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Keymonus

Gunpowder for La Royale

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"As you required in your letter, Monsieur Rimbaud, I invested the sum you sent in this powder mill. The property of your brimstone quarry outside the town provides us a regular flow of the most expensive raw material and, even if we still have to import saltpeter and coal, the profit margin is extremely good. Moreover, to avoid dangerous sabotages, I required a continuous watch."
"You have been prudent as usual, Renè. We produce gunpowder in the New World, without additional import cost... that means more and cheaper gunpowder for our navy, and someone will probably be disappointed. Nevertheless, I think that our enemies will not dare directly attack us here... we should provide a small escort to the shipments of raw materials too. And what about water?"

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"The water we need comes from River of the True Faith so, except during severe droughts, the mill will keep working. But..."
 

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"But?"
"Monsieur Rimbaud, I've been loyal to your family since before you were born, so I'll take the liberty of being completely frank: are you sure that investing in Astrapi, a relatively insignificant colony hundreds of miles far from our motherland, is a good idea?"
"I understand your doubts, old friend of mine: you fear I will waste all my holdings on a godsforsaken island... but don't worry, I'm not looking forward to going broke: Astrapi is in a strategic position and, if the settlement grows, will become a fundamental resupply place for Oleander fleets east of Breshau, so I'm sure that my bet will soon be rewarded. Now, what about visiting the interior?"
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Here is were gunpowder is produced: sulphur, saltpeter and coal are grinded together by the heavy millstone; the powder obtained is then sifted and stored in barrels, wet with alchool to minimize the risk of explosion. Proportion of the three components and dimension of powder grains define the explosive power of the powder (the smaller, the stronger); the back wall seems so unstable because actually it is: in case of explosion it would direct the explosion towards an uninhabited area (in this case the river).

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Spoiler

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Edited by Keymonus
Removal of a typing error

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Very nice factory, Keymonus! - excellent interior (especially that grindstone), and the bit of room in front and waterwheel look great as well! :thumbup:  Keep it up!

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Wonderful build! Good story, I like the roof piece usage, and the grindstone is excellent! And I always like it when we get a bit of the real life science behind some of these processes. Well done all around! :thumbup:

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What a great little build. I really like the grindstone and waterwheel. Very nice designs on both. The interior is full of activity, and you did a great job using such a small space to show the whole manufacturing process. 

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Neat build you got there. This motivates me to build a musket factory for Astrapi.

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Thank you for your comments! :classic: I'm satisfied by the overall result, even if the facade isn't exactly as I designed it at first. The most challenging part were surely the mechanical connection between the grindstone and the waterwheel and the design of the roof (keep it together was quite a challenge!!!)

15 hours ago, Brandon Stark said:

Neat build you got there. This motivates me to build a musket factory for Astrapi.

Thank you! :pir-classic: I'm looking forward to seeing it!

Edited by Keymonus

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