The large exhibition halls in the middle have been almost laid out. Although the exhibition has not officially started at this time, many people have already visited it. Some of these people are interested in the models of the goods displayed in these showrooms, while others are interested in the layout of the showrooms themselves.

Anyway, it didn't take Watt and Bolton Jr. to do anything, or even to put it in their mouths—William Murdoch was already directing the others to start setting up the exhibition hall.

Since there was nothing wrong with standing here, Watt said to little Bolton, "Matthew, let's go over and have a look?" ”

Little Bolton naturally didn't object, so he nodded and said, "Okay, Mr. Watt." ”

Then he turned to Pierre and said, "Ah, young man, I forgot to ask your name just now." ”

"My name is Pierre Aberlaire. You can just call me Pierre. Pierre quickly replied.

Little Bolton nodded, "Well, Pierre, Mr. Watt and I want to look around, can you be a guide for us?" ”

"Mr. Bolton, that's not a problem. It's my job to serve you. Pierre quickly replied.

So the two of them were led by Pierre to the brightest area in the middle.

"Mr. Watt, Mr. Bolton, there are three main halls here, Lorraine Steel, Fort Cement, and Bonaparte Arsenal. Which showroom do we go to first? ”

"Ah, let's go to Lorraine Steel first." Little Bolton said that this company has a lot of business dealings with them, and they are more familiar with this company. The others did not object to this, so the group went to the booth of Lorraine Steel first.

Lorraine Steel's booth covers a large area, and the most conspicuous feature of the entire booth is the frame model of the huge Peace Palace.

The highest part of the entire frame model is more than three meters high, and it is made of steel bars. Watt watched the model closely. At this time, there was no official launch, so there was no staff in charge of explanations. So Pierre made a cameo appearance as a docent.

"Mr. Watt, Mr. Bolton, this is the proportional frame model of the 'Peace Palace'. If we remove all the bricks, cement, stones, and all the other things from the entire Peace Palace, then you will have a frame that is exactly the same as the model in front of you. Just as the human body is supported by bones, the 'Peace Palace' also has its bones, and the steel buried in the cement is its bones......"

"This kind of structure, this way of building, can be used on other large buildings." Watt said, "Lorraine Steel is really profitable. ”

"At the moment, it is the only one that has the technology to make low-cost steel, and they can make money even if they are lying in bed." Little Bolton also sighed.

Watt nodded, "It's a pity that they don't want to share the technology, but if it were us, we wouldn't be willing to do it - fools do." ”

As they spoke, several people walked around the huge frame model of the "Peace Palace", and then a small model of the bridge appeared in front of them, also supported by a stout steel structure.

"Pierre, what kind of bridge is this?" Watt asked.

"This is one of the ideas for a new bridge over the Seine, but there is no such bridge in the world today." Pierre replied.

"If this bridge becomes real, I'm afraid it will consume more steel, right?" Bolton Jr. interjected.

"It should be. So I heard that Lorraine Steel is preparing to build a bigger steel mill. Pierre replied.

"Hehe, Matthew, you know what? If we build a bridge like this in London, it will be hard to achieve your father's favorite song. ”

In addition to the model of the architectural frame, a variety of metal blocks were placed on the stand of Lorraine Steel. The metal blocks are also accompanied by simple technical instructions. Including all kinds of cast iron, all kinds of steel with different properties. These things, Watt, they had all seen in the business with "Lorraine Steel" before.

Coming out of the exhibition hall of Lorraine Steel, Watt and his entourage went to the exhibition hall of the fortress cement, and in the center of the fortress cement exhibition hall, there was a large cement block. The cement block, with its many pitted marks, was circled with white lacquer and accompanied by a short caption.

"Twenty-four pounder guns at a distance of one hundred meters." Little Bolton walked up to the cement block and carefully examined the small pit on it, "It's hard to imagine that a twenty-four-pound cannon could hit such a small pit at such a distance." Mr. Watt, do you say this is true? ”

"It's definitely true." Watt replied, "Don't say that the twenty-four-pounder cannon, even if it is larger, it is not as powerful as Matthew you think, and the wooden planks of the battleship are even enough to block them, and these cements, when facing the shelling, the biggest problem is not the hardness, but whether it will burst, I estimate that there must be a steel frame in the cement." With this, the cannon really took such a thing, there was not much way to do it. Well, the name of their company is Fortress, and it's a great thing to use to build a fortress. ”

Next to the big potholes were smaller blocks of different colors, and there were also explanatory texts, but they were so small that Watt needed to take out his monocle again.

