Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 420 Electricity
As the effects of the rise of the Han Empire in South America spread, the international situation is increasingly developing along a trajectory that is different from the original history.

The situation in South American countries continues to be turbulent. Some white families living in South America and surplus population in Europe have gradually abandoned South America and turned to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other countries as their immigration destinations.

Influenced by this change, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and even colonies in Africa such as South Africa and Rhodesia also received more white immigrants than in the same period in history.

The number of white people in the United States, Canada, Australia and other regions has increased, and Western society has become stronger than in the same period in history in the competition among the world's ethnic groups. Faced with the historical changes caused by the rise of the Han State, Li Mingyuan felt surprised but also felt an urgent sense of urgency.

The closer we get to the 20th century, the more mature and complex the development of science and technology becomes, and the role that Li Mingyuan can play in it becomes smaller and smaller. Therefore, in order to minimize the negative impact of the butterfly effect on the interests of the Han State, the research and development of some core technologies and weapons must be accelerated and carried out as soon as possible.

“Using direct current for transportation consumes a lot of electricity and is costly, so it is not suitable for widespread promotion.

Although American Edison advocated the use of direct current and tried various methods to expand the power supply range of direct current, he only partially improved the power supply situation in small and medium-sized cities. As for the power supply of large cities, the direct current power stations improved by Edison were still powerless.

The future of electric transportation lies in AC power generation.
Although the local area lacks high-quality anthracite, it is not short of ordinary thermal coal resources. The three states in the east of the Yangtze River have rich thermal coal reserves, which can be used as raw materials for thermal power generation. In addition, the central and northern regions of the local area are rich in hydropower resources. We can try to build large hydropower stations in some river basins with fast currents and large water level differences to make rational use of local hydropower resources. "

Electricity is the driving force for future industrial development. Li Mingyuan has always paid great attention to the development of the local electricity sector.

“Thermal power, water power and even wind power can generate valuable electricity. However, in 1882, when the first medium-sized hydropower station was built in Taiwan, due to the imperfect technical reserves, only direct current power generation mode could be adopted. As a result, the Xing’an River Hydropower Station (Primero River Hydropower Station) has always had problems such as low power generation efficiency and huge consumption in the transportation process.

In recent years, a large number of emerging enterprises have emerged in cities such as Chang'an, Songjiang, Huaiyang, and Xinjing, and the demand for electricity has become even stronger. Taking the Xing'an Hydropower Station as an example, the generator sets used in the first-generation power station only have a single unit power generation capacity of 20 to 30 kilowatts. A power station with a total power generation capacity of about 100 kilowatts can only meet the power needs of three or five medium-sized factories, but cannot undertake the task of covering the power supply of the entire city. "

Compared with the chemical industry, the technical level and control difficulty in the electric power industry are higher.

At the same time, Li Mingyuan, who majored in chemical engineering, can provide key guidance in many sub-sectors, but in the field of electricity, he can only provide directional guidance, and the help to power researchers is not as obvious as in the field of chemical engineering.

If AC is used for remote power supply, the voltage must be increased to reduce power loss in the transmission line, and then a transformer must be used to reduce the voltage before it can be delivered to factories and enterprises.

The DC transformers initially used by the Han Dynasty had a simple structure and were easy to maintain, but of course the results were not ideal.
The AC transformer is relatively complex. The Royal Academy of Sciences began to study the AC transformer after the Xing'an Hydropower Station was put into operation in 1882. However, it was not until 1886 that Stanley, an engineer from Westinghouse Company in the United States, developed an AC transformer with excellent performance. The Chinese side learned from Stanley's technical experience and developed a localized AC transformer in 1887.

Han China was one step behind the Americans in the field of AC transformers.
However, thanks to the partial foresight provided by Li Mingyuan, Han achieved further success in the field of generator sets.

Early generators were driven by steam engines. In September 1883, the Royal Academy of Sciences used the newly invented mechanical turbine to replace the steam engine, directly connected it to the generator, and removed the cloud gear and other devices, solving the problems of unstable operation and severe wear of the generator set.

In May 1886, the new turbine had a power generation capacity of 5 kWh and was operating well in an experimental hydroelectric power station built on the banks of the Paraná River.

