27th April 1574"Move all the injuries to one of the tents! Send someone on the fastest horse to the Sandomir to fetch some cyryls (cyrulik - kind of self-schooled herbalist of the age)!"
Giving out the orders one by one, I wanted to make sure that no one would remain idle, allowed to think about what happened. With the bodies of the unfortunate casualties of my own stupidity already dragged away from everyone"s sight, I still had to make sure their families - if they had any - would receive proper compensation and care later on. Yet while dealing with the dead ones was easy, it was the injured that had to be rea.s.sured about their future.
After all, most of the work that was going around this place was focused on the menial activities alone. If any of them ended up unable to continue cutting the threes, hauling the ore or doing anything that he was designed to, they would think that their only way to earn money would be taken away from them by this accident!
"Everyone! As we are slowly starting to take control of this situation, let me a.s.sure you guys about one, important thing."
While accidents were tragic, what industrialisation excelled at, was moving away the stupid, menial tasks form the human labour and putting its burden on the machines, while allowing the humans themselves to focus on more detailed work. With this factor in mind, I could at least calm the injured down, while showing them how kind and thoughtful lord I was!
"All of the injured who will be unable to continue their previous work will be taken care off! If you won"t be able to work as you used to before, I will make sure that we will make use of you when doing something else!"
Only when these sentences of mine reached the ears of the injured did I allow the people to carry them away to one of the tents for the later medical care. While I knew that they were all injured and keeping them like that only to raise their morale was kind of heartless by me, without any painkillers in place, it didn"t really matter whether they would try to heal their wounds while on the makes.h.i.+ft stretcher or when lying down in the tent and if I could prevent the appearance of the bad rumours before any of them started to circulate and grow on themselves, I wouldn"t hesitate even a single moment in doing so!
"As for the rest of you guys… Like I said, I know what caused this accident. I know that you are all going to be scared of doing anything related to this steam horse now but…"
Before I managed to even finish my sentence aimed at encouraging the people to go back to work in order to fix the mistake that caused the accident and remake all the parts that broke down, some of the workers uniformly stood up and lead by the stonemasons that experienced my scolding back when we have yet to finish the foundation for the mark one steam horse, approached me.
But instead of some kind of rebellion starting up against me and my projects that they would now deem too dangerous to work around, the entire group simply stood straight, right in front of me with only the older stonemason coming forth.
"My lord, people are dying. People are getting injured. It can happen during a war, but it can also happen during something as simple as a hunt. The fact that some died while some got injured in this accident doesn"t change the fact that we already saw how great those machines are!"
Starting his speech with just a simple, flat voice, as the words flowed out of the stonemason"s mouth, he turned more and more pa.s.sionate, ending his speech almost shouting.
"Countless people die in mines when they slip while carrying the ore to the surface. Countless people are getting heavy burns when a furnace cracks or the hot metal spills out. It"s only normal for things like this to happen. If we were to give up on all those projects, not to speak about the money that you are paying to us, my lord, how could we face our ancestors after dying a dog"s breath somewhere else? I for once would prefer to be memorised as someone who contributed to those grand inventions, rather than someone who lived his life and achieved nothing!"
The more words came out of the mouth of the stonemason, the more pa.s.sionate he got, all the way to smas.h.i.+ng his fist on his sizeable chest in the sign of determination.
"Okay, I understand. I"m sorry for doubting your resolve guys. As for what we need to do next then, let"s start with fixing the problem that caused this sad accident. I need you guys to dig up a perfectly circular hole, about a hand"s width deep and reinforce it with wood. It needs to be done close enough to the furnace for us to fill it up with iron!"
Since the arms of the steam engine were moving too fast for the small flywheel, we had to do a much bigger one. While the initial swing it would take would be much harder to introduce, as soon as it would start rotating on its axis, most of the initial hards.h.i.+p would be gone, while the energy of the steam engine would be stored in a much safer way.
After all, the energy that this wheel could transfer was directly correspondent to the product of its ma.s.s and speed. While increasing its size and weight would make the movement slower than it was before, the resulting energy would remain exactly the same!
"Sir, what about the cranks and the other parts?"
Since I already gave my order, everyone finally started to moving once again, returning this place to its usual look akin to a busy ant colony. Only the stonemason that was slowly turning into one of the more important figures in the entire area remained, daring to pose his question.
"For now, we need to focus on the flywheel. But if I remember correctly, there should be some spares left, thrown somewhere after casting them. Oh, since you are still here, you can go and pa.s.s one more message to the people digging up the trench. Tell them to start from a single point and gradually expand the ditch. I will come there soon and tell them the exact measurements of how big I want the new flywheel to be!"