Chapter 14 - 14 Chief Engineer, Copper Pipes, and Heat Exchange
A technician arrived in the Archibalt territory from the Royal Capital. His name was Cyril Sis Earhart. He was the third son of Marquess Earhart, and possessed a scholarly temperament rare for the military-oriented House Earhart. He was 18 years old. Being the third son, his parents had given up on making him a soldier and decided to have him walk the path of a researcher at the Royal Research Institute.
Furthermore, while he himself was of slender build, his two older brothers had the rugged physiques typical of soldiers; they looked so unlike him that one wouldn't realize they were brothers at first glance.
Brian and Steve went to welcome this Cyril.
"Welcome. Thank you for coming to such a remote territory."
"No, no, Your Excellency. His Majesty has instructed me to learn diligently, as this place is the cutting edge. I will be in your care. Steve-sama, I look forward to working with you as well."
Although he was a Knight, in terms of hierarchy, Cyril—as the third son of a Marquess and a technician of the Royal Research Institute—ranked higher than Brian. There was an even greater gap in rank when it came to Steve. The reason Cyril used polite language was that he didn't care about hierarchy. Partly due to his timid nature, it inevitably showed in his attitude.
"First, let us guide you to the place where you will be staying, Earhart-dono."
"Yes."
Brian led the way, taking Cyril to the inn. The inn was built very close to the lord's manor. The main building was still under construction and was a wooden structure. In contrast, Cyril was guided to the annex right next to the main building. It was an inn whose walls and roof Steve had created using earth magic. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a simple house.
"Meals can be provided at the inn under construction. Even though it's still being built, simple lodging is possible, so we can provide food. Of course, if you wish to cook for yourself, that is fine too."
"I am not good at cooking, so I will take them at the inn."
"Understood. Also, while she is not exactly a servant, we have prepared someone to take care of your daily needs. Please use her for laundry, shopping, and contacting us. This is Aila, a girl from the village."
Brian had chosen a girl named Aila from among the residents of the Main Village to be Cyril's caretaker. She was 16 years old, single, and had no fiancé. It was a selection made so that even if Cyril were to lay a hand on her, it wouldn't cause any particular problems. Aila had been taught basic etiquette and educated so as not to be rude.
"Ah, I look forward to working with you."
Upon seeing Aila, Cyril greeted her without making eye contact. Unaccustomed to women, it was difficult for Cyril to look even a commoner like Aila in the face while speaking.
Seeing this, Steve thought that there wouldn't be any problematic romantic entanglements this way.
Once Brian's explanation was finished, Steve spoke to Cyril.
"Now then, Chief Engineer-dono. Why don't we go wash off the dust from your long journey? I'll have Aila scrub your back."
"Does that mean there is a bath?"
"Yes. And it is something worth seeing as part of your work, Chief Engineer-dono."
"Hearing that, I have no reason to refuse. Ah, but scrubbing my back is unnecessary. I'm rather uncomfortable with women seeing me naked."
Cyril was also the third son of a Marquess. Changing clothes and bathing should have all been handled by servants, and the servants who did such things were usually women; Steve wondered what kind of life he had led to be uncomfortable with that.
In reality, when Cyril reached puberty, he had appealed to his father, the Marquess, that he didn't want even servants to see him naked, and received permission to do everything himself. If he had been the eldest or second son, the Marquess likely wouldn't have permitted it, but fortunately, since the top two were fine as heirs, he let Cyril do as he pleased. It was for the same reason he hadn't been forced to correct his manner of speech.
Watching the backs of Steve and Cyril as they headed toward Nick's place where the bath was, Aila spoke to Brian.
"I wonder, did the Technician-sama dislike me?"
"No, he's just unaccustomed to women. If you play your cards right, it's a chance to marry into wealth."
"Lord-sama, are you saying I could become a noble's wife?"
"Indeed. His brother will likely inherit the Marquessate, but a technician at the institute becomes a noble, even if they have no territory. It is an opportunity."
"Ehehe, then I'll do my best."
