Chapter 830: Chapter 0827: The Power of Steam (First Update)
Inuit’s remarks reminded Liszt that both cross and longitudinal sails were types of sails, and a big ship could have two or three masts; so why not hang both cross and longitudinal sails at the same time?
With a fair wind, raise the cross sails and it would surge forward; against the wind, raise the longitudinal sails for serpentine maneuvering.
This would essentially allow the sailboat to move freely at sea at all times, greatly shortening the voyage time. Moreover, Liszt seemed to recall that during Earth’s Age of Exploration, many sailboats had triangular longitudinal sails at the bow and stern, with cross sails in the middle.
It was upon hearing Inuit’s suggestion that Liszt immediately ordered the shipbuilders in the dockyard to diligently research mixed sailboats.
However, regarding Inuit’s suggestion to use wood to fix the sails, since it was dismissed by several veteran shipbuilders as impractical at the time, Liszt did not pay much attention to it.
“Now it seems, I need to have a good chat with this creative magician who has received approval from the Smoke Mission and is involved with the Power of Destiny. This person must be a talented individual.”
...
The Power of Destiny represented by the Smoke Mission was highly mysterious and enigmatic, and so far Liszt had not figured out its origin.
But it could not be denied that those chosen by the Smoke Mission always had some extraordinary and unique aspects. To put it plainly, these people were somewhat the “children of destiny”, surrounded by a “protagonist’s halo”… Of course, their halo, no matter how strong, could not compare to Liszt’s “cheat.”
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Emily had an exceptional talent for Dou Qi, Lucy and Ruth were outstanding in magical aptitude, Paris involved the Light Magic Swordsman… Ach was an exceedingly rare Sea Serpent who had become an Archmage as a Sea Serpent.
Inuit’s talents were still unclear.
Liszt needed to pay serious attention.
Soon, Inuit·Truth was brought over by the Retainer Knights; he was not a conventional magician—the Magic Cloak seemed to have been modified by him into a bodysuit: “Your Highness, did you call for me?”
“Inuit, do you like sailing very much?” Liszt gestured for him to take a seat, then casually asked.
“Yes, Your Highness, I grew up by the sea and have always longed for the profound blue ocean.”
Inuit’s details, already laid out at Liszt’s hand, had come directly from the Magic Guild—each magician provided comprehensive identification information upon joining, eventually receiving an identity card similar to an ID card, one for every citizen of Black Horse Island.
Inuit was a Sapphire Person, but a magician from the outer islands who had come to Black Horse Island following his teacher.
His teacher was merely a common magician, currently studying Natural Magic under Grand Magician Lars·Truth, which included Druid farming and transformation. He himself had little interest in delving into deeply theoretical magical content, instead, he was passionate about the business of sailing.
Liszt tapped the table, asking, “Regarding the improvement of sailboats, do you have any other inspiration?”
Excitedly, Inuit replied, “Your Highness, I’ve been studying sailboats for a long time and have a whole bunch of designs I want to implement. I’ve discussed them with the shipbuilders in the dockyard before, but they’re too rigid, sticking to their outdated shipbuilding techniques and completely failing to understand my designs!”
“Then tell me about them now.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
Once he started, Inuit couldn’t stop, spilling out all his designs pertaining to sails, masts, rigging, and even the structure of the ship. Many of these ideas were indeed imaginative, to the point that even Liszt found some hard to grasp.
Some designs, in Liszt’s view, were simply absurd.
For instance, Inuit thought the work of taking in the sails was very cumbersome and heavy, so he simply proposed designing foldable masts. This way, during a storm, the masts could fold down to either side and also serve as support poles for the ship’s body, maintaining the ship’s stability on the high seas, and making sure it never sank.
This idea was quite interesting in strict terms, but the mast itself is one of the most important components of a sailboat, and like the dragon bone, high-quality ironwood is needed to make the mast tough and prevent it from breaking.
A foldable mast could be the first to break if a storm hit. Plus, sails are heavy, and raising the masts again after folding would definitely be more exhausting than raising sails. Not to mention the challenge of ensuring the mast’s stability when being raised or folded.
Overall, it was unreliable.
Most of Inuit’s designs seemed unreliable.
However, from his creative designs, Liszt discovered something intriguing—Inuit had surprisingly proposed the idea of using a huge rotating wheel to propel ships forward.
That was essentially the design of a “steamship”!
On Earth, the era of sailing ships was replaced by steamships, gradually turning sailing into a competitive sport.
“Have you thought about how much power it would take to rotate such a huge wheel and that it couldn’t possibly be turned by human strength alone?” Liszt asked with interest.
Inuit seemed to have anticipated this discussion, “Your Highness, although human power is insufficient to turn such a large wheel, magic power can. We can use a magic array to drive the wheel.”
“Using a magic array to drive it?” That seemed like a good solution, but Liszt was not satisfied. “Magic arrays are indeed versatile and driving a wheel isn’t impossible. However, manufacturing and operating costs of magic arrays are huge, making them unsuitable for ships.”
He had considered ideas of combining magic and technology long ago. Yet, with the current constriction of the magic web, it was hard for magic arrays to draw magic power from the magic web; they would need to consume the magic power inherent to the materials of the magic array itself. Maintaining such a system was enormously expensive.
And this world had no gemstones or similar items for storing magic power.
Even a small magic platform required regular replacement of its magic runes to function. Communication was costly, let alone driving a huge wheel.
“This…” Inuit turned embarrassed immediately. As a magician, he was well aware of the value of magic materials. His ideas were indeed ingenious, and he took pride in them. But by his design, a single magic array could cost as much as several three-masted sailing ships.
Including maintenance materials for the magic array, such a ship would likely operate at a loss for every trade mission.
Only a fool would design such a thing.
Seeing Inuit’s embarrassed and flushed face, Liszt did not show disappointment. Instead, he valued Inuit not only because of his involvement in the Smoke Mission but also because he had ideas—wanting to develop technology, it’s not the impracticality of ideas that one should fear, but the lack of ideas.
“Inuit, magic power is difficult to apply in ordinary use, but that doesn’t mean there is no alternative power to magic. There is a power I call steam that you could explore further… Besides, some of your creative ideas on sailing ships—I can’t judge their value, but I can involve you in the design of new sailing ships. Would you like that?”
Inuit responded immediately, “Thank you, Your Highness, for your acknowledgment. I would love to participate in designing new sailing ships!”
Personally designing a ship that could sail the great seas was Inuit’s dream, but he still had his doubts, “Your Highness, what do you mean by the power of steam?”
“Go back and boil a kettle of water, and you will understand the power of steam,” Liszt said mysteriously.
In fact, he didn’t know much about the steam engine, which triggered the Industrial Revolution, other than that it utilized coal, oil, and other raw materials to burn and drive pistons to power machinery.
“Boil water? I will go back and do it right away!”
Inuit made his quick leave.
Watching his retreating figure, Liszt shook his head, doubting that steam engines could spark an Industrial Revolution in this world. The explanation was simple—up till now, there were no recorded uses of coal, petroleum, or other fossil fuels. Without these fuels, burning wood wouldn’t provide much power.
The scarcity of metals would also severely restrict the production of steam engines.
Of course, steam engines weren’t completely devoid of potential, for a simple reason—Liszt had a Fire Dragon!
Once the Little Fire Dragon matured, releasing Fire Dragon Overmagic at will, there would be a continuous supply of the Magic Little Fire Dragon to serve as fuel.
Then, he could raid a few more iron mines on the Legendary Continent.
Steamships might indeed become reality!