The Mechanical Era

The sun shined on the great city of Hoverdam once more. The people went about the day, wither talking in a bar, shopping around in the market, or just hanging around peacefully. Samuel, wearing a brown tunic with blue breeches and brown calfskin boots was walking back to his workshop on the paved stone road holding a leather bag on his shoulder.

Inside contained a bunch of beige papers with blueprints of mechanical devices Kant had registered. A few customers, being mainly tailors and weavers, asked them to build some for their business. Nevertheless, the Petersons took all their offers, wanting to make a bit of money.

As he made a turn, he spotted three horses, black, white, and brown, all on a leech in front of his workshop. Samuel guessed that some more clients have arrived at the workshop, wanting something to be built.

Not wanting to make them wait longer, he sped and walked to his workshop. As he opened the door, his eyes spotted three men sitting around the table, all wearing a coat of white, black, or brown. Though he didn't know two of them, he recognized the bald man in the black coat.

"Good morning Mr. Oswald! What brings you here this early in the morning?" he asked.

"Good morning to you as well Mr. Peterson. We came here to ask some questions."

"Oh? Have you asked Victor about it?"

"Mr. Victor is nowhere to be found. But since the door was unlocked, we decided it would be best to stay until you arrived."

"Oh! I see. Well, can you gentlemen give me one more minute then?" Samuel asked.

"Of course." Samuel went upstairs to the bed where Victor was found snoozing heavily in his hay bed. Samuel, being a little angry, took a bottle of water and sprinkled it on his face. It took a few seconds, but eventually, his heavy eyelids lifted.

"Victor! We have clients over at the workshop, and yet you are still sleeping? Get your ass ready and come down!" Samuel whispered to Victor.

"Alright. Alright. I'm sorry." he replied. With Victor awoken, Samuel went back down to the merchants to continue their discussion.

"Thank you for your patience. Now, before we continue, can I have your names?" he asked the two sitting to Oswald's sides.

"My name is Alister Cobb." the man in the brown coat said. The other man, who wore a white coat stood up with a smile. He then approached Samuel and extended his left hand.

"My name is Jac Pratt. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Samuel Peterson," he said. While Alister whispered something into Oswald's ear in the background, Samuel grabbed Jac's hand and shook firmly.

"Now, what do you need to know gentlemen?" Samuel asked while Jac went back to take his seat. Oswald decided to speak up on the matter of why they came.

"Remember when you told me about this new invention the prince was testing?" he said.

"The steam engine?"

"Yes! That! Alister here wants to know a little more about it. He thinks it could be of great use." he said Samuel turned to Alister, who had his legs crossed while he sat on the chair.

"Well, Mr. Alister. A steam engine is a mechanical device that can turn a source of energy into motion. You just need to feed it some fuel for it to function, like charcoal." he replied. Alister stood straighter in his chair and coughed twice before asking a question.

"Energy into motion huh... Say, can if it truly does what you claim, can you perhaps make a device that allows other mechanical devices to function? It could prove useful in many areas." he said.

"Actually yes. His highness even has constructed a few blueprints regarding that idea." Samuel replied.

"Oh really?"

"Yes. I have them in my bag. One minute..." Samuel opened up his bag and handed out two rolls of beige papers to Alister and Jac. It contained a picture of some complicated mechanical device, drawn using black ink.

"The mechanical devices present in those papers are called a power loom and a spinning mule. A few weavers requested a few of them to be made," he said.

"Say where did you get these blueprints from?" Jac asked.

"The patent registrar. It's where anyone can go to submit their own patent or take a look at other people's inventions. Those specific patents belong to his highness Sire Kant Maybale." The two merchants looked at the blueprints before giving them back to Samuel.

"Say, Mr. Peterson. If we commission a mechanical device to do a specific task or function, would you be able to do that for us?" Alister asked.

"Certainly Mr. Cobbs. Though it would take some time, that could be done. Anything else?"

"Alright then! Now one final question. How powerful can a steam engine get?"

"That depends sir. When we first tested out the steam engine, we achieved a horsepower of about 6, if I remember correctly. However yesterday, thanks to improvements made by the sire, it reached over 15 yesterday!" he said.

"What is Horsepower?" Oswald asks. Neither he nor the other merchants have context or meaning regarding the word.

"It's what they use to measure the power output. For context, a horse has up to 15." Samuel replied.

"I see. Well, that is all we needed to know. Thank you for your time, Mr. Peterson."

"It's my pleasure, Mr. Cobbs. When will I see you, gentlemen, again?" Samuel asked. It was then that Victor came down from above.

"Hopefully pretty soon," Oswald replied. The merchants soon left the workshop and got on their horses. Before they went anywhere else, they headed off to the patent registrar, as Alister wanted to ask a few questions regarding how it worked.

Meanwhile, as the merchants travel down the road to the patent registrar, Kant was in his room, tying a charter with his typewriter for a new institution. As the school is said to be near completion, much earlier than expected, Kant needed a place for science.