The upper nobility liked to use ice in the summer — they used it together with saltpeter to enjoy cooled milk, fruit juice, or wine. Since now was the time of the cold season, the price for the acquisition of saltpeter was very low.
“To make iced cheese, the current temperature isn’t low enough,” answered Roland.
Although the woman in front of him wasn’t an enemy, he could not tell her everything like he did to Anna. The steam engine was something different, but things like firearms didn’t require such a high level of technological understanding. Once spread out, their distribution could no longer be controlled. As long as he didn’t know what kind of a person she was, it would be better to keep some things a secret from her. When he thought till here, he said imploringly to Nightingale, “Does the Witch Cooperation Association not only search for the Holy Mountain but also train witches as assassins?”
“No, they just swarm together in order to find the cure to end their pitiful life,” Nightingale waved her hand dismissively, “I joined the Witch Cooperation Association, but that was only two years ago.”
“In other words, you were working for someone else before?” Her excellent knife throwing skills were a product of years of hard training and good instruction, so Roland could confirm that, “So apart from me, there are also other people who are willing to shelter witches?”
“Shelter?” Nightingale’s face became a little strange, “How could… If he had known that I was a witch, he wouldn’t even let me through his door. I’m afraid he would have killed me in secret if I had stayed with him after exposing it to him.”
“Oh? Can you tell me more?”
Nightingale smiled and shook her head, but this time the smile contained many unknown emotions, “Your Highness, you have to wait until the time is right before I tell you. I know what you are anxious about, but please rest assured. Five years ago I got my freedom, and now I no longer need to work for anyone else. “
His verification test failed, it seemed that his charm points were not high enough, ah… But her answers confirmed at least one of his presumptions — at least five years ago, she was a person who was involved in some shady business. Fortunately,it seemed that teaching and using Nightingale was apparently a coincidence, and her former employer was not like himself, who intended to employ a large number of witches.
Roland did not pursue this point any further as he bent over his drawing to finish it instead.
After some time he was a little bit surprised that the usually talkative Nightingale had now become quiet, and the only sound in the room was that of the fire burning. By the time Roland raised his head to stretch his sore neck, he could not detect any sign of her in the office.
“To walk out without saying anything?” he muttered, as he folded the parchment in his hands and put it into his personal pocket.
The next days he was busy with drawing the weapons designs or testing the already finished designs.
His intention was to make the famous flintlock firearm. This kind of weapon was already tested through history; the difficulty was to make a gun similar to a harquebus. First the gunpowder had to be inserted and then the lead ball was to be loaded. The firing rate was close to three rounds per minute, so it really didn’t require much skill in order to deal with the demonic beasts.
Most of the demonic beasts couldn’t climb the walls, so the shooting distance was approximately equal to the height of the walls, which was twelve feet. At this distance, even with a bad aim it should be possible to hit the beasts, and the lead ball would also not lose much of its power. If only the skin of the demonic beasts evolved to be as hard as steel, then they could be easily shot and killed.
The disadvantage laid in the production time of a flintlock. It started with the matchlock; the smith had to slowly hammer it into form from the barrel to the trigger. The entire production of a gun would take about three months, wherein the barrel needed the largest part of it. First it had to be beaten into a thin and cylindrical shape, and then the spiral grooves could be engraved. Although without the right equipment it was quite sophisticated, but it should still be possible for a well-learned blacksmith to make a good barrel.
This was also one of the reason that Roland created the steam engine first.
With the steam engine, he could use a steel drill to bore the drill directly into the solid iron, so with this the production speed could significantly be increased. He didn’t need a master blacksmith to do the work, he only needed one table on which he could affix the barrel.
Chapter 28 Fierce Scar
When Roland tried to change the theory into practice, he discovered that it wasn’t as easy as he imagined.
In the backyard after four or five days, the production of a harder drill was successful. It was easily quiet since he could use the high-temperature flame from Anna, which could easily get above 1500 degrees, and was enough to melt iron. Without needing to think about temperature control, and using the conventional method of producing steel, it was easy and quickly possible to make a small quantity of steel bars — namely the high-speed stirring of iron clubs with molten iron. The excess carbon and other impurities in the pig iron would oxidize when coming into contact with the air. By repeating this several times before letting the molten iron cool down, it was possible to get high-quality steel.
The problem laid within the steam engine.
The worked up noise and vibration by his prototype of the steam engine was very impressive, even when stabilizing the drill it was impossible to complete a pipe. When doing heavy work or menial jobs, this degree of tremor didn’t matter, but processing a gun barrel was clearly not possible.
If he wanted to improve the steam engine, he would have to create a centrifugal mechanics governor[2] to control the output power of the steam engine, and then he could reduce the tremor by using gears to adjust the rotation speed of the drill. And he need a simple lathe machining gear. With all this in mind, Roland simply found no way to achieve this goal while preparing for the coming Months of the Demons.
In the end, he could only use the old fashioned way, and let a blacksmith hammer the drill into the barrel. But the plan to mass-produce firearms was impossible. According to the number of smithies in Border Town, it was only possible to produce 3–4 root barrels each month, but only in the case that he stopped the production of the second steam engine.
The only good news was that didn’t have to worry about the quality of the barrels. The blacksmith only had to knock out a rough pipe, and then Anna could do the unifying commissure, her work was seamless and so good that it basically eliminated the risk of a barrel explosion.
So Roland had no choice but to change his former plan. He had intended to recruit hunters from Border Town, who would then form a rifle team — most of them were proficient in archery with either a bow or crossbow, both were handy weapons. In addition, they only need a short amount of time to train with the firearms, so they could be quickly sent into combat.
But now with only four guns produced before the Months of the Demons, he could only pick the most outstanding hunters and had no manpower to build up an elite group. Roland decided to let Iron Axe handle this matter, he already spent fifteen years in Border Town, so he should know who the best hunters are.
For the last month, Brian was unhappy.
Especially when he met the militia in the street, his unsatisfied feeling would be doubled… He even felt a trace of loathing.
2
If you are interested into the centrifugal mechanics governor, here are more informations and a video.