Herald of Steel

The next two months for Zanzan were a hectic one.

In just those two months, the city had experienced arguably more changes than it had in the past two hundred years, possibly in more than two thousand since its inception as a small fishing hamlet.

And Alexander was there to document all these changes firsthand.

The first change was the initiation of the first-ever cement kiln, located to the south of the city, near the port.

Alexander was there to personally light the first kindling that lit the furnace for the kiln and as he laid eyes upon the tall, conical structure, Alexander remembered feeling a huge surge of pride.

'This is mine! I designed it! And it works!' Alexander shouted with joy in his heart.

This feeling of invention and discovery was quite the novelty for him, for though he had introduced many new things to this world, things which all the people rightfully named him as the inventor of, deep down Alexander knew that none of those were his.

He did not feel guilty for taking credit, but he also did not feel a sense of achievement, for there was no sense of discovery for him in those.

These things had been made and tested before and so if he were to copy them properly, naturally they would perform the same way.

But not this kiln.

It was nothing like the rotary kiln usually used in the previous world and other than the core principle of mixing the ingredients and heating them, there was nothing common between the two kilns.

And the reason why the rotary kiln was not used was because not Alexander did not want to use it, but because it could not be used.

That particular kiln was basically a slanted horizontal tube through which the cement slurry flowed while being heated from the outside.

This tube had to be rotated to slow down the descent of the slurry and give it enough time to properly cook the mixture and because there was no way Alexander would manufacture or spin this huge metal tube without the use of a steam engine, he opted for the new kind of kiln.

'Once I design the steam engine, I will replace it with the rotary kiln.' Alexander had said to himself during the design of the kiln.

He said so because the rotary kiln was much better with more capacity and ease of use than his custom-made kiln.
And the only reason he had not invented the steam engine is because, one- he did not know its design for not being a mechanical engineer, and two- because the material, i.e- the steel needed to make the thing was not there.

To be more specific, the forging techniques needed to shape a block of steel into the complex shapes need to make a steam engine was not there.

Otherwise, even if Alexander did not know the specifics of how a steam engine worked or know all the detailed inner workings, he was confident he could have jerry-rigged something.

After all, even a child knew the basics of a steam engine- that is, using the compressed, pressurized steam to drive a piston up and down, which can then be connected to a flywheel, thus providing mechanical energy.

But Alexander knew he was getting ahead of himself.

​ For to even think that a basically bronze-era civilization could leap into the industrial revolution within a few years or two was a pipe dream among pipe dreams.

'Welp, I guess a few decades will be needed,' Alexander conservatively estimated.

Because obtaining the ability to shape and install air-tight steel pieces that smoothly and seamlessly slid past each other was no easy ask.

For these blacksmiths would could not even make a flat piece of steel just a meter long, this would be a monumental leap that would require at least an entire generation's effort to study and experiment to obtain and master.


'Put thy foolish ambitions to rest.' Thus Alexander could only helplessly say this to himself, as he then shelved these thoughts into deep storage for the time being, deciding to revisit them at a much, much later date.

Instead, he decided to focus on the cement kiln right in front of him.

It looked very similar to what he had in his mind, except for a few small structural additives.

First was that there was a type of cowl at the top, very similar to what a chimney had, and it served the same purpose as that- to keep out the rain, hail, and snow.

The only difference here was the size, which, due to being made of wood, made it seem almost like a small shed.

Its roof was dome-shaped to deflect any unwanted debris falling directly on it, while its walls were solid with only many little inch-like slits carved out of them to allow the smoke and soot to leave.

Thus gases would easily escape but the entry for moisture such as rain, hail, and snow, or such debris as fallen leaves and small rocks and stones would be severely restricted.

This shed was very well built and had only one small opening on one of the sides to allow the workers to dump the raw slurry in through the open chimney.

And that bought Alexander to the next innovation- the thing that would allow the workers to get to the top to input the cement slurry.

Jazum had ordered the construction of supporting scaffolding and inclined stairs that surrounded the kiln in a semi-circular shape and went all the up to the top, providing access to the workers to input the raw materials into the chimney.

The scale of this wooden structure was huge and Alexander was informed that it took a worker only two minutes to complete a full cycle- i.e- from starting off the base of the stairs with his wooden plate full of the wet mixture to climbing the twelve meters high stairs to depositing the load into the furnace to then returning back the stairs where he would be issued a new batch.

To make this process as efficient as possible, management had ordered the workers at the base to not only mix the sand, limestone, and clay in the appropriate amount and then fill the large wooden plates that the worker would ferry up, but they would also place it on the heads of the workers so that the latter would not have to waste time and energy bending over.

This made it so that the transport workers would be able to catch a brief respite as they awaited their refill and did not have to strain their back muscles, thus making them less fatigued.

Alexander was very impressed to see how pragmatic these workers were as they all wore a kind of makeshift flat turban on their heads, made from any large, loose piece of cloth that these people could get their hands on, ranging from towels to even rags, which was used to cushion the effect to carrying such a heavy load on their head for so long.

And the last innovation added to the kiln, or more specifically dug around the kiln were two large ditches which were dug around the back and front of the kiln and connected to ramps that led upward.

These two ditches were just below the exit portals of the kiln through which the product fell and to collect them, on the ditches were two awaiting horse carts.

Once filled, these horse carts would be driven out of the ditch using the ramp while two new empty ones would take their place.

These semi-completed products would then be taken to a nearby warehouse, where they would be ground to a fine powder using massive hammers, and then be mixed with 4% crushed gypsum thus making portland cement.

"Umm, you did well Jazum and Krishok," Alexander had praised the two men, getting a synchronized, "Thank you, my lord," from the men.

Alexander then asked, "Who designed the nice way for workers to take the slurry up? It's very efficient."

"That was me, my lord," Jazum claimed, a humble but pleased smile pasted on his face.

Alexander nodded with a slight smile and then turned to Krishok, "And how did you like the design of the double-acting bellows?"

"My lord, it's amazing!" The bald man replied, who then used his arm to point to the four huge, almost two-meter-long bellows connected to the two sides, each being operated by a small team of extremely buff slaves,

"I have designed many bellows in my life, but none has ever blown so much air so easily," The tanner plus carpenter exclaimed.

This was natural was this blower was basically two blowers stuck together and was designed in such a way that it would blow air during both phases, once during the pulling phase when the lever was pulled down, and again during the pulling phase, when the lever was pushed up.

And this action was in full display in front of Alexander who focused his attention on the men working the blowers just a bit ahead.

They were on a slightly elevated two-storied flat scaffolding and were working in teams of two on each blowers.

The one on the lower floor would yank down on the bellow using ropes, which would cause a large amount of air to be blasted into the furnace, after which the one at the top would yank another rope up to pull the blowers up, thus completing the cycle.

And thus the fire would be fed and the cement produced.