Chapter 987 The Iron Workshops (Part-3)
The thing about increased production that the other blacksmith was talking about was of course in reality simply economics of scale.
As elucidated by Marvin himself,
"Roland said it right! It's because previously we used to all work in small shops individually. But here, by working so closely together with each other in this huge workshop, we can just concentrate on just one thing. No need to constantly change our tools or move about. That really saves time."
The man did not know it yet but Marvin had just described specialization- i.e.- the process of concentrating only on one particular skill and becoming an expert in it.
And that was indeed happening here.
The consolidation and centralization of so many things so close to each other enabled each worker to focus on what he was best at and thus produce prodigious volumes of product.
So much so that Marvin would not have even believed it was possible if he had not seen for himself.
Hence although he hid it from Alexander, he planned to take his lesson to Galiosis when his term here was up.
But such transfer of knowledge was due for the future, as right now, Alexander had made it to one of the many sheds producing tools.
This one seemed to make saws!
However, the moment he got close enough, suddenly he felt like he had just been dumped inside a 50 degree sauna, as the warm air saturated with the furnace's heat and the rusty scent of iron assaulted Alexander's clean face.
And the next moment, he could not help but take a few steps back.
It was so unbelievably hot in there.
And this was with a completely open space as the sheds had no walls, thus letting air in from all four sides.
Alexander dreaded to think what would have it like if she had built walls.
It might have been literally impossible to work there.
This seemed to be one of the unintended drawbacks of putting together the largest iron workshop in the world.
The huge amount of heated air created by so many furnaces put so close together had trouble escaping.
And so to combat this hostile circumstance, Alexander spotted various adaptations the people there had taken.
First of all, they all wore light tunics dyed in pale colors like yellow or white color, colors which reflected as much heat as possible.
The men did not know the scientific reason why this happened but had found out through real life experience that wearing lighter colors helped combat the heat, while darker colors aggravated it.
Then there were large, water filled tubs distributed along various points of the shops, from where men could be seen frequently douching their heads and backs, using a large metal ladle to deliver the liquid and cool their exterior.
Alexander only now understood the reason why some of the men looked like they had just gotten out of the shower.
At first, he had assumed it to be perspiration.
And lastly, to combat the heat, everyone could be seen constantly drinking from their pouches, making sure to remain well hydrated.
Earning a living was not easy no matter the time period.
Curious to see the various operations, Alexander watched from a distance the manufacturing of a saw.
Here, the iron ingot which came to them in rectangular fist sized blocks were first cut into small 'bite sized pieces'by apprentices and slave workers, before being thrown into the furnace to become bright red.
And here Marvin also made sure to praise Alexander's 'new furnace' design, saying how much better and hotter it was than their old bloomery process.
"Using coal instead of charcoal.. my lord you are a genius! The steel is so much cleaner now" The man had cheered.
And in the same breath then went on to celebrate Alexander's invention of the double acting bellows, which could let in so much more air with each stroke and greatly stoke the fire.
"The ingots get ready in minutes!" He had exclaimed.
Following the cut ingots coming up to the appropriate temperatures, it was where the blacksmiths took over.
They used their long tongs to extract the glowing hot pieces, often wearing thick, leather gloves to shield their hands from the heat, and then placing it against an anvil, started to hammer at it away, flattening it to a sheet.
Alexander saw many blacksmiths simultaneously 'attend' on a single piece, in order to shape it as quickly as possible before the piece lost its heat.
This was a highly technical process, as the men needed to work very quickly but still maintain the accurate shape, thickness, and dimension of the desired product.
And the fact that the entire thing- from the iron ingot looking like a hot piece of ball to a flattened, saw shaped product took only 15 minutes to make- really laid testament to these men's skills.
After the blade had roughly attained its final shape, it was then heated again to a certain temperature and then quickly cooled or quenched in water to harden the steel. This process, known as tempering, helped to increase the strength and durability of the blade while also reducing brittleness.
After that came annealing, which involved a similar process of heating the product to a specific temperature and this time allowing it to cool slowly in air or even inside the furnace overnight, thus letting the blade relieve its accumulated internal stresses and improve its overall toughness.
Once the blade was hardened and annealed, the next step involved shaping the teeth along the edge of the blade.
This was done using a specialized tool such as a file for small sized hand sized saws, where some of the metal was literally chipped away.
Or special metal punches in the case of large saws, like the ones to cut trees and logs.
Whichever type of tool was desired, the size, spacing, and shape of the teeth would be based on that.
And lastly, after the teeth were shaped, the blade would be sharpened in a grinding mill or sanded by an apprentice to ensure smooth and efficient cutting.
Alexander toured the huge workshop watching the simple handsaw in various stages of its production, from the ingot to the finishing, and once again appreciated how even such a seemingly innocuous tool needed the sweat and tears of so many men.
There had to be at least a hundred men just in that workshop alone- possibly more, all laboring away in this sweltering heat just to produce this piece of serrated iron with a wooden handle.
And speaking of wooden handles, this was produced in a whole other workshop.
The finished iron blades would be stacked in wheelbarrows and be taken there by a worker, where the carpenters would slot-in the blade into their pre-made wooden handles with a good few taps of the hammers.
Alexander would visit that shop too, finding the whole place to be covered with wood shavings and smelling of burnish, as artisans worked their 'planes' onto cut bits of wood held in place by metal vices.
While along the way, Marvin would once again try to oil Alexander up, this time gushing over the technique of tempering and annealing, and saying how it will change the whole smelting world.
And perhaps the man was right in that.
Those two processes were indeed very sophisticated techniques and using them, one could shape steel into shapes that otherwise would not be possible, as they would otherwise crack or even snap!
Alexander only smiled and nodded at all this.
Because although to Marvin this technique seemed earth shattering, Alexander knew he was hardly scratching the surface with it.
Tempering and annealing were not so simple, even being affected by as much as a deviation of a few degrees.
So the only reason they appeared so miraculous right now was due to the trash they were competing against.
Alexander's lack of access to even rudimentary equipment such as a thermometer meant he had a long way to go to producing really high quality steel.
But those were problems for future Alexander to solve.
For now, Alexander tours the rest of the tools workshops, seeing the production of hammers, nails, plows, etc., where much of the process was the same, with only the shaping being different.
Alexander had to say, he was surprised by not only the variety of all the things he produced, but all the various sizes they were produced in.
Because of course, they did not make just one type of hammer, nail, etc.
They made them in various sizes, to suit various people's needs.
And seeing the scale of just the tools manufacturing part of the whole iron workshop, Alexander turned to ask Marvin, "How many people are working here?"
The blacksmith verydiligently gave the breakdown,
"Well… we are 100 blacksmight from Galiosos. And locally there were another 100 blacksmiths. Each of us has about 10 apprentices. And each of those apprentice have roughly 5 workers and slaves working for them. So around about 10,000 people!"
Alexander himself was surprised by the huge numbers
He did not think he was employing so many people.
Because he had been away in campaigns for so long, he had left much of the day to day to Cambyses and Heliptos.
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