Life of Being a Crown Prince in France - Chapter 1517 - 1423: The Flourishing Empire

This LJ98 was entrusted by the London Steam Engine Company two years ago to buy at a high price from Hessian merchants, dismantled from a French accident train.

According to Joseph’s requests, medium-low power steam engines were massively sold to England, but the latest high-power steam engines were a prohibited commodity.

However, at that time, France had already built a train repair factory in Baden, so the LJ98, as a train power, would often appear in the Germanic Region, which was impossible to keep completely confidential, and the French Government turned a blind eye to this.

Nevertheless, even with a ready reference, Watt and a group of British technicians could only replicate 70% of the power of French products.

This was only achieved after they acquired France’s high-hardness bearings and alloy steel milling cutters last year.

In fact, for this era, they were already very skilled.

After all, there wasn’t a “cheat-like” person in England to help finalize the high-pressure boiler route when steam engines were first being developed, nor would there be a heavy investment in alloy steel and high-precision mechanical processing before the first-generation steam engines were produced.

When the bottleneck in steam engine development was encountered, these technologies immediately provided strong support.

Watt’s research progress on high-pressure steam engines has already advanced by more than ten years compared to history, but France still leaves them far behind.

Watt dodged the gazes of high officials and instructed his assistant to start the prototype.

The boiler was already heated, so within just a few minutes, the Engine70 placed in the middle of the room started making a dull “creaking” sound, and the main shaft began to rotate slowly.

Very soon, all the high-ranking British officials watched the massive flywheel attached to the steam engine rotating at high speed like a windmill, nodding and applauding.

Six years have passed since the last “high-pressure steam engine technology breakthrough” news, along with boiler explosion incidents, and now it has finally truly been achieved. This is not just a technical and economic issue; it has even become a matter of pride.

After the steam engine ran steadily for 20 minutes, William Pitt Junior received confirmation from technical advisors of the Government Investment Fund Commission, and only then did he instruct his assistant to let in the journalists and onlookers.

Soon, under the watchful eyes of a large batch of journalists and citizens, William Pitt Junior first praised the achievements of the London Steam Engine Company, followed the routine of extolling British technology, and then signaled to the new chairman of the Government Investment Fund Commission, Henry Bathurst.

The latter bowed to the Prime Minister, then came to the temporarily set up stage, exchanged a few simple pleasantries, and loudly announced, “The London Steam Engine Company will manufacture a train based on the Engine70 within a year.

“And the Government Investment Fund has passed the railway construction plan from Stockton to Darlington!”

The crowd immediately erupted in excited cheers.

They had long heard that France had developed an advanced steam locomotive that could transport thousands of loads quickly, and now, England finally had one too.

This time, the British Investment Fund also took out all their resources, investing 360,000 British Pounds, plus 120,000 British Pounds from private crowdfunding, to build this railroad less than 30 kilometers long.

This was more than twice the cost of constructing a railway of the same length in France. No choice, France had spread the railway costs to Italy, Germanic countries, and even had free labor from prisoners of war, which the fledgling England absolutely could not compare to.

However, the British also had their own plans, which were to directly adopt the French railway standards completely, thus ensuring the maturity of the technology and allowing them to sell train and railway parts to the Germanic countries using the same French standards in the future.

But the British, who had no experience in train research and development, did not realize that with the power of Engine70, a train could only run at speeds over 20 kilometers per hour unless the number of carriages was reduced to within 10.

Moreover, due to the disadvantages in mechanical processing, Engine70’s size is extremely large and currently unable to be directly mounted on a train.

However, none of this dampened the British’s beautiful dream of the train era.

The ceremony lasted until noon and concluded in a festive atmosphere.

As the journalists gradually dispersed, Prince Adolfus summoned Watt again and praised him,

“Your wisdom and technology have imbued steel with a soul and brought glory to the Empire.

“I think I must reward your genius mind. Please tell me, what do you desire?”

A glimmer of light flashed in Watt’s weary eyes, and he quickly bowed, “Thank you so much, Your Highness. Anything, money, houses, best if you could help me clear my debts.”

Indeed, he was lacking almost everything now.

Previously, due to the company’s widespread breach of contract and the payment of substantial compensation, he bore an almost impossible-to-clear debt, leading to his mansion being seized by creditors.

In fact, he was somewhat lucky since the British Government still needed his skills, allowing him to stay at the Steam Engine Company to work. As for Bolton, he fled abroad to evade debts years ago, and there hasn’t been any news for a long time.

William Pitt Junior bid farewell to the Prince and had just returned to Ten Downing Street when Deputy Speaker Crook hurriedly came to him, enthusiastically saying, “It’s passed, Prime Minister, Congress finally passed the ‘Manchester Lighting Improvement Proposal’ this morning!”

The proposal he was referring to was actually the plan to install gas streetlights in Manchester. However, gas streetlights were taboo in England, so it had to be replaced with “lighting improvement.”

Just half a year ago, the British “Fuel Commission” spent over 300,000 British Pounds on research expenses, completing the industrial distillation technology of Coal Tar.

Yet a large group of British Members of Parliament continued to oppose the installation of gas streetlights—they had suffered heavy losses in the last “Lightning Coal Company bankruptcy incident.”

Now, under William Pitt Junior’s arduous efforts, Congress finally agreed to try it out in Manchester.

While in northwestern France’s Lille, they have already begun installing gas streetlights and plan to add 11 cities with gas streetlights by the end of next year—with the effect of scale, France’s costs for installing gas streetlights have already become very low.

William Pitt Junior also showed rare relaxation, “It’s all thanks to your persistent push in Congress. Once Manchester’s nights light up, London’s resistance to lighting improvement will also reduce significantly.”

He immediately instructed, “Next, you need to focus your energy on pushing the proposal for building a new drainage system in London.”

“Leave it to me, Prime Minister.”

According to William Pitt Junior’s vision, once England possesses railways, gas streetlights, drainage, and tap water, it will roughly catch up with France’s technological progress.

Though delayed by a few years… or a dozen years, having the same foundation also provides the possibility for surpassing.

Except no one tells him, the French are now playing with things like batteries and vulcanized rubber.