Chapter 1103: Watt's Despair
After Joseph finished arranging the matters for the Irish, he suddenly remembered something else.
"Right, the Boulton-Watt Company situation can be wrapped up now. The British government should be quite short on cash lately; let's apply a little more pressure on them while we're at it."
Lavalette immediately bowed. "As you wish, Your Highness."
Regarding the Boulton-Watt Company, the Security Bureau had already prepared a comprehensive plan according to the Crown Prince's requirements. Now, they simply needed to execute it step by step.
...
Birmingham, England.
Inside a vast, luxuriously decorated experimental workshop on the west side of the city, Watt felt his ears twitch from the noise of shouting and horns drifting in from the street.
It was a protest march against the skyrocketing price of sugar.
Watt turned and roared at a technician, "Stuff all the window cracks with paper! Now!"
Watt returned his attention to the massive steam engine before him, his brow furrowed with a mixture of agony and despair.
He had originally thought that simply scaling up the existing Engine52 steam engine—which had proven to be an exquisite and reliable high-pressure design—would easily yield a high-power 180-horsepower version.
However, after he had labored to build the prototype, he found himself trapped in a waking nightmare.
The enlarged Engine52 boiler stood 6.5 meters tall with a diameter of nearly 1.8 meters. As soon as it started running, the towering boiler would vibrate violently due to the oscillation of the piston.
Once that six-meter-tall cast-iron beast began to shake, it made the very ground tremble. Furthermore, the boiler's mounting points were already showing signs of metal fatigue.
To lower the overall center of gravity, Watt had no choice but to increase the boiler's diameter. But reality soon dealt him a crushing blow.
Given the manufacturing capabilities of the era, once the boiler diameter exceeded two meters, casting reliability plummeted. Cracks and defects appeared everywhere. To ensure quality, the craftsmen had to increase the boiler wall thickness by 70%, which caused the weight of the engine to skyrocket.
Most despairingly, even with the diameter increased to two meters, the damned boiler remained unacceptably high.
In engineering terms, the maximum height a vertical boiler could practically reach only allowed for an output of about 50 horsepower. This was why, historically, Marc Seguin's steam engine, despite its advantages, had been nothing more than a flash in the pan.
A company manager knocked and entered. Seeing Watt's grim expression, he said cautiously, "Mr. Watt, the General Manager asked me to remind you that there is a progress report for Engine180 at the City Hall at two this afternoon."
Because the British Government Investment Fund had taken a stake in the Boulton-Watt Company, the senior management had to report to the presiding officials periodically. Naturally, the 180-horsepower engine, which represented the company's future, was the most scrutinized project.
Watt suddenly swung his fists and bellowed, "There's nothing to report! Let those bureaucrats go to hell!"
The manager pulled his head back into his shoulders, stammered "Two o'clock," and fled the room.
The workshop door closed again. Watt sighed dejectedly; he still had to deal with the report.
He gestured to several nearby technicians. "Go organize the research logs for this month and the technical data for the prototype. Oh, skip the vibration failure analysis and the boiler's excess weight. Those gentlemen wouldn't understand them anyway."
The technicians looked at each other. A middle-aged technician said tentatively, "Mr. Watt, we aren't... very familiar with the prototype data. Completing your request before two o'clock... might be difficult..."
Watt's mouth twitched.
In his anger, he had forgotten that his experimental workshop was filled with incompetents. Scarcely any of them could even read a standard design blueprint.
This was one of the primary reasons his research progress was so agonizingly slow.
In fact, the redesign of the pressure gauges and relief valves for the old 52-horsepower model had only been completed a week ago—almost entirely because he had stayed up late doing it himself.
Indeed, all the middle and senior technicians at Boulton-Watt had been recruited by Sandel.
And Sandel's hiring principle had been simple: they had to be useless.
Furthermore, Sandel had signed them to lifelong employment contracts. If the company fired them, it would have to pay out thousands of pounds in compensation.
Thus, after Watt took over the workshop, he could only grit his teeth and use these fools for research. He had managed to hire two capable young men, but they were collectively ostracized by the veteran technicians.
