The Russians were under attack on all four fronts, and it would be a long time before they could break out of their encirclement.
Still, Franz hoped they would hold out a little longer. After all, he did not want the Austrian Empire dragged into another major conflict in Europe.
The Austrian Empire's reverse engineering of Siemens's generator was going very smoothly. In hindsight, Franz's efforts had been somewhat unnecessary.
The blueprints Werner von Siemens had given the Austrian Empire were completely accurate. He had held nothing back, and Franz had been treating a gentleman with the suspicion reserved for a scoundrel.
Yet Franz considered the effort essential. Reverse engineering gave the Austrian Empire's technicians valuable experience, and verifying the plans was important in its own right.
Siemens's generator was undoubtedly an invention ahead of its time. But in Franz's eyes, it was still far from enough: its efficiency remained low, and its power output was inadequate.
It was perfectly fine for sending telegrams or lighting a few bulbs. But if it was to be used on a large scale, or even replace steam power and bring about an electrical revolution, there was still a long way to go.
For now, Franz mainly used these high-powered generators to electrolyze magnesium and aluminum. At the time, aluminum was worth its weight in gold, while magnesium was just as exorbitantly priced.
The biggest consumers of magnesium powder were the photography industry and the military. Burning magnesium powder produced a brilliant light that helped photographers take better pictures.
The military's need for magnesium powder was just as urgent. The Austrian Empire's signal corps had had enough of the dangerous white phosphorus flares.
In the colonies, white phosphorus flares went by another name: the Elephant Killer Gun. The name meant that one shot from