Over the two years after 1886, many researchers from the Royal Academy of Sciences attempted to experimentally improve the performance of the turbine, and in July 1888 they developed a second-generation turbine with a speed of 7 revolutions per minute and a power generation capacity of 9000 kilowatts.

Although a small turbine with a generating capacity of 150 kilowatts is insignificant compared to the turbines of later generations that can generate millions of kilowatts, in the current era, only Britain, the United States, France and Germany have technological levels that can reach similar standards as the Han Dynasty.

Han State was the first to take the lead in AC hydropower power stations. Although it was a step slower than the Americans due to technical reserve factors, it took Han State five or six years to make progress in the core area of ​​electricity again and stand on the same starting line with the United States and Germany in the field of electricity. This means that the power station construction projects that have been at a standstill will usher in a new period of explosive growth.

While carrying out the construction of the second-generation power station, we are also tackling the technical difficulties of the third- and fourth-generation power stations.

Li Mingyuan sat in the head seat and gave officials from the Ministry of Industry's Electricity Department a clear goal: "Before 1890, complete the research goal of a 1000-kilowatt turbine and increase the turbine's power generation to 10000 kilowatts." According to the research and development progress of Western countries in emerging science and technology fields, the research and development goals that Li Mingyuan set for officials and relevant researchers from the Royal Academy of Sciences were not unrealistic. After all, in the original history, Western countries also completed the technical challenges of power generation within a similar time limit.

"Your Majesty, the power generation project involves many areas. I request that more scientific researchers be allocated to assist the Ministry of Industry's Power Department in its work."

Shen Xian, the Minister of Industry, accepted the task and then put forward conditions.

"You will be given priority to select top physics graduates from local universities. In the Royal Academy of Sciences, researchers related to electricity will also be given priority to cooperate with your work."

Li Mingyuan said generously: "You can use these people first. In two or three months, when the power researchers hired by the government from Western countries arrive in the mainland, the difficulty of your mission will be greatly reduced."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

The Minister of Industry bowed slightly and then asked cautiously, "There are twelve German power researchers in the Royal Academy of Sciences. Are most of the power researchers hired this time also German?"

"Germans made up about half, and the rest were Austro-Hungarians, French, and an American."

Li Mingyuan recalled the list of high-paying hires and laughed, "I remembered one person wrongly. Tesla is not a naturalized American. Strictly speaking, he should be a Serbian Austro-Hungarian."

As a science and engineering man in my previous life, it is impossible that I have not heard of Tesla's name.

Tesla was arguably one of the most accomplished scientists of the period between the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

Throughout his life, he built the largest AC hydroelectric power station in the United States, invented hundreds of far-reaching scientific and technological technologies such as radio remote control technology, X-ray photography technology, radio, radar, fax machine, vacuum tubes, neon tubes, missile navigation, etc., and obtained about 1000 patents for inventions. However, these did not make him wealthy. Instead, he often fell into financial difficulties.

As early as 1880, the Han Dynasty sent people to contact Tesla, but the persuasion action had not made any progress due to the malicious smearing of the Han government by Western public opinion and Tesla's own obsession with the research and development of scientific research and technology.

In 1880, Tesla was still an unknown figure. With the methods used by the Han State, it was not difficult to forcibly abduct him to South America. However, a Tesla who was forcibly abducted and unwilling to cooperate could not bring any help to the Han State's scientific and technological research and development. Therefore, according to the instructions of the local government, the persuasion of Tesla has been carried out in a gentle manner.

In 1888, the long-term deployment against Tesla finally achieved success. Under the covert instigation and influence of the Han Dynasty, the relationship between Tesla and his American counterparts was on the verge of breaking down.

In February 1888, Edison bribed some government officials and put Tesla in jail on suspicion of illegal competition.

In April 1888, Tesla Electric Company was banned. Although Tesla himself was released, he lost all his assets in the United States.

In October 1888, after being completely disappointed with his American counterparts, especially the despicable behavior of his former employer Edison, Tesla, who was penniless and ostracized, reluctantly agreed to the invitation from the Chinese side and agreed to engage in scientific research in South America.

Although the means are a bit shady, as long as they can complete the tasks assigned by the local government, the intelligence personnel stationed in the United States will try more drastic methods, let alone using some small tricks in secret.

(End of this chapter)