Watt tried to calm himself and called out to a brown-haired young man not far away. "Maric, go organize the prototype data. Pick out the parts regarding the vibration issues and the weight."
He was the only useful technician in the entire workshop and had been a great help.
Maric immediately called back, "Yes, Mr. Watt. I'll need forty minutes."
Just then, Boulton unexpectedly pushed the door open—he rarely visited the workshop—and shoved a letter into Watt's hand, his expression grave.
"You'd better look at this. It just arrived from Sandel."
"Sandel? He's still..." Watt wanted to say 'still alive,' but he swallowed the words. Given the severity of Sandel's injuries back then, surviving for half a year was nothing short of a miracle.
He opened the letter with confusion. The handwriting was crooked and shaky, clearly showing that Sandel struggled to hold a pen.
The first two paragraphs were standard greetings, but then the content abruptly shifted to the development of the high-power steam engine.
Sandel confessed that he had lied from the start. A 180-horsepower engine was impossible. He had been terrified of losing his position as Chief Technician, so he had been hiding the fatal obstacles he encountered.
That was also why the prototype had exploded; in a desperate attempt to achieve a breakthrough, he had risked using a small-volume boiler and cranked the pressure up to 0.85 MPa.
During his recovery, he had mulled it over and considered every possibility. He was now certain that the 180-horsepower target was set too high. It might be more appropriate to develop an 80 to 90-horsepower engine first.
Watt's face turned deathly pale.
In truth, he had harbored similar thoughts for a long time, but he had been sustained by the belief that 'if Sandel could do it, then I can too.'
Now, that solitary pillar of faith had collapsed. He felt utterly helpless, like an ant struggling in a whirlpool, with an endless abyss as his final destination.
He crumpled Sandel's letter into a ball, tossed it away, and slumped onto a cast-iron frame.
Boulton glanced at the beastly prototype and pulled Watt aside. "The report this afternoon..."
The latter shook his head. "Let Maric go."
"Him? Is he up to it?"
Boulton was already breaking out in a cold sweat.
The company had suspended deliveries of high-pressure steam engines for over six months. The liquidated damages for breach of contract exceeded 500,000 pounds—and that was only after the British government had used diplomatic channels to persuade other governments to pressure the buying companies into granting extensions.
Currently, Boulton-Watt had essentially squandered the hundreds of thousands of pounds invested by the government fund. Although the books showed 140,000 pounds, only he knew that the actual liquid capital was less than 10,000 pounds.
In other words, if the government grew suspicious of the 180-horsepower engine's progress and sent investigators to audit the company, the financial black hole would be exposed immediately.
Watt nodded absentmindedly.
Maric walked over and said to Boulton with great sincerity, "Please rest assured, sir. I will make sure those officials understand exactly how advanced our prototype is."
Boulton patted his arm. "Then I'll leave it all to you."
Little did he know that Maric had been working for the French Security Bureau from the very beginning.
And he wasn't the only one. Within the Boulton-Watt Company, a large number of Security Bureau agents occupied various key positions.
This was precisely why Joseph had gone to such great lengths to ensure Sandel left under plausible circumstances—as long as the British believed it was just an accident, the agents planted in the company could continue their work.
At two o'clock in the afternoon.
In Birmingham City Hall, five members of the Government Investment Fund committee and two private secretaries of MPs sat with furrowed brows, watching the young technician on stage whose voice trembled with nerves.
One of the MP's secretaries raised a hand to interrupt Maric. "In last month's routine report, Mr. Watt mentioned the same achievements you just described. Has there been no actual progress on the 180-horsepower model during this period?"
Boulton shot Maric a stern look.
The young man nodded first, then shook his head vigorously, stammering, "No, no... we conducted dozens of prototype tests this month. The highest output reached 110 horsepower, but in the end, because of the old problem with severe vibrations..."
He stopped mid-sentence, suddenly covering his mouth and looking toward Boulton in a panicked, innocent manner.
Indeed, his theme for today was 'the nervous young technician who accidentally said too much.'
