Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 260 Tram
Carlo was very encouraging of novel ideas such as installing light bulbs on cars and carriages.

Only continuous exploration and hypothesis can drive the advancement of science and technology. If we only stick to a certain industry or field, science and technology will only stagnate.

In order to support the development of the electric power industry and to allow electricity to demonstrate more functions and value, Carlo invested a large amount of research and development funds in the Royal Academy of Sciences. The purpose was to explore more uses of electricity and make the use of electricity more colorful.

Imagination is very important for scientific research. It is precisely because of imagination that scientists of this era have discovered new science and technology one after another, which has promoted the progress of science and technology of this era and indirectly created the prosperous scientific and technological society of later generations.

Without the foundation laid by scientists of this era, science in later generations would not have been able to develop so rapidly. What Carlo can do is to give these scientists more support, allowing them to use their imagination to create achievements far beyond the same level in history.

With Carlo's huge investment, the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Electric Power Laboratory also established many scientific research projects related to electricity, and each research project was assisted by relevant experts in the power industry.

Carlo also paid attention to some research projects established by the Royal Society and the Electric Power Laboratory. Overall, these scientists have very creative ideas.

Although electricity has only been used for lighting, projects have been launched in the Electric Power Laboratory and the Royal Academy of Sciences laboratories, including but not limited to electric locomotives, small and powerful motors and generators, and batteries for more efficient energy storage.

Electric trains are not yet feasible, after all, current electricity cannot support the transportation of large objects. But smaller and more powerful generators and motors can theoretically be realized in a short time.

Including more efficient batteries. As the power industry develops, it is necessary to develop a battery that can store more energy and is less likely to waste energy.

There is currently no ability to store electricity on a large scale, which means that if power plants produce too much electricity, a lot of it will be wasted.

As Spain builds more power plants and as generators of all types become more powerful, the problem of wasted electricity will become more serious.

If there is a way to store electricity effectively, it can ensure that even if the power plant is unable to operate, it can still provide electricity to factories and homes.

The impact of power outages may not be significant in this era, but in later times when electricity has penetrated into thousands of households, the impact is still quite large.

Fortunately, electricity is currently only available in two cities, Madrid and Barcelona, ​​and electricity is also very popular in these two cities, so there is no need to worry about the problem of electricity waste for the time being.

Carlo also proposed an idea to Gramm and Tesla, which is to store electrical energy as other energy and release it when needed.

This is actually a very simple system. It uses electricity to store water in low places at high places, which in turn completes the storage of electricity.

When more electricity is needed, all you need to do is release the water from a high place to a low place. The flow of water will generate power to drive the generator and generate new electricity.

This energy storage method is one of the more common power storage methods in later generations, and its benefits are obvious.

Firstly, this type of electricity storage does not cause any pollution, and large reservoirs can also ensure that water supply to surrounding areas is guaranteed during droughts.

The disadvantage is that large-scale pumping and power generation equipment must be built, and the location of the reservoir is also very important to avoid possible disasters during the water release process.

Fortunately, these problems are solvable for Spain. Carlo also gave this task to Tesla, asking him to design a more complete hydropower system to help Spain complete the process of power storage and generation.

What Carlo did not expect was that the Electrical Power Laboratory would soon bring the latest progress in these research projects.

Carlo originally thought that the simpler small-volume and high-power generators and motors were not realized. Instead, the variants of electric locomotives and tram technology were roughly studied.

The so-called tram is actually a train that uses electricity as power and runs on city tracks.

In fact, it is not a train, but a passenger car similar to a train car, plus a traction object to provide power.

This type of urban rail transit vehicle was born as early as 1807, and its birthplace was of course in the British Empire.

However, the train carriages were actually pulled by one or more horses. In other words, such urban rail transit vehicles are just horse-drawn carriages in a different form.

Horse-drawn carriages can run freely on the road, but this kind of rail transit vehicle can only move on fixed city tracks.

Compared to horse-drawn carriages, horse-drawn carriages have some advantages. For example, with fixed tracks, horses can run freely without worrying about hitting passers-by.

The disadvantage is that such horse-drawn trams are slow. After all, the weight of the carriage itself is already very heavy, and it also needs to carry people and goods.

The tram invented by the Electric Power Research Laboratory actually used electricity instead of horses as power, and used several large electric motors as power output.

Electric locomotives have many advantages over ordinary locomotives, the most important of which are low pollution and low noise.

After all, it is urban rail transit, so pollution and noise should be avoided as much as possible. This is why rail transit in various countries prefers to use horses as power instead of locomotives.

As early as last year, Germany's Siemens had the corresponding tram track technology. But the tram that Siemens demonstrated at that time had poor power, an average speed of only 13 kilometers per hour, and could only accommodate a few people, which was obviously not commercially applicable.

In the technology exchange between Germany and Spain, Spain obtained such immature rail transit technology. After improvements by Tesla and the Electric Power Laboratory, the power of current rail trams has been greatly improved, and the average speed has also increased to about 20 to 25 kilometers.

Trams are still very important for the development of cities, and their role is no less than that of buses and subways in later generations.

Of course, the transport capacity of a tram is definitely not as good as that of a subway, and its passenger capacity is about the same as that of a bus.

On March 1880, 3, Carlo saw the first tram in Spain in the Electricity Laboratory and personally experienced this improved tram.

In addition to the significant increase in speed, the front of the tram has also become much smaller. At present, from the appearance, trams and trains are still very similar.

A speed of 20 to 25 kilometers per hour is completely sufficient for a tram. After all, it is a vehicle that runs on tracks on city roads and is not suitable for traveling too fast.

