Chapter 1322 - 1240: Concept of the Floating Warship
The arrival of summer always makes people feel drowsy.
However, compared to last year’s muggy heat, which forced Horn to work from home, this year is much cooler.
The previous renovation and upgrade of the Holy Seat Mansion played a role, not only adding ceiling fans but also engineer-designed cooling ducts.
Chilled and disinfected underground water passes through the ducts above the fans, moistening fiber pads, then evaporating to absorb heat and turning into cold air that descends.
It descends near the fans, which then blow it throughout the room, cooling the entire space.
Such luxury wasn’t possible in the past, but this year the Ethereal Tower finally completed its all-day energy supply.
The ether pump works nonstop to extract ether every day, then disperses it throughout the city via the great clock.
Hilov boasted, allowing Horn to use it freely.
Now many single monks of the Holy Alliance sleep in the Holy Seat Mansion, where there are beds, showers, and cold air fans.
Going home to a pigeonhole apartment, you’d be cooked alive from the heat.
Because it was quite unsightly and violated discipline, Madlan had to come by every few days to drive people out.
But to the visiting "Art Forest" journalist, it seemed like the Holy Alliance monks were staying in the office for work, and the cardinal personally came to send them home to rest to avoid overwork...
Sitting at the desk, the fan occasionally lifted the corner of the paper.
Horn sat by the desk, leaning back in his chair, examining a blueprint with his hands spread out.
On the blueprint, a lifelike airship leaped off the paper.
It was composed of two parts: an airbag above and a hull below, about the size of a small sailboat.
The designer thoughtfully added clockwork cannons at both the bow and stern, with a paddle wheel on each side for propulsion.
In addition, the tail wings and rudder on the airbag can be controlled by ropes for easy steering.
The drawing was completely hand-drawn, with many data points left blank; it was more of a visionary blueprint than a technical drawing.
The designer’s skills were excellent, making an imaginary creation look real.
Seeing Horn remain silent, Leonardo couldn’t sit still any longer: "What do you think, Your Eminence?"
"Have you estimated the data?"
"Engineering data is in a table on the third page."
Horn picked up the third sheet from the table, looked at it for a while, and then spoke: "Don’t you think you’ve drawn the hull at the bottom too large?"
"Large, so it can hold more people and cargo. Is there a problem?" Leonardo scratched his head.
In Horn’s usual thinking, an airship should have a large airbag and a small hull, right?
But in fact, Leonardo’s design sketches showed a hull not much smaller than the airbag.
"Not too large." Hilov moved her brass-covered legs in black stockings from in front of the desk to behind it. "Our estimates and tests show it should be just right."
"Right, is that so?" Hearing Hilov say this, Horn was a bit shaken.
This time, it was indeed his mistake of past-life ethnocentrism. The light gas here clearly didn’t need to follow the airship principles of his past life.
Light gas is evidently lighter than air and has an inherent alchemical characteristic of "rising."
No matter what physical rules of reality Horn remembers, it will ascend.
This alchemical feature is somewhat like the "light" alchemical characteristic of Mithril.
Horn previously saw a patent for a Mithril alloy, which, when refined, was lighter than Mithril and the combined metals on their own.
Because Mithril’s lightness depends on volume!
As long as the volume is small enough and infused with mana, such a curious phenomenon of weight inversion can occur (note it is weight, not mass).
Ever since the ether began unlimited supply all day, alchemist scholars have been thriving.
Characteristics that could not be alchemically refined before, scholars now have one solution—"add ether."
If there’s enough energy, any whimsical alchemical ritual might just work.
The alchemical feature of Mountain Copper’s "energy storage" was no longer mentioned; now refined Mountain Copper has emerged.
According to Hilov’s report, alchemist priests have started refining concentrated fluorite to make flashbangs for killing vampires.
Research from the Sorrido Clan shows that vampires fear not only the sun but also bright light.
It burns their skin and makes them dizzy.
Thinking of this, Horn immediately asked: "How high can this airship fly? Have you calculated that?"
"Yes, about three thousand meters, which is one thousand five hundred to two thousand meters higher than the maximum flight height of vampires."
This intel is still from the treacherous Sorrido Clan.
However, this is only a theoretical value; vampires are not incapable of reaching a height of three thousand meters, just unable to maintain stable flight in high winds at this altitude.
If the weather is calm, they can barely reach around three thousand meters.
Hilov took over Leonardo’s thread: "This airship can fly between 500 to 3000 meters in altitude, with a cruising speed of 40 to 60 kilometers per hour.
We have two uses: civilian and military. The military will be smaller and more agile, thus faster."
"Let’s talk about the civilian part first." Horn said as he looked down at the blueprint and data.
"For civilian use, we’re planning to open a northern route over the Dragon Sleep Mountain Range to the Furnace Plateau.
A southern route will cross the Green Dragon Forest Sea to the frontier land."
Airships like these certainly can’t carry too much weight, so they’re used for transporting high-value goods.
For example, transporting clockwork guns, clockwork cannons, moon mercury, etc., in exchange for beast meat, rare herbs, or alchemical substances (adamantite, Mithril).
The northern route is not only to cross the Dragon Sleep Mountain Range and support Norn, but also to connect with the dwarves.
On the Furnace Plateau, there are still dwarf tribes unwilling to cooperate with vampires.
With a mindset of uniting all forces that can be united, Horn is prepared to provide them with assistance.
Of course, it’s also to obtain adamantite from the Furnace Plateau, which the Holy Alliance has not been able to produce yet.
The southern route is more understandable: exchanging clockwork guns from Falan for beast meat, and exchanging clockwork guns from the frontier land for herbs.
As the Royal Court goes to war with the Empire, the revenue from spice trade has sharply reduced, replaced by rising income from clockwork guns and similar firearms.
"What about military uses?"
"Very simple, using small airships for reconnaissance and larger airships as rapid support units and platforms for Shadow Crow Army raids."
"Oh." Horn immediately thought of specific military uses, with his eyebrows first relaxed then furrowed, "Is the airbag safe?"
"Yes, light gas isn’t overly reactive unless a special agent or alchemist is involved; it’s difficult to induce a quick reaction."
"What if vampires use blood guns to shoot?"
"Your Eminence, look here." Leonardo pointed to the blueprint, "The interior isn’t directly filled with light gas but rather dozens of small airbags filled with light gas.
Even if a dozen are breached, it won’t affect flight and hovering in the short term.
Your Eminence, rest assured, this isn’t like my Titan war chariot, which lacked consideration."
Fearing Horn might recall past grievances with the tank, Leonardo almost swore an oath.
Hilov added: "His tank is now worth a try."
"What?" Horn suddenly turned his head, "Didn’t you oppose his tank idea?"
"Times change. Besides, why don’t you ask where the airship’s power source comes from?"
"Yes." Horn suddenly realized, "The supply of moon mercury isn’t enough, so where’s your power source coming from?"
"Your Eminence." Leonardo smiled, "Have you forgotten about Star-Forged Gears?"