Chapter 684: The LBM Mark 2

Lucas’ other top-secret projects also saw some decent gains over the past 6 months.

Most notably was the successful development of the LBM Mark 2 Steam Engine which not only featured several technological and manufacturing advancements over its predecessor, but also began incorporating Spirit Engineering directly into its design.

Lucas had originally been reluctant to include Spirit Engineering in his steam engines, as he felt that doing so would result in confusion about the base techniques and technology required in its development.

Then he realized that was stupid.

Although the other universe in his inherited memories seemed like a paradise in many ways to the young boy, Lucas had slowly come to understand that trying to perfectly replicate the development path that society had gone down was the wrong approach.

This world had cultivation and World Qi, two things the other universe seemed to lack entirely and which provided wondrous benefits, so there was no reason to deny them and focus solely on technology; in fact, doing so would just limit what was possible!

As such, for the LBM Mark 2, Lucas had thrown out his original rulebook and started basically from scratch, working together with Braxton and Marco, both of whom were also now included in Project Ascension, to see where Spirit Engineering might be useful.

Unsurprisingly, it turned out there were many places where Spirit Arrays could be incorporated into the steam engine’s design.

For instance, certain critical components of the LBM Mark 1 which frequently broke down due to stress could be replaced with pseudo-Spirit Tools engraved with Strengthening or Hardening Arrays.

Of course, Lucas did keep one restriction on the use of Spirit Engineering. All the Spirit Arrays and Spirit Tools had to be Passive components, rather than Active ones.

Active Spirit Arrays required World or Spirit Qi to be constantly fed into them from a Cultivator or Spirit Crystal in order to function.

Passive Spirit Arrays, on the other hand, ran solely off of ambient World Qi.

Obviously, Active Spirit Arrays could produce much stronger, more dramatic effects and were, ironically, often much simpler and cheaper to arrange; however, Passive Arrays lasted much longer and saved cost in the long run.

Lucas might have abandoned the idea of keeping Engineering and Spirit Engineering separate, but he still felt that understanding the basic principles of how things operated and functioned was of critical importance.

In this regard, Braxton agreed with him.

The old Spirit Smith had always been curious about how things worked and believed that the best way to figure that out was to fully explore the simplest, most basic processes first, then work your way up to the more complicated ones.

This aligned perfectly with Lucas’ design philosophy, so that was the approach they decided to take, even if it delayed their progress somewhat.

On top of that, from a commercial standpoint, it didn’t make sense to install too many Spirit Arrays as that would increase the difficulty and cost of manufacturing the Mark 2, and would also raise its operational costs substantially, something Lucas wanted to avoid in order to make mass-adoption of steam engines more attractive.

All that said, the integration of Spirit Engineering into its design had resulted in the LBM Mark 2 being far more efficient, reliable, and powerful than Project Revolution’s design team had originally anticipated.

An LBM Mark 2 could produce roughly 60 kW of power for 8 hours when operating at maximum capacity, or a more modest 50 kW of power at standard capacity for nearly day without needing to be shut down to perform maintenance and resupply.

Compared to the LBM Mark 1, which typically ran at 8 kW for about 7 hours at a time, it was a massive leap forward, especially considering that these stats were only possible after several design improvements had been made.

The original LBM 1 only had a 6 kW output and could at most run for 5 hours before needing to be shut down.

Almost immediately after the first Mark 2 prototype was successfully built, Lucas wanted to try building a paddle-wheeler or train, but reality got in the way.

Firstly, designs for such vehicles weren’t anywhere near complete yet, mostly because Lucas hadn’t anticipated getting such a big improvement in performance after just 1 generation of development, and secondly, other places needed steam engines far more urgently, particularly Torren Ridge.

Using knowledge she had gained while working at a much more advanced ironworks in the Kore Sovereignty, Spirit Smith Eda Mathews had managed to successfully construct a prototype continuous-use iron-smelting furnace.

Over the past few months, Eda had come to Misty City a number of times to consult with Lucas, and Lucas had visited Torren Ridge equally frequently to assist her in her research.

It had been quite frustrating at times, as both of them had a clear vision of what they were trying to do but lacked the fine detailed knowledge to make it a reality.

In the end, however, Eda, with help from Lucas and a number of other blacksmiths from all over the South-East Province, had managed to build something the other universe’s humans would call a blast furnace.

It was a roughly 4-metre-tall steel cylinder shell that was narrower at its top, wide at its mid section, and narrow at its bottom. Lining this outer shell was a layer of heat-reflecting ceramic bricks, as well as a set of iron pipes through which water could be pumped in order to cool critical components and keep the shell at a more manageable temperature.

For the initial ignition, a precise amount of raw iron ore, coal or charcoal, and flux were packed into the furnace before it was ignited at its bottom and hot air was ’blasted’ in.

In the Kore Sovereignty, this blast of air was provided by some kind of specially designed Spirit Tool, but in Torren Ridge, an LBM Mark 1 was used instead.

As the temperature rose, the packed iron ore, fuel, and flux would melt and separate, with lighter slag rising to the top while liquid iron would occupy the bottom part of the furnace.

Once everything was melted, two different sets of external taps were used to drain off the metal and slag from the bottom and mid-section of the furnace respectively.

At the same time, more material was added from the top of the furnace, allowing for continuous, uninterrupted operation.

It had taken months of trial-and error, several design iterations, and numerous failures before this prototype blast furnace actually produced its first batch of iron, but when it had, everyone in Torren Ridge had celebrated it as a monumental achievement.