Chapter 214: Who Will Win?

It is the nature of people all over the world to love watching the excitement.

The first place winner of the first Liang Yao Invention Award will compete in a competition, which has attracted the attention of countless New Yorkers.

Even citizens from surrounding cities such as Philadelphia and Boston rushed to New York to watch the game.

America is a young country, full of vitality.

People have great enthusiasm for new things, especially new things that can liberate productivity.

The sewing machine was one such new thing.

The first-place winner of the Liang Yao Invention Award was determined in the form of a competition. This open and fair method has won the support of the citizens.

Of course, if you want to ensure the fairness of the competition, you must choose an impartial referee.

Liang Yao invited Fish, the president of the New York Chamber of Commerce, a representative of the Whig Party, and the former governor of New York State, to serve as the referee for this competition.

Fish is a celebrity in New York's political and business circles after the founding fathers. He enjoys a very high reputation in New York and even the entire United States.

More importantly, Fish has a good reputation in New York and is one of the few governors in New York State who will be missed by New Yorkers even after he has served.

When Vanderbilt had a steamboat race with its opponent, Fish also served as the referee. It can be said that Fish has very rich experience as a referee.

Although the competition has not officially started, the sewing machines used by the three contestants are still covered with black curtains.

However, New York citizens are generally more optimistic about Ericsson and Yinsak, who have begun mass production of sewing machines.

It is believed that the $30,000 Liang Yao Invention Prize will go into the pockets of Erics and Yin Sak.

As for Walter, few people are optimistic about Walter.

Although Walter was well-known in the small circle of New York's invention community, Walter's fame was limited to this small circle.

If it weren't for the news about the Liang Yao Invention Award, many New Yorkers would have never even heard of the name Walter.

After all, in New York, where money is paramount, no one would pay attention to a poor man.

This can also be seen from the odds at the opening of the game.

Erics and Yinsak's odds are both around 2, while Walter's odds are around 8.

With $5,000 in his pocket, Coney went to the casino on Broadway where he used to frequent, and threw a stack of $5,000 in Bank of America dollar certificates on the gaming table.

"I'll buy it for $5,000! Walter wins!"

Kony has always had a reputation in New York gambling circles as a kid who makes money and always loses every time he bets.

There was even a joke on the streets of New York that Vanderbilt's biggest enemy was not his competitors, but his son Coney. As long as Coney let go of gambling, he could bankrupt the Vanderbilt family.

Seeing that Kony won by betting on Walter, other gamblers did not hesitate to win by betting on Erics and Yinsak.

At the same time, he did not forget to ridicule Kony: "Guys, buy the opposite of Kony! You will definitely win!"

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"I've seen sewing machines. The emergence of such machines will put many tailors out of work. There are thousands of professional tailors in New York."

Before the game started, Governor Hunter of New York State looked sad.

His wife had bought a hand-operated sewing machine, which was surprisingly efficient. He was worried that the machine would take away the jobs of New York tailors, and these unemployed tailors would take to the streets to protest.

Not that they will, but have already taken to the streets to protest.

The Sewing Machine Contest took place in the plaza in front of the New York Municipal Building at the north end of Broadway.

In front of the square, there were not only citizens who came to watch the game, but also tailors holding signs to protest against sewing machines.

These tailors are shouting against sewing machines. Clothes sewn by sewing machines will not fit, clothes sewn by machines have no soul, and the traditional craft of hand sewing has been passed down for thousands of years. Ridiculous slogans such as this cannot be thrown away.

But these people are only a minority after all.

Hunter withdrew his gaze from these protesting tailors. New York had finally been stable for several months, but Hunter still didn't want anything unpleasant to happen during his term.

"Mr. Liang, it seems that Governor Hunter has a lot of objections to your awarding the first place of the invention award to the sewing machine." Fish said, stroking the thick black hair that he was proud of.

"Anything new will be criticized or even opposed."

Liang Yao glanced disdainfully at the small group of people protesting, not taking these people seriously at all.

Protest marches are an American tradition, nothing to make a fuss about, and he has seen even bigger scenes in later generations.

Liang Yao doesn't have much in common with Hunter, a stubborn old diehard and conservative.

"The emergence of the steam engine did not make everyone unemployed, but it liberated productivity. Countless factories were built and more people found jobs in the factories. Humanity created far-reaching achievements in less than a hundred years after the steam engine appeared. More wealth than the last thousand years.”

“Liberating productivity, I like that word.”

Fish was convinced, and he agreed with Liang Yao's point of view.

