Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Chapter 292: Algorithm Scientists & Testing of Weellock pistol

October 29th, 1655

Dakshin Bhartiya Empire, Vijayanagar State, Capital City - Hampi.

On the outskirts of the capital city of Hampi, Vijay is currently travelling in a carriage manufactured by Raya Mobility along with his entourage of guards. He had just received a message about the completion of building the prototypes of the new guns for the Empire military and Navy.

It had been nearly two weeks since he assigned the task to produce the prototype, and he just received the news today.

Vijay is very excited because if these prototypes match his demand, the empire could immediately level up its offensive capabilities when facing a larger number of Mughal enemies. If he had known that the penicillin and morphine, which he had ordered to be researched, had also been successfully invented, he would be even happier.

*Bump*

The carriage suddenly slowed down and passed through a bump and a level crossing gate, and as soon as this happened, Vijay felt a bitter nostalgia because it reminded him of his past world where speed bumps were in every corner of the road and a level crossing gate at every railway track intersection.

In his last life, he hugely disliked these bumps, but in this life, he quite liked them Because of the drastic positive effect they had on the empire’s traffic conditions.

Nearly a month ago, when the military economy system had been implemented in the empire, the frequency of carriages and goods transported to and from some of the core industrial areas in the Empire suddenly tripled or quadrupled, causing huge congestion in the industrial areas. Although the roads are paved very wide, the amount of traffic flow witnessed was so high that these roads were not enough.

This was mainly because of the finite industrial zones in the empire producing the majority of the empire’s weaponry.

In order to deal with it, the job of traffic police also came about and was considered as a department in the branch of police, under the Ministry of Internal Security. Sadly, even with the traffic police being stationed to control the flow of traffic, not everyone listens to them.

A rare number of merchants, whether deliberately or unknowingly, would ignore the traffic police and move forward without stopping, causing the neighbouring vehicles to follow suit and suddenly causing congestion in the industrial area, halting the manufacturing capability of the empire for a little while.

In the future, this won’t be a problem because even if traffic jams occur, there are still many areas that could take over as the manufacturing centres of the country. However, in this era where manufacturing is highly dependent on hydraulic power, there are only a few zones where mechanized machining could work.

Even if a single unit is put out of commission due to a traffic jam or something similar, the percentage of the output of the empire’s weaponry collectively decreases.

Since then, the government has put out a reward for all the universities in the empire to solve this problem. This was quite big news when it happened because the reward given by the empire was quite large. It was the research funding support equivalent to a mid-level scientist in the Bharatiya Academy of Sciences.

Finally, after many applications from those who claimed to have solved this problem failed, a student studying in the Bharatiya Institute of Technology, Anuradha Nagar, which is in the state of Anuradha Puri (Sri Lanka), emerged as the solution.

This was quite surprising because the student was not even from the mainland, and the mechanization of productivity had still not fully begun in the only island state of the Empire.

Well, this goes to show that no matter the era or place, there are smart people everywhere waiting to blossom given the chance.

Chaitanya, the person who successfully obtained the grant, Had proposed a plan to construct a bump in the road to slow down the carriages and prevent them from moving forward unhindered. Additionally, Chaitanya suggested using a long wooden pole to block the road, utilizing the principles of weight distribution and centre of mass he had learned in college.

He suggested a design where a log is positioned perpendicular to two cast iron stands placed at both ends of the log.

One of the stands is firmly connected to the pole, enabling the pole to move only in one direction—up and down. To enable this vertical motion, weights like rocks or sandbags are placed in a container on the side where the pole is fastened to the stand at the end of the pole. With this, Chaitanya came up with something very similar to the boom gate or level crossing gates of the 21st century.

After this new feature was added to the various industrial zones in the empire, the traffic conditions greatly improved, and surprisingly, the efficiency of transportation also increased. Some scientists and professors in the universities felt curious about this phenomenon and collected a lot of data.

They came up with multiple ways to run the stream of traffic efficiently, devising various algorithms to keep the flow of traffic smooth and efficient. The theory progressed so far that the professors also took into account variables in the data, such as broken-down carriages or road conditions. In this case, they developed algorithms to quickly clear out traffic with limited resources.

Finally, multiple theses, research papers, and books were compiled by this group of original algorithm designers, collectively writing multiple books called "The Flow of Traffic," "Efficient Flow of Traffic," and "Resolving Variables in the Flow of Traffic." When released, the reputation of these books was quite high, as many scientists found that these theories could be applied in many other fields with some adjustments in the input data and variables.

Due to this good reputation, it eventually reached the ears of the Minister of Transportation, and after reading the book, he decisively formulated a basic code for the traffic police to follow in the empire. After this, traffic jams of 3 to 4 hours were no more.

The average waiting time in the busy areas of the industrial zones had become anywhere from four to 10 minutes, depending on the time of the day.

Surprisingly, far into the future, these algorithms will also be used in the transfer of data between computers, where the algorithms ensure that the data transfer occurs efficiently and without any collision, overload, flooding, saturation, or congestion.

Due to this, eventually, in the future, the group of scientists will be known as the first algorithm scientists in the world and also will be called the fathers of algorithms.

Vijay and his entourage had finally arrived at the Kavari River Bank industrial zone. Due to Vijay’s arrival, the traffic had to be cleared out immediately. Fortunately, due to the traffic flow theory being quite mature, when Vijay entered the industrial zone through one entrance, the rest of the entrances worked overtime as the flow of traffic was redirected towards those entries and exits.

