1840 Indian Rebirth

Chapter 198 [General Electric Company] Happy New Year

"Has your theory of electrical signaling been published yet?" asked Prince Albert.

Ma Shao: "Yes, it is one of my recently published works."

Prince Albert smiled: "I heard that you have recently submitted a large number of works intensively, which seems to include a few books?"

Ma Shao's smile was somewhat helpless: "In fact, these are basically written by me a long time ago, but before that, I had no chance to publish them at all... I have to thank the British academic community for their tolerance."

"Haha," said Prince Albert, "that's what science should be."

"You are right."

Horse Whistle tried to make the King and his wife understand their own theory, or Kelvin's theory in the original history.This seems like a bit of a hassle.

Prince Albert is fine. As the president of Cambridge University, although his scientific literacy is not as good as that of a real scientist, he is also much better than ordinary people. Moreover, he seems to have a strong interest in natural science and listens very attentively.

Therefore, after some explanations, Albert partially understood the idea of ​​the horse post.

As for Her Majesty the Queen, her reaction made Ma Shao think of a kind of student he often encountered in his past and present lives. He responded positively to the teacher, nodding from time to time, or saying "understand", "yes" or even "choose A", But the experienced teacher knew at a glance that she didn't understand.

She was watching more often, watching her husband chatting and laughing with the amazing Indian scientist, and then they laughed royally together.

Fortunately, the horse post doesn't have to do this.

Just like some entrepreneurs in later generations, they don’t need investors to understand their ideas at all, and it’s even better if they don’t understand them.It's enough to tell a good story that won't take your eyes off you.

So after Prince Albert understood his theory a little bit, Horse Whistle began to paint all kinds of beautiful scenes in the telegraph era.

"...If you look at the world in the future, it must be the world of telegraphs. When telegraph cables cross the four oceans, even if it is as vast as the British Empire, you can receive news from any corner of the country within a day. Even, Every future British citizen will be able to hear the voice of their Sovereign on the telegram."

Even with the telegraph, compared with the future information age, the speed of information transmission at this time is still extremely slow, and the distance of tens of thousands of kilometers is likely to be transmitted intermittently for more than ten hours.

However, this is still a historic leap. The huge organism of human society has finally begun to develop a sensitive electromagnetic nervous system.

"Can the telegraph still transmit sound?" Queen Victoria asked curiously.

Horse whistle: "Not yet, but I believe that scientists will be able to solve this problem in a short time. At least, I have some ideas about the technology of duplicating and preserving human voice."

The production of a phonograph is extremely simple, as long as he is willing, he can make one now, but the sound quality is nothing more than poor, and it is not too bad to say that it is a total loss sound quality.

"Really?" Queen Victoria didn't seem to believe it.

Ma Whistle smiled: "Of course, Your Majesty, when I finish the experiment, I will definitely show you the machine that can preserve the human voice."

Returning to the telegraph, he said: "Before officially establishing a transoceanic telegraph, you can try to establish a transoceanic telegraph. For the British mainland, there is no doubt that the English Channel is an obstacle that the telegraph must cross."

Prince Albert: "Yes. I've read about the underwater cables in New York Harbor, where the Americans wrap the wires in rubber and then put them in lead pipes to cross the waters and transmit telegrams to Governors Island and the gardens of the old castle... …but I asked some scientists and engineers, and the general consensus was that such a solution would not work in the English Channel, let alone the Atlantic Ocean.”

"They are right." Ma Shao nodded, "The American plan cannot meet the needs of cross-sea and trans-ocean telegraphy. If we want telegraph to cross the strait, we should first improve the material of the cable. I think we can use the ancient tower The glue covers the wires and it has good insulation..."

Queen Victoria seemed to think of something: "Gutta gum, isn't that what makes new golf balls?"

The two main uses of gutta-percha in the [-]th century were to make submarine cables, and the second was to make golf balls.

But Whistle never pays attention to golf. In his opinion, picking feet is a better expression of primate nobility than this sport.

"Really?" he said casually.

Queen Victoria smiled and said: "Indian scientists, you also have something you don't know. The golf ball made of gutta-percha is a new thing recently."

Horse Whistle described some ideas about the fabrication and laying of submarine cables.

Prince Albert pondered for a moment: "If you were to complete the construction of the cable across the English Channel, how much money and time do you think it will take?"

"Twenty thousand pounds, half a year at most." Ma Shao thought for a while.

This is actually an overestimation, but upon hearing this answer, Prince Albert still couldn't help but his eyes brightened and his face beamed with joy.

The prince immediately said: "Well, I will come forward to help you contact France. After obtaining France's permission, you can immediately lay cables between Dover and Calais, France. What do you think?"

"my pleasure."

Ma Shao communicated with the King and his wife for a long time, and had dinner together. After leaving Buckingham Palace, he immediately took the trans-English channel cable as his next major work.

He estimated the project would cost between £[-] and £[-], which was a lot, but he didn't mind paying for it himself.

Because Ma Shao knew that he would be able to build the cable across the English Channel, and after it was built, the cable would bring him a steady stream of benefits, both monetary and non-monetary.

Money is not an issue, and neither are people.

After all, the great scientist Baron Kelvin, who played an important role in the history of telegraph crossing the ocean, is now by his side.

"From Dover to Calais?" Kelvin was a little surprised when he learned of the horse post's plan. Although they had discussed a lot about the cross-sea telegraph, he did not expect that the horse post would be put into practice so soon.

"Let me guess how long this cross-sea cable is, maybe 25 miles?" He thought for a moment.

Horse Whistle: "You guessed pretty well, Thomson, but I prefer that - forty kilometers."

"Okay." Kelvin nodded, "Sounds like a big project."

Ma Shao smiled slightly: "I don't think you are a person who will be intimidated by this project. How about it, do you want to build the world's first submarine cable with me?"

Kelvin didn't answer, but asked instead: "I heard that you just registered a company related to electricity, is that the preparation for this?"

"That's right." Horse Whistle nodded.

"What did you name this company?"

"General Electric."

　happy New Year to all.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)