Aila harbored a great ambition in her heart. A success story of a marriage between a noble and a commoner woman. Such cases were not unheard of in the Kingdom of Cascade, but they were extremely rare. Brian figured that if the technician married one of his own villagers and created a connection, that would be fine too.
Now, without the slightest inkling that he was being targeted by such a carnivorous woman, Cyril arrived at Nick's place, guided by Steve. There, he exchanged greetings with Nick and was taken to the location of the bath.
The bath was attached to the well behind Nick's workshop. It was a bath Steve had formed out of earth using magic, and the bottom of the bathtub was about knee-deep from the ground.
The strange thing was that copper pipes were attached to that bathtub. When Cyril followed the end of the copper pipes with his eyes, they went into a stove—or rather, a large incinerator. Copper pipes came out of that incinerator again, and at the end of them was a large vessel. Cyril didn't know it, but the copper pipes had an outer diameter of 6mm and a thickness of 1mm.
"There is no hot water, but are we going to prepare it now?"
Cyril looked at the copper pipes with great interest.
"Yes. But first, we'll put firewood in this stove and light a fire."
Steve lit the fire and waited for it to grow. After waiting a while, once the fire became strong, he began to draw water from the well and pour it into the vessel attached to the end of the copper pipe. Naturally, the water flowed through to the bathtub from the opposite side of the copper pipe.
Cyril noticed steam rising from the water.
"Steve-dono, is this not hot water?"
"It is. This is what I wanted to show you, Chief Engineer-dono."
"'Chief Engineer-dono' is too formal. Please call me Cyril."
"Then, Cyril-sama——"
"No, '-sama' is still a bit formal, I think."
"Then how about Cyril-san?"
"Ah, yes, please go with that."
Cyril scratched the back of his head unconsciously, perhaps still feeling a bit ticklish about it. Steve continued his explanation to him.
"This is something called a heat exchanger. It transfers the heat from burning firewood to the water to create hot water. It's the exact opposite of the refrigerators that are the main export product of our territory. Those are also heat exchangers, but for cooling."
"Does that mean the secret lies inside that incinerator—no, the stove?"
"Yes. Please take a look."
Urged by Steve, Cyril peered into the hole where the copper pipes went. The heat was intense, so he couldn't see very well from too close.
"It's so hot I can't see well."
"Ah, my apologies. I'll make a model now."
Using Copper Creation magic, Steve made a miniature of the copper pipe used in this heat exchanger. A coiled copper pipe appeared in his palm.
"I had heard you were a mage, but to think you can create copper pipes..."
"Yes. However, this is a secret, so please do not tell anyone else."
"I understand."
Cyril was a child of a Marquess. He was well aware of how important a secret a mage's magic could be. He had no intention of speaking of it recklessly to others.
"By heating this pipe and pouring water through it, it becomes hot water. By winding it around and around, we are adjusting the heating time. If this were a pot, it would be heated continuously, so you'd need to remove it from the fire at just the right timing, but with a pipe, it flows out on its own. As long as you put water in the vessel, the hot water is poured into the bath automatically."
"I understand the principle, but since we don't have the know-how to create the shape of the copper pipe, reproduction would be difficult."
If Cyril were to reproduce this with the techniques he knew, he could only think of casting short, curved copper pipes and joining them by brazing or casting-on. In either case, airtightness testing would be required to check for leaks from the joints, and they lacked the technology to build such equipment.
"The technology to make pipes is one thing, but the technology for plastic deformation is also for the future."
This time, Steve used Industrial Machinery Lv2 magic to create a pipe bender. It wasn't an NC pipe bender, but a general-purpose machine that bent by applying hydraulic pressure. It consisted of a bending die, a clamping die, a pressure die, and a hydraulic cylinder.
Steve set a copper pipe in it and showed the actual plastic deformation of the bend. Processing conditions included pipe feed, twist angle, and bend angle. The heat exchanger he showed first was a round coil, but since a pipe bender cannot perform such processing, he bent it into squares to create a coil-like shape.
Regarding the processing conditions, Steve, who could confirm the pipe's set position with Measurement magic, used that magic to perform manual positioning and then the bend. Many pipe benders available at home centers or online cannot handle twisting. For a single bend, such tools are fine, but if one tries to process something with multiple bend points, they are inadequate.
