Road To The Crown 144 First Run Of The New Engine

27th April 1574

"Slowly, slowly!"

Once again, commanding a huge crowd of people that lowered the mark two steam engine to do it carefully, I felt my heart jumping out so strongly, that is almost kicked itself out of my body straight through my throat and mouth.

"Stop the chains!"

With how deformed the entire construct was with all the pipes and cooling tanks stretched into the air, the boiler placed beside the power unit and the weight completely unbalanced, this simple machine had to be placed in a robust supporting construction, that would prevent it from simply falling to the side.

Yet where one could think that just a simple set of supporting poles would be enough to keep the cooling tank in the air, I knew that as soon as the engine would start working, all the vibrations caused by the violent rocking of the thick, cylinder plate, along with its momentum forcibly stopped in one place only to be transferred back to the other end of the machine, could easily turn such a fragile support upside down within first few seconds of operating the engine!

That's why not only the support poles were reinforced with the iron itself, the entire construction looked more like an iron cage, with several nails the size of a cavalry pike stuck deep into the ground to keep the entire thing in place.

"Okay, now just a little bit to the left!"

Since the cage and the steam engine couldn't be pieced together until all the metal poles would be stuck tightly to the ground and covered with a layer of the concrete that finally dried up the stockpile that I did my best to prepare away from everyone's eyes, now we were holding this entire, heavy construction on a set of over twenty heavy metal chains, as I couldn't trust any number of ropes to hold such a monstrosity in the air.

"How is it going up there?"

Shouting out to the craftsmen hanging out from the rods protruding a bit into the air from the entire construction, I anxiously waited for their report while eyeing how the entire thing dangerously swayed on those chains.

Even with about eighty people employed to put it in its final piece right beside the original steam horse, holding the entire thing in the air wasn't that big of a task, but any drastic move caused by the sudden wind or one of the workers losing consciousness would risk the entire thing going down the drain, as we had no tools to cut the iron apart.

If anything were to happen to the engine now, not only all the work we all put in making it would go down the drain, but several red goldens worth of ore would be wasted as well!

"Sir, it's sitting tightly as a wh.o.r.e on her clients cook!"

After what seemed like an eternity to me, one of the craftsmen finally replied. In this tense moment, even someone of the middle cla.s.s like him couldn't be bothered to keep his language up the standard, allowing his emotions to make him use the words he should have long forgotten.

"Okay boys, it's time to wrap it up! Lower the beast!"

As long as even one of the supporting points was safely locked, the rest should easily fall into its designed place as well.

Yet despite how I a.s.sured everyone, there was no sign in relaxation in any of the workers still operating the chains with the utmost care. It seemed that the amount of effort everyone put into creating this beast ended up making them all ultrcareful around it!

CLANG!

With a loud noise of the metal hitting metal, the steam horse mark two finally rested its entire weight of the huge iron supports, allowing everyone to pull the chains from underneath it.

As the sound of the iron hitting iron continued, everyone simply stared at the monstrosity in front of their eyes. With the water poured inside just before the last part was connected to the rest, closing the entire mechanism for as long as we would find a way to either open it, or it would turn out that the boiler tank was too big for it ending up with a huge explosion of iron and steam.

"Okay boys, let's not waste our time, and see how it works!"

Even though using the engine while nothing was connected to the flywheel could put an unnecessary burden on it and wouldn't contribute to showing how powerful it was, considering how we already did it with the first generation of the steam horses, just by comparing the speed at which the wheel would turn would serve as an example good enough to let everyone just what kind of power this strange beast had in itself!

"Bring the wood and fire it up!"

With just those few words, the entire crowd suddenly recalled all the other tasks they would have to fulfil otherwise, instantly springing to their respective jobs. After all the time and effort put into placing the engine in its final resting place, no one wanted to have too much job stacked on their backs to lose the chance to see this monstrosity do its first spin of the wheel!

Since I was the only n.o.ble in the entire area, I could just sit down right on the ground and stare at the raw beauty of the machine in front of me. Yet this tranquil time of simply adoring the raw industrial-strength contained in this strange set of pipes and chambers was quickly disturbed when the workers finally managed to ran back to this place and started putting loads of wood under the boiler.

"Stop! Don't put too much. We don't know how much heat this boy can handle."

In the end, this turned out to be the last command I gave before gesturing the furnace workers that contributed the most to the creation of this machine to start the fire. I already had this privilege with the first steam horse, and to be honest, I didn't feel anything insane while doing so.

For me, it wouldn't change anything if someone else would get this honour, but for the workers, it could serve as a good motivation to work even harder!

And just like that, when the water inside the boiler finally reached the temperature when it started turning into steam, the flywheel only budged at first, only to slowly start spinning as the power rod moved the crank forward and backwards, forcing it to move the entire iron wheel around.

As more and more water turned into steam, the speed of the wheel rotating only accelerated, quickly reaching the point that the previous steam horse managed to achieve at the peak of its power, and surpa.s.sing it as if that was no achievement at all!

With more seconds pa.s.sing, the speed of the flywheel didn't stabilise at all, constantly increasing by a small amount and reaching the point where one couldn't even recognise the patterns inscribed on it due to the uneven form it was made out!

Yet rather than being happy, I suddenly realised that this amount of power to turn such a heavy object around wasn't something that this kind of engine could easily produce!

With a bad feeling suddenly taking over my entire mind, I switched to the tool that the system gifted to me just a few days ago, only to realise that almost half of the more fragile components of the engine were already coloured in a bright red!

"TURN IT DOWN!"

I shouted, yet I did it too late.

WIth a huge crack, the nails that held the cranks to the rods, and the cranks themselves suddenly erupted, turning this place form one filled with joy, into a h.e.l.lscape of blood!