industrial lord

Chapter 585: An Amazing Birthday Gift
It was a nice day today. Archduke Edwards of Milan was chatting with some old friends in the garden. Crown Prince Gianni and his fiancée Anita were also present.

These old friends are all old nobles of the Kingdom of Sardinia. They have known Edwards for many years. Jenny can only regard himself as a junior in front of them.

When Edwards heard that Frederick was going to deliver a birthday present, he immediately called him in.

Frederick brought a large group of people, many boxes, and a large tent.

Edwards waited for Frederick's men to set up the tent and prepare everything. He saw someone put a large black box on a tripod and asked curiously, "Why, do you want to paint my portrait?"

The technique of using pinhole imaging and camera obscura to create reflections for painting is already well established, and Edwards has used it several times.

Frederick smiled and said, "This time it's different. Please strike your pose."

There was a wisteria wall in the garden. The servant moved a chair in front of it. Edwards straightened his clothes, sat on the chair and posed skillfully.

Frederick watched with interest the work of a photographer, the same guy who had taken a photo of himself with a pig.

The camera they used was similar to the one they had used to photograph Frederick and the pig, about the size of a microwave oven, with a lens on one side, this time with an aperture, and translucent snow-white silk on the other side, on which Edwards's reflection appeared.

After the adjustment is completed, the photographer adjusts a small mechanism next to the lens, confirms that the sunshade covers the lens, then pulls out the iron frame with the white silk installed, replaces it with an iron plate film, and then pulls out the sunshade in front of the film.

The steps are written on the side of the camera, and there is a small slide behind each step. When completed, move the slide to the "completed" position to ensure that no steps are mixed up or missed.

The photographer said to Edwards: "Sir, please look into the camera. I will count down to one. Please stay still for five seconds."

Edwards didn't know what they were doing, but he nodded and agreed.

"3...2...1..."

When the countdown ends, the photographer turns the lever to open the sunshade behind the lens, while counting time with a pocket watch. As soon as the time counts down, he immediately turns the lever to close the sunshade.

He inserted the sunshade of the iron film back into place and immediately carried it to the tent next door.

Frederick smiled and told Edwards that he was done and asked him to bring up the delicious snacks quickly.

The leader was eating and drinking, and his subordinates were busy.

They first developed and etched the film, then printed the image onto a transparent plastic plate using water-soluble black dye, transferred the image to a larger iron plate through an optical instrument, then developed and etched the large film, and finally printed out ten black-and-white paintings.

This method of enlargement is quite effective. When I was explaining it to Frederick this morning, there was an image of him taking a photo with a pig. Not to mention Frederick, the wrinkles on the pig's nose were clearly visible.

“Drawing so fast… that’s not right!”

Edwards thought it was a painting, but he realized it was wrong at first glance. Not to mention himself, the bunches of wisteria flowers in the background were the same in every painting.

They also took them to the site for comparison, and they were all exactly the same.

If these places were drawn by hand, it would be impossible to draw them in a short time.

Edwards asked Frederick, “How is this done?”

Frederick said: "I don't know the details, I just know the general idea."

He really didn't understand some of the details of this camera, especially the lens, the price of which accounted for 80% of the entire equipment, and the other 15% was the film enlargement equipment.

No one understood what Frederick said.

He simply ignored it and turned to Jenny and asked, "Now is an opportunity. Do you want to take a photo with Anita, print it out and send it back home to show His Majesty the King and the Queen?"

Jenny had thought about it a long time ago and agreed immediately. Anita had already moved the chair over.

When Edwards learned that these photos could be printed as easily as copperplate engravings, he signed all ten photos and gave them to his old friends as a souvenir.

In order to eliminate the influence of his own photo, Frederick said: "These portraits are unprecedented and have historical value. Everyone should keep them. After a few hundred years, they can be sold for thousands of gold coins."

Everyone thinks it makes sense.

Edwards asked Frederick, "Can it be printed in color?"

