Genuine and Counterfeit

Ampère's experiment was quite successful. It proved that he had achieved significantly less loss using wires with much smaller cross-sections than cables that stretched like an arm. This single advancement saved a considerable amount of precious copper. Furthermore, although the high voltage achieved by the transformer in Ampère's experiment was far inferior to the ultra-high voltage of a certain major Eastern power in later times—not even reaching the point where losses due to inductive reactance needed to be considered—the voltage it achieved was only about 10 kilovolts (equivalent to 10 kilovolts in another timeline). This was barely enough to achieve relatively long-distance power transmission, making it possible to use a large power plant to power a large city. As for building a nationwide power grid, Joseph felt he would never live to see that.

If we could turn back time a few years, Ampère's experiment would probably only be called "final equipment debugging." However, in those years, Joseph had already achieved enough in science, especially after discovering electromagnetic waves and deriving the related formulas. He could already ensure that he would be hated by students from middle school to university in the future—he no longer needed to build his reputation in that regard. Instead, Joseph was now more willing to build his reputation for moral character and, incidentally, cultivate a large group of brilliant disciples and followers.

By then, with disciples and followers all over the world, who would dare say Joseph was wrong? Joseph's vast group of disciples and followers, and even the entire Europe scientific community, would rise up to attack him—doesn't that sound exciting? It's like those "masters" of a certain major Eastern country in later generations. When it comes to academic creation, most of them were actually quite limited, and most of them were just knowledge peddlers spreading European ideas to the East. But because they had so many disciples and followers, they were all praised to the skies. Those who didn't know the situation might really think they were masters of the same level as Russell, Sartre, and Hyde of the same era.

For this reason, unless it was a discovery of extremely historical significance, such as Maxwell's equations—a truly groundbreaking achievement— Joseph preferred to give the credit and recognition to his students. Often, these discoveries should have rightfully belonged to these students in the original historical context, but when they made them, they were all deeply grateful to Joseph. They felt that they had achieved these accomplishments under Joseph's inspiration and guidance.

Many even felt that if they had a different advisor, these discoveries might have belonged to their advisor. Only someone of Joseph's high moral character and indifference to fame and fortune would so nonchalantly say, "I've made enough discoveries that the Academy of Sciences is struggling to name some physical quantities. And I've heard that students in both high school and university hide in the corner of the classroom and curse me when they can't solve math problems. This isn't a good thing. I think you should share this burden more!" See what a wonderful person he is? He's practically a model of scientific ethics!

Therefore, when Ampère informed Joseph of the success of the experiment via telegram, Joseph immediately replied with an Ampère:

"Get the paper out quickly, show it to me, publish it in Nature, and then prepare to enter the Academy of Sciences." Hmm, it's a bit long, but the telegraph system is Military-Industrial Complex, used by our own people, so we don't have to charge by letter.

Upon receiving the telegram, Ampère was moved to tears. His advisor, however, was already calculating. "Hmm, the quota is full again this year. Haha, I can push that fame-seeking Napoleon to next year! Humph, want to get into the Academy of Sciences? Let me see how many students I still have..."

Napoleon, of course, had no idea that his brother was plotting to make him wait in line forever, but he had already devised a way to bypass Joseph's defenses. Napoleon decided to create a Social Academy of Sciences in addition to the Academy of Sciences, and then... "I'll be its president!"

After the successful experiment, Joseph immediately summoned Napoleon and Lucien. He told Napoleon that the "Sleepless City" spectacle could now be fully implemented. Of course, the power plant needed to be expanded first, and the production capacity of electric lights needed to be gradually increased. However, advertising could begin, and private funding should be mobilized for these projects.

Caderousse walked into a newly opened Bonaparte General Electric store, tucked away in an inconspicuous corner on the east side of Montmartre Heights. It was a three-story building; the bottom two floors served as a shop and showroom, while the top floor was reserved for major clients.

Given Caderousse's status and purpose, he could have easily gone straight to the third floor. However, he preferred to slowly make his way up from the first floor, examining the various samples and organizing his thoughts along the way.

