The Mechanical Era

The sun shined Kant's desk stacked with beige paper, all blank. It was all so sleek, not a wrinkle to be found in any of the pages. They were all brand new, and he often used them in writing legislation and designing new inventions.

Just then, the door opened, revealing Kant who had just taken his breakfast that he helped make. He takes a book with a thick smooth cover and places it on the desktop. After he sat down on his chair, his right-hand takes one piece of paper out of the stack and places it on top of the book.

While he took the paper, his left hand reached for a pencil made of wood and much thicker than the ones he had back in the modern world. Using the pencil made of wood and graphic, he starts scribbling drawings of a modern suit that he wanted.

After a few minutes, he was finished drawing his sketch. The paper featured a detailed drawing of a modern suit and the pieces that went along with it. Although it was not the photo-realistic drawings that he usually drew, it did the job and was far better than what the average man could do.

The suit on paper depicted single breasted suit. It featured 2 buttons and no front pockets. The pockets themselves were concealed on the inside of the piece. To go along with it, he also drew pants, ties, shoes, and a shirt to go along with it.

On the bottom left of the drawing, we some details that could not be depicted in his drawing. It consisted of the materials and colors used for the suit. All pieces would be made with wool, with the suit, tie, and pants being made of black wool, with the shirt being the only piece colored white.

The shoes themselves were depicted to be a type of Oxford shoe and intended to be made with expensive high-quality black leather, while the laces were to be made with strong linen. Kant compares his suit to the one he was wearing now. Compared to the modern suit, with its sleek and clean look, his current clothes were a bit excessive.

As he had finished his drawing, Kant called in a maid to get Arjun into his office. As he waited, the maid came back, informing Kant that Arjun is currently busy with work and will arrive once it is done.

After he dismisses the maid, he contemplated what he should do in the meantime. He turned his head to the monocular near the window. The same one he used to watch the police recruits.

'Should I?' he thought to himself.

Just then, he was reminded of the black book he carried around in his pocket. He took it out and started flipping through its beige papers on what he could do in the meantime. He stopped at one page, and read it in his head.

'Of course. How could I forget.'

He places the book back in his pocket and started sketching something with the papers again. This time, however, he needed a lot more than just the one he used to sketch the suit. The invention he drew, was a lot more complicated.

...

Arjun took a sip from his ceramic white cup with blue flower patterns etched into it. The high caffeine of the black coffee allowed him to concentrate on his harder work. A habit he picked up from Kant when he was feeling sleepy or stressed.

A letter had arrived from Nexert informing Arjun and Kristina of the assassination attempt on the king's life. It also informed them the culprit of the King's sickness was none other than Salvator Humat.

The letter itself instructed the minister to follow 3 instructions. First is to increase the security measures, and the other is to investigate the staff to detect any malicious individual motivated to harm the royal family, especially in the kitchen.

Though Arjun and Kristina wanted to send some high-ranking knights to investigate the kitchen staff, they were unable to as Kant was present in the area, cooking a new dish with them. As the letter stated he should be left in the dark of the events unfolding over the month, but they had to wait.

So far, according to the reports, all were proven to be innocent. However, there were still some reports pending to be turned in by the knight hall. Arjun turned his head to the pendulum clock, made of oak wood and glass.

The handles pointed towards 10:45, a full two hours and forty-five minutes when Kant called him to his office.

'I should get going.' he thought to himself.

He stood up from his chair and grabbed the disputes of the day to handle over to Kant. He got out of his office and walked over to Kant's office. He knocked on the door and waited for Kant's voice on the other side to permit him to enter.

"Come in." he heard. Arjun entered the room. His eyes got distracted by the number of paper used up to for Kant's scribbles. Some of them were very simple, and not that detailed, while others had some proper sketches. Not before long, he got on track once more.

"Ah, Arjun. What took you so long?" Kant asked

"I was busy with some paperwork. That is all. Where shall I put the disputes sire?" Arjun asked.

