Chapter 253: Technology Exchange

Facts have proven that Carlo’s proposed Madrid Nightless City Plan is very effective. The news of Madrid Nightless City not only shocked many Europeans, but also shocked many European countries.

Not just Britain and France, great powers including Germany, Austria, Russia, and Italy all expressed attention to this, and their publics also demanded that their governments build their own Nightless Cities to demonstrate their national strength.

While the United Kingdom and France were still hesitating, Germany instead became the first country to take action. As a promoter of the Second Industrial Revolution, Germany’s sensitivity to the electric power industry domestically is unmatched by other countries.

The only one that can be mentioned in the same breath as Germany in terms of valuing electricity is perhaps the United States across the Atlantic. But because the United States is separated from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean, the news spreads more slowly than to other European countries.

Other European countries received the news on the second day of Christmas, but the United States would not receive related news reports until at least the third day at the earliest.

December 26, 1879, Berlin, German Empire.

At this time, the German Government was holding a meeting, mainly discussing the cost required to build Berlin into a Nightless City.

Germany has also been involved in electricity technology, and some German scientists have developed things like generators and light bulbs. In theory, there is hope to build a Nightless City.

Even if the effect is temporarily not as good as Spain’s Nightless City, at least something similar must be built to declare to the public that Germany remains a powerful advanced country in the emerging electricity field.

“Has the fiscal budget needed to build a Nightless City been calculated?” German Chancellor Bismarck turned his gaze to the Finance Minister and asked.

The Finance Minister looked serious and gave an answer that instantly changed Bismarck’s expression: “Currently, if streetlights are built on the main streets of Berlin, we would need to invest at least 60 million marks. If streetlights are built in most large cities, we would need at least 500 million marks in investment.

Considering the different geographical environments of various cities and the different local electricity needs, the funds we need to invest may be even more.

Overall, this is completely an unprofitable deal, at least for us now. Even just Berlin’s streetlight system would require at least dozens of power stations working together.

Just the labor costs for these dozens of power stations would require at least thousands of people. Just manufacturing the generators might take months, and when everything is completed, it would take at least half a year at the fastest.”

Bismarck rubbed his brow, somewhat helpless about this bad news. According to the Finance Minister, building a Nightless City would be a huge expenditure and would take a long time to complete.

“Damn it, if it costs so much, why could Spain create the first Nightless City before all other countries?

Even if Madrid has a relatively small population, it must have at least 500,000 people! Berlin needs 60 million marks, so Madrid would need at least 30 million pesetas.

Would Spaniards grit their teeth and bear an expenditure as high as 30 million pesetas just for the small face brought by the Nightless City?

This is simply unbelievable. This amount of money is enough to build two of the most powerful ironclad ships. Wouldn’t it be better to use it to build the navy?” Chancellor Bismarck said somewhat incredulously.

For European countries, if finances are affluent, the first choice is definitely to develop industry or the navy.

The scale of the navy also measures the strength of a great power. Countries that only have a strong army are not highly regarded in Europe, unless they are neighbors of these army powerhouses.

No matter how strong the army is, it cannot bypass other countries to attack oneself, but the navy can. This also leads European countries to often regard the navy as the most important military branch when assessing comprehensive national strength, with the army secondary.

Chancellor Bismarck simply could not understand the Spaniards’ operations. If building a Nightless City requires huge expenditure, what exactly are the Spaniards building the Nightless City for?

“This is a very terrifying result. Perhaps in the electricity industry, the Spaniards have already walked ahead of all countries. Only in this way can the cost of building power stations and using electricity be reduced, allowing Spain to build a Nightless City recklessly to attract our attention.” German Emperor William I spoke at this time.

European countries are not fools. Spain being able to create a Nightless City first also means that Spain has definitely walked ahead in the electricity industry in Europe.

How to judge is also simple. If one can also quickly create a Nightless City, it proves that Spain’s achievements in the electricity industry are not outstanding.

But if a great power like Germany cannot quickly build a Nightless City, it proves that Spain’s achievements in the electricity industry have surpassed Germany and even maintained a significant lead.

The German Foreign Secretary nodded and explained to Emperor William I and Chancellor Bismarck: “According to the news sent back by the ambassador to Spain, the Spaniards used unknown high-power generation equipment. There are less than ten power stations around the entire Madrid, yet the electricity generated supplies the lighting for the entire Madrid City Center.

It is said that Madrid’s electricity costs have been reduced by more than half, and many factories are already considering installing light bulbs for lighting at night.

In the electricity era, the Spaniards have indeed achieved quite a few results. I think we can cooperate with the Spaniards in this aspect, using some industrial technologies we are good at to exchange for the Spaniards’ electricity technology.”

