Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 286 Yu Qian listens to the order
Inside the Wenhua Hall.

"I have decided to start construction in March next year for two years to build a cable telegraph from Ningxia and Liaoyang to the capital. Who do you think can be responsible for this?"

Zhu Gaoxu sat back on the dragon chair and looked at Zhu Zhanyu who was standing beside him and asked.

Zhu Zhanyu pondered for a moment, and then said crisply: "Hu Ming is the director of the Patent Office of the Ministry of Industry."

"Why is it Hu Hui, who is in his fifties, and not the young and promising Kuai Luban (Kuai Xiang)?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked in surprise.

Kuai Xiang, a native of Wu County, was born in the 31st year of Hongwu. He was a hereditary construction craftsman. His father, Kuai Fu, had superb skills. He was elected to the capital in the early Yongle period and became the "head carpenter" in charge of building the Forbidden City Palace.

In the 13th year of Yongle, Zhu Di officially moved the capital of the Ming Dynasty from Jinling to Peiping, and recruited craftsmen from all over the world to go to Peiping to continue the construction work.

As Zhu Di's entourage, Kuai Xiang went north first to participate in the architectural design of the Forbidden City.

Because of his superior design skills, he was appointed as the designer of major projects in the palace.

Kuai Xiang's first task was to design and organize the construction of Chengtian Gate as the main entrance of the palace.

This project was completed in the 17th year of Yongle under his planning. After its completion, it was praised by civil and military officials. Zhu Di was very happy and called it "Kuai Lu Ban".

"Father, I think that although Hu Xi is 50 years old, he was the first leader of the electromagnetic experiment group of Jinling Normal University, and later participated in wireless telegraphy, wired telegraphy, generators, electric lights and other related projects. Exploration and research and development of objects and other matters.”

Zhu Zhanyu slowly explained the reason why he chose Hu Hui: "It is more appropriate to leave the construction of wired telegraph to him."

After Hu Hu led people to develop the prototype of the electromagnetic telegraph envisioned by Zhu Gaoxu, based on the two signals of sparks and no sparks when the current was turned on and off, he invented the "telegraph code" composed of dots and dashes a few years later. ".

Since this type of code uses different combinations of "dots", "dashes" and "intervals" to represent numbers, punctuation and symbols, it is actually an electrical pulse signal of varying lengths of time. Compared with the traditional concept of the three talents of heaven, earth and man, It was so close that it was named "Sancai Code" by Hu Hui and others.

Specifically, the electric keys are pressed manually to open and close the key contacts, forming "dot", "dash" and "space" signals, which are transmitted through the circuit. After the receiving end receives this electrical signal, a "beep" is generated. , "click" sound, "click" sound is "dot", "click" sound is "stroke", for the collector to listen to the newspaper copy.

In fact, the so-called "Sancai Code" is the historical "Morse Code".

However, neither wired telegraphy nor wireless telegraphy was invented by one person alone, but by an experimental team after thousands of exploration attempts.

"Having said that, Hu Xi has been mainly responsible for the affairs of the Patent Office and the Moqiao Branch in the past ten years or so, and has not been involved in projects similar to building telegraph lines."

Zhu Gaoxu had completely different views on the person responsible for building the cable telegraph than Prince Zhu Zhanyu.

He explained patiently: "What the Mo Qiao Branch does is all clever things. As for the errands of the Patent Office, they often deal with documents. Building a wired telegraph is more complicated than building a road. Although Hu Hui's mind is enough It is useful, but this is not its specialty.”

As early as the first year of Yongle, after Zhu Gaoxu saw the function of the improved large spinning wheel, he ordered the Ministry of Industry to imitate it, and then promoted its use in Jiangning Weaving Bureau.

Because the large spinning wheel had a low failure rate in actual use and increased the output of the manufacturing bureau tenfold, Zhu Gaoxu specially asked Zhu Di to set up a patent bureau under the Ministry of Industry.

"Zuo Zhuan·Ai Gong 16th Year": "If you give the patent to the royal family and ignore the Chu State, you will die."

"Historical Records·Zhou Benji": "Hu Ronggong loves patents but does not know the disaster."

"On Retrospectives": "In ancient times, the famous mountains and great swamps were not sealed, but were patented by the world."

It can be seen that the term "patent" existed in history a long time ago, but its meaning was slightly different from that of later generations.