The Kavari River Bank industrial zone had turned into a small city with all the public amenities along with it. As Vijay travelled along the road, he couldn’t help but marvel at the rough and smoggy atmosphere of the city. The whole city looked like a dark goth painting, a mix of medieval empire and a cyberpunk world.

Vijay didn’t understand why in the era of the early industrial revolution in the British Empire, London was called the most beautiful city in the world, even though it was always filled with smog, dirt, sewage, and animal dung all over the place.

Now, travelling inside a city that had possessed a small fraction of the mechanization of the British, he could understand why it was called so. It was not called beautiful because the city was actually beautiful; no, it was called so because of what the city’s existence meant.

For the British, the existence of London was its proof of existence, the main heart of the British Empire, and the place where the blood of the empire was pumped to various parts of the body. So, even though this heart looked a little black and dirty, who would call this heart ugly?

With the same thought, Vijay entered the Raya Armory as he met up with the various engineers and scientists working there, as well as Hey Ram, who had contributed a lot to this project. Although Hey Ram was not required to design or assemble the product, his help was crucial in determining the right alloy and materials, as he was the number one metallurgical expert in the empire.

This was due to the nature of metallurgy, which is the study of Extraction, Refining, Alloying, Shaping and processing of metals. With the currently existing methods, Vijay had already sent him a lot of data and a combination of alloy formulas through his Goldfinger. Due to a lot of metallurgical experiments being based on luck, Hey Ram’s experiments usually led to some sort of positive result.

"Long live your majesty, long live, long live," the management team of the Raya Armory greeted him. Vijay accepted the greeting with a nod as he quickly entered the testing grounds of the armoury.

Seeing the array of weapons set up for testing, he felt content. He then approached a small gun designed to be held in one hand.

The gun boasted a stunning, sleek shape, undoubtedly the most beautiful firearm Vijay had ever laid eyes on in the empire. He carefully picked it up, inspecting it closely. Crafted from beautifully polished wood for both the barrel and the handle, it initially resembled the full-body metal design of 21st-century smartphones.

What truly caught the eye were the occasional metal accents adorning the gun—on the trigger, trigger guard, firing mechanism, and extending along the top of the barrel to the muzzle. This was the Wheel Lock Pistol he had commissioned for production, Vijay had a smile on his face throughout the process of inspecting the gun. He had seen enough and felt eager to test it himself.

But before doing so, he inquired cautiously, "Hey Ram, can the gun withstand the force of the explosion?"

Hey Ram, hearing the question, confidently nodded as he asserted, "Yes, Your Majesty. The theoretical hardness requirement for this pistol was 28. However, with the new steel alloy, it reached a hardness of 32. The original tensile strength requirement was 70,000 psi, but it reached a psi of 78,000. The minimum stress requirement was 40,000 PSI, but with the new alloy, it has increased to 50,000 psi.

So, Your Majesty, you don’t have to worry. The quality of the metal used in this gun is already more than the theoretical requirement."

Vijay was very happy with the advancement in metallurgy made in the empire once again, but he had already gotten used to it. According to him, the type of metal in the empire is only held back by the technology for smelting the metal. So, a breakthrough in an alloy is not a big deal anymore unless the alloy possesses a strength that is drastically improved from before.

Vijay first took out an iron projectile and placed it on top of the muzzle. Then he took his small wooden hammer and gently hammered it into the barrel.

He then fetched a metal tool and positioned it on the wheel mechanism located on the right side of the gun. Carefully turning it 180 degrees clockwise a few times, he primed the spring inside the mechanism, ready to unleash its stored elastic potential energy at any moment.

Simultaneously, he opened the chamber that held the empty cartridge, allowing for the loading of gunpowder into multiple cartridges in a magazine.

Pulling back the hammer, which was meant to strike the gunpowder, he readied it for loading. Quickly, a measured amount of gunpowder was poured into the multiple chambers of the cartridge. Returning the hammer mechanism to its original position, where sparks could be generated by striking the metal components on the gun, he armed and loaded the weapon.

*Inhale*

Vijay took a deep breath and assumed the optimal position, pointing his gun at the target in front of him. Stabilizing his aim, he gently pulled the trigger.

*Buzzzzz*

In an instant, the wheel mechanism on the side of the gun swiftly spun, Unleashing all the stored potential energy in it, creating multiple sparks of fire.

Simultaneously, with lightning speed, the hammer struck the metal base, generating sparks that ignited the gunpowder in the cartridge. The ignited gunpowder spread out within the cartridge, some of its dust flying outside and creating a small fireball the size of a cricket ball atop the pistol.

Then, suddenly...

*Bang!*

The explosion occurred, and Vijay felt the recoil as his arm jerked back. The spent cartridge was ejected from the gun, flying out toward his back at high speed. At the same time, the metal projectile at the muzzle was expelled with lightning speed, streaking toward the target.

Smoke rose from both the muzzle and the firing mechanism of the gun. The projectile flew at incredible speeds, hitting the 8th mark on the target.

*tsk*

Vijay, disappointed with his aim, reloaded the Gun with another bullet and fired it again in the same manner after adjusting his aim slightly.

*Bang!*

This time, his aim was true. The bullet pierced the 0 mark on the target.