Seeing the expectant look on the Regent's face, Lavoisier cleared his throat awkwardly. "Ahem, Your Highness, our current production methods still cannot produce qualified Iron Rail pads, and the shock absorption for wheels is rather limited.
"So at present, our most valuable products are things like raincoats, rain boots, sealing rings, and buttons..."
The assistant beside him, utterly unable to read the room, picked up a dark-brown raincoat and displayed it to the Regent.
It was not entirely his fault for feeling proud. This raincoat could sell for 9 Francs outside!
Europe had long had raincoats made from raw rubber, with a layer of raw rubber spread over cloth. They were waterproof, but they turned sticky in summer and hard as a plank in winter, and would even cling to the wearer's skin.
No one wanted one even for 8 Sous.
Vulcanized raincoats completely solved those problems. They were comfortable and durable, so their price had risen more than tenfold! The assistant simply did not know that raincoats were not what the Regent wanted most.
Joseph froze for a moment before recalling that Lavoisier had previously mentioned that vulcanized rubber parts could only be 1.6 centimeters thick—about the thickness of his little finger. Lavoisier hurriedly explained, "Your Highness, you know that rubber must be treated at high temperatures. If a rubber part is too thick, its interior will not yet have completed the treatment before the surface has already overreacted.
"We are intensifying our efforts to develop a new process."
"No, what you have done is already excellent." Joseph encouraged him. "Even the current process is worth putting into mass production." Raincoats, shoe soles, and buttons might seem insignificant, but once production capacity rose, they would surely sell across all Europe. The profits alone would reach tens of millions of