ISoTL Chapter Fifty-Seven (Patreon)

“You should really appoint someone else for this,” Hess told Alexander as they entered the brick building, steel doors sealing shut behind them. “I cannot hold both roles forever.”

“There is no one I trust as much as you,” Alexander said honestly. “If there is a second in the Mines you can recommend, I will accept that. But for research, there can be no other. Not–”

Alexander halted, his words falling short as Hess began to cough. His body contorted, belly rolling and head bowing as air flew from his lips. Slowly the coughing stopped. Hess breathed, his hand holding him against the wall. He stood upright, suit jacked falling neatly into place. “The Duke would do a good job,” Hess declared. Not a thing looked wrong with him, save the hint of blood upon his lip. “He is intelligent, kind when he can be, and harsh when he must be. He has an excessive favoritism for electrics but that can be dealt with in time.”

“He is foreign.”

“He is your brother by law.”

Which means I cannot kill him, Alexander thought. Not so easily, at least. Yet those ties could be useful in a system such as this. “Train him,” Alexander decided. “Observe him. In a year, you may make him your deputy in this department, but not before then. Now, tell me of your progress.”

“Yes, your Imperial Highness,” Hess bowed. “If you would allow, we shall start with the direct military projects. Last year our researcher, Dr. Schönbein, discovered a new explosive, one that does not emit smoke when burned. We currently have a team of researchers working on turning it into something more immediately useful, with the ultimate goal of replacing black powder.”

“How far has the research come?”

“We are currently working on methods of production that do not risk the production facilities.”

“Early days.”

“Yes, your Imperial Highness. Over here we have Mr. Colt’s team, which is working on the self-reloading gun.”

Alexander coldly observed the door. “Has there been any progress?” He felt Hess wince beside him.

“No.”

“Tell Colt he has one more year to make real progress, or I will put Browning in charge of the team.”

“Yes, your Imperial Highness. The artillery have made some progress on carriages and limbers, the loads are a fifth lighter and can be made ready to fire in three-quarters the previous time.”

“See to it that the team receives a bonus.”

Hess nodded. “The other weapons teams are in Busan. The underwater rockets have been abandoned in favor of missiles propelled by compressed air but no working models have yet been made. Calculations and experiments are still underway for the new twelve-dyuym cannons.”

“Has Busan completed anything?”

Hess checked his papers. “A new armored turret, made in cooperation with Mr. Babbitt’s team, has proven capable of rotation with an eight-dyuym gun and two hundred milimeters of armor.”

Alexander stared. That . . . that was huge. If they could finally fire without the risk of being shot back, the Russian fleet would have no foes on the sea, at least until the rest of the world caught up with them. Given British arrogance, that would take at least until the end of the Crimean War. “See to it that the teams are well-rewarded,” Alexander said. “And expand the tests, immediately. I want turrets to replace unarmored guns by 1850.”

“Yes, your Imperial Majesty. That summarizes the major advances and projects regarding weaponry. If we may continue to vehicles?”

“There is no progress on the rifle?”

“Mr. Jarmann has continued to improve upon reliability and simplicity of manufacturing, but otherwise no.”

Unfortunate, but it would do for now. Alexander nodded, allowing Hess to continue.

“The Davenports have designed a much improved electrical motor, though we lack a battery small and powerful enough to power it.”

“The hydroelectric project has not made progress?”

“It makes progress, but remains far from completion. The Duke of Leuchtenberg discovered a method of more reliably transferring currents over long distances by alternating the currents, but practical methods of doing so remain out of reach. Mr. Armstrong has proposed a new model of water wheel that bears some promise for the generation of electricity, but without the practical method of transforming high voltage currents into more usable voltages there remain severe practical limitations. Even were those problems to be solved, there are the issues of scale, as the current model is little more than a pinwheel in a model mining sluice. Mr. Armstrong is currently building a larger model to test in a creek, but that will not be ready for testing until next year.”

“And when it is?”

Hess shrugged, causing him to cough again. He wiped his lips with a thick handkerchief. “If the project works, then a larger model can be built, big enough to power some electrical streetcars in Irkutsk. If it does not, then Mr. Armstrong will need to start again. We cannot know until the project is finished. Alas, progress is uncertain. We walk an untrodden path, seeking to make our dreams possible through sheer effort. We will fail before we succeed. The research will pay for itself, but it will take time.”

“I am aware,” Alexander said dryly. “How often did you tell me to abandon the cast steel project?”

Hess, to Alexander’s eternal amusement, blushed and looked away. “The combustion engine team have demonstrated a model piston experiment,” his former tutor deflected. “Using an electrical spark, they forced an explosion of hydrogen that drove the piston forward with substantial force.”

Alexander frowned. “Hydrogen? Is that not an expensive substance?”

“Not prohibitively so for experiments, and substantially more controllable than gunpowder or nitrocellulose.”

“Could we not use oil? Whale, coal, or what simply comes from the ground.”

It was Hess’s turn to from. “From the ground?”

“It burns, does it not?”

“Yes,” Hess said hesitantly. “Your Imperial Majesty . . .”

Alexander fixed his former tutor with a hard stare. “The chemists will research ground-oil, starting immediately. It will be the primary concern behind the new explosive.”

Hess bowed his head. “Yes, your Imperial Highness. On the subject of electricity, if we may speak of the printed telegraph . . .”