War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

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

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

French newspapers said that it was full of beggars and pickpockets, that gang members fought with each other every day, that half of the boys would not survive to adulthood, and half of the girls would become prostitutes before they reached adulthood.

Rats will eat the dead person into white bones within a few hours, and those bones will be eaten by cockroaches within three days, and then the rain will completely erase the traces of human life.

At this time, people were coming and going on Hilfer Street. Ornately decorated horse-drawn carriages and various strange-shaped steam locomotives were parked on both sides of the road.

Franz had no intention of studying steam locomotives at this time, but Austrian technology naturally went astray.

However, since there is no internal combustion engine yet, these so-called cars have a rather steampunk feel. Franz felt that these things polluted the environment, so he instituted a mechanical tobacco tax on the grounds that smoking was prohibited in Vienna.

The top leaders of the Austrian Empire are always more welcoming to things that can increase tax revenue. But even with the addition of a mechanical tobacco tax, Austrians' enthusiasm for developing new transportation tools has not diminished.

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

But Franz does not have 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 tinker with it, it depends on God's will. .

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

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

And after a period of research and development, gratifying progress has indeed been made, and steam tractors have also proven to be feasible and efficient.

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

At this time, steam tractors often weighed more than ten tons, or even dozens of tons. The first test vehicle built by the Royal Society of Sciences in Vienna was 13 meters long and weighed 31 tons. However, it only had a pitiful 25 horsepower and a speed of only 100,000 tons. 4 kilometers per hour (normal walking is about five kilometers per hour).

(A modern, unspectacular 50-horsepower domestic tractor usually weighs just one ton.)

However, this does not prevent it from being the most advanced agricultural machinery in mankind at this time, and Franz believes that a simplified version will appear soon.

In fact, as Franz expected, a simplified version with 50 horsepower soon appeared, and then a special version with twin steam engines appeared. Although it reached 80 horsepower, it was very troublesome to require four drivers.

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

Hugo was not an avid technology enthusiast, so naturally he had never seen steam cars. However, his curious look made him look very much like a thief or a "hillbilly".

Naturally, he was driven away by the whistle and the steward holding a bell, but fortunately, the dazzling shops nearby attracted him.

A variety of strange and eccentric products are displayed in the huge glass windows, including all kinds of products from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

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

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

The store on Hilfer Street only cost five florins, which really made Hugo feel a little stunned.

The exaggerated number of people on the street also made him feel strange. After all, he heard that Vienna's population was only about 400,000, and Hugo felt that the street was more crowded than Paris, which has a population of one million.

In fact, since Vienna joined the German Zollverein in 1836, its permanent population has doubled. In addition, as it is the political, economic, cultural, transportation, scientific and technological, and international exchange center of the Austrian Empire, the floating population has become even more difficult. statistics.

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

The buildings were so tall that Hugo even wondered if they were at risk of collapse.

In fact, there were almost no reinforced concrete buildings in Paris at this time, so he had this question.

Historically, Paris only began to build large-scale buildings based on reinforced concrete after 1880. At this time, it was naturally impossible for "high-rise buildings" to be everywhere with old masonry structures.

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

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

Large pieces of glass during this period were still very expensive. Although after 1830, thanks to the invention of molds, making large pieces of glass was no longer a secret mastered by a few people, the output was still very low due to technical constraints.

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

However, due to the destruction of the Great Revolution and the fact that Austrian glass manufacturers were stuck in their ways and still relied on manual production in small family workshops, they eventually 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 less than that of a single factory in Sunderland, England.

Franz did not want this situation to happen again, so he promoted new ideas and new technologies to these people under various names several times.

As a result, they were thought to be spying on their secrets of making money, and Franz had no choice but to slap them awake.

The result was that this slap directly made Franz the largest glass manufacturer in the Austrian Empire, because this group of unlucky people were still fighting among themselves when Franz slapped him.

Franz's slap carries huge capital and technological innovation. If these people join forces to form an alliance and work together, they can still 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 before Franz slapped him, the group of people were already fighting each other to the killing line. In addition, the affairs of the Winster family at that time involved many businessmen, after all, those themselves were not clean.

After Franz finished his attack, he briefly monopolized the glass industry in the Austrian Empire.

Then came drastic structural reforms and technological innovation, so that Austrians could use such cheap glass at this time.

As the richest city in Austria and the busiest street in Vienna, it is not surprising that the best glass is used.

While Hugo was wandering around, he "accidentally met" a "girl" named Tina. The two had a good conversation, and the latter naturally took on the role of guide.

In fact, any man will be wary when faced with a "beautiful girl" who suddenly jumps out and takes the initiative to lead the way, but who makes him a romantic Frenchman?