Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 136 The Most Complete Inventor Lineup
The steam engine invented by Hero of Alexandria was a product of the 1st century AD. It is considered the earliest product of human use of steam power that can be seen in person. But unfortunately it can only be used for "amusement" and has no practical use.

Solovyov also decided to go to the library of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy to inquire about the relevant archives, but such precious manuscripts were not loaned out or even available for reading in the library.

But he did have a solution. After all, the French who invented the pressure cooker in the 17th century had already begun to maturely utilize steam.

Coincidentally, when the war had stagnated and the royalists were doing nothing, Duke Enghien came to Petersburg.

"You are here in Petersburg at this moment, and Austria is fighting against what you consider to be rebels!" (You are here in Petersburg at this moment, and Austria is fighting against what you consider to be rebels!)
Grand Duke Constantine did not understand why the Duke of Enghien, as the heir to the Prince of Condé, suddenly came to Russia from Austria.

“All the efforts we have made over the past few years are being ruined by the clever arrangements of the stupid Austrians!” (All the efforts we have made over the past few years are being ruined by the clever arrangements of the stupid Austrians!)
"Louis-AntoineQu'ont fait encore les Autrichiens?" (What did Louis-Antoine Austrians do?)

"Kaiser Franz Cesar was in great demand for his 18-year-old brother, John the Archbishop, who was an 18-year-old great commander of the army. How smart! How great!"
Obviously, Duke Enghien was angry. What happened in Austria always made people feel unpleasant.

He came to St. Petersburg to sell a number of his grandfather's and father's properties in exchange for money, and then he planned to go to Baden after the armistice.

Archduke John was appointed commander-in-chief for the first time, and his opponent was General Moreau, a famous goalkeeper. Even if he was given Werother as chief of staff, it would be difficult for him to win.

As he spoke, there was not much time left before the Battle of Hohenlinden broke out.

Langeron said that the Duke had the talent and courage to become a famous general, at least on a basic level. After he had confirmed the fate of the anti-French alliance, he left his own royalist corps and came to St. Petersburg to do business.

In the Marble Palace he was warmly received by Grand Duke Constantine and was arranged to stay here. He saw the beautiful Grand Duchess. Although many French people were experts, especially charming young nobles like the Duke of Enghien, Grand Duke Constantine was his friend, and based on this principle, he only met her briefly.

He then mentioned the infighting and power struggles within the Vienna court. Thinking about how his father had once been arrested by the Vienna government, he knew that the Austrians had no good intentions.

If Leopold II were still alive, even though the children of Queen Maria Theresa were jealous of each other, they still had blood ties between them and they would not deal with it like this. After all, there is still a gap between aunt and nephew, and this is what the court is doing now.

As a guest, he was to stay at 5 Million Street, but he still needed to go to the palace to meet Tsar Paul.

In the Duke's view, although the British had bad intentions, they paid real money to do the job. And the blame for this failure cannot be put on them. After all, the battles that were won were mostly fought by the Russians on land, and the British were the main force at sea. Nelson was already a god, but the battles on land were so poor.

"Sire, I think what the Duke means is that, due to the stupidity of the Austrians, the Exile Legion has... has outlived its usefulness."

"Thank you, Count."

I don't know what's wrong with Tsar Paul lately. In diplomatic occasions, he always asks diplomats to translate into Russian so that he can have some time to think, but he himself is getting impatient with being talked like this.

"That's right, Duke. I understand your idea. But Russia will not take hostile actions against France because of the stupid Austrians and those arrogant British. However, I can guarantee one thing, Louis-Antoine, my young friend, if you and your family are unhappy, you can come to Petersburg or go to Jelgava."

"Merci, Your Majesty, I know you can still be relied upon, but each country has its own interests, and it is impossible for us to go to war just for the French crown."

Duke Enghien did not continue to talk about Peter III's stupidity. Although Paul had a bad temper, he at least saw that it would be of no benefit to them to be in the anti-French alliance. If he mentioned his father's stupidity in front of Paul, it would be a taboo and could not be said out loud.

Apart from how much better Paul was than Peter III, he was now aware of some stupid things, including a letter from the British ambassador, Lord Whitworth, which stated that "the Tsar has gone mad."

Therefore, he also instructed Count Rostopchin to speed up the negotiations with France and implement the details, including whether his friends could return to Paris.

But the Prince of Condé was a Bourbon, and like the Bourbons and the Duke of Orleans, they could not return to France and had to live in exile abroad.

Duke Enghien arranged for himself to live in Ettenheim, Baden. The war was doomed to fail and there was no point in continuing like this.

Before he left the Hermitage, though, Paul had a few questions.

"Duke, before you go, I have a small question."

"Your Majesty, do you have any other questions?"

"There is a very interesting memorandum here. You may read it. It was written by a major in the Guards, and his signature is also here."

"Feasibility Report on the Construction of Steam-Powered Ships? As far as I know, there was such an officer in the Condé Army Corps who conducted a test on the Saône River. That officer was an excellent designer. Unfortunately, due to political reasons and because he had offended the Count of Artois and an engineer from the Royal Academy of Sciences who opposed his design, there was no funding to carry out this design."

"There really are people in this field! I thought we had to go to the United States or the United Kingdom to find people like this!"

"Your Majesty, he is currently stationed at the Condé Army in Bohemia. If you need him, you can send someone to fetch him now."

"Very good, I need talents in this area, and there is still enough time. I hope to see him by the end of this year."

