Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1112

Chapter 1112: All metal Battleship?

8th November 1693

Imperial capital-Bengaluru, Akhand Bharatiya Empire

Nearly a full year had passed while Vijay was away in Suvarna Dwipa, and now, standing on the shore of Vishakapatnam with the cool mist of crashing waves brushing against his face, he breathed in deeply.

“I’m back,” he said, a curve at the corner of his lips.

Normally, Vijay wouldn’t be away from the Empire for so long, but since Agni had proved himself when he was away in Europe, he simply had him take over once again.

Getting back to the capital, spending time with his family, and entering his office, the first thing Vijay did was learn about the various things that had changed. Like the metro, for instance. With him doubling the investment before he set off to Suvarna Dwipa, and with Gaur Industries coming up with a professional class Balwaan engine, an intermediate grade engine that fits between the full sized locomotive engine and the compact sized engine used for cars and tractors, the cranes, with more strength behind the hydraulics powered by the Gaur Balwaan P100, became much more powerful. So, while it required four cranes for the box girders to be installed before, now it only took three, two for lifting the segment and one for stabilising it.

Other civilian engine makers were not falling behind either. Parvati Power, Aakarsh Mobility, and other companies that were now capable of assembling and manufacturing their own engines had come up with their own versions of the Pragathi engine, all seeing improvements of anywhere from 40% to 80%. Vijay heard that they were even attempting to make a miniature dual cylinder engine, which made him look forward to it quite a bit.

Moving on, he learnt to his absolute joy that the fifth-generation Balwaan engine had finally arrived, and it was more powerful than ever. With a four-cylinder high-pressure horizontal build, it put out over 12,000 Khanda-metres of torque, 50% more than the fourth generation’s 8,000 Khanda-metres, and produced over 140 horsepower at 100 rpm, with both figures nearly double the previous numbers. And this was only the locomotive variant. Hey Ram made a metro variant upon request, where its rpm was maximised, while the torque was brought down, while keeping the power the same.

The compact series of the fifth-generation engines was powered by the twin cylinder horizontal engine, just like their previous version, and the improvements they saw were not that drastic, but still, it was enough to give the manufacturers a lot of flexibility in what they could do with the engine.

Turning the page, the arc on Vijay’s lips widened. His son Vedant had finally come up with the second generation of the naval engine, the Bhairavi Jalaputra Gen-2, and it showed a massive improvement. It had evolved from a twin-cylinder high-pressure direct-acting horizontal engine to a four-cylinder high-pressure horizontal engine with an upgraded Chamundi FSC Mark 2, capable of bearing 140 psi of steam pressure. Vijay had originally estimated the engine’s power to reach around 200 or 250 horsepower, but his son shocked him by pushing it to 280 horsepower and 30,000 Khanda-metres of torque. These were insane numbers.

Vijay closed the report and immediately summoned all the major shipbuilders of the empire for a meeting.

A few hours later, in the conference room of the Simhasana Bhavana…

“We are going to build a new battleship, a flagship so to speak, and it is going to be all metal.”

The Emperor’s words were unexpectedly abrupt and immediately shocked all of the designers present.

Ever since the Delhi Class battleship was put into service, no other ship could replace it, even the 4,500-tonne Kathmandu Class goliath, which was not only the biggest ship the Bharatiya Empire had ever produced, but it was the biggest ship humanity had ever seen.

The technology used to build the Kathmandu Class wasn’t applied to a military battleship primarily because it was far too expensive, and frankly, the Bharatiya Navy had no real need for a warship of that size yet. The workhorses like the Delhi Class battleship, Colombo Class frigate, Chennai Class clipper, Amaravathi Class frigate, and Kolkata Class clipper were still working just fine despite being a decade or more in service. But now the Emperor is ringing the clarion call to upgrade the Empire’s Navy, and the upgrade this time was so large that it made them all excited.

The last time all the top ship designers of the Empire competed was for the Magadha Class steamboat, the first ever all-metal ship of the Empire, weighing around 1,000 tonnes. They all made their own designs, and they all sold the designs to a shipbuilder, and they internally decided that the design with the most sales would be the 1st uncrowned king of ship design. But unfortunately, in the end, a satisfactory answer was not found, because the ship designed by Danior Boswell, although it did not sell too many ships, outshone the other ships in almost every category other than the price.

The ships designed by Matsya Design Bureau and the Bhavishya Design Bureau took the middle tier route, providing tasteful features at an acceptable range. The Molin Design Bureau took the commoner’s route and built the ships for an average rich businessman. As for the Southern United Naval Design Bureau, they took the absolute low-end route, selling the largest amount of Magadha Class ships, but no one accepted the Southern United Naval Design Bureau, commanded by a junior like Puneet Shetty, as the winner. So this was the best opportunity to prove themselves.

