African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 615 Alternating Current

Tesla talked about the history of the development of electricity with a light in his eyes. This was something Tesla treasured a lot because Tesla himself was a scholar.

Professor Kyle: "Haha, I hope so, but now I have to rush to class, so you can continue your work!"

He did not come to listen to Tesla’s lecture on physics, and then rode the bicycle newly issued by the East African government towards the school.

Seeing Professor Kyle walk away, Tesla was also happy. After getting in touch with him during this time, he found that Professor Kyle was a good neighbor, and the two of them had known each other for years.

 “Mom, I’m leaving!”

 “Well, come back soon.”

 Tesla said hello to his mother who was busy taking care of the garden, and then slowly walked to the school.

Tesla's father passed away last year, so the most important thing in the family is his mother. His father is an Orthodox priest, and his mother is also the daughter of an Orthodox priest, so Tesla's parents once hoped that Tesla would also become a priest.

However, Tesla still embarked on the path of a scientist. This may be related to several other inventor relatives in the family, and more importantly, Tesla’s parents wanted him to be a priest after graduation, but he wanted to be an engineer.

Just when Tesla was finishing high school, he contracted cholera and lay in bed for nine months, unable to recover. When Tesla was seriously ill, he begged his father to study engineering. His father agreed to send him to the Polytechnic after he recovered. Tesla eventually recovered successfully.

 And the cholera epidemic, that is, the 1873 Vienna World's Fair, was very serious in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire except Vienna, including many places in Europe. Tesla was one of the unfortunate ones to be shot.

 European University of East African Countries.

 Tesla entered the school gate on his bicycle, and many students greeted him, because Tesla was a relatively famous figure in the school.

The main reason is that he is too young, but he has already become a professor and has important projects in his hands. As for Tesla's achievements, no one questions Tesla, because Tesla has just arrived in East Africa for a year, and Tesla can't sit still. Lajie made a huge breakthrough in the research of AC motors, and after communicating with the bosses of the Hechingen Electric Power Company, he was recognized and appreciated. Even the principal Linde also recognized his research.

However, no one is very enthusiastic about whether East Africa will use alternating current to replace direct current in the future. The main reason is that the entire power system in East Africa is now based on direct current.

If you want to overthrow and rebuild, the amount of work is not small, and although East Africa is a bit behind Europe, it is not the case in the field of electricity. Therefore, in the era of direct current, East Africa also has a certain say. In the eyes of many people, the illusory alternating current There is no need to promote it.

After all, alternating current is still lying in Tesla's laboratory, and it will take some time to apply it. Moreover, the whole country in East Africa is now powered by direct current, and it will take a lot of effort to modify it.

However, Ernst will definitely vigorously promote alternating current in East Africa. This is based on the experience of his previous life, especially the experience given to him by the Far Eastern Empire.

I have mentioned the characteristics of alternating current before. One is that it is suitable for long-distance power transmission, and the other is that it has low requirements on components.

These two points are very important for East Africa. East Africa is vast and any railway can easily reach thousands of kilometers, which is equivalent to the entire country of many countries in a year. This vast territory also means that East Africa has a need for long-distance power transmission. The current solution for power supply is to build more power plants nearby, which is too costly.

As for the power transmission market, it is not very broad, but Ernst knows that this is only the case at the moment, just like the West-East Power Transmission Project of the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life.

East Africa will also have such demand in the future. One area with the richest hydropower resources in East Africa is the intersection of the Congo Basin in the west and the Katanga Plateau and other central plateaus.

Also, if East Africa develops nuclear power in the future, the first choice will definitely be in Southwest Africa, which are vast and sparsely populated areas.

 Leave aside these, talking about thermal power alone, East Africa’s coal resources are mainly distributed in the south, so the distribution of electricity in East Africa must be uneven in the future, and East Africa’s power transmission demand is very broad.

Of course, East Africa can also learn from Europe's previous experience in generating electricity through oil and natural gas, but this is mainly done in the eastern region, and oil is a resource that generally needs to be imported. East Africa's oil reserves do not yet have the luxury of being used for power generation.

Furthermore, when it comes to component production, parts processing in East Africa is not as good as other countries in the world. Of course, this mainly refers to a few top powers, so lowering the standards for components is beneficial to the current East African industry.

Moreover, alternating current is a new circuit. In the previous life, alternating current dominated the world, proving its superiority. Anyway, before Ernst's time travel, alternating current still suppressed direct current. It is only the 19th century, so there is no need to consider other things when choosing the alternating current line for at least a hundred years. question.

Of course, the relative voltage in East Africa will also change accordingly, but from a cost perspective, the 220V power supply standard is definitely more advanced than 110V. This is an indisputable fact. The 110V power supply line requires the same amount of electricity as the 220V line, the wires are thicker, and the electrical appliances with the same wattage are larger than the 220V ones.

 East Africa will definitely have to give up some costs in the early stage of changing standards, but they are nothing compared to the costs saved in the later stages.

Because the current electricity market in the world is still very small, in fact, the United States also considered switching to 220 volts in its previous life, but at that time 110 volts had been basically popular. If the change was forced, a large number of existing electrical appliances and equipment would be eliminated, causing great waste. The cost is extremely high, so it really cannot be changed easily. Now East Africa does not have this concern.

 In fact, in the final analysis, capital still considers interests. AC can save a lot of costs in the current environment, which is the most important thing for capital.

What's more, the user experience of alternating current is better than that of direct current, which is easily lost during the power transmission process. With the transmission loss of direct current, the further away from the power plant, the darker the light bulb will be. However, alternating current is easy to boost the voltage, so the power supply more stable.

As for the promotion of alternating current in the future, the existence of the Hechingen Company will be a good solution to this problem. The successful commercialization of alternating current in Europe in the past was due to the dominance of the German AEG Company, which had a monopoly in Europe at that time. Now the Hechingen Electric Power Company can play the same role. role.

 This is also of great benefit to European countries. After using AC, the amount of copper that can be saved every year is enough to recover the cost.

 At present, wire rods are mainly copper, and copper in Europe is not very abundant compared to East Africa and the United States, so it is very important for Europe to save it.

Furthermore, the low quality and technical requirements for components of AC have already determined its market advantage over DC.

 (End of this chapter)