Chapter 615 Alternating Current
Tesla was talking about the history of the development of electricity, and there seemed to be light in his eyes. This was very familiar to Tesla, because Tesla himself was a top student.
Professor Kyle: "Haha, I hope so, but I have to go to class now, so you just go ahead and do your work!"
He was not there to listen to Tesla's lecture on physics, and then he rode the new bicycle issued by the East African government towards the school.
Tesla was also happy when he saw Professor Kyle walking away. After all the contact during this period, he felt that Professor Kyle was a good neighbor and the two of them were close friends regardless of age difference.
"Mom, I'm leaving!"
"Well, come back early."
Tesla said hello to his mother who was busy tending the garden, and then slowly went to school.
Tesla's father passed away last year, so the most important person 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 chose to be a scientist. This may be related to several other inventor relatives in his family. More importantly, Tesla's parents hoped that he would become a pastor after graduation, but he himself wanted to be an engineer.
Just as Tesla finished high school, he contracted cholera and was bedridden for nine months without recovery. While seriously ill, Tesla begged his father to let him study engineering. His father agreed to send him to the Polytechnic Institute after he recovered. Tesla eventually recovered.
The cholera outbreak occurred at the 1873 Vienna World Expo. It was very serious in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including many parts of Europe, except Vienna. Tesla was one of the unfortunate victims.
East African Power University.
Tesla rode his bicycle into the school gate, and many students greeted him because Tesla was a relatively famous figure in the school.
The main reason was that he was too young, but he had already become a professor and had important projects in hand. No one questioned Tesla's achievements, because just one year after arriving in East Africa, the restless Tesla made a huge breakthrough in the research of AC motors, and after communicating with the bigwigs of the Hechingen Electric Power Company, he received recognition and appreciation. Even the president Linde recognized his research.
However, people are not very enthusiastic about whether East Africa will use AC to replace DC in the future. The main reason is that the entire power system in East Africa is now based on DC.
If they want to demolish and rebuild, the workload will be huge. Although East Africa is somewhat backward compared to 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 this way, in the eyes of many people, there is no need to promote the illusory alternating current.
After all, alternating current is still in Tesla's laboratory, so it will take some time before it can be applied. Moreover, the entire East Africa now uses direct current, so it will take a lot of effort to modify it.
However, Ernst will definitely promote alternating current in East Africa. This is based on his experience in his previous life, especially the experience he gained from the Far East Empire.
The characteristics of alternating current have been mentioned before. One is that it is suitable for long-distance power transmission, and the other is that it has low requirements for 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 annual output of many countries.
This vast territory also means that East Africa has a need for long-distance power transmission. The current solution to the power supply problem is to build more power plants nearby, but the cost is too high.
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-to-East Power Transmission Project of the Far East Empire in his previous life.
East Africa will also have such a demand in the future. One reason is that the area with the richest hydropower resources in East Africa is at the intersection of the Congo Basin in the west and the central plateaus such as the Katanga Plateau.
Also, if East Africa develops nuclear power in the future, the first choice will definitely be Southwest Africa, which are sparsely populated areas with vast land.
Without mentioning these, just talking about thermal power, East Africa's coal resources are mainly distributed in the south, so the distribution of electricity in East Africa will definitely be uneven in the future, and East Africa's power transmission demand is very large.
Of course, East Africa can also learn from Europe in the past to generate electricity through oil and natural gas, but this is mainly implemented in the eastern region, and resources such as oil generally need to be imported. East Africa’s oil reserves are not yet luxurious enough to be used for power generation.
Speaking of component production, East Africa's parts processing is not as good as that of other countries in the world. Of course, this "others" 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 track. In the past, alternating current dominated the world, proving its superiority. In any case, before Ernst traveled through time, alternating current still suppressed direct current. Now is only the nineteenth century, so choosing the alternating current line will not require considering other issues for at least a hundred years.
Of course, the voltage in East Africa will also change accordingly, but considering the cost, the 220V power supply standard is definitely more advanced than the 110V one. This is an indisputable fact. The 110V power supply line needs to supply the same amount of electricity as the 220V line, the wires need to be thicker, and the size of electrical appliances of the same wattage is also larger than that of 220V.
East Africa will certainly have to give up some costs in the early stages of changing its standards, but these costs are insignificant compared to the cost savings in the later stages.
Because the current electricity market in the world is still very small, the United States actually considered switching to 220 volts in the past, but at that time 110 volts was already basically popularized. If it was forced to change, a large number of existing electrical appliances and equipment would be eliminated, causing great waste, and the cost would be extremely high. It really cannot be changed easily. Now East Africa does not have this concern.
In fact, when it comes down to it, capital is still concerned about profit issues. Alternating current can save a lot of costs in the current environment, which is the most important thing for capital.
What's more, compared with direct current, which is easily lost during transmission, alternating current provides a better user experience. As direct current suffers transmission losses, the farther away from the power plant, the dimmer the light bulb will be. However, alternating current is easy to boost voltage, so the power supply is more stable.
As for the promotion of alternating current in the future, the existence of the Hexingen Company will make this problem easy to solve. The successful commercial use of alternating current in Europe in the past was due to its dominance by the German AEG company, which had a monopoly position in Europe at the time. Now the Hexingen Electric Power Company can play the same role.
This is also of great benefit to European countries. After using alternating current, the amount of copper saved each year is enough to recover the cost.
Nowadays, wires are mainly made of copper, but 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.
Moreover, the fact that AC power has low requirements on component quality and technology has already determined its market advantage over DC power.
(End of this chapter)
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