Enlightened Empire

Chapter 343: Machines

One by one, Corco carefully checked the brass sliders in front of him, as well as the complex machinery that connected to it behind. In the end, he saw one that didn’t properly grip the corresponding gear inside the machine, possibly because the shaft attached to the gear was bent by a degree or so.

On a workbench nearby, Corco found a wrench, which he used to apply some careful tension. This way, the shaft bent back into shape. It wasn’t a proper solution, but it would do for this first experiment. Once his work was done, he continued to check the remaining moving parts on the front of the machine.

For once, Corco got to experience what real, hands-on work felt like. It wasn’t bad, and a welcome distraction from his usual jobs in the castle and the school. Even when he did some amateurish engineering, it was usually limited to drawing blueprints for future infrastructure projects. Thus, he was happy to get his hands working for once, and to smell the wood and copper of the machine.

With the parts right before him, everything felt so much more tangible, as if the future was only half a step away. After he had checked all the parts, he rose back up from below the large table that housed the machine.

“That should be everything on my end,” he said. “I don’t think that one driver shaft will hold long since it’s all bent out of shape, but it’s just a prototype anyways. We can always replace it later. So how is it looking with you?”

Master Egidius stood up from the other side of the table and rubbed the grease off his hands with a towel. As he spoke, he walked around the table and next to Corco, to the front of the machine.

“There should be no major problems, King Corco,” Egidius said. “Although it remains to be seen whether or not the carry operation will properly function. One way or another, it is time to make another attempt.”

When he heard that they could go for another trial run after the machine hadn’t worked properly the first time, Corco got excited right away. Actually, he had only come to this house on Chukru Island to invite Egidius as a teacher for his future university. After all, getting the smartest mind in the city – as far as Corco was concerned – involved in teaching and research seemed as obvious as it was beneficial.

However, the king hadn’t even gotten a chance to breech the topic. When he had entered the house, Egidius had been in his workshop, putting together the finishing touches on his newest project. Since then, both of them had been distracted by the shiny toy in front of them, working towards this very moment.

This was a mechanical calculator, the first of its kind ever created in this world. While Corco had worked on the concept on and off for years, it had taken Egidius to iron out the kinks and turn the king’s blueprints into the reality before them. For a moment, both of them just stood and admired the machine made from shiny brass and polished wood, both with their hands on their hips, eager too start but too giddy to know where.

“Okay, what should we try first?” Egidius asked first. “Maybe something more complex, to really test the limits of the new machine?”

“You know, it takes multiple pages to prove that one plus one equals two. But once you can prove that, you sorta unlock the entire rest of mathematics. That’s pretty complex. So why not start with that?” Corco mused in reply.

Although he was pretty sure that he was technically correct, he was happy that Egidius didn’t ask him any follow up questions. If he were asked to recreate the proof for ‘1+1=2’, he would be utterly in over his head.

To his luck, it seemed like Egidius couldn’t quite follow along with the conversation for once. After an awkward pause, he simply said, “One plus one then,” and began to input the number on the slider in front of them.

He first pulled down the slider that Corco had just been working on until the number above the slider read ‘1’. Then, he moved to the crank at the side of the machine, and pushed it in, to set the machine to ‘addition’. For now, only addition and zeroing operations were possible, but Corco hoped they could include all four standard operations soon. While multiplying would already be possible in theory, it would remain a pain so long as they couldn’t just switch between decimal places.

As Corco was thinking about the future, Egidius finished up the operation. He turned the crank, and both of them stared at the long string of numbers atop the desk, where the final result would be displayed. Inside the table, the gears were turning with a clicking and clacking, until the rightmost wheel gripped onto one of the staggered drums and connected the crank’s rotation with the number wheel on top. With large eyes, the two watched as ‘00000000’ turned to ‘00000001’.

Although the final result was already obvious, they hadn’t quite put one and one together yet. Without a word, Egidius turned the crank a second time. This time, the results row read ‘00000002’.

“It works!” Egidius exclaimed.

“Fucking hell, we’ve built a calculator!”

While 1+1=2 didn’t seem like much, this was the most important first step, that would eventually lead to fully automated calculators. Too excited to talk, the two stared at the numbers as Egidius kept spinning the crank around.