Frederick replied: "For one or two paintings, we can find someone to color the plates individually. Large-scale printing requires special tools, which will take some time."

He just found out today that someone wanted to sell Frederick's photo. It was normal to hang portraits of kings and lords at home, but Psyche suppressed this matter. It was simple. Every household in the Duchy of Wessen hung a black and white portrait of Frederick. Psyche didn't dare to think about how Frederick would react when he came back.

If you want color photos, you have to start with coloring. We are currently researching this and I expect results will be available soon.

Frederick continued, "I'm giving you this equipment. Please arrange for some smart people to learn it."

The smile on Edwards' face was as bright as the sun in the sky. After Jenny and Anita took a few photos, he called his old friends over to take photos, and then pulled Frederick to take a group photo.

Finally, Edwards called the whole family together to take the world's first family portrait with more than two people.

He was so fond of the gift that he held a buffet dinner in the garden that evening, displaying large photos from the day and taking photos with several senior parliamentary officials.

With the assistance of the photographer, the painter colored the iron plate and printed out a huge color photo.

The guests were amazed, many of them had their eyes wide open, and many young girls and wives kept rubbing against Frederick.

Now Frederick's mind was full of how to make money and he had no energy to pay attention to them.

At this time, Edwards came over and teased Frederick about his good fortune in women, and then asked, "I want to open a shop specializing in taking photos for people, is that okay?"

This equipment was given by Frederick. He wanted to make money with it, so naturally he had to ask for details.

As the saying goes, photography will make three generations poor. This is not just self-deprecation or ridicule. Only aristocrats can afford it.

He also understood that people would not give fodder when sending a horse, so he asked about the price of the supplies, then waved his hand and bought them by the truck.

If we do not keep the iron negative but keep the transferred plastic negative, and recycle the iron negative, the cost of photography will not be outrageously high.

After calculating the cost of a photo, he felt that he could make money from it.

Frederick laughed. The camera had to be sold, and the smooth iron film and consumables such as photosensitive and film developing materials were the main sources of profit.

He replied: "No problem, Weisenberg is also planning to open a photo studio."

"Let me tell you, the photo studio makes money very quickly."

"For example, if you take a photo of a child when he or she is born, and then take another photo every year on his or her birthday, wouldn't that be very memorable?"

"Also, like the family photo you just took today, if someone gets married or has a new baby in a few years, do you have to take it again?"

"And for those schools, when everyone graduates, shouldn't we take a group photo as a souvenir?"

"When Adele and Jenny got married, did the bride and groom take a picture as a souvenir?"

"Ordinary people don't need photos that big. It's much cheaper to take a palm-sized photo, and then you can take a lot of photos."

"You can also imitate the curtains on the stage and paint landscapes from all over the world. You can take pictures of many backgrounds indoors. What do you think?"

"And those merchants, you have a newspaper, don't you? Take a picture of the product and advertise it in the newspaper. You decide how much to charge."

Edwards sighed after listening to this: "I used to think that you could make money by stealing other people's ideas, but now I am convinced that you are really a genius in making money. You can think of so many ways in such a short time."

Frederick smiled. That was true.

Then someone asked if he could buy a set.

During the day, Jenny asked the Griffin Knight to quickly send the photo of himself and Adellie back to Diberley City to his father and mother. Not long ago, an urgent telegram came: "I want it too!"

Frederick called back: "Please wait half a year!"

More than a dozen sets of photographic equipment were made, but the key point was that the yield rate of the lenses was too low. Now one set has been sent out, with three sets each for the 1st Division on the front line in Hanma City and the 3rd Division heading to the Kingdom of Tarago. The rest will be left in Weissenburg City to open a photo studio to recover funds.

So Frederick replied regretfully: "I'm sorry, but the lens for the camera is extremely difficult to make. It will take at least half a year before a new machine is available."

"Even so, whether we can spare some machines and sell them here at that time is also a problem."

(End of this chapter)