Claude François de Jouffroy de Arbans is a long name, which is the full name of the inventor. In fact, he was not the first person to invent the steamboat. The earliest steamboat structure was proposed and patented by British doctor John Allen, but it was not successfully put into any experimental operation. Then came Jonathan Hulse, but his design sank after launching, which became a joke.

The first steamship that could move was the one that the heir to the French marquis ran for the first time on the Saône River in 1783. An unsinkable steamship then exploded in the boiler and had to be returned to the factory for an overhaul. A month later, the ship was successfully operated on the Saône River again with passengers.

However, the officially certified steamships in France at that time had to operate successfully on the Seine River to be recognized. Due to the obstruction of his opponents and insufficient funds, it was not officially recognized by the French Academy of Sciences.

Even the first steamship put into commercial operation in the United States was not built by Robert Fulton. It was designed and built by inventor John Fitch with the help of Scottish engineer William Symington. It operated between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey. However, the river route happened to be a very busy road, and the operation of a horse-drawn carriage was much cheaper than a ship like this one.

This operation of transporting coal from Shanxi to Jiaozuo ultimately ended in operational failure.

As for Mr. Fulton, he was not even as good as the inventor in France when he first operated in Paris - his ship sank. As for the operating routes and the successful operation of steamships, he could only rank second and fourth, that is, he could only rank first in terms of successful operation - if Mr. Fitch had not chosen a "dumb" route himself, he would have ranked second.

The fact that he was ranked fourth also depends on the fact that after Mr. Symington returned to Scotland, he designed a steamship, which made him the de facto third. After Fulton understood the principle of the steamship, he perfected his design and got help from the Scottish engineer Henry Bell, which led to the first successful commercial route.

This is probably the initial history of the steamship from its invention to its mature operation. Moreover, when it came to sea, it was the first time that the British used captured French sailing ships for modification and finally completed a long-distance sea voyage.

The Duke of Enghien was well acquainted with this gentleman, the future Marquis de Jouffroy-Arbans, and therefore recommended him strongly to Tsar Paul.

"Even if it is only used as a transport ship between Kotlin Island and St. Petersburg, this kind of ship is very valuable."

Tsar Paul was always very frugal when it came to his own meals and was very harsh on his officers, but he was very generous to talented military engineers.

"Forty thousand rubles a year and the position of chief engineer at the Admiralty? Your Majesty, you are always very generous in this regard."

"I became the Minister of the Navy when I was a teenager. Although it was just a position assigned to me by my mother, I also regarded it as a sacred responsibility and did my best to improve the treatment of sailors and naval officers."

Of course, the Russian Navy had always been short of funds. It was not until he returned to Gatchina, freed the serfs on his own estate and learned from Peter the Great how to run his own small army that he gained some experience in handling government affairs and military management.

"If there really is such a steamboat, I hope to see it soon, running on the Neva River."

The Duke of Enghien was responsible for arranging people for Tsar Paul, and it just so happened that this gentleman was an exile of the Legion of Condé. With this annuity, the future recognition of his title in Russia (he would become the Marquis de Joux-Arbans in 1801), and the position of chief engineer of the new naval shipyard, he could still afford to keep such an expert.

Moreover, Tsar Paul is also recruiting inventors and engineers to build a new shipyard in Russia. This new ship will be used in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea in the future. The earliest use may be as a transport boat, as long-distance sailing is really difficult.

After figuring out the reasons, Tsar Paul was ambitious. He wanted to make Russia's army stronger while also making its navy stronger.

It can be said that he made Russia Great Again. He could not have imagined that this was a memorandum written by a young officer whom he favored and promoted personally, based on a book introducing the principles of steam engines, while he was kissing his daughter-in-law.

Of course, he had also read the following steam locomotive plan. Tsar Paul had not expected to do these things. In fact, it was not that difficult. Not only did it explain the principles, but today Duke Enghien also told him that there were already engineers and designers.
At the same time, Solovyov was using his family's carpentry to make a static model. He was reviewing all the mechanical knowledge he had learned, but there was no way to generate power from it - after all, batteries had only just been invented and could not provide any effective power.

He believed that by the time his beard turned white, it would be good enough for him to have seen an early internal combustion engine, and he did not expect to come up with any new inventions in the field of electricity, as that was the content of the next industrial revolution.

What he needed to do now was to find a way to complete the early testing work in St. Petersburg, and it would be best if he could lay a railway from Tsarskoye Selo to a certain place.

This also requires more professional engineers in steam engines. All Solovyov could think of was to find some Scots to help according to the British principles.

During the Industrial Revolution, many outstanding inventions in the steam engine came from the Scots, French and Americans, not just in England.

However, it was indeed a troublesome matter for him to hire engineers. Britain and Russia would not enter a state of war until after the Treaty of Tilsit. It was not a big deal to poach people from Britain in the next few years, as long as they could go there.

However, for various reasons, he was unable to go to London or Edinburgh, including the shipyards in Dumfries and the industrial areas in the UK.

Such things have to be put aside. The most successful thing for him was that Paul himself responded to the memo and gave his support.

However, he himself cannot participate directly, and his position as a Guards officer remains unchanged.

When setting up the stall, it is unlikely that one person can handle too much business. He is now responsible for the security of the Winter Palace and the greenhouse cultivation in Pavlovsk, as well as some "personal affairs", which is already quite a headache.

This is not counting the many things he has always wanted to do. The protagonists of time-travel novels are "relatively versatile", but can they handle so many things?

Solovyov does not think this is possible, after all, he is now practicing it.

(End of this chapter)