Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1172: WWI: Preparation for stage 2

Capítulo 1172: WWI: Preparation for stage 2

February 1700. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

In the blink of an eye, a year had passed since the Bharatiya Empire conquered Cape Town, the Kingdom of Lynden, and several European colonies across Africa.

Throughout 1699, earth-shaking changes had occurred in the continent of Europa with the establishment of the European Union, but that doesn’t mean the Bharatiya Empire was at a standstill.

Utilising over 8 million workers, nearly 70% of the planned telegram lines had been laid down, stretching distances of more than 30,000 kilometres. Although this was only possible due to advanced digging equipment and an almost crazy investment of resources, the result is still astonishing.

Due to the telegrams being laid down, the dynamos have also begun to be manufactured on a large scale, and state-owned energy companies took root in every state throughout the empire, supplying electricity to the telegram line.

With the telegram put into operation, the Empire’s communications entered the era of almost instantaneous communication. Although it is still a far cry from the communications technology of even the 20th century, it is already 100 years ahead compared to the Europeans, who haven’t even perfected the theoretical concepts of electricity.

Anand Binoy, shortly after power companies were established across various states, released the commercial version of the bulb, having perfected a design powered by electricity generated by a dynamo.

Large companies that were nationalised due to the emergency, thanks to the military investing resources to scale up production and modernise the technologies, received telegram connections right into their offices. So when Anand Binoy came up with the bulb, the manufacturing companies found it a lot more convenient, bright and safe than the gas lamps. So with the existing telegram line, they implemented a separate line for electricity, which can be used for lighting.

If the companies were run by private individuals, the bulbs would not have caught on, because the telegram line itself cannot be used to power the bulbs, because the principle of the telegram currently used is nothing but turning on or off the power using switches in an alternating pattern to form a Kumar code. Such a current that is constantly turning on and off is naturally not compatible with the bulbs that need a constant current.

So a separate electric wire had to be installed for the supply of electricity. The Industrialists would have ignored the upgrade since the gas lamps still worked well, and the cost of the copper wiring was a little too much, but the military had no such concerns. Cost is almost not considered at all. The only thing the military considered was whether the efficiency of manufacturing would improve if the new technology is implemented, and when the answer was yes, the upgrades were swift.

But that doesn’t mean the military will blindly follow the newest trend, whether it is useful or not. In fact, the bulbs were tested in a small industrial area first, and only when the results were good did they move forward with national implementation. Since the implementation was done nationally shortly after the trial ended, it is safe to say the military was very satisfied with the effects of the bulb.

As industries slowly began to adopt electric bulbs, the news about their adoption slowly seeped into various circles in the empire, whether academic, entrepreneurial, or others.

Some people, such as labourers and office workers, did not react at all, as it had no direct impact on their lives. The bulbs were installed only in large manufacturing companies across the empire, and even then, only within major industrial zones. They could not be seen anywhere else.

There were, however, a few individuals with keen insight who recognised the novelty of using electricity as a power source instead of gas or steam, and this discovery filled them with excitement.

It was not difficult to see why. The invention of the steam engine, a machine powered by steam, had transformed the entire landscape of the Bharatiya Empire. From transportation and manufacturing to construction and beyond, its impact was absolute. The same had been true of gas when it was introduced, as it swiftly took over the lighting market once dominated by kerosene lamps. Now the question loomed, how far could this new source of power, electricity, change the empire?

So people immediately started researching this novel source of power, understanding it so that more devices could be run with it.

Almost within a few months, hundreds of research projects, both private and public, started throughout the empire, absorbing funds from both the state and the private.

Noticing the changes unfolding across the empire, Binoy, who was taking a well-deserved break after years spent researching the dynamo and later the bulb, quickly returned to his work. He threw himself into the task of developing an advanced dynamo and inventing instruments capable of transmitting electricity over greater distances.

For the Telegram, this was not a problem. Electricity was used merely to energise the wire in order to transmit messages from one point to another. It required neither high precision nor great intensity. Lighting bulbs, and eventually powering other devices, was a very different matter. The existing dynamo was far from sufficient. Over short distances, it posed no issue, but across long distances, it could not maintain a stable supply. This was the primary reason electrification was limited to large companies, and even then only to a few located in major special economic zones.

With dynamos being manufactured and implemented across the empire on a large scale, it naturally attracted the interest and attention of top researchers and scientists throughout the empire. While Anand Binoy dove into research on a more advanced dynamo, several research groups attempted to use other methods to drive the dynamo. One such group from the Bharatiya Institute of Technology in Varanasi, including the chief researcher and his students, directly began researching how to use petroleum as a fuel to run the dynamo.

