Chapter 381

As time reached the latter half of 1896, an experiment at the Royal Academy of Sciences drew Gao Da's keen attention.

Speaking of the person in charge of this experiment, it is a figure who must be mentioned: Nikola Tesla.

When Gao Da had just established the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, he had already thought about recruiting this world-famous inventor from history.

Nikola Tesla's name is known to everyone in later generations, and his "War of Currents" with Edison is even more talked about by people in later times.

During the period when Tesla was about to be expelled from university because he could not afford tuition, personnel from the Royal Security Intelligence Agency found him. After revealing their identity as being from Spain, they immediately expressed their willingness to fund his university tuition, with the condition that Tesla must join Spanish nationality and immigrate to Spain after completing his studies.

At that time, due to being destitute and wanting to continue his studies, Tesla agreed to the request of the Spanish Royal Security Intelligence Agency personnel.

It was precisely because of this that Tesla came to Spain so smoothly and successfully entered the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Because he was conducting research at the Royal Academy of Sciences while studying deeply at various universities in Spain, Tesla quickly absorbed a vast amount of knowledge and became an excellent scientific researcher.

At Gramme's power laboratory, Tesla's performance was quite outstanding; he even helped Gramme develop generators with higher power and accumulators capable of storing more electricity.

It was precisely the invention of high-power generators that made the use of electricity a reality. Currently, more than half of Spain's factories have introduced electricity, and in this regard, Tesla can be said to have made great contributions.

For a scientist who can be called an all-rounder, Tesla would certainly not be limited to research in the field of electricity.

He declined Gramme's appointment as chief engineer of the power laboratory and, on the basis of concurrently holding the position of special engineer, began his own independent research and development.

Among Tesla's research, besides electrical research, what Gao Da is most concerned about is his research in the field of radio.

The era of radio commercial prosperity was in the 1920s, but the invention of radio dates back to the 19th century.

The early 19th century was the foundation period for radio theory, while the mid-to-late 19th century was the stage for technological breakthroughs in radio.

As early as a few years ago, Tesla had already grasped the principles of radio communication and had attempted to transmit signals using high-frequency oscillators.

Last year, Marconi had achieved Morse code transmission over a distance of several hundred meters in Italy. Tesla naturally did not want his research progress in radio communication to lag behind Marconi; he planned to test radio communication over several kilometers this year and apply for a Spanish patent based on this.

What Gao Da is concerned about is Tesla's radio communication experiment. The role of radio goes without saying; it possesses immense strategic value in both civilian and military fields.

Once radio communication equipment gradually matures, Spain could even achieve nationwide radio broadcasting.

Radio broadcasting will become a public opinion propaganda tool comparable to newspapers. Government policies can be easily conveyed to all Spanish citizens through radio broadcasts, letting them understand the intention behind the government's promulgation of a certain policy, rather than having the government's intention misinterpreted due to secondary dissemination.

Gao Da can also announce some news through nationwide radio broadcasts on some special days.

If radio equipment tends to mature, Gao Da plans to give a Christmas speech every year, using broadcasting to narrow the distance between the King and the Spanish people.

As the ruler of Spain, Gao Da needs to maintain a distance from the people most of the time. If a king loses his mysterious aura, the people will discover that the king is actually just an ordinary person.

After losing the filter of mystery, the king's faults will also be infinitely magnified in the eyes of the people. To maintain one's authority, the best way is to remain mysterious and not let the people know oneself too well.

Similarly, the king cannot be too far from the people. Maintaining a sense of mystery is a good thing, but if one is too far from the people, or even completely deviates from them, then a good thing becomes a bad thing.

A Christmas broadcast speech is clearly a very good method, capable of appropriately narrowing the distance between the King and the people. Because it only happens once a year, it won't be overly close, which can also maintain a certain sense of mystery.

Speaking of which, Gao Da has been the King of Spain for nearly 30 years. Because he is no longer young, Gao Da still wants to be closer to the Spanish civilian class.

A benevolent monarch is not a minus point most of the time, let alone at Gao Da's age. The current Spanish Royal Family is already wealthy enough to rival a nation, and Gao Da hopes to use a portion of these assets to help impoverished Spaniards, while also accumulating more prestige for the Royal Family.

As long as the Spanish people are full of love for the Royal Family, even if some accidents happen in the future, the Spanish Royal Family does not need to worry about their throne being abolished.

At most, they would become mascots like the British Royal Family, who have no power but can live a wealthy life.

Even if the king has a relatively long reign, even as a mascot, he can become a cohesive force for national unity.

Among the political systems of European countries, the stability of a monarchy is higher than that of a republic.

The reason is also very simple: a monarchical country possesses a unified ruler, and all ethnic groups should be loyal to this ruler; this is also the sovereignty and legitimacy of national unity.

But if it becomes a republican country, each ethnic group will fight on its own. A president cannot force these ethnic groups to be loyal to him; this is completely impossible to achieve.

A president is elected by the people and will naturally be overthrown by public opinion.