Chancellor Bismarck glanced at William I, and after seeing that William I did not object, Bismarck then nodded and made his decision: “Let the diplomatic ambassador contact the Spanish Government and inquire about the price of Spain’s power generation equipment and light bulb technology.

No matter how great the cost of the Nightless City, we must keep up. What electricity brings is not just lighting. If we can achieve good results in the electric power industry, perhaps Germany can have a brighter future.”

At this time, Chancellor Bismarck still held great power. With his order, the German Government also became busy, all carrying out their own work.

Unlike the decisive German Government, France, which has deep hatred with Germany, was now in a dilemma.

As a great power directly bordering Spain, the news of Madrid Nightless City reached France first.

Before the French Government could react, impatient Parisian Citizens launched parades demanding that the government build a Nightless City to demonstrate France’s strength.

The parades by Parisian Citizens made the French Government uneasy, and important government officials did not even dare to appear in public.

Unable to find the government, Parisian Citizens turned their guns on the municipal government. After all, the Paris City Government is also the government, and condemning them is absolutely correct.

At this time, inside the Paris City Government, the official serving as Paris Mayor had an ashen face. He tried to contact the government by telegram, but the response was to handle it on their own.

Isn’t this ridiculous? How is the Paris City Government supposed to handle it? Could they build streetlights on the streets and alleys of Paris according to the public’s opinion?

Anyone with eyes can see that this is a huge expenditure. For the Paris City Government, even if their finances are relatively affluent, they absolutely cannot bear such a massive expenditure.

It must be known that the political systems of European countries are quite clear. The Paris City Government’s finances are relatively affluent, but they also have to be responsible for the urban construction and infrastructure maintenance of the entire Paris, as well as the salaries of all officials of the Paris City Government.

As France’s largest and most prosperous city, Paris’s fiscal revenue is also the highest among all French cities. This also makes it difficult for Paris to obtain fiscal appropriations from the government, and various expenditures are generally handled by the municipal government’s retained fiscal revenue.

No matter how rich the Paris City Government is, it cannot bear the cost of building streetlights alone. Previously, due to the Franco-Prussian War, Paris’s urban area suffered varying degrees of destruction.

Just rebuilding the urban area caused the Paris City Government to owe a huge debt, which took several years to pay off.

If relying solely on the Paris City Government to build streetlights, by the time the streetlights are completed, the Parisian Citizens would have changed generations multiple times.

While the Paris Mayor expressed dissatisfaction and resentment toward the government on one side, he ordered officials to tightly lock the doors of the municipal government on the other side to prevent dissatisfied citizens from directly rushing into the municipal government.

The combat power of Parisian Citizens is no joke. If the citizens rush into the municipal government, no one can guarantee what will happen.

The Paris Mayor does not want such a parade to turn into an armed conflict, eventually evolving into a bloody revolution.

Based on past experience, whether the revolution succeeds or not is not important; what is important is that once a revolution breaks out, the first to shed blood would be the officials of the Paris City Government.

The different attitudes shown by various governments toward the Madrid Nightless City actually also reflect their understanding of the electric power industry.

Germany being able to become one of the countries with the fastest development speed in the Second Industrial Revolution is not without reason. The entire country from top to bottom has a very high sensitivity to the electric power industry. They have long seen the changes that the electric power industry brings to industrial technology and attach great importance to such technology.

As for the United Kingdom and France, it cannot be said that they do not attach importance. The problem is that building a Nightless City requires massive capital investment, and the large-scale use of electricity will also affect the existing industrial system.

Carlo did not pay too much attention to what was happening in other countries. After all, after the Nightless City successfully debuted, Spain domestically was also quite busy.

The success of the Nightless City also means that electricity has officially entered the commercial use era, and the public can pay to experience this brand-new energy.

Of course, the electricity cost at this time is still relatively high. Even after the birth of high-power generators, which reduced the power generation cost, Madrid’s power generation cost is still as high as about 6 pesetas per kilowatt-hour.

Power plants need a certain profit to continue operating, and there is also considerable loss during electricity transmission.

This also leads to Madrid’s electricity bill being as high as 5 pesetas per kilowatt-hour, and ordinary people face relatively high costs when using electric lamps for lighting.

Calculated by the power of the electric lamps, a 15-watt light bulb consumes 015 kilowatt-hours per hour, and a 35-watt light bulb consumes 035 kilowatt-hours per hour.

Assuming a household needs to install 4 small light bulbs, with an average lighting time of 1 hour per bulb per night, the electricity cost per household would already be as high as 15 pesetas per day, or 75 pesetas per year.

Spain’s per capita annual income is only 71 pesetas, and the annual electricity bill for each household is almost 40% of the per capita annual income.

To give an easier-to-understand example, assuming someone’s monthly income in posterity is 5000 yuan, the annual income would be 60,000 yuan. According to Spain’s current electricity costs, this person would need to pay nearly 24,000 yuan in electricity bills per year, which is absolutely exaggerated.

