Road To The Crown 141 Prototype

26th April 1574

"As you can see, sir, there are two chambers and three circular s.h.i.+elds inside the new kind of steam horse. The bottom chamber is where all the work happens, while the upper one is there only to control and automate the process."

After brutally smas.h.i.+ng apart the clay form, I picked the iron cast product out of it. With just one more moment of waiting, all the other parts in the form of the pistons or pipes were picked out of their respective forms, allowing me a quick a.s.sembly of the exemplary model of the mark two steam horse.

"To make it all simpler, let's call the bottom holes, cylinder holes, the middle hole in the upper chamber a steam intake, while the side holes in the upper chamber, exhaust holes."

If I were to call all of the openings in this engine just holes with added adjectives like upper, bottom, left and right, it would quickly get confusing, even if I were to point my fingers at them whenever I mentioned one of the holes. That's why, it was better to introduce some organisation even at the vocabulary level beforehand, to make all the explanations simpler.

"If we consider this engine to be in a natural position right now, with its cylinder plate pushed all the way to the left…"

Even though I said all the way, the plate was moved only to the point where still a small gap remained. Thinking about this, it would be wise to add some kind of blockade, that would prevent the piston plate to be pushed against the cylinder wall because, in that setting, the steam would have no way to enter the s.p.a.ce in between!

"... then the control mechanism in the upper chamber would lock away the left exhaust hole, allowing the steam intake to push the vapour through the left cylinder opening. At the same time, the right cylinder opening would connect to the right exhaust hole, allowing the remaining ga.s.ses to flow out."

Whenever I spoke about something happening, I moved my hands to place the right parts to their designed position, sometimes forced to add the thickness to the control piston as to indicate that its final version would be simply thicker.

No matter how advanced this exemplary project already was, it was nothing but a prototype aimed to calculate all the properties of the required parts as to the next piece that would be soon cast with our blast furnace could be put to use without the annoying process of prolonged testing and adjusting.

"While for now I need you, sir, to imagine it, as the piston rod will be pushed out of the engine, it will pull the control rod along, pulling those two control plates to their new positions. As the cylinder plate would be pushed to the right by the steam, the settings of the opened and closed holes would change, not letting the steam to enter through the right cylinder opening, with right exhaust hole closed by the control plate, and with all the remaining gases escaping from the cylinder s.p.a.ce through its left opening and the left exhaust hole."

The whole idea of the control chamber based on those two plates, mounted on a single rod, blocking one of the exhaust holes out of the system while stopping any fresh steam from escaping while the exhaust vapour would move out of the system. Yet contrary to how I automated the mechanism of opening and closing the valves in the atmospheric steam engine, this system was simply necessary because of two factors.

First, the alternation process between pus.h.i.+ng and pulling the power rod connected to the main cylinder was simply too fast for any human to realistically be able to operate it… And what was even more important, the entire system would be enclosed, making it impossible to operate it by hand in the first place!

"I think I understand now… And since there is no need to constantly bring the water back and forth, you will cool the vapour somewhere else and let it drip back to the boiler tank, right?"

After my detailed explanation, anyone who learned about the principle of the steam engines should be able to understand the means at which they would operate but to come up with a new idea to improve outer parts of the system?

Times and times again, Governor was proving that his position wasn't inherited, but obtained through his own, vivid imagination and intelligence!

"Yeah. If I wanted to let the steam go to waste, the speed at which freshwater would have to be supplied would require at least a half of the power that this engine could produce."

As the show was done now, I picked all the parts and moved back to my tent while ordering some workers to bring me a bucket of formable clay. Now that the prototype was finished, I could work on the clay to create the final moulds that would be later used to cast the real thing!

Obviously, due to the fact that the engine consisted of both stationary and moving parts, it would still be made with two separate halves, firstly filled with the necessary parts and then bound together by a thin layer of liquid metal. With no melding tools, that was the only way in which I could make sure it would have any endurance, as any attempts of binding it together by the ropes or nails would simply end up with a vapour explosion!

"So, what are your plans for now? Like, I know you want to settle the carpentry plant to get some additional income that could cover at least a part of the costs for all your projects, but in terms of the next few days or weeks, what do you plan to do?"

To be honest, I was slowly getting used to this approach of the governor. Instead of letting the emotions sweep his mind and push him to the wonderlands of the future, he preferred to stay down to earth, slowly but steadily forcing me to adopt this approach of his to my own way of thinking.

"Since now I have the prototype to work on, I will focus on setting the production for those steam engines. With how boilers and heaters can be made by literally any craftsman around the country, rather than wasting my time and resources on doing so, I will just keep producing those base units. As soon as I will get a few of them ready, I will push some of my manpower and resources to improve the smelters and built said carpentry, but in the short term, those engines will be my priority."

While I still allowed myself to project my actions for the near future, I ended my response on a decisive note for the actions I would directly focus on right now.

With the prototype, after creating two or maybe three next models, I could perfect the sizes and dimensions for all the parts, and start crafting all the engines I would ever want!

"Okay then. What do you need from me right now then? More men? More materials?"

Sensing what was my greatest worry right now, Jan instantly changed the topic to the real problems, rather than wasting his and my time on praising the ingenuity of my inventions.

"I need everything. Every man you can spare, every penny that lies unused in your coffers, every brick, every nail, every chain… I don't think I need to go on with the list. But right now, I would be incredibly happy if you could send a messenger to my wife so that she could bring our own gold, men and beer. I want to let my workers celebrate all the successes we achieved already!"