Charlie Chaplin had made a film called Modern Times, in which he played a factory worker on an assembly line, repeating the same work every day.
Though the film's message was that workers' worth was ignored and they were used like tools, there was no denying that assembly-line production was indeed highly efficient.
Yet assembly-line products were repetitive, whereas shipyards were different. At any rate, according to what Matilda had learned, Napoleon had inspected the shipyard's operations, found "many" unreasonable arrangements, and flown into a rage. It was not because there had been "massive" embezzlement, as in a British Navy shipyard.
England kept its factory model secret from outsiders, and that was precisely how it had led the world in the First Industrial Revolution. Take canneries, for example. The people of France had never conceived of assembly lines, so not only was their production inefficient, it also lacked the sense of "rhythm" known as "production cadence," despite their efforts.
Georgiana hoped to send a group of students to Britain to study abroad, but it would be nearly impossible for them to learn anything useful. Only industrial spies could possibly uncover other people's production methods.
Once she understood the general situation, she felt at ease. Other than striving to catch up, there truly was no other way. After venting one's anger, one still had to sit down and keep learning; knowledge would not be crammed into one's head by rage.
So, while everyone aboard the ship was trembling with unease because Bonaparte had lost his temper, she began reading again, as composed as Kong Rong reading a book with the Yellow Turban Army at the city gates.
The old provincial graduate told Nick roughly how he had learned English. Yet things had not gone as smoothly as he had expected. After