The tram tracks are on the road. Before the tram arrives, people on the road need to give way to the track. After the tram passes, the track can be used by people like a road. Carlo's first impression of the tram is that it is very fast and can effectively improve the mobility efficiency of the Spanish urban population.

After confirming that such trams were ready for market, Carlo did not hesitate at all and immediately decided to build trams in cities in Spain with a population of over 100,000, so that the people of Spain could enjoy such a convenient mode of transportation.

Of course, if it were all built by the Spanish government, it would definitely be a huge expense.

Trams are not a very important means of transportation, so Carlo naturally allows domestic and foreign capital to participate in it so that everyone can share the benefits.

As long as the tram is popular, people will generate income when riding the tram. This income will be returned to the capitalists who invested, the capitalists can make money, the people can enjoy convenient transportation, and the Spanish government can accelerate the population flow and economic growth of various cities. This is a win-win deal.

For Spain, which has already attracted Europe's attention with the city that never sleeps, Madrid, it has become easy to introduce foreign capital to invest in trams.

1880年3月29日，西班牙政府宣布4月16日将会在马德里举行有轨电车展览会，向国内外媒体公布西班牙在电力领域的又一大突破。

The reason for such a big fuss is that in addition to wanting to introduce foreign capital to promote the development of trams in Spain, Carlo also wants to take advantage of the fact that the tram technology of other countries is not as mature as that of Spain and make some money from other countries.

Although Siemens' tram technology is indeed immature at present, the first commercially available tram in history was only built in 1881.

This also means that if Spain does not hurry up, other countries' trams will quickly catch up, and there will be no benefit at all.

But through this tram exhibition, more countries can be attracted to Spain's electric technology. As long as they are interested in tram technology, Spain has various ways to exchange other technologies or funds from them.

Obtaining technology and funds from other countries to develop Spanish science and technology is a beneficial opportunity no matter how you think about it, so Carlo will naturally not miss it.

As expected, because of the example of Madrid, the city that never sleeps, the European media is quite concerned about the exhibition that Spain wants to hold.

There was more than half a month between the announcement of the exhibition and the holding of the exhibition. This period of time was enough for the media from neighboring countries to rush to Spain to visit the so-called exhibition.

Perhaps the only thing that cannot catch up is the Russian media in Eastern Europe. However, Russia's economy itself is the worst among the five major European powers, and the attention of Russian capital is not very important to Spain.

Previously, the city that never sleeps in Madrid did not attract much attention from the Russian media, let alone the current tram exhibition.

Spain only needs to attract the attention of the capital of the four major powers, Britain, France, Germany and Austria, to introduce sufficient funds to build its own rail transit.

Time flies, and soon it is April 4th when the exhibition is held.

Not only domestic and foreign media were attracted, but also many interested people, most of whom were local residents of Madrid, and many were Spaniards who came from surrounding areas.

Of course, there are also many Portuguese people who are interested in this. After the railways between the two countries were connected, the flow of people became a little more frequent.

Although a considerable number of them are Portuguese who are curious about Spain, there are also many who really want to immigrate to Spain.

In other words, Portugal does not attach much importance to its population size. Coupled with the strong strength of Spain itself, the Portuguese government dare not complain about this.

The exhibition displayed not only the latest trams, but also high-power generators, high-power motors and samples of light bulbs of various powers from Spain.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the exhibition, a circular track about one kilometer long was built on site for the purpose of testing the speed and stability of the tram.

Under the gaze of many people and media, the tram maintained a stable speed of about 22 kilometers per hour without any problems along the way. This also amazed foreign media and excited the Spanish people at home.

In addition to the trams that attracted a lot of attention, the high-power generators and motors that have not been announced to the public also attracted a lot of media attention.

They took photos to record these emerging power equipment and products. Some newspapers were already planning their latest newspapers in order to seize the opportunity and get headlines.

Spain has patented technology for carbon filament light bulbs. In addition to carbon filament light bulbs, Spain has also applied for relevant patents for some metal filament light bulbs with longer lighting time.

Although patented technology of this era did not have much protection, it was enough to prove that Spain was the inventor of the relevant light bulb technology.

Most countries will not abide by such patents. Take the United States for example. Because it is separated from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean, many American companies are copying the patents of European companies. They are not afraid of foreign companies thousands of miles away.

Even if a European company finds that its patent has been infringed, they have no way to deal with it. If they file a cross-border patent infringement lawsuit, it will not only take a lot of time, but they may also lose the case in the end.

Don't underestimate the power of American capital. Especially those capitals with a lot of say, it is very difficult to sue them. Even if you can win, it will take a long time and cause damage to the interests of the company.

Since Madrid became the city that never sleeps, Spain has once again become a country that has attracted much attention, and Madrid has been continuously on the front pages of newspapers in various countries.

Spain's own newspapers excitedly hailed Spain as the strongest in the field of electricity. For the sake of publicity, some tabloids even brazenly stated that Spain would lead the electricity era and create a glorious history far superior to that of the British Empire.

Carlo did not stop these newspapers from praising him. It is still necessary to appropriately enhance national pride, and the Spaniards will be more enthusiastic about serving the country.

Of course, there is no need to over-praise. When the Spaniards find that such praise is just empty talk, they will not only be disappointed with the future of Spain, but also with the government and the royal family.

In order to avoid such a situation, Carlo specifically instructed the propaganda department to pay close attention to the news reports in domestic newspapers and avoid excessive exaggeration.

It's okay to brag about your own country, but it's unnecessary to brag without any bottom line. Carlo believes that Spain can remain at the forefront of the world in terms of electricity, but to say that it is ahead of other countries in all aspects and creates a greater history is a bit of bragging.

(End of this chapter)