009: A BORING IDEA
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“Konrad, I want to build a machine,” I said at the breakfast table. The entire family was here today. Mother, Father, Elara, Konrad and Ulrich. “I want to build a machine that will help speed up what we do in the mines.” Everyone looked at me with curious expressions.
“Do you have a design for this son?” My father asked, taking a bite out of his bread.
“I have an idea, though I’m yet to come up with a design. I plan to visit the mines and come up with it once I’m certain that this project will work.”
My father nodded and turned to my mother, “Dear, please make sure that Alberich gets whatever funds are required once he’s gotten started.”
Ulrich seemed intrigued. He took a sip of his tea and spoke “Brother, surely you can speak of this idea you have at least. What will this machine of yours seek to accomplish?”
“The idea for this machine is to essentially grind away at the stone walls. It will be powered by a few men who would push against the thing towards a wall and crank some sort of shaft, causing the front of the machine to rotate, breaking down the wall on soil or rock.” I said, as I finished off my tea and placed my cup back on the saucer. Ulrich didn’t seem impressed by my proposition.
“Hm,” He said as he turned away and continued with his breakfast. He waited for a solid minute before responding. “Oh, you want me to say something? Fine. Alber, what makes you think that an 8-year-old child can just make a machine that so many machine makers have failed to do? Don't you think that just because you’re the apprentice of that old bastard Hemlo-”
Ulrich stopped before he could finish his statement. Not that he did so willingly, Konrad stepped in, slapping Ulrich across the face.
“Keep my master’s name out of your mouth, you failed Cretin. Just because you have the gift of gab doesn’t make you worthy of insulting others above your intellectual level!” Konrad shouted, bolting up from his chair, causing it to fall behind him. Konrad walked right up to Ulrich who was now fuming.
“The fuck did you just say to me? You’re nothing but a dog who barks out orders to his whores.” Ulrich and Konrad were practically at each others’ throats. Mother tried to intervene, but was stopped by Father who watched with a stern expression on his face. Ulrich continued his tirade of insults “You’re not worthy of the Eisenwerk name. It’s a pity that the little one wants to follow in your footsteps.”
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Elara shouted, slamming a fist on the table. She walked up to Ulrich and glared at him.
“What? Do you think that you scare me?-” Ulrich was stopped by Elara who slapped him across the face. The slap plunged the entire dining room into silence.
“You may speak ill of me, you may speak ill of Konrad, you may speak ill of our parents. Don’t you dare speak ill of Alber. He is OUR younger brother and thus our responsibility to shape into a worthy successor of our name.” Elara paused, caught her breath and slapped Ulrich on the other cheek. “Don’t you dare speak of pity when you rarely acknowledge Alber. You were never interested in him. So don’t pretend that you care now. ”
Despite Elara being much smaller, physically than Ulrich, she seemed to tower over him. Ulrich looked away and walked out of the dining hall. Elara then turned to Konrad, glared at him and proceeded to slap him. She woke up and chose violence.
“What were you thinking about losing your composure? What? Just because Ulrich spoke ill of Master Hemlock, did you think starting a heated argument was the solution to the issue? Behave yourself.” Elara paused and turned to Father. “And you. How dare you sit there and let this situation play out? You are the patriarch, and outrank me. Act like it,” Elara turned and left the room.
Father sat in his seat, smirking.
“She’s grown up.” My father paused, then turned to me “Alberich. Pay no heed to Ulrich’s words, I shall speak to him. Focus on your project,” Father took a sip of his tea and continued “If Master Hemlock chose you as an apprentice, he most definitely saw potential.”
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We all finished our meals and left the dining hall. This was a very eventful breakfast for sure.
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After returning to my room, I changed into a more comfortable outfit which consisted of a pair of shorts and a cotton shirt; I set about on a mini mission to find Amelie since I hadn’t seen her since the previous night when she broke down crying over me not having a childhood. I wasn’t sure how to feel about her viewpoint.
One one and, she had a point, on the other, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I did take it easy. In my previous life, I fought for everything I had. College, Grad School, my PhD, my first job, my research. Everything was the result of my tireless efforts. Sure in this life I have significantly more resources, but that doesn’t exempt me from the struggle. Maybe Amelie didn’t see it that way.
