Chapter 92: The Concept of a University (Please Subscribe!)

Looking at the demonstration device for the generator and electric motor he had crafted with his own hands, Gram could not help but shed tears.

As an explorer in the electrical industry, Gram had devoted his entire life to electrical experiments, never for a moment ceasing to hope that his research would yield results.

Now that results had been achieved, they were born from a few words of Kaluo, which filled Gram with many emotions.

"Your Majesty, you are the true hero of the electrical industry. If electricity is fortunate enough to be adopted by countries around the world, you will play a vital role in human progress and the development of the world," Gram said to Kaluo with some emotion.

"No, this is not my achievement." Kaluo shook his head, deflecting the credit to Gram and the team of electrical researchers: "This is the result of your hard work; I merely provided an idea."

"If not for your long-term research into the electrical industry and the creation of generators capable of being used for experiments, my ideas would have remained just ideas."

"Mr. Gram, and all the researchers who participated in this experiment, you are the true heroes of human progress."

"To celebrate the new results of the electrical experiments, I will prepare a victory banquet for you, and each of you will receive a check from the Royal Bank."

"Gentlemen, please continue your hard work. I will not treat your contributions unfairly; Spain will not forget your efforts!"

Kaluo's speech won the favor of everyone in the laboratory. If nothing else, the numbers on the checks represented real money, and even these researchers, who were already well-paid, were unwilling to refuse.

Moreover, they had no reason to refuse; Kaluo had placed all the credit on their heads, and they had suddenly transformed into heroes of Spain.

Regarding these researchers, Kaluo still employed the method of winning hearts and minds.

After all, they had traveled thousands of miles from France to Spain, and Kaluo would not treat these researchers who were willing to take on Spanish citizenship unfairly.

After encouraging the researchers at the electrical laboratory once more, Kaluo left the electrical laboratory quite satisfied and went to the adjacent engine laboratory to check on the progress.

Since he was already inspecting the experimental zone, he might as well look at both laboratories; it was a good opportunity to see the progress of Benz and the others on their engine experiments.

The engine laboratory was much quieter than the electrical laboratory; after all, the total number of employees was less than one-sixth of the other side.

However, Benz, Daimler, and Maybach, who worked in the engine laboratory, were all world-renowned figures in later generations, and Kaluo's expectations for the engine laboratory were no less than those for the electrical laboratory.

After all, the uses for engines were quite extensive. In addition to common modes of transport like airplanes and automobiles, they could also be applied to agricultural machinery like tractors and military weapons like fighter planes and tanks.

If engines were well-researched, it would be of huge help to both civilian and military fields in the future. Although Kaluo did not expect the trio of Benz to develop any particularly powerful engines, as long as they could maintain a certain lead in the current global field of engine research, or at least stay in the top three, it would satisfy Kaluo's expectations.

In any case, there would be more engine talent to come later, and it would not be too late to recruit them one by one then.

Current engines, like electricity, were in the initial stages of development, and even famous engine developers like Diesel were only in their teens.

Walking straight into the engine laboratory, the three men—Benz, Daimler, and Maybach—quickly noticed Kaluo.

"Your Majesty!" The men bowed one after another, their surprise impossible to hide.

"There were results at the electrical laboratory, so I stopped by to see your research," Kaluo said with a smile.

Hearing Kaluo say this, Benz and the others immediately felt a sense of urgency. The construction time for both the electrical laboratory and the engine laboratory had been the same, and they had arrived in Spain only a few days after Gram and his team.

Yet, in just those few days, the electrical laboratory had already achieved results—the kind of results that were enough to shock Kaluo.

Meanwhile, their engine laboratory was still in the midst of intense research and design, clearly lagging far behind the electrical laboratory.

"Your Majesty, our four-stroke engine is already in the design and experimental stage. We expect related finished products to enter testing within two years, and a relatively perfected four-stroke engine to begin testing within five years," Benz hurriedly reported the progress of the engine laboratory.

"A four-stroke engine?" Kaluo asked.

"Yes, a four-stroke engine will consist of four piston strokes: the intake stroke, the compression stroke, the power stroke, and the exhaust stroke."

"In our vision, if such a four-stroke engine can be realized, the thermal efficiency will increase from the 11% of atmospheric pressure engines to over 13%, and it will be able to effectively reduce the mass and volume of the engine."

"If such an engine can be realized, perhaps we can explore related vehicle improvements based on it," Daimler added.

Speaking of the four-stroke engine, this was research that Daimler and Maybach had already begun in Germany.

The so-called thermal efficiency was easy to understand; it could be viewed as the ratio of the power output by the engine to the fuel input.

The thermal efficiency of the currently common atmospheric pressure engines was only 11%, which meant that about 89% of the fuel was wasted—a quite exaggerated situation.

Furthermore, the volume of atmospheric pressure engines was not very suitable for installation on carriages for vehicle modification.

If an atmospheric pressure engine were used, the resulting vehicle would be too bulky. Because of this excessive size, the vehicle would not only look clumsy but would also be quite cumbersome to operate.

Such a clumsy vehicle was not as good as a horse-drawn carriage, which was why a large number of factories were exploring engine improvements.

As the heart of a vehicle, the level of advancement of the engine was also related to the advancement of the vehicle. If the engine had any problems, it was like a person having heart disease; it was fatal to the vehicle.

Kaluo nodded, but he was somewhat dissatisfied with the progress of the engine laboratory.

Two years for a finished product to enter experiments, and five years for a perfected experimental product to undergo testing—did this not mean that it would take at least five years for the four-stroke engine to be perfected and put into use?

"Is this time too long? Can the time be compressed further to see the finished four-stroke engine sooner?" Kaluo frowned and asked with some dissatisfaction.

