Chapter 22 - Industrial Magic Lv3
Thanks to creating copper with magic every day, experience points accumulated, and Steve's magic level increased.
【Industrial Magic Lv3】
・Steel Creation
・Copper Creation
・Glass Creation new!
・Industrial Machinery Lv1: Bench Lathe, Fixed Grinder, Pasta Machine
・Industrial Machinery Lv2: Pipe Bender, Spinning Machine
・Industrial Machinery Lv3: Winnowing Fan, Contour Machine, Hand Lift
・Measurement
・Standard Operating Procedure
He immediately created a Winnowing Fan with magic and handed it to Cyril. Arrangements were made to send two units to the Royal Capital right away. Since the mechanism was simple, production would likely begin as soon as they finished disassembling it and measuring the parts.
A Contour Machine is a band saw. It is a machine tool where a saw in the shape of a belt rotates. Currently, Steve, Cyril, and Nick are making a prototype of the band saw blade to see if it can be reproduced with current technology.
Furthermore, water-powered sawmills already exist, and as long as it isn't a band saw, they are already in operation. To make a band saw blade, the two ends must be joined and welded, but naturally, they lack a welding machine.
Band saw blades are generally joined via butt welding, a type of resistance welding. This involves bringing the end faces of the metals into contact and passing an electric current through them while applying pressure to generate heat and weld them together.
Normally, a Contour Machine comes with a butt welder for re-welding the band saw blade, so even a Contour Machine created by magic can perform the weld. However, since there are no other means for butt welding, they are checking whether it is possible to build a Contour Machine without magic.
The other parts are reproducible due to their simple structure.
Nick grumbled during the saw-setting work.
"There ain't much demand for saws, so I've never made 'em before. I'll try setting the teeth based on your knowledge, Wakasama, but even if I'm a blacksmith, I'm a total amateur when it comes to saws."
Axes were the more common tool for cutting wood; saws were only used by a few craftsmen, and blacksmiths didn't get much of that work. Furthermore, regarding the setting of the teeth—the shape of the kerf—Nick was merely reproducing it based on Steve's hazy memories without any experience. It was almost certain to be difficult to use due to high frictional resistance.
"The goal isn't to make a saw, but to see if we can create the band shape, so it's fine."
"Wakasama, a craftsman hates the idea of the rubbish he made circulating around. If a Contour Machine made without magic has a poorly made band saw attached and becomes a laughingstock, I'll be too embarrassed to stand it."
For Nick, it was unbearable to be laughed at for his work being substandard. He wanted to make something perfect if possible. That said, a specialized skill like saw-setting wasn't something that could be mastered overnight, and it was a heavy burden for the inexperienced Nick.
"I'll handle the saw-setting somehow. So, just focus on making the band shape."
Steve intended to ask Aurora for permission to tour a saw workshop. If he could observe one, he could create a Standard Operating Procedure, which would solve the problem of saw-setting.
The remaining problem was the band shape. Creating a thin band saw blade of uniform width by hand would be quite a struggle. How to join both ends of the plate was also an issue, but they decided to join them via forge welding.
Cyril recorded these trials and errors.
"But what's the point of this? Moving a saw up and down like a sawmill would've been fine, wouldn't it?"
Nick asked Steve while he worked.
"Saws move up and down or back and forth, but the direction they cut is fixed, right? However, with a band saw, it keeps rotating in the same direction, so the cut surface ends up clean. A circular saw also rotates in the same direction, but since we have a technician like Cyril-san here, there'd be no point in making something as simple as a circular saw, right?"
"Ah, so that's how it is. I can understand that, then. The fact that it rotates in the same direction is the important part."
Saws used by hand inevitably involve a back-and-forth motion, but band saws and metal saws can cut while rotating in a single direction. That was another merit.
"Once this is finished, we have the Hand Lift prototype next. There's no time for chatting."
"You're a real slave driver. Unlike you or the technician-sama, this isn't my only job, you know. I've got work I've taken on from the villagers too."
Nick looked like he was about to cry at Steve's heavy workload.
With Industrial Magic Lv3, he could now create Hand Lifts, and Cyril had been requested to reproduce those as well. Think of a Hand Lift as a manually operated forklift. To move factory pallets, the lift's forks are raised and lowered using a hydraulic cylinder. Unlike a forklift, it can't lift very high. The purpose is to lift the pallet off the floor to transport it.
If these were mass-produced, it would revolutionize warehouse logistics. However, the state would need to set and manage standards for the pallets and the Hand Lift forks. If left to the private sector, everyone would manufacture them with their own arbitrary dimensions, resulting in a total lack of compatibility.
