Chapter 254 Clouds of War
While in Vladivostok, the Vladivostok City Government was having a headache because of the misbehavior of the Siberian Fleet sailors.
On the territory of the Russian Empire, the sailors of the Siberian Fleet are still unscrupulous.
In Jeju, don’t expect the sailors of the Siberian Fleet to abide by the law.
At the beginning of the year, George decided to use Jeju as the fruit base in Vladivostok. This work has now been started, but the progress is not obvious enough.
When oranges grow in Huainan, they become tangerines, and when they grow in northern Huaibei, they become tangerines. The development of agriculture requires not only execution, but also suitable seedlings.
Whether it is suitable or not will take time to be verified.
George sent people to collect various fruit seedlings extensively in East Asia and transplanted them to Jeju for planting, hoping to find suitable varieties.
This is a long project and the benefits will not be seen in a short time.
Thanks to the addition from Aceh, the market in Vladivostok will be more plentiful with supplies this winter.
George is not in a hurry. Breeding work must be done slowly, and technical personnel must be trained slowly. As long as you persevere, you will always see results.
There is still good news.
In June of this year, Tesla completed his alternator, and the Siberian Electric Company could finally launch a general attack on the Edison Electric Company.
George's automobile factory in Delaware, USA, will be completed by the end of the year and will officially start production next year.
It is different from the high-end cars of Vladivostok Automobile Factory.
The affordable cars produced by the Delaware Automobile Factory abandon all flashy premium designs and focus on practicality. Simply put, they just need to be able to move.
George prepared several different plans for the Delaware Automobile Plant.
Automobiles have no competitors in the U.S. market. During this period, the main focus was on quickly launching a large number of cheap products to occupy the market.
If rich people need high-end cars, the Vladivostok Automobile Factory can export directly to the United States to meet the needs of different groups of people.
When competitors appear in the market, the Delaware automobile factory will begin differentiated competition against the new automobile factories, all with the purpose of killing their opponents.
In order to maintain technological leadership, George has focused on the cultivation of technical teams from the beginning. It was by virtue of its technical advantages that the Vladivostok Automobile Factory defeated its German competitors at the World Expo.
After half a year's absence, George returned to Vladivostok. He was no longer surprised by the changes in Vladivostok.
Anne was full of praise.
It’s not that Anne is ignorant, but that Vladivostok is developing so fast that even Anne is overwhelmed.
“I have lived in Sigmalingen for more than ten years, and Sigmalingen has hardly changed. What it was like more than ten years ago is still what it is now——”
George had seen what the real speed of development was. Compared with the scenes in his memory, Vladivostok was still almost boring.
“This is normal. In the past few years, Vladivostok’s resident population has almost doubled in two years. If you go to New York, you can feel that New York’s development speed is changing with each passing day. ”
George is not arrogant. Compared with the United States, Vladivostok must continue to work hard.
Only now did George realize the importance of population.
If the population of Sigmalingen doubles in two years, the speed of change will also be visible to the naked eye.
Compared with Vladivostok, Yuriev Palace has changed little.
It cannot be said that there have been no changes, I can only say that the changes in Yuriev Palace are invisible from the outside.
At least the lighting system of Yuriev Palace has now been changed from direct current to alternating current.
With alternating current, the construction of power stations will also be put on the agenda.
The embarrassing thing is that George Kong had the idea of building a power station, but he did not have the corresponding technology and equipment.
"Providing power supply to the entire city?"
Mikhail frowned. George's idea was beyond Mikhail's imagination.
Whether it is DC or AC, it can only provide power supply to a single building.
If it were to provide electricity for the entire city, Mikhail didn't know how big the workload would be.
“Yes, the whole city, this job is very important, we must do it no matter what.”
George knew the importance of electricity to development.
The steam age promoted the emergence of the first industrial revolution, more than a hundred years ago.
The discovery and application of electricity will promote the emergence of the second industrial revolution, and mankind is about to enter the "Electricity Age".
The first industrial revolution gave birth to an empire on which the sun never sets.
Who will be the beneficiaries of the second industrial revolution?
George wanted it to be the Russian Empire.
“We have too many important tasks now, and we have to do them one by one.”
Mikhail was in a broken mood.
After Mikhail arrived in Vladivostok, he was driven like a donkey by George with a whip and had no time to rest.
The most important task in Vladivostok last year was railway construction.
Will it be replaced by a power station this year?
The key is that he doesn’t even have the technology to build a power station. George vows to build a power station. How to build it?
"I didn't ask you to build the power station overnight. Let's start with the preparation work."
George was not worried about technical problems.
The biggest technical problem Tesla has solved, now it is the application problem that needs to be solved.
George did not expect to push Vladivostok into the electric age overnight. This was simply impossible. Not to mention anything else, the wire problem alone is enough to make the technicians in Vladivostok have a headache.
