NOVEL WEB Chapter 686: Machine tools v5
4th May 1660
Vijay was in a very pleasant mood. The economy of the Bharatiya Empire was doing great; all sectors of society were growing at a steady pace, and what's more, the first step of the Industrial Revolution had already been taken.
Currently, the situation of the Bharatiya Empire is like a canal that has just been connected to the ocean. Although at the beginning the flow of water is very, very slow and pitiful, as time goes on, the same water washes away the beach sand with brute force, opening up a huge path for the water to flow through. Nothing is going to stop this water flow. Any struggle to stop the water flow can only be washed away like an insignificant object opposing a tsunami. There wasn't anything that Vijay needed to handle immediately, so he went on a stroll over the capital. Sometimes he is so busy that he doesn't even get the time to walk around his own city. Unfortunately, it is not going to change anytime soon. When the industrial revolution comes in full force, he will not even have a chance to breathe.
In order not to cause any panic, or excitement, or to put more pressure on the police in the capital, Vijay went around the streets undercover. He was dressed up as a merchant from the Vijayanagar state. In order to make it look more believable, he also wore light makeup. It was there to make sure that no one would recognize him by his facial features. If he was in any other city, he did not have to be worried since not everyone knew his face, especially since his face was not on the Varaha note. But he could not be too sure of the people in the capital. He stayed in the capital most of the time, and the chances the citizens got to see him were more than usual. In fact, some people even kept his portrait on the wall of their homes. In his last life, he wondered how all the celebrities felt when their diehard fans treated them as gods, but experiencing it firsthand in this life, it was a little weird, to say the least.
There were many new things in the capital which Vijay had not seen before. However, Vijay didn't feel surprised. The capital, Bengaluru, is now a melting pot witch receives people from all over the empire, bringing in their cultures and traditions. Before Vijay decided Bengaluru would be the capital, it was simply a small village. Sadly, though, Out of many advantages one of the disadvantages of Vijay's choice was that, in order to build Bengaluru City into what it is today, it had to absorb resources from all over the empire. Now, this alone was not too bad, but the thing that displeased Vijay was the constant disputes between various types of people in Bengaluru.
The official language of the Bharatiya Empire is the Bharati language; there is no dispute about it. But when people speak to each other in a place that they call home, they converse in their own mother tongue, whether it is Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, or Tamil.
Due to this, there is a constant struggle among the people about what language someone has to speak. If it is in any of the states, the problem is not too big since the states are naturally divided according to the language boundaries. So, if a person from another state goes to the said state, then he is obligated to learn the local language if he has to live there and work there for a long time. But the problem becomes apparent in a city like Bengaluru, where there is no real state distinction and no real cultural distinction.
In some ways, it is both similar and different to the Bengaluru of what Vijay remembered in his last life, similar in the sense that similar language disputes existed, different in the sense the disputes were not to the extent they were in his last life.
That's right, much less. In his last life, there was a clear distinction that Bangalore was part of Karnataka and was built mostly by Kannadigas, especially since Bengaluru was quite an influential city even when India just got its independence, as Kempe Gowda I founded it and the Maharajas of Mysore developed it quite a lot. Its development in IT is a whole matter altogether, but undoubtedly the credit for Bengaluru becoming a city goes to Kempe Gowda I and the Mysore rulers.
So the feeling of pride and cultural resonance with the city was very great, causing disputes against the people coming from the north. But in this life, since the Kannadigas can't really claim that they had built the city, the dispute is much less. The whole thing becomes about which community deserves more respect and which community has the most influence in the city.
Vijay personally encountered a few occasions when the carriage driver would scold his customers.
"Speak to me in Kannada! This is Bengaluru, not your Cholapuri."
"You speak to me in Tamil, you silly buffoon."
It was a similar dialogue no matter which language the opposite party spoke. Enjoy exclusive adventures from empire
Vijay was disappointed whenever he saw this, but in the end, he could only sigh and move forward because this was not something he could immediately change. He was worried of the situation, because in his last life due to language extremism, Bengaluru had already lost its core and heart as the Silicon City of India.
In this life, Vijay wanted to change it, and the way he chose was simple and direct—it was through development and education. The only reason why people feel the need to constantly remind and threaten the so-called outsiders is because of their lack of self-confidence. Due to this lack of self-confidence to do better for themselves, they feel the need to constantly remind others that it is their property.