This leads to various ethnic groups under the republican system pursuing greater autonomy, or even pursuing independence. Without the king as a common ruler to maintain unity, the division of a republic is more serious than that of a monarchy.

Why is it that the Spain of later generations, under the circumstances of Catalonia and the Basque region clamoring for independence, can still maintain a unified country?

The reason is that Spain is a monarchical country. Whether it is Catalonia or the Basque region, the King of Spain is their ruler.

Even if they pursue autonomy, they cannot change the fact that the King of Spain is their ruler.

If the Spain of later generations were a republic, whether the country could continue to maintain unity would be hard to say. Because the President of Spain clearly cannot control the Catalans and the Basques, the position of president has no legitimacy, and the Catalans and Basques clearly will not submit to the president's rule.

A similar example is the Britain of later generations. The reason why Britain maintains a monarchy is, first of all, that the British Royal Family indeed has no power, and the British Prime Minister does not need to worry about the king taking away his power.

Secondly, the British King is still very important for maintaining the unity of various regions in Britain. The British King is not only the King of England, but also the King of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

It is precisely because the King possesses so much legitimacy that Britain can continue to exist as a unified country.

If Britain were not a monarchy but a republic, I am afraid that Britain's mainland would only be left with England, and other regions would all pursue independent status.

As a famous figure in the Royal Academy of Sciences, Tesla's radio communication experiment still attracted the attention of many newspaper media.

Although Marconi of Italy had already conducted radio communication experiments a year ago, Tesla had already disclosed the principles of radio communication to the public before this, and Marconi could not claim to be the inventor of radio communication based on this.

Although Tesla's radio communication experiment was relatively late, his radio communication experiment distance was further than Marconi's. Marconi's experiment only had a distance of a few hundred meters, while Tesla's experiment increased this distance tenfold; can this also prove that Tesla's research in radio communication is more outstanding than Marconi's?

Harboring such questions, newspaper reporters from Spain and all over Europe rushed to the scene of Tesla's radio communication experiment.

This experiment, which attracted the attention of many newspapers, will be conducted in Ma Deli. To support Tesla's experiment, Gao Da specially approved the experiment to be conducted on the square in front of the Wang Gong of Ma Deli.

Radio communication equipment will be installed here, and another piece of equipment will be installed in the Ma Deli University City a few kilometers away.

At this time, the radio transmitting and receiving equipment were both very crude, because people did not know what real radio equipment actually looked like.

Based on the principles of radio reception and transmission, Tesla made a relatively simple model. The antenna of the radio equipment was a huge kerosene drum. Tesla turned this kerosene drum into a large iron plate to serve as the simplest antenna.

Hanging this large iron plate antenna high on a big tree can increase the sensitivity of receiving signals. Radio signals in the air can be received through metal filings; Tesla made a metal powder coherer for this purpose, allowing it to receive radio signals in the air more sensitively.

In order to increase the power emitted by the radio transmitter, Tesla added a small amount of silver powder and nickel powder mixed into a glass tube, and then evacuated the entire glass tube; after the experiment, it was found that doing so could indeed increase the power.

Because the distance between the radio transmitting site and the receiving site exceeded 3 kilometers, such a test had a high probability of failure.

Tesla, with a nervous mood, carefully checked his experimental equipment. After confirming that there were no problems with the experimental equipment, Tesla started his experiment.

The Ma Deli University City side will serve as the radio transmitting site, and the Wang Gong Square side will be the radio receiving site.

Because it had been agreed to conduct the radio transmission at 3 PM, upon seeing that the time on his wristwatch had reached 3 PM, Tesla waited nervously for the arrival of the radio signal.

After about a few dozen seconds, the current of the radio signal receiver suddenly made a crisp sound, which also meant that the radio signal was officially received by the receiver.

After the experiment was successful, Tesla's nervous mood vanished. This experiment not only meant that Tesla's radio theory had no errors, but also meant that the development of radio was about to usher in a climax.

As everyone knows, the first step in any field is the most difficult. Just like Gramme's power field, the first step of exploring the generation and use of electricity took the efforts of several generations of European scientists for decades or even hundreds of years.

But after having a clear understanding of the generation and use of electricity, the development of electricity had quite huge breakthroughs within a few years.

It has only been 20 years since the establishment of the power laboratory, and the power field 20 years ago and 20 years later has already undergone huge changes.

In European countries 20 years ago, most countries did not know what electricity was. But now, streetlights are no longer strange to European countries, and electricity has entered the factories of European countries, becoming one of the indispensable energy sources for some Europeans' lives.

It can be predicted that the future radio communication field is destined to usher in a period of rapid development. Who is the inventor of radio between Tesla and Marconi is no longer important; what is important is who can gain the lead in the huge changes in the radio communication field in the future, and who can obtain huge benefits because of this.

This is a more convenient communication method than wired telegraphs and wired telephones. When it is possible to achieve wireless communication within tens or even hundreds of kilometers in the future, the role of radio communication will be higher than that of wired telegraphs and wired telephones.

The two radio communication experiments by Marconi and Tesla also aroused the attention of European countries to radio communication.

