Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

5th April 1680

Cambridge, the British Empire

The campus of Cambridge, one of Europe's finest universities, bustled with life. Fellows strolled through the courts of Trinity and St. John's, their gowns brushing against the old cobblestones. The river glimmered as it reflected the tall college towers, while small wooden boats drifted silently along its surface. Inside the lecture halls, the air carried the faint scent of ink and Latin, and the steady ringing of bells echoed across the colleges, summoning scholars to their studies.

However, in this solemn piece of architectural and cultural history of the Anglo-Saxons, unknown to anyone, a meeting that would one day affect the whole of Europe was taking place.

Sat in the main chairs of a round table was the king of the British, Charles Stuart, the king of the French, Louis IIV, and the king of the Dutch, William, and among them were one of the brightest minds the three kingdoms and dominions could produce, Isaac Newton, Robert Hook, Edward Fairchild, Gillis de Roberval, Dirk Vos, France Blasius, Christiaan Huygens, and more.

" So can this be replicated? " Stuart asked without a hint of emotion in his voice, as if it were the sound of an iceberg frozen for a thousand years.

The scientists, who were constantly mumbling as if they were chanting demonic verses ever since they had witnessed the intelligence report, suddenly woke up.

" We can't be too sure, your Highness, as we don't even know how this thing works, or rather, does this thing even work? " Edward Fairchild expressed his confusion.

" That's right, your Highness, there is no way that something like this can exist, " Robert Hook seconded.

Stuart's brows furrowed. He was not dissatisfied with the answer, but he was worried. The scientists in the room were undoubtedly the smartest minds from the three kingdoms, and now even these people could not comprehend how this thing of the Bharatiyas worked. Can it really be replicated? He felt a deep sense of helplessness, as if the strength in his legs had suddenly disappeared.

But this helplessness gave rise to anger. His eyes sharpened.

"It exists, and it is currently in operation in the Bharatiya Empire. We gathered you all to find a way to replicate it, not to tell us that it is impossible and a work of fiction!" Spittle flew everywhere as the last of his words were almost a roar.

Kings Louis and William both frowned, but thinking about their current situation and reading about the train of the Bharatiya Empire from their own intelligence channels, their moods could not help but become sombre. Considering the situation, the rude act of Stuart was completely acceptable; besides, if it was not for the fact that only the scientists of the British Empire spoke out, they would want to roar and hit the head of those old men until they bled as well.

Robert and Edward, who spoke out, were both deflated, but their eyes showed a look of astonishment and disbelief.

They felt insulted, and they felt like they were looked down upon, as if they were some lowlife with mixed blood, and this feeling came not from their monarch, who was scolding them, but from the existence of such a machine alone. For them to not even realise that this is a real thing, and it is a real thing that is put into operation, isn't it an insult worse than death in itself? It's as if the Bharatiyas are saying, 'I built a machine you cannot even comprehend, and you are so dumb that you think that you are looking at a creation of fantasy and fiction.'

The shame they felt was no lower than their daughters eloping with a slave.

And this emotion was not only with Robert and Edward, it was felt by all the scientists who were present, because originally they too had similar ideas when they looked at the details about the locomotive. They felt like such a thing could not exist, but apparently, they were all wrong.

Anger comes to anger, and shame comes to shame, but still, no one has any idea how such a thing can be manufactured.

In such a situation, several minutes passed, and the scientists began to feel that the monarchs were getting impatient. Just when Louis was about to blow up in anger, Gilles de Roberval, a French scientist, spoke up.

"Talking about the obvious points, this machine is definitely powered by steam."

With the first person breaking the silence, more voices joined in, each trying to make sense of the impossible.

"Being able to pull hundreds of tonnes, its power should not be less than 50 horsepower."

"They must be using an engine that, although smaller in size, produces far greater power."

"Or maybe it has the same output as an atmospheric engine, but with less torque. However, since it is able to pull the carriages smoothly along the rails, its revolutions per minute must be significantly higher."

