Just after the New Year's Day of the year, the streets of London are still lined with thick, gray-white dirty snowdrifts. Around nine o'clock in the morning, a public carriage stopped not far from the door of the Bolton-Watt company. A large young man got out of the car with his neck hunched, and because of the cold, he pulled the slightly smaller padded jacket on his body tighter with one hand, while he carried a large box in the other hand. Because he didn't have gloves, his hands were red from the cold.

The man looked around for a moment, saw the sign of Bolton Watt, and his frozen red face showed a smile like a tiger seeing its prey, and then he took the suitcase and strode towards the door of Bolton Watt.

Bolton-Watt Company, just look at the name, we know that this is the company of James Watt, the improver of the steam engine and the initiator of the first industrial revolution. Of course, Mr. Watt is only the second shareholder of this company, and the first shareholder is Bolton, who owns two-thirds of the company, including the patent rights.

The young man walked to the door of Bolton-Watt's company, and said in his unskilled, heavily accented English to the waiter, who was standing outside the door, also thinly dressed and with a red nose, "I'm here to make a big deal with Mr. Bolton and Mr. Watt." We've already made an appointment beforehand. My name is Grande. ”

The waiter looked Grandet up and down with a suspicious look. This morning there will be a visit from a wealthy French man with a sex Grande. The waiter knew about it. Only before that, he had been staring at the luxurious four-wheeled carriages with stoves running on the road, and he didn't notice the man who came with his suitcase. Now, this guy who looks even more shabby than himself is really the "French rich" that Mr. Bolton said?

But since the man said that his surname was Grandet, and the rest of the information he said was correct. Naturally, the waiter could not turn him away because he was dressed like a poor Scottish bastard floating in London. So he said with a slight hesitation, "Mr. Grandet, Mr. Bolton, and Mr. Watt are waiting for you, please come with me." ”

The waiter said as he reached out and pushed the door open, while habitually reaching out to help Grandet with the box.

"Ah, the contents of this box are very important, and they are a little heavier, so I'd better take them myself." Grandet declined the waiter's help. He followed the waiter into the company.

Then led by the waiter, he walked up the steps to the second floor. When he went up the steps, he stepped on the steps so loudly that the waiters couldn't help frowning slightly, and by the way, he labeled the Frenchman a "rough billet" in his heart.

Grandet followed the waiter to a door, and the waiter knocked softly, "Mr. Bolton, Mr. Watt, Mr. Grandet is here." ”

"Please come in." From inside came such a sentence.

So the waiter opened the door, and as soon as it opened, a warm breeze came to his face. Grandet walked in and saw two old men getting up from the couch to greet him.

"You're Mr. Grande? Please sit down here, it's a little closer to the fireplace, it's a little warmer. The older man spoke.

Grandet took his suitcase, walked over to the sofa chair near the fireplace, and sat down, placing it at his feet, while the waiter brought him a cup of black tea and placed it on the small coffee table beside him.

"Thank you." Grandet said, and then he picked up the black tea and drank it all in one gulp.

"So I got warm, hell, it was so cold in this part of London, and I came out of the hotel and was frozen in the blink of an eye. Winters here are so cold! ”

"London is fine, but James' hometown is a little colder. But it's still good for you southerners, and your hometown will always be so warm. The old man laughed.

Then he introduced himself and another old man.

"I'm Bolton, the owner of the company, and it's my partner and friend Watt."

So Grandet introduced himself to them.