"The product line of fortress cement is quite rich." After looking down and reading the introductory text, Watt straightened up, put the monocle back in his jacket pocket, turned to little Bolton and said, "I think this thing is really worth talking to them." Even if you can't get technical authorization, it's nice to be able to get agency. ”

But the show hadn't started yet, and the staff in the Bastion Cement showroom were just temporary maintenance workers, and Watt's idea of meeting with the company's top brass didn't help much—in fact, they didn't even know who was at the top of the company.

"Matthew, some people earn money on their knees, some people are stronger, things are better than others, they can make money standing up, and some people, such as Lorraine Steel and Fortress Cement, monopolize some trades, which are simply lying down to make money." Watt couldn't help but let out such an exclamation.

"I don't know how that 'Bonaparte Arsenal' over there makes money." Bolton Jr. said.

The "Bonaparte Arsenal" is not the same as the two bastards in front of me who lay down and make money. Although theoretically speaking, the quality of the products of the "Bonaparte Arsenal" has been proven by the Napoleonic wars and the practice of "brave people in pursuit of freedom" everywhere, but their service attitude is the best. Even though it's not yet time for the official launch, the staff there are still very enthusiastic and willing to explain in detail to any visitor the essentials of "home travel, murder and arson".

And in their exhibits, there are indeed some very interesting things that have never been seen anywhere else before, such as steel rifled guns.

In the middle of their exhibition hall is a steel cannon. Watt noticed that the name of the cannon was not the same as the previous cannon.

The cannons of this era were generally marked by the poundage of the shell, but the marking method used by this cannon was the caliber. The sign next to this cannon reads the words "Type 1 75-mm cannon." ”

This is still a front-loading rack gun, this is not because the rear gun is too technically difficult, in fact, after having steelmaking, the difficulty of the rear loading is no longer insurmountable. The main reason why this kind of artillery still adopts such a model is that the "Bonaparte Arsenal", as a technology-leading enterprise, has the so-called "toothpaste syndrome" like many other technology-leading enterprises. That is, there will be more advanced technologies in the morning, but you must lock these technologies in the safe and make more money with less advanced things first.

The Type 1 75mm cannon is a typical toothpaste product, a typical toothpaste cannon.

Compared to the bronze cannon, the cannon was very small, a little smaller in size than the six-pounder bronze cannon commonly used in the army. According to the instructions next to it, although the length of its barrel obviously exceeds that of the average six-pounder gun, the weight of its barrel is also a little smaller than that of the six-pounder bronze gun, but the weight of the gun carriage is not small, almost catching up with the weight of the gun carriage of the 12-pounder gun.

"How many pounds of shells does this cannon fire?" Bolton Jr. asked the attendant standing to the side.

"This cannon is a rifled gun." The attendant replied, "The shells of rifled guns are not spherical, but almost cylindrical. This cannon can fire many shells for different purposes, and these shells, because of different uses, their length and weight are also inconsistent, so this cannon is not easy to mark by the weight of the shell. It can only be marked by the muzzle diameter. ”

"I don't think the caliber of this cannon is large, but the price marked is quite high, and it can almost be topped with two six-pounder bronze cannons. Isn't that too expensive? ”

The price of the six-pounder bronze cannon mentioned by Bolton Jr. refers to the price after the copper shortage in Europe caused by the demand for electricity. So, this toothpaste cannon is indeed very expensive.

"Sir, we can mark such a price, naturally because this cannon is more powerful than two six-pounder bronze cannons. First of all, because of the rifled technology, the firing accuracy of our guns far exceeded that of ordinary bronze guns. For example, a good 12-pounder bronze cannon, under the control of the best gunner, can accurately hit a mill about a kilometer away, but with our cannon, with a little training, the gunners can accurately hit the window of that mill. ”

"So, can this artillery be sold to the British?" Watt asked.

"Why not? We are not at war with Britain, so why can't we? The staff member replied, though in his heart he did not think it was a good thing to sell weapons to the British. But the above has already decided on this issue.

"It's a tooth anyway...... A backward weapon that uses a certain amount of new technology is a big deal. "This is what someone said when he persuaded Napoleon to accept the sale of steel cannons to foreigners in the first place.

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