America 1881: Legend of the West

Edison's performance of hacking alternating current eventually turned into a farce, with enthusiastic onlookers focusing on the device rather than the alternating current itself.

Of course, some people were worried about this, but they quickly forgot about it.

During the financial crisis, there are many things that people care about than this, such as whether you will be fired the next day, or whether the bank where you save money will fail when you wake up in the morning.

Chen Jianqiu also laughed it off.

While watching the farce, lawyer Dylan ran into the venue and brought him a message.

"We won the bid." Lawyer Dylan sat on the chair next to Chen Jianqiu and said to him in a low voice.

Although his voice was small, the joy could not be hidden in his eyebrows.

"Are you from the Chicago Exposition?" Chen Jianqiu turned his head, still staring at the stage.

"Yes, according to internal information, our winning bid price is only half of General Electric's." Lawyer Dylan continued, "Maybe we will suffer a little loss in terms of profits."

Chen Jianqiu smiled slightly: "It doesn't matter, we only make the money we should make."

"Besides, the main purpose of this expo is to promote products, not to make money." He said, "It doesn't matter whether you make money or not. The most important thing is that Edison and General Electric didn't win the bid."

Lawyer Dylan nodded: "It looks like that hypocrite is going to be in trouble this time."

The Chicago World's Fair was held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the New World, hence the name "World's Columbian Exposition".

Twenty years ago, a fire destroyed one-third of Chicago, and the city government and the federal government hoped that this World Expo would symbolize the city's rebirth.

Before the Expo started, Chen Jianqiu brought Tesla and other people from Roswell Electric Company to the venue in advance.

The venue was chosen to be on the shores of Lake Michigan far away from the city center, and the area was the largest in the history of the World Expo at that time.

An artificial river brings water from Lake Michigan into the venue.

The conference team purchased a large number of small boats from Venice to facilitate tourists to shuttle between various sub-venues.

They built this place into a water city.

There are a dazzling array of exhibition halls erected on both sides of the artificial river. Their walls are all painted white, giving them a "neoclassical style" appearance.

These buildings all show the prosperity of the United States before the crisis to viewers from afar.

Although the official opening ceremony will not start until the evening, most of the exhibition halls have already begun to open to the public, and there is an endless stream of people coming and going.

"Has everything been installed and debugged?" Chen Jianqiu stood at the gate of the Electronic Palace with his hands folded, looking up at this huge building.

Behind him followed a large group of people, including many yellow-skinned Chinese.

These people have all studied at Stanford University, interned in Tesla's laboratory, and are now middle- and senior-level managers at Roswell Electric Company.

"The light bulbs have been checked and there are no major problems. Mr. Tesla is still debugging the generator set himself, and the people in the laboratory are with him." A Chinese engineer named Kou Yongsheng answered standing next to Chen Jianqiu.

Roswell Electric Company invested more than 20 AC generator sets and more than 100,000 light bulbs this time.

These will provide electric lighting for the entire expo. It will also be the first time in the history of the expo that all electric lighting will be used.

During the opening ceremony in the evening, when the current President Mr. Cleveland presses the switch button, these bulbs will be lit simultaneously.

Chen Jianqiu said "hmm" and said something softly to Kou Yongsheng.

Kou Yongsheng was a little stunned.

"This... doesn't seem very necessary, does it?" he muttered.

"Listen to me, you're right." Chen Jianqiu smiled and patted his shoulder.

Kou Yongsheng nodded and hurried toward the electrical tube with a few people.

Chen Jianqiu watched Kou Yongsheng leave when a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind him:

"Congratulations, Mr. Chen."

Although he said congratulations, there didn't seem to be any congratulations in his voice.

Chen Jianqiu turned around and saw Edison and a group of people from General Motors standing behind him.

"Oh, Mr. Edison, thank you, thank you." Chen Jianqiu walked over with a smile and shook Edison's hand.

Edison subconsciously wanted to avoid it, but he didn't know what magic Chen Jianqiu had used.

Before he could react, his hand was already held by the Chinese boss in front of him.

You can't throw it away, you can't pull it away.

Edison's arms became stiff and his face turned into a smile.

"Thank you for your generous support and giving a small company like us the opportunity to win the bid."

Chen Jianqiu was still smiling playfully, completely ignoring that the faces of the General Manager executives around Edison had turned the color of pig liver.

They were very unaccustomed to Chen Jianqiu's Oriental speaking skills and thought he was hypocritical.

"Eh? Where is Mr. Brown who invented the electric chair? Isn't he here? His invention impressed me very much. I also plan to discuss with him the improvement of that thing, such as its use in psychiatric treatment."

Chen Jianqiu glanced at the GM delegation and found no sign of Brown.

He really wanted to buy two and sell them to Elizabeth Mental Hospital, but these words sounded particularly harsh to Edison.

The scene fell into awkward silence for a while.

Seeing this, Chen Jianqiu changed the topic to another topic.

"You are also here to participate in the exhibition, right?" He pointed to the electrical museum behind him like a master, and said, "I will definitely visit your exhibition site and learn more, ah, hahaha."

As he spoke, he let go of his hand.

Edison finally took his hand away from Chen Jianqiu.

There was something uncertain about his clean-shaven face.

After adjusting his expression, Edison nodded towards Chen Jianqiu: "I am also looking forward to what your company will exhibit at the exhibition."

After that, he hurried into the exhibition hall with General Electric's subordinates.

"Why is this person so popular?" Chen Jianqiu rubbed his nose and raised his eyebrows.

He turned back and asked another subordinate from the electrical company beside him: "Has our booth been arranged?"

"Yes, it was completed yesterday. Mr. Chen, do you want to go take a look?" the subordinate asked.

"No, just make arrangements." Chen Jianqiu turned around.

He pointed to other exhibition halls: "Let's go! Let's go shopping!"

Chen Jianqiu and his entourage began to wander around the Expo Park.

The Expo Park is divided into three parts by an artificial river:

The first part is the Honor Square, located in the southernmost part of the park, with Grand Basin as the center. The main exhibition halls are on both sides, including manufacturing products and handicraft halls;

The second part is located northwest of the Honor Square, centered on the lagoon and jungle island. The main exhibition halls are the U.S. state pavilions and the participating country pavilions.

The third part is Avenue Park, which extends 1.5 kilometers westward from near the Women's Pavilion.

What interests Chen Jianqiu the most is the manufacturing products museum located in Glory Plaza.

Industrial products from all over are displayed here, and they also represent the country's most eye-catching core products.

"Sir, would you like to try our 'Wrigley' chewing gum? This candy allows you to feel the refreshing fragrance while chewing, keeping your mouth fragrant."

"Sir, come and take a look at our 'Cordon Bleu' bottled beer. We are one of the first manufacturers in China to produce bottled beer. It tastes great!"

Chen Jianqiu was wandering leisurely in the exhibition hall. He was chewing gum and holding a bag of popcorn in his hand. He looked nothing like a tycoon.

Here, he discovered many century-old brands that are familiar to later generations.

But at that time, these brands were basically "more than 90 years away from being a century-old store."

For example, Chen Jianqiu saw a beverage exhibitor with a "Coca-Cola" brand on the corner of the exhibition hall.

Just as he was about to walk over and taste what the "Fat House Happy Water" of this era tasted like, a familiar person appeared opposite the booth.

Theodore Roosevelt, wearing a police uniform, stood majestically.