Chapter 47 (1/2)

Chapter 47 Market Circulation

For the last week, it was fairly calm for Border Town.

Iron Axe and Brian both said that the strength and number of the demonic beasts would gradually grow with the progression of the Months of the Demons. So, taking advantage of the situation where the pressure on the line of defence wasn’t strong yet, Roland once again sent a boat with ore to Willow Town.

Since the steam engine was put into use for mining in the North Slope Mine, the number of miners had been reduced by half, but the production had steadily improved. Now, it had been restored to the level of production from before the collapse. Using a machine to do the job saved a lot of manpower.

Meanwhile, under Roland’s orders the mine production systems had undergone a preliminary reform. The former fixed payment for each day was changed into a variable pay. He let Barov put together a statistic about last year’s average amount of ore produced daily. With this he could set a standard and everyone who mined more could increase their pay. An increased number of gemstones would result in a big reward. This move effectively increased the workers’ enthusiasm for mining, so the mine became a bustling area.

Roland naturally wanted to do more with his ore, now that he had more ore in hand.

In addition to the plan to put a second steam engine into production, he also intended to manufacture a number of manual lathes.

This lathe can be seen as something historical, it was commonly seen as an essential machine for implementing other tools. The anvil can be regarded as the most primitive tool – it was used for manual fixing and creating.

It was better used to create, because using it to fix was really too inconvenient, thereupon people would often try to fasten their product or place it in a recess on a table to fix their processed parts. For example, the early matchlock and flintlock gun barrels were placed into a recess on the anvil to be pounded out by hand.

Later, manual creation became too slow to meet demand, so they needed tools to increase production speed. The lathe could be used according to different purposes, the tools could be fixed according to each need, and the manual and machine processing could be used together. So, the lathe could effectively improve the strength of pure manual labor and could be changed for every weak point.

Roland also considered a manual milling machine.

Although the milling machine had various functions, he wanted to mainly use it in order to process involute gears, so its architecture could also be simplified correspondingly. With a slot for a fixed tooth plate and a rotatable steel disc, customized cutting gear could be easily manufactured with Anna’s help – by grinding off and polishing the top layer after it got heated to a red hot state, erasing the slag on the iron, and then immersing it water to harden it, it would become a highly rigid custom disc.

After the key problems were solved, Roland immediately gave Carter the order to hire two carpenters, who would build him a milling machine. Meanwhile, Anna continued to manufacture other metal parts in the castle backyard.

Roland had to say, that with Anna’s help, metal processing had become as easy as forming clay, especially after she had mastered the retrieval of her flame. At the moment she was pretreating small items, forming their rough shapes within her hands. Seeing Anna take an iron ingot in her hand, melt it without further help and shape it into the form she wanted caused Roland to sigh in wonder.

If he hadn’t been able to employ a witch, Roland thought, achieving his production program would be delayed by more than a decade.

Two days later, the first simple milling machine appeared in the backyard.