The Toothpaste Cannon

The main exhibition halls in the middle were almost fully set up. Although the exhibition had not officially started yet, quite a few people were already visiting. Some were interested in the models of the products displayed in the halls, while others were very interested in the layout of the halls themselves.

In any case, Watt and Young Boulton didn't need to lift a finger to set up the exhibition hall or arrange the exhibits— William Murdoch was already directing the others to begin setting up the hall.

Since there was nothing else to do standing there, Watt said to Young Boulton, "Matthew, shall we go take a look?"

Young Boulton. naturally didn't object, and nodded, saying, "Yes, Mr. Watt."

Then he turned to Pierre and said, "Ah, young man, I forgot to ask your name earlier."

"My name is Pierre Aberrell. You can just call me Pierre," Pierre quickly replied.

Young Boulton nodded and said, "Well, Pierre, Mr. Watt and I would like to look around and see what's going on. Could you be our guide?"

"Mr. Boulton, that's not a problem. Serving you is my job," Pierre quickly replied.

So the two of them, led by Pierre, walked toward the brightest area in the center.

"Mr. Watt, Mr. Boulton, there are three main exhibition halls here: Lorraine Steel, Fortress Cement, and Bonaparte Arsenal. Which hall shall we go to first?"

"Ah, let's go to Lorraine Steel first," said Young Boulton. They had done a lot of business with this company and were more familiar with it. The others didn't object, so the group went to Lorraine Steel's booth first.

Lorraine Steel's booth occupied a considerable area, and the most eye-catching feature on the entire booth was the huge frame model of the Peace Palace.

The entire framework model was over three meters tall at its highest point, constructed entirely of steel bars. Watt carefully examined the model. Since the official opening hadn't started yet, there were no staff members providing explanations. So Pierre stepped in as a guide.

"Mr. Watt, Mr. Boulton, this is a scale model of the Peace Palace. If we remove all the bricks, cement, stones, and other materials from the entire Peace Palace, you will have a frame exactly like the one in front of you. Just as the human body is supported by a skeleton, the Peace Palace also has its skeleton, and the steel buried in the cement is its skeleton..."

"This structure, this construction method, can be applied to other large-scale buildings," Watt said. "Lorraine Steel is really making money."

"Currently, only they possess the technology for low-cost steelmaking. With just that technology, they could make money even while lying in bed," Young Boulton remarked.

Watt nodded and said, "It's a pity they're unwilling to share their technology, but if it were us, we wouldn't be willing either—only a fool would."

As they spoke, the group walked around the huge "Peace Palace" framework model, and then a small bridge model appeared in front of them, also supported by a sturdy steel structure.

"Pierre, where is this bridge located?" Watt asked.

"This is one of the proposed designs for Pont Neuf over the Seine River, but currently, no such bridge exists in the world," Pierre replied.

"If this bridge were to become a reality, it would probably require even more steel, wouldn't it?" Young Boulton interjected.

"That should be true. That's why I heard that Lorraine Steel is preparing to build a larger steel plant," Pierre replied.

"Heh, Matthew, you know what? If we build a bridge like this in London, it'll be hard to realize your father's favorite song."

Besides the model of the building framework, Lorraine Steel's booth also displayed various metal blocks, each accompanied by a simple technical description. These included various types of cast iron and steels with different properties. Watt and his team had seen these things before in their business dealings with Lorraine Steel.

After leaving the Lorraine Steel showroom, Watt and his group went to the Fortress Cement showroom. In the center of the Fortress Cement showroom was a large block of cement. This block of cement had many pits and marks, which were circled in white paint, and there was also a brief explanatory text next to it.

"A twenty-four-pound cannon at a distance of one hundred meters." Young Boulton walked up to the concrete block and examined it closely for a small dent. "It's unbelievable that a twenty-four-pound cannon, hitting at such a distance, would only leave such a small dent. Mr. Watt, do you think this is true?"

"That's definitely true," Watt replied. "Don't even mention 24-pound cannons; even larger ones aren't as powerful as Matthew imagines. The wooden planks of a battleship could even withstand them. As for this concrete, the biggest problem when facing artillery fire isn't its hardness, but whether it will crack. I reckon there's a steel frame inside this concrete. With that, cannons really don't have much of a way to deal with it. Hmm, their company is called Fortress, and this stuff is indeed very suitable for building fortresses."

