Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

This time, Hughes was truly dumbfounded.

There existed evil entities within electricity? Then wouldn’t that mean the technology of this world was forever locked before the electrical age?

Would the use of energy end with the steam engine?

Without electric motors, without circuits, there would be no possibility of chip development, let alone computers. The peak of the mechanical age would only be Babbage’s difference engine — steam-powered and purely mechanical. It might look magnificent, but in terms of computing power, it couldn’t even compare to a 9.9-coin electronic watch sold at a street stall.

Without electricity, there was no magnetism. No matter how hard he tried to develop, the upper limit of this world would be stuck there. He wouldn’t even be able to touch the edge of light speed. In his entire life, all he could do was bully the natives of this world.

Starry seas? Don’t even dream of it.

His Highness the Prince’s words poured over him like a bucket of cold water, instantly sobering Hughes up.

He took several deep breaths before suppressing the unease in his heart.

Once the restlessness faded, rationality returned to his body once more.

“Wait a minute, I’ve done some simple experiments — I did manage to produce electricity, didn’t I?”

Hughes had previously considered building an electric motor, but that required a certain degree of machining precision, which Castel still couldn’t achieve for the rotor and stator tolerances. Without sufficient precision, it was easy to lose dynamic balance. The motor would have a short lifespan at best, and at worst, it could spin out of control and injure people.

Steam engines didn’t have that many issues — as long as the tolerances weren’t too outrageous and there was something to burn, whether coal or wood, they would run. Simple and convenient — that was the key.

Still, that didn’t stop Hughes from handcrafting a small hand-cranked generator. He had even tried to make a chemical battery and was planning to build an aluminum electrolysis plant in the future.

However, all of this remained within the laboratory and had never been implemented in production lines. Therefore, Hughes truly couldn’t be certain what the so-called “evil entity” within electricity actually was.

The Prince shook his head. “The experiments you conducted probably weren’t on a large scale, right? Some organizations had researched this trendy topic before, but they soon encountered many troubles. The most famous one should be that accident caused by the Moths Chasing Fire.”

The corner of Hughes’s eye twitched. Why was it that every single experimental accident somehow involved the Moths Chasing Fire?

The Prince cautiously observed Hughes’s expression. Of course, he knew this Frontier Count had some dealings with the Moths Chasing Fire — but who cared?

As long as Hughes could provide him with weapons and help industrialize Blood Harbor, he wouldn’t care even if Hughes himself admitted to being the son of a Heretical God.

Besides, from the looks of it, Hughes would never admit to such a thing anyway.

“The Moths Chasing Fire conducted quite a few experiments related to electricity and developed a series of materials that could supposedly resist electric currents. I’m not too sure about the specifics.”

“Insulators?” The Prince didn’t know the term, but Hughes was extremely familiar with it — he even knew the conductivity coefficients of many materials.

“Insulators? So that’s what you call them? Never mind, that’s not important. Anyway, they used those materials to create a suit of armor. According to their calculations, the armor was strong enough to withstand lightning itself. Then...”

“They went and had themselves struck by lightning wearing it, didn’t they?”

The Prince nodded. “Exactly. And it turned out to be useless!”

Hughes covered his face, unable to decide whether to laugh or cry. “So that’s all it was — I thought it was something serious. The problem wasn’t that their materials weren’t insulating; it’s because they confused strong current with weak current.”

The “insulation” of any insulating material was only relative. Every insulator had a breakdown voltage. Lightning most likely pierced through that armor and electrocuted the person inside.

And even if the armor held, the person inside might not.

Even if the armor itself wasn’t penetrated, the massive current generated when lightning struck could induce electrical currents inside through electromagnetic induction or capacitive effects. The high voltage during the lightning strike could create a potential difference between the inside and outside of the armor, causing electrical arcs within.

And the person inside certainly wasn’t an insulator.

“They used the wrong material — it should be the opposite. They should’ve used a conductor, a non-insulating material, to make a fully enclosed armor, completely sealing the person inside. That’s the real way to deal with lightning.”

In fact, that was precisely the principle of the Faraday Cage.

A Faraday Cage was a conductive enclosure. The metallic shell formed an equipotential body, where the internal electric field strength was nearly zero. When struck by lightning, the current flowed along the outer surface of the shell without penetrating the interior.

Modern houses could actually be considered Faraday Cages — the steel bars within their walls were connected in a mesh. Thus, during a thunderstorm, staying indoors was generally safe. In an emergency, even staying inside a car was safer than being out in the open.

Hughes knew this well. He had even studied whether he could “survive a heavenly tribulation” by using such a method.

“So, there’s nothing to worry about. They just didn’t understand enough about lightning. The difference between electrical quantities at different magnitudes is enormous.”

Actually, physics often ran into such problems. Classical physics failed under high-speed motion, microscopic conditions, or strong gravitational fields. To put it simply, it only worked for phenomena observed in daily life.

Many disciplines had faced this situation — when research reached a certain point, suddenly, all formulas stopped working, and all prior research became scrap paper. Many people’s worldviews collapsed as a result.

After all, they personally discovered that “physics no longer existed.”

But science itself was a methodology for understanding the world. The material world existed as it was — all one could do was analyze it objectively. The disappearance of “physics” only meant that the old physics had reached its limit, and beyond it stood the gateway to a new world.

Hughes elaborated at great length to the Prince. Though it was difficult for people in this world to grasp the entire history of scientific development, many concepts were universal. The Prince was no conservative man; his eyes sparkled with fascination as he listened.

“I see. This perspective is truly marvelous. To glimpse the real nature of the world — that indeed stirs the soul.” The Prince grasped Hughes’s hand, laughing heartily. “I can now somewhat understand the Moths Chasing Fire. Pursuing knowledge truly is fascinating. Well then, Count Hughes, I shall take my leave. It’s getting late — I plan to return and study electricity myself.”

Hughes smiled and nodded. “Electricity is dangerous. Please be careful.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll have the Harbor Guard surround the testing site.”

“The Harbor Guard?”

Hughes’s smile froze. Suddenly, he felt as if he had overlooked something.

Would all the organizations in this world really abandon electrical research entirely because of a single experimental accident?

And as for the Moths Chasing Fire — would they truly give up so obediently after one failure?

Hughes swallowed hard and asked, “Why mobilize the Harbor Guard?”

“Why, because those electrocuted people all turned into evil entities, of course. Don’t worry — my Harbor Guard can handle those monsters just fine.”