Grandet, one of the shareholders of the French company Lorraine Steel. I was sent by the board of directors of the company to reach some business cooperation with your company. If this cooperation is happy and we both make a lot of money, we also hope that our friendship will last forever. ”

The three of them exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then Bolton asked, "Mr. Grande, as far as I know, your company is part of the military-industrial complex, which has its own manufacturer of steam engines. What is the reason why your company intends to cooperate with us and not with Bonaparte Steam Power, which is also part of the military-industrial complex? ”

"There are two main reasons for this." Grandet replied, "The steam-powered steam engine of Bonaparte was originally designed for the needs of the sea. As far as I know, they're paying a very big price for extreme performance. Well, I mean, their machines are good, but they're overly expensive. And there are a lot of highly secret technologies involved. ”

Grandet paused a little at this point, and then said, "I believe that the two gentlemen, especially the great scientists like Mr. Watt, must have been very interested in the steam-powered steam engine of Bonaparte, but even the two of them probably have never seen the actual steam engine of Bonaparte's steam." To be honest, I haven't seen it either. But I know that the military-industrial complex has used a lot of means to increase the boiler pressure of that steam engine to about one and a half times the product you sell, so the ships that use it are unrivaled in speed. And their machines, with the same horsepower, are smaller and more coal-efficient. You know, there's limited space on board, and being able to carry less coal, you can bring more cargo, and being able to sail at a faster speed, you can run a few more round-trips, which in itself brings a lot of profit.

But any improvement comes at a price. As far as I know, this kind of steam engine is much higher than the usual steam engine in terms of manufacturing cost, maintenance cost and maintenance time. Only users such as smuggling ships and navies, which are extremely profitable or have extremely demanding performance requirements for other reasons, are willing to accept such expensive gadgets. Bonaparte's current strategy is still to cling to the thighs of offshore demand, and they are not currently able to provide us with the usual low-cost steam engines that your company can use. ”

Bolton and Watt glanced at each other, and if the Frenchman seemed to be inadvertently telling the news more reliable, then Bonaparte Steam Power was clearly not following the path of General Dynamics, and the threat to their business was relatively much lower. Of course, what the Frenchman said is not necessarily true.

"So what kind of steam engines are you going to order from us?" Bolton asked again.

"We need a special king-size steam engine right now." "It's much bigger than any of the ones you've built before." ”

"How big does it have to be?" Watt asked.

"It's as big as it can be. Preferably one can have 10,000 horsepower. Grandet said.

Grande's request startled Watt: "Mr. Grande, why do you need such a large steam engine?" With all due respect, I really can't imagine any kind of work that requires such a lot of motivation. ”

"Generate electricity." Grandet said.

The French already had electric motors and began to use them heavily in their rural water conservancy construction, and as a result, the price of copper skyrocketed throughout Europe, and recently the whole continent, including France, has replaced copper cannons with iron cannons, and the British naturally know about this kind of thing. It's just that many things related to electricity are not allowed to be exported because they are set as "military technology" by the French, so the British have only heard of this thing, but have not actually used it.

"With electric motors, what used to need to be solved by small steam engines can be solved with electric motors. So now we only need to use one or a group of very large steam engines where the power is generated. Well, at the moment, the generator sets and motors are still under technical control, and due to the limitations of raw materials, they can only be used in a few limited areas in France, but I think that sooner or later they will be promoted to more sectors and regions. Therefore, Mr. Watt, in the not-too-distant future, all small and medium-sized steam engines, except those used on ships, will lose their living space. Therefore, I suggest that your company should prepare in advance and devote all its efforts to the development of super-large steam engines. There is a future for super-large steam engines that can work continuously for a long time as the power of power generation. ”

With that, Grandet took out a document from the suitcase beside him and handed it to them, "This is our technical requirement for this steam engine. ”

Watt took the document, lowered his head, and looked at it carefully. After a long while, he raised his head and said with a look of confusion and regret on his face, "Your requirements for performance are too high, and your requirements for reliability are too high, and there is a conflict between these two requirements. And the price you give...... I don't want to say it, but I have to admit that we don't have the ability to take such an order, either technically or costly. And, I'm sure, there won't be a second manufacturer in the world who can take such an order. So I would suggest that your company would do well to reconsider these requirements. ”

"What if we could provide you with a lot of low-cost steel?" Grandet said.

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