The basic idea behind this research was that, with the spread of electricity throughout the empire, the need for petroleum and gas would be drastically reduced. The scientists believed that petroleum, being a much denser fuel than coal, should be able to produce more energy and thus be far more efficient than coal in running the dynamo.

Another research group completely took a different approach. It did not want to run the dynamo by either coal or petroleum, but by using the pressure of water. The research team wanted to use the high-pressure water falling from the dams to turn the dynamo to generate electricity naturally, without polluting the environment. The team that came up with this research was from the Bharatiya Institute of Technology, Shillong, driven by the Chief Minister of Ahom, who is a big anti-pollution spokesperson.

The people of Ahom have been targetedly educated about the harmful effects of pollution due to industrial smoke, and due to this movement, a faction has been formed in the intellectual circle called the environmentalist faction, whose main goal is to come up with gadgets and inventions that reduce or even completely eliminate pollution.

The faction was not too large, as their only developments were solar cookers and other small gadgets, which were popular due to their novelty but did not catch on with the public, since most of their products are not as convenient as the gas stoves that are popularised throughout the empire. But everything changed with their idea of using the water from the dam to run the dynamo. This idea brought them immediate recognition throughout the intellectual circle, and the funding came in from both the government and the private sector.

Subsequently, Vijay heard that a few branch projects derived from the hydraulic dynamo projects were also put forward, like using the power of wind to turn the dynamo, and using the tidal waves of the rivers to turn the dynamo.

This was a welcome change that Vijay wanted to see. It is good that people learn the concept of not polluting the environment, so that the situation, like in the future, where a country can only become developed after going through the phase of being polluted to the point of choking to death, could be avoided.

Anyway, the point is, the empire was bustling with activity, making him happy.

As far as the military is concerned, more battleships have been manufactured. Mostly the classic models, like the Delhi class, Kolkata class, Chennai class, Guwahati class, and others. This is mainly because battleships like the Maharaja Ramachandra class are too complicated to manufacture. So, in order to go against the Europeans, who had gone mad, Vijay decided to take the route of the 19-20th century British, to overwhelm the opponent with superior numbers while maintaining a very high quality of warships.

That is not to say that high-end combat power is lacking.

Putting aside the 12 Ramachandra class battleships, the empire has produced over 5 Maharaja Ramachandra class battleships throughout the year. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but being powered by twin turbine technology and the newest weapon systems, a single Maharaja Ramachandra class battleship is equivalent to at least 3 Ramachandra class battleships. One could say they are not in the same league at all. Its speed itself is catching up with the sail-powered clippers in the military.

As for the situation of war, it has been relatively calm. Well, relative in terms of conflict between two continents and two hemispheres of the world. But in reality, several battles took place in the Atlantic Ocean between the Bharatiya Atlantic Fleet and the fleet of the coalition.

The Bharatiya Empire wanted to keep the naval bases they had occupied, while the Europeans wanted to take back the colonies and get back the leverage in order to counterattack the Bharatiya Empire. The battles were brutal, with both sides not giving in. But sadly for the European coalition, the Bharatiya Empire was not as helpless as it was in the Mediterranean. The logistic lines were very solid, and given that the lines were actually composed of naval bases throughout the western coast of Africa, even if one or two ships were intercepted by the flanking European scavengers, the logistic line could not be broken permanently.

There was one problem, though: the logistics lines were stretched too far, as resources had to be sent from the mainland around the globe to the northwestern edge of Africa. This gave the Europeans a slight advantage, enough to match the Bharatiya Empire in terms of combat effectiveness, an advantage that only grew as the European Union came into being and more resources were poured into the war.

The integration of the coalition navy also deepened, with the command structure unified throughout the battles, turning the war into a testing ground for the Europeans and making them harder to defeat with each passing engagement. Thankfully, the logistics department of the Bharatiya military acted quickly and established Madagascar and Cape Town as relay stations for the war.

This was Vijay’s idea, where commonly needed weapons, ammunition, and equipment would be sent beforehand to Madagascar, even before the frontline requested them, so that when it did, the distance to travel would not be too long. Cape Town followed the same principle.

The only difference was with heavier weapons. Systems such as rocket launchers, Bhagat B 2 missile systems, torpedo systems, and modular naval guns were still kept in Madagascar, since Cape Town was a newly conquered region with many unstable factors. However, ammunition of all kinds and smaller defence equipment, such as rifles, sharpshooters, machine guns, multi-barrelled volleys, and the like, were stocked in Cape Town. With this method, instead of supplies being sent directly from the mainland to the frontline, they were dispatched from Cape Town, cutting the distance by almost half and significantly reducing replenishment time.

Thanks to this method, the Europeans could not persist any longer, and they suffered a lot of losses. Around three months ago, their attempts to take back the colonies ceased, and they entered a period of recuperation, during which Vijay did not make any moves either, since the empire was accumulating for the next big battle.

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