Chapter 691 The Crown Prince has always stood on the shoulders of giants
“Mr. Sharp?”
Joseph felt that he had heard this name somewhere before, so he looked at the young man who looked very nervous. :
“Already have mature equipment? That’s great.”
Shap hurriedly stepped forward and saluted respectfully:
"It's an honor to meet you, Your Majesty the Crown Prince. I have indeed designed a letter delivery device."
Joseph smiled and nodded: "Can you show it to me?"
< br>"Of course, of course."
Shap hurriedly and fearfully took out a huge roll of drawings and unfolded it on the table:
"Your Highness, look, this is it. I call it for 'Remote Writing'"
.
Sharp pointed to something like a water tower on the drawing and introduced:
"The main body of the equipment is built on a high tower. Ah, it looks a bit like a huge clothes drying rack, but in fact it is a rotating The beam has a swing arm at each end."
Joseph then noticed that there was a T-shaped device on the top of the "water tower" that looked like an antenna.
Shap said and became excited:
“The two swing arms can be rotated to different angles, and with each other, more than 90 postures can be made.
< br>
"If we use each gesture to correspond to a letter, we can form any paragraph.
"And a few kilometers away, there will be another signal tower. There is a signalman on top who uses a telescope to observe the posture of the swing arm on the previous tower and records it and translates it into letters.
"Then the signal tower can continue to transmit the content of the letter.
"We only need to build a signal tower every 10 kilometers - I have done a lot of experiments before, this distance Being able to clearly see the movement of the arm - the content of the letter can be quickly transmitted to a long distance. ”
He looked at the crown prince expectantly:
"Your Highness, I think this is dozens of times faster than using horses to deliver letters!"
When Joseph heard "tens of times faster than horses", he suddenly remembered that he had seen it in historical materials. Napoleon once asked People have established an efficient optical communication mechanism. As a result, after his defeat at Waterloo, it took less than two days for the news to reach Paris, immediately causing chaos and making the Emperor lose the possibility of returning to Paris to stabilize the political situation.
It seems that it should be the invention of Mr. Sharp.
Joseph immediately asked:
"Is there a completed signal tower? I want to see the effect."
Berthier took two steps forward with some embarrassment:
"Your Highness, due to the high cost of building signal towers, the General Staff is still evaluating the availability..."
Joseph sighed secretly. This cannot be blamed on the General Staff. No matter what era, accepting new things is a difficult process. After all, most of them may just be a waste of funds.
However, he was certain that Shap's design was reasonable and feasible.
This is exactly the telegraph system of the 18th century.
Especially in war, information is even more important than cannon!
If a usable long-distance communication system can be established before the war with Britain breaks out, it will bring France a huge military advantage.
Joseph looked at Sharp:
"How long does it take to build a signal tower?"
The latter thought for a moment and hesitated:
"If you have sufficient funds, it will take about 20 days."
"So long?" Joseph frowned slightly.
He felt that this was a two- or three-story water tower with a wooden frame on top, and it should be completed within a week.
Sharp pointed to the swing arm on the drawing with some embarrassment and said:
"Your Highness, the signal frame requires a precise pulley system and bearings, which will be more troublesome to make.
"Of course, when mass production starts, the speed will be much faster."
Joseph looked at the drawings and said casually: "How much does a signal tower cost?" "About two thousand francs, Your Highness."
Joseph couldn’t help but open his mouth, so expensive? Two thousand francs is almost enough to buy a house in the suburbs of Paris.
He immediately noticed the complex pulley and swing arm system on the signal frame. It was estimated that half of the cost was spent on this.
"Wait," he said a little puzzled, "Why do we need to use such a complicated swing arm?"
Shap patiently explained:
"Your Highness, we need to pass 26 letters. And 10 numbers. The swing arm must be rotated at least 45 degrees to be clearly distinguishable from a distance.
“So we must have a rotatable crossbeam and add two swing arms to get everything together. More than 40 postures required. You see, swing your arm up here and to the left here, which is A. Turn this way, the beam is inclined at 45 degrees, which is C..."
Joseph stared at the winch on the drawing and asked again:
"How long does it take to swing a letter like this?"
"After you become proficient, it will take about 5 to 8 seconds, Your Highness."
The swing arm is more than 3 meters long and requires a signalman to move it It takes more than ten turns of the winch to drive the swing arm to make one turn. Rotating the two swing arms and the beam must be very time-consuming.
Joseph frowned:
"This can be completely simplified into three fixed vertical poles with telescopic tops. Use Morse code to transmit signals."
"Fixed vertical poles?" Shap shook his head repeatedly, "That requires 15 poles. Each telescopic pole represents a letter.
"By the way, what is Morse code? "
Joseph remembered that Morse code would not be invented until more than 40 years later.
He picked up the pen, drew "-——" on the paper, and said: "Vertical When the top of the rod extends, it means "horizontal", and when it shrinks, it means "point". By analogy, different combinations of dots and horizontal lines are used to represent different letters. For example, this combination is A. ”
Sharpton’s eyes suddenly widened.
His mind was very flexible and he immediately realized that His Highness the Crown Prince's method was feasible.
Use three vertical poles and rise and fall twice to compare 6 points or horizontal lines. For the signalman, the operation is to push and pull the handle 6 times, which is certainly much faster than turning the winch desperately.
And this method only requires three hollow wooden poles, avoiding any pulleys and bearings, and the estimated cost will not exceed 50 francs.
He suddenly nodded with excitement:
"Your Highness, this is so amazing! An extremely complex problem has been solved with such a simple method...
"Why didn't I think of that...
"You are simply the greatest inventor I have ever seen! "
Joseph was a little ashamed and said in his heart that this was all the credit of Mr. Morse, I just copied it.
Shap rolled up his drawings a few times:
"Your Highness, use the 'Morse code' pattern you mentioned. Is that the name? I estimate that a signal tower can be built in about a week. ”
"Very good!"
Joseph nodded and turned to Berthier:
"Please give Mr. Sharp all the support he needs to complete the test as soon as possible."
"Yes, Your Highness."
What Joseph didn't know was that historically, it took three full years after Schaap submitted his report to the French military before he received an allocation of 6,000 francs for testing. It took another year before official construction began.
And he shortened the process to just one afternoon.
(End of this chapter)