Chapter 1112: Chapter 1049: Leonardo and His Researchers (Part 1)
The slanting sunlight of February 1455 cut through the glass window, casting long strips of light in the lecture hall of the School of Engineering at Holy Machinery Court University.
Almost half a year has passed since the end of the sixth Great Duke meeting, and if there’s any difference to be noted.
It’s that each week for the past half year, about seven or eight scholar families, over a dozen merchant families, and hundreds of artisan apprentices have moved in.
All in all, nearly two hundred people migrate into the Holy Machinery Court each week.
Over the half year, Holy Machinery Court’s population has grown by nearly five thousand settled residents.
Nowadays, the total population of the Holy Machinery Court is approaching 160,000; even the small dock town New Port near New Life Bridge has a population of nearly ten thousand.
Such a large influx is not only due to the natural flow of people but also because the project of collating the "Gospel" attracted a large number of scholars and monks.
This has led to an explosive population growth in the northern research districts, turning them into academic zones.
Add to that Holy Machinery Court University’s new policy where new teachers can bring students upon successful entry, leaving the university bursting with students.
It is said that starting next year, even government recruitment of administrative monks will require exams.
But none of this really concerns Leonardo, who remains engrossed in researching the "Celestial Maiden Secret Scroll" and the classified technology of the "ether clock."
Only occasionally would someone fetch him from the Mechanical Palace, persuading him to come and lecture to the students.
It is during such moments that Leonardo remembers he is supposedly the dean of the "School of Engineering at Holy Machinery Court University"?
Standing behind the lectern, Leonardo taps his fingers on the desk.
It was a wooden table embedded with copper rails, various gears, levers, and panels of different materials scattered on top.
"Ladies and gentlemen." His voice wasn’t loud but instantly quieted the nearly hundred young faces below.
"Before you walked through this door, perhaps you thought mechanical engineers were no different from blacksmiths.
But if you think that way afterward, then you’re an absolute fool!"
He picked up a gear and rotated it in the sunlight, the shadow of its teeth casting a flowing arc on the wall: "Mechanical what? Order! It’s the order that transforms chaotic force into useful work."
These freshmen were the top students brought in from various secondary schools and tutors, naturally they wouldn’t make noise.
Upon hearing Leonardo’s explanation, the tips of their quill pens and charcoal pencils immediately rustled across the paper.
Having noted Leonardo’s key points, a curly-haired young man in the front row couldn’t resist raising his hand: "Dean, what is force then?"
Leonardo laughed and picked up a pulley block from the wooden table, with a chunk of bronze weight tied at one end of the rope: "Look."
He released his hand, the weight fell, lifting the oak block on the other end slowly.
"Force is what rolls stones or turns windmills.
Just like how a gale can overturn a roof but can also be tamed by a windmill, becoming the power to grind flour.
This is the science of motion—how to make force move in the direction you desire."
A low murmur of discussions spread from the back row. Leonardo picked up a round scale ruler inlaid with markings and drew a curve on the blackboard.
"We all have knowledge of what you said, but how should one research these subjects?"
His knuckle tapped the inflection point of the curve: "This is my final point; you must understand that our mechanical engineers at Holy Machinery Court are different from elsewhere.
Rationality and experience are the guidance for practicing goodness by our Holy Sect, and they are also the direction for designing machinery.
Rationality will tell you the principle of leverage, but experience will tell you whether your understanding of the principle is right or wrong..."
And when Leonardo walked out of the lecture hall, the February wind rolled with fine snow flakes whipped towards him.
He tightened the scarf around his neck, glanced back at the noisy classroom, still able to hear the burgeoning laughter.
These students were still too immature.
Rolling up the lecture notes into a tube, tucked under his arm, he walked along the pebble-paved path towards the rows of research institutions behind the university.
There is where his research monks were located, also the busiest place at Holy Machinery Court University.
The snow at the edge of the green field hadn’t fully melted, revealing the dark green soil underneath.