Plastics had not yet appeared in this era. The insulating materials used for wires were silk and cotton.
In order to improve the waterproof performance, the wires must be impregnated with natural resins such as shellac, vegetable oil, and asphalt to achieve better waterproofing effects.
The production process is so complicated that the cost of wires naturally remains high.
Therefore, if George wants to provide power supply to the entire Vladivostok, he still needs to wait for the comprehensive progress of technology. Only generators are far from enough.
With a generator, the storage of electricity is also a big problem.
So the second task George gave Tesla was to research batteries.
Don’t get me wrong, George doesn’t need batteries to develop electric cars.
The Russian Empire and the United States are currently the countries with the highest oil production. In the field of automobiles, the Vladivostok Automobile Factory's first-mover advantage is unshakable, at least in the short term there are no competitors.
That's why George won't dig his own grave.
Although batteries will not be used in electric vehicles, they can be applied in a wide range of fields.
George vaguely remembers that the only electrical appliance in the house when he was a child was a flashlight.
Speaking of flashlights -
Compared to providing electricity to the entire city, flashlights seem more realistic.
If you want to produce a flashlight, you need dry batteries first.
George didn’t know when dry batteries were invented, nor did he know how dry batteries were made, so George sent his idea about the flashlight to Tesla and asked Tesla to solve this problem.
Technical problems require professional technicians to solve them slowly.
What George has to do is to use the existing technological advantages to attack his competitors.
The biggest rival of alternating current is direct current.
Compared with alternating current, direct current has a first-mover advantage and has been sold all over the world.
If George wanted to break the Edison Electric Company's monopoly on electricity, he must start with the production of AC motors.
Compared with other products, the technical confidentiality level of AC motors is not high, so George placed the production of AC motors in Vladivostok.
Don’t worry about orders. Orders from the Russian Empire alone are enough to keep factories producing AC motors busy for several years.
The relationship between George and Nikolai only had a crack, not a complete breakdown, otherwise there would be no need to build the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Entering winter, the Trans-Siberian Railway was forced to stop construction, which was actually a good thing for Vladivostok.
By building the railway between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk and Yuriev, Vladivostok cultivated a consistently reliable team of railway workers.
The output of the Vladivostok Steel Plant seriously failed to keep up with the demand of the Trans-Siberian Railway. In the middle of this year, Mikhail had to increase purchases from the United States so as not to affect the construction of the railway.
The output of the Vladivostok Steel Plant has continued to increase in the past two years. After Yuriev's steel plant was put into operation, Amur's steel output has increased to 150,000 tons.
Although the production of steel is increasing rapidly, the demand for steel is also increasing rapidly.
Although the Trans-Siberian Railway is important, the production of automobiles is related to Vladivostok's sustainable development capabilities. Therefore, the Vladivostok Steel Plant must give priority to meeting the needs of the Vladivostok Automobile Plant.
Amur's urban construction also requires a large amount of steel.
There are also arsenals and shipyards in Vladivostok.
So Vladivostok’s demand for steel is never-ending.
Speaking of shipyards, the Vladivostok Shipyard built a commercial ship this year, finally changing the embarrassing situation of only building fishing boats.
This is a river transport ship used for water transport between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk.
Compared with railways, although water transportation is slower, it is more economical and cannot be ignored.
Inland water transport ships are an attempt. Next, the Vladivostok Shipyard will try to build ocean-going cargo ships, cruise ships, and even warships.
With the stability of Aceh, Vladivostok’s demand for shipping is becoming more and more serious.
The large ships currently owned in Vladivostok are all ordered from major European shipyards. This is definitely not possible.
The proportion of Vladivostok's exports will become larger and larger in the future, requiring more and more ships.
Forget it if there is no shipyard in Vladivostok.
Since there is a shipyard in Vladivostok, George will not ignore the development of the shipbuilding industry.
If nothing else, if the Vladivostok Shipyard can build warships, even if they are only sold to Japan and the Qing Empire, it will be enough to support the Vladivostok Shipyard.
Two years ago, in order to deter Japan, the Qing Empire sent a fleet to Japan, triggering the Nagasaki Incident.
The Nagasaki incident seriously stimulated the pride of the Japanese people. With the support of an island country, Japan began to develop its navy.
The Qing Empire was not idle either. On December 17, 1888, the Qing Empire’s Beiyang Navy was officially established on Liugong Island. At this time, the Qing Empire’s naval strength ranked ninth in the world and first in Asia.
The naval strength of the Russian Empire currently ranks third in the world, second only to Britain and France.
But when it comes to the Siberian Fleet, it's too miserable.
The current Siberian fleet is not even as good as the fledgling Japanese navy.
(End of this chapter)