Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1197: The Sangapathi engine (1)

12th March, 1702.

Bharatiya Academy of Military Sciences, Headquarters, Nagpur, Akhand Bharatiya Empire.

Mahasangapati sat on a bench outside his office, his face filled with uncertainty, worry, excitement, and anticipation. These emotions were contradictory, but life itself was complex, and feeling all those emotions at the same time was only human.

The corridor where his office was located was an enclosed space, with the only light being from the bulbs, which were powered by a dynamo on the other side of the building. In fact, the entire building he was in, and the laboratory he usually conducts his research in, were completely underground.

Naturally, this was not something that happened very often. Not every day did a research proposal warrant such extreme caution from management that it had to be conducted in complete secrecy. Yet that was exactly what occurred in the case of Mahasangapati. After his research proposal, an internal combustion engine, was accepted by senior researchers Indira Karma, Venkataraman, Harish Malhotra, and Hemant Mithra, his project’s secrecy profile was, for reasons unknown to him, elevated to SS-In status.

As a result, he was instructed to carry out his research in a sealed underground laboratory located directly beneath the headquarters of the Bharatiya Academy of Military Sciences, in the Empire’s military capital, Nagpur.

It has to be said, he doesn’t like it here. He cannot come into contact with sunlight for days at a time, and his interaction with the outside world has been completely cut off. He felt like a caged bird here, very stuffy, but despite the inconvenience, he could not complain because the resources that were allocated to him were simply too great. Not only was he allowed to recruit interested researchers throughout the academy, but he was also allowed to recruit them from wherever they are within the empire, even if they are part of another research group.

Usually, management stayed far removed from matters concerning team selection and formation for a research project. However, given the special nature of this project, they completely greenlit every decision he made regarding the team members he wanted. They even stepped in to mediate with senior researchers who would be losing personnel from their own teams, so that those researchers could be reassigned to his project.

Not only that, in terms of funding, he was practically given an unlimited amount. He could even use the funding to build a prototype to simply test one of his theories. Over the years, he had lost count of how many prototypes he had made. He was so spoiled by the funding that he didn’t even know if he could go back to that time when he had to calculate each and every varaha and use the money sparingly.

Sometimes he thinks, if it weren’t for the uncomfortable working situation, it wouldn’t be too bad to extend the period of research for a few more years, but alas, SS-level secrecy is no joke. No matter how much he complained or how many times he got sick, the management did not budge. They even threatened that it is possible to find other senior researchers to conduct the same research in his stead.

This enraged him, but at the same time made him understand the level of importance the Empire attached to his project. He realised that it was no longer just his work; it had become something far bigger than himself. So, despite feeling slightly dejected that he would never again experience the same level of support for other projects in the future, he chose to prioritise his health and complete the research on the internal combustion engine at the fastest pace possible.

He worked without distraction, putting in over seventy hours every week for the last two years. Finally, all his hard work paid off, as a very high-fidelity prototype was built and was ready to be tested.

That brings him to his current situation, seated outside his office, feeling a complicated mix of emotions, originating from his contradictory desire to remember the last two years, which were entangled with a sense of nostalgia, as well as the pain and suffering he had gone through.

"Prof, the director is here and has requested that the test be started at the latest."

His office is directly connected to the laboratory, with only a wall in between separating them. His office and the laboratory are basically like two flats next to each other on the same floor.

Looking at his deputy researcher, Rajesh Kulkarni, who was leaning out of the laboratory, Mahasangapati nodded.

"I’ll be there in a minute."

He took in a deep breath and stood up, and squished a soft foam ball, trying to calm his turbulent thoughts and soothe his restless mood. This was the habit he picked up over the last two years in order to handle the stress he felt in his work.

A minute later, he calmed down, and although his face still looked pale due to the time away from the sun, he looked to be in much better spirits.

As soon as he entered the laboratory, several men got his attention. It was the senior researchers who greenlit his project, Indira Karma, Venkataraman, Harish Malhotra, and Hemant Mithra. He immediately smiled and greeted them. Although they were not part of the project, they still participated once in a while as guest researchers, helping him whenever he got stuck on a problem.

The other person who caught his attention was a man with a burly and tall build, wearing military attire. Looking at the insignia on his hat and the stars on his shoulder, Mahasangapati immediately realised that this was the director of logistics of the Bharatiya military.

He immediately became a little cautious. In the current situation of national emergency, and with the empire being switched to war economy mode, the man opposite to him, the director of military logistics, is one of the most powerful people in the empire. His rank is only lower than His Majesty the Emperor and His Highness the Prince.

"Ha-Hello, Sir," he greeted with a humble attitude.

Rakesh nodded and greeted back with a smile on his face, but he was in a hurry, so he did not waste any time on pleasantries and small talk. "Mr Maha Sangapati, the military, and even the Emperor himself, are very optimistic about your project, so please let us see your project come to life."

Mahasangapati nodded. He let out a sigh of relief in his heart. He did not want to do small talk and pleasantries either. He was already stressed as it is; social interaction would only drain more of his energy.

Maha Sangapati looked to Rajesh Kulkarni and nodded.

Rajesh Kulkarni understood the gesture and immediately removed the wooden block that was covering the prototype they had just built.

Rakesh looked at the lump of metal with great interest. He was not a researcher or a scientist, but he worked a lot with steam engines, more specifically, the trains used to transport all the military goods, so he knew the working principles of an engine. But this thing which he was seeing in front of him was nothing like a steam engine. Of course, given the project they had funded, his surprise might warrant someone saying no shit, Sherlock. Still, seeing the single piston engine design for the first time made him curious.

Maha Sangapati was happy that the engine immediately got the attention of the director, so he did not hesitate anymore and proceeded with explaining the engine he had developed.

"As the director already knows, we have been working on an engine that works on the principle of internal combustion, and this engine right here is the culmination of that idea and efforts for the last two years."

"It is named the Sangapati engine model I, which is a four-stroke internal combustion engine, as it works in four stages like so." He pointed towards Rajesh Kulkarni, who swiftly took out a chart and pointed to the four stages of the engine.

"It is a single cylinder vertical orientation engine, and its displacement is about 850 cubic centimetres."

Rakesh realised that Sangapati was about to go into all specific detail, like length, breadth, and all those things, so he simply stopped him as he raised his hand and directly asked,

"What’s its power output?"

Maha Sangapati was taken aback to be stopped mid-presentation, but he absent-mindedly answered, "It’s 6.5 horsepower at 600 RPM, and if you’re talking about torque, it has a maximum torque of 28 Khanda metres at 400 RPM, with an operational range between 200 and 700 RPM." The data was already burned into his brain, so there was no need to refer to anything when answering.

Rakesh’s eyes widened. "Wow, it’s even more powerful than the Pragathi engine?" His expression was a bit exaggerated, but it could not be helped. The Pragathi Mark 1 engine, the first compact engine that was used for various purposes, including fitting on a bicycle to turn it into a mobile unit, only produced a power output of 1.25 horsepower. But now he was seeing a prototype that is supposedly capable of producing a power output of 6.5 horsepower.

Doesn’t that mean this one internal combustion type engine is comparable to over five Pragathi Mark 1 engines? Although the latest Pragathi engines have become much more powerful, it still took four iterations to break through the 10 horsepower mark, and that too was done after increasing the number of cylinders in the engine and increasing the overall weight.

’Given that this is a single-cylinder engine, can its power be increased further if more cylinders are added?’ He didn’t know much about engineering or mechanics, but he did know that more cylinders meant more power, so this got him excited.