Steve handed the finished pipe to Cyril.
"Since there was no mandrel inside, the bent parts are crushed, right? Even with a 2D bend—that is, a bend with a radius twice the diameter—the flattening rate becomes 22%. This is the difficulty in processing copper pipes. If we changed to a die with an even smaller bend radius, the pipe would be crushed and water wouldn't pass through. Eventually, I want to make it so we can perform this kind of plastic deformation as well."
"What is a mandrel?"
Cyril asked Steve while touching the bent sections with his fingers to check the degree of crushing.
"It's a mold you put inside so the copper pipe doesn't collapse. You could use water or sand instead of a mold, but in that case, you'd have to plug both ends of the copper pipe or it would leak."
A mandrel is a mold used to prevent crushing. Without it, the flattening of the pipe becomes significant, though depending on the shape, there are some where a mandrel cannot be inserted.
"The difficulty is high from the very first day. It's troubling to think how I'll summarize this in a report."
"Perhaps the heat exchanger is easier to understand than plastic deformation. I'm thinking of selling this bath as a set. Now, please get in."
"You're right."
Urged by Steve, Cyril entered the bath. Steve and Nick stood near the stove to adjust the water temperature.
"Oh right, there's a spinning machine which is an even easier-to-understand piece of industrial machinery."
Once again, Steve used Industrial Machinery Lv2 magic to create a spinning machine. Spinning in the Kingdom of Cascade was done by hand. Surrounding nations had also failed to develop spinning wheels and performed hand-spinning. If a hand-cranked spinning machine were to appear, it would be a major revolution.
In his excitement, Cyril jumped out of the bathtub stark naked and ran over to the spinning machine.
"How do you use this!"
"Cyril-san, I will explain, so please put on some clothes first. It would be bad if you caught a cold right after arriving."
There, Cyril realized he was naked, turned red, and hurried to get his clothes. After wiping his body and dressing, he observed the spinning machine once more. Unfortunately, there was no cotton here, so he couldn't perform a demonstration, but Steve showed the movement by running it empty.
When the handle connected to the flywheel was turned, the flywheel rotated, and that movement was transmitted to the pulley. Then, that rotated the bobbin. Watching that movement, Cyril imagined what would happen if there were cotton.
"Is this not a great invention!"
"Well, I suppose so."
In contrast to the highly excited Cyril, Steve was calm. This was because Steve knew about spinning wheels from the knowledge of his previous life. It was a difference in feeling between the shock of seeing it for the first time and the feeling that it was only natural, but since Cyril didn't know that, he misunderstood that Steve, who remained composed despite making the invention of the century, possessed an incredible spirit.
"This could be made even without magic. Ah, for processing things like shafts, it's convenient to have a machine tool called a lathe. Shall I show you that as well?"
"A... lathe?"
Cyril had no idea what kind of thing that was, as it was an unfamiliar word. However, he had expectations that he would surely be surprised again.
After putting out the fire, the three moved to Nick's workshop. There, Cyril was shown the lathe and was surprised once again.
"What is this? I've never seen this either. Is it magic?"
"It's magic, but I think it can be made even without magic. Well, the precision would probably get worse, though."
Through magic, the rotation of the main spindle achieved a perfect circle, but if one tried to reproduce this with the current processing technology of the Kingdom of Cascade, the precision would be very poor. However, if one repeatedly used a created lathe to make parts for another lathe, the precision would improve.
At this stage, Cyril didn't have the leeway to make such a plan, but as he spent time in the Archibalt territory, he would come to think about it.
"I really don't know where to start the report from. For now, I've realized that I'm going to be short on sleep."
Steve, being dragged along by Cyril, also ended up with less sleep. In his previous life, he had sometimes processed parts all night long, but with a child's stamina, he naturally became sleepy at night. He repeatedly kept Cyril company only to fall asleep beside him.
Thus, Cyril's memorable first report consisted of the spinning machine and the copper heat exchanger, and the actual spinning machine was sent to the Royal Capital.