Around the tall "Panish Temple" is a wide square. Like the road we came, the ground of the square is also paved with cement. It is also embedded in the cement with small stones of various colors to form pictures. Most of these pictures are from ancient Greece and ancient Roman themes, such as the Principal and the Linquan female fairies, such as the Shepherd's Prince and the Three Goddesses, such as Minerva and the Owl, and Augustus and Cleopatra.

On this square, there are many iron racks erected, with a layer of oiled canvas on them, which is probably the so-called "semi-open-air" booth. At this time, the exhibition has not officially begun, but many people are already busy here.

Wat looked around again and saw two small houses at the entrance of the square. There were signs on it, with the same content written in French, German, Italian, Russian and English: "Exhibition Manufacturer Reception". Only one cottage marked "Palace of Peace" and the other cubicle marked.

"Mr. Watt, according to the exhibition instructions, we must first go to the reception desk there to register, and then the relevant staff will take us to see our booth." William Murdoch took out a small notebook, opened it and took a look, and then said to Watt as he put it in the notebook.

"Okay, let's go over." Watt said, waving the cane in his hand.

So a few people walked towards the reception desk of the "Peace Palace". As soon as they walked outside the reception desk, a waiter came up to him.

"Sir, are you here to participate in the exhibition?" the waiter said in French with a diligent smile.

"Yes, we have invitations." William Murdoch said. In this era, French is a very common language, and William Murdoch would do it, but his French speaking is not very good, and he speaks a bit stuttering.

"Sir, which country do you come from?" asked the waiter.

"We are from England," said William Murdoch.

"On behalf of France, I welcome you all." The waiter immediately changed to English and replied, "Please come with us."

Several people followed them into the small room. There was a long table in the small room, and a clerk sat behind. The waiter took Murdoch and said to the clerk: "These are guests from England."

Murdoch handed the invitation letter in his hand to the clerk. The clerk took a look, nodded, picked up a seal next to him, covered it with a little bag, then took out a small bag, stood up, held it in both hands, and handed it to Murdoch with a smile.

"Your booth is in the No. 8 position. This is the precautions for participating in the exhibition. You can take a look and learn about it first." The clerk also said in English.

Murdoch took the bag and asked, "Where is our booth? Can I go and see it and make some preparations?"

"Pierre, who brought you here, will take you there. If you don't understand, you can ask him directly." The clerk replied.

"Sir, please come with me." The waiter named Pierre also spoke.

"A clerk, or even a waiter, can use several languages. This is really..." Watt was a little surprised, so he followed Pierre and asked him, "Young man, have you read a lot of books?"

"Mr. Watt," Pierre knew that this gentleman was the famous Watt when he was just registering. "I am now studying at the Business School of the University of Paris. Our Professor Bernondo said: 'It is far from enough to have knowledge in books. You must also participate in more economic activities in society to truly become talented.' So he helped us find something here. He said that we can increase our knowledge here, which will be of great benefit to our future development."

"Then the same is true for the registration there just now?" asked Bolton Jr.

"Yes, the one I just did was one of my classmates." Pierre replied.

"Very good, very good." Vatt nodded. His own achievements were mainly obtained in various practices. Now that he heard that professors from the University of Paris attached such importance to social practice, he felt like he had gained a soulmate, so he smiled at Pierre again and said, "Young man, when will you graduate?"

"Probably next summer." Pierre replied quickly.

Watt took out a business card and handed it to him and said, "If you were interested in our company at that time, you could come to our branch in Paris. Our company now has a lot of business in France and is looking for talents like you."

Pierre quickly took the business card with both hands and thanked Watt, then took Watt and his group to the Pantheon, the Big One, named "Palace of Peace".

"Sir, this is the main venue of this event, the Palace of Peace, and everyone should see that it is modeled on the Pantheon, but it is larger than the Pantheon. It is called the Palace of Peace because of the words engraved on the main gate door. Pierre pointed at the Latin passage on the gate door, but explained in English, "'Free trade is the guarantee of world peace.' Well, this is the words of Mr. Napoleon Bonaparte, the first ruler."

"Very good." Watt nodded, "I like this sentence very much."

"Mr. Watt," Pierre laughed, "we are the same. No one who is interested in engaging in trade does not like 'free trade'."

While talking and laughing, Pierre led a few people into the "Palace of Peace". Just like the Pantheon, there was no pillar inside the huge hall. However, this hall was larger than the hall of the Pantheon.

Watt himself is an engineer. Although he is not a construction engineer, he also knows how difficult it is to maintain such a large dome without installing a column.

Like the Pantheon, there is a large hole for lighting in the center of the dome, but this hole is larger and is equipped with glass. Because of the existence of this skylight and the huge floor-to-ceiling glass windows around the exhibition hall, the light conditions in the exhibition hall are quite good, even brighter than most houses.

Watt raised his head, observed the dome, and the structure that supported it, and calculated its weight in his mind.

Generally speaking, creating an oversized dome without letting it collapse is also a number of precedents in architecture, such as Gothic churches, which are examples in this regard. This type of building usually uses a structure similar to an arch bridge to transfer the weight of the vault to the next load-bearing wall. However, the load-bearing wall of this structure will be under great pressure. Therefore, this type of building often builds support structures perpendicular to the main wall on the exterior wall. However, when they first came in, they did not see such a structure.

Of course, the dome of the Pantheon is not used in this way. The dome is directly poured with volcanic ash cement. But this dome is much larger than the one in the Pantheon. How do they support it? Could it be...

As if seeing Watt's doubts, Pierre said: "Mr. Watt, you must have noticed this hall. The diameter of this hall is 60 meters, much larger than the famous Pantheon. But in this hall, like the hall of the Pantheon, there is not even a column. This is because the entire dome adopts a steel and cement structure with the latest building technology. The entire dome is made of a whole welded high-quality steel and then poured cement. Whether it is steel or the cast cement, the closer it is to the middle, the thinner and thinner, because the steel can provide much higher strength than other materials, so the entire dome is much lighter than other similar buildings."

Pierre's commentary confirms Watt's conjecture that the dome was indeed supported by steel.

"It's not just the dome, but actually the walls and the large columns outside are actually made of steel and cement structure. Although this 'Palace of Peace' is an ancient Roman-style building, its core is the most advanced modern technology." Pierre introduced in a proud tone.

"How much good steel does this consume? Isn't it good to sell these steel to make advanced steam engines?" Watt couldn't help thinking, "But it seems that the French have a lot of steel production."

"Young man, where is our booth?" Although Bolton Little is Bolton Little, he is already fifty years old, and he has many fathers for Pierre. So he can also call Pierre "Young man".

"Ah, please come with me." In the hall, small spaces were divided by wooden boards. The spaces in the middle were the largest and the lighting was the best. Watt's eight position was slightly off, but it was also considered to be in a very conspicuous place.

"It's here, Mr. Watt, Mr. Bolton." Pierre brought them to the corresponding position. "This space belongs to your company during the exhibition. Your company can arrange it according to its own wishes, but it must not violate the regulations of the "Exhibition Regulations". The relevant regulations are in the documents given to you just now. Do I need to introduce it to you gentlemen?"

"No, no need." Bolton Xiao shook his head, "We have already obtained one of the documents in your embassy in our country. In addition, in the London Businessman newspaper, there are authoritative explanations of the documents. We are all very clear."

After saying this, he raised his head and looked around, and then asked, "I can ask, which manufacturers are from those in the middle?"
Chapter completed!