Struggle in the Steam Age

After simply checking the general situation of several coal mines that have been developed from a height, Lawrence and the others began to go to the largest coal mine pit No. 1.

While on the road, Lawrence suddenly heard a continuous explosion from the direction of the mine, like fireworks during a festival.

"Don't worry, this is the mine's blasting operation." Lawrence was ready to run away as he watched his nervous handle on the doorknob of the carriage. Viscount Surrey immediately explained the source of the explosion.

"You know my mine belongs to the kind of very shallow mine that is buried. So when digging, you can blast off the surface soil and rock, and then you can directly dig the underground coal mine."

"Compared with the local coal mines in Briton that need to dig a variety of complex mines, this kind of surface minerals are cheaper to develop, and at the same time they are much safer, so this coal mine can be said to be a big one. Nature bestows precious gifts on this territory."

While they were talking, the carriage that the two people rode rounded a bend in the mountain and came to a position directly opposite the mine.

At this time, the sharp-eyed Lawrence saw a large cloud of gray smoke rising toward the sky through the glass on the car window. At the same time, they saw a large swath of wasteland covered with snow on the mountain. After being ploughed by iron plows countless times, a large shallow pit was formed.

Then the sound of a whistle came from that direction. Several people wearing orange clothing and steel plates hanging on vital parts of their bodies entered the bottom of the mine, and began to use a cane that was tall enough for a person and glowed with silver light in their hands. He began to tap on the ground, as if he was looking for something.

"What these people hold in their hands is a special kind of alchemy prop that can check and eliminate the explosives that have not exploded." After watching Lawrence stared at the people in orange clothes with interest. Viscount Surrey took the initiative to introduce these people.

"You know, for cost considerations, we used black powder and the simplest lead to detonate. This can indeed reduce the cost to a reasonable level, but there are often explosives that fail to detonate."

"In order to avoid the secondary explosion of those explosives, every coal mine will have some safety measures. For example, some coal mines will directly send security officers to search, or train special dogs."

Having said that, Viscount Surrey proudly pointed to the security guards below and said.

"But those methods are still dangerous, and my direct coal mine uses a special magic item with the highest degree of safety. Although the cost is higher, it can guarantee that there are basically no fish slipping through the net."

This is the difference between whether or not profits are to be maximized in production. If they are replaced by capitalists, they will naturally not invest too much money in this area if they pursue self-maximization of profits.

For them, buying expensive alchemical products is not as good as training a few dogs, or even costing lives altogether. At least compared to buying these alchemy items, human life is obviously cheaper.

But for Viscount Surrey, there are thousands of his own leaders in this mining area. Although mining ore itself is a matter of certain risks, it is normal to have casualties.

However, if Viscount Surrey, as the lord, does not prepare as safely as possible before this, it is easy to be traditionally regarded as not fulfilling his duties.

More importantly, this territory itself is obviously short of manpower. Everyone can be said to be very precious.

If the people in the territory are lost due to mining, then it will be an obvious loss not worth the gain for the hereditary nobleman who owns his own territory, the Viscount Surrey.

After arriving at the mine, Lawrence and the others began to carefully visit the entire coal mine under the guidance of several guides.

Although the coal mine looked very rough in many places because it was just built, Lawrence could clearly see that the mine was designed as a completely modern mine.

"The royal family invested a lot of money in this coal mine." Pointing to some land that had just been leveled out, a young guide introduced to Lawrence, "Now the entire mine is relying on manpower only because it has just begun construction. The reason that the overall scale of the mining area is not large for the time being."

"However, if everything can be carried out as planned, a large number of machines will be shipped here in one or two months."

"That's right, otherwise you might not have so many people here who can do this kind of work."

Looking at the mines in the distance that were vacant due to manpower, Lawrence also knew that the only way to improve efficiency in this understaffed area was to use machines, otherwise there would be a lot of vacancy.

"Is there anything that can be improved here?" After walking around with Lawrence, Viscount Surrey looked at him seriously and asked.

"You really value me too much." Lawrence smiled and shook his head. "I also simply visited a circle of coal mines. How could it be possible to come up with a way to improve this place in such a short time?"

"More importantly, this coal mine is not a simple coal mine. It is the most modern coal mine of this era designed by a professional. I think as a layman, I am definitely not as good as those professionals in this respect. "

Lawrence himself is very self-aware of how many catties he has in this regard. As a liberal arts student living in the information age, he is clear about some simple things, but when it comes to these professional issues, he will naturally not Understand too much.

The mining industry has always been a very professional industry, so Lawrence naturally does not understand this thing very much.

Although he has seen a lot of knowledge about mines on the Internet in his previous life, it is naturally very undesirable to copy it mechanically when the backgrounds and various situations of the two worlds are obviously different.

So when Viscount Surrey asked about this matter, Lawrence naturally confessed to the fact that he did not understand this aspect.

Because he knows that instead of being **** face, seeking truth from facts and admitting that he is really unclear in this regard is a correct approach, at least in this way to avoid some completely unnecessary losses.

As soon as his voice fell, the faces of several nearby coal mine guides suddenly showed smiles. For professionals like them, one of the most annoying things is that people who don’t understand above point and scribble and create obstacles.

And just after everyone finished their visit to the pit itself, UU read www. uukanshu. Com and they quickly moved to the living area next to the factory for a simple lunch and then some annex buildings of this mine.

"One of the great benefits of mining here is that we don't have to pump water constantly, which will naturally save a lot of money." An engineer apparently from Briton said to Lawrence and the others, pointing to a machine room.

"So our first batch of machines in the future are mainly steam winches from the bottom of the pit, which are used to replace those winches that are now powered by cows and horses. Of course, we will build a batch of things similar to steam excavators in the future. Replace manpower."

"This really sounds like a good idea, after all, the upper limit of the population carrying capacity in this area is very low." Lawrence nodded and said.

"Yes, at first the local people felt that we could recruit enough people to directly solve the current problems, but it took a year for the old stubborn people to realize that this place is very different from the local people."

A slightly annoyed expression appeared on the engineer's face. "If it weren't for that group of guys, these machines would probably have been installed last year. Their wrong thinking delayed us a whole year."