Chapter 45 A Revolutionary Product

A loud buzzing noise reverberated around the room. Alexander slowly opened his eyes as the sudden noise roused him from his sleep.

He squinted and rubbed his eyes. To his side was his beautiful fiancé. Her lovely beautiful face and golden hair glittered under the sunlight that is streaming through the windows.

Despite the loud ringing sound of the alarm clock, she was still sleeping soundly. Alexander stared at her for a minute before giving her an affectionate kiss on the forehead before getting out of bed.

For breakfast, Alexander ate dessert for his breakfast. A cuisine from Austrean Empire, Sachertorte. After eating his breakfast, Alexander prepared for his usual busy day, taking a bath, donning his imperial uniform, and heading to his office for the council of ministers’ daily report which would take two or three hours depending on the contents.

After his meeting, Alexander would conduct his daily exercise. Running around the palace grounds to increase his cardio and later proceed lifting weights at the palace gym for muscle development.

After his daily exercise, Alexander would have free time in the afternoon. Whether he spends it with his family or completes his projects is up to him. Today, it was the latter. Alexander has a visitor from the United States, a potential candidate for the role of a CEO for his Imperial Dynamic System Corporation, Electronics Division, thus requiring him to finish the prototype of television that will be commercialized in the Ruthenia Empire and the whole world.

He already has the material he needs to create a single working prototype and it took him 5 hours to complete. Once it was finished, Alexander then immediately headed to his room to take a shower and change his dress.

As he completed all of the preparations, Alexander heads to his workshop where he’ll wait for Philip. Ten minutes later, a knock on the door was heard. Alexander gets to his feet and the blonde-haired young man enters the workshop.

“Woah…” Philip let out a gasp as his eyes wandered around the room. It was full of heavy-looking machines lined on the walls and a lot of electronics tools he often sees in factory workshops.

“Are you Philip Ainsworth?” Alexander called out to the younger man, walking forward.

Philip snapped back from his awe at the place and nodded. “Yes, that’s me. You must be the future emperor of the Ruthenia Empire. Nice to meet you, sir…Ah, I forgot, where are my manners?” Philip gave a polite bow as he chuckled in embarrassment.

Alexander gave a soft grin. “You may rise, Mr. Ainsworth…it is alright to call me Alexander for this occasion.”

“If you say so…Sir Alexander,” Philip said, raising his head but he didn’t dare to look directly in his eyes as he believed it would be considered rude or preposterous for a common man like him to exchange looks with the powerful figure in Ruthenia.

“Take a seat, Sir Philip,” Alexander gestured towards one of the chairs. Philip nodded politely and sat down. He began fiddling with his hand in nervousness, rapping his fingers atop his thigh as his eyes wandered around the room.

The two men remained silent for a few moments until Alexander cleared his throat, breaking the silence between them.

“So you are Philip Ainsworth, a farm boy from the city of Rigby in Idaho state of the United States? Is that correct?” Alexander inquired, reading the file he had in his hand.

“Uhm…yes Sir Alexander,” Philip answered, rubbing his hand along his pants nervously. Alex smiled slightly at his response. “An engineer working in the Ruthenia Empire told me a lot about you, Philip. That you created a new technology that could rival the radio industry in New York’s fair?” Alexander remarked in curiosity. “Is that true?”

Philip smiled shyly. “Uhm…yes it is…I call it television.” Alex arched an eyebrow and looked up from his folder.

“How did you come up with that idea?”

Philip scratched the back of his neck shyly. “Uhm…so I was reading a lot of books about the greatest mind in the world. And in this book, there was a line in the book stating ‘ schemes to create television are not true now every previous attempt has failed as the greatest mind in history have tried to perfect this technology’ that line got me thinking, what if we can add moving images by capturing a picture electronically, as a microphone does with sounds. Of course, it was a silly idea of mine at first but when I was preparing for the day to do some field work, inspiration struck me.”

“Hoh?” Alexander mused, leaning forward as his words piqued his interest. “What is it?” “It was the plow lines of my father’s field,” he revealed.

“A plow line?” Alexander repeated with confusion evident in his tone.

“Yes sir, as I was standing before the field, an idea struck me…that it would be possible to build a device that would scan an image line by line, the same way our eye scans the pages of the book.”

Hearing his explanation, Alexander’s lips curled into a smile, seemingly impressed by Philip’s thoughts. The way he describes the idea works similarly to how television worked.

“What happens after?” Alexander resumed their discussion. “At first I pitched it to my science high school teacher about this device that can electronically scan an image dozens of times per second. And transmit those images across the airwaves at the speed of light. “

Alexander was impressed yet again by his knowledge. “How long have you been working on this project?”

