I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1065 Sasha Zoo

Before Alexandra finished her words, a machine larger than three carriages passed by the side of the car window.

Then, she saw that at the end of the machine, there was a wooden tripod more than ten meters high.

She leaned her head out of the car window in surprise and saw a huge rope hanging from the top of the wooden frame, with a two-meter-long stone slab tied to the other end of the rope.

Seeing that the little girl seemed very interested in the construction machinery, Joseph signaled Emand to stop the car.

About half a minute later, the huge machine emitted a low roar, and black smoke billowed out of the chimney on the left.

It turned out that a LJ26H steam engine was installed there.

As the speed of the steam engine continued to increase, it drove the capstan and a series of pulleys, slowly dragging the rope on the triangular wooden frame downwards, and the huge rock gradually rose to a height of more than 5 meters in the air.

A man wearing a yellow semicircular wicker hat blew a whistle, and more than twenty workers around him immediately surrounded the machine and pushed the three horizontal bars at the bottom with force.

With a creaking sound, the machine moved forward a few meters carrying the large stone.

Only then did Alexandra notice that there was an iron track under the eight wheels of this giant machine.

The rails continued forward, surrounding the base of the Arc de Triomphe in an oval shape. On the west side of the track, another huge machine was lowering stones.

The "yellow hat" said something loudly, the steam engine roared again, and the stone on the top of the wooden frame began to fall, landing steadily on the top of the Arc de Triomphe under construction. Several workers immediately came over along the scaffolding and began to use crowbars to adjust the position of the stone.

Alexandra pointed at the machine and turned to Joseph excitedly and asked, "Your Highness, what is that?"

It's not that she had never seen human-powered cranes before, but those were fixed to the ground and relied on serfs to laboriously pull ropes to lift heavy objects to high places.

If you want to hang things in different locations, you have to dismantle the wooden frame and rebuild it where you need it.

Moreover, the lifting speed of a manual crane is very slow. It usually takes ten minutes to lift a stone of this size to a height of five meters. But the machine in front of us only took ten seconds to do it.

Joseph explained to her: "This is a steam crane. It can lift two tons of objects up to a height of 20 meters."

Alexandra’s eyes were full of shock: “It’s amazing, incredible!
“It, it is just like a giant, working hard to build the Arc de Triomphe under the command of magic.

"Your Highness, who designed this great machine?"

"Three designers from the Engineering and Technology Association, and me."

Before the little girl could exclaim, Joseph added: "In fact, it still has many flaws.

"For example, the crane arm cannot rotate, which means the lifting accuracy can only reach about 1 meter. And currently, things can only be lifted to a height of 20 meters."

Yes, after the construction of the Arc de Triomphe started, Joseph saw that the efficiency of manual lifting of stones was unbearably low, so he proposed the idea of ​​this simple crane, and then handed it over to the people of the Engineering and Technology Association for the specific design.

In fact, this thing is just an existing manual lifting device, with a steam engine power added, and then placed on a chassis that moves along the rails, so the design is not difficult, and the first prototype was built in more than three months.

However, even with such a simple design, the overall construction speed of the Arc de Triomphe was more than doubled.

Joseph did not stop there. He allocated another 100,000 francs to allow technicians to continue improving the crane.

It was not for the purpose of building the Arc de Triomphe, but to prepare technology for the future excavation of the Suez Canal.

Historically, in order to save costs when digging the Suez Canal, France forcibly conscripted more than 60 Egyptian workers to dig the canal by hand and on their shoulders. As a result, no money was saved at all, and 4 million francs were invested in total, and it took a full ten years to dig through.

Moreover, due to the high-intensity labor of more than 14 hours a day, the mortality rate was as high as 20%, which aroused strong resistance from Egyptians and unanimous criticism from the international community.

In the later stages of the canal excavation, France had no choice but to invest in some machinery such as steam tugs and steam excavators, which improved the construction efficiency.

Therefore, Joseph has been preparing technical reserves from now on. He does not want the nightmare of 4 million and ten years of construction period to happen again.

After the steam crane, the next step was to develop the steam excavator - of course, not the crawler excavator with a mechanical arm driving a large shovel like in later generations, but a simple device that used a steam engine to tow a shovel.

Once these construction machines mature, they can also play a significant role on the battlefield - such as building breastworks and bastions.

Joseph looked at his pocket watch and said to Alexandra, "If you are interested, I can bring you here to see it later. But now we have to open the presents."

The little girl immediately nodded excitedly.

In order to avoid criticism from the arrogant French nobles, she usually stayed in the Palace of Versailles, and at most accompanied Queen Marie to the theater twice, so the construction site of the Arc de Triomphe always felt extremely novel to her.

Paris is full of surprises, she muttered happily in her heart.

Accompanied by the rhythmic "ding-dong" sound of the sculptors striking the stones, Joseph's carriage continued to drive towards the southern suburbs of Paris.

Half an hour later, the car stopped again.

Before Emmanuel could open the door, Alexandra heard loud laughter coming into the car, mostly from children.

Joseph pulled her out of the car and raised his hand to gesture to the front: "This is my gift to you - Sasha Zoo!"

Alexandra looked up and saw a flower bed that was at least several kilometers long surrounded by a colorful wall. Every few meters on the wall, there was a cute animal statue.

Directly in front of you is a castle-like gate with a colorful onion-shaped top that is very much in the style of your hometown.

Two clowns were performing their tricks on the platform just above the gate, and between them was a huge plaque painted in colorful letters.

The words on it are - Sasha Zoo.

"Sasha" is a nickname for her name.

The little girl's eyes widened immediately: "Is this really for me?"

"Of course, this is all yours."

Alexandra's eyes were a little red. She turned around suddenly, put her arms around Joseph's waist, put her little face on his chest, and said happily: "Thank you so much! This is the best gift in the world! I really like it!"

"It's nothing." Joseph patted her on the back, then took her hand and walked towards the zoo.

"I promise, you'll like it more after you go in and take a look."

Ksode, dressed as an ordinary noble, commanded several guards to squeeze out a passage from the crowd to allow the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess to pass through.

(End of this chapter)