Road To The Crown 133 Striking The Deal With Miners

24th April 1574

In one instant, the entire crowd of people which turned silent to hear what I had to say, erupted once again in cheers. Even though most of the normal workers were simply happy that the first part of their work was finished, the craftsmen that watched how this machine managed to turn the fire into a movement that didn't require animals to pull on the ropes, couldn't even begin to cheer with how overwhelming this new invention was for them.

Moving the heavy stuff around, lifting the items to higher floors, increasing the airflow in the furnaces… All of the tasks that required a huge group of people to complete now could be done with this newfound power!

But the faces of the miners provided me with the most fun. Without taking part in the entire building process, they had no way of knowing what was happening inside the machine, making it almost impossible for them to understand just how the heck did that monstrosity move!

Yet from the sight of various people moving various parts around, they couldn't claim that it was the work of a devil, some kind of magic trick designed to cheat them out of their hard earner ore. If that was to be the case, there would be no need for all this crowd, not to speak about the enthusiasm that those people were showing!

"Okay everyone, now that we finished our first project… It's time to work on the blast furnace!"

Even though I still didn't come to an agreement with the miners, if they still opted to decline my offer and sell the ore to the merchants, I was sure that I could strike a deal with those traders and the workers of the other mine.

"As for you guys, do you want to know how this thing works?"

Turning myself back to the miners, I finally decided it was time to talk business. Right after the showcase of the prowess of my invention, but before the drive that took over everyone's mind would die off due to the fact that unless we built anything that could make use of this machine power, it was just a strange ornament marking the end of the old era and the beginning of the time of industrialisation!

"Well… We heard you shout stuff like steam, water and all, so I guess it works on water vapour?"

Only now did I realise that my commands were more than enough for normal people to at least try to understand the basic principle of this machine. Yet it didn't mean they would know how to operate nor build one, so I had no reason to worry about them replicating this entire thing for their own use.

"Yes, without going into the details, you could tell that it works on vapour. But now, can you tell me why would I build this kind of machine so close to one of the mines that were presented to me by the governor?"

For simple people like the miners, unless I explained how would this machine influence their lives, they would only take this machine as something fun, yet useless.

"Seeing how eager you were to buy off our ore… Will it have something to do with our mine?"

With all of his previous arrogance and aggressiveness disappearing after the show and in face of the joyous crowd, this particular miner was far easier partner to talk with. Additionally, with me announcing that the first thing we would build to make use of this machine would be a blast furnace, it didn't take a genius to understand why the haul from the iron mines was so important to me.

"Outside of the blast furnace that we will be building anyway, tell me, how much time you could save if instead of pus.h.i.+ng the carts with the ore by yourself, something was to do it for you?"

Just like I already pointed out many times over, it was the repet.i.tive and simple menial tasks that this kind of steam engine was the best at taking care off. While as soon as I could create a pressure steam horse, the number of mining carts that could be pulled at once would increase drastically, for now, supplying the blast furnace with ample amount of fresh air and letting the miners focus on mining rather than moving stuff around should lay within the capability of this prototype of mine!

"Have something to do it for us? Does that mean…"

"Yes, as long as we craft a simple tool, we could make this steam horse pull all the carts that you would otherwise have to push all the way from where you are loading them towards the surface. While you have to understand that this would mean that not only we would have to demolish the existing entrance shed and replace it with a place that would allow us to move the ore from the carts to the warehouse easier, but you guys would be also responsible for extending the wooden tracks on which those carts are moving around right now."

While the current rail system was based on incredibly intuitive design when simple, plain wheels would roll on plain planks with only a secure pin located in the middle of the cart and locked between said planks stopped the vehicle from going offroad.

Yet even this design was enough for the steam machine to operate on it. With just a set of simple poles with rollers mounted on their tops, we could attach a set of ropes to the main wheel powered by the steam horse mark one. As long as we added some simple hooks to said rope and attached the minecarts to them, rather than pus.h.i.+ng the carts themselves, miners could focus on providing more ore, while a surface team would busy themselves with unloading it on the pile, from which the blast furnace would be fed!

"Sir, while I'm not really sure if I understand the concept, there is no way sir would invest so much time, effort and thought only for the sake of stealing away a few golden coins worth of haul. Where can we dump the ore then?"