Greece to roman road

The second industrial revolution in Europe is developing in full swing. The development of the electric power industry and the widespread 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 trend of the times. Greece's current electricity development is rapid. In Athens, light bulbs are already common lighting facilities.

Internal combustion engines that consume petroleum, whether diesel engines or gasoline engines, have now been invented.

This also made Constantine interested in oil.

In the current world oil market, the market is mainly occupied by American oil and Russian oil, with the United States accounting for 70% and Russia 30%.

The Russians rely on oil to achieve financial balance in the near future.

Therefore, the Russians also have a fine tradition of relying on selling oil to make a living.

"Americans' oil exports to Europe require a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean. In the European market, your Baku oil should have an advantage."

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

Nobel smiled half-heartedly, picked up the tea cup and moistened his throat: "Your Highness, you don't know this."

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

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

"However, due to poor transportation levels, the cost of transporting oil from Baku is about twice as high as from the United States"

"From the east coast of the United States to Western Europe, there is the vast Atlantic Ocean, and the road is smooth and smooth."

"The merchant ships from the Black Sea to Western Europe are different. They have to pass through the Bosporus Strait, the Dardanelles Strait, and the Strait of Gibraltar." When he said this, Nobel sighed.

"These straits are all places that are extremely vulnerable to political influence."

After listening to Nobel's talk, Constantine felt that the entire Nobel family was very talented in chemistry.

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

"Your Nobel family has been in the oil industry for decades and has rich experience." Constantine did not hide 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: "That's it."

"That's no problem. I'll just help you contact His Highness."

The recent Greek Machinery Factory, after the war, ended its work of producing guns. After learning from Constantine that there would be no news of war in Europe in the near future, the manager of the factory, Skarloi , intends to transfer the factory's production capacity to the production of bicycles and motorcycles.

Greek Arms Minister Giannis, when summing up his experience after the war, once reported to Constantine that motorcycles or bicycles could be appropriately used in the Greek army to partially replace the role of horses.

In the 1896 war, due to the positional warfare between the two sides, the Greek cavalry made almost no achievements, and its role was far from matching the expensive cost of building cavalry.

Military horses are very delicate animals.

The food consumed by one military horse every day is equivalent to the rations of five soldiers, and it must also be concentrated feed;

At the same time, in the cavalry unit, there must be veterinarians on site, ready to serve these precious pimples at any time and prevent the occurrence of epidemics.

If it doesn't go as well as it should, it will die for you.

Army Chief of Staff Emmanuel also reported similar problems to Constantine. The cavalry built before the war did not produce the expected results.

Especially in the Battle of Salonika, which was equipped with the Maxim heavy machine gun, the cavalry officers looked at each other in shock after seeing the rate of fire of this weapon.

After the Ottoman Army was equipped with a large number of German rifles, even the traditional infantry had an unprecedentedly intensive rate of fire.

On the battlefield, cavalry targets are large and can easily be hit by enemy cannonballs or bullets.

Therefore, the knowledgeable people in the Greek Army also realized the embarrassment of the cavalry on the future battlefield-the cavalry unit that spent a lot of military expenditures to establish did not have much use.

Now that the army recognized the plight of the cavalry, Constantine was happy to see the results.

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

However, Greece’s industrial scale would definitely not be able to build something like a car.

First, the car market in Greece was small. Now Greece only has a population of more than 2 million, and even fewer people can afford to drive cars. It cannot support the automobile industry at all.

Now and for some time to come, cars will be a luxury item except for Americans with deep pockets.

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

Therefore, compared to cars, motorcycles, which have a much simpler structure, naturally entered Constantine's eyes.

According to Greece's national conditions, cars are currently unaffordable, but motorcycles are still no problem.

Motorcycles in this era are almost the same as bicycles, if you ignore the gasoline engine in the pedal position of the motorcycle.

The technical level is simple, and it allows the Greek industry to catch up with the internal combustion engine revolution. Naturally, Constantine is also interested in the motorcycle industry in Greece.

Even a scaled-down 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 electric power industry.

Greece also has to catch up on another symbol of the second industrial revolution, the internal combustion engine.

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

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

In this way, oil, the source of energy for motorcycle engines, 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 application markets for gasoline.

Not only that, people are also worried that the purchased lighting kerosene is mixed with gasoline, which may cause an explosion.

In the eyes of the person in charge of the petroleum smelting plant at the end of the 19th century, how to deal with gasoline was a headache. Storage was a safety hazard. During the process of refining petroleum, the by-product of petroleum smelting, gasoline, had to be dumped.

The waste of gasoline continued until the development of the automobile industry in the early 20th century.

This is also one of the reasons why Constantine is interested in motorcycles. They use gasoline engines. The gasoline used is cheap and Greeks can afford it.

These circumstances were ideal for a motorcycle to start Greece's combustion engine revolution.

Constantine happened to remember that in the original time and space, the Italians discovered oil in Albania in 1928. Since Albania is now a Greek territory, it is just a good opportunity to start the Greek oil industry.

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 a prize recently to reward those who , a scientific worker who has made outstanding contributions to mankind?"