Magic Industrial Age

Number 19 Lombardy Street, inside the study.

Loy flipped through the documents in his hand, not even looking up, and asked, "Is the rail supply from the Caroline family not keeping up?

Douglas assured me that the quality and quantity would be guaranteed, absolutely no problem. How long has it been, and this kind of situation has already occurred?"

Maruna stood up straight, but upon hearing this, he smiled wryly with some helplessness, and said, "Young Master, allow me to say something, this matter really can't be blamed on the Caroline family.

They have already tried their best, but with the current situation, they are truly somewhat helpless."

Loy looked up, intrigued: "Tell me the details?"

"It's not that their production is too slow, but that we're doing it too fast..."

Maruna explained in detail, and Loy understood.

To say that the conditions Loy used to entice Douglas were actually just two.

First, Loy would pay for the shares of the railway company being purchased, without him actually having to pay.

When the time came, the shares would be directly transferred to Loy, and he would also receive 2% of the shares.

In other words, Douglas only had to move his mouth, and he would receive original shares of the Northern Railway Company worth ten thousand gold Thalers.

Even he could not ignore such a large sum of wealth.

Of course, Douglas was someone who wouldn't get up early without profit. After truly seeing the value of the shares, he actually paid the Thalers himself.

In other words, he is now a veritable shareholder of the Northern Railway Company, holding 6% of the shares.

Secondly, Loy promised to give the order for the most costly material for railway construction, the rails, to the Caroline family.

Loy proposed this, and it was what Douglas was most tempted by.

Undoubtedly, for railway construction, rails are the biggest and most valuable material.

Douglas had always wanted to get involved in this area, and the Caroline family's iron foundry's main product was rails.

However, the Caroline family's reputation wasn't strong enough, and Douglas was just a second-tier arcane mechanist, so he was somewhat lacking in the eyes of true big businessmen.

As a result, the produced rails were actually sent to other large factories, where they were picked and chosen. Only a portion of good quality was kept, and the rest were returned.

In other words, the Caroline family's iron foundry was just a contractor, and was still being nitpicked and exploited by the client.

Despite Douglas Hill's smiling face and exaggerated smiles, he was actually extremely annoyed with these clients.

It could even be said that he hated them!

So, when Loy proposed letting him be the 'client daddy,' he went for it without hesitation, even knowing that getting involved in aristocratic struggles was dangerous.

However, although Loy made the decision for Miller, he knew the importance of quality better than anyone.

Therefore, he and Douglas made it clear from the start that he could have the orders, and the price would be the market price, and he would never ask for it to be cheaper.

But there was one thing: the quality absolutely could not be poor!

And Douglas Hill agreed at the time, patting his chest and saying that there would be absolutely no problem.

But now there was a problem. It wasn't that the quality was poor, but that the quantity couldn't keep up.

But as Maruna said, this matter really couldn't be blamed on the Caroline family.

It was simply that the speed of railway construction was too fast.

At this stage, the workers were basically converted from farmers, and they still possessed the unique simplicity and diligence of farmers.

Loy's Northern Railway Company really didn't lack money, and the conditions offered were really good. Not only were working hours specified, but a lot of effort was also put into food, accommodation, and medical care.

As a result, a group of migrant workers found that life here was much better than at home.

Then, they used their own methods to repay, which was to work as hard as they could!

In addition, in order to catch up with the progress, Miller opened three sites, and the three sites started work regardless of everything.

As a result, the work efficiency was simply flying. The 360 kilometers of railway were being laid much faster than expected.

As a result, the supply of rails became a problem!

The Caroline family's productivity simply couldn't keep up, and even with the help of iron foundries in other surrounding cities, they still couldn't keep up.

This slowed down the speed of railway construction.

Although this matter couldn't be blamed on Douglas, the solution still had to fall on him.

Without much hesitation, Loy had Maruna prepare a carriage, and then took Mira and Gary to the Philante Magic Academy.

Inside the Moonstone Mage Tower, Loy saw Douglas, who obviously knew Loy's intentions.

Without waiting for Loy to speak, he said, "I'm already making contact, using the Mage Tower's channels to contact large iron foundries in the Ruhr area.

