Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 76 Oil Paper, Perfume and Virtual Currency
It is good to take over the workers exiled by the Candlelight Society, but we cannot put all our hopes on them. The territory’s own talent training must also keep up. This is the most important thing. Those Rhine workers can only respond to emergencies.

The steam engine parts drawings have been handed over to craftsmen in various places. After they are finished, they will be summarized to Hughes, who will check them again.

There would be no problem with the drawings he drew, but the craftsmen on the island might not be able to understand them.

There is no way around it. These craftsmen on the island are basically illiterate. Even if they took on some custom jobs before, most of them were completed by talking and gesturing. The spatial imagination ability required to translate the blueprints into specific objects can really hold up many craftsmen.

When he tried to make something before, he encountered a lot of such troubles, and in the end he had to correct them bit by bit before he could solve them.

Alas, let alone science and engineering education, even literacy is a long way to go. What's more, he cannot let illiterate craftsmen who only know half of the knowledge start production directly. Once cognitive interference comes, who knows what weird things will be produced.

Even the steam engine might stand up and help him push the millstone.

Therefore, Hughes had already thought about it. Even if he had all the prerequisites for manufacturing steam engines, he had to train qualified personnel first. This was just one or two factories. If he wanted to popularize these new technologies in the lives of most people in the future, he had to complete the literacy of the people first.

There is a long way to go.

Although development could not be rushed, he could not stand sitting here and waiting. After wandering around for a while, he decisively opened the secret passage and headed to the cave where the banshees lived.

The banshees' magic of turning fossils into mud is quite effective. With the encouragement of the entire tribe to decorate their home together, the cave is changing almost every day.

Looking at the building that already had rooms of all sizes and could be called an underground palace, Zeus's eyes twitched.

Why does it feel like it's even faster than the construction on Blue Planet? Even if he makes cement, he can't match this construction speed.

However, the Banshee's population is limited, and there is an upper limit. Once the cement factory starts operating, with the help of his steam engine, what can be built is more than just an underground palace.

"Lord? Why are you here?" A banshee came over curiously.

Xius took a look at her, but didn't recognize her.

To be honest, he is a little face-blind when it comes to Banshees, and currently he can mainly distinguish them by the color of their hair and scales.

Oh, and there are also sizes, like Ash who is one size bigger than the others and Monica who is three sizes smaller.

"I'm just strolling around. If you have time, you can help me show me the way. To be honest, the changes here are much faster than I remember." Xius spread his hands.

The banshee covered her mouth and laughed: "It is my honor, Lord."

"This is our workshop. Winemaking and essential oil extraction are all done here." She pointed to the largest room next to it. Zeus looked inside and saw many banshees busy at work.

Zeus moved some simpler jobs that did not require a large number of people to the Banshees, such as soap refining, adding fragrance oils and making oil paper.

Making oil paper is not complicated. Xius referred to the method of traditional oil paper umbrellas - simply brushing tung oil on the paper.

Once it's completely dry, you'll have waterproof oil paper and can continue printing. There are only three kinds of soap, so just make a few different carvings.

Hughes designed a trademark for Castel, a burning torch in the dark. Fire symbolizes light and hope, and he liked it very much.

He found several natural minerals for dyes, and the results were pretty good.

As for essential oil extraction, it can be done in the winery.

The wine-making tools were all readily available on the island. When building the olive oil factory, Zeus hired a lot of winemakers, so those workshops became idle. Later, Zeus sent people to move them to the seaside and had the banshees bring them in.

Banshees are much taller than humans, and it seems a bit strange for them to use these tools designed for humans, but this does not affect their efficiency.

Banshees have six arms, and seeing how they expertly manipulate them, each doing its own thing, Zeus wondered if they were born with the ability to fight with both arms. "The tools you provided are very interesting, and the essential oil extraction techniques you taught us are excellent. The perfumes I make are very popular with the banshees."

She grabbed a small bottle from the shelf and handed it over.

Extracting essential oils is a very old industry. There are not many barriers to entry and any winery can produce them. In fact, some wineries on Blue Star make perfumes on the side, which is also an old tradition.

Hughes put a little on his wrist and sniffed it gently.

The very cool scent of roses, with a hint of wine, made him think of dried flowers soaked in a wine glass, like an old yellowed photo.

Xius nodded in admiration: "That's really good. Does it have a name?"

"Yesterday is no more."

Sniffing his wrist again, Xius couldn't bear to put it down: "Can I have this bottle?"

"Of course." The banshee laughed softly. "Five gold rums."

"That's too expensive. Aren't you guys paid in points? Why would you want gold coins?"

The Banshees don't currently interact with the people on the island, so using currency doesn't make much sense.

After discussing with his tribesmen, Ash gave up on physical currency and instead recorded "points" directly through the mind link.

Zeus was stunned after hearing this. Digital currency, virtual payment, these banshees' concepts must be five hundred years ahead of the world.

The key is that he did not interfere at all. This was something the banshee figured out together.

In short, Hughes praised the idea highly and planned to work with Ash to draft a table corresponding to various points and anchor it to physical objects.

However, Castres currently does not have any particularly stable output, and it is impossible to establish a gold standard or a rice standard. Hughes did consider using olive oil as an anchor, but then thought better of it.

Olive oil is only a temporary product and may not be mass-produced once the industry develops.

"I want to try to sell this perfume outside—not just to Castel, maybe other mortals will be interested."

Zeus took a step back, looked the banshee up and down, then looked down at the bottle in his hand.

"Yesterday is no more—Finiel."

"Yes, my name is Finelle. Do you remember it?" She smiled slyly. "I made the essential oils used in those soaps."

"I remember." Xius nodded solemnly, reached into his pocket, and then his face froze.

"Uh, I don't have any money, maybe next time"

Finel smiled softly. "That's not necessary, Lord. The materials used to make it were provided by you. Your appreciation and love are a reward more precious than anything else."

Upon hearing this, Xius put the perfume into his pocket and was about to say something when Nini's excited voice suddenly came from the mind link.

"My Lord, the Type I machine has been successfully manufactured!"

(End of this chapter)