Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord-Chapter 118: The Steam Factory

On the eastern part of the island, a newly built testing ground.

Four Sirens surrounded the steam engine, working together to place it onto the fixed support frame in the room.

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Hughes looked at the twenty-four hands gripping the steam engine, and the strange feeling in his heart was overwhelming.

This steam engine was a newly assembled Type II machine, entirely put together by the trainees, without Hughes intervening at all.

It weighed at least three tons.

Three tons, just carried over like that.

Hughes had originally designed some equipment for transportation, but on a whim, he decided to let the Sirens try carrying it instead.

The result was unexpectedly good. The four Sirens had no problem at all moving the three-ton machine, except that they weren’t very good at walking backward, their snake-like tails tended to tangle, so for a large part of the way, only three of them were actually carrying it.

This level of strength and endurance…

Hughes suddenly had the feeling that these Sirens might not be much weaker than a steam engine in a factory.

They even had six hands each, meaning one could do the work of six people.

Seeing this untapped potential, he had an urge to exploit it.

“How is it? Heavy?”

“It’s fine, really. The main problem is that it’s hard to grip. This thing is too slippery, if we had a few more hands, it’d be perfect,” Nini said casually.

Hughes: …

The Sirens set the steam engine down, and the trainees began assembling and fine-tuning it.

This was Hughes’ first attempt at using steam power in a factory setting.

Technically, he could have done this earlier, but the trainees’ learning progress was still slow.

Many of them had only recently completed their literacy classes and had too many gaps in their knowledge to fill.

Skipping steps wasn’t an option either, Hughes wasn’t comfortable teaching more advanced topics until they had built a solid foundation.

The only relief was that the batch of workers Beatrice had brought seemed to have some knowledge of steam engines.

He said "seemed" because, according to them, their knowledge came from oral traditions among workers, old masters passing skills down to new ones over time.

As a result, their understanding was mostly incomplete.

They knew how to operate steam engines correctly, but their knowledge lacked structure, requiring them to relearn almost everything from scratch.

Hughes planned to let them operate the steam engine directly once Beatrice left.

As for the missing foundational knowledge, they could catch up through additional lessons.

The current factory was built for this very purpose.

This factory was different from all the others on the island.

The previous ones were, to put it bluntly, just larger workshops. Their designs were more advanced in concept, but they were still just wooden structures.

But this one was special, it was built almost entirely of stone, something even Earth didn’t have.

It was unavoidable, the Sirens’ "Fossil to Mud" ability was simply too efficient.

Hughes only needed to add some steel reinforcements for support, and the entire factory gained the strength of concrete.

This was practically black technology. Even if he invented cement, its strength wouldn’t come close to this, which was why Hughes had high hopes for this factory.

He planned to turn it into a steel mill.

The island had iron ore, and the research on polluted fuel combustion had already entered the experimental stage.

The runes drawn inside the boiler, essentially blood-formed circles to contain the pollution, were being optimized, and apparently, they worked well with machine spirits.

Why did this setup feel so weird?

In any case, while pollution wasn’t entirely usable as fuel yet, the prospects were promising. The steel mill would be operational soon.

As for the iron-smelting furnace, he had already built one successfully, but a new idea had recently come to him.

He wanted to try optimizing it using "Fossil to Mud."

This part also required experimentation, and he considered letting the Sirens handle it.

Not by using their magic, but by having them conduct independent research.

Sirens were truly a fascinating species. They were physically powerful and had decent magical abilities, practically born warriors.

Normally, species like this would naturally develop a culture of worshiping violence, and their values would lean in that direction.

But strangely, these Sirens didn’t.

They clearly worshiped gods, and for an unknown length of time, they had remained in an uncivilized state.

But after interacting with Hughes for only a short period, they had almost fully adapted to his values and ways of thinking.

This was highly unusual.

Most races struggled to change their ingrained beliefs. Even among humans, communication between the young and the elderly could be difficult. Yet these Sirens had adapted at an astonishing speed.

Hughes had originally thought it would take one or two generations for such a shift to occur, but now it seemed he had overestimated the time required.

When he first met them, they only knew how to kneel and pray to their gods. Now, they were interested in science.

Conversations with them sometimes reminded Hughes of the people from Earth.

In any case, with Monica constantly stirring things up, the Sirens’ interest in technological research had only grown.

They had even attended advanced classes, so he might as well leave this part of the work to them.

As for Hughes himself, he planned to start studying chemistry.

Three acids and two bases, if it was just about obtaining them in small amounts, that wouldn’t be too difficult for him.

The real challenge was mass production. Castel Island had a volcano, which gave him an advantage in this field.

Previously, the nitroglycerin he made had been produced in small amounts in a lab, with the sulfuric acid being directly extracted from sulfur ore.

But now, he had some new methods, such as the blast furnace he was building.

With pyrite, a single blast furnace could produce multiple products, iron, sulfuric acid, and cement. He could try setting up an integrated production line.

On Earth, this would be considered outdated, highly polluting heavy industry. But here, it was cutting-edge technology.

With concentrated sulfuric acid and salt, he could make hydrochloric acid.

Nitric acid was more troublesome, it required saltpeter, which was a bottleneck. He would need to have the pirates find a solution.

“Lord, the installation is complete.”

Ken wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the steam engine before him, smiling with satisfaction.

He had the highest scores in mechanical principles, and he had led the assembly of this steam engine. He felt an inexplicable attachment to this cold piece of steel.

“Don’t connect the transmission equipment yet. Let’s do a no-load test run first. If it works, we’ll have our first steam-powered factory.”

Hughes was also growing fond of this big guy.

The Type II machine might look simple in structure, but itz design had stood the test of time. It was durable, on Earth, some steam locomotives still used this type of engine.

The trainees shoveled coal into the furnace. As the ignition process began, Hughes stepped up beside Ken, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“My Lord?”

“Do you think it’ll go smoothly?”

“It will. The last one worked, didn’t it?”

That’s exactly why I’m watching this one so closely, the last one had issues.

Hughes sighed inwardly but kept his hand on Kenn’s shoulder.

If any pollution appeared in his body, this way, Hughes could purify it immediately.