When the time comes, I will personally take the dimensional bag and go to the Mage Tower to pick up the goods."

"I guarantee that the rail supply will be restored in the shortest possible time, and it will definitely not be delayed. Please make this clear to you and Baron Miller."

Douglas was also holding back a lot of energy. It was his first time being a 'client daddy,' and if he messed things up, it would be like smashing his own signboard.

Therefore, he really used all his relationships of so many years, not only looking for sources of goods, but also arranging teleportation magic and dimensional bags.

The cost of this was undeniably high, but he knew it was necessary.

Since things had been said to this point, Loy couldn't criticize anything, but he still said, "Douglas, it's not that I want to nitpick.

I think that always reselling like this is not a good thing."

"Our Northern Railway Company is the first stop this time. Once we make a name for ourselves, we will definitely take on more railway construction projects than just one or two.

Are you sure you're not relying on your own production capacity, but relying on outsiders to help?"

Because they were familiar, Loy didn't have so many scruples when speaking. Douglas Hill smiled wryly and said, "I naturally know, but upgrading an iron foundry is really not as simple as you think.

It requires enough skilled workers and blacksmiths, otherwise the production capacity won't keep up."

Loy's mind moved, and he suddenly asked, "How is your blast furnace steelmaking going?

Up until now, have you really not achieved any results at all?"

"Well, it's not that there are no results at all, but the most critical problem has not been solved."

"What?"

"Furnace temperature! Making steel requires a sufficiently high furnace temperature, which can completely melt iron ore.

But until now, I haven't been able to find a feasible solution."

Loy became interested and asked, "Can you let me see? I also want to see what experiments you've done after wasting so many materials for so long!"

Douglas Hill hesitated slightly, but finally said, "Then come with me."

With that, he led Loy out of the living room and into the laboratory, and started to stroll around.

Loy had been to Douglas's laboratory more than once, and it was so messy inside that he couldn't even find a place to put his feet.

Moreover, the interior was filled with a smell of iron rust and machine oil. He pinched his nose, anyway, the smell was not very good.

However, under Douglas's initiative introduction, his research ideas, various experiments, and even experimental results on the topic of 'blast furnace steelmaking' were all presented to Loy.

Then, he discovered that Douglas was not without results.

If you want to melt metal and make iron, this world still has ways, especially in magical materials, there are many additives that can increase the temperature.

Douglas tried it, and it wasn't without results, but once he calculated the cost, he could only frown.

Magical materials have always been extremely expensive, especially before artificial breeding can be scaled up, they can be said to be limited.

Its price is naturally high, and people are a little reluctant to use it normally, let alone now.

If those magical materials were really set as commonly used additives, Douglas felt that the steel he produced would be so expensive that it would reach the sky.

If the cost is high, there will naturally be no competitiveness, and subsequent promotion will be different.

Therefore, Douglas had not mentioned these immature plans to Loy before.

Only now, when introducing them, did he say some.

This is also the current situation of arcane mechanical development in this world, which is always limited by the influence of classical alchemy.

However, the more he looked, the more strange Loy's expression became. He even paced around a machine constantly, rotating, always feeling that he had some ideas, he was about to grasp them, but he was always a little short.

Douglas was dizzy from his circling and couldn't help but say, "Loy, what are you doing around a universal power machine?

If you have anything to say, just say it?"

Loy suddenly grabbed the topic and said, "What did you just say?"

"If you have anything to say, just say..."

"No, no, the previous sentence?"

"I said, you're circling around a universal power machine..."

"That's right, that's the sentence!"

Loy finally looked up, looked at Douglas, and asked, "I found that all your designs have to include a universal power machine, but why?

Why a universal power machine?

Isn't that how they're used???"

Douglas's taken-for-granted words came out, and then he paused a little.

Loy said, "In other words, what you are doing now is actually converting arcane energy into kinetic energy, and then using kinetic energy to create high temperatures.

In this way, there is always one layer to go through.

But, is there no way to directly turn arcane energy into high temperatures?"

At this moment, Douglas's eyes lit up, like a lit torch.

This chapter is an extra update for volkerz, thank you for the 3700 starting coins reward!