American: Native Empire

Chapter 143: The Birth of the Internal Combustion Engine (3).

The development of the internal combustion engine was a major event. 

At that time, almost every college and lab was conducting research for a new engine, so all the attention was focused on it.

The imperial citizens, who constantly read about this situation in the newspapers, also wondered who would be the winner of this competition. 

But hardly anyone expected that the winner would come from the remote Andes region, the outskirts of the empire.

Moreover, the fact that the inventor of the internal combustion engine was a mere construction worker made Golden Lake even more famous.

“Call the engine and the researchers to the capital right now.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Of course, Kim Ki-woo also felt a great interest. 

He was the one who started the competition for the internal combustion engine in the first place. 

The internal combustion engine was one of the most important things for his future plans.

Thanks to that, Golden Lake and his fellow researchers headed to the capital shortly after they received their patent, and demonstrated their internal combustion engine in front of Kim Ki-woo.

“Welcome. You must be Golden Lake, the one who made this?”

“Y-yes, Your Majesty, I’m honored to meet you, the living spirit and the great emperor…”

“That’s enough for greetings.”

He felt that if he let him go on, he would endlessly praise him, so Kim Ki-woo raised his hand.

“Can I check your work?”

“How can we ask for your permission? Please do as you wish.”

On behalf of Golden Lake, who was still frozen stiff, Red Eagle answered Kim Ki-woo’s question. 

Kim Ki-woo nodded and examined one of the internal combustion engines in detail.

He compared it with the design of the engine they had made.

‘Is this really the first internal combustion engine ever made?’

As time passed, Kim Ki-woo’s pupils grew bigger. 

He was that surprised.

He had some knowledge of the structure of the internal combustion engine. 

But he expected that it would take a lot of trial and error to develop it to that level.

Of course, he thought that the speed could be very fast since the competition was so fierce. 

But this exceeded his imagination.

‘Isn’t this almost identical to what I know?’

The four-stroke internal combustion engine was very precise. 

It was as if he had made it himself, knowing the structure of the internal combustion engine from the future.

He thought that it was good enough to mass-produce it as it was. 

So he exclaimed in pure admiration for the first time in a long time.

“This is amazing. How did you come up with such a precise structure?”

“As expected, Your Majesty can see the true value of this engine at a glance.”

Red Eagle replied as if he had expected Kim Ki-woo’s astonishment. 

He thought that Kim Ki-woo would recognize the value of their internal combustion engine in an instant, and he was right.

He continued his words.

“This is entirely thanks to Golden Lake’s extraordinary brain.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. When Golden Lake first came to our lab, he already had almost completed the structure of this new engine. This is the design he gave me at first.”

“Hmm…”

Kim Ki-woo received a pile of papers from Red Eagle. 

He had looked through them so many times that they were torn and stained with fingerprints.

Kim Ki-woo slowly flipped through them and checked the design. 

And soon, he fully understood Red Eagle’s words.

“That’s true.”

Of course, there was a difference between production and conception, so there were many minor differences between the design and reality. But they were almost identical in terms of major aspects.

‘He’s a genius indeed.’

Kim Ki-woo looked at Golden Lake’s face, which was still stiff, and his eyes sparkled. 

He had seen many geniuses in his life, but creating an almost perfect internal combustion engine without even seeing the inside of a steam engine was like creating something out of nothing.

“Haha. With such talented scholars like you, the future of the empire is very bright.”

“Y-you are too kind…”

Kim Ki-woo laughed and patted Golden Lake’s shoulder hard. 

And then he watched their demonstration of the internal combustion engine.

As expected, the demonstration of the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine was successful.

“It’s perfect. As I promised you, this new engine you made will soon be installed and used in many machines. Then you will get great honor and wealth. Congratulations in advance.”

“We are grateful for your grace, Your Majesty!”

“Today I will host a banquet for you, so enjoy yourselves. You may leave now.”

“Yes.”

Kim Ki-woo sent them away and returned to his office with his key officials, including the Minister of Industry and Finance.

“What do you think?”

“I agree with Your Majesty. We will be able to consume all the oil that has been accumulating.”

“Haha. That’s right. And today’s engine was much more refined than I expected. So we can speed up our future plans.”

“Is that so?”

The Minister of Industry’s eyes gleamed with excitement at Kim Ki-woo’s words. 

Kim Ki-woo had already given some hints about his future plans to some of the ministers, including the Minister of Industry.

That way, he could execute his plans quickly when the time came.

‘Now I can use oil more efficiently.’

Until now, the supply of oil was too much compared to the demand. 

It was not desirable to just pile up oil.

It was because oil was gushing out enormously in the Texas region.

“As I said, the situation will change quickly now that a useful new engine has been made. So be alert. Especially the Minister of Industry, Finance, and Agriculture.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

“Please don’t worry. We are doing our best according to your will.”

