Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Dakshin Bhartiya Empire, Vijayanagara State, Capital City - Hampi

|| 1655 Vedic Calendar, three months and three weeks after the New Year ||

Vijay came back from the Kaveri Bank industrial zone, yes, that’s what he named the various industrial zones, right after the names of the rivers in which they were located.

As Vijay came home, he thought of many things along the way. With the machine tools being produced in the empire, he could imagine many upgrades or even new inventions.

Vijay could envision improvements to existing machines: upgrades to hinges, measurements, looms, paper-making equipment, sawmills, bellows, balances, textile finishing machines, leatherworking tools, and trip hammers that could be water-powered. Additionally, he considered the possibility of creating a coin minting press and producing barges.

Most importantly, Vijay focused on enhancing the backbone of machinery: the small parts such as screws, nuts, bolts, washers, springs, and bearings.

Vijay plans to have civilian industries produce all of these improvements, while also intending to patent some of the innovations and sell them to civilian factory owners for production.

While he was contemplating all the improvements to the existing machines and tools, he suddenly got the idea, "Should I start an automobile company?" Vijay thought to himself.

After a few moments of contemplation, Vijay decided that it was a good idea to start with a carriage company and eventually move on to steam-powered machines, with the ultimate goal of becoming the first person to manufacture an automobile with a combustion engine.

"Yes, let’s do it," he said as he went to his study room and started designing the carriage.

Regarding the carriage, Vijay is planning to improve the wheels to make them more uniform. He also plans to make metal rims for increased durability and wear resistance, add more precisely machined metal axles using the water-powered milling machine, and incorporate a metal leaf spring for suspension.

On the note of wheels, Vijay plans to add a rubber coating to the tires for better comfort, but unfortunately, rubber has not yet been introduced to the subcontinent. He makes a note of this raw material, intending to hire an adventurer to bring some rubber seeds from South America.

As he considers these improvements, he also realizes that more effective metal brake shoes could be made along with stronger standardized hardware, so he incorporates them into his design. Additionally, he adds metal fittings for a premium finish. Lastly, to make the carriage safe from any attacks, he adds thin metal sheets to provide defensive protection against arrows and bullets.

However, the only drawback after finishing these designs is the weight of the carriage without people or goods, reaching a calculated weight of 1.5 tonnes. "Maybe I should import some draught horses from Europe. Those horses are large and specially bred for doing heavy tasks like these," he thinks to himself.

After a few hours, he polishes up the design and comes up with the finalized design for the machine tools to process the parts.

Vijay called Ravichandra over and ordered him, "Uncle Ravi, set up a new company under the Raya Heavy Industries Group. Name it Raya Mobility. This company will be responsible for producing all types of vehicles associated with mobility."

"Here, take this. This is a design drawing I made for a new type of carriage. Have the Raya Machinery Company send a few machine tools to the Raya Mobility Company. I need the results within a week," Vijay said.

Although it might sound like an impossible thing to ask, Vijay set the deadline precisely after knowing that the Raya Machinery Company had a few batches of machine tools in stock, so they would be shipped immediately without a problem.

"As you wish, Your Majesty," Ravichandra Rao said as he left the palace.

Vijay, who was still in the palace, contemplated what more could be done that was needed for the Empire immediately.

As he gazes forward in a daze, a book captures his attention. It’s a prototype textbook for physics designed for first-year college students in the science stream. On the cover, he sees various planets orbiting the sun, and beneath these planets, there’s a quote from Aryabhatta, presenting the laws of planetary motion.

In Vijay’s mind, everything suddenly clicked into place. He now knew exactly what to do next: improve the printing machine. The Dakshin Bharatiya Empire initially had a printing machine left over by the Portuguese during their occupation of Goa, but the technology was outdated. Even the Gutenberg printing press, acquired after defeating the Portuguese in Goa, was antiquated and operated slowly.

With the implementation of widespread education for children, there was an increased demand for textbooks. In order to meet this demand, Vijay had to scale up these machines to produce 200 pieces to meet the demand.

It was alright before, but now that the syllabus had been unified, Vijay needed a large number of textbooks for the students. Additionally, he received some good responses from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where the syllabus was first popularized.

He introduced it in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a test run to see how the people would adjust to the new educational initiatives brought forward by the empire. Surprisingly, although there was no significant response to the new syllabus, English cricket, which Vijay thought was unlikely to become popular, ended up becoming the most popular sport there.

"Maybe I should introduce it to the Empire also," he thought to himself.

He soon shook his head in order to get rid of the distracting thoughts as he started to design the printing press.

