Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 179: Chapter 159: The Irresponsible Director of the Royal Gunpowder Bureau

Thinking about the unification of measurement standards, Joseph couldn't help but sigh.

Speaking of which, the French Academy of Sciences, under the proposal of several academic heavyweights, had long been ready to set up a "Standards Committee" to work on the unification of measurement standards—it could be said that France's scientific community was extremely forward-looking, as this was the first such initiative in Europe.

However, influenced by the terrifying efficiency of the current bureaucratic system, it took several years for the Academy to even finish discussing the funding application, and so the Standards Committee fell by the wayside.

Historically, it wasn't until after the Great Revolution that the initiative was finally implemented with the support of the National Convention.

The efforts of France's Standards Committee also drove the establishment of the international metric system, paving the way for France's industrialization.

But at the moment, the "Standards Committee" was still just a concept. Joseph knew he had to intervene, otherwise ten or eight years might pass before he saw standardized units of measurement.

Oh, the damned bureaucratic system of France... Joseph shook his head silently. Once he freed up his hands, he would have to overhaul the administrative system as soon as possible!

It wasn't until dinnertime that Joseph finally managed to explain the concept of "standardized production" to the two armory managers in basic terms.

Standardized production would appear to be common sense in later times, with even small rural workshops following these standards during production, but at the end of the 18th century, it was an exceedingly advanced concept, and for the two managers it was indeed not easy to grasp.

Considering that Joseph also interspersed some enterprise management skills, it increased the pressure on their learning process.

Exhausted, Joseph drank a large glass of water to ease the discomfort in his throat caused by overuse, and felt a headache coming on thinking about having to continue the next day.

Considering the current progress, it would take at least half a month to complete the teaching of knowledge about standardized production.

He had gone to such lengths, but had only trained Gaman and Martinier, which made him question if the cost-effectiveness ratio was too low.

If he was going to teach anyway, why not educate several people at once?

He immediately thought that he could directly start a course on "Industrial Enterprise Management," which would certainly be more efficient than teaching individuals one by one.

So who should he find to be the first batch of instructors?

When Joseph thought of enterprise management, Venio immediately came to mind—Venio had just completed the potato promotion and stayed in Paris to enjoy Fashion Week, conveniently not yet returned to Bordeaux.

Since Venio was an entrepreneur himself, managed a plantation, and was good at giving presentations, coupled with his high work enthusiasm, he was very suitable for spreading advanced industrial management concepts.

Even some of his friends from the Girondin Party were quite suitable for this task.

Initially, they could go to the industrial development zone to teach high-level managers at the factories, and later on, open a course at the University of Paris to train professional managers.

This was much more scientific than the traditional familial-style management.

Perhaps France would not be able to surpass England in industrial technological capabilities and production capacity in the short term, but in management, they could absolutely achieve an advance breakthrough!

And optimizing the management model often had a greater impact on production efficiency than new technologies.

With this in mind, Joseph called Eman over and ordered, "Please send someone to find Mr. Venio tomorrow, the one who helped me promote potatoes in Bordeaux."

"Yes, Your Highness, I have a very strong impression of Mr. Venio."

"Oh, and his friend too, I think his name is Jean Sone, have him come as well."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Just as Joseph was about to finish teaching and return to the Palace of Versailles for dinner, he suddenly caught sight of the armory manager recording the requirements just discussed regarding quality inspection: all firearms must undergo at least five live firings before leaving the factory.

He immediately thought of the production progress of the copper caps that paired with the caplock guns, so he turned to Martinier and asked, "Mr. Martinier, do you know the production status of the copper caps?"

The latter said in a hurry, "Your Highness, I asked the Royal Gunpowder Bureau the day before yesterday. They said it would take about three or four months before they could prototype the first batch of fulminate mercury and then deliver the copper caps."

The Royal Gunpowder Bureau was the French department in charge of the development and production of gunpowder. Naturally, the production of an explosive like fulminate mercury was their responsibility.

"Three or four months? That slow?" Joseph frowned upon hearing this.

Martinier replied, "They seem to have said that they've attempted to prototype it several times, but have failed each time."

"All right, I understand," Joseph sighed helplessly. Fulminate mercury was a technique the British had mastered ten years ago, and he had already introduced the method of synthesizing it to the Royal Gunpowder Bureau, yet they were still failing?

The next day at noon.

In the receiving room of the Crown Prince at the Palace of Versailles, the assistant to the Director of the Royal Gunpowder Bureau and the production manager were standing anxiously in front of Joseph, constantly explaining with troubled expressions.

"Your Highness, you indeed told us the synthetic method, but... the precise ratios of ingredients, processes, and so on, still need to be explored cautiously."

The gaunt production manager nodded repeatedly, "Indeed, Your Highness. As you know, experiments with such volatile explosives have to be extremely careful. We also found that the process of prototyping generates toxic gases, thankfully no one was injured."

Joseph was somewhat helpless. He knew that fulminate mercury was made by reacting mercury with nitric acid, involving crystallization and cooling, but he had never actually made it himself—in his previous life, making explosives could lead to a minimum of three years imprisonment, no ceiling.

It was just that he hadn't expected that, even with the entire Gunpowder Bureau's research and development power, there would still be no progress after a month.

If it were anything else, they could just buy the technology directly from the British, but something military-related like fulminate mercury wouldn't be for sale.

Joseph looked at the Gunpowder Bureau executives with a stern face, "Even so, shouldn't it take less than three or four months to complete the prototyping?"

The assistant director carefully said, "Your Highness, if our director were here, it would probably take at most one month.

"You know, he used to oversee the experiments for these kinds of new explosives. It's just that he took long leave at the beginning of the year, so..."

He took leave at the beginning of the year? Joseph frowned, it was almost April now! Did this director not want to work anymore?

He said coldly, "Who is your director? Have him come to see me immediately!"

The production manager whispered, "It's Mr. Lavoisier..."

"Just a moment, I'll go find him right now."

"Wait!" Joseph heard the name and hurriedly raised his hand to stop him, "You mean Mr. Lavoisier? The one who discovered oxygen?"

The two executives looked at each other and nodded, "Yes, Your Highness, our director did indeed discover oxygen."

"He also wrote major works like 'An Elementary Treatise on Chemistry'."