Invisible sparks clashed between the designers as they looked at each other. However, Vijay, although he noticed it, acted oblivious and continued, dashing all their hopes and dreams. “This ship will be the culmination of the Bharatiya Empire’s technology and industry.”

“So I need the absolute best, hence the selection criteria will follow the Kathmandu Class ship’s model.”

“All of the design bureaus will come up with their own designs. In the end, each design will be reviewed by the military logistics department as well as myself, and the best three will be chosen to redesign the ship, with each designer being in charge of one aspect of the ship, which we feel you have excelled in.”

“It will be your job to discuss amongst yourself and come up with a design which balances each and every aspect.”

“The gross tonnage is decided to be around 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes, and you are welcome to use all the newest technologies we have available in the Empire.”

Vijay took out the document and placed it in front of the designers. It contained all the details of the second generation of the Bhairavi engine, the newest weapon systems, and that included the new naval guns and the new prototype cruise missiles built by the Bharatiya Academy of Military Sciences after modelling it based on the Bhagat B-2 missile.

“You are allowed to take back a copy to your laboratories, but once you reach there, it should not get out.” His eyes narrowed in intimidation, “A squad of commandos will be guarding the laboratory.”

“And remember, I don’t have a nominal budget on how much or how little the price of the ship should be, but make sure that the price does not go overboard. The goal of this ship is to replace the Delhi Class, so make the decisions yourself.”

—

Several weeks had passed since Vijay’s meeting with the ship designers ended, and various companies across the Empire started to receive their new engines. Barely a month later, advertisements were found in all newspapers about the upcoming new breed of cars powered by a 5th-generation Balwaan engine.

At this time, Vijay found the opportunity to hold an industrial meeting with the manufacturers of tractors and agricultural equipment.

Devabhoomi Convention Centre, Bengaluru

“I need you all to make modular machines.”

“Take the base model of your current tractor as the core and implement multiple attachments to it, which will make it more adaptable, flexible, and useful.”

The manufacturers looked at each other with confusion. “Could you please explain in more detail, your majesty? I’m unable to grasp your order,” Vikram Kisan, the owner of Kisan Tractors, inquired, resulting in nods from all the other manufacturers.

Vijay was silent for a few seconds and explained, “It’s simple, currently a tractor is built for only one purpose, either for ploughing the field or to power the harvester. Any other functionality required by the customer, if I’m not mistaken, your company has to do the custom attachment in your own factory.”

Vikram Kisan hesitated, but after remembering that all the other factories operated on a similar model, nodded.

“So I suggest instead of this, make it modular, make attachments so that various things could be put on and installed to the tractor and removed as the client sees fit.”

“For example, if the client wants to install a bucket at the front of the tractor in order to flatten the land or to push soil into a ditch, he can use this attachment. If he wants to plough the land, he could use the plough attachment, and even in the ploughs, several kinds of ploughs could be made, the one that simply cuts the weeds on the surface, the one that turns the soil over, the one that uproots all the weeds and other things.”

“Also, you could consider adding a trailer attachment so the tractor can pull heavy loads from the fields to the market during harvest. Or an attachment that integrates a roller, allowing the tractor to compact the ground, useful even for road work. Think creatively; there are many possibilities like these.”

Every example Vijay said lit up a fuse in the minds of the manufacturers; their eyes widened, and their hearts began to beat quicker. They felt like a window paper had been pierced in their minds, opening up a whole new world before their eyes. ‘Damn, why did I not think of this?’ Vikram Kiran cursed at himself.

Vijay nodded his head after he realised that all the manufacturers understood what he was trying to say. “Now coming back to the main point, what I’m asking all of you is that the parts that can be attached to the tractor should be able to be attached to any tractor, irrespective of the brand. I need you all to unify the coupling mechanism. I don’t want any one company to force customers to only buy from your company.” Vijay made this order so that customers would not be taken advantage of by being forced to purchase proprietary parts, which are almost always more expensive than the alternatives.

To underscore his seriousness, Vijay held up a document. “This is a bill recently passed in Parliament, called the Universal Attachments Bill. In simple terms, it mandates that any attachment for a modular mechanism must be universally compatible across brands, unless a brand provides genuinely different core functionality.”

‘When I say core functionality, I mean this: if two companies are both selling a plough, a proprietary coupling mechanism is allowed only if one plough offers a fundamentally different feature, such as the ability to rotate or other advanced functions. Even then, patent protection cannot be applied to the coupling mechanism itself.”

“So, even if you create new proprietary technology, you must allow other companies to use your components or allow them to manufacture their own compatible parts that fit your proprietary coupling system.”

“This bill will serve as an amendment to the Customer Protection Act of 1685.”

“I trust you will take my recommendation seriously. With that, thank you for attending the meeting.”

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If you want to see the detailed specifications of all the steam engines in the chapter, here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wq_W2B3u1muvsvPgD3HWtVRUfSVMpvuB/view?usp=sharing