Chapter 490 Miners

Solomon was unwilling to take over the mines in Bohemia because he wanted to wait for the government to make concessions, but Franz did not want to wait, and Austria's industrial development could not wait.

A banker named Arties showed great interest in this. Although his financial resources were less than one-tenth of Solomon's, there seemed to be no better candidate than him.

Arties Bank was one of the top ten banks in Vienna (ranked at the bottom), and the banker was a Jew who converted to Catholicism. He was a scapegoat. I am afraid that the Jews would not stand on his side at that time.

However, this is the kind of person Franz and the Austrian Empire need at this time. It is impossible to do it quickly and well without any sin.

Of course, as far as Franz is concerned, there is no reason to give up before trying.

The first thing was to ban small coal mines. At that time, small coal mines did not have the possibility of safety hazards, but there was some safety in the danger.

Protection measures were almost zero. Miners could only bring their own canaries to determine whether there was any danger. Mining tools could only be purchased by themselves. What was even more terrible was that they had to rely on ladders or ropes to enter and exit the mine.

That's right, a person had to carry a wicker basket with more than 100 kilograms of ore on his back, and then climb a ladder more than 20 meters long, or use a rope to entangle himself and the basket, and let the guy above turn the winch to pull himself up.

Adults could only bend over to pass through the narrow tunnels, so a large number of child laborers were created.

It is said that 40% of the miners of this era would die or lose their ability to work in the first year. Then another 40% were eliminated in the second year, and the same was true in the third year. At the beginning of the fourth year, only 6.4% of the people were still alive.

This is still a relatively regular "big mine". It is really hard to imagine the "small kiln" without records.

There is a legend that whenever a child worker died in the mine, people would bury his body near the mine and plant a small flower.

So when people see flowers all over the mountains near the mine, they should not admire the magnificence of nature, but should be in awe of the souls under the flowers.

In addition to safety, the efficiency of the small kiln is also very low.

The Austrian Empire's industry is developing rapidly. It is definitely not enough to rely on people's backs and pickaxes. People will eventually be eliminated as the only power source.

The first thing Franz had to solve was the access problem, which was the elevator. Since Babbage could build a lift chair several meters high, it would not be difficult to build a lift more than ten meters high.

In fact, there were steam elevators in this era, but this thing was still a bit too backward and there were great dangers.

(The British side had more advanced methods of use, but they had not yet spread to the European continent.)

Now some mineral museums in Germany and Poland still preserve this simple machine, which is two huge wooden stakes with handrails and hooks on them, which is actually an embedded steel nail.

The steam engine above will drive the wooden stake to move. All people have to do is to hold the handrail to fix their body and move with the wooden stake until they reach the position they want and then jump off the wooden stake by themselves.

(The so-called mineral museum is actually an abandoned mining area. In fact, the locals call it mining tourism.)

Through the above description, you may not understand its danger. In fact, this kind of machinery was not controlled by humans at the time, and the steam engine would run continuously.

In addition, except for the bottom layer, there is actually a distance between each layer and the wooden piles. You need to jump up and down. If you are not careful, the mine pit is more than ten meters deep. If you fall down, the result can be imagined.

The elevator used in the mine is not very complicated. In history, the British had already started using it before the World Expo in 1851.

Experts from the Royal Academy of Sciences in Vienna quickly worked out several solutions. In the end, Franz chose a hydraulic elevator because it was most in line with the historical trend, and Austria was the world leader in hydraulic technology.

Then there are the mine rails. Now Austria's steel production is rising, but it is not enough to have only production without consumption.

In the past, due to cost issues, few people would choose to lay rails in the mine, after all, labor costs are so cheap.

But now Austria's iron and steelmaking technology has made great strides. The increase in production has led to a shortage of raw materials, and the price of minerals has also risen accordingly, so anything that can improve production efficiency is desirable.

And while improving production efficiency, it can also reduce the suffering of those miners.

At the same time, a large number of safety lamps and safety helmets have also been developed. These things can be sent to the mining area for miners to rent, which can also increase their chances of survival.

Moreover, the safety lamps made by the experts of the Royal Academy of Sciences are obviously better than the latest British invention, the Dess safety lamp.

Dess discovered that the flame could not pass through the small holes in the gauze, which meant that the flame in the gauze would not ignite the gas in the atmosphere outside the lamp.

Dess was one of the most famous scientists at the time, and his invention became the basis for most subsequent flame safety lamps.

Later, other European countries also developed a large number of types of safety lamps, but in the wrong direction. They only studied how to make the lamp brighter and cheaper, not safer.

In fact, after the widespread use of safety lamps (around 1860), the probability of explosion did decrease, but there were several mining accidents that shocked the world with hundreds of people almost every year.

At that time, a type of "gas inspector" was born. He usually put himself in a sack soaked in water, and then took a long stick with a burning candle to explore the mine. If there was no explosion, it proved that the mine was safe.

Otherwise, it was dangerous.

This method is good, but it is a bit useless.

The members of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Vienna naturally would not play with such low-end products, and with Franz in control of the general direction, the real safety of the safety lamp comes from early warning.

So the Austrian version of the Claus hydrogen lamp was born at this time. The biggest feature of this safety lamp is that it will suddenly light up to warn once it encounters methane.

The price is relatively high, but the miners all praise it. They would rather pay a high price to rent this safety lamp than buy other types of safety lamps produced in other countries at a low price.

After all, no one wants to die if they can live.

The emergence of this new safety lamp has caused a sharp decline in mining accidents in Austria. After all, most miners in neighboring countries at this time don’t even know what a safety lamp is.

At the same time, various mining machines such as splitters, excavators, and cutters are also being developed. After all, before 1860, the only tools for mining in the world were pickaxes and shovels.

Franz's heavy investment in the mining industry brought rich returns to the Austrian Empire in the future.

In fact, there are many mining universities in the Austrian Empire, but these universities still use the textbooks of the British decades ago, so no matter what kind of talents are absorbed, they are all stupid donkeys.

Franz will naturally not let this happen again. Under his promotion, the Mining University has carried out a comprehensive rectification and listed practice as one of its most important assessment items.

Banker Arties did not become a scapegoat for the Austrian Empire, but turned into a mining tycoon.