"My point of view is the same as yours. It is true that sewing will create many tailoring businesses, but factories that produce sewing machines will create a lot more jobs, and the sewing machines produced must be operated by people. As for those tailors, at least not all of them will Even if they lose their jobs, some people will choose hand-sewn clothes.”

"We are well-educated people and can understand this, but these tailors don't!" Hunter said with a frown.

"These unruly people only care about whether they have something to do every month and how many dollars they can earn. I heard that the workers of the Pittsburgh Steel Plant are on strike, and some workers hang the factory owner on the street lamp. These people are simply unreasonable.

The factory owner gave them jobs, but they didn't know how to be grateful, and they also hung the person who gave them jobs on the street lamp."

"Don't you care how much money you can earn every day?" Liang Yao just thought it was funny.

He also heard about the Pittsburgh steel workers' strike. In fact, the steel workers' strike was not only in Pittsburgh.

Many steel mills in Ohio and Illinois are on strike, but Pittsburgh is the worst.

Fillmore went to Ohio before to solve the problem of the steel workers' strike, but as of now, this problem has not been solved.

"Of course I care." Hunter touched his nose and asked Liang Yao, "When will the locomotive factory you opened in New York be able to produce the Pioneer? The Yinli Railway Company has begun laying new tracks and is waiting for your locomotive."

"How can it be that fast? The production line has just been arranged. It will take until next month at the earliest for the first Pioneer to be assembled and rolled off the production line." Liang Yao said.

"Okay, gentlemen, it's almost time, the competition is about to begin! We'll talk about these things after the competition is over." Fish looked at the cover on the pocket watch, checked the time and said.

The black curtain covering the three sewing machines was unveiled, and the three sewing machines revealed their true appearance.

The sewing machines of Erics and Yin Sak are similar, both are hand-cranked sewing machines.

The basic frame structure is similar to the sewing machine Liang Yao saw at Walter's house, but some minor modifications have been made to some details.

The sewing machine made by Walter is very different from the hand-cranked sewing machines of Erics and Yinsak in appearance. The lack of a huge wheel makes this sewing machine look lighter and more flexible.

As for the internal purchase and driving method, there is a world of difference. They are completely two different machines.

Erics was quite disdainful after seeing the machine made by Walter.

"What a weird-looking sewing machine, it looks fancy and doesn't look like a sewing machine at all!" Erics said.

In order to win this competition and win the $30,000 Liang Yao Invention Award, he specially selected a sewing machine in the last state from the sewing machines that had just come off the line in the factory and made some improvements.

This made the sewing speed of this sewing machine faster, and even the workers who operated the sewing machine were all sewing masters carefully selected by him.

After his own improvement, the sewing machine can now sew at least 380 stitches in one minute!

Erics was very confident in his sewing machine. He was sure to win the title of the first Liang Yao Invention Award and a prize of $30,000!

"How should this sewing machine work without even a crank? Oh? And there's a foot pedal, does it rely on foot pedaling?" Yin Sak also laughed.

"It's really new. This is the first time I've seen people sew with their feet!"

Yin Sak's attitude towards this sewing machine was similar to Erics's. He didn't believe that Walter could make a new sewing machine in just one week.

You know, in order to make a more reliable sewing machine, he bought Erics' sewing machine and studied it for several months, so that the needle of the sewing machine did not move in a circular motion, but directly moved vertically, and could sew continuously.

It was because of this that his sewing machine was more practical and reliable, although its efficiency might be slightly inferior to Erics's.

This enabled Yin Sak, who missed the market opportunity, to gain a foothold in the emerging sewing machine market and compete with Erics.

"Gentlemen, this is a real sewing machine." Yin Lisabeth said to the two of them solemnly.

After that, Yin Lisabeth walked to the front of the sewing machine, stepped on the pedals with both feet, took a deep breath, and waited for Fish to announce the start of the game.

Yin Lisabeth's elegant and calm posture seemed to be preparing to start playing the piano instead of sewing.

Seeing that everyone was ready, Fish announced the start of the game.

The two sewing workers operating the hand-cranked sewing machine turned the crank on the wheel at the fastest speed, and the needles on the sewing machine began to move rapidly as the wheel was shaken, which was dazzling.

Compared with the two sewing workers who were racing against time, Yin Lisabeth was much more calm, stepping on the pedals very rhythmically, slowly moving the cloth on the sewing machine.

"I didn't expect Miss Yin Lisabeth to be so elegant in sewing. It's really a pleasure to watch Miss Yin Lisabeth operate the sewing machine."

Walter, who was standing aside, also said very calmly.

A pedal-operated sewing machine can sew at least 600 stitches per minute, a speed that a hand-cranked sewing machine cannot achieve no matter how it is improved.

This is the reason why they are calm and composed.