I Am the Crown Prince in France - Chapter 692

Chapter 691 The Crown Prince has always stood on the shoulders of giants

“Mr. Shap?”

Joseph felt that he had heard this name before, so he looked at the young man who seemed very nervous:

“You already have mature equipment? That’s great.”

Shap hurriedly stepped forward and saluted respectfully:

“It’s an honor to meet you, Your Highness. I did design a letter delivery device.”

Joseph smiled and nodded: “Can you show it to me?”

“Of course, of course.”

Shap hurriedly took out a huge roll of drawings with trepidation and unfolded it on the table:

“Your Highness, look, this is it. I call it ‘remote writing’.”

Shap pointed to the water tower-like thing on the drawing and introduced:

“The main body of the equipment is built on a high tower. Ah, it looks a bit like a huge clothes drying rack, but it is actually a rotating beam with a swing arm at each end.”

Joseph then noticed that there was a T-shaped device like an antenna on the top of the “water tower”.

As Shap spoke, he began to get excited:

“The two swing arms can rotate to different angles, and with the cooperation of each other, they can make more than 90 postures.

“If we use each posture to correspond to a letter, we can form any paragraph by connecting them together.

“And a few kilometers away, there will be another signal tower. There will be a signalman on it, who will use a telescope to observe the posture of the swing arm on the previous tower, record it, and translate it into letters.

“Then this signal tower can continue to pass on the content of the letter.

“We only need to build a signal tower every 10 kilometers – I have done a lot of experiments before, and this distance can clearly see the movement of the swing arm – to quickly transmit the content of the letter to a far place.”

He looked at the crown prince with expectation:

“Your Highness, I think this is dozens of times faster than using horses to deliver letters!”

When Joseph heard “dozens of times faster than horses”, he suddenly remembered that he seemed to have seen in historical materials that Napoleon had people build a set of efficient optical communication mechanisms. As a result, after his defeat at Waterloo, the news reached Paris in less than two days, causing chaos and making it impossible for the emperor to return to Paris to stabilize the political situation.

It seems that this is the invention of Mr. Chap.

Joseph immediately asked:

“Is there a signal tower built? I want to see the effect.”

Berthier took two steps forward awkwardly:

“Your Highness, due to the high cost of building a signal tower, the General Staff is still evaluating the availability…”

Joseph sighed secretly. This can’t be blamed on the General Staff. No matter what era, accepting new things is a difficult process. After all, most of them may just be a waste of money.

But he can be sure that Chap’s design is reasonable and feasible.

This is exactly the telegraph system of the 18th century.

Especially in war, information is even more important than cannons!

If a usable long-distance communication system can be built before the war with Britain breaks out, it will bring huge military advantages to France.

Joseph looked at Shap:

“How long does it take to build a signal tower?”

The latter thought for a moment and hesitated:

“If there is sufficient funding, it will take about 20 days.”

“So long?” Joseph frowned slightly.

He felt that this was just a two- or three-story water tower, and with a wooden frame on top, it should be done in a week.

Shap pointed to the swing arm on the drawing with some embarrassment and said:

“Your Highness, the signal frame requires a precise pulley system and bearings, which will be more troublesome to make.

“Of course, when mass production begins, the speed will be much faster.”

Joseph looked at the drawing and said casually: “How much does a signal tower cost?”

“About two thousand francs, Your Highness.”

Joseph opened his mouth involuntarily. So expensive? Two thousand francs is almost enough to buy a house in the suburbs of Paris.

He immediately noticed the complex pulley and swing arm system on the signal frame, and estimated that half of the cost was spent on this.

“Wait,” he wondered, “Why use such a complicated swing arm? ”

Sharp patiently explained:

“Your Highness, we need to transmit 26 letters and 10 numbers. The swing arm must rotate at least 45 degrees to be clearly distinguished from a distance.

“So we must have a rotatable beam and two swing arms, so that we can get more than 40 postures required. You see, this swing arm is up, this side is to the left, it is A. Turn it down here, the beam is tilted 45 degrees, it is C…”

Joseph stared at the winch on the drawing and asked again:

“How long does it take to pose a letter like this?”

“After you become proficient, it will take about 5 to 8 seconds, Your Highness.”

The swing arm is more than 3 meters long, and the signalman needs to rotate the winch more than ten times to drive the swing arm to rotate once. Rotating two swing arms and a beam must be very time-consuming.

Joseph frowned:

“This can be simplified into three fixed vertical rods with retractable tops. Use Morse code to transmit signals.”

“Fixed vertical rods?” Sharp shook his head repeatedly, “That would require 15, and each retractable state represents a letter.

“By the way, what is Morse code?”

Joseph remembered that Morse code would not be invented until more than 40 years later.

He picked up a pen and drew “-——” on the paper, saying: “The top of the vertical rod extends out to represent ‘horizontal’, and retracts to represent ‘dot’. Similarly, different combinations of dots and horizontals represent different letters, such as this combination is A.”

Sharp’s eyes widened immediately.

His mind was very flexible, and he immediately realized that His Royal Highness’s method was feasible.

Using three vertical rods, six dots or horizontals can be compared by rising and falling twice. For the signalman, the operation is to push and pull the handle six times, which is definitely much faster than desperately turning the capstan.

Moreover, this method only requires three hollow wooden rods, avoiding any pulleys and bearings, and the estimated cost will not exceed 50 francs.

He was so excited that he nodded repeatedly:

“Your Highness, this is amazing! Such a simple method solves a very complex problem…

“Why didn’t I think of it…

“You are simply the greatest inventor I have ever seen!”

Joseph was a little ashamed, thinking that this was all Mr. Morse’s credit, and I just copied it.

Chap rolled up his blueprints:

“Your Highness, using the ‘Morse code’ mode you mentioned, is that the name? I estimate that a signal tower can be built in about a week.”

“Very good!”

Joseph nodded and turned to Berthier and said:

“Please give Mr. Chap all the support he needs to complete the test as soon as possible.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

What Joseph didn’t know was that in history, Chap submitted a report to the French military for three years before he received a grant of 6,000 francs for testing. It took another year before the official construction began.

And he shortened the process to an afternoon.