The journey starts from the Titanic

The spring night is a short day, and the king does not come early.This sentence is half appropriate for Situ Nan, because he was late.

When Situ Nan came to the Bethlehem Shipyard in New York, a tall and thin man was on the stage proudly introducing a large circular iron ball with several tentacles beside him: "This is our William-Roosevelt Institute joint The mine WR 1, developed by Bethlehem, has a diameter of 450 mm, a total weight of 180 kg, 140 kg of explosives, and an anchor depth of up to 30 meters. It is completely mechanically triggered and detonates the explosives inside once the warship touches the tentacles of the mine.

These mines are specially designed to deal with German submarines. They can be distributed on the periphery of the submarine base or on the route of the submarine. These mines will form a blockade membrane in the water, which can effectively strike and blockade passing submarines.At the same time, it can also be used for drifting mines, arranged in a port blockade."

For this experiment, for the sake of a comeback, Nikola Tesla has been very busy for more than a month and has not rested much. When Situ Nan saw him again, there was still a faint dark circle on his face.

Fortunately, he was energetic. Although he was a little thin, his spirit was euphoric. He talked about his invention to everyone without feeling tired at all.

Today's experiment is very important for both Nicholas and the Navy, and Roosevelt, the powerful man in the Navy Department, also came.

If the experiment is successful, it will effectively persuade the Navy to purchase a large number of mines. This will not only make the company economically profitable, but it will also be a turnaround for Nikola Tesla himself. It will not only repay a large amount of debt, but also It will also rebuild the confidence and prestige of Nikola Tesla.

Roosevelt remained silent. He knew about the wr-1 mine. It was originally developed by the mine research institute co-operated by the Roosevelt family and Situ Nan.To Roosevelt’s surprise, he did not expect Nikola Tesla to make a sample so quickly, and today he can conduct sea trials.

However, this is good, and it is possible to realize the plan to block German submarines by mines.

Now is the craziest time for German submarines, even if the British and American navies have established an escort system, a large number of destroyers have been sent to the Atlantic to escort them and are chasing German submarines all over the world.

But the ruthless Germans still mobilized vigorously and frequently attacked passing ships, causing hundreds of thousands of tons of merchant ships in a month.Is this okay?Not to mention the fact that more than one million tons of merchant ships have been sunk by the British, even Americans with a well-developed shipbuilding industry cannot withstand the loss of hundreds of thousands of tons of merchant ships in a month!

Roosevelt had to face tremendous pressure as the Navy Deputy Commander.So he has high expectations for today's experiment.

Seeing Situ Nan coming in, Roosevelt nodded, waved his hand, and said, "Let's see the results of the experiment! Hope there is good news."

So under the arrangement of the Bethlehem Company, everyone was transferred to an observation ship.After a while, the observation ship was anchored in a remote sea outside of New York Harbor.

The blue waves are endless, the water waves are not thriving, a small area of ​​water in front of the sea has been marked with buoys, and the sea below is covered with the first batch of 50 wr-1 mines newly put into production.

"Are you sure?" Situ Nan walked to Nikola Tesla and asked in a low voice.He has seen experiments with mortars, as well as experiments with destroyers and even battleships, but this is the first time he has seen experiments with mines, so he is somewhat curious.

The sea is flowing, and the mines will drift with the waves. In the vast sea, who knows if the mines can stand by and blow up the submarine?

"Come on!" Nikola Tesla said excitedly, pointing to a stick on the surface of the sea that was a bit like an antenna. "See if it is a radio remote control technology that I invented. I used it on a submarine. . Later, we will use radio to control the submarine through a small area of ​​sea."

A red cloth was tied to the top of the antenna erected from the sea. It was estimated to be used for marking, so Situ Nan could see that the red section was slowly moving at sea.

"What? That antenna was discovered by a submarine? What about the people inside? If it really explodes, what about the people inside?" Situ Nan exclaimed, Damn, this guy did it exactly according to actual combat conditions. Experiment.

Nikola Tesla has already introduced it before, so the people who accompanied the visit were very calm. Except for Situ Nan, who told someone to be late?I also asked an almost idiot question.Everyone couldn't help but laugh, but everyone pretended not to hear, and looked forward, and no one looked back at Situ Nan.

"Yeah. I bought an obsolete old Holland submarine, but there is no one inside. The route has been set. I will use the radio to control the submarine through the minefield and it will explode at that time. Look!"

Nikola Tesla glanced at Situ Nan secretly and found that the other party did not ask about buying a submarine. You must know that even the old Holland submarine is not cheap!Taking the William Roosevelt Mine Research Institute's total research funding of $100,000, such an experiment is really extravagant.So only succeed, not fail.

"Oh! That's it?" After Situ Nan finished speaking, he continued to look at the sea not far away. As for how the magical Nikola Tesla did this, it was not his concern.

"Why didn't it explode?" Seeing that the antenna on the ocean slowly passed through the marked sea area for a long distance, it seemed that there was no meaning to explode, Situ Nan muttered to himself.

"Failed! This mine is not very reliable!" Some people sighed softly.Franklin Roosevelt frowned inadvertently although his face was still calm.Situ Nan didn't care, anyway, he didn't expect success once.

"Could there be too few mines in the experiment? Maybe it should be arranged with a higher density." Situ Nan and Tony Morey, the chief of Bethlehem Armament Company, discussed in a low voice.

"Well, it should be like this. We went back to produce 500 more. I don't believe that a small sea area with so many mines would blow up that slacker submarine." Tony Morey quickly agreed.He used to be a vice president of the California Iron and Steel Company, and has now been transferred to the east to be responsible for the weapons production of the Bethlehem Company.

