Rise of Rurik

Rurik intends to create an important device for the Rus people in this extreme northern land that they have never seen, let alone imagined.

What does the word crane mean and what positive changes it can bring about, no one has any idea. All that is known is that Rurik was going to build equipment capable of carrying heavy lumber onto a cargo sled. Rurik even boasted that once the construction is completed, only two to four people are needed to complete the task that previously required twenty people to complete.

If other people say this, it must be nonsense.

The words came out of Rurik's mouth, and everyone believed it. Now, a group of strong Roth hunters, they suddenly turned into lumberjacks and carpenters.

Want a winter hunt? Maybe it can't be done.

More than a hundred hunters of Russ who were good at logging and woodworking were retained by Rurik with very real rewards.

The so-called rushing to the north to catch ferrets is for money, and valuable ferrets are rare, and hunting in extreme cold conditions is also very risky. Since they are all seeking money, in order to complete his great plan, Lord Rurik is willing to give food and silver coins to all those who serve him. Why not do this business of selling labor?

Otto felt that his son's decision was absurd, and the strongest hunters stayed, which made this year's hunting situation complicated.

"You stay here and there and don't go. I'll take my clan to catch the bear." Otto didn't say any more, he took his "mighty" hunting team and ran to the east along the coastline. As for when to come back, at least one month later.

The main members of the hunting team are all there. They intend to go to the Oulu River Basin to snatch leather resources in the forest with the local Kewen tribe. By the way, they also go on expeditions to find new opportunities.

For example, the news of the Tavastians that came from the mouths of the Kovins. If it is really found that these tribes have not surrendered to the Rus, Otto is not like Rurik and needs to think about it. He will not talk about it. Reasonable direct attack. Disobedience is a potential enemy, and hunting the enemy is a very profitable hunt.

Fort Elrond was crowded for four days, and both the permanent and temporary population of the settlement had dropped significantly.

But the settlement was still very lively. Rurik abruptly mobilized 300 men and all Kewen women, a total of nearly 500 people, to create a spectacle under his personal dispatch - a large wooden rat cage crane.

In principle alone, a squirrel cage crane is not a complicated machine. For Rurik, who had received an education in mechanical manufacturing and made great achievements in this field, he naturally thought it was simple.

Actually,

It clearly belongs to the ruins of Rome, and it is also created by the knowledge of classical mechanics inherited from ancient Greece.

The Western Empire fell, and the inheritance of knowledge of the old age was interrupted. Of course, the Frankish Carolingian Renaissance, rescued some Western Roman heritage. For example, the knowledge of construction technology, painting and construction machinery, without the knowledge from Eastern Rome and the Great Food, has not flowed in again. The Franks, from the nobles to the farmers, do not know what a rat cage crane is.

Fortunately, they are at least very aware of some very basic knowledge such as the principle of leverage, and only then are they able to build stone castles.

In the current era, only those lords in the north of the Franks, because they are on the front line of expansion and resistance to foreign counterattacks, have the motivation to spend huge sums of money to build stone castles. As for the general lord, that is, sharpened wooden stakes and pestles on the ground, and build so-called castles with pure wood.

What even the Franks did not know, the Viking tribes around the Baltic Sea even more did not know.

Today in Rurik, at the end of the Gulf of Bothnia, in the settlement of Elronborg on the Kemi River, the rat cage crane is built and put into use.

Because it's a great piece of equipment that has to be made, it's currently designed to serve winter shipments, and those reindeer sleds are the equivalent of this era's "trucks." Of course, it is very dependent on the earth and ocean being frozen, and in warm periods, it can also be used as an ore loader for a reindeer car (with a very limited load).

When it was successful, it was followed by a similar design to build harbour equipment for the terminals at Roseburg and Fort Elrond.

Rurik had to plan ahead and consider that in a new era where there are more and more ships imitating Caravel-type ships, the loading and unloading of port materials can no longer rely solely on porters. What's more, the population of the Ross tribe is really limited, and the human resources are relatively scattered, but they are very dependent on the ocean transportation of materials.

Construction of harbour cranes with long jibs in ports is necessary, and even wooden gantry cranes will be required in the future.

When the plan was finalized, he even boasted to his father. If he neglected this matter, his reputation would be damaged.

Rurik called his workers into action.

It is too far-fetched to expect illiterate people to do complex work, the quality of the population under Ross's control is like this, and Rurik does not expect their craftsmanship, only that the "carpenters" among them are as good at handling as they claim to be wood.

Rurik is someone who understands the principles of "sweatshop" management in the 21st century.

It is totally unrealistic to expect people to actually work 18 hours a day, like the English workers of the first industrial revolution. Because those bankrupt peasants have no right to beg, let alone the right to enter the mountains and forests as hunters. Apart from working for the early factory owners, the only other way is to immigrate to the wild west of the New World on the other side.

