Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 893

Chapter 893: Dawn of Steam (2/3)
The words of Ramesh came out in several stutters, as if he were a broken tape recorder, but Vijay, who was already used to this, simply smiled and nodded, relaxing his gaze and appearing more cordial.

Both Rajesh and his colleague didn’t feel any less tense, but they finally felt like they could breathe once again. In the meantime, Vidhant came back, washing his hands off with a special brown powder called Shikakai (Acacia concinna), and returned with excitement, his previous disappointment nowhere to be seen.

“The young prince is very lively, Your Majesty,” Charan Gowda commented from the side with a grin.

Vijay simply shrugged and raised his arms as if to say, ‘Don’t I know our family deities’ truth?’

Looking at his father standing at steam engine one and Mr. Charan Gowda standing at steam engine three, he quickly understood and stood in front of the boiler of steam engine two.

Finally, after all three of them recited the Ganapati Stotram in unison, they lit dried agarwood logs on fire and dropped them into the furnace containing several dozen kilograms of coal.

“Boof!!”

The fire burst out with powerful radiance, causing Vedant to take two steps back.

The fire continued to get bigger until eventually the door of the furnace had to be closed, only for a small opening to be seen for the operators to add coal whenever necessary.

Following Charan Gowda, Vijay and Vedant climbed up a set of metal stairs that gave them the full view of both the power room and the processing room.

The sound of steam began to be heard as the boiler started to spill out small quantities of steam, and the nervous operators sprang into action. Moments later, with the operators pulling a few levers, the piston rod attached to the cylinder slowly began to move, rocking the beam up and down, causing the sun and planetary gears to spin, which soon made the flywheel spin. Even the operators stared at the flywheel as it started to increase in speed; it was really a sight to behold. They only recovered when the pressure began to reduce, and they had to add more coal.

On top of the metal platform, which overlooks the whole factory, Vedant and Vijay’s eyes lit up at the exact same time when the rotational movement caused by the flywheel started to be transferred to the machine tools on the other side of the production plant.

The workers were first surprised by the loud noise that was coming out of the power room, but since they had already participated in the drill and were told what to expect, they soon started to get into their roles as they quickly started to machine out the iron and steel according to the requirements on the blueprint.

Vijay saw a man drilling a hole into a cylindrical iron rod. As he finished what he was doing, he placed the part he had processed onto a conveyor belt that was moving on its own. He immediately understood that this was the barrel for a Shikari rifle. He saw another worker grinding out a small part on the grinding machine. Similarly, after he was done working on it, he placed it on the conveyor belt.

Vijay realised that it was the flint hammer of the Shikari rifle. All over the factory floor, various parts were manufactured. Hundreds of workers produced hundreds of identical parts, machined with incredible precision and rigour. The finished parts moved on three different conveyor belts and fell into the boxes at the end of the belt, packaged and sent for either secondary processing or assembly of the gun.

Looking at the workflow which was like a complex mechanical machine where gears and moving parts of all kinds came together to achieve a single powerful function, Vijay had an illusion that he was witnessing an articulate orchestral performance right before his eyes, all conducted by the metal heart roaring behind him. It almost made him tear up, but unlike him, who was feeling emotional and overwhelmed with satisfaction, his son Vedant and Director Charan Gowda were stunned. They had no words to speak of. They didn’t even understand what emotions they were feeling. The only thing that could come even close to describing what they were experiencing was that it was a life-changing event. It was as if they were witnessing history as it was written, seeing a miracle as it was created.

It wasn’t until the sound of people screaming came from behind that all three of them came to their senses and looked back, only to see the operators screaming at each other about what the other party did wrong.

Charan Gowda immediately felt embarrassed and was about to step forward to scold them, but Vijay stopped him. Raising his voice to be heard over the roar of the steam engine, he said, “You don’t need to blame them. Although operating the machine is simple, training with a non-functional prototype is one thing; working with the real machine is quite another. Give them some time—they’ll master it.”

Charan Gowda stopped in his tracks and nodded in understanding.

What Vijay missed was that, while he was stopping Charan, the operators vaguely heard his voice and quieted down and stopped the quarrel. They felt ashamed and worked harder.

“Let’s go, Vidhant, we have to visit other factories as well.”

Hearing his father’s words, a fire of excitement lit up in his eyes as he proactively got down from the metal platform before anyone and went towards the exit of the factory. However, when he stepped out, he was surprised to see that, just like the factory he had visited, five other neighbouring factories also had chimneys billowing smoke into the air.

Looking at the street, all the people were in a hurry, trying to get to their duties no matter how. He saw people running, riding bicycles, tricycles, even carriages, carrying parts, boxes, tools, or anything for that matter, with sweat on their brows. The soldiers who were on patrol all stopped in their tracks and looked up at the chimneys in astonishment.

Taking all of it in, Vidhant couldn’t help but exclaim, “Amazing!!” He loved machinery, and he loved it to the core, but this was the first time that he knew that machinery could have such an impact on the people of the empire. Deep in his heart, a desire to build something just like this — an invention that would change the way people live — appeared.

Suddenly, he felt a rough hand placed on his shoulder. He didn’t have to turn back to know who it was.

“Father, I have decided. In college, I will skip the grades just like my brother and directly jump into my career. I want to learn under Sir Hey Ram.”

Vijay was taken aback by his son’s declaration, but looking at his eyes, he couldn’t help but take him seriously. He did not doubt that his second son could complete his schooling within the year, since he knew he was just as smart, if not smarter, than Agni when it came to his studies. But thinking about the current research of Hey Ram and the promise he had made to let him choose the researchers, it was a little difficult for him to make his son’s wish possible — especially since his wife is very likely to reject the proposal, considering how upset she got when Agni went to a university so far away and started his own business even before turning 18.

Vijay looked into his son’s eyes with encouragement, “Son, I cannot show favouritism towards you. Heyram is now working on something very important to the empire. I can’t just let you barge in. But if you really want to learn, come up with a notable development of a machine or an invention. Then I can support you.”

Vidhant was a little disappointed that his father didn’t agree to his request immediately, but hearing the condition, he clenched his fist in determination. I will definitely do it, he said in his heart.

Unknown to Vijay, the commotion caused by the steam engine across the empire was not small.

When the local fishermen fishing in Godavari saw the dense black smoke rising up in the sky from the industrial zones, they rowed back to the shore in panic, alerting the local authorities about a fire in the industrial zone.

“Father, look! What is that?” a young girl playing on the banks of Thapi River cried out, looking at the horizon where the Thapi Riverbank Industrial Zone had come alive with horns of smoke like a steel behemoth.

The villagers near the Mahanadi Industrial Zone came running with pots of water in their hands, trying to help out the factory area, which they believed had caught fire.

The merchants trading in Vijayawada were horrified when the news about the Krishna Riverbank Industrial Zone being caught on fire, despite it raining, was heard.

In the Narmada Bank Industrial Zone, looking at the dense smoke rising in the air, a few local politicians who were unaware of what was happening came with priests, intending to sprinkle the factory with blessed water to keep all the evil spirits away.

No matter what the reaction was, everyone understood that something had fundamentally changed in the Bharatiya Empire, and this change showed itself only a few days later.

To be continued…