"Such power packed into such a compact body... the metal used to build this machine must have incredible tensile strength and durability, far beyond what we can produce."

The train of the Bharatiya Empire was slowly dissected one piece at a time from what little intelligence they got.

Looking at this situation, even though they were momentarily worried, the three kings finally relaxed. These people were still the top minds of their kingdoms, after all. Their intelligence and ingenuity were in no way less than those of the people of the Bharatiya Empire.

The discussion continued with scientists exchanging ideas. It went from speculating on how the train was built to suggesting improvements to their own technology.

" Maybe if we drench the coal with some oil, it will burn quicker and produce more heat, thereby producing more steam, ergo more power. "

" That's a good idea, but more power also means more heat, and more heat also means the need for better materials. We don't have steel that can bear such temperatures. "

" What if we use refractory bricks on the inside? This could work, no? "

" Ah, that's an excellent idea, Monsieur, but unfortunately, this will only make the machine more bulky. "

" That's not a big problem for the atmospheric engine, since it is installed in one place and it doesn't move, but in order to replicate this train of the Bharatiya Empire, we should think about how to miniaturise the whole thing and not increase its size. "

No matter how they speculated, this is the point where everyone got stumped. No one knew how to make the whole thing, which was 20 to 30 tonnes, fit into a package of only five to six tonnes and maintain its power while increasing its rpm. Like, what the Fu** were they supposed to do anyway?

Suddenly, when everyone was feeling helpless, Frans Blasius, a scientist from the Netherlands, Utrecht, spoke out in a low voice.

" Currently, all the steam from the steam engine is being exhausted into the atmosphere. Instead, why can't we collect the steam into a chamber and let it rapidly cool, turn it into a liquid, and send it back to the boiler? Will it not make the whole machine more efficient? "

His suggestion made everyone's eyes light up.

" That's an excellent idea, Monsieur Frans. "

" Yes, why didn't we think of such a simple thing? Making it a closed loop will not only reduce the water required to run the steam engine, but the amount of energy required to reheat the water will also be reduced, and maybe the power will also increase. "

The scientists all became restless; it was as if they wanted to go into the laboratory immediately to build the machine with all the improvements suggested right now and try to see how powerful it would become.

Unfortunately, the words of the Dutch scientist, Dirk Vos, were enough to bring down the restlessness and excitement that had been building among the scientists in the room. The moment he spoke, the chatter subsided, and a heavy silence fell over the hall.

"Even if we follow these ideas," he said, his tone calm but firm, "it is still impossible to miniaturise the machine to such an extent as the Bharatiya's. I feel as though the Bharatiya are using a completely different technology altogether, something far beyond simply relying on atmospheric pressure to move the piston."

His words hung in the air like a cold breeze, dampening the enthusiasm of even the most optimistic minds, as if reminding them just how far behind they truly were.

Everyone became downtrodden once again, although there were a lot of new ideas that had been generated due to the meeting, the breakthrough still did not happen.

" Well, at least we were able to improve the machine enough to increase its efficiency by a lot. " The three kings thought. For the next meetings, they did not attend but left the scientists to their own devices, and this turned out to be an excellent decision, because now that there was no longer pressure on them, the scientists released their unconstrained thinking and came up with several ideas.

Surprisingly enough, among those ideas was an idea to use a different power delivery system instead of the sun and planet gear system. Gillis de Roberval, a scientist from France, even suggested that this was the main improvement of the steam engine that led to the Bharatiyas using the steam engine in their factories.

This statement, bold as it was, immediately alerted the three kings, and they readily forked out the money to build a prototype. By the end of April, a prototype was built. It had refractory bricks in its combustion chamber, the coal was drenched in oil, a condenser was added, and finally, the biggest improvement of all, the power delivery system was changed from a sun and planet gear system to a direct crankshaft delivery system.

" Thirty horsepower and a torque of 7000 kanda. "

When the data was obtained, all the scientists jumped in joy. Although they were not able to break the technology of the steam engine train, they were able to break the technology for using steam engines in their factories.

Western Europe had officially entered the age of steam.