The Rus people are still primitive as a whole, and Rurik cannot force them too much, even if his status is extremely noble.

Another factor limiting their working hours is the absolute lack of lighting at night.

The working hours for the construction of the cranes are mainly in the limited daytime, and when the night is completely enveloped, it becomes unrealistic to continue the work in an all-round way.

In this way, Rurik grouped his subordinates in order to maximize the efficiency that could be implemented in the limited daylight hours.

People took action, some sawing huge fir, some cutting pine planks, and some twisting hemp rope.

The most critical part of the squirrel-cage crane is a batch of bearings made of metal. Only to manufacture these, Rurik decided to personally supervise the work of the Kewen blacksmith.

As for the women, their biggest job is logistics. They have to take charge of cooking and laundry, and when they are really free, they also help with the important work of twisting hemp ropes.

More than 300 strong men, they turned Elrond into a huge wood processing factory.

Especially for the six huge fir trees, Rurik could not have imagined that they would be the first wood to be processed for the smooth construction and use of the crane.

Why? Simply because spruce wood is of better quality than red pine and can withstand greater pulling forces. Besides, they've essentially been drying in the shade for more than a month in the cold, dry outdoors, and they've become more attentive.

With no oak available, Rurik had to use spruce to build all the weighing parts of the equipment.

In this way, the ten stika woods in the middle part of the spruce trunk are slowly sawed off by the double saw. A 50-ton boat like a mere Caravel needs a 30-meter-long mast? Just ten meters is enough! That's what Rurik thought, but ten stikas, a tree trunk with a length of nine meters eight, were placed in the snow, and it was still very long.

For the stability and settlement resistance of the equipment, two cranes will be constructed to lay the foundation outside the gate of the west gate of Elrond Fort at a distance of about ten meters.

The strong man digs the frozen soil, and with the power of manpower and reindeer, he lays down two thick fir stakes. The fir trees were erected on the wooden piles, one end of which can be said to look up at the sky, and the other end was buried in the soil. This thick wooden pole is the permanent fixed boom of the crane.

At its rear end, two "squirrel cages" with four stikas are installed in diameter. The operator will walk in the cage and drive the bearing to rotate to continuously tighten the hemp rope to achieve the lifting of the crane. In order to ensure that the operator does not need to consume too much physical strength, of course, a pulley block should be used at the boom.

It is this equipment with an uncomplicated structure. Rurik initially estimated that a ratchet system would be built. He especially thought of the "two-way ratchet wrench" of later generations. "Cage" to make a ratchet retracting and releasing system, it is still too complicated to think.

There is still a ratchet facility, even if Rurik feels that the friction of a large number of hemp ropes wrapped around the bearing, as well as the self-weight of the squirrel cage, can resist the pulling cart of the object to be carried, and can ensure that the operator can pass the walking direction. , and easily complete the work of taking up the line and putting the Range Rover.

Just in case, in order to avoid the accidental fall of the heavy object, the ratchet is still needed, but this ratchet is special.

Rurik decided that the giant rat cage itself would be made into a wooden gear. The ratchet tenon in the rotation direction of the empty squirrel cage is designed on both sides of the squirrel cage, so that the correct tenon is only required for the take-up and release of the wire, and the accidental drop of the goods is completely prevented immediately.

Looking at the rat cages, Rurik used as many as fifty carpenters to make four rat cages.

The squirrel cage is not a circle, but a hexagonal shape with sixteen sets of pine spokes. The so-called spokes are thicker pine wood, so when the rat cage with a diameter of nearly four meters is completed, its overall appearance is simple.

It could be built more finely, but Rurik didn't want to waste so much time.

Making a squirrel cage is a big project, and making a bearing made of ferrochromium is even more complicated.

The largest furnace in Elrond became the key to making the bearings.

Making ball bearings? The Rus don't have this high-tech capability, and even the roller bearings can't be built right now.

The largest stove burned some iron pillars, which were beaten continuously by workers immediately after they were fished out. According to Rurik’s request, they were beaten into pillars as much as possible, but only the ends were required to be flattened (so that they could be embedded in the wood). ), and the overall shape is still guaranteed to be cylindrical.

Without ball bearings, Rurik had in mind metal hard-contact bearings, a technology familiar to the inhabitants of Elronborg. The bearings of the waterwheels on the river are such hard contacts. As long as the grease is poured diligently, this kind of metal hard contact is acceptable based on the stable operation experience of the waterwheels.

The men did their best work, and they were paid a hard quota of two pounds of oats apiece, plus fish and salt.

Each of them will also receive a "wage" of five silver coins, among which workers engaged in squirrel cage manufacturing and iron smelting will receive a "wage" of ten silver coins. This "salary" is fair, and it will not be less than the Russ just because he is a Kewen. In terms of the supply of food, everyone is equally fair.

