Transformer Experiment

Electricity has indeed entered our lives very quickly. Just a few days after the Moulin Rouge opened, the library of the University of Paris was the first to light up.

The fact that the University of Paris turned on its lights not only allowed the library to open at night, but also gave the police along the route of the cable another task: catching thieves digging up the cable.

Due to the lack of transformer technology, electricity suffers significant losses during transmission. To reduce these losses, there are currently only two options: the first is to build power plants nearby.

Paris is situated along the Seine River, Seine River has abundant water and a relatively flat elevation. This is ideal for shipping, but unfavorable for hydroelectric power generation. Therefore, hydroelectric power cannot be built in Paris; the only solution is thermal power. However, this approach also presents a series of problems.

The first problem was the source of the coal. The coal from the Saar Coal Mine needed to be transported to Paris, but there was no suitable waterway (there were no inter-basin canals at that time). If they relied on domestic resources, the only solution would be to first use heavy horse-drawn wagons to transport the coal to the Seine River docks, and then transport it to Paris. However, France already had a shortage of heavy draft horses. Moreover, laying a track from the Saar Coal Mine to the Seine River would take time.

However, considering international trade, it's possible to simply import coal directly from Britain, load it onto ships, and transport it along the Seine River directly to Paris. In terms of freight costs, this is even lower than transporting coal from the Saar Coal Mine. Therefore, many power plants along the France Haiti currently use Britain coal.

Given the unstable relationship with Britain, Napoleon also established coal warehouses in various coastal ports to store coal and increase his ability to hedge against risks.

Of course, one consequence of building coal-fired power plants in Paris —and more than one—to meet the Paris's ever-growing electricity needs is the inevitable severe pollution. If things go wrong, Paris might one day have to compete with London for the title of "Fog City. "Paris

Aside from building nearby thermal power plants, the only option was to work on the power lines. Generally speaking, the thicker the cross-section of the wire, the lower the resistance. Therefore, although the electrical load at this time was not particularly large, the transmission cables were made very thick.

Thick, copper cables, coupled with the relatively high price of copper, naturally attracted the covetous eyes of many. As the saying goes, "Cables contain copper; stealing them is useful," and cable theft has become a new type of crime. Especially for those who will never work, stealing cables has become a common means of making a living. Although electrocution deaths due to cable theft are not uncommon, this crime remains rampant. Back when electric pumping was being installed in rural areas, cables were always guarded by designated personnel. The presence of outsiders would raise suspicion, with everyone watching to see if they were cable thieves.

In Paris, police now have an additional task: preventing thieves from stealing cables. Things are better off around the Moulin Rouge; there aren't many poor people in the Montmartre Heights, and the spacious ground allows for a suitable downwind location for the power plant.

But at the University of Paris, it's different. Their electricity comes from a power plant that supplies power to factories in Paris. These factories are located in poor areas like Saint-Antoine District, where security has always been a concern. When the power is supplied to the factories, it's manageable because most factories are right next to the power station. The cables simply run out of the power plant's perimeter, across a narrow road, and into the factory, leaving very little room for thieves.

But things were different at the University of Paris. The University of Paris was a bit far from the poorer areas, but building a smoky power plant in the university district was unbearable for both Joseph and Napoleon —they were places they frequently visited to show off. Of the brothers, only Lucien and Louis didn't care.

Therefore, the cable is long, and a long section of it passes through the Saint-Antoine District!

The arduous task of protecting this cable was directly assigned to the Ministry of Police. Of course, the Ministry of Police received a special allocation every month for this purpose, although the amount was not particularly large. After receiving this money, Minister Fouché immediately ordered that the money be distributed to the local police stations according to the length of the area through which the cable passed, multiplied by a security difficulty coefficient.

Fouché ordered, "If there are no problems with the cables in your area this month, this money will be your bonus. If there are any cases of cable damage in your area this month, then this money is gone, and will be distributed proportionally to the other police stations on this line that haven't had any problems."

