When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#459 - Weights and Measures and Dwarven Craftsmen

Thus, the Salvation Army had three types of clockwork rifles.

The first type was the light and heavy clockwork rifles, also known as Holy Rifles or Haimoting Rifles, which were the main infantry rifles on the battlefield.

The second type was the shotgun and hand cannon, mainly used for security and suppressing riots, which belonged to the Cannity Rifle series.

The third type was the Ampere Rifle, which had not yet been put into production. Horn might use it for skirmishes or ambushing and sniping high-ranking enemy knights.

If classified according to this tactical function, then the large-caliber gun could barely be considered as this type.

After clarifying the matter of the Ampere Rifle, I chatted with several craftsmen for a while.

Going through the motions of asking about "how many people are in your family, are you eating well, is there any need for the association to help," Horn bid farewell to the gunsmiths and went to find Kelgen, the forging director of the blacksmiths.

In the Ordnance Research Institute, Haimoting was the clockwork director, while Kelgen was the second-in-command forging director.

This Kelgen was also a Dragon Worshiping Dwarf. He was Brock's cousin, but his skills were not as good as his. He had been running a shop in Mande County.

However, later, when the war started, many local Dragon Worshiping Dwarves were captured by the army and forced to build weapons, so Kelgen fled to Langsand County.

He also brought a dozen old and young dwarves with him. Currently, the mithril firing pins are being made by this group of dwarves.

Passing the second-floor office, Horn went around and finally found the old dwarf named Kelgen in an inconspicuous corner.

Standing under the shed roof, which had been smoked brown-black by the black and white fumes, seven or eight dwarves wearing only aprons and trousers shuttled through the smoke as molten iron flowed.

They held pliers, hammers, and rivets, coldly watching Horn and his party walk over, only giving a faint greeting.

After learning that Horn and others were looking for Kelgen, they just pointed indifferently towards the center of the shed: "He's over there."

Steam like a dreamy veil permeated from under the red-haired old dwarf's beard, enveloping half of his body.

This scalding steam could burn blisters on people's skin, but the dwarf's copper oak-colored skin was only reddened.

For dwarves who lived in volcanic areas all year round, what was this temperature? Kelgen held a hammer and struck the mithril strip again and again.

Seeing Horn arrive, he glanced up, didn't speak, and just silently hammered the iron plate.

"Why don't you bow when you see His Majesty?" Duvaron strode out from behind Horn and shouted righteously at Kelgen.

Horn pulled Duvaron behind him, not angry, and asked Kelgen with a smile: "Have you eaten?"

"…………"

"If you haven't eaten, I'd like to invite you to lunch at the Mechanical Palace."

Kelgen raised his head, and on his neck-wide head, a pair of red bean-like eyes looked at Horn from between thick eyebrows and a beard: "Just say you want me to leave, no need to be hypocritical."

Horn was stunned for two seconds before reacting: "Who told you I wanted you to leave?"

Kelgen raised his head full of resentment: "Learn the dwarves' technology and then drive the dwarves away. Isn't this the usual trick of you humans?"

"When did I want to drive you away?" Horn was really confused this time. "I haven't treated you badly, and I even allow you to openly practice your Dragon Worshiping faith."

"Humph." While saying this, the action of hammering iron in his hand didn't stop. Kelgen lowered his head and said, "Then let me ask you, then let me ask you, you said the parts don't match, you'll talk to me about this issue these days, right?"

"This doesn't mean I'm driving you away."

"The parts don't match? I'm telling you, impossible!" Waving the heavy hammer in his hand, the people around him subconsciously dodged in fear. Kelgen stubbornly raised his head.

"All the parts, even though they are handmade, are the same. We measured each one, one by one, and they are all the same. Dwarves don't lie!"

After listening to Kelgen's rather paranoid words, Horn shook his head with a wry smile: "I don't mean that, let me explain slowly."

The so-called mismatched parts were not the parts made by the dwarves that didn't match, but the parts from Gray Furnace Town and Autumn Dusk Island that didn't match.

Many war monks were complaining that the spare gears were either too big or too small, and sometimes the first pawl couldn't be inserted. After enlarging the opening with a knife, the second pawl was too wide.

The main reason for this problem was the system of weights and measures.

Gray Furnace Town used human weights and measures, while Autumn Dusk Island used dwarven weights and measures. Even though the drawings and data were similar, the parts made were different.

The Salvation Army was fine now, but it would be difficult to change later when it grew in size.

A typical example was the heaven-defying Imperial units abandoned by their own country.

Seeing that Kelgen still looked doubtful, Horn smiled and asked: "How do you usually determine the weights and measures?"

Looking at Horn's sincere face for a while, he took out a greasy ruler from his crotch: "Here, this was passed down from my grandfather. We have used this for generations."

Looking at the greasy ruler in front of him, Horn took a slight step back, not knowing what to say.

In later generations, the municipal system and metric units were often confused, and that was only two sets of weights and measures. In this world, one guild or even one workshop used one set of weights and measures.

Why not use normal weights and measures, but come up with a bunch of units like an elbow, a foot, a Brock, etc.?

The purpose was to establish standard measuring tools and standard systems, establish technical barriers in the guild, and prevent people from stealing skills and learning on their own.

Most of the craftsmen at this time relied on experience inheritance. You take the measuring tool and make things according to the recipe drawings, memorizing, reciting, and creating.

Their drawings were all designed and drawn in their own units. An elbow on it might be 50 centimeters for humans, but only 30 centimeters for dwarves.

Taking a drawing, the cube on it is 50 Brocks, and the other cuboid is 20 Halkins.

It looks like the cube is bigger than the cuboid, but the unit "Brock" might be 1 centimeter, while "Halkin" is 1 millimeter.

How can things made like this be assembled correctly?

Even if someone learned the skills and stole the drawings, they still couldn't make anything without standard ancestral measuring tools.

This core technology of standard molds and weights and measures was a top secret passed down from father to son for craftsmen. Many guild craftsmen even had to be helpers for a lifetime to get a glimpse of it.

To take a step back, even if someone made it, they wouldn't be recognized by the guild, and might even be sued by the guild.

Dare to disobey the standard system and make things randomly?

The consequences would be the same as Sesi, having his credentials revoked, being kicked out of the Apothecary Guild, and not being able to sell potions normally.

So the purpose of Horn's trip to find Kelgen was to talk about the issue of weights and measures.

Didn't the guild have a unified standard of weights and measures?

What he had to do was unify the standard of weights and measures throughout the Salvation Papal States!

Completely break the guild's monopoly on the right to speak on weights and measures, otherwise not only would the skills of the craftsmen not be able to develop, but even Horn's rational natural theology would not be able to develop.

After listening to Horn's statement, Kelgen was still skeptical.

Horn didn't say everything, only talked about the problem of inconsistent parts caused by different weights and measures, but he always felt that it was not simple behind it.

Human rats, don't study skills themselves, but have to take crooked ways to steal and deceive.

"You're not using this method to trick us dwarves out of our skills, are you?"

"Of course not." Horn shook his head calmly. By then, when the unified weights and measures and mathematical methods were promoted, their skills would be just the twilight of the old era.

Horn didn't even look at their little tricks.

"Then swear, swear by your mom."

"I swear, if I lie, may my mom and I suffer beheading."