Rurik had ready-made silver coins on hand, and if it was not enough, he would exchange it for ready-made oats. Seventy thousand pounds of oats were no joke.

As a result, they mainly worked hard during the short day, and then worked for a while after nightfall, and Elronborg's daily oat consumption gradually approached the terrible figure of a thousand pounds a day.

The high-intensity construction work continued for 20 days, and the two squirrel-cage cranes built on the hard ground came into view.

On the twenty-fifth day, the metal bearings between the two cages were connected. To erect the rat cage smoothly, Rurik simply used the wooden wall of Elrond Castle. The cable used the wooden wall as a point of force, and inside the wooden wall was the combined force of human and animal forces to pull the laying rat cage. up and ended up hanging on the stand it deserved.

February 1st of the Julian calendar, this period is also the coldest period in Elrond, corresponding to the coldness is the enthusiasm of the residents of Elrond.

Just yesterday, Rurik gave a big order: "We fought for a whole month, and we have consumed 30,000 pounds of grain. All our efforts are for these two cranes. Now is the most critical moment. , let's get all the pulley blocks and cables installed!"

More than a hundred people completed the installation of the final parts at night, under the lighting of a large number of campfires.

When the sun shines on the earth on a new day, just beside the west gate of Elrond Castle, two huge devices with a strong punk texture stand in the world of ice and snow, as if from another era.

The squirrel cage crane appears to have succeeded, requiring only one successful load and unloading, and has proven itself reliable.

On this day, men, women and children living in Fort Elrond came out of their nests, and even a group of people stood on the wooden walls and towers, hoping to occupy a good viewing point to see this wonder.

They clearly built it with their own hands and witnessed it from the wood to the "monster" standing tall.

Mechasta was emotional, and he knew that the Iron Squirrel Ministry had really benefited from Rurik. For example, almost all Kewen men eat wheat like crazy, and their chests with clear ribs become round, and some people actually have belly fat. Even the women of the tribe, because they deal with logistical problems wholeheartedly, get at least one pound of wheat every day, and the mother naturally gives the food to the children, and the children of the tribe also get fat. The above are all things that the tribesmen never dared to think about.

All the efforts are for the equipment in front of him, Mechasta shouted excitedly, and his clansmen also talked and laughed endlessly with smiles.

Rurik didn't dare to relax at all, he solemnly ignored the laughter of the onlookers.

"Yavlo!"

"exist!"

"According to our plan, start your show!"

"Follow your orders!" The excited Yevluo, with three mercenary brothers, four in total, really got into the rat cage through the gap of the spokes like a rat.

Other mercenaries use the hook of the pulley to hang the rope that binds the pine trunk for testing.

Seeing that Rurik was ready to act, he whispered silently, and even Mechasta, who wanted to talk to Rurik, shut up this time.

Everyone held their breath and heard Rurik's order. Hundreds of pairs of eyes focused on the rat cage that began to slowly turn.

In an instant, the creaking sound came, and the incongruous sound came from the hard contact bearing. It is not only hard-to-hard contact of direct metal, but also the bearing is not a real cylinder. It is an improvised lifting device, but its effectiveness cannot be denied.

A mercenary has been in charge of controlling the ratchet tenon on the outside of the cage to ensure that the heavy objects will not fall down when pulled up.

The wheels of the pulley block are fir wood, with metal bearings embedded in the middle. The pulley block is slowly rising with the wood, it has been lifted, and finally it is lifted to the lifting limit of the crane, which is three stika, about three meters.

Although this pine tree is not as extreme as a huge cedar tree, everyone with discernment knows that this thing cannot be carried by three or four strong men. As a result, the two people in the rat cage were clearly walking around at will. They did walk for a while. Not only was the extremely heavy pine tree lifted up, but everyone raised their heads and squinted at the high wood. Many people subconsciously associate that if they stand at the bottom and get smashed by it, their heads will not bloom.

"Master, haha! It looks like we have a great success!" Yevro in the rat cage shouted excitedly.

Rurik was also very happy, and he also squinted, especially looking at the pulley block at the top of the boom and the condition of the wear-resistant iron sheet wrapped around the wood.

"Yavlo! Now there is one last test. Listen to my order, prepare to change the tenon! Yevlo, turn around and prepare to go backwards!"

The tenon system operates in the reverse direction, the squirrel cage and the tenon cooperate to form a substantial ratchet, and the two pawls and tenons operate alternately, so that the crane has a controllable function of releasing the cable, so that even with the unloading of the hoisting materials, it becomes Controllable and smooth.

The Kewen people and the Rus people, what they saw was just two people who completed the transportation of heavy objects. Can cranes create bigger miracles?

sure!

Finally, after a whole month of struggle, I will make the final understanding today! February 2 of the Julian calendar!