Part 20 (2/2)
”Gladly, my lord. I engaged him for you. But could I ask a favor in return?”
”Name it.”
”There's a boy here, Piotr Kulczynski. I would like him to swear to me.” ”Certainly, Sir Conrad, if the boy and his father are willing. In fact, as long as someone is not sworn to me, you really don't need my permission. Even sworn, a man always has a right of departure, provided his debts are paid. What do you want with him?”
”He's a bright kid, my lord, and has picked up accounting very quickly. I want him to keep an eye on some commercial interests I have in Cieszyn.” ”Do these commercial interests include owners.h.i.+p of the Pink Dragon Inn?”
”Yes, my lord. Do you object?”
”Not in the least. It's just that some remarkable rumors have been circulating about your adventures in Cieszyn. Did you really seat one of my peasant girls at the head table in my brother's castle?”
”Yes, my lord. I'm sorry if I've offended you, but-”
”Sir Conrad, my only objection is that I wasn't able to see the expression on his wife's face.” He laughed. ”That b.i.t.c.h has always hated me.” ”Well, come along. I want to introduce you to my liege lord, and I want you to explain your mills and the new cloth factory.”
As we entered the castle, Sir Stefan was talking heatedly with his father. I couldn't hear them, but twice he pointed at me. As my American friends would have put it, the s.h.i.+t was about to hit the fan.
Duke Henryk the Bearded was one of the most remarkable men I had ever met. He was almost seventy years old, and his face was cracked and wrinkled like old timber, yet his back was straight and strong. His thick white hair brushed his shoulders, and his thick white beard was huge. It was wider than his chest and extended below his sword belt.
But more important than his appearance was his-I don't want to say aura, because that implies something mystical, and this was an immensely practical man-but a feeling of power was almost tangible about him, as if, had he decided to walk through a wall, the wall would have apologized and scrambled out of his way. Even more impressive, though in a totally different way, was his son, who would eventually be called Henryk the Pious. Young Henryk was just over forty and approaching the height of his powers. He could read and write and did a lot of both-rare among the n.o.bility. Whereas the father was a tough politician, the son was a prince, every centimeter of him.
His bearing and his look and his tone of voice were a chant that said, ”Duty, justice, order, and restraint; honor, vigor, and discipline.”
We looked each other in the eye, and I knew that this was a man I would follow into h.e.l.l, fully confident that he could lead me out again. I had found Poland's king and my own.
Henryk the Bearded looked at me and said, ”So, you are Sir Conrad the Giant. I have heard much about you.”
”I hope nothing too bad, my lord.”
”Mixed. But all of it is impossible, so most of it is lies. Your loom works faster than anything the Walloons own. They brought nothing like your spinning wheels. Now, tell me about these mills you're building.” The mill tower was now up, the tank floors were in, and the circular shed was completed. Work was under way on the turret. With the five-story-tall structure and my two-meter models, I was able to explain what I was doing, yet their questions kept me hopping. Our two visitors might be statesmen and warriors by profession, but they were not stupid when it came to technical matters. They went over things point by point. almost as thoroughly as Vitold did. After the mills, we started on the cloth factory. The looms and spinning wheels were already understood, and I referred them to Angelo the Florentine when they asked about the dyeing vats and the combing and carding equipment. They jumped on me when it came to the was.h.i.+ng fine. After all, everybody understood was.h.i.+ng. ”Why twelve tubs? Why not one big one?”
”A single big tub would have to be bra.s.s, with a fire under it. Using a dozen small tubs, only two tubs need to be heated. The rest can be of wood. Also, wool needs not only to be washed but to be rinsed several times. With a single tub, we would not only have to heat three tubs of water for each batch of wool, we would have to throw away a lot of cleanser with the rinse water.” ”Explain that.”
”We call this the reverse-flow system. The wool moves from north to south along the line of tubs. The water moves from south to north, overflowing from one tub to the next. The water comes in cold and clean and goes out cold and dirty. The wool comes in cold and dirty and goes out cold and clean.” I could see that I wasn't getting through.
”Let's follow some wool as it goes through the tubs. Dirty wool is dumped into the first wooden tub, and a worker stirs it with a wooden fork. The water is only warm, and it's dirty. Most of the cleanser has been consumed, but some dirt is easily removed. Excess water goes out this drain, and fresher water flows in through this pipe from the second tank.”
