Herald of Steel

Chapter 299 Ball Milling Machine

Alexander knew the significance gas lighting could have on a civilization as it was capable of transforming the dark, economically useless night into a productive time almost equal to the day, and almost doubling it's industrial output.

He also knew that none of the challenges of collecting the gas by heating coal through pyrolysis was nowhere substantial enough to be unassailable.

But the main reason why he was using such a crude method was due to the time constraints Alexander faced when building this facility and also because there was no competition forcing him to lower his prices.

The setup was simple and it worked for the time being.

But the key point was 'for the time being' and as Alexander was not the type to sit on his laurels, he said to himself, 'I should design a new coke oven as soon as possible, with all the improvements.'

And soon a blueprint began to take shape inside his mind, the schematics of which contained facilities to trap the precious flue gases.

But the true shape of that invention would, even by Alexander's optimistic estimate would have to wait a few months, and so, deciding to shelf the project for a little while, Alexander returned his attention to the tour being provided by Harun.

And he caught Harun almost at the end of his explanation of the coke bed, who was saying, "Once the coke is made, it is then collected off the hot bed into large buckets using long rakes by workers, while the bed is refilled by pouring buckets full of coal from above."

"This hot coke is then cooled by pouring water from a spring using aqueducts over there," Harun at last pointed to a huge pit of coke on one side of the shed over which a torrential stream of water was gushing over, and then being discharged through dug drainage pipes.

Harun then moved on to a second similar bed just beside the coke bed, and introduced, "This step should be known to us all, it's the roasting bed where the iron ore is heated."

And then since this step was done in the original process, Harun simply skipped to the next step, saying, "Now, let's move to the last function of the shed."

With this said Harun gestured to the elephant in the room, something that everybody noticed the moment they entered the workshop.

"My lord, I'm sure you are eager to know what this is," Harun very grandly pointed to a giant drum that was slowly rotating at the far end of the shed and the crowd responded with an eager look.

"This is called the ball milling machine, as I'm sure many of you might know. and it's used to grind rocks into powder." He introduced.

The lords had heard of this new gadget too and knew this device could turn stone to powder in a matter of minutes.

But they were also not too clear on the details of how it worked, and looked expectantly at Harun for an explanation

But here they were disappointed as under Alexander's directive, Harun could only ruefully shake his head, signaling further information was restricted.

Alexander had instructed Harun before on what to reveal and what to conceal, even from his own council members.

So Harun only gave them its function, but only how it worked, "We use it to grind our three main ingredients, iron ore, coke, and limestone into small chucks."

"We do this because according to the pasha this smaller size aids in faster iron production."

Alexander's reason for the secrecy was obvious, to protect his core technology.

In fact, he had even strongly debated on whether to give his retainers this tour and finally relented because of several reasons.

The first and foremost was because Alexander understood that to try and hide all the secret technologies and innovations being applied here, a place where close to ten thousand men worked in and around was utterly futile.

But though some leaks were inevitable, that did not mean Alexander would give detailed descriptions of the machines here to help his rivals and enemies.

And so, with that thought, Alexander decided to change strategy and only try and protect the core of these new inventions, while leaving the less technical aspects out for everyone to study.

And it was this less technical aspect that Alexander was showcasing his retainers, with the additional intention of making them understand Zanzan's potential and increase their loyalty to the city, the province, and to him.

And an example of such a technique being applied could be seen right now, as was the case with the ball milling machine.

These ball milling machines might look very simple, like simple rotating drums, but their inside did hide a few secrets.

For one, there were small internal protrusions that helped carry the balls up and dropped them from a height, thus providing the smashing action that made the mill actually grind the minerals placed inside it.

Without such a benign-looking, but actually vital piece of architecture, the entire thing would be useless, and the large bronze, concrete, or steel balls that were used to crush the minerals would just harmlessly tumble around with the rocks inside.

Then there was the number of balls to be placed in proportion to the ores.

Too little and the grinding would take too long or be incomplete.

Too much and the balls would smash against each other and not the rocks, thus decreasing efficiency.

Seeing Harun being tight-lipped about this device's inner mechanisms, the lords very well understood under whose orders he was behaving as such and thus, instead of pressuring the still civilian, they focused their attention on watching the operation of this marvelous device of both mechanical and civil engineering.

"Is the drum rotated using the waterwheel?" Menes inquired.

"Yes, my lord. I'm sure you have noticed all the aqueducts outside. We used them to divert the water supply from nearby springs. It took a lot of effort," Harun explained.

"I see," The black general nodded in understanding and then focused on the large drum.

It had a capacity of five tons, was made of concrete, and had the rear end penetrated half a meter by the wooden transmission system of the waterwheel.

To securely connected the machine to the wooden log, long thick steel spokes that went all the way out of the walls of the machine were used and the whole connection gave a sense of strength and robustness.

This huge drum was placed on two elevated pillars about one story above the ground, placed in a slightly slanted alinement, with the rear end a bit higher than the front, designed as such so that the ground-up material would automatically empty out of the machine when the door was opened.

These supporting pillars were very strong, made using the same techniques used to make reinforced concrete, with the only exception being the steel rods substituted with strong pieces of cut oak instead.

A very notable feature of the two pillars was the surfaces on which the drum sat were baby bottom smooth, designed as such so that the drum would slide over them with ease, an action which was additionally facilitated by a constant stream of a mixture of olive oil and water applied by workers.

"How is this huge thing stopped?" Came the curious inquiry of Melodias, who additionally asked, "I presume it needs to be stopped to empty and refill the thing?"

"Lord Melodias has discerning eyes," Harun produced a large smile, and then answered the general's question, "The drum is tuned on and off by turning the waterwheel on and off. And that is done by operating the sluice gate installed outside."

Harun further explained, "When the sluice gate is opened, water is allowed to flow over the waterwheel and turn it, thus turning the ball milling machine with it."

"But once the gate is closed, the water can no longer flow over the waterwheel and is instead redirected to an adjacent channel through which the water harmlessly bypasses the waterwheel and falls into the ground, thus turning off the waterwheel and with it the machine.

"I see. That's quite the ingenious approach. As expected of the great pasha." Melodias loudly cheered.

"Ohh, look, it's stopping!" Suddenly the excited exclamation of Grahtos rang out as he drew everyone's attention to the machine that was slowing down.

"Oh, it seems the lords will be able to fully see how the machine works," Harun sounded pleased with this coincidence and thus waited with everyone else to observe the unloading and then loading of the structure.

So for a while, the men stood and watched as the workers worked like busy bees, their first task opening the large thick door of the machine.

This concrete door was closed tightly shut by using two thick wooden bars that went in front of it and into the two large handles situated at the opposite ends of the door, very similar to how ancient gates were closed using massive wooden planks.

These wooden planks appeared to be very heavy, as evidenced by the need for multiple men on the scaffolding to remove each of them, after which the door would swing open by itself, pushed open by the weight of the huge amount of powder that is a slanted angle.

"This batch was the coke," Harun commented, as the now dried up during the grinding coke fell below into a huge, custom-made eight-wheeled wooden cart reinforced with iron and was then pulled away by six, strong horses.

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