However, after Zhu Hongyu listened to Wang An's words, his eyes lit up and he spoke.
"The institute has made a plan and is ready to set up a telegraph line from Nanjing to the provincial capital cities under the Ming Dynasty!"
“Plan accordingly!”
"The cost is higher, but the information is priceless!"
Zhu Hongyu doesn't care about costs, what he really cares about is the timeliness of news dissemination.
Imagine if Zhu Hongyu was in Nanjing and there was a rebellion in Guangdong and Guangxi.
If we use the traditional method to deliver the message, even if it is eight hundred miles expedited, it will take at least ten days and a half.
Only then can the news spread from Guangdong and Guangxi to Nanjing!
Zhu Hongyu then ordered from Nanjing to mobilize troops from all over the country to quell the rebellion. The news was passed back and forth, and it would take at least another ten days and a half.
And if the message is sent by telegraph!
From Guangdong and Guangxi to Nanjing, news of the rebellion could be reached instantly.
Zhu Hongyu ordered to garrison troops in the local area, and they could reach them in an instant.
If you go back and forth, you can save at least a month.
If the news is delivered faster than a month, the rebellion can be suppressed a month in advance. How much loss can be reduced for the Ming Dynasty?
This is the importance of information timeliness!
As for electric lights, Zhu Hongyu planned to install them first in his residence and the offices of Ming officials.
Then he took advantage of the advertising effect that came with him, the supervisor of the Ming Dynasty, to advertise and install electric lights for some wealthy businessmen for a fee.
As for the cost!
I understand everything!
It is normal operation to add a few zeros after the cost as the selling price.
After all, it is the same model as the royal family, so it is reasonable to be a little more expensive, right?
Coupled with the supporting generators and wires, the cost of installing an electric lighting system is estimated to be an astronomical figure.
This is what Zhu Hongyu wants to see.
The research results produced by the research institute must have its own profitability.
At the very least, this profit figure must exceed the investment in research and development costs.
Otherwise, if the institute only relies on royal funding for support, it will definitely not work in the long run.
The reason why the price of electric lamps was set very high by Zhu Hongyu was because he wanted to use this method to recover the cost of the research and development of electric lamps by the institute.
As for whether the price is too high, it will make it impossible to popularize electric lights.
In fact, this matter is not important!
Because electric lights are an absolute luxury in this day and age.
It can’t be promoted!
No matter how much it is promoted, it can only be spread and used within a small area.
The audience targeted by the electric light was originally the wealthy landowners and businessmen.
Even small and medium-sized landowners are no longer on the audience list.
For these people, in order to pursue novelty and to pursue the style of using the same items as the royal family, money does not matter.
No matter whether Zhu Hongyu adds one zero to the cost price or adds two zeros to sell, they will still use it.
Just like Zheng Chenggong, after seeing how easy it is to use electric lights, will he care how much it costs to install them?
You seem to be insulting me, the richest man Zheng?
In the same way, even if Zhu Hongyu sells electric lights at cost price, people who are not on the audience list should still be unable to afford it.
Zhu Hongyu even had the idea to use electric lights to make up for the cost of installing telegraph lines in Ming Dynasty.
Thinking about these messy things, Zhu Hongyu opened his mouth and motioned for Wang An to continue.
Wang An pondered for a while, then spoke.
"The third aspect is that the institute has made breakthroughs in materials science!"
"A large number of experiments are being carried out to explore various alloy materials, and now several special steels with different characteristics have been made."
"For example, special rails used to lay railways, such as special steel that can be used for steam engine cylinders..."
In fact, including the arsenal's research and development of new gunpowders, great efforts have been made in materials science.
While Zhu Hongyu listened to Wang An's report, he flipped through the report in his hand, with a smile on his face.
It can be seen that Ming's technology has been making progress recently!
The researchers at the institute are not alone. Under the premise that Zhu Hongyu invests a lot of manpower and material resources every year, their research and development results are equally gratifying.
But what surprised Zhu Hongyu even more was the researcher's filling in the underlying logic of Ming Dynasty science.
Zhu Hongyu had a very good memory, but after copying out the textbooks from his previous life and throwing them to the research institute, he asked them to use them as textbooks to study on his own.
Because Zhu Hongyu himself was a poor student. Except for the benefits brought by time traveling that improved his memory, his grades before time traveling were really mediocre.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have missed the college entrance examination and gone to school to become a soldier!
Therefore, what Zhu Hongyu gave them was just a framework.
There are many detailed formulas and theorems in it, which they need to study and do by themselves.
Go fill up the frame and make it flesh and blood!
It is also one of the important tasks of the institute.
From the current point of view, they are doing quite well.
The institute has already completed the improvement of the underlying logic of science for the junior high school level and is beginning to make breakthroughs for the high school level.
Regardless of the junior high school stage, it seems to be quite low.
But what you need to know is that the knowledge of physics and chemistry in junior high school is enough to promote the development of the first industrial revolution.
Even in the second industrial revolution, many technologies did not exceed the relevant scope of the junior high school stage.
In general, the current Ming Dynasty is indeed transforming into an industrial country bit by bit!
After Wang An reported this, he retreated, and Zhu Hongyu continued to handle official duties.
…
After Wang An left, the head of the R&D department of the arsenal came in to report the news to Zhu Hongyu.
"Your Highness, our arsenal's R&D department has recently made certain breakthroughs in the research and development experiments of new weapons."
"The first is the research and development of mercury fulminate. The research department has produced a finished product. Although it cannot be mass-produced, related performance experiments have also begun."
Zhu Hongyu still attaches great importance to mercury fulminate.
Because, with mercury fulminate, he can make a breech-loading gun!
The reason why the development of weapons in this world is slow is not because the technology is not possible, but because there is no development direction and everything needs to be explored, so the update and iteration of weapons seems very slow.
But in Zhu Hongyu's case, there is no such situation.
Because no one knows the direction of future weapon development better than him!
For example, flintlocks will replace matchlocks, rifled guns will replace smoothbore guns, breech-loading guns will replace front-loading guns, and metal fixed-loading bullets will replace paper-cased fixed bullets...
For people in this era, the direction of development needs to be explored.
But Zhu Hongyu is different. He doesn't need to fumble, because the future is in his head!