So, the only thing Vijay needed to do was to completely develop the empire and educate at least more than 80% of the population so that no one had the need to go somewhere else for development opportunities. If there was a London in the southern part of the empire and a New York in the northern part, who would complain? Not to mention, there weren't even any industries in the capital. Moreover, at least educated people, if they disliked a certain group of people, simply didn't get involved with them instead of going right to their face and spewing out a bunch of racial slurs like the uneducated auto drivers in his last life.
Until that time came, Vijay could only patiently bear with it.
His good mood for the day was destroyed.
---
Going back to the Simhasana Bhavana and sitting down in his office chair, Vijay suddenly received a knock on the door.
Knock, knock.
"Come in!"
It was Ganesh. He carried a letter from the Arkha Dristi communication channel.
"Your Majesty, I just got an invitation from the Academy of Sciences. The prototype of the 5th generation machine tool has been invented, and they have welcomed you to inspect it."
Vijay's eyes lit up. Now that the Bharatiya Empire had already stepped into the era of steam, it was the perfect time for the machine tool to be upgraded.
"Arrange my carriage. I will inspect the machine tools myself."
"Right away, Your Majesty."
The journey was only a couple of hours.
The upgrade of the machine tools to generation five was not an effort by a single organisation, but a collective effort and the culmination of ideas, innovation, and ingenuity from the many BIT universities, research facilities, and other intellectual organisations. With the development of the 5th generation machine tools, thousands of patents were generated, which were used to improve hundreds of civilian technologies. The economic impact brought about by the research, even before the tools were manufactured, was immeasurable.
Getting to the research facility, Vijay was immediately welcomed by the researchers who had made great contributions to the upgrade.
"Take me to see it," Vijay said. He was not in the mood to patiently chit-chat with the researchers.
Looking at the seven neatly arranged machine tools, all connected to water wheels, Vijay smiled. He went forward and inspected one machine tool at a time, examining their mechanisms firsthand to see how they worked. Even though he could be considered the inventor of the machine tool, the fifth-generation variant was quite different from what he had built. The newer ones were more complex, had more gear mechanisms, and even incorporated advanced mechanical concepts that shouldn't have been discovered until the 19th century.
Moments later, Vijay stepped back with some excitement on his face. He now understood why the Westerners always used to say, "Even if I gave you all the parts, you couldn't put the machine back together." The Bharatiya Empire had finally reached that place— even if the 5th generation machine tool were disassembled and given to an Englishman, he wouldn't know how to put it back or even what any part was used for. The Bharatiya Empire had finally reached the point where it could build its own technology backlog, where simply observing how something worked would no longer be enough for someone to replicate it.
"Explain them. What are the specifications?" Vijay enquired.
The researchers started from the machine at the rightmost corner, then progressively moved to the left.
"The fifth-generation water-powered turning lathe has a minimum precision of 0.025 millimetres. Its minimum workpiece capacity is 10 millimetres in diameter and 100 millimetres in length. Its maximum workpiece capacity is 150 millimetres in diameter and 600 millimetres in length."
"The water-powered drill press has an accuracy of 0.05 millimetres hole diameter. Its workpieces can span from 2 millimetres to 100 millimetres in material thickness."
"The 5th generation water-powered milling machine has a flatness tolerance of 0.025 millimetres. Its minimum workspace capacity is 50 x 50 x 20 millimetres, and its maximum workpiece capacity is 300 x 300 x 150 millimetres."
"The fifth-generation water-powered gear-cutting machine has gear teeth spacing accuracy of 0.025 millimetres. The minimum dimensions of the workpiece it can work with are 20 millimetres in diameter and 5 millimetres in thickness, and the maximum is 200 millimetres in diameter and 40 millimetres in thickness."
"The fifth-generation water-powered grinding machine has a surface finish quality of 0.012 millimetres. The dimensions of the workpiece include a minimum of 50 millimetres in diameter and 5 millimetres in thickness, and a maximum of 450 millimetres in diameter and 40 millimetres in thickness."
"The fifth-generation water-powered screw press has an accuracy of 0.05 millimetres in part deformation, with a minimum pressing force of five tonnes and a maximum pressing force of 20 tonnes."
"The fifth-generation water-powered rifling machine has an accuracy of 0.012 millimetres in groove depth. Its dimensions for the compatible workpiece include a minimum of 50 millimetres in length and 1 millimetre in depth, and a maximum of 300 millimetres in length and 6 millimetres in depth."