“Since I presented it to my high school teacher…” Philip hummed in thought. “Five years.”

“And at what age did the idea of creating a television strike your mind?”

“When I was twelve years old, Sir Alexander.” Alexander gasped in surprise. The thought of someone working on it since they were twelve seemed incredible, but this person managed to come up with a revolutionary idea of his own? This man is a genius in the making.

Based on his story alone, Alexander could tell Philip has a natural talent for science, an important asset.

“So I pitched my prototype to the investors and planned to invest 25,000 dollars.”

“And did you accept it?” Alexander asked.

“No sir, they were asking for 70 percent share. Far from what I’d initially proposed, which was 49 percent.”

“What happened?” Alexander questioned curiously.

“They backed out Sir Alexander. It was a take it or leave it deal. I know the importance of money to make my dreams into reality. But it’s just unfair that they’ll be owning 70 percent while I only get 30 percent…It just seems wrong.” Philip frowned in disappointment and guilt washed over him.

“Well Sir Philip, your idea is not without merit,” Alexander agreed with him. “But the fact remains that people need investment in order to succeed. It’s a wise move that you declined their offer. So without money, were you able to complete your project?”

Philip shook his head. “No sir, I hit a wall. There’s something missing.”

“What’s the problem?” “Uhm…so when I turned it on, the image won’t stick on the screen. It just flutters white dots and lines that don’t make sense.”

“An image won’t stick on the screen?” Alexander placed a finger on his lips. “Wait, that’s a simple problem.”

“Eh?” Philip blinked at him, confused. Alexander smirked slightly. “Have you thought of using cesium as a coating material?”

“Cesium?” Philip echoed questionably.

Alexander nodded. “Yes, cesium. The problem you’re facing is that you needed a way for the negatively charged electrons that got shot across the cathode ray tube to stick to the surface of the screen.”

Upon Alexander’s explanation, an idea struck Philip’s head. “Oh…positive and negative…opposites attract…so the coating needs to be the most positive element…and cesium is the most positive element….” Philip gasped, his eyes sparkled with joy. “Sir I need to get back to work! I think I have figured it out!”

“Woah…Woah…slow down Philip,” Alexander smiled, amused by his enthusiastic reaction to his words. “Why sir? Once I coated the screen with cesium, it could deliver a favorable result! Don’t worry sir, I’ll be sure to credit your suggestion…”

“No!” Alexander stopped him from speaking by placing a hand on his shoulder. “I understand that you’re very excited and looking forward to testing it right now…”

“But sir? You invited me here to hear about my project right? Now I can work on it. Why are you stopping me?”

Alexander tilted his head to the side. “Wait? What did you think was my intention of sending you out a letter and inviting you here across the sea?”

“Huh? Isn’t that obvious sir? You’re interested in my product and you’ll invest in it,” Philip spoke as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Alexander sighed. “You got it wrong, I’m not interested in your product. I’m interested in your skill and knowledge.”

“What?” Philip dumbfoundedly stared at Alexander. “What do you mean, Sir?”

Alexander breathed deeply before revealing his intention. “I’ve already perfected the television in my workshop and I want you to be the one to handle the business for this invention.”

Philip stood stunned in front of Alexander, trying to absorb what he had just said. “Y…you…perfected it?” Philip whispered, his voice cracking.

“Come and let me show it to you,” Alexander walked over to a far back center wall where they found a square object covered in a brown curtain.

Philip followed and watched as Alexander placed his hand on top of it and removed the covering from it, revealing what looked to be a wooden box but with a wide square mirror at its center and two knobs on the right side of the screen.

What Philip was looking at right now was a television modeled after Zenith’s 22-inch black and white television introduced in the 1950s. It’s different from what Philip was building.

“No way…is this television? How can it be this big?”

“There are a lot of bigger parts in the interior but I can assure you, it works like a charm,” Alexander smiled as he inserted the power plug into a small outlet on the left side of the television.

He waited patiently for the machine to turn on and then turned to Philip who couldn’t help but gape at the machine with awe shining in his blue eyes.

The television flickered a few times to start up the system before eventually coming to life on a small flickering white light. It produced a white noise sound of static, which was normal because there was no signal coming through. Well, there was no signal, to begin with.

To let this television out in the world, Alexander must create a broadcasting network, which is part of his plan.

“What you’re looking at right now Philip is the future and will surely find its place in history,” Alexander turned to face Philip, who was mesmerized by the flickering white and black dots and lines on the screen. “Do you want to be part of history?”

Philip snapped out of the trance upon hearing that question. “Of course, I’d love to, Sir Alexander!” His expression was full of fervor.

“Excellent, this is what we are going to do.”