Chapter 260: Tramcar

Carlo was very encouraging of novel ideas like installing light bulbs on cars and carriage compartments. Only through constant exploration and hypothesis can technological progress be promoted. If one remains complacent in a certain industry and field, technology can only stagnate in place.

To support the development of the electricity industry, and also to demonstrate more roles and value of electricity, Carlo invested a large sum of research and development funds into the Royal Academy of Sciences, with the purpose of exploring more uses for electricity and making its applications diverse and colorful.

Imagination is very important for scientific research. It is precisely because of rich imagination that scientists of this era have discovered one novel technology and technique after another, promoting the technological progress of this era and indirectly creating the prosperous technological society of posterity.

Without the groundwork laid by scientists of this era, the science of posterity could not have developed so rapidly. What Carlo could do was to give these scientists more support, allowing them to unleash sufficient imagination and create achievements far surpassing those of the same historical level.

Under Carlo’s substantial funding investment, the Royal Academy of Sciences and electricity laboratory also established many scientific research projects related to electricity, with experts from the electricity industry assisting each research project.

Carlo also paid attention to some research projects established by the Royal Academy of Sciences and electricity laboratory. Overall, these scientists’ ideas were still very expansive.

Although electricity currently only demonstrated the role of lighting, projects had already been initiated in the electricity laboratory and the laboratories of the Royal Academy of Sciences, including but not limited to electric locomotives, small-volume high-power electric motors and generators, and batteries for more effective energy storage.

Electric trains were temporarily impossible to realize, after all, current electricity could not support the transportation of large objects. But generators and electric motors with smaller volumes and greater power could theoretically be realized in a short time.

Including more efficient batteries, with the development of the electricity industry, it was very necessary to research and develop a battery that stored more energy and wasted less.

There was currently no ability for large-scale electricity storage, which also meant that if power plant electricity production was excessive, much electricity would be wasted.

As Spain’s power plants increased, with various types of generators having greater and greater power, the problem of electricity waste would also become increasingly serious.

If there could be an effective way to store electricity, it would guarantee that power plants could still provide electricity to factories and residential areas even when unable to operate.

The impact of power outages in this era might not be significant, but in the era of posterity where electricity had penetrated thousands of households, the impact would still be considerable.

Fortunately, electricity was currently only popularized in the two cities of Madrid and Barcelona, and electricity in these two cities was also enthusiastically sought after, so there was no need to worry about electricity waste for the time being.

Carlo also proposed a conception to Gramme and Tesla, that of storing electric energy as other energy and releasing it when needed.

This was actually a very simple system. Using electricity to store water from low places to high places effectively completed the storage of electricity.

When more electricity was needed, it was only necessary to release the water from high to low, generating power through the flow of water to drive the operation of generators, thereby producing new electricity.

This energy storage method was one of the more common electricity storage methods in posterity, with obvious benefits.

First, such electricity storage caused no pollution, and large reservoirs could also ensure water supply for surrounding areas during drought periods.

The drawback was that large-scale pumping and power generation equipment had to be built, and the site selection for reservoirs was also very important to avoid disasters that might occur during water release.

Fortunately, these problems were solvable for Spain. Carlo also entrusted this task to Tesla, asking him to design a relatively complete hydropower system to help Spain complete the processes of electricity storage and generation.

What Carlo did not expect was that the electricity laboratory soon brought the latest progress on these research projects.

Carlo originally thought that the simpler small-volume high-power generators and electric motors had not been realized; instead, a variant of the electric locomotive, tram technology, had been researched to a general extent.

The so-called tram was actually an electric-powered train running on urban tracks.

It was not really a train, but a passenger carriage similar to a train carriage, plus a traction unit providing power.

Such urban rail transit vehicles had actually been born as early as 1807, and the birthplace was naturally the British Empire.

However, at that time, what was used to pull the train carriages was actually one or more horses. In other words, such urban rail transit vehicles were just carriages in a different form.

Carriages could run freely on roads, while such rail transit vehicles could only move on fixed urban tracks.

Compared to carriages, trolley carriages had some advantages. For example, with fixed tracks, horses could run freely without worrying about colliding with pedestrians.

The disadvantage was that such trolley carriages were relatively slow, after all, the weight of the carriage itself was already very heavy, and it still needed to pull people and cargo.

The tram invented by the electricity research room actually replaced horses with electricity as power, using several large-volume electric motors for power output.

Electric locomotives had many advantages over ordinary locomotives, the most important being low pollution and low noise.

After all, it was urban rail transit, so pollution and noise needed to be avoided as much as possible. This was also why various countries’ rail transit preferred to use horses as power rather than locomotive heads.

As early as last year, Germany’s Siemens Company had corresponding tram track technology. But at that time, the tram power demonstrated by Siemens Company was too poor, with an average speed of only 13 kilometers per hour, and it could only seat a few people, clearly not viable for commercial use.

Among the technologies exchanged between Germany and Spain, Spain obtained this immature rail transit technology. After improvements by Tesla and the electricity laboratory, the current track tram power had seen considerable enhancement, with average speed increased to around 20 to 25 kilometers per hour.

Track trams were still very important for urban development, with a role not inferior to buses and subways in posterity.

Of course, the transport capacity of track trams was definitely not comparable to subways, roughly equivalent to that of one bus.

On March 27, 1880, Carlo saw Spain’s first tram in the electricity laboratory and personally experienced this improved tram.

In addition to a significant increase in speed, the tram’s front end volume was also much smaller. Currently, from the outside, trams still looked very similar to trains.

A speed of 20 to 25 kilometers per hour was already fully sufficient for trams, after all, this was a vehicle running on tracks on urban roads, where speed was not suitable to be too fast.

