Speaking of which, Edison's ability is really not covered. In particular, unlike in history, where he was completely self-taught, Edison spent a while at the University of Cleveland working on his mathematical foundations. This makes him more and more comprehensive. In addition, before proposing the project idea of nickel-iron alkaline battery, Edison already had some basic research in his spare time. Especially when he began to have a showdown with the MacDonald consortium, he finally used the resources of the MacDonald's room, slowed down the research of the originally scheduled research project, and made very inauthentic use of the resources of the room, and started the preliminary work of the nickel-iron alkaline battery. Anyway, the Dashi yàn room gives considerable autonomy to scientific researchers. Of course, according to the system, the process and results of these studies must be documented, which means that the MacDonald consortium will also have these relevant materials in their hands. However, Edison was not worried about this, because without Scrooge and without himself, even if the MacDonald consortium also started to study this area, it was unlikely to rush ahead of him.

With such a foundation, it only took a few months for Edison to come up with the first set of real yàn room products of nickel-iron alkaline batteries. In a series of subsequent tests, the battery showed a series of outstanding advantages such as simple maintenance and low self-discharge. Thus, the first important results in the Morgan-Edison room appeared and began to be patented.

At this time, however, trouble arose, and the MacDonald consortium began to sue Edison for stealing the results of the research of the Great Solid. Take Edison to court.

……

"Haha, Mr. Edison, you don't have to worry about the law at all," Morgan said to Edison, "and we have already made the preparations." Our team of lawyers is ready. As it stands, the McDonald consortium does not hold any patents related to the product. The law does not protect technologies that have not yet been patented. So the chances of them winning are almost non-existent. And there is no law prohibiting researchers from conducting previous research at their new workplace. So you won't have any problems. They're doing this just to delay the time to market for our products and interfere with your other research. This does delay our product launch by several months, but it doesn't fundamentally change anything. It's even like an advertisement for our products. ”

"Then I'm relieved. Thank you for your support, Mr. Morgan. Edison gratefully said that although his first research project has been completed, he has no time to rest because he needs to devote himself to new research right away. Research on new batteries is just the beginning. He has many more and more important tasks ahead of him. So at this time, he really didn't have the energy to deal with such a lawsuit.

"It's for our common good." Morgan said, "By the way, how are the development of electric cars and gasoline engines ready?" ”

Even with the impact of Scrooge's assassination, the automotive industry has continued to develop at a good pace. Now in various cities in the east, you can see all kinds of cars running through the streets, which has brought wealth to the MacDonald consortium while also making others blush. It's just that at that time, cars were really high-tech, especially car engines, and it was a technical obstacle that those red-eyed guys couldn't overcome.

Edison did not deeply participate in the plan of the gasoline engine, but Edison still knew the basic principles of design, and even Edison proposed a lot of improvement plans, avoiding the original design, which was too advanced, and it was difficult to do it on the basis of the current industrial technology, and it was not necessary to design it economically. Of course, this will reduce the performance of the engine, but it will also reduce the cost of the engine, improve the reliability of the engine, and of course, increase some fuel consumption.

However, Edison did not dare to underestimate the original design because of this, the person who could come up with such a design must be a great genius, and those designs that were finally removed especially showed a genius-like idea, this kind of thinking, this kind of design ability, even made Edison ashamed of himself. But Edison didn't doubt anything about life, because he knew that the designs must have come from Mr. Scrooge MacDonald.

Because of this experience, Edison was no stranger to the design of gasoline engines. When Morgan asked Edison if he could design a gasoline engine, Edison immediately said to Morgan: "The development of gasoline engines has not reached an insurmountable peak for me, but, Mr. Morgan, I have been in contact with the design of MacDonald's engine, and in my opinion, this engine is quite perfect. In addition, we have to find a way to bypass the relevant patent barriers and have to avoid some key designs, so if we want to develop a new gasoline engine, it will either be higher than the competition in terms of cost or lower than the competition in terms of performance. And, moreover, I know, the McDonald consortium also has some patented technologies that can be thrown out at the right time in the future to improve the performance of gasoline engines. Mr. Morgan, do you still think you should invest in this? ”

At that time, Morgan asked Edison a question: "Thomas, without Scrooge MacDonald, didn't you bite the MacDonald's gasoline engine tightly and finally overwhelm their confidence in a long competition?" ”

Edison was still confident in this question. Scrooge must have left behind a lot of designs, but with these designs, can he stay ahead forever? That's absolutely impossible. And now that Scrooge is gone, Edison is confident that he will be able to press on any other researcher.

As a result, the plan to develop a gasoline engine was thus determined, and after the battery was completed, this would become Edison's next key work, and of course, this would also mean more and larger investments.

……

"Edison began to develop a gasoline engine in his new room? This traitor! Looking at the information in his hand, Rockefeller was very angry.

"Yes, the information provided by our undercover agent in the Morgan Edison room should be very reliable." Scrooge replied.

"Scrooge, what are you going to do?" Rockefeller asked.

"John, do you remember a joke I told you before, the one about why you shouldn't try to argue with a fool." Instead of answering Rockefeller's question directly, Scrooge asked.

"You're saying 'never argue with a pure idiot, because he's going to pull your IQ to the same level as him, and then beat you with his years of experience as a fool'?" Rockefeller said with a smile.

"Yes, even against a pure fool, you can't beat him in the realm that a pure fool is familiar with. This is also the reason why we have not been involved in the financial industry too much, and our activities in the financial sector are very conservative. And now, because of the misjudgment of my situation, Morgan has rashly entered the field we are good at, and isn't this a good opportunity for us to hit him hard? We can beat them with our years of experience in manufacturing and research. Moreover, once he started investing in this project, the amount of investment was only going to keep rising, and then we were able to make it difficult for him to make money through production and technical suppression, and at that time, it would not be easy for him to continue to maintain his alliance. "Even if he can maintain his leadership position in his alliance, his prestige in his alliance will also be greatly reduced, and he will not have an absolute advantage in the equity, and at that time, his alliance's ability to act will be greatly reduced, and the threat to us will become smaller and smaller." ”

……

"Ladies and gentlemen, the New York State Court has ruled in our favor. They dismissed the McDonald's lawsuit, and now our new batteries are ready for mass production. Even if you take the price of building the factory into account, a conservative estimate would bring us more than $2 million in profits over three years. Morgan said to the jubilant bankers, "Now we have three options, one is that we finance it ourselves, and then we produce it ourselves with full authorization from Edison." The second way is for us to make a profit by selling the patents. Third, we lent money to Edison and let him run the factory himself. What do you choose? ”

The bankers below were talking, but at last, they all shouted out a voice: "We listen to you, Mr. Morgan, what do you think we should do!" ”

Morgan listened to this shout with great satisfaction, the failure of the previous blind move and the success of this time under Morgan's direct command made Morgan's influence in the alliance higher and higher, although it could not be compared with Scrooge's status within the MacDonald consortium, but compared to before, it was really a very huge improvement.

Morgan stretched out his hands and pressed them downward, and the noise died down immediately. "We make the most profit with our own funding, but we also have the most risks, and it also puts our money tied up for a long time," Morgan said. The second way is to get the money the fastest, but also the least earned. As for the third option, the risk and time to occupy the capital is slightly smaller than the first, but the profit is also reduced. But considering that this is the field we were just trying to get into before the McDonald consortium, the necessary caution is still necessary. So I built yì to take the third way. ”