Frankowski, Leo Conrad 2 The High Tech Knight

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

bundle, drawing the buildings and making detail drawings of every sort of board
in them, a job made easier because I used a lot of standard parts. That is to say,
many parts were identical and the same design could be used over and over.
I had a few dozen sticks cut to exactly the same length and as long as I
remembered Lambert's yard to be. These became our standard of measurement.
A lot of the men had difficulty with the concept of standards. They were used to
cutting each piece to fit as they went along and all this measuring and looking at
plans struck them as a stupid waste of time.
As the weeks went on, there was a growing pile of finished parts, but that was not
as satisfying as watching the buildings going up.
I delayed assembly of the buildings for a good reason. Wood set directly on the
ground rots and I wanted our buildings to have masonry foundations and
basements.
We couldn't do masonry construction without mortar and we couldn't make
mortar without coal.
There was coal in the mine, but the mine was still full of water. Parts for the
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
steam pump were arriving regularly from the Krakowski brothers, and the pump
functioned well enough after some reworking, or TLC as the Americans call it, but
it all took time.
Oh, we could have used charcoal to make mortar, but that would have been time-
consuming, too, and the coal would be there soon.
Getting my way was rarely an easy task. I had to talk and persuade and cajole. I
shouted and screamed and pretended to throw temper tantrums. But what
helped most was when I dug out my bible and read them the description of the
building of Solomon's Temple. It put God on my side, which generally helps.
Piotr Kulczynski, my accountant, was commuting regularly between Cieszyn and
Three Walls, keeping the books on our operations here as well as on the Pink
Dragon Inn and the Krakowski Bros. Brass Works. He was a very efficient young
fellow except when he was looking wistfully at Krystyana, which, it seemed, was
most of the time.
The poor kid was obviously smitten, and just as obviously, she wouldn't have
anything to do with him. It wasn't any of my business. I just don't like to see
anybody in that much pain. They were both about fifteen, and that can be a very
rough time of life.
I supposed that a certain amount of opposition to my plans from the workers was
inevitable, but I never expected Vladimir and Piotr to be against my building
plans. I had my drawings unrolled before us.
"I tell you that these indoor garderobes are a bad idea," Vladimir said. "I've seen
them in some of the big stone castles. They make sense if you have to stand a
siege. But that's the only time they use them, during a siege when you can't do
anything else. The rest of the time, they use an outdoor privy just like everybody
else."
"Shit stinks and you don't want it in your house! In the second place, wood
buildings can't stand a siege. They're too easy to burn down. So there's no sense
in putting in a garderobe in the first place."
"I agree with everything you've said, but you've never seen indoor plumbing. It's
completely clean and sanitary. No smells at all. And this will be more than a
garderobe. Besides the flush toilets, there's a washroom and a shower room. We'll
be able to clean ourselves and our clothes even in the wintertime. We'll have hot
water, too. There's a big hot-water heater built above the kitchen stove. I tell you
that a hot shower on a cold winter morning is a glorious thing."
"What happens to the shit?"
"It's flushed down these brass pipes until it leaves the building. Then it goes by
clay pipes to these septic tanks and finally to this tile field."
"I'll believe it when I see it," Vladimir said.
"Sir Conrad, what troubles me is the expense of all this," Piotr said. "I have
calculated that for what you are spending on cast brass pipes and all these pottery
toilets and washbowls and the valves and all, you could hire twenty
chambermaids for fifty years!"
"That's a pretty ugly job, isn't it? Hauling away someone else's chamber pots?"
"There are many who would take it, sir, and be thankful." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Linki