The Mechanical Era

Yesterday, while the Peterson twins were working on the printing press, Kant had got a stonemason to come over to the palace, to help build him the first-ever school the city had for the commoners.

Arjun had picked a man named Decan Hurst. A 54-year-old bald tall man with a very sleek chin a large brown beard and a few wrinkles and freckles on his face. He normally wore breeches made out of leather with a light tunic and a short cloak, as a sign of his craft when in public.

He had arrived at the palace gates, where he was guided by the knights and maids to his office. They knocked on the door, and once he was given permission, he walked inside. Kant Maybale, who had turned around, walked over to greet the man himself. Decan was about 1 inch taller than Kant.

"Welcome, Mr. Hurst. Please sit down."

Kant grabbed the chair for him. Decan appreciated his kindness. After Kant sat on his swivel chair, it was when the conversation began.

"So, I heard you have a lot of experience regarding your craft?"

"That I do sire. I have been in this skill for about 35 years now."

"Wonderful. Now as I stated in the letter I sent you. I need help in building a school. For the people to start learning to read and write."

"Why is that sire?"

"Many reasons. But the simplified version is that I need to show the merchants the cost benefits of my new product called cement, and to help increase the literacy among the population."

"I see sire. Do you happen to have a floor plan?"

"I do. I prepared one yesterday night. Here."

Kant gave him a rolled piece of white paper. He was surprised when he saw its color. Touching it, he felt the high quality compared to the normal paper he uses. Putting that aside, he unraveled it and looked at what Kant made.

The buildings seem to have about 5 stories tall, each story being about 4m tall. Every floor had 16 rooms consisting of 12 classrooms, a teacher's lounge, a room for the staircase, and two bathrooms separated by gender.

Each room is about 85m2 in area and is fitted for 12 students in one classroom at a time. the teacher's lounge is however slightly larger, at about 95m2, taking up a bit of area from the staircase.

Decan was notably impressed by the design, yet the amount of time to grind the stones properly, insert the glass, and many more would cost him the palace a lot of money. It was then he remembered the cement, and the wonders it can do, according to the factory workers.

He lay down the blueprint.

"Sire, with all due respect, this is a pretty good blueprint for a building this size. But I feel that it would collapse with proper structural support. Considering it has 5 stories in total, I recommend adding multiple columns to keep it up."

"Other than that, is there anything else?"

"Just a few questions. I heard of cement's capabilities from a friend of mine. How much is the factory producing per day?"

Kant opens his drawer and takes out a file. He starts skimming through it, trying to find a specific piece of information. He suddenly stops, takes a closer look, and closes the file.

"Currently we are producing 20TPD, which means tons per day. The factory has been operational for 5 days currently. So far we have about 88 tons of cement in storage. Which is about 2063 bags in total in storage each weight 94 pounds."

"How many bags do we need for the brick layering?"

"I think for about 1m3 of brickwork, we would need about 1.8 bags. 0.0019 m3 with the mortar for each brick."

"How thick are the walls?

"About 0.5m. Designed to be heat insulated."

Decan sat back on the seat. He started calculating the number of bricks needed for the job. It took him a hot 3 minutes for him to come up with an answer.

"We would need about 75,000 bricks just for the outer wall. About 135,000 bricks for the inside of the wall, discounting the columns. Add everything else up and we might be looking at... maybe around 250,000 to 400,000 bricks off the top of my head. Maybe 500,000 bricks to be conservative.

Normally it would take at least a year or two to properly grind the bricks and build it over the years but, taking into account this new technology, it could take up to 3 to 4 months of building. So we will be able to finish off either in the beginning or the middle of the summer if we start construction on the first of next month."

"I see. That is good enough for me. Yes."

"Yes. that's about right. Is that good enough?"

"Yes. Even better actually. I can use that time to prepare other things. Like the furniture and all."

"Indeed. Now, how would you like for this building to look? You gave me a basic blueprint of the building, but it won't be enough."

"I would like you to design one. You are the expert here, after all. " Kant opens his drawer and places a large file of drawings. Decan opened it up, to find near photographic drawings of buildings, both exterior and interior.

They all featured a unique architectural design he has not seen. Their characteristics are liner, sleek, and often geometrically in rectangular forms arranged or broken up by curved ornamental elements.

The interior was typified with rich colors, bold geometry with detailed works. To Decan, it was extremely unique, creative, and aesthetically pleasing. He asked Kant what style this was, while still admiring its beauty.

"The name of the architectural style goes by the name of Art Deco. I would like for the school to feel like something more than a building. To be more of a start something big, something important, that they will be part of."

Decan looked back up at Kant.

"Give me about a week and a half sire. I will come back on at least the 29th to submit a blueprint of my own." He said. Kant smiled.

"Accepted. I am glad we can work together Mr. Hurst. I will have prepared some stones for this project's construction."