Electricity came to life very quickly, and within a few days of the opening of the Moulin Rouge, the library of the University of Paris was lit up first.

In addition to allowing the library to open at night, the University of Paris turned on the lights and gave the police one more thing to do along the way through the cable: catch the thief digging up the cable.

Due to the lack of transformer technology, the power is lost in the transmission process. In order to reduce the loss of electricity during transmission, there are only two ways to do it, the first is to build a power plant nearby.

Paris is close to the Seine, which is abundant in water and has no gap. This is ideal for shipping, but it is not good for hydropower. So in Paris, there is no way to build hydropower, and the only solution is thermal power. But in doing so, there will also be a series of troubles.

The first trouble was the source of coal, the Saarland coal had to be transported to Paris, there was no suitable waterway (there were no cross-basin canals at that time), and if it was based on the country, the only solution was to transport the coal to the docks of the Seine by heavy wagons, and then to Paris; But the French heavy horses were not enough. And it will take time to lay a track from the Saar coal mine to the Seine.

But if you take into account international trade, you can simply import coal directly from England, load it onto ships, and ship it all the way down the Seine to Paris, which is even lower in terms of freight than the coal that transports the Saarland. As a result, many power stations in coastal France are currently using British coal.

Considering the precariousness of relations with Britain, Napoleon also set up coal warehouses in various ports along the coast to store some coal to increase the hedging capacity.

Of course, one of the consequences of building a thermal power station in Paris, and more than one, to meet the growing electricity needs of the whole of Paris is that it will inevitably cause serious pollution in Paris. If you don't get it right, Paris will have to compete with London for the title of fog capital in the future.

In addition to building a thermal power station nearby, you can only make a fuss about the power lines. In general, the thicker the cross-section of the wire, the lower the resistance. Therefore, although the power load at this time is not particularly large, the transmission cables are very thick.

Thick, copper cables, plus the price of copper is not low, which naturally attracts many people to covet. As the saying goes, "the cable has copper." stealing is useful", stealing cables, has also become an emerging criminal activity. Especially for some people who can't work part-time and can't work in their lives, stealing cables has become a common means to maintain their lives. Although it is not uncommon to be electrocuted for stealing cables, this criminal activity is still rampant. When electricity was pumped in rural areas, the cables had to be guarded by special people. As soon as a stranger appears, everyone will be vigilant and pay attention to whether it is a thief who has come to steal the cable.

And in Paris, the police now have an additional task, which is to prevent thieves from stealing cables. Fortunately, the "Moulin Rouge" side is fine, there are few poor people in the whole Montmartre area, and the space there is spacious, and the power station can be arranged in a relatively suitable downwind location.

But the University of Paris, it's different, where the electricity comes from the power plants that supply the factories in Paris. The factories are in poor areas like Saint-Antoine, where security has always been poor. When it comes to supplying power to factories, it's okay to say, because most of the factories are directly next door to the power station, and the cables go out of the power plant wall, over a narrow road, and directly into the factory, leaving very limited space for those thieves.

But this is not the case here at the University of Paris, where there is still a little distance from the poor area, but the construction of a smoky power plant in the university district is unbearable for both Joseph and Napoleon - these places, they have to go to install a 13 often. Of the brothers, only Lucien and Louis felt that it didn't matter.

So, the cable is long, and there's a long way to go through the Saint-Antoine district!

The drudgery of protecting this cable was directly thrown to the Ministry of Public Security. Of course, the Ministry of Public Security receives a special grant every month for this, although the money is not very much. After receiving the money, Minister Fuche immediately ordered that according to the length of the area through which the cable passes, multiply it by a security maintenance difficulty factor, and then distribute the money proportionally to the police station in the area.