This sum of money wasn't much. However, this "not much" was relative to important figures. Moreover, when allocating this money to Fouché, the government, as was customary, dutifully considered the "losses" incurred during the money's circulation within the Ministry of Ministry of Police. Minister Fouché, however, didn't care much about his subordinates taking "losses," as long as they didn't go too far and take amounts exceeding the usual regulations. But Minister Fouché himself didn't take any "losses," so when this small sum reached the specific police station, it actually amounted to quite a bit.

So the local police officers naturally put in a lot of effort, patrolling the cable from morning till night every day. And some of the smaller gangs in the area were warned, "I'm not just saying you can't do this kind of thing, but if anything happens in this area, and we lose money or get punished, we'll use you as a bargaining chip to make up for the losses!" As a result, those criminal gangs who wanted to stay there for a long time even became, in a sense, protectors of the cable.

Thanks to these measures, the cable leading to the University of Paris has remained unaffected. However, this is a result of concentrated efforts. If electricity is to be widely distributed, the police department clearly will not have the resources to protect all cables throughout the city. In that case, crimes targeting the power system will likely be difficult to curb.

"But in the long run, power transmission technology has become a bottleneck restricting us. If we want to promote electricity throughout the city in the future, the sheer quantity of copper used in the cables alone is disheartening," Joseph stated at the analysis meeting for the "Sleepless City" project.

"Fortunately, the army doesn't need copper much anymore," Napoleon remarked. Otherwise, if the wonders and the army were to compete for resources, it would truly be a difficult situation for him.

"By the way, when you told me about resistance heating last time, didn't you say you were working on a machine that could increase voltage? How's the progress?" Napoleon asked.

"There's been some progress, in fact, quite smoothly. However, there are still some experimental procedures to complete. Currently, the experiments are being conducted in the south, you know, where water resources are abundant, but other conditions are generally average; there aren't many factories, and some power stations aren't actually operating at full capacity. So the experiments are being held there. An experimental transmission line has already been erected, and if there are no major problems, we should have the results in a few days at most..."

"Then it will take another six months to transition to industrial production, right?" Napoleon asked.

"Yes, my brother, don't always think that you'll see the wonders completed as soon as you open your eyes tomorrow morning. Think about it, the Khufu, the Pantheon —which of these wonders didn't take time?" Joseph said.

"Actually, I think the 'Moulin Rouge' is already a wonder," Lucien interjected, "And a wonder that keeps making us money. It increases smiles and gold coins, it's just perfect..."

Meanwhile, in the south, the new experimental power transmission line was under construction. Workers erected extra-tall utility poles at intervals, hanging strings of ceramic bowl-like objects on them. Now, the poles are installed, and workers, under the guidance of engineers, are hanging the new power lines on them.

Compared to the common cables that are as thick as an arm, this wire is much thinner, barely thicker than a thumb. Furthermore, this wire is quite unique; it has a steel wire in the middle surrounded by copper wire. Another strange feature is that it has no insulation; it's a completely bare wire.

Unlike ordinary cables, these wires cannot be directly installed on utility poles. Instead, they are hung below strings of "porcelain bowls". Each utility pole has a string of "porcelain bowls" hanging on both the left and right sides, and then a wire is hung directly exposed to the air below these strings of "porcelain bowls".

The wire extended into a strange machine nearby, from where it split into two thick, insulated cables. Since plastic didn't exist at that time, the insulation of electrical wires was typically composite. The innermost layer, in direct contact with the metal, was a layer of asbestos. This substance would later be banned in most countries due to its potent carcinogenicity, but at that time, nobody cared.

Outside the asbestos was a thick layer of oil paper, and on top of that was a layer of bitumen.

The person in charge of the experiments here is Joseph's student, Andrei Ampère. He is currently making final preparations for the experiment.

He inspected the transformer. The core, coils, and the cooling oil soaking them were all in good condition. He then carefully checked the other equipment, and said to those around him, "Alright, let's begin the experiment now..."