Vijayanagara Empire.
Bhartiya Military Academy of Sciences - Gunpowder Branch.
It had been nearly a month since Vijay had assigned them the task of developing gunpowder, and various experints had been continuously conducted during this ti by the different research groups. However, there has been no substantial success thus far.
A man with a balding head along with his group of researchers could be seen ticulously mixing various materials, with each ingredient prepared with absolute precision. This man appeared to be in his thirties, and his na was Manoj Reddy, the head of the 4th research group. Hailing from the Andhra region of the Empire, Manoj had always found strange things interesting and enjoyed mixing different objects to observe their reactions. This fascination had made him sowhat of an outcast among his peers, but due to his exceptional intellect and extraordinary skills in concocting dicinal mixtures, he had earned a place at the Bhartiya Academy of Civil Sciences as a group leader. More recently, in response to the foreign threat, he had been promoted to the Bhartiya Academy of Military Sciences.
" ???? Mh mh mh , hmm hmm hmm????"
As he worked, Manoj humd along to his favourite song, a common practice for him. He had conducted this particular experint many tis, but it had always ended in failure. Instead of growing disheartened, he diligently docunted each unsuccessful attempt and pondered the reasons behind the failures.
"Test 32, 15 parts saltpeter, 3 parts charcoal, 2 parts sulfur... experint begins," he wrote in his diary. He arrived at this ratio after nurous experints, noticing that adding more saltpeter increased the explosiveness, but too much saltpeter rendered it non-explosive. He had to find the right balance. Carefully, he packed the black powder mixture he had prepared, layering it with multiple sheets of paper for containnt, and added a fuse. This idea had co to him after learning about the properties of gunpowder. Manoj took the package of gunpowder and placed it next to a standard iron armour of the Vijayanagara Empire.
Black scratches and marks covered the armour, evidence of the nurous tests it had endured.
With a sense of anticipation, Manoj had his assistant light the fuse. The assistant nervously lit the fuse and swiftly retreated to a safe distance. He had been chosen for the job because of his speed, but no matter how many tis he did this, it was still nerve-wracking.
Tension built up, and everyone in the project group beca quiet as the fuse slowly burned and was no longer visible. Just as Manoj was disappointed with the result...
**BOOM!**
A deafening explosion echoed, prompting all the researchers involved in the project to rush out of their rooms and witness the blast. None of them were frightened by the explosion, as they had all conducted similar experints that had ended in failure. Nevertheless, their curiosity drew them to see who had achieved the breakthrough. Upon seeing the bald man, they quickly realized that this was the result of Manoj's experint.
"Hehehe, we did it! Haha, God has blessed us! We did it!" Manoj and his fellow researchers exclaid in joy, dancing around in awkward steps. Manoj saw a gaping hole the size of a fist in the iron armour. It was remarkable to note that such a significant explosion had been achieved with just a small 5-gram package of gunpowder. This marked the largest explosion recorded with any mixing ratio thus far.
_______________________________________________________________________
In the palace, Vijay was conducting his own experints. He aid to create one of the cornerstones of modern civilization: cent. While cent was not exclusive to modern civilization and had been used by the Greeks, Chinese, and even the Bhartiya civilization since ancient tis, those types of cent were challenging to produce and primarily reserved for cultural relics or important buildings. For example, Roman cent utilized ash from volcanoes and water from the sea to create the famous Roman cent, which could last thousands of years until the modern 21st century.
However, Vijay wanted cent that could be mass-produced and economically viable for Vijayanagara. He had instructed artisans to build a shaft kiln for his testing purposes. This kiln, which he had constructed, was relatively small, asuring only about 5 ters and made from rocks and clay. The kiln in Bharat has a long history, it has been used for pottery, tal slting, and brick firing since ancient tis. Since he didn't have to invent anything new for the kiln construction, it progressed smoothly.
To produce cent, various materials were required, including listone, clay, shale, iron ore, ash, slag, and gypsum. So of these materials were optional and could be used when listone was in limited supply. Fortunately, the Vijayanagara Empire had an abundance of listone. To procure the necessary materials, Vijay sent the Sondagars to Shimoga in search of listone. As for the remaining materials, clay was readily available everywhere, and the slag from iron production had already been prepared.
With all the raw materials gathered, Vijay had them crushed into fine powder. He then mixed the listone, clay, and slag in a ratio of 4:1:1. For the next step, Vijay had the raw mixture placed in the kiln. The kiln was quickly ignited, using coal as fuel, and the temperature rapidly rose to over 1400 degrees Celsius. Due to various chemical reactions within the raw mixture, calcination took place.
"Vijay, co and have lunch," Kavya called.
One hour later, after having lunch and spending so ti with Kavya, he returned to find that the raw materials in the kiln had been properly calcified. When he saw the resulting product, marble-sized clumps of cent had ford. These cent clumps, called clinker, were left to cool naturally.
"Vinod...." Vijay called.
After the cent had cooled down, he ordered Vinod to bring a servant to grind the clinker. A servant quickly arrived with a hand-operated rock grinder.
After the grinding process was completed, Vijay finally saw the familiar cent from the future.
"Finally, hehe," he chuckled. "With this, the chances of winning have been increased. Ha ha!"
Vijay thought in excitent about the future.
To test the cent he had produced, he called the artisans into the workshop and had them build a small brick wall. The bricks were made of mud, and cent was used in between them. For another test, he had the artisans mix cent, rocks, and water to form a mortar, which was then poured into a rectangular mould with wrought iron bars. This was a common technique in the future for constructing solid pillars in buildings.
After a few days of drying and tending by the servants, the cent had successfully hardened.
To test it, Vijay had a strong man bring a hamr and try to demolish the wall and the pillar. To Vijay's delight, the pillar stood still without a single crack. While there were minor cracks in the wall, it was as expected because the wall was made of mud bricks. Although the cent did not let go, the bricks began to crack, but still, the wall held on. With the improvent of brick-making technology, this drawback could be eliminated in the next few months.
With the successful production of cent, large kilns of 25 ters and above were constructed in the Shimoga area of the Empire. Fortunately for Vijay, Shimoga contained one-third of all the reserves of cent-grade listone in the whole of Bharat. With Raya Ironworks also existing in Shimoga, the raw materials of slag, listone, and clay were readily available within a single region.
With the successful production of the first shaft kiln in the Shimoga region, the kiln could produce around 6 tons of cent in one firing cycle. With the improved efficiency and experience of workers, this number increased to an average of 8 tons per firing cycle.
With a daily usage of 12 hours, 36 tons of cent were produced. While it was currently enough for the construction of buildings, it was nowhere near enough for the construction of roads. Next, with Vijay's order, five more kilns were constructed in Shimoga to consistently provide high-quality cent for road construction and military defence purposes.
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