Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 878

Chapter 878: Steam Age 1
February 1672

The voice of dissatisfaction and accusation from Kavya was heard throughout the Shaurya Royal Palace early in the morning. All the guards, maids, and people working at the palace looked at each other in awkward silence, not knowing where to put their hands and feet. Moments later, Vijay walked out of the palace with a defeated look on his face.

It had been nearly a month since he came back home, but Kavya was still dissatisfied and angry at him for putting Agni’s life in danger. Even though he knew that he did the right thing, he couldn’t reason with his wife. Not to mention, adding insult to injury, his son, who had come back home along with him, not only did not help him when he was in trouble, but instead added fuel to the fire by acting pitifully in front of his wife, making her even more furious at him.

When it happened, he almost burst a nerve. ‘Forget it, the brat will be going back to college to submit his thesis anyway, let him play for a few more days,’ he comforted himself and came out of the palace.

As soon as Vijay boarded the carriage, an entourage of over a dozen vehicles—each loaded with cutting-edge military equipment—lined up beside the convoy, standing by to move out at a moment’s notice.

“Pilla Reddy, set course to Nagpur.”

“Yes, Sire!”

Putting aside the less-than-ideal situation at home, Vijay was overjoyed and in ecstasy after he read the message sent by Heyram. In fact, he even cursed at himself for reading it too late, as the letter was in the emperor’s office for a whole month before he got to read it. However, he can’t really be blamed for it. The last couple of months were hectic to say the least. His son almost died, a whole new territory was added to the control of the empire, the new territory experienced a severe famine, he had to mobilize resources from the grain reserve to alleviate the disaster, and finally, after coming back to the empire, he had to plan and orchestrate a whole political and ideological movement that would help in shaping a new Sikh and minority nation based in the Middle East all by himself.

Heck, remembering what all he had been through the last few months once more, even he was surprised at himself for the resilience he had shown.

“Sigh!”

Shaking his head to stop his unnecessary thoughts, with a slight arc at the corner of his mouth, he looked forward at the letter written by Heyram, along with the patent document, laboratory log, and finally the design drawing.

“As expected, it’s the Rotative Steam Engine,” Vijay muttered with a bright smile.

For the steam engines to reach the blowout phase and kick-start the Industrial Revolution in his last life, it had to go through four different generations or phases. The first generation was the aeolipile, which is nothing but a spinning sphere. The second generation was a steam pump, which was the first practical steam device in his last life. But in this life, this generation has completely been skipped and went directly to the third generation, which is the atmospheric steam engine of Thomas Newcomen. This is currently the steam engine that is widely used in the empire, which he designed personally. As for the fourth generation, it was when a separate condenser was added to the atmospheric steam engine, making the whole machine much more efficient and reducing the fuel consumption.

Theoretically, this should have been the generation which Hey Ram should have developed, but he took a step forward and went directly to the rotative steam engine—a steam engine that pushed England to the Industrial Revolution, a steam engine which can work like a beating heart to the thousands of factories and workshops of the empire.

In his last life, the rotative steam engine was developed by a Scottish instrument maker and mechanical engineer called James Watt. In fact, he was also the inventor of the third generation of steam engines, that is, adding a condenser to the atmospheric steam engines. He did that in 1765, while he developed the rotative steam engine in the year 1781. Matthew Boulton, who was an English manufacturer and entrepreneur based in Birmingham, supported James Watt financially and officially formed the Boulton and Watt company in 1775, a firm dedicated to manufacturing and selling Watt’s steam engines. William Murdoch, a Scottish engineer and inventor, worked closely with Boulton and Watt and pioneered the use of gas lighting with the help of the steam engine and also enhanced the engine design.

Whether for better or worse, all these developments are unfolding nearly 110 years ahead of the original timeline. But regardless of the outcome, Vijay is determined to see it through.

—

“How do I look?”

Heyram asked his wife as he looked at the mirror while he was dressed in the most exquisite yet functional clothes he could find in his wardrobe.

“You look good, dear,” Umashree, a virtuous woman in her 40s, responded with a gentle smile on her face and love and adoration in her eyes.

“You look awesome, Papa,” his daughter, a young girl in her teens, came up with a smile and hugged him, making his heart feel warm.

Heyram, with the moral support of his family behind him, resolutely set off to the Research Institute in which he had toiled for over a decade. Thinking back to those gruelling, lonely, and depressing days, it made him emotional.

It all started in 1662 when he entered the Raya Research Institute with enthusiasm to explore the new frontier in engineering, according to the idea mentioned by his royal majesty:a steam engine capable of driving machine tools. For the first year, he built a wooden crank connected to the piston and added an iron flywheel in the hopes of converting the to-and-fro motion of the atmospheric steam engine into a rotating motion. It worked, but only partially, as the rotation was jerky and the crank kept slipping.

He went back to the drawing board. Many tries later, he fixed the problem and reached the second year, but a new problem appeared: the piston leaked steam during the downstroke, causing the loss of vacuum. This was completely out of his element. He knew that the problem occurred due to the cast iron piston having minor surface gaps, causing steam to escape, but he didn’t know how to solve it. This problem held him back for six whole months until finally he designed a solution where he packed the piston with Oakum soaked in ghee, and the Oakum ring was sealed with a leather wrap. He did get a better vacuum hold—over 85% of the steam stayed inside—but there was still minor hissing.

It was 1664, and a large explosion happened, causing injuries to several researchers who were helping him out. He knew that failures during experimentation were common, but this one was very hard to stomach, as the cylinder head gasket failed and exploded at 230 degrees Celsius, causing serious burns to the researchers who were working on it. The experiment was permanently stopped for several months until he could figure out why the explosion happened. He checked the piston, condenser, crank rod, chamber—everything—but in the end, it turned out to be the gasket that was made of cotton, which burnt out. Thankfully, after he used a soft copper ring, it survived the full run cycle.

