Chapter 390: National Power Laboratory

Diesel quickly adapted to his new life in Spain. The day after meeting Carlo, Diesel headed to the designated engine laboratory area on the outskirts of Madrid to design his own engine laboratory according to the size of the entire area.

Compared to before, the space Carlo arranged for him was significantly larger. This alone made Diesel quite satisfied, not to mention the check for 1 million pesetas that Carlo had handed him.

When Carlo handed this check to Diesel, he specifically instructed him that as long as it concerned the construction of the laboratory and experimental expenses, no matter how much it cost, Carlo would be responsible for the final expenditure.

This alone demonstrated Carlo's trust in Diesel, which completely dispelled the slight dissatisfaction Diesel had felt toward Carlo.

Currently, the only thing on Diesel's mind was to get the laboratory set up as quickly as possible and then continue to devote himself to his diesel engine research.

The intelligence agents of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency acted quite quickly. Within a few days, most of the equipment and data from Diesel's original engine laboratory were transported to Spain and installed in Diesel's engine laboratory.

Diesel also took the time to visit various universities in Madrid's University City to select some mechanical engineering graduate students who appeared to have decent theoretical knowledge to work in his engine laboratory.

Just like that, in just over a week, Diesel's engine laboratory was rebuilt.

After this, Diesel threw himself into quite intense work. Carlo visited once after the laboratory was completed, and upon seeing that Diesel had already begun research on diesel engines, he never paid attention to news about the engine laboratory again.

Carlo was quite confident in Diesel's research capabilities.

According to what Diesel said, the relatively refined diesel engine he was developing had the potential to be built within three months and undergo further testing.

Carlo was quite looking forward to this. Diesel engines were not only related to Spain's research on tanks but also to the power sources for submarines.

Currently, Spain was still using gasoline engines similar to those in automobiles for its submarines, and the power was clearly insufficient.

Once Diesel developed a powerful diesel engine, Spain's submarines could also be refitted with more powerful diesel engines.

In this way, at least in terms of surface speed, Spain's submarines could be upgraded to a higher level.

Just like that, nearly three months passed. Just when Carlo had almost forgotten about Diesel's engine laboratory, Diesel personally went to the Madrid Royal Palace to report to Carlo that the first relatively refined diesel engine had been built and was ready for testing at any time.

Carlo did not expect that Diesel could really build a relatively refined diesel engine within three months; naturally, Carlo was also very interested in this engine, which was claimed to be relatively refined.

When the group arrived at Diesel's engine laboratory, the laboratory staff were already preparing for the relevant experiments.

In order to more clearly demonstrate the differences between gasoline engines and diesel engines, this test would involve two gasoline engines and one steam engine in addition to the diesel engine that had been built.

Because a high-temperature problem had occurred during previous experiments, Diesel decided to add a water-cooling method to the diesel engine to lower the temperature.

Facts proved that this cooling method was indeed very effective. The moment Diesel personally ignited the engine, the entire machine immediately erupted with a deafening roar.

As the diesel engine ran, the experimental staff continuously recorded the relevant data. After about half an hour, Diesel personally handed a report of the experimental data to Carlo and introduced it to him with slight excitement:

"Your Majesty, we have successfully developed a stable and reliable diesel engine. The power of this engine has reached 14 watts, far exceeding current steam engines and gasoline engines."

"With the premise of high power, this engine only needs to use low-quality fuel, and the fuel consumption rate is much lower than that of gasoline engines."

"I can guarantee that this will be an invention that changes the world; the diesel engine will demonstrate a more powerful role than the gasoline engine." Diesel was full of excitement as he introduced the data related to the experiment to Carlo one by one.

Carlo nodded and said to Diesel with a smile: "Well done, Mr. Diesel. If you encounter any difficulties in your subsequent research, you can go to the Royal Palace to report. I look forward to you being able to explore deeper into the field of diesel engines and develop one powerful engine after another for Spain."

"Since the diesel engine has already been developed, I naturally will not go back on my word. This is a plan regarding the merger of the Royal Benz Automotive Company's engine laboratory with your engine laboratory; you can take a look at it now."

Carlo smiled and signaled for Butler Luo Lun to hand over a proposal for the merger of the two engine laboratories.

Diesel took the proposal and looked at it with some curiosity.

After Diesel's engine laboratory and the Royal Benz Automotive Company's engine laboratory merged, it would have a more formal name: the Spanish National Power Laboratory.

The National Power Laboratory would mainly research power systems based on internal combustion engines, providing power sources for automobiles, tanks, aircraft, submarines, tractors, and a series of other mechanical products.

This included both civilian products based on agricultural machinery and vehicles, as well as military machinery such as tanks, aircraft, submarines, and warships.

From this, one could see the scale of the National Power Laboratory; as a national-level laboratory, the authority and status of this institution were naturally exceptionally high.

While Diesel was looking at the proposal, Carlo smiled and said: "After the two engine laboratories merge, Mr. Diesel, you will serve as the chief engineer of the Spanish National Power Laboratory, with an annual salary twice that of before: 70, 00 pesetas."

"The National Power Laboratory will be divided into three major categories: steam engines, gasoline engines, and diesel engines. Based on the differences between these three types of machinery, the National Power Laboratory will also build different types of factories to cooperate with the military and other private enterprises."

"Of the income generated by these factories and the National Power Laboratory, at least 20 million pesetas will continue to be invested in the various research projects of the Power Laboratory."

"Before the income exceeds 20 million pesetas, the Royal Family will make up the difference in this research and development funding."

"Mr. Diesel, I have high hopes for this merged National Power Laboratory. Do you have the confidence to become the chief engineer of the National Power Laboratory, lead a group of mechanical and dynamics experts in Spain, and design one excellent engine after another for Spain?" At the end of the introduction, Carlo looked at Diesel with a smile and asked his question.

Diesel was full of surprise regarding this merged Spanish National Power Laboratory; he did not expect the scale of this merged institution to be so massive.

At least 20 million pesetas in research funding per year—this was by no means a small amount of money. Although the current diesel engine had already shown extremely powerful potential, 20 million pesetas was already enough to build at least ten engine laboratories of the same level.

That Carlo would spend such a massive amount of money to build such a National Power Laboratory was enough to show his optimism for diesel engines and other series of internal combustion engines.

Did he have the confidence to become the chief engineer of this massive institution? Diesel asked himself internally, and then received a quite affirmative answer.

"I have the confidence, Your Majesty. As long as you provide me with sufficient research funding, I have enough confidence to explore step by step in the fields of diesel engines and other internal combustion engines, and develop one engine after another with even more powerful performance."

"However, this National Power Laboratory involves three types: steam engines, gasoline engines, and diesel engines, which also means that the laboratory will need more manpower and will need to search for talent in this area throughout Europe, perhaps then it can meet the laboratory's talent requirements."

Establishing a massive comprehensive laboratory only requires three conditions. First, there must be sufficient funding; on one hand, building the laboratory requires a large amount of capital, and on the other hand, the subsequent research of the laboratory also requires a large amount of R&D funding.

The second condition is that there must be sufficient equipment. However, this point about equipment can also be solved with sufficient funding; if there is no equipment, at worst, one can purchase it from all over Europe, and it can be bought by spending a little more money.

The third condition is that there must be sufficient research personnel. Diesel had the confidence to explore deeper into the field of diesel engines, but his research on steam engines and gasoline engines was currently still at a level he was not very familiar with.

Diesel could serve as the chief engineer of the National Power Laboratory, but wanting to simultaneously take care of the development of three types of power machinery was clearly impossible.