Chapter 72: Spain's Shortage of Talent

After the Franco-Prussian War ended, the situation in Europe also entered a period of calm.

Of course, the reason the situation was calm was because the troublemaker, the British Empire, was too preoccupied with the Irish home rule movement to look elsewhere.

The official name of the UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Kingdom of Great Britain is itself composed of England and Scotland.

This also led to the UK having problems similar to those of Spain; besides the main ethnic group, the English, the Scots and the Irish did not seem to identify so strongly with the government's rule.

However, at this time, the British Empire was the undisputed world hegemon and the most powerful naval nation. Relying on the glory of the Victorian era, it briefly suppressed the independence desires of the Irish and the Scots.

With internal problems appearing for the British, the French licking their wounds after the war, and the Germans receiving large sums of capital to start industrializing, the golden age of development for other European countries had arrived.

More than two months passed quickly, and the main building of the electricity laboratory that Gramme had been longing for was finally completed.

Under Gramme's urging, the Royal Electricity Research project moved smoothly into the new main laboratory building and officially began research on generators.

If one mentions direct current and alternating current in later generations, what people first think of is the War of Currents between Edison and Tesla.

But in reality, both direct current and alternating current were born very early; it was just that the initial exploration phase consumed too much time and failed to gain the attention of various governments, which is why the large-scale application of electricity was only realized at the end of the 19th century.

Why say it like that?

Gramme could be called a quite outstanding talent in the field of electricity. His contributions to electrical energy could be said to be in the top five level of the 19th century.

But such a talent was not valued in France, and there were many talents like Gramme, including the famous Nikola Tesla more than a decade later.

The first thing after moving into the new laboratory, Gramme decided to build an alternating current generator and a direct current generator separately, and then explore from there how to use electrical energy.

Although the pioneers in this field, Faraday and Henry, had already determined the relevant principles and feasibility of manufacturing generators, the generators they built were mostly used for experiments and did not demonstrate whether electrical energy could be used for practical purposes.

Gramme decided to continue the exploration of Faraday and Henry, striving to discover cheap electrical energy that could be practically utilized as soon as possible, to repay the support of Xiang Kaluo.

Xiang Kaluo actually had some knowledge reserves regarding electrical energy. Of course, these so-called knowledge reserves were nothing more than common sense in later generations.

It was only after hundreds of years of exploration by pioneers like Gramme that people in later generations could enjoy such convenient and accessible electrical energy more than 100 years later.

Xiang Kaluo even knew the accidental story of how Gramme promoted the electric power industry. At an exhibition, when Gramme was installing two generators, he accidentally connected the wires wrong, sending the electricity produced by one generator back into the other motor.

It was precisely this accident that caused electrical energy to quickly begin to be put to practical use; the scientists present were ecstatic, as the practical application of electrical energy they had pursued for many years was realized just like that.

A generator is a generator, but at the same time, it can also become an electric motor. This discovery made electricity one of the most important energy sources of the Second Industrial Revolution and changed the whole world thereafter.

However, all of this had to wait until Gramme built his own generator. After all, only with the object could there be an excuse to state one's proposal; in a situation where words were empty, one could not prove the rationality of such a claim, so it was better to wait until the generator existed and let Gramme operate it practically—whether it was true or not would be clear at a glance.

The Royal Engine Company and Gramme's electricity laboratory were almost right next to each other. Calling it an engine company, it was actually more like an engine research lab.

Both were his own enterprises, so Xiang Kaluo would not favor one over the other; naturally, he had to inspect both.

Compared to the electricity laboratory over there, the engine research lab here was much quieter.

This was also something that couldn't be helped. Although the electricity laboratory only had Gramme as the main researcher, there were quite a few technical talents, which was completely enough to assist Gramme.

As for the engine laboratory, counting everyone, there were only three people—Daimler, Benz, and Maybach—who possessed relevant research and development capabilities, and discussions were also conducted by these three.

Although these three could be said to be among the best in the fields of automobiles and engines, it was obviously impossible to achieve something in the engine field relying only on the three of them.

Xiang Kaluo also set a next goal for himself, which was to recruit high-level talents for the electricity laboratory as much as possible, and recruit low-to-mid-level talents for the engine laboratory.

In Xiang Kaluo's heart, both of these laboratories needed to be equipped with at least 3 to 5 scientists plus dozens of technical talents with certain knowledge reserves as assistants.

As the projects researched in the laboratory became more and more advanced, the staffing of the laboratory was also constantly increasing.

It was just that everything was still in the starting stage, so having fewer hands was something that could be managed for now. This also constantly reminded Xiang Kaluo that Spain was still too lacking in talents in relevant fields.

And it was not just the fields of electricity and engines; including the chemical industry, physics, chemistry, and other various trades, Spain needed a large number of low-to-mid-level talents to fill the gaps.

Thinking of this, how could Xiang Kaluo still sit still?

Xiang Kaluo called for the Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Kadier, and issued a new task to him: to go to various European countries to find those destitute scientists and technical talents, and invite them to immigrate to Spain.

If large-scale immigration were opened, it would be a burden for the current Spanish government.

The income of a large number of domestic farmers had not increased; if a large number of immigrants were attracted at this time, wouldn't that be stealing their jobs in the eyes of the Spanish people?

Therefore, except for attracting a small number of laborers from Italy, Xiang Kaluo did not intend to let the Spanish government open immigration channels to attract immigrants on a large scale.

Those laborers introduced from Italy were engaged in relatively extreme physical labor, and these were precisely the jobs that Spanish farmers were unwilling to do.

This would not make the Spanish people dissatisfied, as these jobs were not within their range of choices to begin with.

It was precisely considering the problem that immigration would cause conflicts with the Spanish people that Xiang Kaluo let Kadier precisely search for those destitute scientists and technical talents, introducing a batch of low-to-mid-level talents that Spain was currently in urgent need of through a method of quality over quantity, while simultaneously searching for those scientists who might be won over for Spain.

First update, asking for support! It is currently confirmed to be released on Friday, and the author is saving up drafts. Brothers, how many days do you want the author to explode with updates?

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(End of this chapter)