However, Cyril had not yet started writing that report. This was because he had too many other things to do. Even though he was a technician, he was young and lacked experience. Even for something like casting, he was in a state where he was seeing it for the first time through Nick's work.
As such, Cyril couldn't bring himself to write a report on something he didn't understand, so he was writing his reports only after experiencing all the work himself.
And even more important than the Hand Lift was Steve's new magic, Glass Creation. This allowed for the creation of sophisticated lenses. Items using lenses include glasses, magnifying glasses, microscopes, and telescopes.
Reproduced through Steve's past-life knowledge, these would bring innovation not just to the Kingdom of Cascade, but to the entire continent. Glass itself was already being produced, and lenses could be made by processing it. He had been shown how to use them, but not knowing where to start the report, he decided to do the band saw creation first. To put it simply, it was escapism.
After all, a report on lenses would be a monumental achievement that would go down in history. However, if he wrote it poorly, it would either be buried in history or his name would be remembered as the incompetent who let it be buried. He wanted to avoid the latter at all costs. He worried so much that his appetite diminished, and he grew thin enough to worry those around him, to the point that Aila went to consult Brian.
"Calling me a slave driver... if you're whining at this level, what are you going to do when the immigrants arrive? I'm planning to have you provide technical guidance, Nick."
"Wakasama, you could do that yourself, couldn't you?"
Ignoring Cyril's worries, Steve and Nick bickered. Housing for the immigrants had begun to be completed, and with applicants appearing, the day of their arrival was drawing near. Incidentally, many of the prospective immigrants were from Viscount Karsh's territory.
To repay the Viscount's debts, harsh tax collection was being carried out, and many of his subjects wished to migrate.
Even if they ran away, they would be caught as criminals if found. This was because commoners did not have the freedom to migrate. When the notice came from Margrave Sowell calling for volunteers to migrate, people flocked to it, hoping to escape legally.
The task of narrowing this down to 100 people pained Steve's heart. Since everyone was suffering under tyranny, he wanted to take them all in if possible, but doing so would strain the Archibalt Territory, so he had no choice but to make the cut.
And the technical guidance Steve mentioned was because he intended to have the immigrants work in industry rather than agriculture, so it was necessary to teach them processing techniques, including how to use machine tools. Since everyone was inexperienced, it was expected that the instruction would be quite a struggle.
Cyril, who had been watching the exchange between the two, spoke up.
"Shall I help with the guidance as well?"
"No, no, that would exceed the scope of work for a technician dispatched from the Royal Research Institute," Steve said, but Cyril insisted it was fine.
"It's alright. Since it's you, Steve-dono, I'm sure your teaching methods will involve a different approach than what we have now. If I observe that and reflect it in our country's industry, then it is perfectly valid work for a technician."
"You certainly have a way with words. You're much more reasonable than Wakasama," Nick praised Cyril. Steve, being compared, looked sulky.
"Next time Mother and the others go shopping in the Royal Capital, there was talk of having Nick's wife accompany them to buy trendy clothes, but I'll have to tell them that it's been cancelled because Nick committed an act of discourtesy against the lord's son."
"Wakasama, that's an abuse of authority! I mean, that's the first I've heard of such a thing!"
As for Nick, he was deeply involved in the domain's secrets and had been raised in status to be treated as a retainer. Naturally, if his wife were to accompany them, she would be treated as a quasi-noble and could enter shops reserved for nobility alongside Abigail. And as the wife of a retainer, she would be expected to dress accordingly. That was the official reason; in truth, Abigail had invited Nick's wife to reward her for her hard work until now.
Of course, since providing transport to the Royal Capital was Steve's job, Steve knew about circumstances that Nick didn't.
"It's a fact. Do you want to check for yourself?"
"No, let's not. If you didn't tell me, there's probably a reason for it. It sounds like it'll turn into a pain if I ask, so I'll pass, but please raise my wages. If she learns to enjoy luxury, things'll be tough later, so for the sake of domestic peace, I want the money."
"Wages aren't under my jurisdiction, so please tell Father directly."
"Yeah, yeah."
Cyril watched the exchange between the two with a smile.
However, Cyril's offer wasn't out of sympathy; he truly wanted to see what kind of education Steve would provide. Could he use inexperienced people to create things that would immediately be sellable? If so, what kind of know-how was involved? He couldn't help but feel that those very things would greatly sway the future of the Kingdom of Cascade.