The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 656 Hugo is Coming (5)

As soon as Hugo left the rescue station, he saw Hilfer Street, one of the busiest streets in Vienna at this time.

The endless bustling streets on both sides made it hard for Hugo to imagine that this was once the dirtiest, most chaotic area in Vienna, with the worst security and infrastructure.

French newspapers said that beggars and pickpockets were everywhere, that gangs fought every day, that half of the boys would never reach adulthood, and half of the girls would become prostitutes before they reached adulthood.

Rats will eat dead people into bones within a few hours, and those bones will be eaten by cockroaches within three days, and then the imprint of human existence will be completely erased by rain
At this time, there were people coming and going on Hilfer Street, with ornately decorated carriages and all kinds of grotesque steam locomotives parked on both sides of the road.

Franz didn't intend to study steam locomotives at this time, but Austrian technology naturally went astray.

But since there's no internal combustion engine yet, these so-called cars have a steampunk feel to them.Franz felt that these things polluted the environment, so he came up with a mechanical tobacco tax on the grounds that Vienna banned smoking.

The upper echelons of the Austrian Empire always welcome things that can increase taxes.But even with a mechanical tobacco tax, the enthusiasm of Austrians to develop new means of transportation has not diminished.

In fact, many people have discovered the vacancy of the royal family in this field, so a large amount of private capital and "sighted people" poured in.

But Franz doesn't have too high expectations for them. After all, the necessary front-end technology has not yet been completed. Franz has already given the design concept of the internal combustion engine. As for when the Austrian scientists can come up with it, it depends on God's will. .

In addition, Franz’s requirement for steam locomotives at this time was agricultural use. After all, steam tractors, a machine with high power, low speed, and low flexibility, were much more reliable than lightweight passenger cars during this period.

As long as the fault tolerance rate is large enough, it can be driven even without an internal combustion engine.

And after a period of research and development, it has indeed made gratifying progress, and the steam tractor has also proved to be feasible and efficient.

Of course, this is only suitable for large farms. In fact, this new type of machinery is too big and too expensive for small farms and ordinary farmers.

At this time, the steam tractors were more than ten tons, or even dozens of tons. The first test vehicle produced by the Vienna Royal Society of Science was 13 meters long, with a total weight of 31 tons, but only a pitiful 25 horsepower, and the speed was only 4 tons per day. [-] kilometers per hour (normal walking is about five kilometers per hour).

(A modern unremarkable 50-horsepower domestic tractor usually weighs only a ton.)
However, this does not prevent it from being the most advanced agricultural machinery for humans at this time, and Franz believes that a simplified version will appear soon.

In fact, as Franz expected, a simplified version with 50 horsepower appeared soon, and then a special version with twin steam engines appeared. Although it reached [-] horsepower, it was very troublesome to require four drivers.

Closer to home, Hugo is curious about the strange vehicles on the street. Historically, only the United Kingdom and the United States paid more attention to steam cars at this time, but even on the streets of London, it is difficult to see steam cars.

Hugo is not a fanatical technology enthusiast, so naturally he has never seen a steam car.His inquisitive look, however, makes him look very much like a thief or a "hillbilly".

As a result, he was naturally driven away by the siren and the butler holding the bell, but fortunately, the dazzling array of shops on the side attracted him again.

Huge glass windows display all kinds of quirky wares, from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

In addition, wine, food, and musical instruments from all over the Austrian Empire also gathered here, but it was the precious mechanical devices and rubber products that attracted Hugo's attention the most.

At this time in Paris, a pair of rubber waterproof shoes can cost as much as 100 francs.Due to the extreme scarcity of rubber, only a few dignitaries can afford to wear it.

And it only cost five florins in the store on Hilfer Street, which really made Hugo feel a little dumbfounded.

The exaggerated number of people on the street also surprised him. After all, I heard that the population of Vienna is only about 40, and Hugo feels that the streets are more crowded than Paris, which has a population of one million.

In fact, since Vienna joined the German Customs Union in 1836, its permanent population has doubled. In addition, it is the center of politics, economy, culture, transportation, technology, and international exchanges of the Austrian Empire. statistics.

Hugo also noticed one thing, that is, in addition to those exquisite and luxurious old-fashioned buildings, there are more new tall buildings on this street.

These buildings are so tall that Hugo even doubts that they will be at risk of collapse.

In fact, there are almost no buildings with reinforced concrete structures in Paris at this time, so he has this question.

Historically, it was not until 1880 that Paris began to build large-scale buildings dominated by reinforced concrete. At this time, the old masonry structures were naturally impossible to be full of "high-rise buildings".

The buildings in Vienna in the book are not tall, only four or five floors, but they are still much taller than the old buildings.

What attracted Hugo the most was not the tall buildings, but the huge display windows in those buildings.

The price of large pieces of glass during this period was still very expensive. Although the manufacture of large pieces of glass was no longer a secret held by a small number of people due to the invention of molds after 1830, the output was still very low due to technical limitations.

Historically, Austria was still the largest glass producer in the world until 1848. At its peak, Bohemia alone accounted for one-third of Europe's glass production.

However, due to the devastation of the Great Revolution and the fact that Austrian domestic glass manufacturers were still complacent and still produced by hand in small family-owned workshops, they fell tragically into the torrent of the industrial age.

As the world's largest glass producer, only 32 years later (1880), the combined glass output of the entire Austrian Empire was not as large as that of a factory in Sunderland, England.

Franz didn't want this situation to repeat itself, so he used various names to sell new ideas and technologies to these people several times.

As a result, people thought that they were spying on their money-making secrets, so Franz could only choose to slap them awake.

As a result, this slap directly turned Franz into the largest glass manufacturer in the Austrian Empire, because this group of unsatisfactory things were still fighting among themselves when Franz's slap came.

Franz's slap contains huge capital and technological innovation. If these people join forces to form an alliance and work together to compete with the former.

Of course, if these people can unite to regain their glory, Franz can even choose to give up the market to them for development.

But Franz's slap hadn't been slapped down yet, and the group of people had already fought each other to the point of killing each other.In addition, many businessmen were involved in the affairs of the Winster family at that time, after all, those were not clean in themselves.

After Franz finished his fight, the glass industry of the Austrian Empire was temporarily monopolized by him.

Then there are drastic structural reforms and technological innovations, so the Austrians can use such cheap glass at this time.

As the wealthiest city in Austria, it is not surprising that the most prosperous street in Vienna uses the best glass.

When Hugo was running around, he "met" a "girl" named Tina. The two had a good chat, and the latter took on the role of guide as a matter of course.

In fact, any man will be wary of a "beautiful girl" who suddenly jumps out and takes the initiative to lead the way, but who makes him a romantic Frenchman?
(End of this chapter)