Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 118 Technology Lock

A newly built test site in the eastern part of the island.

The four Banshees gathered together and worked together to place the steam engine on the fixed stand in the room.

Hughes looked at the twenty-four hands holding the steam engine, and felt extremely weird.

This steam engine was a newly assembled Type II machine, completely assembled by the trainees, and Hughes did not intervene at all.

It must weigh at least three tons.

Three tons, just moved here
Zeus originally designed some equipment for transportation, but suddenly he had an idea and decided to let the banshees give it a try.

The result was surprisingly good. The four banshees had no problem moving the three-ton machine. The only problem was that they were not very good at walking backwards - their tails get tangled easily, so a long section in the middle was actually carried by three banshees.

This weight and strength.
Xiu Si suddenly felt that these banshees might not be much weaker than steam engines after entering the factory. They also had six hands and could do six jobs at a time.

When I see the surplus value, I really want to exploit it.

"How's it going, Shen?"

"It's okay, the main problem is that it's not easy to grab. It's too slippery. It would be better if I had a few more hands." Nini said indifferently.

Hughes:.
The banshees lowered the steam engine, and then the students assembled and debugged it. This was the first time that Hughes tried to use steam power in a factory.

It could have been used earlier, but the students' learning progress was still a bit slow. After all, many of them had not graduated from the literacy class for long and had too many lessons to make up.

But there was no way to skip this step. He was really worried about teaching the following things directly, so he could only lay a solid foundation bit by bit and then try again.

The only consolation was that the workers brought by Beatrice seemed to have learned some knowledge about steam engines.

The reason why they use the word "seems" is because according to them, the source of this knowledge is word of mouth among the workers. The old masters teach the new workers, and it is passed down slowly like this.

Therefore, the workers' knowledge was mostly incomplete. Only the operation of the steam engine was correct. The knowledge was not systematic and they almost had to learn from scratch.

Zeus planned to let them try operating the steam engine directly after Beatrice left, and as for other basic knowledge, they could just take supplementary lessons.

The current factory was built for this purpose.

This factory is different from any other on the island.

To put it bluntly, the previous factories were just larger workshops. Their establishment concepts might be more advanced, but they were still factories built with wood.

This factory is amazing. It is almost entirely made of stone, which is something that cannot be found on the Blue Planet.

There was no other way. The efficiency of turning the Banshee's fossils into mud was too high. He simply put some steel bars as support, and the entire factory building had the strength of concrete.

This can almost be considered as black technology. Even if he makes cement, its strength will definitely be several levels lower than this. Therefore, Hughes has high hopes for this factory.

He plans to turn this place into a steel mill.

There are iron mines on the island, and the fuelization of pollution has entered the experimental stage. The runes drawn inside the boiler - that is, the patterns circled with his blood to prevent pollution from escaping - are currently being optimized. It is said that this thing works well with the machine soul.

Why does the style of painting feel a bit strange?

Xius couldn't help but sigh secretly. He could clearly feel that his technological advancement had slowed down recently.

And it's not that a certain technology is stuck, but that the speed of almost all research and development is slowing down. He can only make breakthroughs in the direction of integrating extraordinary abilities such as [Machine Soul] with science and technology. As for pure technological progress, the speed is pitifully slow.

For example, the superior technology of nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose and smokeless gunpowder, no matter how he configured the formula, the effect was not good.

He had the correct ratio of smokeless gunpowder, but it couldn't be used directly. Every raw material in this era had impurities in different proportions, which would affect the output to a certain extent and were difficult to avoid. Therefore, he needed to make fine adjustments based on the correct formula and come up with an empirical recipe.

As a result, such a small step could not be completed, and the gunpowder produced was defective and could only be used to make fireworks.

Zeus had a feeling that the world seemed to be stuck in the advancement of pure technology. He needed to combine supernatural powers with science and technology to slowly advance it. Perhaps the focus in the future would be on this aspect.

But in the final analysis, he was still somewhat unwilling to give up. He had long realized that advancing in technology in this world would not be smooth sailing.

