I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1045 Rubber Explosives and Batteries

Coulomb walked out of the South Hall of the Tuileries Palace alone, and the loneliness on his face was very conspicuous under the dazzling light of the gas street lamps.

Celebrations were still taking place in the hall behind him. From time to time, there was the sound of music and people praising the winners, but to Coulomb, all of this sounded like a ruthless mockery of him.

"Mr. Monge shouldn't have lied to me..."

He grumbled, pulling up his collar, and motioned to the servant waiting outside the door: "Martin, drive the car over here."

As early as half a month ago, French mathematician Monge, a member of the review committee, told him privately that this year's Physics Prize had basically been decided to be awarded to him.

But just now when Mr. Leroy read out the "Physics Prize", he stood up, but what he heard was the British man's name!
The sound of horse hooves came.

Coulomb was about to get in the car when he heard someone calling him from behind: "Mr. Coulomb, is that you?
"Oh, no wonder I couldn't find you. Why did you leave early?"

Coulomb was very familiar with this voice; it was Leroy, the president of the Academy of Sciences.

He turned around and saluted: "Ah, I drank a little too much. You know, the wine prepared by the Academy of Sciences is too mellow, so I want to go back and rest first."

"That's not good," Leroy said. "Your Highness the Dauphin will be summoned tomorrow morning. I hope you're not hungover by then."

……

The next day.

The Prince's reception room at the Palace of Versailles.

Coulomb stared at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince with wide eyes: "Are you saying that you disqualified me from winning the award?"

"Sorry, for some political reasons." Joseph nodded and gestured to the cup of tea that Emang had just brought over, "Please try it, it's made in the East.

"Of course, your contribution to electricity is beyond doubt. Next year's Physics Prize will definitely belong to you."

Coulomb was immediately overjoyed. Although he won the award a year late, he felt extremely honored to have the crown prince explain it personally. All resentment in his heart had disappeared.

However, the crown prince continued: "I would like to give you some compensation for what happened this time."

Coulomb was about to say "No" when he heard a few words that he couldn't refuse.

"An electrical laboratory," Joseph said. "Specifically, the director of the Royal Third Laboratory. The government will allocate at least 10 francs to the laboratory each year and provide you with the greatest possible convenience."

Coulomb blinked: "Royal Third Laboratory?"

"Yes. This is a laboratory with the highest level of confidentiality. All experimental results cannot be published for at least ten years."

As France's high-tech R&D projects increased, the difficulty of management also increased. To facilitate management, Joseph set up three high-secret laboratories under the French Academy of Sciences, located in the new district of Paris, less than 3 kilometers away from the Palace of Versailles.

The first laboratory is the biomedical laboratory headed by Lamarck, and its core project is the research and development of antibiotics.

The second laboratory was the chemical laboratory in charge of Lavoisier. The core project was picric acid, a high-energy explosive. At present, driven by the booming coal tar industry, France's organic chemistry technology has completed its embryonic stage. The next step is to move from simple separation and purification to artificial synthesis.

Military use is always the top priority in this era.

However, the director of the laboratory, Lavoisier, is very busy, so the laboratory has not been fully put into use. The third laboratory is the electromagnetic laboratory which is still under preparation, and its core project will be the exploration of the basics of electricity.

Electricity was barely a discipline at the time. After all, all scholars could only rely on the weak static electricity provided by the Leyden jar to conduct research, and it was difficult to achieve any results.

In fact, Joseph also knew that before the invention of vulcanized rubber, the problem of wire insulation could never be solved, which made it difficult for electricity to be used in practical applications.

However, electricity is an extremely important and complex field that requires a long period of technical exploration to lay the foundation, so Joseph decided to start research in this area in advance.

It would be best to pre-research practical technologies such as batteries, relays, telegraphs, and even electric lights, so that they can be put into use in a short time after vulcanized rubber is developed.

Coulomb was obviously attracted by the annual research and development funding of 10 francs, but the restriction that he could not publish his research results for more than ten years made him hesitant.

Joseph glanced at his expression and smiled, "The reason why the confidentiality requirement is so high is that I have some new theories in the field of electricity, which will be provided to the laboratory for reference. For example, what is the nature of electric current?"

Coulomb blurted out: "Mr. Franklin has already stated that electric current is 'weightless fluid'..."

He suddenly stopped and looked at Joseph: "Isn't this right?"

"It's still a bit superficial," Joseph said. "To be precise, electric current is the directional movement of a large number of charges that can move freely in a conductor under the action of an electric field."

Coulomb's eyes widened immediately. "Charges... move in a certain direction? Wait, what is an electric field?"

Joseph was embarrassed: "Sorry, I can only say this much, otherwise it will leak the internal information of the third laboratory."

Coulomb immediately stood up from the sofa and said loudly: "Your Highness, I am willing to accept the laboratory work. I mean, please let me enter the laboratory!"

"Do you want to reconsider this? In the future, someone from the Intelligence Agency may be protecting you at all times."

"No, I'm sure!"

"I'm glad you made this decision." Joseph smiled and nodded. "In a few days, an Italian scholar named Alessandro Giuseppe Volta will come to Paris to become your assistant."

Yes, if we want to study electricity, we naturally have to recruit the master-level figure like Volta.

Thanks to France's huge influence in Italy at that time, Joseph only had to send him a letter, and he happily came to Paris with his whole family.

Coulomb said excitedly: "I know him, he is an outstanding scholar. His electrometer is a remarkable invention."

Joseph continued: “You first have to set up the laboratory, including designing or purchasing the necessary equipment and recruiting scholars.

"Then, your first task is to ambush..."

Joseph was halfway through his speech when he quickly changed his words: "Design and manufacture of 'stacked batteries'."

He had almost said "voltaic battery" just now.

Well, historically, it was Mr. Volta, whom he invited to be Coulomb's assistant, who invented the world's first battery capable of continuous power supply five years later, thus opening a new era of electrical research.

Coulomb was used to being surprised by now, but he still asked, "Stacked...batteries? What is that?"

(End of this chapter)