Next to the large, bumpy cement block were smaller cement blocks of various colors, each accompanied by explanatory text, though the text was so small that Watt had to take out his monocle again.

"Fortress Cement has quite a comprehensive product line." After reading the description, Watt straightened up, put his monocle back in his jacket pocket, and turned to Young Boulton, saying, "I think this is really worth talking to them about. Even if we can't get the technology license, getting a distribution rights would be great."

However, the exhibition hasn't started yet, and the staff in Fortress Cement's booth are just temporary maintenance workers. They can't be of much help to Watt's request to meet with the company's senior management—in fact, these temporary workers don't even know who the company's upper management is.

"Matthew, some people make money on their knees, some are better, their products are better than others, so they can make money standing up, and then there are some people, like Lorraine Steel and Fortress Cement, who monopolize certain industries, they practically make money lying down." Watt couldn't help but sigh.

"I wonder how that 'Bonaparte Arsenal' over there makes money," Young Boulton. said.

The Bonaparte Arsenal is quite different from the two haphazard businesses mentioned earlier that simply make money by doing business. Although, theoretically, the quality of Bonaparte Arsenal's products has been proven through Napoleon's wars and the actions of "brave people in pursuit of freedom" around the world, their customer service is actually the best. Even though it's not officially open yet, the staff are still very enthusiastic and willing to explain in detail to any visitor these essential items for "home, travel, murder, and arson."

Moreover, among their exhibits were some very interesting items that had never been seen anywhere else before, such as steel rifled cannons.

In the very center of their exhibition hall stood a steel cannon. Watt noticed that the way the cannon's name was labeled was quite different from that of the cannons he had seen before.

Cannons of this era were generally labeled by the weight of their shells (pounds), but this cannon was labeled by its caliber. The plaque next to the cannon read, "1800 Model 75mm Cannon".

This is still a muzzle-loading, breech-loading cannon. This isn't because breech-loading cannons are technically too difficult; in fact, with the advent of steelmaking, the difficulty of breech-loading is no longer insurmountable. The main reason this cannon still uses this design is that Bonaparte Arsenal, as a technologically leading company, like many other technologically leading companies, suffers from what's called "squeezing toothpaste syndrome." That is, even though they already have more advanced technologies, they insist on locking those technologies away in a safe, using less advanced technologies to make more money first.

The 1800 Model 75mm Cannon is a typical example of a "toothpaste-squeezing" product; it's a classic example of a cannon that requires incremental upgrades.

Compared to bronze cannons, this cannon appears quite small, even smaller than the six-pound bronze cannons commonly used by the army. According to the accompanying description, although its barrel length is significantly longer than that of a typical six-pound cannon, its weight is also less than that of a six-pound bronze cannon. However, the weight of the gun carriage is considerable, almost matching that of a 12-pound cannon carriage.

"How many pounds of shells does this cannon fire?" Young Boulton asked the staff member standing to the side.

"This cannon is a rifled cannon," the clerk replied. "Rifled cannon shells are not spherical, but nearly cylindrical. This cannon can fire many different types of shells for various purposes, and because of these different uses, their lengths and weights vary. Therefore, it's not appropriate to describe this cannon by the weight of its shells; we can only describe it by its muzzle diameter."

"I see this cannon doesn't have a large caliber, but the price tag is quite high, almost equivalent to two six-pound bronze cannons. Isn't that too expensive?"

The price of the six-pound bronze cannon that Young Boulton mentioned refers to the price after a copper shortage occurred throughout Europe due to the high demand for electricity. Therefore, this toothpaste cannon was indeed very expensive.

"Sir, we can offer such a price because this cannon is far superior to two six-pound bronze cannons. First, thanks to its rifled construction, our cannon's accuracy far surpasses that of ordinary bronze cannons. For example, a top-quality 12-pound bronze cannon, under the control of the best gunner, can accurately hit a mill about a kilometer away, but with our cannon, with just a little training, gunners can accurately hit the mill's window."

"So, can this cannon be sold to Britain?" Watt asked.

"Why not? We're not at war with Britain, so why can't we?" the staff member replied, though in his heart he didn't think selling weapons to Britain was a good thing. But the decision had already been made above.

"It's just a tooth... a backward weapon that uses some new technology, what's the big deal?" That's what someone said when trying to persuade Napoleon to accept selling steel cannons to foreigners first.