16th May 1574"We really need some cranes…"
Standing atop the elevated platform used to overlook the construction of the boat, I oversaw the mounting on the great axis that would be used to power the boat. With how it was below the deck line yet above the submersion one, rather than mounting it right at the top of the s.h.i.+p, I along with the rest of the constructors that calculated all the details decided that leaving the upper deck of the boat just for storing the materials would be a far better idea.
"Cranes?"
Leaning over a simplistic railing beside me, Elia asked with a curiosity written all over her face. Considering how only the major city of Gdańsk (will stop using the name but its Danzing) used this kind of machinery to load the sefaring s.h.i.+ps, it wasn��t a surprise that she lacked the understanding of the world.
"Basically, we build a tall tower, from which two arms extend allowing us to pull either a chain or a strong rope between the ends of the arms. This way rather than moving the stuff up and down by hand, we could use the cranes to do it for us. Also, this would be yet another way to use the power of steam horses…"
Despite the production of the new type of steam engine, the turbine one, I still decided that we would continue to produce the mark two ones at the half of usual speed. If I dared to redirect all my resources into s.h.i.+p making, as soon as the already existing plants would grow, their demands for energy would rise above what the current powerplant could produce!
Even now the speed at which the steam engines were consuming the firewood caused be quite a headache and forced me to look for other ways of providing them with fuel. That was also one of the reasons why I was so keen at investing more and more ore into the carpentry plant since as soon as it would start producing the logs, we could make use of the sc.r.a.ps to make the fuel on the spot!
And no, I didn"t mean the normal wood that would be consumed by all the other projects in a single instant, delaying the time required to achieve self-sufficiency. What I wanted to produce from the sc.r.a.ps, was a pellet wood!
As long as I could come up with a simple design for a hydraulic press that would force those sc.r.a.ps through a tiny hole at its bottom part, the condensed granulate would be great at sustaining the fires under the steam engines of all kinds!
"I see. But don"t you think you are trying too hard to make use of the steam horses? Since we can get any amount of gold from the crown that we want, why not get more people to hasten up the production of the s.h.i.+ps while focusing your attention elsewhere? To be quite honest, seeing how this place changed when we were away, not to speak how you basically built it from a scratch before I came here, I can"t help but wonder how would our cities look if you focused your attention there!"
Thinking about it, Elia was quite right. At first, this place was only supposed to produce the iron for the steam horses and cement mix for building the road. It was due to my drive to automate as much as I could and expand on the existing base that each day this place was turning bigger and bigger.
"It"s not like I can help it. If we want the cement mix, we need the stone quarry. If we want it to operate, we need to have quite a few steam horses that are powering the crus.h.i.+ng jaws and all the belts that move the crushed rock around. And lastly, if we want to make any use of either of those, we need those s.h.i.+ps. It"s not that I want to do everything here, but every time I solve one problem that requires my attention, another one appears."
As I spoke about it, even looking at the workers finis.h.i.+ng mounting the axis on the s.h.i.+p which indicated that in about a few more hours, the first naval unit of mine would move from the dry dock to its proper destination on water couldn"t lift my mood.
I could only imagine how much Tarnow would develop if there were both the iron mines and limestone reserves there! Yet this wasn"t some sort of fantasy novel where the transmigrating hero would get the perfect land to develop from scratch, ample source of all the resources required to boost both economy and military and all topped up with weak enemies possessing huge population all around.
For some reason, rather than lucking out like those happy heroes from the novels I like to read, I had to tackle down all my problems one by one, figuring out how to get by in the harsh reality presented by the real world.
"Then do you think we will manage to finish everything before the magistrate comes? After all, without the crown"s funding, we will have to start selling the engines far faster than we planned…"
That was yet another reason why I decided against focusing on the easier to create, turbine engines and kept producing the mark two ones. If anything went wrong and we would be deprived of funding in this crucial time, I knew for sure that some of the n.o.bles would be interested in buying one off me, even if only for the sake of cutting it apart to learn how it was made!
"You know that I would like to avoid doing so. The longer we keep the secret of its simplicity to ourselves, the longer it will take others to join the race we inadvertently started. That"s why I want to make sure we will be able to receive a stable supply of all the materials for building the road by the time this d.a.m.ned Magistrate will come!"