Dibowa crinkled his nose, sensing an ominous premonition, and quickly turned to instruct the police officer, “Antony, spread out and search! Foustan, go back and call for more people, hurry!”
About half an hour later, a large group of police officers had surrounded the area, and Antony rushed back to report to Dibowa, “Chief, a farmhouse to the north was hit by artillery fire. An old man and his wife died, and the house and animal shed were destroyed.”
“Artillery fire?” Dibowa’s brow furrowed deeply.
After a while, the other searchers also returned one by one, but nothing of value was found—by then, the sky had already darkened, making it difficult to discern objects more than ten paces away. Moreover, the soldiers of France had been well-prepared, resulting in the police returning without success.
The next morning.
In a small room on the second floor of the Industrial Planning Bureau, Murdock was excited yet anxious as he looked at the notes and diagrams in front of him, the bloodshot in his eyes indicating that he hadn’t slept all night.
The information the Crown Prince had shared was too astonishing, too tempting, leaving him not a shred of desire to sleep.
He picked up a complex schematic diagram, shook his head, and sighed, thinking to himself: It’s a good thing the Crown Prince of France didn’t dabble in steam engines, otherwise, both I and Watt would probably be out of work.
These ideas were simply inconceivable, exquisitely brilliant. It was hard to believe that they had come from the mind of a fourteen-year-old boy!
He had spent most of yesterday and all night understanding the principles of the new throttle valve, and the new safety valve designs the Crown Prince had shared with him, and had a rough idea of their processing design.
However, there were still many things he hadn’t figured out, the most “terrifying” of which was the principle of the “triple-expansion steam engine.” The thermal efficiency was frighteningly high, but at the same time, frightfully complex.
What was worse, the Crown Prince had only given him the principle and the concept; the specific mechanical design was up to him to complete.
He now dared not even think about the words “triple-expansion”; otherwise his brain would immediately throb in pain, clearly already overburdened…
After a long time, Murdock finally chose to give up, organized the materials, and headed towards the Crown Prince’s office.
“Actually, Your Highness, there’s no need to hurry,” Joseph said with a smile, comforting the haggard inventor, “In the short term, you just need to build the existing steam engines. These new technologies can be figured out slowly. Even if it takes five years, eight years, or even ten years to bring them to fruition, it’s completely fine.”
Just kidding, if Murdock really managed to realize all those technologies he had talked about yesterday, the industry of France would take off right on the spot!
However, there are objective laws of development; without the accumulation of lower-tier technologies, higher-tier technologies will always be castles in the air.
Like the triple-expansion steam engine, which demands extremely high precision and quality in both machining and materials, even if Murdock had a sudden burst of inspiration and completed the detailed designs, and then physically crafted them, they would inevitably end up exploding the boilers during operation— because the materials and processing levels were far from meeting the requirements.
The reason Joseph revealed these advanced technologies to Murdock was firstly to give him a conceptual direction in technology, and secondly to attract him to work more steadfastly in France.
“Thank you for your understanding, Your Highness,” Murdock appeared somewhat deflated, not sure if it was due to exhaustion or a sense of defeat—he had always thought that although he was a bit inept in handling interpersonal relationships, he was absolutely a genius in the field of steam engines, never expecting that he still couldn’t make the engine even after someone had spelled out the principles and design concepts for him.
He sighed and said, “Your Highness, actually, I would like to recommend someone to assist me in researching these technologies you’ve proposed.”
“Oh? Who might that be?”
“My neighbor and former colleague, Mr. John Sandler, a very talented technician,” Murdock said, “You might not have heard of him because his invention, the ‘boiler pressure gauge,’ was deemed significant proprietary knowledge by Mr. Watt and has therefore never been publicized.
“And Mr. Sandler’s current living situation is not very good. I believe, if you offered a suitable salary, I could convince him to come to France with just one letter.”
Joseph felt somewhat embarrassed; at this rate, he was bound to unintentionally undermine Watt’s corner.
However, all this was because Mr. Watt often “withheld” technical compensation from his employees, giving Joseph the opportunity to take advantage—why not take it?
“Thank you for your selfless recommendation,” Joseph first sincerely thanked him, then mentioned a figure, “120 livres. What do you think, would this be an appropriate monthly salary for Mr. Sandler?”
Murdock really wanted to say “inappropriate” because it was too high. In truth, just offering half of that salary would be enough to make Sandler set aside everything and board a ship bound for France.
Honestly, from a personal standpoint, he was quite reluctant to have Sandler come, as it would bring competitive pressure to him. However, after reading through the technical data provided by the Crown Prince, he knew that he needed to find an assistant, or else based on his own efforts, it would probably take more than a decade to fully grasp those technologies.
Murdock placed his hand on his chest and bowed, “Your Highness, you remain as generous as ever. I will write to Mr. Sandler immediately.”
As he spoke, another matter came to his mind: “Also, Your Highness, I’ve seen that railway infrastructure is being constructed in the center of Paris.”
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England had rail transportation decades ago, but it was only used for mining transportation and had never appeared in cities before.