The Train Is Coming

François did not refuse Rothschild's request. However, he still said to Rothschild, "Mr. Rothschild, I personally think this shouldn't be a problem, and we need your experience and talent. However, as I mentioned earlier, we might be able to obtain no more than five percent of the common stock. This amount is not large, but it is inherently liquid. Therefore, I think this portion of the shares does not need to be registered under the company's name."

Rothschild listened and nodded, saying, "That's perfectly understandable. There's really no need for it."

Rothschild understood that, regardless of the circumstances, common stock in a promising company like Bonaparte General Electric, even less than five percent, was still extremely valuable. It represented not only money but also a certain degree of power. If François and his group truly needed cash and had to sell some shares, they would certainly prefer to sell preferred stock rather than common stock. If the ownership of the common stock was also registered under the new company's name, wouldn't selling some of the common stock also mean selling some of the company's shares? Moreover, although Rothschild had come up with such an idea for them, allowing him to participate in the preferred stock was already quite generous.

After exchanging a few more casual words, François got up to take his leave. Back at his residence, he wrote a letter about the matter and had it sent home quickly. He then waited there for news and authorization from home.

The France, on the other hand, weren't in a hurry, because for France, especially for Napoleon, this matter really wasn't a priority.

At this time, Napoleon's primary concern was the progress of the "Sleepless City" project, followed by the experimentation of the world's first steam locomotive.

More than six months ago, Joseph personally reached an agreement with Watt to jointly develop a steam locomotive, and since then, the research project has progressed quite smoothly. This is quite natural. Although Joseph did not contribute much to this research due to other matters, he still played a very crucial role. With extremely high efficiency and amazing intuition, he quickly eliminated more than ten design schemes, leaving only two.

This isn't really anything special. In his previous life, although Joseph was born a little later and never had the chance to see steam locomotives belching smoke on the railway lines (in fact, steam locomotives in the Red Hare Kingdom were retired very late, with some places even using them until around 2016. It's said that Hollywood often comes to the Red Hare Kingdom to find props for movies involving steam trains, because Red Hare Kingdom has almost the most steam locomotives in the world that can be repaired and kept running. But in most places, Joseph really couldn't see any working steam locomotives anymore), Joseph had seen countless steam locomotives in various movies, television shows, and parks in his previous life. So, just by looking at their appearance, Joseph could eliminate many options that didn't meet future needs.

These two solutions are actually very similar in most respects. The only difference is the transmission mechanism.

Option 1, known as the British Model, uses Watt's planetary gear system to transmit power entirely, while Option 2, known as the Continental Model, uses a simpler crankshaft drive in many places—because the patent technology for crankshaft drives had expired.

Therefore, these two solutions are essentially the same, with little difference between them. The reason for having two solutions is entirely due to Watt's insistence. Although the patent for crankshaft drive had expired, Watt still insisted on not using crankshaft technology.

However, in some places, using a simpler crankshaft could significantly reduce costs. Therefore, although Watt abhorred crankshafts, the France insisted on using the cheaper one. The result of this dispute was two different designs for the steam locomotive.

In addition, Watt emphasized that the British Model must be tested first and must become the world's first steam locomotive. Napoleon was actually very reluctant to do so, but Joseph felt it didn't matter, since although the British Model was tested first, the test site was still France.

Compared to the steam locomotives Joseph had seen in later films and television shows, the first steam locomotive now parked on the test track was significantly smaller. This was only after Joseph had rejected a whole host of proposals that simply intended to equip the locomotive with a small steam engine of five to ten horsepower—initially, some people simply wanted to create a steam-powered horse-drawn carriage. Their level of expertise was even inferior to Stephenson's Traveler.

Such a proposal naturally failed to pass Joseph's approval. At a design department meeting, Joseph suddenly appeared, quoted Danton's famous saying, and shouted to the engineers, "Be bold, be bold, always be bold, only then will your designs pass my approval!"

So the engineers, emboldened, prepared a large steam engine for the locomotive, large enough to be used on a ship, and designed a monstrous contraption around this enormous engine. They originally thought Joseph would definitely reject the plan, but to their surprise, after seeing it, Joseph even thought it was a bit too small.

However, Joseph also knew that he couldn't take too big a step, lest he pull something over. So, although this thing was still a bit small in his eyes, far from being as spectacular as the "Forward" type steam locomotives driven by the Japan in various anti-Japanese war dramas, or the slightly smaller "Upstream" type steam locomotives, it was at least not like the "Traveler," which looked like a Dongfanghong tractor.

According to this design, the locomotive featured a massive, at least to the eyes of people at the time, horizontally positioned cylindrical boiler with a tall chimney at the front. Behind the boiler was a spacious driver's cab, and further back was the water car. The entire locomotive had five pairs of wheels of various sizes. Although it seemed a bit small to Joseph, it still bore some resemblance to the "Upstream" locomotive.

So the plan was approved after being slightly modified according to Joseph's wishes.

Watt was quite surprised by the radical nature of the plan, but after careful calculations, Watt found that it actually seemed feasible. He then said to his assistant, William Murdoch, "William, have you noticed? We're still not quite used to using the best steel like pig iron..."

Yes, prior to this, more than one person in Britain had experimented with steam locomotives, and a major reason for their repeated failures was their inability to utilize steel effectively. Even in the original historical record, the reason Stephenson's first practical steam locomotive, the "Traveler," was so small was largely due to limitations in material properties. For one thing, his train only had wooden rails covered with wrought iron, unlike the wealthy France who planned to use steel rails directly. Just one meter of rail required 20 kilograms of steel—that was simply...

After the plan was approved, it took another six months for the newly established "Bonaparte - Watt Company" to complete the construction of the six-kilometer experimental track and two experimental locomotives in Lorraine. Because Watt also wanted to participate in the first experiment in person, Joseph also handed over his work to his students and went to Lorraine with Napoleon.

On the carriage journey to Lorraine, Joseph asked, "Napoleon, what makes you so interested in this?"

"Ah, it's nothing. I just came to your office that day, but you weren't there," Napoleon said. "I was bored while waiting, so I looked for something on your desk, and that's when I saw your 'Armored Train Conceptual Drawing.' Hmm, although your drawing skills are far inferior to Lucien's, I have to admit, it's quite interesting. It's practically a land-based battleship. If it ever gets built, we'll call it Land Battleship."

"Pah!" Joseph said, "What 'Land Battleship' and 'land cruiser'? They sound awful. Besides, I heard you say the other day that Lucien's painting skills are poor."

"Lucien's skill isn't high, but it depends on who you compare him to. At least, Lucien wouldn't get the proportions wrong when painting women, making their eyes a third the size of their faces... Oh, right, and that train cannon you drew, can that thing really be built?" Napoleon's eyes gleamed at this point. "That thing looks even more magnificent Urban Cannon, full of a sinister beauty, truly impressive. Can it even be made? Also, why do you call it Gustav? His Majesty Gustav is very skilled with cannons, but he's always been most adept at using small 3-pound cannons. I think we should change the name to the Augustus Cannon..."

"Napoleon, don't worry, your Land Battleship will be ready soon. As for the 'Gustav' cannon, well, that was just a drawing I did for fun. Of course, it might not be entirely impossible in theory, but actually building it would probably be a dream come true... Besides, even if it were actually built, it doesn't seem to be of much use."

"It's pretty useless," Napoleon nodded. "There's nothing we need to fight with it, but it's still quite a spectacle..."