I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

Chapter 31: Technological Breakthroughs Brought by Demand

Mitia sold large quantities of the low-pressure steam engines they had previously used, exchanging them for various raw materials to construct more advanced triple-expansion steam engines to upgrade the factories.

Just as she had anticipated, the nobles of various nations soon discovered the benefits brought by machines.

Industries that they had once disdained for being too unprofitable now became highly lucrative.

Even the most basic woodcutting and processing, when produced and sold in bulk, became a sizable source of profit—let alone other industries tied to people’s livelihoods.

Steam machinery opened up a boundless blue ocean for them.

Under the strong pressure of these nobles, the governments of the kingdoms were forced to open trade ports with the Astal Family, allowing Astal’s caravans to conduct legal business.

But simply importing steam machinery did not mean they could sit back and earn money.

Astal’s caravans brought not only steam engines, but also a dazzling variety of industrial products.

Items such as soap, cloth, porcelain, pottery, spirits, and perfume—these everyday goods completely covered the spectrum of livelihood needs, from low to high.

Cloth and pottery were particularly cheap and of fine quality.

With these products flooding the market, local merchants had no choice but to lower the prices of their own goods, cut workers’ wages, and in some cases even delay payments, just to survive in the market.

Only the nobility could afford spirits and perfume.

Perfume, especially when packaged in delicate little porcelain bottles, sparked a frenzy among noble ladies and young misses.

As soon as the caravans’ ships docked, large numbers of servants waited at the harbor, eager to snatch them up.

The caravans’ method of trade was also unique.

Aside from gold and silver coins, they also accepted locally produced ordinary liquor, raw materials, and even skilled artisan slaves as payment.

In fact, the spirits produced in Astal were made by redistilling the low-grade liquors they had acquired cheaply from various nations, purifying them, and then selling them back at high prices…

Perfume production also shared industrial similarities with liquor distillation.

Both used centrifugal distillation, and the costs were frighteningly low.

These two products always ensured that Astal’s caravans returned fully loaded, bringing back vast amounts of gold, silver, and raw materials, which rapidly increased the Astal government’s gold reserves.

Naturally, such profitable caravans also aroused envy.

Whether at sea or on land, their fleets and caravans were often attacked.

But in most cases, these so-called “pirates” and “bandits” left behind piles of corpses under the muzzles of percussion-cap rifles, achieving nothing.

Still, the increasingly frequent attacks made Mitia continually press for faster construction progress in the harbor shipyards.

Time meant money and profit.

Domestically, there were also many small companies with prepaid orders whose goods could not be shipped overseas.

Every day of delay brought significant losses.

But shipbuilding was not something that could be rushed.

In traditional shipbuilding, three thousand tons was already the limit of manpower.

Yet Mitia’s construction standard was ten thousand tons! With tonnage increased several times over, the old shipwrights had no prior experience to rely on.

Take, for example, the massive iron anchors, the all-steel keel structures, and the large steam turbines.

Transporting and installing these giants was already difficult, let alone processing them.

Developing larger tools for shipbuilding became the most urgent priority.

Where there was pressure, there was motivation.

With constant experimentation and Mitia’s occasional guidance, the craftsmen—gradually turning into scientists—exploded with innovative energy.

Using rubber imported from the Kingdom of Sext, which Mitia’s commander had mentioned, they sealed the gaps of steam cylinders and created a hydraulic press.

The terrifying force of the hydraulic press could squeeze a one-ton steel block as if it were dough.

But due to technical limitations, its power was still insufficient.

Thus, the steam hammer was born.

The steam hammer had a cylinder and piston mounted at the top.

Using steam, it lifted the heavy hammer upward, then dropped it with steam-assisted force, forging the massive main shafts required for large steam turbines.

Powered by a standalone quadruple-expansion steam engine, the steam hammer’s force was immense.

One strike shook the entire factory, as if the earth itself trembled.

A new wooden workshop had to be constructed to house it, to reduce the vibrations transmitted to the foundation.

As for transporting and installing the heavy steel components, a solution was soon found.

The earlier hydraulic press inspired the craftsmen-scientists to think of hydraulics.

They built a large water house nearby to draw in seawater for storage, then laid pipes to channel the water downward, turning it into high-pressure streams filling the pipelines.

On the other end, a person simply needed to twist a valve to drive a cylinder piston and lift heavy objects.

For the first time, people of this world witnessed what seemed like black magic—hydraulic technology.

The appearance of the hydraulic crane immediately accelerated shipbuilding progress.

But the steel hull plates were too smooth, making it difficult to firmly join them together.

To solve this, they borrowed from the method of reinforcing wooden furniture with iron nails, and large steel rivets were invented.

At the same time, to strengthen the hull and bottom of the ship so that this ten-thousand-ton steel monster could truly float on the sea, vertical frameworks and double-layered hull bottoms were designed.

To make Mitia’s goal a reality, countless factories and technical personnel worked overtime, pooling their wisdom and energy.

One by one, they overcame technical obstacles, turning the impossible into reality.

Most external problems were resolved.

What remained was manufacturing finished parts, outfitting, and riveted reinforcement.

The enormous demand for all kinds of components forced factories not only to expand but also to optimize production speed.

Steam engines provided endless power.

Belts connected the entire factory’s operations.

Both shipyards and society demanded vast amounts of new machinery, overwhelming the factories with work.

But as production expanded, precision decreased.

Screws and nuts clashed poorly, gears meshed ineffectively, and pistons leaked constantly.

They urgently needed better methods to mass-produce precision components.

The old lathes were simply modified versions of manual ones, powered by steam belts instead of human hands.

These lathes had indeed moved beyond manual labor.

Any person could use them to produce simple parts, but precision components still required experienced masters to handle personally.

Faced with the overwhelming orders from both shipyards and society, the factories of Sendegas and Uruk City joined forces, assembling a team of experienced master craftsmen to completely overhaul the old lathes.

Mitia herself joined in with great interest.

She couldn’t help but be fascinated.

In a sense, the industrial foundation of Astal was already formidable.

But it was like a child with uneven talents—exceptional in some areas, yet blank in others.

With the materials breakthroughs Astal had once made in their frenzy to produce firearms and cannons, nearly anything was possible so long as one dared to imagine it.

What they had lacked before was pressure to drive progress.

Now, the effects of Mitia’s audacious ten-thousand-ton warship plan were proving outstanding.

The hydraulic press, the steam hammer, and the hydraulic crane—these were masterpieces born of sufficient pressure and liberated thought.

All Mitia needed to do now was occasionally provide them with a spark of inspiration.