”The wool is scooped up and into the second tub, and more raw wool is dumped into the first. In the second tub, the water is hotter and cleaner.” ”This goes on until the sixth tub, which is made of bra.s.s. It is set in stone, and there is a fire beneath it. The water is very hot. Cleanser is added here.”
”The seventh is the first rinse tub. The water is warm, and cleanser that is washed off the wool flows with the water into the sixth tub.” ”Tubs eight, nine, and ten are additional, progressively hotter rinse tubs. The eleventh tub is also of bra.s.s and is heated boiling hot.” ”The twelfth tub contains fresh, cold water. Its purpose is to cool the wool while warming the water before it flows into the boiling rinse tank.” ”The was.h.i.+ng line is followed by these draining and drying racks.”
”Hmm. So the same water is used many times, and fuel is saved. Interesting.” The reverse flow is one of those beautifully simple things that were invented remarkably late. It was first applied to heat exchangers in the 1930s and was Albert Einstein's major contribution to engineering. Since then, it has been applied to hundreds of industrial processes.
”Sir Conrad, you keep saying cleanser. Aren't you using soap or wood ashes?” ”Soap is a boiled mixture of ashes and grease. The wool already has grease on it. It is what we are trying to remove.
Raw ashes have a lot of solid particles that would make the wool dirty.”
”Instead, we leach the ashes first. We put them in a barrel with a cloth bottom and run hot water through them. The water that drips out contains sodium hydroxide, lye, which is a stronger cleanser.”
”So there is a worker at each tub?”
”Probably not, my lord. Working all day over the two boiling tubs would be arduous. We plan to have each worker follow a given batch of wool up the line.” This grilling went on for hours before Duke Henryk called for beer and I could slake my very dry throat. We were seated in the count's hall. ”Sir Conrad, as you have described the was.h.i.+ng line, it seems to me that it can wash more wool than your wheels can spin.”
”True, my lord. It will be free much of the time for other things. Was.h.i.+ng clothes, for example.”
”You have explained what you -are doing but not why you are doing it.”
”Why make cloth, my lord? So that people can wear it!”
”No. I mean, you are a foreigner among us. What do you want? Is it money?” ”I have plenty of money, my lord. More than I want for myself. And I am not a foreigner. I know that my accent is strange to you. I grew up in ... another place. But all of my ancestors were Poles, and I am a Pole, and this is my country.”
”Indeed. I am told that you may not discuss your place of birth, and I will not press you. But why are you doing what you are doing?” ”Because Poland is divided and backward and weak!
Because our people are cold and hungry and illiterate! They die like snowflakes touching a river.”
”And because the Mongols-the Tartars-are coming! They want to kill all our people and turn our fields into grazing lands for their war-horses!” ”Calm yourself, Sir Conrad. It is good that you are concerned with the lot of our people. These mills, these looms of yours, they are good things. I will see that their use is encouraged. But as to the Tartars, why, Genghis Khan died five years ago, so why worry about them?”
”Genghis had sons, and his sons have sons. They will come.”
”When?”
”In nine years. A little less than that.”
”Hmm. You know their plans so far in advance?”
”They will come, my lord.”
”If you believe that, then why are you wasting your time on these peaceful pursuits? Why are you not building weapons of war?” ”I will build weapons, my lord. But who will use them? In Poland now it takes a hundred peasants and workers to support a single fighting man, a knight.
When the Mongols come, they will come with every man in their tribes under arms. By numbers alone they will overwhelm us. My machines will give all the people the time and the weapons to train for war. Poland can survive only with a citizen army!”
”You would arm commoners? That would upset the social stability.” ”You are right, my lord.
But there is nothing as stable as a dead man. He just lies there and doesn't move at all.”
”You are a strange man, Sir Conrad the Giant.”
And so I was dismissed. As I walked away, I knew that I had blown it. I had gotten so wrapped up in technical details that I had forgotten what it was that I should have been trying to accomplish.
I was like the engineer who became so involved in fighting alligators that he forgot that his job was to drain the swamp.
It didn't matter what the duke thought of my mills and factory. They were already being built, and he would not be likely to stop them, no matter what he thought.
The important thing I needed was his approval on a grant of land. Without my own land, everything I had done so far would be trivial.
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