"Your Majesty, it is not that we are unwilling to compress the time. It is truly that the laboratory is severely understaffed. Most of the design and testing requires us to do it ourselves, and the entire research and development cycle has been wasted by at least half."

"If there were enough manpower available, I am confident that within three years, I could let Your Majesty see a finished four-stroke engine—one that has been tested and possesses stability and applicability," Daimler said with some helplessness.

If they were still at their previous company in Germany, although they were the ones responsible for the specific research and development, they at least had enough available manpower at their disposal.

Unlike now in Spain, although the specific treatment was indeed beyond reproach, there were simply too few people available to work under them.

The dozen or so people Kaluo had scraped together had too little understanding of engines, and they still needed time to learn and grow.

During this time, the research on the four-stroke engine was almost entirely carried out by the three of them personally.

It was already difficult for three people to develop a perfected four-stroke engine, let alone compress the time cost, which was even more difficult.

Kaluo nodded; he also knew about the current problem of insufficient manpower in the engine laboratory.

"Regarding manpower, I will find a way to solve it. Within two years at the latest, the personnel in the engine laboratory will be increased to over 100. I will also invite technical experts in engines from all over Europe, striving for our four-stroke engine to be released sooner," Kaluo reassured them.

Although the engine field was currently only in the initial stage, this did not mean that there was a shortage of engine-related talent worldwide.

If nothing else, through quite generous immigration conditions, it was still possible to attract hundreds of related talents, though their quality would certainly not be as high as the three of them.

However, the current engine laboratory did not really need people of high ability; those at a medium-to-high level who could assist would be enough.

The three of them had already been tested by history; they were definitely above-average talents, if not top-tier, in the field of automobiles and engines.

Moreover, the four-stroke engine was something they had been researching anyway, just at the Otto Company. Now that they had come to Spain, with Kaluo's even greater support, he believed they would develop the four-stroke engine earlier than in the original world and manufacture experimental vehicles based on the developed engine.

Hearing Kaluo promise to increase the number of researchers in the engine laboratory to over a hundred within two years, Benz and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Some experiments simply could not be done with so few people; with collective wisdom, the feasibility of the experiments would also greatly increase.

Thinking of this, Kaluo could not help but feel a headache.

As it stood, the current Spain had too large a gap compared to Italy.

Although the overall level of Italy was not great, the industry and economy of Northern Italy were relatively good, and the former Kingdom of Sardinia had also attached importance to the cultivation of talent.

Although Italy did not have the rich talent reserves of England, France, or Germany, it had enough talent at the medium-to-high level.

In this regard, Spain had already fallen too far behind. Spain was not only lacking in top-tier talent, but even the backbone talent in laboratories was extremely scarce.

It was one thing that there were not many physics and chemistry majors in Spanish universities, but most of them were just for show, making it difficult to cultivate sufficiently excellent physics and chemistry talent.

After leaving the experimental zone, Kaluo headed straight for the Wang Gong.

To improve the situation of Spain's lack of talent, Kaluo decided to build a university specifically for cultivating physics and chemistry talent.

Kaluo had already thought of the name for the university: the Royal Academy of Physics and Chemistry; one could tell the focus of the university just by the name.

To express the importance he placed on this university specializing in physics and chemistry, Kaluo decided that all excellent physics and chemistry talent absorbed by Spain in the future would teach at this university, striving to cultivate more potential new stars in physics and chemistry for Spain.

After informing the butler Luo Lun of this idea, the butler Luo Lun also highly approved and gave his own reasons: "I think it is very necessary to build such a university, Your Majesty."

"Bearing the word 'Royal' can also let the excellent graduates cultivated by this university understand for whom they should work and whom they should serve."

"Do we have enough funds? If we want to build such a university, when is the earliest we can start recruiting students?" Kaluo nodded, his idea of building a university becoming even firmer.

However, it would take a long time for a university to go from zero to existence. Whether it was the construction of school facilities, especially the laboratories used for experiments, or the purchase of textbooks, and the introduction of some famous university teachers and professors, all were very important.

Without good teachers, it would be difficult for such a university to cultivate sufficiently excellent graduates. If one wanted to recruit those sufficiently excellent physicists and chemists from all over the world, funds were indispensable, and one might even have to promise some additional conditions.

"It should be no problem." The butler Luo Lun nodded; he was clear about how much capital the royal family currently had: "If we want to build a university from scratch, it is estimated that it will take at least three years before we can start classes and recruit students."

"But if we renovate suitable existing buildings and only build the relevant laboratories, we should be able to shorten the time cost somewhat."

"However, to build a university that can continuously cultivate talent, spending a certain amount of time is indispensable."

"I estimate that the construction time for the university will be at least 2 to 3 years, and the total funds we need to pay will be at least 10 million pesetas to start," the butler Luo Lun replied.

Kaluo nodded, not surprised by this huge sum of money.

In fact, building the university itself would not cost much; the biggest costs were building laboratories and purchasing textbooks and experimental equipment.

The biggest expense was introducing university teachers and professors, making them willing to cultivate enough excellent talent for Spain.

However, as the academy developed and gained a certain reputation internationally, it would attract more people to apply to the academy.

Even if it could not maintain a balance of payments, having such a university that could continuously cultivate excellent talent was also quite important.

It was not that Kaluo did not trust those universities in Spain, but the problem was that their own majors were of no great use to Spain.

Several universities were famous for literature and art; what did Spain need so many people doing literature and art for now?

In the current university, physics and chemistry were the top priorities, and medical care was also very important. Next was education, which could cultivate more excellent teachers, who in turn could cultivate more students for Spain to apply to the university.

4, 00 words, third update, please support!

Fourth day of 10, 00 words, 10, 00/10, 00 updated, please support!

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(End of this chapter)