the future and started looking for work, it wouldn't be too late for Carlo to send someone to bring Tesla to Spain.
Tesla's abilities were quite remarkable. He obtained approximately 1000 invention patents in his lifetime, and his research areas included alternating current, radio, wireless power transmission, ball lightning, turbines, magnifying transmitters, particle beam weapons, solar engines, X-ray equipment, electrical energy meters, missile science remote sensing technology, aircraft, cosmic rays, radar systems, and robots, which seemed quite diverse.
For ordinary scientists, specializing in one of these areas would require most of their energy, and it would still require some luck to discover some famous research results.
For Tesla, he contributed to almost all these fields, and had quite outstanding contributions in some areas, which were invaluable.
It was just that in the later period, he became somewhat fixated on scientific research, ultimately earning the title of a mad scientist. Also, because he gave up the patent for alternating current, he continued to be impoverished instead of becoming wealthy from it, becoming one of the famous figures who made outstanding research contributions but were themselves impoverished and lived miserable lives.
If Tesla had not given up the patent for alternating current, an estimated $2.5 in patent fees would have had to be paid to Tesla for every horsepower of alternating current generated.
This was an extremely exaggerated income, but for someone like Tesla, whose status was relatively ordinary, whether he could receive this patent fee was also a question.
"Currently, we have conducted experiments on generating and storing electricity, but there are still more issues regarding the utilization of electrical energy," Gramme reported truthfully.
While reporting, Gramme's expression was a bit awkward, clearly annoyed that Carlo had given strong support but he hadn't achieved significant research results.
"Speaking of which, I also have some ideas regarding the utilization of electrical energy," Carlo said with a smile: "Mr. Gramme, have you ever thought about using the principle of the generator in reverse?"
Gramme was stunned for a moment, his mind clearly frozen, but the words from his mouth continued: "Your Majesty, you mean?"
Carlo nodded, smiling as he explained: "Since kinetic energy can produce electrical energy, why not try to produce kinetic energy through electrical energy?
Generators can generate electricity, so why can't they use electricity in reverse? I think this is a very good idea, Mr. Gramme. Why don't you give it a try?"
Gramme nodded slowly, then suddenly reacted, a very excited smile on his face, and looked at Carlo gratefully: "Oh god! What a wonderful idea! Why didn't I think of it?
Your Majesty, you are truly a genius! If you also worked in the field of electricity, I'm afraid those electrical scientists would have been out of a job long ago."
Carlo smiled and shook his head: "This is just a sudden idea I had. Whether it will work depends on specific experiments."
Conducting related experiments was still quite simple.
Gramme had two direct current generators brought in and began testing the generator and the electric motor.
The testing principle was also simple. A generator is originally used to produce electricity. What wonderful thing would happen if the electricity generated by the first generator were transmitted to the second generator?
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Gramme began wiring the two generators.
After connecting all the wires and carefully checking them, Gramme instructed his subordinates: "Start the first generator!"
With the countdown, the first generator officially started.
"Electricity is being produced!" The current passed through the test circuit, and the experimenters successfully detected the generation of electricity.
Hearing that electricity had been produced, everyone quickly turned their attention to the second generator.
They saw that after the current entered the armature coil of the second generator, it caused this generator to rotate at an extremely fast speed.
"God, this is real, this is unbelievable!" Gramme looked at the two generators running simultaneously with a look of frenzy, tears even welling up in the corners of his eyes.
The other experimenters were not much better off. They hadn't expected that the utilization of electrical energy could be achieved by Carlo's miraculous idea.
"Your Majesty, I have a good idea, please wait a few minutes," Gramme, who had discovered the electric motor, could no longer contain his excitement and requested Carlo.
Carlo nodded and quietly waited for Gramme to realize his idea.
The device Gramme was going to build was actually very simple, at least Carlo could understand the principle.
A small waterfall device with a reservoir at the top and bottom. After the water from the upper reservoir was released, it caused the water turbine to generate electricity.
The electricity was then transmitted to the electric motor below, and the operation of the electric motor could pump the water from the lower reservoir back up to the upper reservoir.
Of course, this was just a demonstration of the use of electrical energy, not a perfect Circulation device. Such a device was not a perpetual motion machine. There would be extra consumption of electricity during the generation and use stages. Gramme's purpose in making such a device was just to more clearly demonstrate the function of generators and electric motors.
This novel device immediately drew exclamations from everyone in the laboratory, and even Carlo was quite surprised.
This also showed the ingenuity and practical ability of the scientists of this era. As soon as the electric motor was discovered, they could build a corresponding simulated use scenario. Carlo was also more curious about what kind of rapid progress the electricity Industry would make next.
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Hey everyone!
Just a quick update: as I mentioned before, my internship has started, so I won't be able to post daily. I promise to still get you at least 4-5 chapters every week.
Thanks for your patience and understanding, and have a great day!