Chapter 304 Inspecting the Construction of the Stadium (Please vote for me!)
In December 1911, because 1912 was approaching, Arthur also went to the National Stadium again to inspect the construction of the National Stadium.
After two years of construction, most of the National Stadium has been built, and only some finishing work is left.
During this period, the Australasian Olympic Games Preparatory Organization also received applications from up to 20 countries around the world to participate in the Games.
Compared with the previous London Olympics, this Olympics has some modifications to the previous regulations. A maximum of seven people from each country can participate in each competition, and it is recommended that three people participate.
At the same time, some relatively new technologies, such as electronic timing and end-point camera equipment, will also be added to this Olympics to make the timing of the Olympics more accurate and resolve some ranking disputes more reasonably.
More importantly, because timing is more accurate, even to one tenth of a second, and Arthur invested a lot of money, the International Olympic Committee announced that it will record the results of athletes in this Olympics. And announce the world record of the corresponding results.
In other words, the excellent results of this Sydney Olympics will directly enter the world record.
This makes some athletes who want to win glory for their country and gain fame for themselves to look forward to the Olympics even more, and it also makes the Sydney Olympics hotly discussed around the world.
The medals for this Olympic Games have been prepared for a long time. The gold medals are composed of gold and jade. Each medal is estimated to be at least 2,000 Australian dollars, which can be said to be really valuable.
Don’t underestimate these two thousand Australian dollars. According to the fact that one pound is equal to 7.33 grams of gold, two thousand Australian dollars is equal to one thousand pounds and is equal to 7330 grams of gold.
If estimated based on the approximate price of gold in later generations, the value of this medal is even more than three million yuan.
Of course, this is just a proportional calculation of gold prices. If factors such as currency depreciation are taken into account, I am afraid that this price will increase several times.
The price of the silver medal is slightly lower, with an estimated value of only about 600 Australian dollars, which is only a little more than one-third of the value of the gold medal.
The third place bronze medal has the lowest valuation, with a valuation of only about 150 Australian dollars. It can only be said to be a decent participation award.
Of course, the competition events at the Sydney Olympics have also been reduced compared to the previous London Olympics.
According to discussions with the International Olympic Committee, there are only more than 40 competition events in the Sydney Olympics. It is expected to start from June to July 1912 and take up to two months to end.
Arthur spent a lot of money for this Olympic Games. In addition to the costs of building stadiums, organizing competitions, etc., Australasia will also provide round-trip ferry tickets and food and accommodation in Australasia for all athletes from participating countries. expenses, and a professional medical team will be dispatched to ensure the life safety of all participating athletes.
However, this cost is worth it. After all, after this Olympics, the next Olympics is destined to be held in a long time.
Judging from the current tense situation in Europe, Arthur even has to pray that the situation in Europe will not worsen to ensure that the Sydney Olympics can be held successfully.
It is worth mentioning that although only 20 countries have signed up to participate in the Olympic Games so far, the number of registered athletes has exceeded 2,000, of which Australasia contributed 500.
These 500 people are also the ones left after careful selection by the previous athlete training team. After a period of hard training, they should be able to achieve certain achievements.
In addition to 500 people from Australasia, the second largest number of participants was from the United Kingdom, with a total of 293 people. The third largest number is Norway, with a total of 207 people. The fourth largest number is Sweden, with a total of 199 people.
After that, Finland has 186 people, Germany has 185 people, Russia has 178 people, and the United States has 174 people. They are also the countries with the largest number of people participating in this Games.
Arthur's goal is to strive to bring the number of countries participating in the Olympics to the threshold of 30 before the Olympics begins.
At the same time, the number of athletes participating in the Games should preferably exceed 3,000. After all, hosting an Olympic Games is not easy. The larger the scale, the better the effect will be.
The construction of the stadium should be completed before March 1912, and it would be no problem to put it into use before the Olympic Games in June.
The construction of hotels, various ancillary buildings and roads supporting the stadium has been basically completed so far.
Arthur visited the hotels and supporting training facilities prepared for the athletes, as well as the roads connecting the stadium and the city, and then ended his inspection of the stadium construction with satisfaction.
So far, the construction of the stadium has not only spent the initial investment budget of 6 million Australian dollars, but also used an additional 2 million Australian dollars in the reserve budget. This resulted in the construction of the stadium costing A$8 million, or nearly four dreadnoughts.
However, judging from the current construction of the stadium, Arthur believes that the money is still well spent.
