Early in the morning, at breakfast time.

Sitting in his place, John ate the white bread as if it were wax, and then took a sip of plain water from time to time to send it down to his stomach.

Lately, he's not drinking much coffee anymore.

Although the elder Huntelaar did not have this concept, John still understood that drinking too much coffee at his current "age" was not a good thing. But he couldn't accept tea in the morning, and he was very worried about the quality of New York's milk, and in the end he could only drink plain water.

"Do you want to tell the chef and make me a bowl of porridge every day in the future?"

Swallowing a mouthful of food vigorously, John's thinking habitually began to disperse: "The old man's teeth don't seem to be very good, what if he also likes to drink porridge?" If you give it a try, maybe you can convince him to hire a Chinese chef and make some steamed buns and fritters every morning......

"John."

Just as John was trying to fantasize about the steamed buns and soy milk, and at the same time trying to nourish his adolescent body, old Huntelaar finished eating a small muffin and suddenly said, "I've heard that you and Emma of the Stone family have been exchanging letters a lot lately, haven't you?" ”

"Huh? Oh, yes. ”

Slightly surprised by Old Huntelaal's question, John was stunned for a moment before nodding in response.

"What are you talking about?"

Tearing off a piece of white bread, old Huntelaar asked seemingly nonchalantly.

"This ......"

John was taken aback, and quickly smiled and said, "The main thing is to talk about some things about Latin and electric light, and Miss Stone seems to be very interested in both." ”

"Really?"

With a faint rhetorical question, old Huntelaar narrowed his eyes slightly noncommittally.

"Well, yes."

John's heart fluttered a few times, and he nodded quietly on his face, "Miss Stone is very curious, and because my real Yàn has made progress recently, she is also very concerned, so there may be more letters." ”

"What did you just say?"

Sure enough, after John threw out a "detonating bomb", he successfully attracted the attention of old Huntelaar, he tilted his head sideways, and asked in surprise, "Is there any progress in the real yàn of the electric light?" ”

As John's patron, old Huntelaar of course kept an eye on the progress of the real room from time to time, and once went in with curiosity when John lit the first electric light. It's just that under John's careful design, the first few light bulbs can only be lit for dozens of hours, which is not much different from Edison's, so the old Huntelaar basically didn't care about it later. He allowed John to spend money on these things, mostly for the purpose of raising children, and didn't actually have much hope of success.

So now listening to John's words, old Huntelaar was a little surprised.

"It's almost time......"

After thinking about it secretly, John's face showed a smile, nodded and said, "It's a lot of progress, I just made a filament from a material a week ago, and it's still on." ”

"What do you mean?"

After hearing this, old Huntelaar was a little dazed.

Shaking his head helplessly, John began to popularize science for his grandfather, who had not yet figured it out: "Let me tell you this, you also know that if Mr. Edison's electric lamp wants to be put into practical use, the biggest obstacle is that the life of the bulb is too short!" A light bulb sells for at least a few tens per cent...... In fact, according to my understanding during this time, even if it is a large-scale manufacturing, it now costs at least one dollar or more to manufacture, and the selling price must be quite expensive. However, its lifespan is only a few dozen hours at most, and the brightness of the bulb will drop sharply with time...... Do you see business value? ”

"Definitely not!"

Don't even think about it, old Huntelaar said categorically.

As a successful businessman, the elder Huntelaar knew the market too well and knew very well that for a non-essential commodity like electric lights, such a price was absolutely unacceptable to ordinary people. What's more, in addition to buying an electric lamp, you also need a supply of electricity to light it, which is another expense!

Thinking of this, old Huntelaar's eyes suddenly lit up, he stared at John tightly, and said urgently: "John, the electric light you just talked about...... How long is the current lifespan? ”

"It's been lit for one hundred and fifty hours!"

With a grin, the joy that John had hidden in his heart for this time could no longer be hidden, and it was clearly displayed in front of old Huntelaar's eyes. He seemed to have seen Edison, the king of the Ming Dynasty, standing in front of him and sending a green $20,000......

That's $20,000!

If Edison had paid him $20,000 for the material, he would have been really. You know, even more than 100 years later, $20,000 is not a small number, let alone in this era when it only costs a few cents to eat a meal and a few hundred dollars to buy a house?

For the first pot of gold after his rebirth, John has been looking forward to it for a long time!

"That is, you succeeded?!"

Standing up from his chair with a bang, old Huntelaar's eyes widened in disbelief. He knew that his grandson was very good, and he also knew that John really valued this matter very much, and worked very hard, but old Huntelaar could never have imagined that this kid really did it!

And so fast!

John nodded and said happily: "Although the test has not been completed yet, it has been lit up for a week so far, more than a hundred hours, and the brightness is only slightly weaker, so according to my inference, it is likely to reach more than 5oo hours......"

"How much does each cost?"

Before John could finish speaking, old Huntelaar interrupted him and asked in a deep voice.

"$4!"

Knowing what old Huntelaar meant, John replied without hesitation.

Hearing this staggering number, old Huntelaar was not frightened, but frowned and secretly calculated. As a senior businessman, although he has never run a factory, he is no stranger to this business, and soon has a preliminary judgment on the true cost of light bulbs: "Even if it is produced by Edison's factory,!" ”

There was no need to hide anything in front of his grandson, and old Huntelaar couldn't help but show a look of disappointment on his face.

At such a price, I am afraid that only people like him can afford it or public places such as luxury hotels, and even government civil servants with good incomes are very difficult.

"The cost can be reduced."

As if seeing his grandfather's disappointment, John pondered for a moment before speaking, "The progress of technology depends on human ingenuity, and as long as you are willing to spend time and money on research, I believe that it will not take too long for the cost of light bulbs to fall to a level that ordinary people can accept." ”

This is not John's nonsense, because Edison did do this very quickly in history, otherwise the United States would not have entered the electric age so quickly.

After listening to John's words, old Huntelaar pondered for a moment, then slowly shook his head and said: "The problem is that if you want to compete with the existing lighting methods, even if the cost is reduced by half, it will not work, and the electricity bill will not be able to compete with kerosene lamps......

"Just like the coachmen laughed at the trains?"

Raising his eyebrows, John asked lightly.

"Huh?"

Old Huntelaar was stunned at first, and then laughed dumbly.

When the train was first revealed, it was very slow, which attracted the ridicule of many coachmen, but as time passed, the train became faster and faster, and the carrying capacity became larger and larger, and its importance had long since far exceeded that of the carriage. Even the elder Huntelaar, who insisted on taking a carriage to New Jersey, could not deny this.

After laughing, old Huntelaar looked at his grandson with a strange look.

I have to say that every time he feels that he has given John a high evaluation, he will always find that he still underestimates this kid, and this sentence just now is enough for him to raise John's position a little higher.

"What are you going to do with this patent after it's over? Sell it or keep it for yourself? ”

After a moment of silence, old Huntelaar asked his grandson with a pleasant face. From the moment he was sure that the experiment was successful, he would no longer treat John as a little boy. Any 11-year-old boy who creates something worth $20,000 deserves his respect.

"Sell, of course!"

Without the slightest hesitation, John said: "Building factories and reducing costs are not things we can do, let alone build power supply facilities for them!" So if you don't sell it, you can only rot in your hands, and ......"

After a pause, John did not continue.

But in his heart, he was already like a little fox and laughed: "With a capital of 20,000 US dollars, what can be done is much more cost-effective than building a light bulb factory......

……

Sorry, the child is sick, it's late for today's update.

I will definitely write another chapter in the evening, but it should be late

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