Versailles, France
Spring 1850
The factories had become louder.
That was the first thing many foreign visitors noticed when arriving in France now.
Not the palaces.
Not the armies.
Not even the railroads stretching across the countryside.
The sound.
The endless mechanical sound of industry.
Steam hissing from locomotives.
Steel presses hammering day and night.
Factory whistles echoing over industrial districts before sunrise.
The nation no longer moved to the rhythm of church bells or cavalry marches.
It moved to the rhythm of machines.
Paris reflected that transformation clearly.
Entire districts near the rail stations continued expanding almost faster than workers could build them. Warehouses lined the streets beside new steel workshops while locomotives arrived constantly carrying coal, machinery, and raw materials into the city.
The air itself had changed.
Smoke lingered over parts of Paris almost permanently now.
Not from destruction.
From production.
