Reincarnated as Napoleon II-Chapter 94: Visiting the Ministry of Science and Technology

Chapter 94: Visiting the Ministry of Science and Technology

Back at his office.

Automobile. Napoleon II loves to hear that word. For the last fifteen years and in those years, the transportation relies on horse-drawn carriages and steam locomotives. He has no problem with steam locomotives as it speeds up the trades and logistics but the horse-drawn carriages, they are slow and rely on horses.

Though there is also no problem with horses. It’s just that horses tire and need to eat like a human too. And it poops a lot. In one particular year when France was industrializing heavily in the past years, there were a lot of carriage movements along the roads and streets of Paris.

And given that more than a thousand or hundred thousand horses pass through everyday, you could imagine the smell of urine and poop in the air. It was a stench and it doesn’t reflect an industrialised society. Even though they had to combat it with measures such as each horse-drawn carriage has to have their own shit tub so that they carry their waste and not fall on the road, it still smells.

Napoleon II had to do with it. Just like he had thought, France is already a modernized state with a mature manufacturing industry with the Ministry of Science and Technology already working on the principle and concept for the past years, maybe it’s time that he make a visit and inspect it himself.

"Charles!" Napoleon II called and promptly, Charles-Louis entered.

"You have summoned me, Your Imperial Majesty," Charles bowed his head.

"What’s my schedule for today?"

"Today sir, you are to meet a Russian Ambassador for lunch," Charles answered.

"I want you to move it to dinner, I need to go somewhere," Napoleon II said.

"Where to, Your Imperial Majesty?" Charles inquired.

"To the Ministry of Science and Technology," Napoleon II answered. "I will inspect something."

"I will prepare the carriage for transport, Your Imperial Majesty," Charles said.

"In the next few years it will change to automobiles," Napoleon II mumbled.

"I apologize, Your Imperial Majesty, but did you say something?"

"No no, just prepare the transport," Napoleon II said, waving it off.

Charles bowed once and turned on his heel. The door shut softly behind him.

Napoleon II finished the last of his chocolate, set the cup aside, and adjusted his coat. He glanced once at the window. Snow still fell in a steady curtain, muting the sound of the city beyond the palace walls.

Perfect weather to test machinery, he thought.

A few minutes later, Beaumont returned.

"The transport is ready, Your Imperial Majesty."

Napoleon nodded. "Let’s go."

***

The palace carriage carried them through Paris at a measured pace. Hooves struck the stone road in a steady rhythm. Napoleon watched through the window.

A cart wheel hit a rut. The entire carriage jolted. The horse snorted, breath fogging the air.

He imagined the same street without animals. Rubber tires. Engines humming. No piles to shovel. No beasts to rest.

The carriage rolled to a stop in front of a building.

It’s the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. Founded in 1794. It was the place where France preserves its knowledge, and a shift in education where the people must study applied sciences and engineering instead of classical arts and religion. Now,it is the headquarters of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Speaking of the Ministry, the minister himself, Victoire Lemaine, was already standing by the entrance. He stepped forward to meet Napoleon II.

"Your Imperial Majesty, I was informed that you were going to visit our headquarters. Your presence honors us," Victoire Lemaine said, bowing slightly.

Napoleon waved the formality away. "I’m not here to be honored, Minister. I want to see what you’ve been building."

Lemaine straightened. "Then you’ve come on a productive day, sire. Several teams are mid-test."

They stepped inside. The heavy doors shut behind them, sealing out the cold, replaced by a warm air circulating through a series of vents.

Napoleon glanced at the minister. "Where are the Niépces?"

Lemaine didn’t hesitate. "Inside, sire. They’ve been working since morning. Internal combustion trials."

"Take me to them."

"At once, Your Imperial Majesty."

Lemaine pivoted and led the way down a narrower corridor. There were multiple labs inside the headquarters of the Ministry of Science of Technology, each having its own discipline like chemistry, metallurgy, physics, et cetera. This is where most of the modern technologies were born and patented under his name, to which he’d give to industrialists or companies that would commercialize them in exchange for royalties.

Minutes later, they arrived at the lab. Napoleon II saw the brothers behind a glass wall, tinkering on an internal combustion engine.

The brothers saw Napoleon II and immediately stopped working and stood in attention.

"Your Imperial Majesty," they intoned.

Napoleon II stepped inside the lab and inspected their clothes greased with oil and sweat. They were working very hard.

"So, this is the gas engine that you have been working with?"

"Yes Your Imperial Majesty, and we also followed your instructions to make it perfect, do you want to see it?"

"Why not?" Napoleon II stepped further and inspected the engines. There were two engines the brothers were working on, one was for the gas engine and the other for the diesel engine.

It’s important to know the concept before making a practical invention. Gas and diesel engines are heat engines with a difference being what type of fuel is used. And they work in principle with the thermodynamic cycle known as Otto cycle, which is the gas cycle, and diesel cycle.

But Otto and Diesel are not yet born here so Napoleon II simply used their technical term. Gas for gas engine and fuel oil for diesel. In terms of the cycle, the difference is that in the Otto cycle, heat is added and rejected in constant volume process while in the diesel cycle, heat is added in constant pressure and rejected in constant volume.

Napoleon II inspected the machine before his eyes, especially the layout of the materials.

"Seems good, can you start it?" Napoleon II asked.

The brothers exchanged a quick glance.

"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty," Nicéphore answered. "We just completed a compression check."

Claudine-Antoinette moved first. She reached for a brass valve and opened it a quarter turn. A faint hiss followed as fuel vapor fed into the intake chamber. Nicéphore crouched beside the engine block and checked the timing linkage with his fingers, making a small adjustment.

"Clear," he said.

Napoleon stepped back half a pace. Lemaine folded his arms, watching closely.

Nicéphore gripped the starter lever and gave it a hard pull.

The engine coughed.

Once.

Twice.

Then it caught.

A sharp, rhythmic pop-pop-pop filled the lab as the flywheel spun faster. The entire frame vibrated, bolts rattling in their housings.

Napoleon’s eyes fixed on the rotating assembly.

The pistons moved in clean strokes. Intake. Compression. Combustion. Exhaust. Again and again, the cycle repeating with mechanical certainty.

"It’s holding," Claudine-Antoinette said over the noise. "Pressure is stable."

Nicéphore checked a gauge mounted on the side. "Temperature rising... within expected range."

Napoleon leaned in slightly, studying the motion. No violent shaking. No misfires. They’ve done a really great job.

"How long can it run like this?" he asked.

"Well Your Imperial Majesty, so long as there’s fuel, it will run until its parts break down," Nicéphore replied. "This is a revolutionary technology I must say. Instead of coal, we use oil. And it is so powerful too that it can replace steam locomotives with internal combustion engines."

"Steam locomotives are good so we will keep it that way for another two to three decades and gradually phase them out but I need you to work on another prototype."

"Another engine sir?"

"No, I want an application of this technology," Napoleon II said and added. "Do you have a chalkboard that I can use? I will show it to you."