parentshiftbook Chapter 1224 - 1151: My Lathe, Rub Rub
Chapter 1224 - 1151: My Lathe, Rub Rub
In the early September morning, the ry Court Barracks nestled among the mountains began to cool down.The mercury thermometer guided by the Saint's Grandson had already indicated 26 degrees Gage.
Accompanied by the cold moisture from Nanze Lake, those nestled in the open space of the spring machine car camp had to wear short cloaks.
When the temperature drops by noon, this layer of cloak is removed.
However, for the Dwarfs, the standardized short cloak provided by the factory was not very reasonable; wearing them was like wearing knee-length cloaks.
In this open space, half were workers from the ry Court Barracks wearing indigo overalls, and the other half were bearded Dwarf Artisans.
Most of them stood by the tracks, which served both the spring locomotives and the horse-drawn trains.
"Can Leonardo really make a new lathe in one day?" Dwarf Artisan Gulga tapped his pipe on his shoe bottom, "When we were apprentices, crafting such a dial plate would take at least three days, right?
You'd have to scrap a dozen to get one right, and he finishes it in a morning... hmmm..."
Gulga left his sentence unfinished, but the surrounding dwarfs understood what he meant, it was just inconvenient to say it out loud.
Beside him, the young dwarf Balum nodded along, unconsciously rubbing his file with his fingers, and murmured, "To be fair, last time, calibrating the clockwork warehouse's transmission shaft took two days.
If this new lathe is really that miraculous, wouldn't us handcrafting parts end up out of work?"
The workers from the ry Court Barracks weren't doing any better, grouping together and speaking in hushed tones.
"It's not that I doubt Leonardo's abilities, but this seems too rushed."
"From drafts to a lathe, including engraving the dial plate, even if he's a mechanical sage, he can't conjure it out of thin air, can he?"
Saying this, yet a different voice rose from the crowd.
"Do you believe in the Holy Alliance?"
Everyone turned to see a middle-aged labor representative, also a reserve Priest of the Saint Father's Association.
"Hard to say," someone in the crowd said with a sarcastic tone, yet no one could discern who spoke.
But the labor representative did not pursue it, only shouting, "The Falan people and Leia people have a grand conspiracy, to destroy the country we painstakingly created.
Our country is the only one built by commoners, not ruled by nobility, and they fear us!
That's why they're resorting to such vile tactics, but are we to surrender?"
The number of people quieting down in the open area increased, as everyone listened to the labor priest's "sermon."
"You talk of miracles, but wasn't the Holy Alliance built on miracles? Who believed the ether clock could work at first? Yet it did.
And the Veen Dam, such a tall structure, others said it would take ten years, but we finished it in two and a half..."
After this, the murmurs in the open area diminished slightly.
Indeed, the Holy Alliance had created many miracles over the years.
From the "three years without paying grain" miracle to defeating the Leia people, from the spring revolution to the current World Expo.
Which one was not initially questioned as "impossible"?
Yet in the end, they all succeeded.
Gulga shoved his pipe back into his mouth, muttering indistinctly, "That's all well and good, but this sort of thing, oh... it's different!"
Finding mineral veins and metal intuition are innate talents of the dwarfs.
If these are gone, and the dwarfs' proud craftsmanship is gone too, what is left for them?
No one could answer this question.
The morning mist gradually dissipated, and the eastern sky began to tint a pale gold, as the clock on the wall slowly approached seven.
The dwarfs and workers in the open space, though calm before, grew more anxious.
Some occasionally looked up at the clock, some fiddled with tools in their hands, while others gazed in the direction of the ry Court Barracks.
According to the agreement, Leonardo's new lathe should have been delivered before seven, yet there wasn't even a shadow of it now.
"Seven is almost here!" an Engineering Priest shouted, pointing at the clock, "If we wait any longer, it will be too late, first let's agree—
will we stick to the original plan, with the dwarfs focusing on the cores and transmission shafts, or go with the backup plan, mixing dwarfs and workers, evenly distributing the parts?"
The original plan was set by Leonardo, where the new lathe handled the low-precision gear parts, freeing the dwarf artisans.
This way, they could focus on processing the most challenging mountain copper clockwork cores and transmission shafts, minimizing waste.
The backup plan was much more conservative, regardless of whether the lathe arrived, parts were divided by difficulty, with both dwarfs and workers doing a part each.
Though less efficient, it ensured there would still be some part production.
Gulga rubbed his hands, his bushy beard moving with his face: "Why not... go with the backup plan? If the lathe really doesn't arrive, we can't just sit around."
"But what if the lathe arrives later?"
"Better than wasting time!" Gulga raised his voice, "The expo is only eight days away, we can't afford to delay!"
The debates in the open area erupted again, with some insisting "wait" and others saying "don't wait," clashing irreconcilably.
Seeing such a quarrel, Gulga shook his head and directly called to his fellow dwarfs, "Dwarf comrades, go get the rough blanks..."
"Wait!" another young dwarf stopped him, "Listen."
"What?"
"Da-da-da-da—"
"Clang, clang, clang—"
It was the horse-drawn train!
Everyone stopped their actions, simultaneously looking towards the direction of the sound.
They saw a black horse-drawn train, pulled by sixteen sturdy draft horses, moving along the tracks.
Those standing on the tracks hurriedly backed away, raising their arms and ducking from the scattered stones.
"Neigh—"
Before it fully stopped, with a crisp click, the panels on both sides of the carriage immediately dropped down.
Revealing items in the center covered with thick canvas and securely tied with ropes.
"It's here! It's here!" the young workers shouted in excitement.
Leonardo's student Toram jumped off the carriage, waving with bloodshot eyes, "Help unload the carriage!"
The air in the open space paused for a moment, then a few workers and dwarfs rushed forward in a flurry.
They clumsily untied the ropes on the canvas, and immediately, everyone in the open space held their breath—
Two brand new lathes were placed side by side in the carriage, gleaming brass dial plates reflecting a soft glow in the morning light.
The lead screw ran from the front of the carriage to the end, and the sliding tool rest was clamped on the lead screw, carrying the fresh scent of machine oil.
On the side of the lathe, a plaque clearly painted in white read "Leonardo Precision Lathe, September 1457."
"Two, how come there are two!"
"Not just two—" Toram shook his head, "more are being built on the ry Court Barracks side, and by noon, there could be a third, fourth, fifth..."
Gulga squeezed to the front, reaching out to touch the lathe's dial plate.
No need to look, the metal intuition from dwarf blood told him—accurate!
"Was this really made in a day?" Gulga's voice wavered.
"He's simply superhuman." Some dwarf remarked.
To the unenlightened, perhaps they only considered Leonardo's feat impressive.
But to the knowledgeable dwarfs, there were no longer human boundaries.
Completing the design of precision lathes overnight, engraving a fifty-line dial plate in one go in the morning, assembling a precision lathe within twelve hours.
This morning, unbelievably, another precision lathe got assembled.
Did Leonardo grow eight arms?
Is Leonardo secretly a Spider Witch disguised as a high-quality human male?
"Don't just stand there." Wiping sweat off his brow, using inclined planks to transport the lathes off the carriage, Toram saw everyone motionless, clapping the carriage and shouted, "Come on, time waits for no one!"
"Oh-oh-oh—"