I asked the head maid if she knew where Amelie was, apparently she had a series of morning tasks to complete. She was to go to the village and pick up a set of supplies to collect, some that I’d asked for, and some that I hadn’t but needed. This girl was very attentive.
Not wanting to waste any time, I called for a carriage and made my way to the Eisenwerk mines. Konrad was already there. One of the miners had seen my carriage in the distance and sent for him.
“No Amelie?” Konrad asked.
“Oh you’d love that wouldn’t you?” I asked, smirking at him.
“I would actually. She’s your caretaker and thus she should travel with you when she can.”
“Right, but that’s not the only reason you want her to come is it?”
“What? No.”
“Oh come on now Brother. I see the way you look at her.”
“And how is it that I look at her?”
“You’re in loooove,” I chanted with a smirk.
“Quiet down!” Konrad exclaimed, rushing to cover my mouth. “Okay fine. I fancy her company. But that kind of relationship would never work out. I’m a noble and she’s a commoner.”
“So what? You’re going to keep her around, dangling your affection in front of her like a carrot on a stick?”
“That’s not- Where did you even learn to- What?”
“Finn is very popular with the ladies.”
“Of course he is. A tall, muscular half-elf working under one of the nation’s best blacksmiths is sure to turn heads.”
“He’s also got a silver tongue. So many women practically throw themselves at him,” I paused, sensing a profitable opportunity, “I can convince Finn to give you a few pointers if you let me keep the bed and mattress I borrowed.”
Konrad thought for a moment before replying “Fine. But this has to be under the table. Amelie can never find out that I took lessons to sharpen my silver tongue.” The two of us shook on it and switched subjects.
“So, what do you have in mind for this machine of yours’?” Konrad asked as we walked over to the entrance of the mines.
A wave of excitement came over me as I reached for my bag and pulled out my notebook.
“This is a horizontal rotary drilling rig with a cart and bucket system to carry the harvested materials.”
“You're going to have to dumb that down for me.”
“Sorry. Okay, so the gist of it is that we have a massive drill in the front with shovel-pickaxe-like structures that break down the wall in front of it and funnel the debris into the drill structure itself. Once inside, this debris will fall into a cart directly under the machine that can be removed from the rig, emptied and replaced.”
“Right, so I think I get what you mean. How about we go into the mines to get a better idea of the scope your machine has to cover.”
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The tunnels were as stuffy as I remembered, but I was here on official business, as well as official I could get really.
The foreman from my last visit was still there, so I walked up to him and asked him what sort of complications the miners faced down there. From my little interview, a few of my concerns were brought up.
The first issue was the lack of air. The entire reason the air in the mines felt stuffy was because there was little to no air circulation, causing what was inside to be low in oxygen levels, as well as feel stuffy and just have an overall higher humidity. This tired out the miners very easily and just wasn't good for their overall productivity. Another issue that the miners complained about was the darkness. Sure the miners carried torches and oil lamps with them into the tunnels, but those emitted heat, which made the tunnels very unbearable the longer you spent in them. Another issue caused by using oil lamps and torches was the burning of oxygen, once again making it harder for the miners to breathe.
Apart from that, an immediate issue I realised with the project was the height of the tunnels. They needed to be at least 9 feet in diameter to allow the miners to easily move around and manoeuvre their equipment.
Then came the issue of stabilizing the walls. We don't want a cave-in to happen when we have men in the mines. The last time this happened it was because of a miner using magic in a place where she shouldn’t have. Regardless, the walls had to be strong enough to not fall apart. We'd need reinforcements along the tunnel.
The more I thought about this project, the more complex it became, but I wasn't going to give up. I was going to square up and fight.
The final biggest issue for this boring machine was how to power it. If it were a hand-cranked machine it’d need a lot of manpower, the kind of manpower that would not be feasible in this scenario because the more men in the tunnel, the more air was burned through.
My head spun just thinking about the sheer number of issues to resolve.
Get a grip, Kenji. You’re an engineer. This is your job. You solve problems.
Your problem this time is a manpower problem.