He had a full view of the expressions of everyone, but Nikola Tesla didn't move, staring at the sea ahead, clenching his fists, he couldn't give up.But wait and wait, but I didn't hear the sound of explosion coming out from a distance.

The antenna had completely passed the test waters, and the red was still floating on the sea, how dazzling it was in the eyes of Nikola Tesla.His face twitched, his eyes dimmed a lot.

Chapter 158 Rebuilding Confidence, Nicholas's New Toy (Part 2)

This scene fell in the eyes of Situ Nan. He couldn't help but worry that it didn't matter if the mine experiment was unsuccessful, but the confidence that Nikola Tesla, a scientific master just regained, must not be hit!I still have many plans to use Nikola Tesla to achieve!

Situ Nan thought. When he was trying to comfort Nikola Tesla, he suddenly heard a silent bursting sound. Looking back, there was a splash of water on the sea, and the antenna was slowly disappearing. Going down, the red cloth gradually disappeared.

"The antenna sank, the submarine sank, it succeeded! Oh! Yes!" Tony Morey first shouted out loud.

"Damn it, that was my line! He took the lead." A person next to him looked at the happy Tony Morey with dissatisfaction.

There was no blissful explosion, but rather dull, but looking at the mess on the sea in the distance, there were debris and oil coming up from time to time, but the hand floated with the sea.

Situ Nan looked at Nikola Tesla suspiciously and asked, "Success?"

"Yes! We succeeded! I succeeded!" Nikola Tesla grabbed Situ Nan's hand and said excitedly, as the sweat on his head dropped with the shaking of his body.

He didn't have much hope just now, but he didn't expect to turn around and finally exploded when the experimental submarine sailed out of the experimental waters!

He was under tremendous pressure, he withstood the test, and his experiment finally succeeded!Although among his many great inventions, this is not something to be proud of, but as a turning point in his life, a new starting point, Nikola Tesla's mood at this moment is hard to express.

"Congratulations! Mr. Tesla, your experiment is very successful. We see its value!" Roosevelt walked over with excitement and shook hands with Nikola Tesla.

"Thank you!" Nikola Tesla said reservedly, suppressing the excitement in his heart, as if he had returned to the great scientist who had no one knows no one in the past, instead of the defendant who was almost bankrupt in court!

He has such confidence!There should be too!

"How about the cost?" An accompanying official next to Roosevelt was concerned. He was in charge of weapons procurement, so he was particularly sensitive in this regard.

But this guy was overly excited and asked a little blindly. Nikola Tesla is not the manager of the production department, so he can't return to this question.

"We can't answer the specific numbers for a while, but because of the addition of the depth setting device, the production process is more cumbersome, and Mr. Tesla also designed a lot of new technologies, so the wr-1 mine must be more demanding than ordinary drifting. It is four or five times more expensive, but it is completely worth the money, and the success of the experiment also reflects this. If it can be mass-produced, the cost should be reduced, and it is estimated that it can be almost back to two or three times that of ordinary mines. "

Tony Morey stood up and said that Tony Morey didn’t pay much attention to the mine experiment at first, but it was the big boss Situ Nan that gave strong support to Nikola Tesla’s experiment. · Tesla's request is almost responsive.

But I didn’t expect to receive a notice a few days ago that this experiment would have shocked the big shots. Even the company’s big boss Situ Nan rushed over with great interest, so Tony Morey had to temporarily add about Knowledge of mines.It can finally come in handy now.

Situ Nan nodded, such things as sea mines are nothing but cheap, and if luck is good, a sea mine of several hundred dollars can sink a million-dollar warship to the bottom of the sea.Judging from the madness of German submarines, the plan of using mines to blockade submarine bases and restrict the scope of submarine activities is quite marketable, and it is also a card played by Roosevelt in the Admiralty.Let's not talk about the effect, but at least it seems that booing is not bad, and it is quite promising.

Sure enough, Roosevelt’s words immediately fulfilled Situ Nan’s ideas. Roosevelt said solemnly: “Immediately arrange for manpower to produce this mine on a large scale. At least a batch of 1,000 mines will be produced for our soldiers to train how to implement the relevant sea areas. Bethlehem should send engineers to provide technical support for the navy. This matter is of great significance to our war. We must attach great importance to it."

...

"Nicholas, congratulations. You really did not disappoint me!" After completing the experiment at sea, Roosevelt left a representative of the Admiralty and hurriedly left after negotiations with Tony Morey. Situ Nan and Nicholas Tesla sat together.

"You have passed the test. I will build a Nikola Tesla research room like Bell Labs for you in the west. Let go of the mines. I need you to conduct radio research below." Situ Nandao .

Nikola Tesla nodded. The two had made an agreement. As for New York, it would not make him feel comfortable as Edison was in full swing.

If I hadn't met Situ Nan, I might really have to receive the humiliating Edison Medal at this moment!Nikola Tesla was full of emotions, but there was absolutely no nostalgia.

"By the way, Nikolai, are you interested in teaching more children how to play with your'toys'?" Situ Nan asked suddenly.

This made Nikola Tesla's world's number one IQ a little confused.

"What? A toy?" His cute mid-head hair seemed to split a lot.

"Yeah, don't you often make strange toys?" Situ Nan smiled and said, "I am going to set up a university in California with a major in radio communication. I think it is called Niguo. La Tesla Radio Academy is more appropriate, what do you think?"

"No, no! Let me go to class, this won't work, I don't have so much time." Nikola Tesla's eyes flashed, but he still shook his head firmly.