A dozen students dressed in coarse workwear were busy around a half-person-high mechanical device.
Wrenches and screwdrivers, as well as hammers striking the iron hoops, the "click" of brass gears meshing with the hum of the clockwork engine.
It was a prototype of a small crane, a hundred-pound iron block hanging at the end of the boom.
A short-haired girl was squatting next to the base, measuring the gear spacing with calipers, muttering to herself: "Why is it jamming?"
For the first time, Leonardo showed a hint of a smile as he approached and watched for a moment.
The girl with pouted lips stood up, about to call someone over to help, but caught sight of Leonardo.
She hurriedly bowed: "Leonardo mentor, I’m testing the new ratchet design according to the parameters in your thesis from last year..."
"It’s not my parameters, it’s the parameters of force." He waved his hand, pointing to the connection of the boom with his fingertips, "The oak won’t hold up, replace it with wrought iron.
Back when I wrote the material list, wrought iron was expensive, now the price has dropped, and it can fully bear the load.
Lists are static while people are dynamic; don’t blindly follow just because I wrote it."
"Oh, I see." The girl’s eyes lit up and she promptly called her friends, "Bring a wrought iron plate, hurry!"
"Alright, I have other business and must be on my way." Halfway down the path, Leonardo turned back, "And Kusvania, don’t be late for the group meeting again like last time on the day after tomorrow."
Kusvania stuck her tongue out: "In the dead of winter, it’s tough to wash my hair..."
Leonardo originally wanted to ask why she couldn’t be like her senior brothers and not wash her hair all winter?
But then thought this was his only female research monk, he didn’t understand, so he let it go.
Walking a few more steps forward, there was another group of students surrounding a suspended frame.
Round lead balls were dropped from the same height, striking wood, iron, and laminated paper boards arranged side by side.
With each hit, the students could be seen recording on paper, which coalesced into a polyline graph.
Currently, Holy Machinery Court University is deeper in researching the basic properties of materials, such as compression resistance and tensile strength.
As for the Dragon Language Alchemy University on the opposite side, it’s more famous for the spiritual properties of materials.
Above all, the Dragon Language Alchemy University is renowned for its daily rolling green smoke and constant explosions.
Wheelchair jokes abound, though nobody’s flesh appears.
But Leonardo still had to visit the Dragon Language Alchemy University from time to time to collect new materials from them.
It must be said that this group of alchemists indeed had some tricks, often able to produce materials even dwarfs couldn’t.
Though the price was very expensive, often only usable on prototypes.
The clock tower’s clock chimed ten times, the "tick" of the brass pendulum mingling with the "click" of mechanical operations.
Leonardo looked up, to see the large gear units inlaid on the side of the clock tower.
Through the glass casing, the internal transmission structure was visible, that was the time-reporting device he designed with his own hands ten years ago.
Now it isn’t just turned from a drawing into a reality, it’s even became one of Holy Machinery Court University’s landmarks.
Turning a corner, he arrived at a small courtyard enclosed by walls, where Leonardo pulled out a key, turning it with a very slight and light wrist motion.
The door creaked open, he tiptoed inside, crossing the hoof stone flooring in the yard, bent down to walk through the corridor.
He arrived at a laboratory door, took a deep breath, and dashed inside.
Five research monks gathered around a square table, facing the doorway, one of them with a full smile.
Upon seeing the door open, his smile didn’t diminish, his figure transforming from stillness to motion, as if he was coming from elsewhere.
Picking up the wrench on the windowsill, he returned to his desk with a full smile, burying his head without saying a word.
Noticing the movements of that research monk, the other monks quickly went for water or grabbed books, dispersing in the blink of an eye.
Only the tall and thin research monk sitting with his back to the door remained in place; he finally finished washing the cards in his hand: "Hey, where is everyone?"
Silence enveloped the room, until a hand veined with blue struck down on his shoulder.
He instinctively turned his head along the direction of the hand, and saw Leonardo’s iron-green but smiling face.