The first floor mainly displays electric lights and other small appliances for ordinary people and general use. For example, the cheapest 25- Watt carbon filament glass lamp costs one franc each. According to GE sales staff, it can work continuously for more than 500 hours under normal use. Considering its price, this performance is already very satisfactory.

However, as someone accustomed to business, Caderousse could immediately sense the underlying meaning. First, the phrase "normal use" implied that if it broke down in less than 500 hours, it was most likely because it hadn't been used properly.

As for the phrase "working continuously for more than 500 hours," that's an interesting statement, because no household light bulb really works continuously for more than 500 hours. So if the light is turned off in the middle, it's not "continuous use," and if it doesn't stay lit for 500 hours, then it's not a product quality issue.

By today's standards, a 25-watt incandescent bulb is far from bright enough. But in that era, compared to candles and whale oil lamps, it was incredibly bright. Of course, if you could afford the electricity bill, there was no limit to how bright it could get.

Compared to later energy-saving lamps and LEDs, the luminous efficiency of incandescent bulbs is extremely low. Therefore, for the same wattage, they are much dimmer. However, it's easy to make them brighter by simply increasing their wattage. So, alongside 25-watt bulbs, there are 50-watt and 100-watt bulbs. These are still commonly used, so their prices are reasonable. For example, even a 100-watt bulb only costs 10 francs.

However, among the high-end lighting fixtures on the second floor, Caderousse saw the kind of lamp disguised as stone that illuminated the entire Moulin Rouge when Moulin Rouge. This was a 1000-watt lamp, and the price jumped straight to 1,000 francs. It was said that if you added a spotlight shade like the one in the Moulin Rouge, along with a casing and a small cooling fan, the entire lamp would cost 2,000 francs. And the bulb's lifespan was still "over 500 hours of continuous operation under normal use."

Caderousse did the math: if he were to put two of those outside his nightclub, putting everything else aside, just changing the light bulbs would cost him two thousand francs a month. So, after thinking about it, Caderousse mentally crossed the idea off his mind.

Besides high-wattage light bulbs, there's another type of light bulb that's exceptionally expensive: crystal light bulbs. According to salespeople, these bulbs are different from the glass bulbs on the second floor; they're carved from a single piece of crystal into a multifaceted shape, and the filaments aren't low-end carbon filaments, but high-end platinum filaments. Therefore, both the light output and lifespan are significantly improved. For example, a 25-watt bulb like the one below can only work continuously for a little over 500 hours under normal use, but this one—well, to be conservative—can work continuously for over 1000 hours under normal use.

As for the price, well, that's really like the difference between Lafayette Club and factory wine; this one costs two hundred francs a glass. So Caderousse mentally crossed it out again.

The salesman, clearly noticing Caderousse's dissatisfaction with the price, then said to him again:

"Sir, we actually have another type of lamp that looks very similar to this, but is much cheaper."

"Oh, can I take a look?" Caderousse said.

The salesman then took out a light bulb from the counter that looked very similar to the polyhedral crystal light bulb.

"Sir, look at this. I won't lie to you, the outer casing of this is glass. Hmm, the transparency is a little different from top-quality crystal, but not by much. And it's not a direct light bulb, but an outer casing. You can put it over another light bulb and hang it a bit higher, then who would be able to tell?"

"This cover isn't very big; can it even fit a light bulb?" Caderousse asked.

"Sir, we have a smaller type of light bulb that can fit inside." The salesman then pulled out several very small bulbs from the counter. "These are also 25-watt carbon filament bulbs. Under normal use, they can work continuously for over 500 hours. But you know, it's not easy to make things small, so they're a bit more expensive, 3 francs each. And if you use it inside a glass dome, heat dissipation will be more difficult, and the lifespan will be reduced. But it should still last two or three hundred hours."

Seeing that Caderousse was somewhat interested, the salesman then recommended a "large crystal chandelier" made using this "crystal lamp." Caderousse did the math in his head; the price offered by Bonaparte General Electric seemed significantly higher than the price of one he could assemble himself, but it was still within his acceptable range. However, this thing required wiring and such, which was technical work, and these days, besides Bonaparte General Electric, he couldn't find any other craftsmen capable of doing that. So he really didn't have many other options.

After looking at all the different lights, Caderousse went up to the third floor.