Hughes had a vague feeling that perhaps in the future he would find a way to break through this technological bottleneck. By then, thanks to the vast amount of experimental data he had accumulated, his current bottleneck would be able to achieve a rapid breakthrough, a technological explosion that would instantly boost Castel's industrial capacity by several levels. This method might involve exploiting the unique characteristics of this world, using magic to defeat magic.

What he has to do now is to accumulate slowly and wait until the moment when quantitative change brings about qualitative change. At that time, the production capacity will explode. Moreover, the technology tree that is different from that of Blue Star is also very interesting, such as steam tanks, airships and so on. It’s great to think about it!

There is no point in being anxious about advancing technology, so Zeus is now gradually thinking about applying the extraordinary power of this world, and pollution is a good direction.

Although physical pollution is not yet suitable as a fuel, the prospects are very optimistic and the steel plant will be successfully put online soon.

As for the blast furnace used for iron smelting - he originally built one and it was successful, but recently he had a new idea. He wanted to try to optimize it by using fossils as mud.

This part also requires experiments, and he considered letting the banshees try it.

Instead of using their spells, let them develop them independently.

The Banshees are truly a magical race. They are physically strong and have decent magical abilities. They are natural born warriors no matter how you look at them.

Generally speaking, such races will almost inevitably develop a primitive worship of violence, and their values will also shift in this direction.

But strangely, they have no such tendency at all.

This group of banshees clearly worshipped gods, and had been uncivilized for who knows how long. However, after just a short time of contact with Zeus, they had almost adapted to his ideas and values.

This is very unusual.

For most races, it is difficult to change their innate concepts. Although they are all human beings, it is difficult for young and old people to communicate with each other. However, this group of banshees quickly adapted to this change.

Originally, Hughes thought that this adaptation might take one or two generations to complete, but now it seems that he was overthinking it.

When they first met, they only knew how to worship gods, but now they have become interested in science. Sometimes talking to these banshees reminds Zeus of the people on Blue Star.

In short, with Monica's efforts, the banshees have become more and more interested in researching and developing technology. They have also taken advanced courses, so we might as well let them take charge of this part of the work.

As for Hughes himself, he plans to study chemical engineering.

Three acids and two bases, if it is just to obtain them, then these are not difficult for him. The difficulty lies in preparing them in large quantities. Castell has volcanoes, which gives it an advantage in doing these things.

Previously, nitroglycerin was prepared in small quantities directly in the laboratory, and the sulfuric acid in it was directly made from sulfur ore.

And now he has some new channels, such as the blast furnace he is building.

There is pyrite, which can be calcined in a blast furnace to produce a variety of products, such as iron, sulfuric acid, and cement. Perhaps we can try to prepare these products in a centralized manner.

On Blue Star, this is a highly polluting heavy industry that has been eliminated, but here it is definitely Zenith technology.

Hydrochloric acid can be made from concentrated sulfuric acid and salt, but nitric acid is more troublesome and requires saltpeter ore. This is a bit of a problem, and the pirates have to think of a solution.

"My Lord, it's installed."

Ken wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the steam engine in front of him with a relieved smile.

He had the best grades in mechanical principles. He led the assembly of this steam engine and had an inexplicable affection for this cold steel.

"Don't bring in the subsequent transmission equipment yet. Let's try running it without load. If it succeeds, we'll have our first steam-powered plant."

Hughes also liked the big guy in front of him. Although the Type II machine has a simple structure, its design has stood the test of time and is durable. Some steam locomotives on Blue Star are still using this type of steam engine.

The trainees filled the coal with shovels, and as the fire was ready, Hughes stood beside Ken and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Lord Lord?"

"Do you think it'll go well?"

"Yes, didn't the last one run successfully?"

It’s because something happened to that machine last time that I came to watch it.

Xiu Si sighed secretly, and kept his hand on Ken's shoulder - what if there was pollution in his body, could this purify it?
(End of this chapter)