Herald of Steel

Chapter 639 Viewing the Aqueducts (Part-2)

Alexander did not disagree over the extent of the challenges Uzak faced.

He would admit that he had set quite a high bar for the man, commissioning quite a few very large and long aqueducts simultaneously, and ordered the construction of a fair few number of large wells and fountains.

Alexander eventually wished to set a well for every hundred men in the city, and even though the current plans were much more modest, it seemed with the limited resources provided, Uzak was having a difficult time managing it.

And this was not his only sticking point, as aside from the lack of men to do the tedious digging, which the stonemason had frankly grown sick of, there was another point he kept Alexander hankering about.

“My lord, about the thing we discussed earlier, couldn’t we use lead to make the water transporting pipes under any circumstances?” Uzak again made the request.

The reason why he wanted to make the connecting out of this metal was because it was soft, malleable, had quite a low melting point so was easy to work with, and most critically, unlike iron, it did not rust.

Not to mention was cheap.

To Uzak this did not even seem like a choice.

But when that topic had come up, Alexander had of course brutally shot this material down saying, “No water pipes can be made from lead. It is highly poisonous and if we make the pipes out of it, we would be poisoning our own people.”

One only had to take a look at the later Roman emperors and the mad antics they got up to to see what the effects of lead poisoning could have.

Only one such example would be how Emperor Nero had castrated a young slave and then married him in order to play the role of his deceased wife.

But given that Alexander did not know of any such examples that he could relate to Uzak, the stonemason seemed reluctant to follow this.

“My lord we have used lead pipes, back in Adhan for generations. There was no poisoning!” He cried though Alexander would have liked to very much disagree after hearing stories of the previous king.

But that did not deter Uzak from trying to further present his case, additionally saying, “Also, if we do not use lead, making the pipes out of iron will take too long, because iron is really not easy to work with, This will set us back even further, meaning even more delays.”

“Never mind the issue of rust we will have to deal with.”

“You should know all this my lord,” He at last pleaded.

Now what Uzak said was all very true, and Alexander of course knew it.

Metal pipes in this time period were made by first hammering the metal into a sheet and then shaping it into a cylinder with even more hammering.

And as this process was a hot working process, i.e.- the metal was heated and then shaped, through manual labor, it was convenient to have a soft metal like lead.

Forming metals with high melting temperatures like lead, especially into large structures such as a water-carrying pipe was really too hard and time-consuming.

And it was also because of this the Romans too used lead pipes to construct their water supply system.

But the people escaped lead poisoning there due to how quickly the water through them, thus not giving the metal enough time to dissolve into the liquid.

And also because the water they carried had a high concentration of calcium deposits, which worked to form a protective coating inside the pipes.

This formed a barrier between the water and the lead, not permitting them to come into contact with each other.

While the reason the Roman emperors went mad was thought to be more due to their use of lead in eating utensils, such as goblets, cups, and cooking pots, and the use of lead acetate which was used as an artificial sweetener.

But though things worked out fine for the Roman people when using lead pipes, that did not mean Alexander’s own pipes would be safe.

After all, the water composition between the two places was bound to be different, so who knew if the water here had enough dissolved calcium to form that protective layer?

Thus he categorically rejected the request to make the pipes out of lead.

But though it was certainly the most sensible thing to do, then the question arose what to make it out of?

If Alexander could he would have certainly preferred to make it out of iron as it was cheap and very plentiful to him.

But making pipes out of iron required industrial equipment as simply casting them was not an option.

And to prevent the vast network of pipes from rusting, called for complex cathodic protection which would be impossible.

So that option was out of the running.

He hence had to look for another one.

And it took a fair bit of thinking.

But eventually, he found it.

The building material was quite low-tech but certainly feasible.

And having come up with the answer, Alexander first shut down Uzak’s search for that elusive, saying in a strict voice, “The goddess has decreed that the pipes be not of lead. Or the people of the city will suffer.”

“So if you want to make it out of lead, ask Her!”

Given his persistence, Alexander decided to use the ‘nuke card’ as he liked to say, and it worked just as intended, as the talk of the divine instantly shut down the stonemason.

Though that did not smother his frustration.

To Uzak it made no sense to create so much controversy over such a simple deal.

‘So what will I make it out of? If you ask me to make it out of iron, I will ask for a thousand blacksmiths or quit!’

Hearing Alexander’s decision, Uzak then internally fumed, while looking at Alexander with a placid face, wanting to hear his solution. .

And this was what he got.

“So for now, make the pipes out of terracotta. They will be extremely durable, resistant to wear and tear, noncorrosive, and securely sealed, meaning there won’t be a problem with leaking like the metal pipes.”

Alexander said this in a very grand voice.

There was also the added benefit of having no risk of chemical reaction with their surrounding environment, but he skipped that part for obvious reasons.

“….” Uzak stayed quiet for a bit at the answer.

This was of course not some kind of revolutionary idea.

Pipes made of clays were pretty common and had been around for generations.

And though Alexander worked hard to display its virtue, the problems associated with them were also numerous and very commonly known.

The biggest and easiest one to guess was that they were fragile, and prone to breaking, especially during transport and installation.

Another was the hassle of manufacturing which needed skilled potters.

And lastly, there was the need for specialized kilns to burn the soft clay in and turn it into terracotta.

Uzak believed none of these considerations could have escaped Alexander when he made the proposal.

So after hearing the answer, he patiently waited for Alexander to provide him with all the extra facilities that would be required to manufacture these.

And Alexander did promise him these, saying, “Kriskhok can help you build the kilns. They should be similar to the ones we already use for brick making, so it should be quick to make”

“As for the potters, well there are many people who sell their wares in the market. Recrute from them. I will give you the funds.”

And finished by giving Uzak a glimpse of better things to come, promising,

“And once we increase cement production, we will give priority allocation to you so that you can simply make cement pipes. That will be much less hassle.”

“Thank you, my lord. I will try to keep everything as close to the schedule,” And hearing so, Uzak could only promise this.

Though internally he was not very hopeful of being able to make cement pipes anytime soon.

He thought this because if cement production could have been ramped up, Alexander would have done so long ago.

So Uzak understood that he would probably be stuck with the earthen pipes for the time being, first building kilns outside the city, making his pipes there, and transporting these fragile pieces across the city to their destination.

A lot of hassle and a lot of potentiality for things to go wrong.

“Yes, do your best,”

Alexander too understood the workload Uzak was under to know this, and so with a slap on the man’s shoulder, he encouraged him to continue endeavoring and try and overcome the hurdles.

And With this Alexander’s aqueduct visit came to an end.

But that did not he and Uzak were destined to be separated yet.

For Uzak was one in charge of not one but two projects, both somewhat interconnected.

If the aqueducts brought clean water into the city, the other project worked to get rid of the dirty, used one.

Yes, Alexander’s next destination was the sewers.

Of course, it was not literally visiting the bowels of the city.

Alexander did not want to wade through the flowing sludge or take in the nauseating pungent smell of rotten eggs and ammonia.

So instead they stood by one of the many entrances through which the workers entered and exited the maze-like tunnels, as Uzak gave an overall report about the ongoings down below.