Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 5: Ambition and Innovation

The night before the presentation, an exhausted Daniel hops off of the cart at the castle gates. He's late for curfew, particularly for cart traffic, but he told the guards he was going to be a little late. He checks in with the guardhouse at the portcullis, and the guard lectures him briefly, "When you said 'a little late', I thought you meant a few minutes, Daniel."

"I'm sorry, Chullene. One of the cart's wheels broke. I had to borrow one from an acquaintance. I don't mind if you log my entry, but please allow me to enter. I need to get this set up for the presentation tomorrow."

Chullene, the rather burly wolf-eared guard with mostly human features, sighs. "Yeah, that is happening tomorrow, isn't it? You know, Gunther's been running around saying you forfeited."

"It took a little longer to finish than I hoped. I haven't even been able to test it fully, yet."

"What is it?"

"A water pump."

"Ohhhh! Like the one you put on the fountain down in Cobbler's Bank?"

"Uhh... Is that Cobbler's Bank?"

"Pfft! You crack me up, Daniel. You'd do well to learn local names for the people you're selling your equipment to."

Daniel shrugs. "I don't care who the customer is, so long as I can make it work. Speaking of, how's the water cooler treating you?"

"Ohhh, god, Daniel. I don't think I'll be able to do without. The entire guard makes their roves over to our shack for water. Our squires are constantly running to your pump."

Daniel smiles. "Well, if you like that one, then this pump will hopefully change the game entirely. At least for delivering water."

"Really?"

Daniel yawns from his weariness, nodding to acknowledge him. "Apologies. Running on fumes, myself."

"Have... you slept, Daniel?"

"Hmm? Yeah. Some. I'll be alright. So, may I?"

Chullene scratches his neck and sighs. "Fine. But, I'm logging a late entry. Expect to be reprimanded by the Captain of the Guard tomorrow. Good luck in the duel."

Daniel nods gratefully, "Thank you so much. I'm just glad it's this kind of duel."

They both share a chuckle, and Chullene coordinates the gatemen to open the portcullis, allowing Daniel to drive the cart into the courtyard. He parks near the clearwater creek, which is the clean water feeding the castle. The downstream side is on the edge of the courtyard, and it contains the castle's blackwater -dirty water from various functions-.

Daniel pulls the heavy case pieces for his pump to the ground, staging them in their relative positions. He's still not sure how to thread and counter thread nuts and bolts like his old world, but he was able to make some crude ones that should at least allow his pump to be serviceable, if a little leaky. Fortunately, he didn't need any additional money from Wenlianna, since he was able to afford the raw materials and cast the casing pieces himself, tempering them in water baths thanks to the town blacksmith. When the townfolk heard about it, many of them asked if they could help, but he explained he needed to do the work himself, since it was something he was presenting, so he needed to know how to explain every part.

The piston itself is rather simple, using a rocker valve that he was able to make that will rely on the wind-crystal pressurizing the service lines. The rocker valve, similar to a solenoid valve, will prevent the pump from stalling by using a 'break before make' setup. With the backpressure of water, it should be unbalanced, meaning it will always have to make it to one side or the other, allowing the air pressure to cycle the pump the opposite way until it flips the rocker valve, flipping direction back and forth. In essence, it's a scaled up version of the lever pump he put on the well, utilizing a single mana crystal and a wind crystal with a switch to automatically pump water. Piston pumps aren't the fastest at moving water, but they generally don't need to be primed, can pump to very high pressures, and generally have good service lifetimes. Of course, he's comparing that knowledge to carefully machined, well-lubricated, and precisely engineered electrical-driven pumps, but he's pretty happy with the core of this machine.