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Hank wakes up.
Of all the usual results of a blow to the head, this one probably isn’t even in the top four. One minute a misunderstanding with a crowbar and a man called Hercules—in retrospect that should have been a warning sign—the next…something else.
This isn’t the Colt Arms Factory, and it isn’t even Hartford. He’s in the middle of a ravine he’s never seen before. Must be a practical joke by someone who’s about to be unemployed. He groans, pushes himself to his feet, and works his way up the nearest slope. On second thought, this is less of a practical joke and more of a dream. The half-clockwork dog would be decidedly impractical to fake, and the enormous bipedal beetle is far too well-dressed.
At the top there’s a fence, with signs facing the other side. No gate is in evidence, but the fence isn’t too much of an obstacle. From the other side, the signs can be read as saying variations on “beware of the magic.” Huh.
From atop the slope, there’s at least a clearly visible destination. A nearby city, it may not be any city that was nearby when he was last conscious, but it’s better than here. He heads toward it.
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connecticut_yankee
connecticut_yankee
The needlework thing-that-was-probably-a-pun made no sense, but context was clear.
"Right. Priorities. There's a world to upgrade."
"Right. Priorities. There's a world to upgrade."
namesthesky
"I don't know of a specific boardinghouse to recommend, but there's a few of them on the Sunrise Row which I imagine fall within our price range."
namesthesky
Ayabel leads the way. Occasionally she pats the location where she stashed the papers to make sure they're still there.
connecticut_yankee
Hank is getting distracted thinking about glass and wire and sulfates.
"This is going to need some materials that might not exist yet. Do you have, um, alchemists here?"
"This is going to need some materials that might not exist yet. Do you have, um, alchemists here?"
connecticut_yankee
"People who mix various chemicals together while being grotesquely unscientific about it. The materials I was thinking of just now I could make from scratch with oil of vitriol, but if there are people known for working in funny-smelling laboratories with lots of glass bottles then it might be easier to see what's already available."
namesthesky
"I'm... not aware of any such people but my education has been less than systematic."
connecticut_yankee
"We can look into it later. Worst case is it costs some extra time to make things from the ground up."
connecticut_yankee
"For the light bulb. Glass, magnets, mercury, and wire should be enough to make the thing itself and the power it needs, but the battery—a device for storing the power, you understand—is going to need some unusual liquids."
namesthesky
"Magnets and mercury might be hard to get ahold of in quantity, as might your unusual liquids, but glass and wire are doable."
connecticut_yankee
"How hard? If it's prohibitive, starting with something else is always an option."
namesthesky
"Season is moderately important to the combine harvester's prompt usefulness and sounds less relevant to your other ideas, and unlike the messenger idea doesn't require convincing at least two people to make one sale. I definitely advise starting there so you'll have the leeway and reputation to advance other ideas."
connecticut_yankee
"And for that all we'll need is some craftsmen willing to make pieces for a machine they don't understand. It's purely mechanical; no new forms of power necessary.
But that also means if we do sell someone the machine or its services, they could just copy it. Not a problem most of the others have. Do you have patent protection here?"
But that also means if we do sell someone the machine or its services, they could just copy it. Not a problem most of the others have. Do you have patent protection here?"
connecticut_yankee
"If you prove you invent a thing, the government gives you the exclusive right to make them. No one can copy it without paying you first. The theory is that people will be more likely to invent useful things if they can profit from it more. Not that I invented this, but the point stands."
namesthesky
"I don't think we have that, although no one else is allowed to claim to have invented the thing independently if they didn't. And some people might back off if you loudly assert that Aelare gave you and you alone the design, etcetera."
connecticut_yankee
"Ha. That is an entertaining idea. But other people wouldn't back off? I could try conspicuously blowing something up, and claim it happened because the device only works on my say-so.
Or maybe it's worth trying to convince someone in power to invent the patent."
Or maybe it's worth trying to convince someone in power to invent the patent."
namesthesky
"How many of these things can you personally produce? Is it even a good idea to have it patented? Some of your ideas sound sufficiently hard to reverse-engineer that you could make most of your profit off those and let the harvester spread wherever people will take them."
connecticut_yankee
"If everything goes right, I don't need to produce things personally forever. Back at the factory in Connecticut, there were thousands of people making things for the Colt company. Mr. Colt ended up a very rich man.
The other wrinkle is that the harvester is likely to be the fastest at increasing prosperity wherever it goes. If I keep enough control of it, I can sell exclusively to people who use free labor. Or even exclusively to free countries...it's big. Maybe spreading it everywhere is the way to go, or maybe not, but that can't be undone."
The other wrinkle is that the harvester is likely to be the fastest at increasing prosperity wherever it goes. If I keep enough control of it, I can sell exclusively to people who use free labor. Or even exclusively to free countries...it's big. Maybe spreading it everywhere is the way to go, or maybe not, but that can't be undone."
namesthesky
"It sounded like it would substantially reduce demand for slaves just by existing. If you only want to sell to free countries we should pick up a few books on Tsopixi and go there."
connecticut_yankee
"It's an option.
Demand for slavery is definitely going to go down, the question is whether we can finagle things so it goes down even more than economics says it should."
Demand for slavery is definitely going to go down, the question is whether we can finagle things so it goes down even more than economics says it should."
namesthesky
"But if the harvester can be easily copied and you don't convince anyone to implement patents, then Tayane might just copy Tsopixi harvesters and continue having slavery by all the usual avenues."
connecticut_yankee
"Yes, that kind of thing is only an option if I can keep a monopoly. Otherwise everyone's productivity jumps, which isn't a bad thing, but doesn't directly benefit either us or abolition."