‘00000003’

‘00000004’

…

‘00000009’

Finally, they reached the magic number.

With the final turn of the crank, the numbers changed again. The right-most digit turned over again, returning to ‘0’. At the same time, the second digit also finally moved, showing a final result of ‘00000010’.

Although the effect looked simple, carry operations – like carrying the one over to the next larger decimal during addition – were one of the big problems mechanical calculators had to overcome. Luckily, everything seemed to be working as expected with their prototype machine.

“The staggered drum was an inspired design, King Corco. It solved too many problems to count,” Egidius said, a big grin on his face.

“Well, yeah. It’s really clever. I didn’t come up with it though.” As always, Corco was a bit uncomfortable when he got praised for the work of others, so he wasn’t willing to take credit.

“Oh? Then where did it come from?”

“I saw it in a book,” Corco lied. He couldn’t exactly say that he saw it on the internet, could he?

“Either way, it is a stroke of genius, one that has unlocked countless possibilities.”

“Yeah, that’s what we should focus on.” Corco chanced the topic. “For now, the goal should be to add the remaining three operations. Once we can use the machine to conveniently subtract, multiply and divide, we’re almost there.”

“Subtraction should be simple enough if we use nine’s complements. We only need an additional setting for the crank, though the number of drums inside would have to double. I may have to make a more compact designs for that, or the machinery will no longer fit underneath a table,” Egidius mused.

“I actually have some design ideas in that regard. More stuff I saw in books. If everything works well, we won’t need any more drums than what we already have.”

“In that case, I am looking forward to it. Subtraction is the last big operation we need to implement. After all, multiplication is already possible. We only need to turn the crank as often as we do the multiplication.”

“I mean… that works, but it seems slow, and really inefficient. I’d prefer it if we could shift the entire operation over to higher decimal places.”

“I understand. That way, we only need to turn the crank a maximum nine times per decimal for any kind of multiplication.”

“Even less if you include subtraction,” Corco remarked.

“That… is absolutely true!” a wide-eyed Egidius said. “In that case, if we wanted to multiply by twenty-eight, we could simply turn the crank on the ten’s-decimal three times, then put it into the subtraction position and turn it twice on the one’s-decimal.”

Again, Corco was surprised by how fast the clock maker’s brain worked. A single hint had been enough to make him understand the basic principle completely, even though none of these mechanisms had been built yet, by anyone, anywhere. Sometimes, he was jealous of the man’s ability to abstract things in his head, but at least for now, his prior knowledge was enough to let him keep up, and to direct the genius of Egidius into the right direction.

“Right. So when we have all the operations in there, we need to test the machine thoroughly. Then, when everything looks right, you should build a few more of them. Don’t worry about the details. I’ll make sure you get your patents. And as for sales, the various government offices in the castle will take them off your hands. We really need to streamline our operations anyways.”

Corco was already looking forward to all the free time he would have once he didn’t have to do all his calculations by hand, and slide rule, anymore. Brym would be even happier to receive one of these. With all the numbers his financial department had to juggle every day, the machines would have the biggest impact there, just in time before the stock market opened.

“It will be done,” Egidius said. “However, I may need more help than my apprentices can provide. These machines are difficult to build, and complex.”

“Not a problem. Just think about your requirements, write a list and send it to the castle. I’ll take care that you get whatever you need to fulfill the order.”

Now that he was about to set up another industrial system, Corco was getting giddy again. This calculator was a massive step forward for his country. First, the castle, which was constantly short on bureaucrats, would finally have some room to breathe. From there, they could make the calculator design more compact, and cheaper, and then arrive at tabletop calculators and mechanical cash registers.

In fact, this calculator design could also set a precedent and help speed up the development and production of typewriters. He could already feel the increased efficiency and added free time in the office! Maybe he would have some time to compose music soon… impossibly, he may even see his wife more than once a month.

Excited about the future that was in his sight, his eyes returned to the beautiful machine that had made it all possible.

“Let’s do some more tests!” he said, eager to play around some more.

“We need to, there is practically no other choice,” Egidius agreed.