Originally, the Security Bureau's script called for Watt to deliver the report while Maric 'accidentally' mentioned the accident where vibrations caused the boiler to rupture. He hadn't expected Watt to just send him up instead.
He wasn't about to waste such a perfect performance opportunity.
An investment fund committee member immediately pressed him, "You just said 'severe vibrations' and 'the old problem'? Mr. Watt never seemed to mention that before."
Maric's hands and feet shook uncontrollably. "That... no... Mr. Watt wasn't hiding it on purpose. He believed the problem could be solved very quickly..."
Another member shouted, "Then tell me, exactly how long will it take to solve?"
"How long?" The young technician wiped away cold sweat. "Maybe two or three years, I guess... But Mr. Sandel doesn't seem very confident. He even wrote a letter saying it would be better to lower the power of the new model to 80 horsepower and start over..."
Boulton bolted upright and barked, "What on earth are you talking about!"
The MP's secretary reached out to stop him and turned back to Maric. "Keep talking. What's this about Mr. Sandel?"
The young technician seemed terrified, crouching down with his head in his hands. "I... I don't know, I really don't know."
At the same time.
Three of Boulton-Watt's newly produced Engine52 steam engines were officially put into operation.
These machines utilized the pressure gauges and relief valves Watt had invented himself. Although they required someone to constantly watch the gauge and manually release pressure when it got too high, they were at least functional enough to use.
The Strand Textile Mill was one of the first customers to receive these engines.
They had been waiting for over five months. If MP Egerton hadn't personally sent representatives to persuade them, they would have sued the Boulton-Watt Company long ago.
Presently, the assembly and calibration of the new steam engine were complete, and it was driving three automatic looms at high speed.
However, that very afternoon, the Engine52's cylinder developed a leak. One textile worker's entire leg was severely scalded by the scalding steam.
The next day, a steam engine newly installed in a Birmingham coal mine also suffered a leak. Although no one was injured, it caused the mine—which had already been idle for months—to shut down again.
With two out of the three new engines failing, companies that had purchased them suddenly became wary and began refusing to take delivery of the Engine52.
Boulton hurriedly sent technicians to the sites to inspect, but they only found 'signs of erosion in the cylinders.'
Yet, these engines had passed rigorous testing before leaving the factory without any issues.
He couldn't have imagined that during assembly, the craftsmen had simply tossed some goethite powder into the cylinders.
Naturally, the assembly workshop was crawling with Security Bureau plants.
When the company performed its tests, they used well water from the workshop's reservoir, which caused no issues.
However, users often utilized water from the River Thames.
The acidic river water reacted with the goethite, releasing highly oxidizing ferric ions. Combined with the high temperature and high pressure inside the cylinder, this rapidly corroded through the cylinder connections.
The Times suddenly broke a shocking story: "Former Chief Technician Sandel of the Boulton-Watt Company admits that the design for the new high-power steam engine has fatal flaws and must be scrapped. Current Chief Technician Watt has decided to lower the development target to 80 horsepower."
Boulton-Watt's stock price plummeted in response, crashing straight through the 20-pound-per-share mark.
Immediately following this, numerous newspapers carried reports of the collective leaks in Boulton-Watt's newly delivered engines, resulting in multiple serious injuries.
Once the news broke, the buyers who had reluctantly accepted the delays finally snapped.
Labor-intensive companies like textile mills decided to abandon these unstable products and demanded massive penalties for breach of contract.
At this point, Boulton-Watt had only a little over 10,000 pounds left in its accounts.
What Joseph hadn't expected was that the 'earthquake' at Boulton-Watt would rapidly spread to the Chatham Dockyard.
The dockyard had previously been forced to delay the delivery of its steam paddleboats because the ordered engines hadn't arrived, for which it had already paid 80,000 pounds in penalties.
Now, with Boulton-Watt's high-power engine project abandoned and the Engine52 causing injuries, the company's reputation had hit rock bottom.
The customers who had ordered steam paddleboats explicitly demanded that Chatham Dockyard not use the Engine52, threatening to refuse delivery of the ships otherwise.
And among those, many orders were already past their delivery deadlines.
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