26th April 1574"Welcome, your governors.h.i.+p!"
Even before the s.h.i.+p could come to a halt, I lowered my head at a sign of respect and greeted the most important person standing atop the s.h.i.+p"s deck. While I was greatly surprised by him visiting not only so quickly, over a week earlier than he was supposed to by his own words, but what was the most upsetting was that he dared to travel through the night!
I said that swimming in the rivers was far safer than moving by the horse through the night, but that didn"t mean it was completely safe either! With how fast the Vistula river flow was, rather than using it"s to the fullest potential, the staff on board would have to rather slow the s.h.i.+p down in order to have the make sure the voyage would be safe than using the flow to travel quickly.
"h.e.l.lo there, Mister Mike!"
Hearing my welcome, the governor waved his hand at me and replied, but due to how unstable the s.h.i.+p was during its stalling period, we had to limit our interaction all the way to the moment when their vessel came to a complete stop, allowing the people on board to get down on land.
"It"s a surprise to see you so soon to be sure, my lord, but a welcome one. It just so happens that we started our first project using the steam horse, so you are in for the perfect time to inspect how it works!"
While I didn"t expect him to visit so soon, seeing how at least a single project outside of the steam horse was already working in its full swing, I could hope that the influx of the money and manpower could come even quicker!
"That"s actually a great idea. To be completely honest, I came here mostly due to the reports of the merchants. Hearing how you forced me to pay for quite a lot of stuff, I didn"t really have any other option than to come!"
Back two days ago, when I first settled the deal with the merchants, outside of exchanging the spice for the gold that would allow me to pay all the wages and still keep some money on myself, I told the traders that all the stuff that I required would be paid for by the governor, along with pa.s.sing him a letter informing about the progress of our development.
With how I painted the steam engine in the bright colours for him back when we talked about my ideas, it was only to be expected that he wouldn"t waste an entire week waiting if the prototype was already finished!
"Woah."
Even before we reached the distance from which all the details could be seen in the darkness of the late-night, thanks to the fires burning under both the blast furnace and the steam horse one could still make out the shape of the major parts of those two buildings.
"To be honest, I couldn"t really believe that you could build one when I first heard about it, or that you could do it so fast when those merchants came to report to me…"
As soon as we reached the foothold of the steam horse, the Governor simply stood and gazed at it with his mouth open. From the excited shouting right beside us I could tell that the iron from the blast furnace finally started flowing out and filling the forms, yet rather than controlling how was my model going to turn into hard reality, I knew that it was more important to accompany the main sponsor of this endeavour.
"So, how does this thing work exactly?"
After taking his time to simply adore the automated movement of the steam horse that seemed to move all by itself if one were to take the workers constantly feeding its furnace with fuel out of the picture, Jan finally turned his head to me, seeking an explanation.
"Sir, it"s actually quite simple. In the resting position, the arm is pulled to the left, creating a lot of s.p.a.ce in the cylinder hidden behind those bricks. As one of the valves opens, the free s.p.a.ce in the cylinder is filled with the vapour all the way to the point when the other valve opens up, sprinkling cold water inside the cylinder."
Just as I was about to explain the next steps, I realised that in order to do so, I would have to introduce the concept of the atmospheric pressure as it was the main factor that provided the energy that would be turned into the movement!
"In short words, hot steam takes more s.p.a.ce than normal water. Just like it happens to the gunpowder if we could reverse the process of burning it, as there is not enough stuff to fill the enclosed cylinder, its pulled down by the reverse explosion of sorts…"
In the end, I had to simplify the process even more to avoid falling into the trap of exposing more advanced technological knowledge. While the stuff like the pressure was something that even the middle-grade school kids knew in my timeline, I wasn"t that sure whether this concept was popularised in this age already.
"So that"s it… And that wheel on its left side?"
Pointing his finger towards the flywheel forced to spin around by the simplest crank mechanism possible, Governor asked yet another question. Considering how this scheme of turning the up and down movement into a rotational one that could be used more efficiently for my needs would be implemented in all types of engines that would appear in my lands from now on, this was something that had to be explained anyway.
"It only serves one purpose. As you can see, my lord, the steam horse can only move its arm up and down. Since we wanted to use it to turn the fans supplying the blast furnace with fresh air, I came up with the idea of using this sort of wheel. As for the blast furnace…"
With how the steam engine was as grand of an invention as simple it was when it came to what it did, I was much more interested in introducing this improved kind of furnace, capable of increasing the smelting rate of the ore from a pitiful score of the single-use bloomery furnaces still supplying the majority of the local iron production in the Commonwealth!
"... If everything will go as planned, then in just a few moments, I will be able to present an instructional prototype of the new model of a steam horse, not only way smaller and cheaper than the one we are seeing in front of us, but also capable of providing much more energy!"
Initially turning around in order to bring the governor to the casting area filled with all sorts of forms in order to check on the one that would provide me with the model of mark two, pressure steam engine, seeing how Jan remained in his place, I had no other option than to stop myself and wait for his reaction.
"You see, when you first told me about all those wonders, I really didn"t believe anything of this sort could be done. After all, if something like that would be possible, someone else would come up with this idea long ago - that was the way of my thinking back then. But looking at how quick you are with not only introducing those new inventions but putting them in proper use, I"m now convinced."
After a moment of silence, the governor finally spoke, raising his head and looking at me with a determination seeping out of his eyes.
"When I first saw what you ordered, I was worried you wanted to enslave the workers with those chains and force them to work hard in order to fake how would this steam horse work. That was also the main reason why did I came here myself. But just by looking at how everyone is so enthusiastic, despite working through the night, I have no other doubts. Tell me then, what do you need to keep the work going here?"
Finally, the moment I have been waiting for has come! Not only I could now rob the Governor out of most of his wealth and put it into much greater use, but the limits on the progress set by the lack of manpower could also finally be lifted. But most importantly, with how Jan now knew that all my ideas weren"t just the projections of a crazy man"s mind, I could negotiate the absolute owners.h.i.+p of this piece of land!
"Sir, the answer is simple. The more resources and manpower I have on hand, the greater the effects will be. But at the same time, the more men will come here, the harder supplying them all with food will turn out to be. That"s why, before even discussing what I need to keep developing this land, I would like to once again ask you this daring question I posed all the way back in Pilzno."
Taking a moment to not only build the tension but also prepare myself for the daring words that I would utter in just a moment. After all, most of the times, the land could switch hand only when someone distinguished himself on the battlefield and was rewarded by the King himself, or when inheritance came to play its inherent role. Receiving a land just for the economical deeds was something that never happened in the history of the Commonwealth before!
"Sir, I would like to have this land placed under my own jurisdiction, with all the profits that would remain after reinvesting in this place itself, split evenly between the two of us."