“Our Ministry of Finance is the same.”

Kim Ki-woo nodded at their words.

‘Soon I’ll be able to see cars on the road.’

The steam-powered car was a complete failure. 

It was described as the most painful finger of the great engineer, Sharp Teeth.

Of course, he soon changed his research direction to railways and steam locomotives, but the engineers regretted his failure.

That’s why many labs continued to research cars, and now that the internal combustion engine was born, cars would soon be developed.

The mass production process using conveyor belts had been established in the empire for a long time, so the spread of cars could be faster than expected.

Of course, there would be a lot of trial and error until the cars became safe enough, but that was a problem that time would solve.

The rise of the car industry and the fall of the carriage were inevitable.

‘And this is not unrelated to the development of agricultural machinery.’

Many agricultural machines could be considered cars in a broad sense.

‘Surely agricultural machinery will bring a new revolution to agriculture.’

The agricultural efficiency in the empire had been steadily improving until now. 

Especially after importing cows intensively from overseas, the agricultural efficiency had increased dramatically compared to before.

No matter how much they cultivated improved seeds from the future and used guano to increase food production, there was a clear limit to farming with only human labor. 

But using livestock for farming drastically reduced the dependence on human labor.

There were also steam-powered agricultural machines that were constantly being created. 

Of course, there were obvious limitations because they were external combustion engines, but various agricultural machines such as combine harvesters, cultivators, tractors, etc. appeared.

If they could equip these agricultural machines with internal combustion engines, then agriculture, which had been developing gradually until now, would finally face a great revolution.

‘And if various heavy equipment are created…’

That would be the moment when they truly surpassed their previous limits.

Kim Ki-woo imagined the things that would happen in the future.

‘First of all, there will be a lot of food.’

The development of agricultural machines using internal combustion engines would make it possible to produce food that was incomparable to now.

There were still many idle lands in the Wakan Tanka Continent. 

The territory of the empire was so wide that there were fertile lands that were wasted. It was impossible to handle them without agricultural machines.

But if agricultural machines became widespread, they would be able to farm most of the land with much fewer farmers.

‘Many farmers will lose their jobs.’

Of course, Kim Ki-woo was confident that he could overcome this.

 His empire had grown under the leadership of the state, so the government’s finances were like a spring that never dried up.

And there were still many places to develop in the Wakan Tanka Continent. 

That meant that there would be many jobs created and maintained by spending huge amounts of money on development.

Also, as society progressed, new occupations would constantly increase. 

A typical example was the car industry.

He didn’t know about the distant future, but he wasn’t at the stage where he had to worry about unemployment yet.

‘There will be too much food left.’

Perhaps after the agricultural machines became normalized, they would produce enough food to feed the whole world.

It was still a mini ice age. 

There were many regions suffering from food shortages. 

But by then, at least there would be no cases of starvation.

‘As long as they don’t rebel.’

In this mini ice age, food was a more powerful weapon than anything else. 

This would not change until the mini ice age passed. 

And Kim Ki-woo was ready to use food as a weapon.

He didn’t intend to just sell imperial weapons and gunpowder, and other goods, and watch the chaos of other countries forever.

‘By then guano will be a problem…’

There were already many scholars who worried about guano depletion. 

The Wakan Tanka Empire had used guano indiscriminately to grow until now.

And when mass farming using agricultural machines began, guano consumption would increase even more sharply.

‘Well, I just have to hold on until I complete nitrogen fixation.’

This process, also known as Haber-Bosch process, was so famous that Kim Ki-woo knew it well. 

This process allowed synthesizing ammonia from air.

That meant that they didn’t need to use guano to supply nitrogen to the soil anymore.

It would also contribute greatly to power generation.

***

After the demonstration at the palace.

The internal combustion engine made a splendid debut in the empire. 

Kim Ki-woo praised this newly made internal combustion engine unusually at an imperial meeting, and this news was intensively reported through newspapers.

“They say this internal combustion engine is so amazing?”

“It’s incomparable to the existing steam engine.”

“Is it that good?”

As expectations for the internal combustion engine grew more and more, the government began to produce it intensively. 

The industrial capacity that had been developing continuously until now became the basis for mass-producing internal combustion engines in no time.

And they distributed these mass-produced internal combustion engines to many colleges and labs in the empire.

The researchers who received the internal combustion engine and checked its performance said in unison.

“The era of steam engines will soon end.”

“Damn! We should have made this new engine…”

Many researchers who had been competing for a new engine research felt a deep frustration.

They were divided into two categories.

“It’s not over yet. We can surely make a different kind of engine.”

The category that didn’t give up hope and started researching the internal combustion engine again, and

“How can we use this?”

The category that designed machines equipped with internal combustion engines.

Either way, the important thing was that thanks to their efforts, the size of the related industries grew bigger as time passed.

It was the moment when the era of the internal combustion engine began.