War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

"What do you usually play now?"

Franz asked straight to the point.

"Fight the beast!" Akadolf von Lebsteinsky, the eldest grandson of Count Korolaf and the future Count Lebsteinsky.

He shouted first with the loudest voice, and Richard Metternich looked at the former with contempt and said.

“Enjoy the opera!”

Due to the poor relationship between Count Korolaf and Prince Metternich, their descendants also had a poor relationship. Although they all played in the same circle, they had their own factions.

Richard Metternich felt that his hobbies were elegant, while Akadov's hobbies were vulgar, and he obviously won. On the other hand, the latter feels that the former is not a man, and what he plays is what a man should play.

Teenage boys always have endless things to talk about when it comes to playing, but of course the people behind them seem much more normal.

"listen to music!"

"race!"

"hunt!"

However, these extremely ordinary entertainment activities could not arouse Franz's interest at all. He hoped to find a wide range of entertainment projects that were acceptable to people, thereby developing a tertiary industry.

However, most of these have already formed industries, and unless the communication media changes, it is difficult to make much progress.

For example, inventions such as tape recorders and video recorders, but these are still far away from this era.

Although the people following Franz were only a group of teenagers, they were the most powerful group of teenagers in the entire Austrian aristocratic circle at this time. Their knowledge was far beyond that of their peers of this era.

Naturally, some people could tell from Franz's face that he was obviously not very interested, and the reason why they were sent here by the major families was to establish a personal relationship with Franz.

Getting someone's attention is the first step in building a personal relationship.

"Take pictures!" said Luca Ambras.

It is said that the development speed of cameras in Austria is comparable to the speed of light. It took only a few years to go through half a century in history.

Due to the maturity of silver halide technology and Franz's determination of the research direction of silver halide and the development direction of cameras.

As a result, film, which was supposed to come out in 1888, was developed in 1843.

At the same time, other camera technologies are also constantly improving, and the size and weight are rapidly reducing, from the initial 150KG to 8KG at this time.

At the same time, prices are also falling. At this time, the price of a latest camera only costs 500 florins. Although it is slightly higher than the French and British cameras, its performance is more than a hundred times better.

In fact, cameras from other countries did not have practical value at this time and were only circulated in a very small circle.

There was indeed a wave of photography in the aristocratic circles, but Franz was already working on this project. His approach was the same as that of Kodak in history, which used film to control the market.

Franz didn’t even bother to change the slogan, and just used the original version: “You just press the button and we do the rest.”

Camera equipment at this time mostly used bulky printing plates to capture images, which was a difficult job to operate alone. Additionally, these plates must be developed immediately after exposure to be photographed to obtain a usable image.

This makes photography more of a niche hobby or funded project, out of reach for many.

The film must be installed in the darkroom first. After taking the photos, the camera must be sent back to a special printing factory. Then the factory must pay for the printing and mounting. Then the camera must be loaded with new film and the photos can be sent to the user.

This was the sales philosophy of Eastman Kodak back then. It pioneered the use of camera sales to drive film sales. It was epoch-making at the time and attracted countless photography enthusiasts.

More importantly, it successfully controlled the market for nearly a hundred years. Until the day of bankruptcy, Kodak was still the dominant player in the film industry.

Franz felt that it was necessary to learn from this experience.

Due to the superposition of patents and other factors, the Austrian Royal Photography Company has a market share of as high as 99% worldwide.

It's just that the market is still very small at this time, and most people don't even know what a camera is.

Franz smiled subconsciously and said.

"good."

One look at Franz's appearance and the others knew they were on the right track.

As a result, a group of people started talking about it, but the content they said was too unreasonable and had no reference value.

"Raising canaries" Edward Taffy was also very anxious, but he had no choice but to be clumsy and small in stature, so it was difficult for him to say such a sentence.

Originally, this sounded nothing to Franz's ears. Just like the Eight Banners back then, listening to music and walking around, smoking, drinking, and gathering people to gamble were just routine operations of some nobles.

But in this enduring laughter, Franz heard something else.

Their laughter seemed to be extremely sarcastic. You must know that Taffy is one of the friends who is closer to Franz, and the Taffy family is in full swing at this time, so these guys have no reason to laugh at him.

Franz followed suit.

"Why raise a canary? Wouldn't it be better to raise a parrot? You can also raise a pug, which can be trained to speak. Or you can get a falcon or a seabird, which can also be used for hunting."

After hearing what Franz said, everyone looked at each other, but no one dared to laugh.

After all, Franz grew up in a deep palace, so it is understandable that he does not understand the things outside.

Moreover, both Franz's identity and the reputation he has accumulated have left an impression in the hearts of these children that cannot be taken lightly.

No one dared to laugh at Franz, because he was too strong to be human. But from then on, everyone finally discovered that Franz was an ordinary person, and there were things he didn't understand.

Franz's habitual thinking prevented him from seeing the truth of the matter, but he knew that there must be something wrong with his view.

"Am I wrong?"

"Pugs, parrots, falcons, sea greens, and the like are different from canaries." Akadov said nonsense.

Some of them thought of something.

"How could a man as smart as Franz not think of it? He must have thought of it, but he was embarrassed."

Under the guidance of this line of thinking, Richard Metternich spoke.

"How about raising one for fun?"

Franz thought about it, and it seemed to make sense. After all, hearing is false and seeing is believing. If you raise one yourself, you can understand the life of the nobles of this era.

"Then just buy a few."

"How many?"

The people around him seemed to look at Franz in a somewhat complicated way.

"What's going on with you guys?"

"Nothing." Everyone avoided.

"How many are you raising?" Franz asked Taffy casually.

"Two." Taffy said sheepishly.

"Then I'll raise three." Franz said casually. At this time, he was even thinking about whether he should buy a few for his younger brothers and sisters.

"Then when will you come with us to see the goods?" Richard Metternich said mysteriously.

"Looking at the goods?" Franz asked a little strangely.

The next day, Vienna Old Town Opera House.