Struggle in the Steam Age

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

And on the road, Lawrence suddenly heard a series of explosions coming from the direction of the mine, as if it was fireworks during a festival.

"Don't worry, this is the blasting operation in the mine." Looking at Lawrence, who was nervously putting his hand on the doorknob of the carriage, ready to run away at any time. Viscount Surrey immediately explained the source of the explosion.

"You know that my mine belongs to the kind of mine that is buried very shallow. So when mining, you can use blasting to remove the surface soil and rocks, and then you can directly dig the coal mine underneath."

"Compared to the coal mines in Britton that need to dig various complex mines, the development cost of this kind of surface minerals is lower, and at the same time, the safety is much higher, so this coal mine can be said to be large. Nature bestows a precious gift on this territory."

While talking, the carriage the two of them were riding in went around a curve on the mountain and came to the position facing the mine pit.

At this time, the sharp-eyed Lawrence immediately saw a large cloud of gray smoke rising towards the sky through the glass of the car window. At the same time, the large snow-covered wasteland they saw on the mountain before seemed completely It was plowed countless times by an iron plow, forming a large sunken shallow pit.

Then a whistle sounded from that direction, and several people wearing orange-red clothes and steel plates hanging on their vital parts entered the bottom of the mine pit, and began to use a walking stick that was as tall as a person and glowing with silver light. He began to tap on the ground, as if he was looking for something.

"The thing these people are holding is a special alchemy prop, which can check and eliminate those explosives that have not exploded." After watching Lawrence staring at the people in orange clothes with great interest. Viscount Surrey took the initiative to introduce these people.

"You know, due to cost considerations, we used black powder and the simplest fuse to detonate. This can indeed reduce the cost to an appropriate level, but there are often some 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 personnel to search, or train special dogs."

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

"However, those methods are still dangerous to a certain extent, and the coal mine directly under mine uses a special magic item with the highest level of safety. Although the cost is higher, it can guarantee that there are basically no fish that slip through the net."

This is the difference in production regarding whether to maximize profits. If it is 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 alchemy products is not as good as training a few dogs, or even simply consuming human life. At least compared to buying these alchemy props, human life is obviously cheaper.

But for the Viscount Surrey, there are thousands of his own people in this mining area. Although mining ore itself is a risky thing, it is normal to have casualties.

However, if the Viscount Surrey, as the lord, does not make as safe preparations as possible before then, it is easy to be considered traditionally as having failed to fulfill his duties.

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

If the mining of minerals led to the loss of people in the territory, then for the Viscount Surrey, a hereditary aristocrat who owns his own territory, it would be an obvious loss outweighed the gain.

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 had just been built, Lawrence could clearly see that the mine was designed according to a fully modern mine.

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

"However, if everything can proceed with the construction of the entire mine as planned, a large number of machines will be shipped here in a month or two."

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

Looking at the vacant mines in the distance due to manpower, Lawrence also knew that the only way to improve efficiency in this manpower-deficient 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 think highly of me." Lawrence said with a smile and shook his head. "I just simply visited a circle of coal mines. How could I 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 designed by a professional. I think that as an outsider, I am definitely not as good as those professionals in this regard. "

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

The mining industry has always been a very professional industry, so Lawrence naturally doesn't understand this thing very well.

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

So when the Viscount Surrey asked about this matter, Lawrence naturally confessed the fact that he didn't know about it.

Because he knows that instead of trying to save face, it is the correct way to admit that he is really not clear about this aspect. At least in this way, some completely unnecessary losses can be avoided.

As soon as his words fell, the guides of the surrounding coal mines suddenly showed smiles on their faces. For professionals like them, one of the most annoying things is that people above who don't understand are pointing fingers and creating obstacles.

And just after everyone finished their visit to the mine itself, they quickly moved to the living area next to the factory, and after a simple lunch, they continued with some ancillary buildings of the mine.

"One of the great benefits of mining here is that we don't have to keep pumping water, which will naturally save a lot of money." An engineer who obviously came from Britons pointed to a machine room and said to Lawrence and the others.

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

"It does sound like a good idea, after all, the upper limit of the population carrying capacity of this area is very low." Lawrence nodded and said.

"That's right, at first the local people felt that we could recruit enough people to directly solve the current problems, but it took a year for those old diehards to realize that there is a big difference between here and the local area."

A slightly annoyed look appeared on the engineer's face. "These machines would have been installed last year if it weren't for those guys, and their wrong thinking has delayed us for a whole year."