Although this electricity bill is the electricity cost for the entire family, for any commoner family, this is a significant expenditure.

Moreover, the time people use electric lamps daily far exceeds 1 hour. As usage time increases, electricity costs will also continue to rise.

Based on Spain’s current per capita income, only less than one-tenth of Spain’s population can afford electricity, and these people are basically nobles, capitalists, and some higher-income middle class.

The good news is that although only one-tenth of Spaniards can afford electricity, a considerable portion of this one-tenth live in Spain’s capital, Madrid.

This is also why Carlo planned to build the Nightless City in Madrid, because these nobles don’t hesitate at all when consuming; they really use it if they have electricity.

After the Nightless City became big news across Europe, Spanish nobles also dreamed of installing a large number of streetlights and electric lamps in their castles and manors.

These light bulbs not only provide lighting but also showcase the strength of the castle and manor owners to the outside world.

Just on the second day of Christmas, dozens of nobles contacted Gramme’s electric company through various means, requesting the electric company to lay circuits for their castles and manors and install corresponding streetlights and electric cannons.

It was only because Carlo established the electric company for commercial use of electricity that these nobles could find out about the existence of the electricity laboratory.

After consulting Carlo and obtaining approval for these nobles’ requests, Gramme nodded and agreed to cooperate with them.

Since the establishment of the electricity laboratory until now, it has not provided any income to Carlo. Although scientific research cannot skimp on investment, for Gramme, he still wanted to prove his value by generating income.

Although only dozens of nobles wanted to lay circuits and build streetlights in their manors and castles, these nobles were basically dukes and above, major nobles.

These major nobles have one thing in common: their castles and manors are numerous, often not just one castle or manor needing circuits laid.

These major nobles’ electricity consumption is also much higher than that of ordinary commoners. Sometimes the streetlights in their castles and manors are left on all night, which is considerable income for the electric company.

What Carlo didn’t expect was that Spanish nobles were not the electric company’s big customers; the German Government was the real big customer.

No matter how rich the nobles are, their purpose is just dozens or hundreds of streetlights plus a small power station specifically to supply power to the streetlights.

But the German Government’s requirements were different. The German Government directly requested ten large power stations plus thousands of streetlights. They clearly also wanted to emulate Spain and build a Nightless City, which also means the German Government has decided to invest a lot of funds.

Of course, the German Government did not plan to invest too much funds in streetlights and electricity. The German diplomatic ambassador proposed a request to the Spanish Government: to exchange industrial technologies that Spain does not have for Spain’s electricity technology.

These industrial technologies include Germany’s latest steelmaking technology, the most advanced cannon technology, and some chemical industry and medical-related technologies.

Carlo was very interested in these technologies and was willing to exchange Spain’s existing electricity technology for them.

The reason for willingness to exchange, besides the industrial technologies provided by Germany being truly attractive, is also that the electricity technology Spain currently possesses will soon be updated and iterated, with no need to hold onto these technologies tightly.

For example, Spain’s current light bulb technology is still the earliest carbon filament light bulb. Gramme’s electricity laboratory has already begun researching light bulbs made of other materials, and it is expected that new products will soon be available.

The new products, compared to carbon filament light bulbs, not only have higher brightness but also longer lifespan. It is precisely because of this that Carlo is willing to hand over the current light bulb technology to Germany; after all, it is a product that will eventually be eliminated.

The same goes for generators. Unlike Gramme’s ring armature generator, the two-phase generator developed by Tesla has greater potential, and the current power generation capacity is only the initial level.

If everything Tesla said in his last report to Carlo is true, then Spain is about to usher in high-power generators with power generation capacity over 50KW, naturally looking down on the current pseudo-large generators with only 5KW power generation capacity.

Technology updates and iterations are this fast. After transitioning from ring armature generator to two-phase generator, a big explosion in power generation capacity in a short time is inevitable.

The improvement in power generation capacity also means one thing: higher power light bulbs and electric motors have a role.

The reason the electric power industry is just a hypothesis is that previous generators had too low power and couldn’t drive larger power electric motors.

This also led to factory owners, if using electricity as energy, having electricity costs alone sufficient to bankrupt the factory.

But with high-power generators, this situation will be greatly improved. Once Spain has generators with power generation capacity over 50KW, Spain’s power generation cost will reach below 1 peseta, and the public’s electricity cost can also be controlled around 5 pesetas.

In such a situation, more households and factories will be able to afford electricity, and the electric power industry and electricity era will truly have hope of arriving.

Plus the industrial technologies and related information exchanged with Germany, Spain will absolutely be able to become a promoter in the Second Industrial Revolution, with industry and economy achieving significant development.

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