"On the top of the bookshelf. I will solve them all later." Kant replied. Arjun did as instructed, and placed them over on the clean wooden bookshelf top. Afterward, he dragged and sat on a chair, facing Kant directly.

"Is there anything that you request of me?" Arjun asked.

"Yes, I do. I want you to find a suitable building for me. It is necessary to construct a working prototype of a new invention of mine. Then send the craftsman I selected in the list a letter informing them to come on a specific date." Kant replied.

"Oh? What is the invention about sire?"

"It is an engine using water vapor at high temperatures which creates pressure to convert power into motion to substitute labor," Kant replied. Arjun, not even understanding some of the words Kant spoke out, got a bit confused.

"I beg your pardon sire? I did not understand what you just described to me." Arjun asked.

"Is there any specific part that I need to elaborate on?" Kant asked.

"Yes. First off, what is an engine?" Arjun questioned. The word engine hasn't been coined yet in this world, and Kant had to explain what it was to Arjun.

"An engine is a device or a machine that converts power into motion. The engine I want to invent uses water vapor, or steam, to convert power into motion." Kant replied. Curiosity sparked in Arjun's head. He wondered how an invention as Kant described could be economical, let alone possible.

"I have two questions to ask you sire."

"Go on."

"What is the purpose of this device you mention, and how does it even work?" Arjun asked.

"As I said before, the purpose of a steam engine is to substitute labor and increase productivity so the city can produce more. We can have fewer people but still produce more at the same time."

"Alright sire. That makes sense. And the other?"

"A steam engine in theory uses pressure made from the collection of steam to move a piston, here let me show you an example."

Kant took a piece of paper and drew a simple diagram of a box separated by lines with gaps and intakes. He then drew a simple piston and a valve rod. He then places it facing Arjun for him to see it."

"First, the boiler heats the water that it turns to steam. This steam enters through the steam inlet here..." Kant pointed at with his pencil.

"From there the steam makes its way to the cylinder through the open port. The high pressure of the steam pushes the piston. In this diagram, it moves to the right." Kant drew out the flow of steam and the way it moved.

"This in turn causes the valve rod to move in the opposite direction. It closes the port allowing any more steam to enter the cylinder to push the piston left and instead opens a different port." Kant adds this to his diagram.

"This causes the steam to push the piston to the left. This causes the value to move back to the left. The steam itself exists the steam chests through the exhaust port." Kant said.

"How do the piston and valve rod move?" Arjun asked while Kant was in the middle of explaining.

"That is because of the flywheel present right here..." Kant draws in a simple flywheel.

"It allows the steam engine to function while also directing it to other parts where it is needed," Kant replied.

"That's the basics of how a steam engine works in theory. There are multiple other ways it can be designed, and it would depend on the specific purpose. This is vaguely similar to the one I am currently designing."

"What kind of fuel will sire be using?"

"Currently, the main contender is coal. For a steam engine to operate, it would need large quantities of high-energy fuel for it to operate. If I want to expand the use of it to other sectors, we need a good supply of it as well, which I don't think other sources can provide."

"Well sire, I am not sure you know this but, this city doesn't have coal mines. Or any large coal mines to be precise."

"Yes, but kingdoms on the west of the Pixie River do. We can import the coal we need from there in exchange for money and cement. This brings me to my second request. It is to expand the production of cement."

"Why is that sire?"

"Well, to meet the demand to build the school, we are going to need to produce a lot more to meet up with demand."

"Alright sire."

"Any other questions?"

"No sire. Not at all."

"Good. My other request is, once I finish designing the steam engine I have in mind, I need you to send them to blacksmiths and craftsmen instructing them to make the individual part assigned to them. Then, have that part delivered to the building.

There, we will test the concept out. If it fails to function, we will identify the points of failure, rework our design, and make new parts again. Once it does function, we will try improving it until the device will be economical for use." Kant replied.

"After that?"

"We will move on to retrofit the technology for other tools, like say a loom, to increase productivity further," Kant replied.