The talent committee took just over two hours to complete the assessnt of Whitney’s first-phase results, promptly approving the second grant of 3,000 francs.
At the sa ti, Whitney’s research location was moved to a national laboratory under the French Academy of Sciences.
Hmm, there’s more security personnel here. Whitney even saw guards wearing the insignia of the French Royal Family.
The next evening, Whitney and his assistants held a simple celebration banquet, returning sowhat tipsy to his villa at the Great Scholar Palace.
As he entered, the maid, Rene, approached him, gesturing toward the drawing room and said, "Sir, Mr. Pere has brought these two gentlen to visit you. I let them wait inside."
As Whitney handed his hat and coat to Rene, Pere and two n, one tall and one short, stood up from the sofa and bowed slightly to him.
Ten minutes later, Whitney looked at the two unfamiliar n, and in a mont of joyful surprise, forgot what he intended to say.
Earlier, Pere inford him that these major shareholders of Blaise Steel Company hoped to collaborate with him.
Specifically, they wanted to use his newly developed rotary milling machine to invest in Blaise Steel, then use this equipnt to bid for the French United Steam Engine Company’s "dium and Large Castings Finishing Project."
Indeed, the talent committee not only provided inventors with funding and laboratories but also helped them connect with suitable large companies for investnt and production — not every technology can rely on the French Governnt for investnt, for they don’t have that much money. Apart from so strategic technologies, the industrial revolution still relies on private capital to advance.
After a long while, Whitney finally cald down and cautiously asked, "Mr. Pere, but I have already signed an agreent granting the priority licensing of the rotary milling machine patent to the talent committee."
Yes, the French Governnt certainly cannot sponsor research and developnt for free. While inventors retain their patents, the French Governnt holds the right to priority patent authorization at equal pricing. Otherwise, what would happen if you use French funds for research, then turn around and sell the patent to the British?
Pere smiled and said, "You don’t need to worry about this. Blaise Steel is a company certified by the French Engineering Technology Association. The governnt will transfer the patent authorization to them."
In essence, the French Governnt acts as an "angel investor," then transfers new technologies to quality companies for mass production.
This completes the research-investnt-production cycle with extre efficiency.
Seeing Whitney’s silence, Pere thought he was worried about losing out and explained further, "The entire cooperation process is supervised by the talent committee. If Blaise Steel fails to fulfill their investnt promises or harms your interests, the committee will step in to protect your rights.
"Of course, if you cannot complete the research goals on ti, you must return the company shares you received.
"Mr. Whitney, what do you think?"
Startled, Whitney quickly nodded and said, "Yes, yes, I would be delighted."
In truth, his mind had wandered just now due to excessive excitent.
Blaise Steel Company promised to give him a 5% share. According to Pere’s previous introduction, Blaise Steel’s market value is over 2 million francs.
In other words, just these shares are worth 100,000 francs!
Additionally, there’s the inco from patent licensing and the salary the company offers him...
aning, once the rotary milling machine is invented, he would instantly beco a ga-millionaire!
...
Eastern South Netherlands.
In the alloy steel experintal workshop of the Namu Royal Iron Refinery, mid-level technician Jacques Renou struggled to carry a large piece of tal scrap toward the waste pile.
"Less than a year remains," he sighed, shaking his head and muttering, "There’s still no progress on my brother’s side.
"I should have stopped him from borrowing so much money back then. Now we’re likely to lose the factory father left behind..."
Since his grandfather’s ti, his family ran a workshop manufacturing automatic processing equipnt for clocks. Through his father Pierre Etienne Renou’s diligent managent, it grew into a factory with more than 90 workers.
The factory now was under the control of his elder brother.
More than half a year ago, his brother Philippe Renou heard that the United Steam Engine Company was inviting tenders for equipnt capable of finishing dium and large steel components, with a minimum purchase guarantee of 25 units, and decided to go all in on this big business deal.
Philippe mortgaged the family’s factory to borrow 70,000 francs for research and developnt, but soon discovered that his earlier plan to upscale clock part processing equipnt was fundantally unworkable.
As the equipnt size increased to a certain point, the machining precision sharply decreased.
Philippe had already spent more than half of the loan, but the milling machine he designed could only achieve a precision of 2 milliters.
This was still several tis away from the 0.15-milliter requirent of the United Steam Engine Company.
Jacques Renou approached the waste pile, vigorously tossing the tal block in his hand into it but accidentally kicked sothing hard in the process.
He looked down to see an irregular tal piece at the edge of the waste pile, with its protruding edges puncturing a hole in last year’s newly bought boots.
"Damn!" He touched the boot-heartbrokenly, angrily picked up and threw the blackened piece of scrap into the garbage heap.
"Clang!" A sharp clang echoed as tals collided.
Renou was about to leave, but suddenly stopped, turned around slowly, and stared wide-eyed at the waste pile.
The piece of iron he had just thrown hit the tal scrap he had previously discarded, leaving a noticeable dent.
He knew very well that he had just discarded a piece of high manganese steel, which was hard enough to carve normal high-carbon steel like wood.
Yet, that blackened scrap managed to dent the high manganese steel!
This indicated its hardness reached an astonishing level.
He hurried into the waste pile, cautiously picking up that piece of iron, then returned quickly to the experintal workshop.
All waste pieces are discarded sequentially by ti, so he quickly confird it was disposed of the day before yesterday afternoon.
Twelve experints were conducted on the afternoon of the day before yesterday...
Soon, Renou, holding the experintal batches he found, approached the chief technician Wandell, "Mr. Wandell, I have a new discovery."
After he explained the situation, Wandell looked at the experint records and shook his head, "If I’m not mistaken, this was a high manganese steel experint with 0.3% manganese, but the silicon impurities in the raw materials weren’t properly cleaned, making it very hard but prone to brittleness."
Renou nodded, "It’s indeed unsuitable for making bearings or pressure-resistant pipes, but it should be very good for making tools. Can I conduct further experints?"
"Tools?" Wandell was sowhat puzzled.
"Like milling cutters, lathes, and so on, the applications would be very broad."
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