Tram tracks were on the road; before the tram arrived, people on the road needed to yield the tracks for the tram to pass. After the tram passed, the tram tracks could again be used by people for walking like the road.

The first impression the tram gave Carlo was that it was very fast and could effectively improve the population mobility efficiency of Spanish cities.

After confirming that such trams could already be put into the market, Carlo did not hesitate at all and immediately decided to construct trams in Spanish cities with populations exceeding 100,000, allowing Spanish people to enjoy such convenient transportation.

Of course, if entirely built by the Spanish Government, this would absolutely be a large expenditure.

Trams were not some overly important means of transport, so Carlo naturally allowed domestic and foreign capital to participate, with everyone sharing the meat and soup.

As long as trams were popular, people riding trams would generate income. This income would be returned to the investing capitalists, who could make money; people could enjoy convenient transportation; and the Spanish Government could accelerate population mobility and economic growth in various cities—this was simply a win-win-win deal.

For Spain, which had already attracted European attention with Madrid’s Nightless City, introducing foreign capital investment in trams became simple.

On March 29, 1880, the Spanish Government announced that a tram exhibition would be held in Madrid on April 16, publicizing to domestic and foreign media Spain’s another major breakthrough in the electricity field.

The reason for such fanfare, besides wanting to introduce foreign capital to promote the development of Spain’s trams, was also that Carlo wanted to shear some wool from other countries before their tram technology matured to Spain’s level.

Although Siemens Company’s tram technology was indeed immature currently, historically, commercially viable trams were built around

This also meant that if Spain did not seize the opportunity, other countries’ trams would quickly catch up, with no benefits to be gained.

But through this tram exhibition, more countries could be attracted to pay attention to Spain’s electricity technology. As long as they were interested in tram technology, Spain had various ways to exchange for their other technologies or obtain funds.

Obtaining technology and funds from other countries to develop Spain’s technology was beneficial no matter how it was considered, so Carlo naturally would not let it go.

As expected, because of the precedent of Madrid’s Nightless City, European media paid considerable attention to the exhibition Spain wanted to hold.

From the announcement of the exhibition news to the holding of the exhibition, there was more than half a month, enough time for media from surrounding countries to come to Spain to visit the so-called exhibition.

The only ones who might not make it were the Russian media in Eastern Europe, but Russia’s economy was itself the worst among the five great powers of Europe, so Russian capital’s attention was not very important to Spain.

Previously, Madrid’s Nightless City had not attracted much attention from Russian media, let alone the current tram exhibition.

Spain only needed to attract the attention of capital from the four great powers of Britain, France, Germany, and Austria to introduce sufficient funds to build its own rail transit.

Time flew by, and soon it was April 16, the day of the exhibition.

Those attracted were not only domestic and foreign media, but also many interested public, most of whom were local Madrid residents, with many Spaniards coming from surrounding regions.

Of course, there were also quite a few interested Portuguese. After the two countries’ railways connected, population mobility had become somewhat more frequent.

Although a considerable portion were Portuguese curious about Spain, many were genuinely wanting to immigrate to Spain.

That was, Portugal did not place much emphasis on population scale, and combined with Spain’s own powerful strength, the Portuguese Government did not dare to complain at all.

The exhibition displayed not only the latest trams, but also Spain’s high-power generators, high-power electric motors, and samples of light bulbs of various powers.

To ensure the exhibition proceeded smoothly, a ring-shaped track about one kilometer long was built on site, precisely for testing the speed and stability of trams.

Under the gaze of numerous public and media, the tram stably ran at about 22 kilometers per hour, with no issues occurring midway, which amazed foreign media and excited domestic Spanish people.

In addition to trams attracting much attention, the high-power generators and electric motors, which had not been publicly announced, also drew attention from many media.

They eagerly photographed and recorded these emerging electricity equipment and products, with some newspaper offices already planning the latest newspapers to seize the initiative and get the front-page headline.

Spain possessed the patent technology for carbon filament light bulbs, and even besides carbon filament light bulbs, it had applied for related patents for some metal filament light bulbs with longer lighting time.

Although patent technology of this era did not provide much protection, as long as it could be proven that Spain was the inventor of the relevant light bulb technology, it was sufficient.

Most countries would not abide by such patents, like the United States, because separated from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean, many American companies copied European companies’ patents, unafraid of foreign companies thousands of miles away.

Even if European companies discovered patent infringement, they had no way to deal with it. If filing a transnational patent infringement lawsuit, it not only required a lot of time but might ultimately result in defeat.

Do not underestimate the power of American capital. Especially those with greater right to speak, suing them was very difficult; even if one could win, it would be dragged on for a long time, causing company interests to suffer.

Since Madrid’s Nightless City, Spain once again became a country receiving much attention, with Madrid continuously appearing on the front pages of various countries’ newspapers.

Spain’s own newspaper offices excitedly hailed Spain as the strongest in the electricity field, with some tabloids, for sensationalism, boldly claiming that Spain would lead the electricity era and create a glorious history far surpassing the Spanish Empire period.

Carlo did not stop these newspaper offices’ flattery. Appropriately boosting national pride was very necessary, and Spaniards would be more enthusiastic about serving the country.

Of course, excessive flattery was unnecessary. When Spaniards discovered such flattery was ultimately empty talk, they would not only be disappointed in Spain’s future but also in the government and royal family.

To avoid such a situation, Carlo specifically instructed the propaganda department to closely monitor the news reporting of domestic newspaper offices and avoid excessive boasting.

Flattering one’s own country was fine, but bottomless flattery was unnecessary. Carlo believed Spain could maintain a leading position in the world in electricity, but to say it comprehensively led other countries and created even greater history was somewhat bragging without preparation.