Chapter 141 Oil and Motorcycles

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

Internal combustion engines that consume oil, whether diesel engines or gasoline engines, have 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, of which the United States accounts for 70% and Russia 30%.

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

Therefore, the Russians rely on selling oil to make a living, and they also have a fine tradition.

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

"Under such conditions, American lighting kerosene should not be able to compete with your Baku kerosene, right?" Constantine said puzzledly.

Nobel smiled and picked up the teacup to moisten his throat: "Your Highness, you don't know this."

"You said, for the same barrel of kerosene (for lighting), is it cheaper to transport it to St. Petersburg from Baku to St. Petersburg or from New York Port in the United States 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 Baku oil is about twice that of the United States."

"From the east coast of the United States to Western Europe, it is the vast Atlantic Ocean, and there is no obstruction all the way."

"But merchant ships from the Black Sea to Western Europe are different. They have to pass through the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles, and the Strait of Gibraltar successively." At this point, Nobel sighed.

"All these straits are places that are extremely susceptible to political influence."

After listening to Nobel's long conversation, Constantine felt that the 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 is very experienced." 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: "So that's it."

"That's no problem, I'll help you contact it."

The nearest Greek machinery factory, after the war, has stopped producing guns and cannons. After hearing from Constantine that there will be no war in Europe in the near future, the factory manager Skarloy plans to transfer the factory's production capacity to the production of bicycles and motorcycles.

Greek Armaments Minister Yannis, when summarizing experience after the war, once told Constantine that motorcycles or bicycles could be appropriately 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 almost no achievements, and the role it played was far from matching the expensive cost of building cavalry.

Military horses are very delicate animals.

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

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

If it is not satisfactory, it will die for you.

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

Especially in the Battle of Thessaloniki equipped with Maxim heavy machine guns, after seeing the firing rate of this weapon, the cavalry officers looked at each other in bewilderment.

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

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

Therefore, the knowledgeable people in the Greek army also realized that the embarrassment of cavalry on the battlefield in the future - the cavalry units built with a lot of military expenditures are not very useful.

Since the army has realized the plight of the cavalry, Constantine is also happy to see it happen.

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

However, things like cars are definitely not affordable with Greece's industrial scale.

First, Greece's car market is small. So far, Greece has only more than 2 million people, and even fewer people can afford cars, which can't support the automobile industry at all.

Now and for some time in the future, cars will be a luxury except for the wealthy Americans.

Second, a car is composed of thousands of parts. How can Greece have so many factories to produce these numerous parts?

Therefore, compared with cars, motorcycles with much simpler structures naturally come into Constantine's eyes.

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

Motorcycles of 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 can enable the Greek industrial sector to catch up with the revolution of internal combustion engines. Constantine naturally also cares about the motorcycle industry in Greece.

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

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

Greece also has to catch up with the internal combustion engine, another symbol of the Second Industrial Revolution.

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

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

In this way, oil, the source of energy for motorcycle engines, naturally entered Constantine's vision.

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

Because gasoline did not have many application markets.

Not only that, people also have to worry about the explosion caused by the purchase of lighting kerosene mixed with gasoline.

In the eyes of the head of the oil refinery at the end of the 19th century, how to deal with gasoline was a headache. There were safety hazards in storing it. In the process of refining oil, the byproduct gasoline, which could only be poured out.

The waste of gasoline continued until the early 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 affordable for Greeks.

Under these circumstances, it is very suitable to use motorcycles to start the internal combustion engine revolution in Greece.

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

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