Immediately, the clock maker started with the zeroing operation. Once he pulled on the crank, it jutted out of the machine by a centimeter or so. When Egidius turned it by a full rotation, the numbers on top all returned to zero, and the table was ready for the next operation.

This time, the number put in the sliders was ‘00000128’, which was cranked once. Then, Egidius changed the sliders to ‘04002999’ and turned the crank again. Inside the machine, a mesmerizing ballet of cogs and wheels turned each other, until the numbers on the top read ‘04003127’.

Giddy like children, the chief weapons expert and the ruler of the kingdom played around with their newest toy for a long time after. However, the fun times could not last forever. After a several more operations, the door to Egidius’ home workshop opened.

“Husband, are you still in here?”

The clock maker’s wife Ella entered, with a young boy held on her arm. The little one seemed sleepy, his eyes half-closed. This was the couple’s son Sami, as Corco knew. When he was born, the king had been busy with work as usual, but since then he had visited the workshop several times, and had become acquainted with both the kid and the mother. However, as a Yaku who had grown up under the old rules, Ella was still very stiff around him.

“Please excuse this mortal’s rudeness, King. This mortal was unaware that king was still present.”

“It’s fine.” Corco waved off her concerns. “There’s no need to act that stiff around me. Actually, just pretend I’m not here. I really should be going.”

She still looked a bit unsure, but some encouragement from Egidius refocused her mind on the reason she had entered here in the first place.

“Husband, food has been ready for an hour. When will you come?”

“But… this needs to be thoroughly tested!” Egidius protested quietly.

“Will your machine go cold if you do not test it now?” Ella asked, now much firmer than she had been with Corco.

“It… no, however-”

“Well, your food will.” Ella sighed. “I asked you an hour ago to come eat. What are you doing?”

“I… did not notice.”

At this point, even Corco was embarrassed. He also hadn’t realized that someone had entered the workshop. It seemed like both of them had been far too engrossed in their work.

“Honestly, I married the only clock maker in Saniya who cannot tell the time. Please finish up soon and come eat.”

With that, Ella bowed to Corco and closed the door again. Embarrassed, Egidius turned to the king as well.

“So, you heard it… In that case… King Corco…”

“It’s fine, spend some time with your family,” Corco interrupted him. “Like I said, I have taken up far too much of your time, and need to get back anyways.”

Soon after, Corco apologized to Ella and left the house. Only when he was already on the street did he remember that he hadn’t offered Egidius the university position like he had planned. However, he wouldn’t come back now and disturb the couple. Although it was a shame he couldn’t play with the calculator some more, even with that new excuse, there was always more time to do both in the future. Plus, he hadn’t lied. In the castle, there were also many important jobs waiting to be done.

Though as soon as he came back, he realized that he wouldn’t get any of them done, because Fadelio was already waiting for him at the entrance, with a piece of paper in his hands.

“Master, you’re finally back.”

“What’s going on? Do we finally have some concrete leads on the next war?”

Over the past months, Saniya’s ghosts had reported increased activity from various forces in the city and around the kingdom’s borders. It seemed like Port Ulta was shipping in more and more soldiers, so Corco had already strengthened defenses on the Anticasa Mountain Pass. At the same time, there were some strange movements from other parties as well. Though so far, they had nothing concrete yet.

“Not quite yet,” Fadelio replied. “But we just received a new radio message from Rasacopa. If you hadn’t come right now, we would have had to send someone out to find you.”

He handed Corco the message in his hand.

“So it’s important,” the king concluded.

“The captains want to talk,” Fadelio summarized the message.

“They’re finally ready to give in, huh?” Corco said after he had read the message in full. “Looks like I’ll need to get back to Rasacopa for now, and bring our soldiers home. It’s about time we start clearing out our own backyard, for good. Only then can we start thinking about our outside enemies.”

On the morning of the next day, Corco’s fleet set off towards the Green Island again, to negotiate peace with the captains of House Hulpatec. However, the internal peace the king wanted wouldn’t be quite so easy to come by.

As he left, his fleet was watched by many hidden figures, from various parts of Medala, and the world. All with their own agendas, they saw the king’s departure as the starting line for their own great plans. With their greatest obstacle away from the city, the hidden forces eyeing Saniya were ready to move.