Chapter 992 Microscopes and Pumps

Chapter 992 Microscopes and Pumps

Alexander would state the required capabilities of his machine not using horsepower or percentages, but by the amount of work it should be able to do without a certain timeframe.

So in his case, Alexander wanted the machine to be able to draw 250 tons of water from a depth of 10 meters every hour using just 10 kg of coal.

Alexander would make the announcement throughout the city, with detailed diagrams of the machine freely available at the public library.

And seeing this promise of an astounding 1 million ropals, many eager souls would draw themselves to have a try at their luck.

The hype would be such that even Cambyses would come to Alexander to pose, "Why are you offering so much just to lift some water?"

To which Alexander would only enigmatically smile.

For now, though, coming back to Marvin, Alexander felt he had seen all he had to see, and thus decided to end the tour.

But before that, he had to ask himself if he wanted to assign the man a few additional tasks.

Such as showing him the diagram of a fully plate armored knight and asking him to try and replicate it.

Or asking him to write a book on metalworking, as a way to teach future generations about his work.

This would not only help Alexander retain the expertise of his master craftsman for eternity, but he could also use it to start a school, producing more craftsmen.

Alexander thought of also making the man delve into research himself, such as telling him to find the optimum tempering temperature and holding time for any given piece.

Or even making him a scholar, by defining what was meant by a metal's hardness, strength, and toughness respectively.

Because although colloquially, these three words were synonyms, in the world of metallurgy, they had vastly different meanings.

Hardness refers to how hard it is to scratch something.

Strength means how large a force a material can take without permanently deforming.

And toughness meant how much energy it takes to break something.

This and many more ideas flooded into Alexander's mind.

But ultimately, he refrained from issuing any such orders.

The man was already busy enough and was sure to become even more as Alexander intended to expand the size and scope of the iron plant to increase production, using the newly arrived Tibians as the bulk of the labor.

According to him, the total number of men working there should increase from 10,000 to 15,000 or even more.

Thus, with the heavy burden scheduled to drop on the supervisor, Alexander intended to give these tasks to the weapons and armory workshops.

That seemed much more appropriate.

And that was how that day concluded for Alexander, with him forgetting to instruct Marvin to make those earmuffs that he wished to administer to combat the terrible noise all around.

He figured that since they produced so many products every day, the glass miths had already mastered at least the preliminary expertise in handling glass.

But it seemed making something out of glass was very different from shaping a small, delicate piece.

Especially when that small piece needed to be crystal clear.

And so, judging by how the glass smiths were sending looking furtive and longing looks at Alexander, wanted him to provide him with some tips on how to solve it.

But alas!

Although Alexander knew how to make glass, and the calculations on how to shape it, he did not actually know how to manually do the thing.

He guessed there must be very specialized tools to grind and shape them, but other than the fact that diamonds could cut through glass, Alexander knew of nothing of them.

Such details might have been available in some of his more specialized courses, but Alexander had not taken them, instead focusing on iron.

Thus with that gap in his knowledge, Alexander skirted around all those glassworkers' perceived desires like he had not noticed them.

And since the invention of the microscope was not anything critical, Alexander did not feel the need to pressure the men too much.

So with a little tap on the shoulder smiled, "Okay. Don't feel down about it. Continue to practice, and let me know when you finish. Perhaps you will need to make some special tools."

This hint made many of them see the problem from a different perspective, and some even took it as Alexander testing them, to see their true abilities.

Thus as the extension of the deadline produced a great grin and profuse thanks from the workers, some of the ambitious felt a great need to prove to Alexander.

With that done, Alexander had one last thing to observe, the manufacturing of an air pump, for his football.

The ball itself was made from a combination of stitched rubber and leather.

While the pump's hollow body was made of metal, with a tight rubber dress on top to cover any leaks or cracks.

The piston was too made from metal too, with a rubber disk at the end to make it snuggly fit and prevent air from escaping around its edges.

There was a one-way valve made of leather and rubber installed at the bottom which let air flow in one direction only, preventing backflow and improving the pumping action.

A hose connected the valve to the outside, thus enabling it to blow air.

Alexander planned to first introduce the sport to his army, and then hold an exhibition match to the public.

There was already a large stadium under construction in the city.

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