Chapter 186 "Third Front" Plan
March 11, 1869.
Professional cable-laying ships have once again appeared on the Mediterranean and Red Seas. For people along the Mediterranean coast, this is no surprise. In recent years, as countries have paid more and more attention to the role of telegraph, capable Countries and companies alike laid telegraph lines under the sea.
One of the ships working on laying cables at sea this time came from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the other came from Germany, and they started work on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea respectively.
From Trieste in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Egypt, and then from Egypt to the sea in East Africa, another cable laying work began.
This time it is a double line laying work. After all, it is not safe to maintain the connection between East Africa and Europe with a single cable.
The plan to lay double lines has long been in Ernst’s desk. It was planned when the first cable from East Africa to Europe was laid, but due to financial constraints at the time, it was not implemented together. .
Later, the first cable has also been maintained in good working condition. After all, the entire line is not used for civil affairs. It is a government line in East Africa. The workload is not heavy, so the second line has not been started yet. , or Ernst almost forgot about this plan.
Now that Dad is leaving for East Africa, contact between father and son is essential. In order to prevent accidents, Ernst decided to restart the cable laying work.
After all, submarine cables are relatively fragile things, so laying double lines is equivalent to installing insurance. Even if an accident occurs on the commonly used lines, the backup lines can be activated immediately.
East Africa, the first town.
"This is a document sent by His Highness. Now go ahead and send letters to the governments along the inland route to let them prepare." Von der Leyen handed the document about the laying of telegraph lines in East Africa to the people in the conference room. Everyone.
“This is really a big workload!” the officials in the conference room said after reading the document.
“It’s not too difficult. Although the entire project line is more than 4,000 kilometers long, we only need to set up telegraph poles along both sides of the road. The local governments along the way only need to be responsible for the work within their jurisdictions. That’s it,” Von der Leyen said.
“That’s true. The telephone poles can be made from local materials, and the machine room must be prepared in advance to facilitate the subsequent installation of the generator.”
What everyone is discussing is the land part of this telegraph line construction plan. As early as last year, the East African colonies set up a land telegraph line from Mombasa to Dar es Salaam and then to the first town.
So the telegraph is not unfamiliar to the officials of the First Town. After all, the submarine cable only goes to Mombasa, which is some distance from Dar es Salaam and the First Town. We cannot rely on the stagecoach. to deliver the message.
At present, in East Africa, horses are the main way to deliver messages. Post offices are set up in various cities to form a communication network. Telegraphs are only available in the first towns, Dar es Salaam and Mombasa. .
“This telegraph line erection work will be divided into two main lines and less than one branch line, one originating from Mombasa and one originating from the First Town.
Mombasa line, passing through Nairobi , then to Kisumu, and finally to Kampala, the new northwest city. At the same time, a branch line is branched from Nairobi to the north directly to the town of Omorat above Lake Turkana, so that any disturbance in the north can be conveyed to us in time. .
The first town line, with Dodoma as the transfer station, the southern line all the way to Mbeya City as the end point, the northern line first passes through Mwanza in the north, and then goes west to the north shore of Lake Solon (Tanganyika) Bujumbura so that the government can keep abreast of news from the west. "Technical Director Kane concluded.
At this time, the Mbeya government sent Merkel and Becker to the Yeke Kingdom for negotiations not long ago, but they have not returned yet, so everyone does not know that the Yeke Kingdom has been Msili was sold to the East African colony, so the first town line planned for this telegraph line only reached Mbeya in the west.
Above, the East Africa-European Haiti cable line, the first town line, Mongolia. The Barcelona line is the latest communication project in East Africa designed by Ernst. It was also named the "Three Lines" plan by Ernst. It basically covers several major directions in East Africa. Only the south has no line construction plan because the south and the Portuguese. The forces are separated by the Rufuma River, so there is less defensive pressure, and the Portuguese side is mainly populated by indigenous tribes. The two colonies are not really bordering.
East Africa divides these indigenous tribes. Returning to the Portuguese sphere of influence can be regarded as an expression of goodwill to the Portuguese. If the two colonies are really close to each other, there will definitely be an accident.
So far, the expansion activities of the East African colonies have been quite smooth, and naturally they were not won through peaceful negotiations like Becker's.
Becker’s success also relied on the strength of East Africa. Msili was a slave trader and was not a good man. The reason why he sold the Kingdom of Yeke to East Africa at a very low price was because he knew that East Africa was He is really greedy and is the same type of person as himself.
But he still can’t beat the other party, and since the slave trade became a unilateral claim in East Africa, Msiri can’t get anything, and the interest group of the Yeke Kingdom has begun to falter, so it is better to sell it to the East Africans. never mind.
The transaction with the Kingdom of Yeke reflects the imperialist style of East Africa. Putting East Africa in Europe will probably make other countries happy, but it is an insurmountable mountain in front of the African natives.
At present, the main direction of expansion in East Africa is Central and South Africa, so it is necessary to lay a telegraph line to Mbeya.
The Bujumbura region is responsible for liaison with the Mitumba Mountains region that is penetrating East Africa.
Kampala is responsible for the exchange of information in the northwest region of the Great Lakes region.
The town of Omorat is responsible for the Omo River Basin. After all, it is very close to the Abyssinian Empire. It needs to be on guard and at the same time it can monitor the movements in the Egyptian and Sudanese regions.
Through the "Third Front" plan, the above key areas of focus in East Africa can directly contact the central government of East Africa, and Ernst can also keep abreast of the trends in East Africa.
In addition to the above areas, only Mozambique in the south and Somalia in the north are not covered by this plan. The Portuguese have already said that, and Somalia is not worth mentioning at all.
The border between Somalia and East Africa is dominated by desert, which is a natural geographical barrier. Moreover, the Sultanate of Gradi in the direction of Somalia is too weak and has a small population. It would be a blessing if East Africa did not cause trouble with it.
Just do it. Soon, the first town and the Mombasa government, which were the first to receive the news, began to organize personnel to erect the telegraph poles needed for the telegraph line.
Telegraph poles are all made from local materials. The forest coverage in East Africa is quite terrifying in this era, reaching more than 40%. The wood is quite cheap, with basically no cost. With so few people in East Africa, it is hard to cut down the wood. The speed cannot keep up with its growth rate.
After simple processing of these woods, just add wooden wedges on top to act as fulcrums for later fixing the wires.
As long as we wait for European wires, generators, iron wire and other materials to be transported, we can fix the lines above and build small maintenance and inspection points at regular intervals to facilitate early detection by workers. Problems and maintaining clear lines.
Some buildings are machine rooms, used to supply power to the entire telegraph line system. The generators are high-power DC generators imported from Siemens. A large part of the cost of this "Third Line" plan was spent on generators and other equipment.
Taking advantage of Prince Constantine's trip to East Africa, Ernst directly completed the East African land telegraph line and the submarine line in one step.
(End of this chapter)