First, Vijay took the design drawings of the old Portuguese printing press he had in his possession and started to make various alterations to it. As soon as Vijay looked at the old 15th-century design, he removed the lever system used for applying pressure and added a screw press system incorporated with gears.

With this upgrade, Vijay increased the mechanical advantage as gears allow for a more controlled and powerful application of pressure, translating human or water willpower into a more consistent pressing force. He was confident that it would lead to smoother operation of the machine, reducing jerking motions and potentially increasing printing quality.

Next, Vijay incorporated the machine with a water wheel, allowing it to harness the power of flowing water. After connecting the machine to the water wheel, Vijay increased the printing speed, providing a more consistent and powerful source of energy.

Next, he introduced a moving belt system that fed the paper automatically to the machine, allowing it to continuously print. With the machine being water-powered, it added to its advantage, making it faster and more efficient. Also, with the paper being handled by a belt system, it could potentially reduce the risk of paper jams or misalignments compared to manual feeding.

To make this happen, Vijay designed belts and rollers and connected them to the water wheel along with gears to adjust the speed of the belt.

After completing the design, Vijay set aside the design drawings beside him and started to design another type of printing machine. It was the 18th-century gravure printing, also known as intaglio printing. Usually, artisans would etch or engrave images onto metal plates using acid. Then, the ink would be applied to the plate, wiping off the surface, leaving ink only in the incised lines.

Finally, it would be pressed against the paper, transferring the ink image. It is a simple method that produces the most detailed illustrations for the era. It was not until the 19th century that better printing machines were produced with the introduction of lithography printing and offset printing.

Vijay made some modernizing improvements to the gravure machine. First, he connected the machine to the water wheels. Two water wheels were required, and a gear system was added in which the water wheel connected to a central gear shaft. A larger gear and disc shift transmit the rotational power to the individual printing plates.

Next, Vijay added four printing plates mounted on a rotating platform. These printing plates go through three phases before they are ready to be pressed onto the paper. First is an etching bath; each platform incorporates a solo etching bath filled with a controlled amount of acid. Next, a wiping mechanism removes the excess acid on the surface of the plates.

Finally, as the machine rotates, three ink trays slide beside each plate to hold the specific colour of ink.

Vijay added an impression cylinder, a large smooth cylinder positioned opposite the rotating printing plates. The cylinder presses the paper against the plates to transfer the ink. This cylinder is also connected to the central gear shaft for synchronized rotation.

Similar to the previous printing machine, a moving belt made of strong and flexible material feeds the paper to the machine. The belt is driven by gears connected to the central shaft, ensuring a steady and consistent flow of paper.

Vijay added a simple control system with levers and cams, where the precision of the plates dipping in the acid bath could be controlled.

In the final step, Vijay added a cleaning system, where a scraper or brush can be used to clean the excess ink from the surface of the plate before the plate contacts the next piece of paper.

Finally, after a few hours of continuous industrial design, Vijay lifted his hand, jerked it a little to make the blood flow normal, and stared at the design drawings as he marvelled at his creation. This was the single most complex machinery design he had made in this era. A lot of theoretical concepts from the future were used in the making of this machine.

If the previous improvements for the Gutenberg press brought the Dakshin Bharatiya Empire to the forefront of the world’s printing technology, with them being not inferior to any Western machinery powerhouse in the world, the new intaglio printer would put the Dakshin Bharatiya Empire a century ahead of the world. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Vijay was sure that with the improvements he made, even in the 21st century, this printing press could be used in some third-world countries.

"But it’s a pity," Vijay thought. With the complexity of this machine and the nature in which it works, it cannot be used to mass produce because the plates need to be etched with artisans of the highest precision, and the printing plates cannot be used to mass produce books of any sort.

So Vijay decided that for mass production, he would use the improved Gutenberg printing machine, and for high-quality books or detailed illustrations in textbooks, he would use the new one. "Should I give it a name?" he thought.

"Let’s just name it Raya Printing," he said.

Yes, finally, for detailed illustrations and high-quality books like religious books such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Rigved, Dharmic Quran, and other important academic books like the academic journals of Aryabhatta and other famous scholars, the Raya Printer will be used.

Vijay quickly sent a message for Hey Ram to meet him, as Vijay was sure that only the Bharatiya Academy of Sciences could produce this machine. For this Raya printer, apart from the machine tools to produce parts, the empire’s best Artisans and mechanical minds are needed in order to even assemble the machine.

P.S. Ugadhi is right around the corner, and I’m stuck helping Mom. I had to agree to clean above the window, or she will beat me up.