Chapter 355: Doomed to Obsolescence (1/2)
Berengar had been dreadfully busy with work over the past month, particularly in overseeing the beginning phases of his industrialization process, so much so that he had even begun to forsake his duties as a husband and father.
At this moment, he was sitting in his study, overseeing the expense reports for the initial startup costs of constructing a railroad. It was well within his expectations, and as such, he quickly signed his approval on the document with his fountain pen.
At this moment, he heard a knock on his door; as such, he instinctively called out to the person behind it.
”It's open.”
After saying this, the door creaked open to reveal his newlywed wife, who was standing before him with a platter filled with food and a mug of beer. Before Berengar realized it, noon had approached, and lunchtime had arrived with it.
After seeing his beautiful young bride standing before him holding a plate filled with sausage, käsespätzle, and schnitzel Berengar's fatigue began to wash away as he stood up from his seat and greeted his woman.
”Adela, is it lunchtime already? I'm sorry I should have met you in the dining hall; I have just been so busy with work.”
Adela laid the food tray down upon Berengar's desk and forced herself upon his lap. As she did so, she placed a finger on Berengar's lips silencing him from speaking. She looked into his deep sapphire eyes that she herself had in common before telling the thoughts on her mind.
”I understand you have been busy managing the realm; there is no need to apologize. Without you, I fear to think what Austria would have become. At the very least, allow me to assist you in any way I can. After all, your work is necessary, but skipping meals is bad for your health.”
Berengar smiled as Adela lifted the liter mug of beer and brought it to his lips, in doing so forcing him to drink from the hearty lager contained within. After he did so, he began to continue his work while Adela continued to feed him from the plate of food. He was careful not to damage the documents with the fine Austrian cuisine residue.
As he continued to focus on his work while taking short breaks to eat Adela's food, his young wife noticed the documents on the table and the amount of Guldens Berengar was spending on the process of industrializing his nation as such, her mouth gaped in shock before asking the question on her mind.
”Can we afford such expenditures?”
Berengar chuckled before assuring the young woman that they could indeed afford the expense.
”Not to worry, my love, with the assets we have seized from Italy during our War for Independence and the income we receive from all of our businesses, the Austrian Crown can easily afford the expenditure. Besides, this is an investment into the future of our realm. These railways will provide significant economic and tactical advantages over our rivals.”
Adela relaxed when she heard Berengar's assurance, and after doing so, fed him a spoon filled with the delicious cheesy dish known as käsespätzle; after doing so, she helped her husband wash it down with a sip of beer.
After finishing approving the distribution of funds to the construction of the railroad, Berengar began to take a look at the metallic cartridge design that Ludwig had struggled to create. The base material for the cartridge was copper, and the older man had attempted to embed a percussion cap in the rear.
Berengar instantly saw the faults with such a design and quickly began to draw the necessary modifications to make a proper metallic cartridge for use in firearms. Though Berengar could introduce smokeless powder, it would take some time to begin producing such a thing, and he currently had a massive stockpile of black powder built up.
With this in mind, Berengar began to redesign the cartridge around a reliable and proven black powder cartridge from his previous life. He began to draft the dimensions based upon the .45-70 govt used by the American armed forces in the latter half of the 19th century.
The bullet itself was a solid piece of lead and its diameter was .458 in or 11.6 mm. The cartridge itself was made of brass, which was more reliable than the copper cartridge that Ludwig had designed. The casing's neck was .480 in or 12.2mm in diameter, with a base diameter of 5.05 inches or 12.8mm.
The rim at the bottom of the cartridge was .608 in or 15.4mm in diameter as for the thickness of the edge; it was 0.70 in or 1.8mm; as for the length of the casing, it was 2.105 in or 53.5mm. For a rifle to properly stabilize the flight of this projectile, it would need a 1-20 rifling, which meant that for every complete revolution that the bullet twisted within the barrel, 20 inches were required to achieve it.
Adela watched in shock as Berengar was hard at work. Before her very eyes, he began utterly overhauling the rudimentary metallic cartridge that Ludwig had devised. Finally, he began to create the most critical point of a functioning metallic cartridge from memory as if it were second nature.
When Berengar began to create the centerfire primer seemingly from scratch, he lamented that he had no idea how to create a more modern Lead Styphnate explosive compound, which was required to make non-corrosive primers. He substituted the mixture with the far more primitive and cheaper to produce mercury fulminate that his chemists had already created and utilized in the current percussion cap production.
A centerfire primer was something that took decades for Europeans to discover in Berengar's previous life. Still, because Berengar was an engineer and a firearms fanatic in his earlier life, he was well aware of how to manufacture such a thing.