I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 497 2 Francs vs. Life
After Perna returned from Silesia, she learned that Camelia had become the maid of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. For some reason, she had an inexplicable sense of crisis.

So, she began to unconsciously follow the Crown Prince as closely as possible, as if she was on guard against something.

After entering the distillation workshop, the technical expert Murdoch took over to explain to Joseph: "Your Highness, look, this cylindrical thing is the retort I invented. The thick iron pipe around it is actually the furnace, which is used to heat the coal in the retort...

"Oh, before entering the retort, the coal blocks must be crushed into a specified size. The crushing workshop is just opposite...

"The coal blocks will form coke and produce a lot of coal gas after high-temperature dry distillation. This process will last for 10 hours...

"After that, we need to turn off the fire, take out the coke in the retort, replace it with new coal, and light it again..."

He pointed to a thick brass pipe above his head:

"The gas produced is sent from here to the cooling room. But this gas cannot be used yet. It has to pass through several layers of cloth to filter out the ash and coal slag in the gas...

"The gas is then passed through multiple layers of paper to filter out the oily particles...

"After that, the gas has to pass through the gas scrubber. Oh, that's the tallest 'stone pillar' on the east side.

"It's actually a lot of wooden grids filled with lime water to remove the sulfur in the gas. You know, sulfur burns and makes people cry...

"And a lot of ammonia will dissolve in the lime water used for washing. It was Mr. Lavoisier who reminded me to collect this expensive ammonia..."

Joseph was stunned by what he heard. No wonder the technology of distilling and producing coal gas was patented.

It seems simple to simply dry-burn coal blocks in an air-tight manner, but the actual production process is extremely complicated. If you miss one step, you won't be able to produce usable gas.

For example, as Murdoch mentioned, if you don't take desulfurization into consideration at the beginning, when your distillery is built, the gas sent to the gas lamps will be so fuming that it will make people cry all day long, and the millions of dollars spent on building the plant will probably be wasted.

If there were no talents like Murdoch and Lavoisier, even if he could bring advanced technological theories to future generations, they would probably only remain on paper and would not generate even a sou's worth of profit.

He suddenly remembered the "Talent Introduction Plan" he had planned before, but because he was busy, he didn't push it forward. It seems that he has to put this matter on the agenda in the future.

As he walked deeper into the distillation workshop, Joseph could not help but frown - the smoke and dust around him became thicker and thicker, and he could no longer see things 3 meters away. At the same time, the astringent and smelly smell of coal ash continued to irritate his nasal cavity, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

He quickly turned to Emang and said, "Please give me a mask."

"Mouth covering?" Emang looked confused.

Joseph frowned. He didn't know how to say the word "mask", so he used "mouth covering" instead.

"Ah, the kind that doctors wear on their mouths..."

Upon hearing this, Emang looked at Perna behind him, who also shook her head with clear eyes.

Joseph then remembered that he had never seen Perna or Dr. Lamarck wearing masks. Could it be that this thing has not been invented yet?

He pulled Perna over and gestured: "It's a piece of cotton cloth, square, with ropes on both sides to hang on the ears."

Seeing that Perna was still shaking her head, he gave up completely. It was really an era without even masks... Manager Delas took out a rag-like object from his pocket and handed it to him: "Your Highness, you want to cover your mouth and nose, right?"

"Ah, yes."

De Las immediately gestured: "Like this, cover your face."

Joseph put the "rag" on his face, and his nose and trachea finally felt a little relieved. Then he noticed that some workers also used this triangular rag to cover their faces, like bandits going to work.

He couldn't help but frown. In such a working environment, he would definitely get pneumoconiosis soon without a mask!

Some of these workers are even younger than me...

Although the factory environment in countries around the world was generally poor in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, we couldn't just ignore it since we had seen it.

He first left the hot distillation workshop, took off his mask, breathed in the outside air, and then said to De Las: "There is something called a mask, which can effectively improve the situation of workers inhaling smoke and dust.

"Please find a tailor to order a batch as soon as possible. From now on, all workers must wear masks before they can work."

He motioned to Emang to get a pen and paper, and drew a diagram of the medical mask of later generations: "Stack four layers of cotton yarn together, sew the edges, nail ropes on both sides, and stick an iron wire on the top. When you wear it, the ropes are tied to the ears, and the iron wire presses the bridge of the nose..."

De Las's face almost turned green when he heard this, and he stammered, "Your Highness, the things you are talking about, ah, masks, cost at least 2 francs each. There are more than 200 people in the distillery. This cost... or let the workers buy it themselves?"

So expensive? Joseph was a little puzzled, but he immediately understood that cotton was not a cheap commodity nowadays.

Ordinary people can only buy one or two cotton-padded clothes in their lifetime, and usually wear linen clothes. Iron wire also needs to be customized to the size and hardness of masks. In the absence of industrial mass production, the price will not be cheap.

He sighed helplessly: "I'll pay for this. Please make the masks as soon as possible and distribute them to the workers."

"Ah! Thank you for your generosity and kindness." Dellas said hurriedly, "But you can't pay for this. It's better to deduct it from the company's account."

"You don't have to refuse." Joseph said, and then he remembered the workers' difficult working conditions and instructed De Las, "Check the workers' health every six months, and treat them as soon as possible if any health problems are found. Oh, I will find a way to pay for the checkups, and you just need to organize the workers to cooperate."

He thought for a moment and added, "But you can't just fire workers for health reasons."

The Industrial Development Fund is the largest shareholder of the gas distillery, and the Development Fund has the final say, so it can completely influence the rules and regulations here.

De Las was extremely surprised when he heard this, he had never seen a superior who cared so much about the workers, so he quickly flattered and thanked them.

Joseph knew that workers must be given basic living and health protection so that industrial development could be stable and sustainable and there would be fewer workers' riots.

However, absolutely no capitalist will take the initiative to provide such protection, as it will reduce their profits, so legislation is needed to solve this problem.

Protecting workers' rights may seem to increase industrial costs, lead to higher product prices, and reduce competitiveness. But in fact, only workers who are human beings can produce qualified products. Workers who are livestock cannot promote industrial development.

(End of this chapter)