The Mechanical Era

A worker holding a clipboard in his hands puts his thumps up, signaling to the operator to stop the blower. Once the blower stops blowing air into the converter, the machine is tilted again to pour the liquid steel out into a container called a ladle, where it is transported to the next room for the next stage of processing; the rolling room.

Kant and the agent cross the line and looks around. They see that the rolling room was fitted with rolling machines, powered by steam engines. These rollers were similar to the ones present in the FLM-18 workshop, but in contrast to those rollers, the ones present in the steel mill were far larger and more powerful.

Just like the last few rooms, the place was smoldering hot, with the sounds of mechanical gears grinding and steam engines operating all around them. Before the steel can be put through the rolling mill to be turned into sheets or other various shapes that one desires, it is first brought over to a furnace, where the steel can be heated to a specific temperature, allowing it to be shaped and rolled more easily.

After the steel is heated to the proper temperature, it is then transported from the furnace to the rolling mill using the conveyor belts. As it is brought over, the rolling mills activate and take in the steel. Using the controls on the rolling mill, the workers can turn it into any shape they want. The operator, who was in control of the rolling mill, shouted at his superior.

"What shape does it need to be?!?" he screamed over the loud mechanical noise generated by the machine. The other worker looked at his chipboard, and turned a page, before responding.

"We need it in cylindrical shapes! The diameter needs to be about 0.5 inches (12.7 mm) and a length of 2 inches (50.8 mm)!" he shouted back. Upon hearing this, he gave a thumbs-up and started working the steel to make it into the proper shape.

After the rolling machine turns the steel into multiple small cylinders, it is brought over to the finishing room, to add some final touches. There were many pieces of steam-powered machinery in the finishing room. This includes drilling machines, grinding machines, polishing machines, annealing furnaces, and pickling tanks, all powered by coal-fuelled steam engines.

The drilling machine was to create holes of varying sizes in steel shapes. The grinding machines were there to smooth the surface of the steel, which improves its appearance and removes any irregularities. Polishing machines, as their name would suggest, polishes the steel surface to improve its appearance. The annealing furnace is there to make it softer and more malleable, while the pickling tanks were there to remove impurities from the surface of the steel.

As our cylindrical steel came out a little rough, with a few impurities on top of it, it had to be grinded and pickled. It took a few minutes, to fully do so, but once they were done, they were placed on the conveyer belt, and sent off to the next room, to be packaged and shipped.

The cylinders were all put into wooden crates, all labeled the time they took inside the converter, the finishing processes it went through, and so on. This was added to make sure that they can differentiate between metals that went through different processes to be made, to know which way would work best in a given situation.

After the steel was packed inside the wooden crates, they were loaded onto the caravans and cargo trams. They kept on doing this till they run out of material, which took about the entire working day, which lasts for about 8 hours. The steel mill had managed to convert about 10 tons of iron into steel, and that was due to the apparent shortage of iron, and the inexperience of the workers.

As the sun was about 2 hours away from setting, Kant walked outside the steel mill before the workers backed things up. The police officers and agents all noticed that both of them were drenched in sweat. While Kant got to the carriage, the agent hopped on his horse. With that, the convoy started to move again, this time to a building located in middletown.

As they went along the road, one curious DEF agent looked onward at the DEF agent beside her. The man white the white uniform took a sip from his bottle, before keeping them on his belt. With her thirst for knowledge killing her she asked the agent in white a small, simple question.

"Hey... uh... Jason?" she asked. Jason, the DEF agent in white, turned to the female agent next to him.

"Yes?" he replied.

"Was it that hot in there? You and his majesty came out sweating like hell!" she questioned not so subtly.

"Oh very much. If anyone else went inside there, you all would have fainted from a heat stroke. As a side effect, you might also wake up to find out you have gone deaf." Jason commented.

"So that place was loud huh? And all that to think to make some steel. Do you think the end product will be worth it, that his majesty would be able to pull it off?"

"Oh very. I mean, look around you. This whole god-damn place has transformed because of him."

"Yeah, I guess that is true. Well, we will just have to wait and see!" The convoy soon arrives at the building they were supposed to head to. It was the same building where Kant had made his first prototype of cement. Kant got off the carriage and walked inside.

Inside the building, featured a steam-powered hydraulic press. The hydraulic press works by using a piston that is driven by hydraulic pressure to apply force to an object, in this case, a steel cylinder. The hydraulic pump generates pressure by forcing hydraulic fluid into the hydraulic cylinder, pushing the piston forward, and creating a force that can be used to apply tension to the item being tested.

There were also the creates filled with steel cylinders, ready to be tested. Kant got his assistants there to start the steam engine, while the others prepared to examine and write down the results. Other than the crates, there were three people inside, all there to help Kant run some tests.

"Good afternoon... oh! Um? Are you alright, your majesty? You appear to have sweated a lot!" the researchers asked, upon seeing the king in his state.

"I am fine. It is just the steel mill. It was very hot in there."

"Ah... I see. Well, we apologize for our rudeness, sir."

"Apology accepted. Now, let's get to work. I want to head back as soon as I can."" He then takes one of the cylinders and specifies the production details.

"Cylinder 1. Time in Converter: 20 minutes. Finishes: Grinding and Pickling."

He then places it onto the hydraulic press and activated the machine.  As the force increases, the steel would start to stretch, with the amount of deformation being measured using special gauges. They would continue until the steel fractured, at which point the maximum load that the sample could withstand would be recorded on a table, and drawn on a clipboard.

The tensile strength of the steel was then calculated based on the maximum load and the cross-sectional area of the cylinder. They made sure to do the test on steel with the same conditions multiple times, before moving on to the next. They also made sure to calculate other properties of the steel, such as the yield strength or ductility, using other gauges and tools.

After they had used up all the samples, they would create a new table, detailing all the types of steel they had been able to make in the steel mill. This table was to allow anyone to see the properties of each way of making steel so that they can order the proper one to use in their products.

They made sure to compare it to the steel made by the previous method. From what they see, the new process not only allows them to make a lot of steel at a faster rate but also ensures that the strength of said steel exceeds the one before. The steel mill appears to be a success.

Kant looked out the window. He sees that it was getting dark outside. As the day was coming to a close, and the night about to begin, he turned around to face the researchers. They all stood straight and formed a line.

"Alright, we have done a magnificent job. Now, I would like for you all to make copies of this table, and send it over to get a larger version of it made. I will ensure to compensate you for the cost of the materials. Can you all do that for me?"

"We can, sir."

"Excellent. Now, as it is getting towards nighttime, it is best that we all head back home. I hereby conclude the test," Kant replied. He soon got on the carriage, and went back to the palace, dying to take a bath.