Chapter 95 - Ninety-Five: 1901 Ends (Please Subscribe!)

Chapter 95: Chapter Ninety-Five: 1901 Ends (Please Subscribe!)

Translator: 549690339 |

By the end of December 1901, the winners of the Victoria Awards had been finalized, thanks to the collective efforts of European professors and scientists before the start of the new year.

There were several opinions during the selection process of the Victoria Awards, but there wasn’t much controversy after the winners were finalized.

Interestingly, the first Nobel Prize, which was historically announced in December as well, made no appearance this year.

Despite unclear reasons, there was no news about the Nobel Prize, even after the Victoria Awards had announced their winners.

This was indeed good news for the Victoria Awards, as they benefited from less competition and gained more fame.

The recipient of the first Victoria Physics Prize was German William Conrad Roentgen, a renowned physicist, also the professor of Physics at Munich University and director of its research lab.

William won the prize based on his discovery of the X-ray, an invention seen as the start of the physics revolution in the 20th century. He is considered one of the most distinguished physicists of the 20th century.

The Victoria Chemistry Prize was awarded to Dutch scientist Van Hove. He deserved the prize for his revolusionary work on chemical dynamics and law of osmotic pressure.

The Victoria Medical Award was bestowed upon the German bacteriologist and immunologist Berlyn. Berlyn discovered Diphtheria Antitoxin and was the first to successfully treat diphtheria with animal antitoxin serum, making him one of the pioneers of serum therapy.

His successful use of diphtheria antitoxin to treat diphtheria in children significantly lowered the disease’s death rate.

Due to this contribution, Berlyn is revered as a savior of children.

In history, he even developed tetanus antitoxin, which was used for battlefield injuries.

Academically, Berlyn’s achievements could rival pioneering bacteriologists Lawson Bast and Cook.

This resulted in the continuous increase of steel output in Australia.

In early 1901, the production output of steel and iron in Australia was 13,000 tons and 19,000 tons respectively.

By the end of the year, production had moved up to 61,000 tons of steel, and 93,000 tons of iron.

Though still a tiny fraction of the output of the great European powers, compared to most non-great power countries, this was already a significant scale of operation.

To achieve this, Australia employed more than 20,000 indigenous people in its industries, in which there were already at least several hundreds of casualties.

However, the limited steel production barely met the demand for railway construction, hence reducing construction speed to an extent.

Besides the significant increase in steel production, the construction of an industrial zone and Arthur’s investment of twenty million pounds brought in dozens of new factories, most government and royal business partnerships, and a few privately-owned enterprises subsidized by the royal family.

There are currently nearly fifty factories in the industrial area, offering more than ten thousand jobs to workers and at least ten thousand construction jobs.

This has made a pretty high contribution to raising Australia’s average population income and economic level, as these jobs were quite well-paid.

Throughout 1901, Australia’s population also saw a significant increase.

It grew from 3,867,100 to 3,996,200, an increase of 129,100 people.

The growth rate was close to 3.3%, with approximately 4.9,000 newborns, 21,000 deaths, and over 100,000 immigrants.

Newborns increased by more than 10,000 from last year, as Australia’s average income rose by more than one pound to over ten pounds.

Migration was also commendable, with a year-round immigration population exceeding 100,000 in 1901. Immigrants from the British Empire approximately accounted for almost 40,000, most of whom were English and Irish. Over 40,000 German immigrants came from all over Germany.

The remaining 10,000 were from other European countries, including France, Spain, Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire among others.

Compared to the immigration population of over 60,000 in the previous year, there was a noticeable increase. This was in large part due to the implementation of immigration treaties with Britain and Germany, and there is hope for maintaining such high levels of growth in the future.