I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1044 Watt's "Powder Keg"

At the same time, manganese steel should also be able to be used to make weapons.

Joseph vaguely remembered that the material of gun barrels in later generations seemed to be manganese steel.

Before the development of converter steelmaking, we could only try to use crucible steelmaking technology combined with reverberatory furnace refining to produce a small amount of alloy steel.

The output is certainly very low, but if it is only used to meet the needs of steam engine pipes and gun barrels, it should be barely enough.

At most, the cost is very high. For military products, the price is often not a consideration.

After instructing Vandel about the alloy steel experiment and repeatedly emphasizing the requirement of confidentiality, Joseph rushed back to Paris without stopping - ten days later would be the day when the winner of this year's Supreme Louis Prize would be announced, and he had to go back to present the award.

Originally he wanted to let his father do this, but the latter was obviously suffering from a social phobia and insisted that the research and development of the steam forging machine was entering a critical stage and he didn't want to be disturbed.

So Joseph had to go up by himself.

When Joseph came out of the ironworks, he saw Leroy walking quickly towards him and bowing to him.

Joseph was not surprised, because Emand had reported to him before that the President of the Academy of Sciences would arrive in Namur at noon. He was probably afraid that it would affect his inspection, so he had been waiting outside.

"You are here to talk about the Supreme Louis Prize, right?" Joseph nodded to Leroy and pointed to the carriage, "Please get in."

A moment later, the Crown Prince's motorcade headed south.

In the carriage, Leroy handed a list to Joseph: "Your Highness, this is the final list of winners of this year's 'Supreme Louis Award' determined by the judging committee."

The president of the Academy of Sciences explained to the Crown Prince:
"The Chemistry Prize is awarded to our chemist, Mr. Le Bon. As you know, he not only succeeded in separating kerosene from coal tar, but also theoretically explained the relationship between kerosene and coal tar."

"Very reasonable."

Joseph nodded, and Leroy continued:

"The Biomedical Science Award is decided to be awarded to our biologist Mr. Archard. His paper on the principles of biological inheritance has caused a huge sensation throughout Europe. Oh, yes, you are also the first author of the paper.

"It's just that you instructed not to give you the award."

Joseph looked at the next line on the list and saw the following:
[Physics Prize: Charles Augustin Coulomb (France). Award-winning achievement - determining that the interaction force between two point charges in a vacuum is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance.]

Coulomb's torsion balance experiment is very famous and has opened up fertile ground for electrostatics.

Joseph was about to nod, but suddenly remembered that Lavalette had reported to him last week on the latest progress of Operation Gunpowder.

Well, the so-called "Operation Gunpowder" was the mission in which Sandel and Frank entered the Boulton-Watt Steam Engine Company and gave it "special" guidance.

At present, Bolton-Watt has obtained a government investment of up to 80 pounds, and there is still 71 left after paying bribes.

At Frank's suggestion, the company used the money to build five top-notch production workshops and three R&D laboratories across the UK.

The number of workers employed by the company has increased eightfold, and salaries have been raised by 8%, with management and technicians receiving pay raises of more than 25%. Construction of employee dormitories, employee cafeterias, and even employee tennis courts has already begun.

At the same time, the company's planned annual output increased by 6 times. A large amount of raw materials were also continuously transported to the company's warehouse according to this plan.

The main theme is "The money isn't mine anyway, so I can spend it as I please."

With the huge publicity investment of 3 pounds, the British nobility and common people were now talking about the "greatest steam engine company in Europe" developing a miraculous product with a power of up to 180 horsepower. Other countries would never be able to reach the same level of technology within 10 years. As a result, the whole of Britain fell into a steam engine craze.

According to Joseph's arrangement, the next step would be for Bolton-Watt to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and attract a large amount of money from British investors.

Sandel and Frank still have a large amount of company stocks in their hands. If they sell them at the highest point, they will also earn a huge amount of money.

Joseph looked at the "Supreme Louis Award Winners List" in his hand at this moment, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

It would be better to add fuel to the fire of Bolton-Watt Company.

He looked at Leroy and said, "The Physics Prize needs to be adjusted."

The latter hurriedly asked: "What do you mean?"

"To James Watt."

"Ah?" Leroy's eyes widened. "You mean, the British steam engine mechanic?"

"Yes."

Joseph thought that with the contribution of Waldner, he deserved to win the Supreme Louis Award. Well, it was also a little consolation for him before his retirement.

"But..." Leroy wanted to persuade him again, but seeing the determined look in the eyes of the crown prince, he nodded quickly and said, "Yes, Your Highness, I will notify the review committee immediately."

Joseph took out another memo and wrote on it: Substantially increase the rating of Bolton-Watt. Increase the company's stock price.

Two months ago, Genoa United Credit Rating Company officially started operations.

It would be most appropriate for them to first raise the issue of British companies. Then the French International Standard Statistics and First Credit Rating Company would go against the grain and deliberately lower the rating of Bolton-Watt.

After Genoa and Paris had been engaged in verbal battles for a while, the French rating agency "bowed its head", admitted that Genoa was right, and raised the rating accordingly.

The timing was exactly three days before the company went public, and the topic became extremely popular.

Next, we need to choose a suitable time to ignite this pile of "gunpowder".

The day of the Supreme Louis Award ceremony.

In the hall of the Tuileries Palace, Leroy said loudly and emotionally:
"Next, it is the long-awaited Mathematics Award.
“This year’s winner of the Supreme Louis Prize in Mathematics is Mr. Caspar Wessel!

"It is well known that he first proposed the geometric representation of imaginary numbers, allowing us to see the complex variable function..."

In fact, there are several people shortlisted for the Mathematics Award. After all, this is an era of mathematical explosion.

However, since Denmark has made significant contributions to the promotion of the International Maritime Convention, Wessel was given priority.

Well, this kind of international award is never going to be completely free of personal opinions.

All the prizes were awarded when Leroy finally announced that Robert Burns of Britain had won the Literature Prize for his Auld Lang Syne.

(End of this chapter)