460 Ready For Take Off

"Eh?

Ah... your majesty, Welcome back!" Tim said, with a very broad smile plastered onto his face.

It has been too long since he saw his majesty.

Several months had gone by, and in a few more days.... it'll already be December.

"How had everything been?" Landon asked while taking a seat in Tim's office.

"Your majesty... it's been pretty good.

And since you're here, let me show you the progress reports that I've gotten from all those taking charge of the projects that you had previously dished out." Tim said while flipping countless reports on his table.

"Ah.... here they are your majesty!"

The first report that Landon looked at, involved Cathode TVs and Cathode Cameras.

From the report, the construction of the manufacturing industry for these devices should be completed in mid-December.

So production would have to wait till then.

As for the people who had been hired to train and understand all they could about these devices, after so many months... they seem to have a better understanding of it all.

And from the report, it seemed like they were all improving gradually as time went by.

Landon speedy looked through the report, before opening up the next one.

This one was the Landline Project.

And from what he could see, in a few days from now..... the land phones would hit the market, causing another sensation again.

.

"Your majesty, right now.....some of the telephone cables have already been buried underground alongside the major highways close to commercial regions, while others have been placed on the high tensile strength poles instead." 

"Good!

And did you and the team face any major problems

Did any accidents occur?"

"No your majesty.... this time, no accidents had occurred when doing the project.

But within the company, someone fell after the floor was waxed and hit his head hard on the floor.

There was blood on the floor your majesty."

"Is the person okay"

"He's fine your majesty.'"

"Did the cleaners put the yellow cleaning signs there?"

"Yes, your majesty.

It was just that the person was in a rush to go to the bathroom."

"Sigh..... have a safety talk again about work safety.

Anything other accidents?"

"No your majesty."

"That's good to hear!" Landon said while recalling when there was a huge fire in the Alchemy lab just before he left.

Every week, Landon would request for feedback on accidents, whether small or big.

This way, they would know whether to replace floorings, equipment or anything else, so as to make the work environment safe.

.

Landon looked at the phone line project and nodded in approval.

Some of the cables had been buried underground, while the rest had been placed as high tension cables.

For starters, back on earth... even though many people argued that burying the telephone cables was the most ideal method, less than 20% of major cities actually did so.

The main reason being the Cost.

It costs a lot to pay engineers to drill holes and place these cables underground throughout entire cities.

That alone could cost hundreds and thousands of millions alone.

But when compared to placing electric poles across cities.... it was a hundred times cheaper.

So most cities chose to leave their electric cables handing in the open.

But some major cities like Manhattan and California, had chosen to bite the bullet and bury over 95% of their phone line cables underground.

there were so many reasons why hanging the cables out was a bad idea.

First off, maintenance was such a drag.

Even though many cities had stopped using the traditional wooden poles and now used high tensile strength metal poles.... it still didn't stop some disasters from happening.

.

Back on earth, hurricanes, snowstorms and other weather events had easily destroyed these poles.

And the problem was that these poles could fall onto the highway, and kill those driving there.

Some people have been electrocuted, fried and burned just because of the poles.

In some cases, the electricity from the poles, coupled with the spark and fuel from a car..... just caused an even bigger explosion altogether.

At least with underground wiring... no one would die from such incidences due to the weather.

Sure!

In the face of natural disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes, even though both underground and above ground cables were typically destroyed.... the percent of destruction for those above ground was usually greater.

And when coupled to the fact that it could accidentally injure or kill people who were trying to flee for their lives..... Of course, many people didn't see it as favourable.

.

In addition to that, all throughout winter..... heavy snow and ice, could freeze the wires and cause them to snap.

Now, if the power station didn't notice this on time.... this could be a real issue.

One part of the snapped wire will still be receiving electrical currents from the station.

So if these wires touch the snow below, as well as animals or people.....of course, it's game over.

Water was a good conductor of electricity, so it was just too risky altogether.

But one didn't have to be so quick in choosing the underground cabling as well..... Since it had its own cons too other than cost.

Doing maintenance and repairs was in a way, a nightmare.

If a region within Baymard lost power, sure..... they could easily identify what the problem was from the power station.

But unlike cable poles that one could do maintenance on for just a few hours or a day or 2... underground maintenance could take longer.

The company would have to send a team to dig up the place and fix up the entire place.

This could take a week or more just to properly solve the issue..... which would definitely make a lot of people cry.

Landon was sure that the Baymardians had gotten so used to electricity, that they had probably forgotten how to live with just fire torches alone.

Not to talk about the fact that they now had fridges and so on.

So when looking at both cabling methods, in general, above-ground cabling was more vulnerable during rain, thunderstorms, winds and tornadoes.... while underground cabling was more vulnerable to extreme flooding, and was more expensive in blackouts, maintenance and so on.

Looking at the pros and cons, Landon decided to adapt both cabling methods in Baymard.

Just like most residential streets on earth, one would find cable poles running across them.

So he had decided to place high tensile metal poles there, rather than wooden poles.

And for commercial regions, of course it would have to be underground.

After all, it would look ugly if one went to any of the popular areas and saw so many cables hanging around the place.

.

"Tim, so in 6 days' time... these phone lines would hit the market?"

"Yes, your majesty!"

"Good!"