If the National Stadium can be used for decades or even hundreds of years, the historical heritage and culture it represents will definitely be more valuable than the millions of Australian dollars spent now.
After finishing his inspection of the National Stadium, Arthur rushed to the agricultural machinery factory without stopping.
Hidden here is the killer weapon prepared by Arthur, which is also one of the weapons that the Australasian Army will focus on equipping in the future.
"Your Majesty!" Outside the agricultural machinery factory, the director Joel greeted Arthur respectfully, and then took Arthur to the warehouse of the agricultural machinery factory.
There are several newly produced tanks parked in the warehouse. It took more than a year of experiments and improvements since the last experiment to finally finalize the first-generation tanks.
Compared with the first test period, the stability of these newly produced tanks has been greatly improved.
Although this can't change the tank's problem of occasionally losing its chain, but a big guy with armor protection and firepower output, why should he care about these small problems?
Looking at these brand-new big guys, Arthur nodded with satisfaction, looked at Factory Director Joel, and asked: "Director Joel, what is the current production rate of such tanks at agricultural machinery factories?" "Your Majesty,
production It is not easy to build such a big car. If we can lay one production line, we can guarantee the production speed of one unit in four days. If we can lay two production lines, we should be able to increase the production speed to two to three days." Director Joel replied.
The production of tanks includes modules such as armor, artillery, chassis, power system, tracks, etc., and the practicality and stability of the tank must also be taken into consideration.
Coupled with the testing phase that each tank had to go through, it was not fast to produce a tank, even if it was just an improvement on a tractor.
Arthur nodded understandingly and ordered: "Now the Agricultural Machinery Factory is laying a tank production line and producing tanks at a rate of one tank every four days. The current production speed is enough. I hope to have one before 1914." At least two hundred tanks."
Australasia is still far from a large-scale war, and the role of tanks is not that high for the time being.
As he said that, Arthur looked at Factory Director Joel again and asked: "Director Joel, if we use the current tanks and tractors as reference, can we design a transport vehicle that still has armor protection capabilities? , how about improving the efficiency of marching between our armies?"
"Or you can install large-caliber artillery on tractors, so that the artillery can be transferred and mobilized more conveniently. If these ideas can be realized, we may have to add several more secret weapons to our arsenal." Arthur said with a smile.
"It is possible, Your Majesty. It is not difficult to realize the ideas you mentioned, but it will take some time before we can exert more excellent combat effectiveness. Our factory is really short of manpower, Your Majesty. Can you send us more troops?" How about many outstanding employees and some experts in the military industry to help the machinery factory achieve this better?" As they chatted, Director Joel suddenly began to cry, and pleaded to Arthur with a look of helplessness and sadness.
"While the agricultural machinery factory is producing and researching tractors, it also needs to research military weapons and equipment such as tanks. There is indeed a shortage of manpower. Well, I allow you to discuss with the military factory and invite some military industry experts to sit in the agricultural machinery factory to update To realize the idea I proposed. As for the issue of outstanding workers, you go and negotiate with several major domestic technical schools and ask them to send next year's graduates to agricultural machinery factories first." Arthur nodded, agreeing with Qiao The request of the factory director.
In fact, there is nothing that can be done. After all, the production of tanks is still confidential, which also results in military weapons such as tanks can only be produced and researched in agricultural factories such as agricultural machinery factories.
Although the scale of the agricultural machinery factory is not small, it is still dwarfed in terms of manpower by taking into account the R&D and manufacturing of tractors and tanks.
"Great, thank you Your Majesty. Please rest assured that I will definitely pay attention to the weapon ideas you mentioned and strive to realize these ideas as soon as possible." Hearing that Arthur agreed to his request, Director Joel said with excitement .
"The research and development of second-generation tanks cannot be left behind. After all, tanks modified with tractors have some limitations, and a tank plan must be redesigned and continuously improved to form the final tank system. Compared with the first-generation tanks, I hope The second-generation tanks can give me more surprises, and perhaps that will be the time when tanks are equipped on a large scale," Arthur asked.
After all, development must look forward. Although the agricultural machinery factory relied on the modification of tractors, it successfully developed and manufactured the world's first tank.
But such success is only temporary, and we cannot be satisfied with tanks modified from tractors.
Arthur's expectation for Australasian tanks is that they should have good combat effectiveness before World War I. Within the scope of World War I, at least second-generation tanks should be developed to avoid the leakage of first-generation tanks. In terms of tanks, Australasia lost the opportunity.
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(End of chapter)