This technology has already shown a quite important role, and European countries can naturally clearly recognize the huge influence of radio communication in the military field.

With radio communication, the army does not need long telephone lines to maintain contact with the rear. Although wired telephones and telegraphs can also maintain contact with the rear, the laying of telephone lines takes a long time and is also easily intercepted or destroyed by the enemy.

Radio communication is different. Because there are no lines, the process of laying and maintaining lines is saved.

With only one radio transmitting device and one receiving device at two locations, relatively fast contact can be achieved.

This is something that previous wired communication could not do at all. Even if it takes several years or even more than a decade to realize this technology, the strategic value embodied by radio communication is something that European countries cannot ignore.

Gao Da in the Wang Gong naturally received the news of the successful experiment at the first opportunity.

Although this only represents the start of radio communication, Gao Da was still quite excited. The happy Gao Da waved his hand and asked Butler Luo Lun to prepare a large reward for Tesla and other radio communication experimenters.

As the main researcher, Tesla's reward was the most generous. In addition to a check reward with a face value of up to 50,000 Pesetas, there was also a car newly produced by the Royal Mercedes-Benz Automobile Company, a set of luxury real estate in Ma Deli, and hundreds of acres of land.

Because of the annexation of Morocco, the current Spain is not short of land at all. Gao Da also released the news in Spain that he would localize Morocco, with the purpose of attracting some Spanish nobles to go to Morocco to develop land.

Anyway, there is only the Strait of Gibraltar between the Spanish mainland and Morocco, and the two pieces of land are only 14 kilometers apart at their closest point.

This also means that without the blockade of the Strait of Gibraltar, the communication between the Spanish mainland and the land of Morocco will become extremely easy.

If Morocco can really become the Spanish mainland, the land of Morocco and the land on the Iberian Peninsula now are not much different.

Even some of Morocco's land fertility is higher than that of Spain. Under the premise of being able to exchange Spanish land for several times the amount of Moroccan land, there are still quite a few Spanish nobles willing to make the exchange.

After all, these old-fashioned nobles who control the land get their income by collecting land rent and trading agricultural products.

The more land, the more rent collected naturally. Morocco itself has a large population, plus Spain will migrate many immigrants in the next few years, as long as you own land in Morocco, you basically don't have to worry about renting it out.

Even if you don't rent it out, you can reclaim and plant agricultural products yourself.

Anyway, Spanish colonies have a large amount of free labor, and growing agricultural products yourself and then selling them to Gao Da's grain import and export company can also earn a lot of money.

If it is those nobles with relatively abundant assets, they can also choose to set up their own agricultural trade companies to transport grain back to the Spanish mainland or European countries for sale.

Gao Da allows these nobles to set up their own grain trade companies. Of course, bulk grain trade must be registered, which is also to facilitate the statistics of Spain's grain production and grain import and export situation.

Perhaps the news released by Gao Da worked; originally, Spanish nobles were not keen on exchanging land in Africa, and they were only interested in the most fertile African land.

But after the Spanish side released the news that they would operate Morocco as the mainland, the intensity of Spanish nobles exchanging land increased.

The first good news from this is that the land obtained by the Spanish government is getting more and more. These lands located on the Iberian Peninsula are the foundation of the country for Spain.

For these lands, there is naturally nothing to say. These are the lands where nobles annexed civilians in the long history, and naturally, they should be returned to the Spanish people.

Of course, land certainly cannot be distributed to these people for free. These lands cannot be allocated to every Spaniard; if distributed to a part of the people for free, for the rest of the people, such a policy is unfair.

The government still adopted the old method, dividing the land into two parts. Most of them are sold to all Spaniards at a price slightly lower than the market price.

As long as you have Spanish nationality, you can buy these lands at the lowest price lower than the market price. However, there is an upper limit to the land that each person can buy; each person can buy at most one acre of low-priced land, and each household can buy at most three acres of low-priced land.

This is to prevent those rich people from buying a large amount of government low-priced land and then reselling it to civilians at a high price.

Gao Da hopes that these low-priced lands can be sold to ordinary Spanish people, rather than making wedding clothes for those capitalists and land nobles.

In addition to most of the land to be sold, the remaining small part of the land will be held by the government and rented to those civilians who cannot afford to buy land at a lower rent.

Not all people can afford to buy land; for those relatively poor people, renting a part of the land is the best choice.

Compared with nobles and capitalists renting land, Gao Da trusts the land rented by the Royal Family and the government more. After all, the Royal Family and the government have integrity; land rent will not only be strictly executed according to the land rent bill promulgated by Spain, but even the rent will only be lower.

But if those nobles and capitalists are allowed to rent land, they will definitely set the land rent to the limit required by the rent bill, and it is impossible to let go of any bit of income.

Doing so, of course, has no problems at all; after all, they did not violate the national decree, and it can even be said that they strictly followed the requirements of the land rental bill.

Gao Da, of course, will not criticize capitalists and nobles because of this. What Gao Da can do is to reduce the rent of land in the hands of the government and the Royal Family as much as possible, so that the people who rent the government and Royal Family land can get more income of their own.

(End of this chapter)