In the early Yongle period, Zhu Gaoxu petitioned Zhu Di to establish the Patent Office, which was a yamen that specialized in managing the rights and interests of all those who invented and created new objects in the world. The purpose was to protect the longevity of people like Zheng Xiaojun (see Chapter 1 above) who invented the spinning wheel. Benefit.

It’s not that there were no skilled craftsmen in the past dynasties who made extremely clever things, it was just that they couldn’t get enough benefits from what they made and couldn’t persist in specializing in research, so they were eventually forced to change their profession and find another way out.

Zhu Di issued an edict to establish a patent office, which legally stipulated that the patentee or his successor would be granted the exclusive right to use his invention within a certain period of time.

The emphasis here is on rights, because Zhu Di’s edict clearly stipulates that patent rights are an exclusive right. This right is exclusive and exclusive. If a non-patentee wants to use other people’s patented technology, he must obtain authorization from the patentee. Maybe it's allowed, otherwise it's a violation of Ming law.However, in order to protect the vital interests of the inventor and prevent him from being coerced or induced by peers or others in real life, the Patent Office under the Ministry of Industry will pay for the inventor’s patent rights in the name of the court.

The inventor will receive a generous patent fee every month. The duration of this payment is determined by the value of the patent, with a minimum of five years and a maximum of 50 years.

In this way, when inventors who are good at making ingenious things have profit protection and motivation, this kind of continuous invention can continue in a virtuous cycle.

This was also the biggest reason why Zhu Gaoxu persuaded Zhu Di to issue an edict to establish a patent office.

"Actually, Kuai Xiang is not the right person for this matter."

Zhu Gaoxu added again: "Because the telegraph I plan to build needs to be buried underground."

"underground?"

Zhu Zhanyu said in shock.

In later generations of China, as the population continued to increase, the demand for cables also increased. If all cables were exposed to the ground, there would be huge risks.

In addition to accidents caused by people and animals accidentally touching cables, in other cases, such as exposed cables, they will be affected by weather and environment at the same time, and maintenance costs are not generally high.

Moreover, there is also the possibility of being cut off and stolen.

Because the Ming Dynasty fleet brought back a large number of rubber saplings from many trips to sea, rubber trees were widely planted in southeastern coastal areas such as Guangdong and Guangxi more than ten years ago.

Therefore, the wires used in the Ming Dynasty to build wired telegraphs are made of copper wire on the inside and wrapped on the outside with a layer of vulcanized insulating rubber that has high elasticity, heat resistance, tensile strength and is insoluble in organic solvents.

Now that such conditions are in place, it is not difficult to understand why Zhu Gaoxu could not stupidly build telegraph poles, put the lines in the sky, and directly bury the waterproof wires underground.

"Although Kuai Xiang's qualifications and skills are not inferior to Hu Hui's, the construction of wired telegraph is very involved, and it requires a young man who is smart, dares to do things, and is not afraid of offending local officials."

Zhu Gaoxu already had a candidate in mind and immediately said: "Prince, tomorrow you will summon Song Li, Cai Xin, Hu Hui, Kuai Xiang and other officials from the Ministry of Industry to draft a simple charter for setting up a wired telegraph."

"My son leads the order."

Zhu Zhanyu bowed and accepted the order.

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the screen on the right side of the hall and said loudly: "Where is Yu Qian, the official on duty?"

When Yu Qian heard this, he quickly put down the pen in his hand, stood up and walked out from behind the screen.

He walked to the middle of the hall, bowed respectfully and said, "I pay my respects to Your Majesty. Long live my emperor."

"Yu Qian, did you hear what I just said to the prince?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked again.

Yu Qian said: "Go back to your Majesty, I heard you."

"Yu Qian listened to the decree. I order you to be the supervisory censor of Shaanxi and Liaodong provinces and handle the matter of building a cable telegraph for me. The construction will start in March next year and will last for two years. I will ask the Huimin Construction Bureau and local yamen to coordinate with you. This matter."

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said: "On the Spring Festival of the fourth year of Qianxi, I hope to send New Year blessings to the officials and people of Ningxia and Liaoyang through wired telegrams in the capital."

"The minister obeys the order."

Yu Qian bowed and accepted the order: "I will do my best to complete this matter and live up to your majesty's trust!"

(End of this chapter)