After briefly checking the general conditions of several coal mines that had been developed from a high place, Lawrence and the others began to head to the largest coal mine pit No. 1.
While on the road, Lawrence suddenly heard a series of explosions coming from the direction of the mine, just like fireworks at a festival.
"Don't worry, this is blasting work in the mine." Lawrence Viscount Surrey, who was nervously putting his hand on the door handle of the carriage and ready to run away at any time, immediately explained the source of the explosion.
"You know that my mine is a mine that is buried very shallowly. So when mining, you can use blasting to remove the earth and rocks on the surface, and then you can directly dig out the coal mine underneath."
"Compared with the local coal mines in Briton that require digging various complex mines, the cost of developing such surface minerals is much lower, and the safety level is also much higher, so this coal mine can be said to be a large-scale coal mine.
Nature has given this territory precious gifts.”
While they were talking, the carriage the two people were riding in went around a curve on the mountain and came to a location directly opposite the mine.
At this time, the sharp-eyed Lawrence immediately saw a large cloud of gray smoke rising into the sky through the glass on the car window. At the same time, the large snow-covered wasteland they had seen on the mountain looked like a complete
It had been plowed countless times by an iron plow, forming a large, shallow pit.
Then a sound of whistles came from that direction. Several people wearing orange-red clothes with steel plates hanging on vital parts of their bodies entered the bottom of the mine and began to use a cane that was as tall as a person and glowed with silver light.
He started tapping on the ground, as if he was looking for something.
"The thing these people are holding is a special alchemy tool that can check for explosives that have not exploded and eliminate them." After watching Lawrence stare at the people wearing orange clothes with interest, Viscount Surrey took the initiative.
introduced these people.
"You know, for cost reasons, we used black powder and the simplest fuse to detonate. This can indeed reduce the cost to a suitable level, but there are often some explosives that fail to detonate."
"In order to avoid secondary explosions of explosives, every coal mine will have some safety measures. For example, some coal mines will directly send safety officers to search, or train special dogs."
Having said this, Viscount Surrey proudly pointed to the security officers below.
"However, those methods are still dangerous to a certain extent, and my direct coal mine uses a special magic prop with the highest safety level. Although the cost is higher, it can ensure that basically no fish will slip through the net."
This is the difference in production regarding whether profits should be maximized. If you switch to capitalists, they will naturally not invest too much money in this aspect as they pursue self-maximization of profits.
For them, buying expensive alchemy products is worse than training a few dogs, or even consuming human lives. At least compared to buying these alchemy tools, human lives are obviously cheaper.
But for the Viscount of Surrey, there are thousands of his own people in this mining area. Although mining ore itself is risky, it is normal to have casualties.
However, if the Viscount of Surrey, as the lord, does not make as safe a preparation as possible before this, it will easily be considered as having failed to fulfill his duties in the tradition.
More importantly, this territory itself is obviously short of manpower. Every person can be said to be very precious.
If the mining of minerals leads to the loss of people in the territory, then it will obviously be a loss that outweighs the gain for the Viscount of Surrey, a hereditary noble who owns his own territory.
After arriving at the mine, Lawrence and the others began to carefully visit the entire coal mine under the guidance of several guides.
Although the coal mine looked very rough in many places because it had just been built, Lawrence could clearly see that the mine was designed according to a completely modern mine.
"The royal family has invested a lot of money in this coal mine." Pointing to some land that had just been leveled, a young guide introduced to Lawrence, "The entire mine now relies on manpower only because it has just started construction.
This is because the overall scale of the mining area is not large yet.”
"But if everything goes as planned and the construction of the entire mine proceeds, a large number of machines will be shipped here in a month or two."
"That's right, otherwise you might not have so many people here who can complete such a job."
Looking at the mines in the distance that were vacant due to manpower, Lawrence also knew that the only way to improve efficiency in this area with insufficient manpower was to use machines, otherwise there would be a large number of vacancies.
"Is there anything that can be improved here?" After walking around with Lawrence, Viscount Surrey looked at him seriously and asked.
"You really think too highly of me." Lawrence smiled and shook his head. "I just visited the coal mine briefly. How could I come up with a way to improve this place in such a short time?"
"More importantly, this coal mine is not a simple coal mine. It is the most modern coal mine of this era designed by a professional. I think that as an outsider, I am definitely not as good as those professionals in this regard.
"
Lawrence himself is very self-aware of how much he weighs in this regard. As a liberal arts student living in the information age, he is relatively clear about some simple things, but when it comes to these professional issues, he naturally does not.
Very understandable.
The mining industry has always been a very professional industry, so Lawrence naturally didn't understand this thing very well.
Although he had seen a lot of knowledge about mining on the Internet in his previous life, it was naturally not advisable to copy it mechanically when the backgrounds and situations of the two worlds were obviously different.
So when the Viscount of Surrey asked about this matter, Lawrence naturally confessed the fact that he did not know anything about it.
Because he knows that rather than holding on for the sake of face, it is the right approach to seek truth from facts and admit that he is indeed unclear in this regard. At least this can avoid some completely unnecessary losses.
As soon as he finished speaking, smiles suddenly appeared on the faces of several guides from nearby coal mines. For professionals like them, the most annoying thing is that people above who don’t understand are pointing fingers and creating obstacles.
After everyone finished visiting the mine itself, they quickly moved to the living area next to the factory, had a simple lunch, and then visited some of the ancillary buildings of the mine.
"One of the huge benefits of mining here is that we don't have to pump water constantly, which will naturally save a lot of money." An engineer who was obviously from Briton pointed to a machine room and told Lawrence and the others.
"So our first batch of machines in the future will mainly be steam winches that transport coal from the bottom of the mine, to replace those winches that are now powered by oxen and horses. Of course, we will also build a batch of things similar to steam excavators in the future.
Replace manpower.”
"This does sound like a good idea. After all, the upper limit of the population carrying capacity of this region is very low." Lawrence nodded and said.
"Yes, at first the local people thought that we could recruit enough manpower to directly solve the current problems, but it took a year for the old diehards to realize that there is a big difference between here and the mainland."
The engineer had a slightly annoyed expression on his face. "If it weren't for those guys, these machines would probably have been installed last year. Their wrong thinking delayed us for a whole year."