A year had passed, and he noticed that the hair on his head had become noticeably less dense, causing him to be extremely depressed. To make matters worse, problems were encountered in the flywheel shaft, which vibrated so badly that it caused cracks in the metal body of the engine. In order to solve the problem, he had to develop a better crank design with the help of Naveen, who came in temporarily to help him out. In the end, a counterweight system was developed opposite the crank, and with it, vibration dropped by 60%, which, although not ideal, was acceptable.

It was 1666. He heard that major changes were going on in the empire, as the war in the Middle East saw major developments, but he had his own problems to keep his attention occupied. A receding hairline and a new bald spot forming on his head were one, making him even consider painting the bloody thing black.

Fortunately, though, he did not do it. On another note, the bolts that he used in the steam engine became extremely loose in extended runs. Not only that, they were cracking and unable to handle the stress. At first, he thought the problem was easy to solve since he only needed to add a stronger bolt, but oh boy, was he wrong. He not only had to develop a new type of steel just for the bolt, but he also had to engineer a type of washer within the bolt to not only absorb the vibrations better but also to make it more watertight.

For this, a whole team of two hundred scientists, engineers, and researchers worked on it separately in a different laboratory, autonomously, for him to get the result. Believe it or not, it took a whopping 14 months. Though at the end, everything was worth it since he heard that the bolts he developed would be used in the manufacturing of the fifth-generation machine tools, Devaraya atmospheric steam engine, printing press, and even in the future sixth-generation machine tools.

It was in the middle of 1667, his bald spot became bigger, and the steam valve failed horribly, causing the whole valve to explode into a million pieces, turning the valve into a frag grenade. Fortunately, he had learned from the mistake, and in order to test the steam engine, a separate isolated space was built to operate the machine without any human interaction. He had to go back to the drawing board and redesign the whole valve, but he did not have much knowledge about hydraulics. Thankfully, the Academy of Sciences got hold of Sanjeev Bansari and Chaitanya, two of the most prominent hydraulic experts in the empire, both having an extensive repertoire of achievements under their belts.

Not only that, the chief engineer and researcher of Gaur Agricultural Company from the Raya Research Institute was invited to help out, as Gaur Agricultural Company was fairly successful in developing a practical model of a harvester powered by hydraulics hooked up to the atmospheric steam engine. With their help, the whole valve system was redesigned, where the leakage finally lessened by a whole 80%.

It was the 7th year since he started the research. In anger over his receding hairline, he went fully bald. His colleagues said he looked extremely manly, but his wife did not like it. Anyway, he thought that this year would be the final year of the research, as he had gotten very close to the end result, where all the previous deficiencies were addressed and the machine was made more perfect. But unfortunately, a problem occurred where the engine speed surged under load. He remembered vividly when this happened: he went out of the laboratory, walked to the major general, borrowed a few guns, and shot at a random target for a whole hour down the shooting range, screaming and cursing.

This problem troubled him for a long time—until he came across the research notes of Vituria Govinda, a senior researcher at Akash Carriages and Co., who had patented a speed governor designed to limit the maximum speed of carriages, bicycles, and tricycles. With support from the Academy of Sciences and the research institute, he acquired the patent and applied the invention by connecting the governor on the flywheel to the throttle via a chain linkage. It worked perfectly, stabilising the speed and limiting it to at most 50 rpm.

It was 1669. The Kesari…a name he had given to the engine…was coming to an end; he could feel it, but to his frustration, a major problem occurred where the boiler pressure dropped mid-cycle, causing inconsistencies in power delivery. It almost broke him. He was already experiencing pressure from his wife and daughter, who were unhappy with him not being there for them. But now, when such a major flaw occurred, he did not know if he could continue anymore.

His family was getting impatient, and he was as well. It was a fuse that led him to almost quit the research entirely and resign from the post. Fortunately, after staying in the dormitory for a week without doing anything or working on the solution, he knew that he had come too far to quit now. So, he went back to the project, and the solution, as if by God’s grace, was very simple: he just had to add a feedwater preheater coil using exhaust steam.

A year passed. He let his hair grow out again, not caring about it anymore. He was now much more resilient and stable than he ever was. This time, he was sure that the research was reaching its completion. He was partially right because no major problems occurred in the machine, but a minor issue showed up where the oil became thin during prolonged operation, and the pistons got scratched. He found out that when the engine reached 265 degrees Tapans, the oil used for lubrication broke down. His solution was simple: to mix castor oil with beeswax to thicken it, and he applied it to the piston and crankshaft housing. Though it only worked for 8 hours before breaking down, it was still an improvement since the machine working for 8 hours was already capable of being put on the manufacturing floor, as 8 hours is the exact work shift for an average worker.

It was the year 1671—praise Shiva. No major issues arose, though a few minor problems cropped up and were swiftly resolved. The rest of the year was devoted to fine-tuning the machine, addressing small inconsistencies as they appeared. Then, in January of 1672, the steam engine he had spent a decade researching finally roared to life. It ran flawlessly for the full eight hours it was designed for, and after a brief servicing—some oiling and minor part replacements—it growled back to life, delivering pure, steady rotational torque.

If Heyram had known it would take so much effort and so much suffering, maybe he would have never accepted the proposal of His Majesty; maybe he wouldn’t have punished himself for so long. But now that he was on the other end of the finish line, surviving all the trials and tribulations the world had thrown at him as a victor, the only thing he could say was: it was all worth it.

To Be Continued…

P.S. RPM changed from 180 to 50