Greece’s Roman Road

Chapter 141: Oil and Motorcycles

The second industrial revolution in Europe is in full swing. The development of the electric power industry and the wide application of internal combustion engines are the main features of this industrial revolution.

In terms of electricity, although the quality of Greek coal is worrying, it has finally kept up with the tide of the times. The current electricity development in Greece is rapid. In Athens, light bulbs are already a common lighting facility.

The internal combustion engine that consumes oil, whether it is a diesel engine or a gasoline engine, has now been invented.

This also made Constantine interested in oil.

In the current world oil market, American oil and Russian oil mainly occupy the market, of which the United States accounts for 70% and Russia 30%.

It is precisely by relying on oil that the Russians have achieved financial balance in the near future.

Therefore, the Russians also have a fine tradition of living by selling oil.

"American oil is exported to Europe, but it needs to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and the journey is long. In the European market, your Baku oil should have an advantage."

"Under these conditions, the lighting kerosene in the United States should not be able to compete with your kerosene in Baku, right?" Constantine asked inexplicably.

With a half-smile, Noble picked up the teacup to moisten his throat: "Your Highness, you don't know anything about it."

"You said, if the same barrel of kerosene (for lighting) is transported to St. Petersburg, is it cheaper to ship from Baku to St. Petersburg, or cheaper from New York Port to St. Petersburg?"

Nobel did not wait for Constantine to answer, and continued: "From the map, the distance between Baku and St. Petersburg is much closer."

"However, due to the poor level of transportation, the transportation cost of oil in Baku is about twice as high as in the United States"

"And from the east coast of the United States to Western Europe, the vast Atlantic Ocean is unimpeded along the way."

"And the merchant ships from the Black Sea to Western Europe are different. They have to pass through the Bosphorus Strait, the Dardanelles Strait, and the Strait of Gibraltar one after another." Nobel sighed.

"None of these straits are places that are extremely vulnerable to political influence"

After listening to such a big talk about Nobel, Constantine felt that the Nobel family was very talented in chemistry.

Nobel looked at Constantine and couldn't help but ask: "Your Highness, why are you asking so much about oil?"

"Your Nobel family has also been engaged in the oil industry for decades and has rich experience." Constantine is not hiding the reason for inviting Nobel. "I want to rent an oil drilling team from your Nobel family."

"Go to Albania to explore for oil"

Hearing Constantine's answer, Nobel suddenly realized: "So it is"

"That's not a problem, I'll help your Highness to contact you."

The nearest Greek machinery factory, after the war, was producing guns and guns. After hearing from Constantine that there would be no war in Europe in the near future, the manager of the factory, Scalloy , intends to transfer the production capacity of the factory to the production of bicycles and motorcycles.

When the Greek Minister of Armaments, Ioannis, summed up his experience after the war, he once responded to Constantine that motorcycles or bicycles could be properly used in the Greek army to partially replace the role of horses.

In the war of 1896, due to the positional warfare between the two sides, the Greek cavalry had little achievements, and its role was far from matching the expensive cost of building the cavalry.

Military horses are very delicate animals.

The food consumed by a military horse every day is on top of the rations of five soldiers, and it must be concentrated feed;

At the same time, in the cavalry unit, there must also be a veterinarian stationed on the field, ready to serve these baby bumps at any time to prevent the occurrence of epidemics.

If something goes wrong, it will die for you to see.

The Army Chief of Staff Emmanuel also reported a similar problem to Constantine. The cavalry built before the war did not have the expected effect.

Especially in the Battle of Thessaloniki where the Maxim heavy machine gun was equipped, the cavalry officers looked at each other in dismay after seeing the rate of fire of this weapon.

After the Ottoman Army was heavily equipped with German rifles, even the traditional infantry had an unprecedentedly dense rate of fire.

On the battlefield, the cavalry has a large target and is easily hit by enemy shells or bullets.

Therefore, people of insight in the Greek Army also realized that the embarrassment of cavalry on the battlefield in the future - the cavalry unit established with a lot of military expenditure, is not very useful.

Now that the army realized the plight of the cavalry, Constantine was happy to see it.

Considering the trend of the industrial revolution, Constantine was also very willing to see a large number of internal combustion engines entering people's production and life in Greece.

However, such a thing as a car, relying on the industrial volume of Greece, will definitely not be able to do it.

First, the car market in Greece is small, and now Greece has a population of more than 2 million, and even fewer people can afford to drive a car, and it is impossible to support the car industry at all.

Now, and for some time to come, the car will be a luxury, except for those with deep pockets.

Second, a car is made up of thousands of parts. How can there be so many factories in Greece to produce such a large number of parts?

Therefore, compared with cars, motorcycles with much simpler structures naturally entered the eyes of Constantine.

According to Greece's national conditions, cars cannot afford to play at present, and motorcycles are still no problem.

Motorcycles in this era are almost the same as bicycles, if you ignore the gasoline engine on the pedals on the motorcycle.

The technical level is simple, and it can allow the Greek industry to catch up with the east wind of the internal combustion engine revolution. Naturally, Constantine was also interested in the motorcycle business in Greece.

Even a shrunken version of the internal combustion engine revolution is crucial to promoting the development of Greek industry.

After Constantine advocated the first promotion of alternating current in Greece, Greece has caught up with the world trend in the development of the power industry.

In another sign of the second industrial revolution, the internal combustion engine, Greece is also catching up.

After communicating with Scalloy, Constantine decided to promote motorcycles in Greece.

The first is that the Greek army purchased a batch of motorcycles and entered military service.

In this way, oil, the source of engine energy for motorcycles~lightnovelpub.net~ naturally entered Constantine's field of vision.

In fact, at the end of the 19th century, gasoline was very cheap.

Because there are not many applications for gasoline.

Not only that, people have to worry about the possible explosion caused by the gasoline mixed with the purchased lighting kerosene.

In the eyes of the person in charge of the oil refinery at the end of the 19th century, how to deal with gasoline was a headache, and there was a safety hazard in storage. In the process of smelting oil, the by-product - gasoline, could only be thrown away.

The waste of gasoline continued until the beginning of the 20th century, when the automobile industry developed.

This is also one of the reasons why Constantine took a fancy to motorcycles. Using gasoline engines, the gasoline used is cheap and the Greeks can afford them.

In these cases, motorcycles are ideal to start Greece's internal combustion engine revolution.

It just so happened that Constantine remembered that in the original time and space, the Italians discovered oil in Albania in 1928. Since Albania is now a territory of Greece, it just took this opportunity to start the oil industry in Greece.

While Constantine and Nobel were chatting, Crown Princess Sophie suddenly came over, pulled out a chair and sat down: "Mr. Nobel, I heard that you are planning to set up an award recently to reward those , scientific workers who have made outstanding contributions to mankind?"

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