Fouché ordered: "If there is no problem with the cables in your area this month, this money is your bonus for this month." If there is a case of cable destruction in your area this month, then the money will be gone, and it will be distributed proportionally to the police station where there is no problem with other factions on this line. ”

It's not a lot of money. But that's not much, it's for the big guys. Moreover, when the money was allocated to Fouche, according to custom, the government also honestly considered the "fire consumption" of the money when it was operating in the organs of the Ministry of Public Security, and Minister Fouché did not care too much about the "fire consumption" of his subordinates, as long as they did not take too much and took more than the ordinary rules. However, Minister Fouché himself did not take the "fire consumption", so that this small amount of money fell to the specific police station, and the result was really not small.

So the small police officers naturally mustered up their strength, and kept spinning along the cable from morning to night every day. And some small gangs in the vicinity have been warned: "Lao Tzu means not only that you can't do this kind of thing, but as long as something happens in this place, Lao Tzu loses money and is punished, and you will be used to make meritorious contributions to fight for the losses back!" "As a result, the criminal gangs that are going to stay here for a long time have even become, in a sense, the protectors of the cables.

Under such measures, the cable to the University of Paris has not been problematic, but this is the result of a concentrated effort, and if the electricity is to be spread on a basic basis, it is obvious that the police department will not have such a force to protect all the cables in the city, and at that time, it will be difficult to curb the crime against the power system.

"But in the long run, transmission technology has become a bottleneck that limits us. In the future, if electricity were to be spread throughout the city, the amount of copper used for cables alone would be hopeless. At the analysis meeting of the "City That Never Sleeps" project, Joseph said this.

"Fortunately, the army doesn't need copper much anymore." Napoleon lamented that otherwise, it would have been very difficult for him to compete for resources with the wonders and the army.

"By the way, the last time you told me about resistor heating, didn't you say that you were working on a machine that can increase the voltage? How's it going? Napoleon asked.

"Some progress, in fact, is going quite well. However, there are still some experimental processes to be completed. At the moment the experiment is being carried out in the south, you know, there are abundant hydropower resources there, but other conditions are average, there are not too many factories, and some power stations are actually not running at full capacity. So the experiment was arranged over there. An experimental power line has already been erected, and if nothing goes wrong, we will have results in a few days at most......"

"And then it will take half a year to move to industrial production, right?" Napoleon asked.

"That's right. My brother, don't always think that tomorrow morning when you open your eyes, you will see the completion of the spectacle. Think about it, the Pyramid of Khufu, the Pantheon - which wonder does not take time? Joseph said.

"Actually, I think the 'Moulin Rouge' is already a spectacle." Lucien interjected, "And it's a spectacle that can make us money non-stop, it can increase both smiles and gold, it's perfect......"

At the same time, in the south, the new experimental transmission line is also under construction. Every once in a while, workers erected a particularly tall pole on the ground and hung a string of ceramic bowls on it. Now that the poles have been installed, workers are now hanging new wires on the poles under the guidance of engineers and technicians.

Compared to the usual arm-thick cables, this wire is much thinner, not even much thicker than a thumb. In addition, this kind of wire is also very special, this wire is a steel wire in the middle, and the surrounding is a coiled copper wire. There is also a very strange place, that is, this kind of wire, there is no insulating material on the outside, it is completely bare wire.

Unlike ordinary cables, these wires cannot be mounted directly on the pole, but must be hung under the string of "porcelain bowls". On each pole, a string of "porcelain bowls" is hung on the left and right sides, and then a wire is hung directly in the air under this string of "porcelain bowls".

The wire went all the way to a strange machine nearby, and from there two thick, insulating cables branched out. In this era, there was no plastic, so the insulating skin of the wire was generally a composite structure. The innermost layer of asbestos that is in direct contact with the metal is a layer of asbestos. This kind of thing was banned by most countries in later generations because it was strongly carcinogenic, but at this time, no one cared about this matter at all.

On the outside of asbestos, a layer is used to make a thick layer of oiled paper, and on the outside is a layer of asphalt.

In charge of the experimental mission here was Joseph's student Andrei Ampere. At this time, he was making the final preparations before the experiment.

He checked the condition of the transformer. The core and coils, as well as the cooling oil that soaked them, are in good condition. He carefully examined the other equipment, and then said to the people next to him, "Okay, now let's start experimenting......