Struggle in the Steam Age

"You're right, compared to the original corned beef, beef jerky or beef bacon. These stewed and soft canned beef are obviously much better than those things."

After hearing what Lawrence said, Safir opened the corner of his mouth and showed a toothache-like expression. She had eaten this travel food on a ship when she went to the Old World to study, and she had to say that the corned beef tasted terrible.

At least according to Seifel, even if the beef is cooked, it has the taste of a cork with a lot of salt.

"Yes, at least twelve or thirteen years ago before these cans were invented. Most ordinary people either had to eat all kinds of cured meat or pickles when they traveled long distances, or they could only eat high-priced food through some kind of extraordinary food. means of preserving food.”

Lawrence shrugged and said, "And now I have to solve another problem."

It is not only adults who face food problems during long-distance travel, but also some babies. Especially during long-distance travel, those breastfeeding women are likely to temporarily lose the ability to raise their babies due to fatigue.

Considering the high prices of all the supernatural items, Lawrence is going to make some popular enough baby food.

Fortunately, this world has very good industrial processing capabilities due to the development of the steam industry, and there are also races such as dwarves or dwarves who are good at making various machines.

So they quickly made a machine for making milk powder in Lawrence by recalling a few sketches they saw in their previous life.

Although this machine is the oldest pressure box machine among those for spray drying, it consumes a lot of power. However, after considering various issues such as cost performance and mechanical production difficulty, Lawrence finally decided to choose this machine.

After all, compared with the milk powder made by boiling milk in iron pots in some manual workshops, Lawrence is now finding a way to find someone to make this machine for the factory, which can be said to be extremely advanced.

"The first factory we will visit tomorrow is the dairy factory." Lawrence said to Safiel who was listening to himself, "In addition to these machines for making milk powder, I also ordered a batch of machines for making milk powder. Machines for other dairy products. We can go and have a look at that time.”

Throughout the whole day, Lawrence and the others spent most of their time looking at these materials, and even the food was served directly after the monster phantoms were prepared.

This also caused them to have to take a sip of sobriety potion each when they went out to ensure that they had enough energy to deal with various things when they went to the factory later.

When they walked out of the gate, Bach was already waiting for them at the gate. Then they drove together in a carriage to the industrial area on the other side of the southeast of the city.

After the carriage drove along the smooth stone road for five or six minutes, they quickly left the residential area and entered a two-way six-lane road.

Unlike the beautiful stone roads in the previous residential areas, the road surface of the main road is paved with coal tar pitch and gravel. According to the flashing street signs on the side of the road, one side of this road is connected to a large passenger and cargo mixed lake port called Baojianwan Dagang, which is seven or eight kilometers away from the tourist-based old city. It is connected to the industrial area.

And beside this road, there is a railway running parallel to the road. Through the window, Lawrence can see a train of steam locomotives dragging flatbed cars and stuffy tank cars full of various goods, heading for the port with billowing white smoke. .

"This is the railway from Baojianwan Industrial Zone to Baojianwan Dagang, with a total length of 17km. Now it is just a single-track freight railway." After the train drove away, Bach said in front.

"However, as the industrial zone is getting more and more prosperous, the most advanced railway 20 years ago is now a bit incapable. Therefore, the newspapers have been discussing whether to build another railway to take this Railways become double track."

"Where is the Great Port of Sword Bay written on the road sign?" Lawrence asked.

"I remember that we also came from Huguang City by boat at the time, but although the port where we landed is very exquisite, there are many flower beds and statues. But it doesn't look big, and we haven't seen any trains stand."

"The one you landed on is the tourist port, which is also called the Old Port by the locals. It is a small port that is only open to tourists going to the tourist city of Jianwan City." After hearing Lawrence's inquiry, Bach quickly said Explained to Lawrence the difference between the two ports.

"Xingang was only established when it was decided to develop this area 70 or 80 years ago. It can be said that it is completely a supporting facility for the industrial zone of this city."

"Different from the old port, the new port is a purely modern port. I heard that the loading and unloading work there has entered the era of mechanization, and the facilities are no worse than those of a large port like Eagle Hill."

In this way of asking about the local situation, the carriage that Lawrence and Safir took entered the industrial area.

I have to say that the chimneys billowing white smoke in the distance and the not-so-choking but obvious soot smell in the air gave Lawrence an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if he had returned to his college days.

After all, Lawrence didn't have a lot of money when he was in college, so he had to live in the attic of a tavern in the worker's area.

In this area, whether it is the dense residential buildings on both sides of the road, or the pipes and chains crossing the buildings and above the road, he feels a strange sense of intimacy.

"This is the smell of hope." When passing by the gate of a factory, Bach took a deep breath of the smell of soot that had become slightly stronger.

In this world, due to the strength of the natural gods and druids, as long as the regular factories do not do worse than those big factories in Lawrence's previous life in terms of environmental protection, they are even better.

Therefore, in this world, the smell of soot from the burning of fossil fuels is even considered a symbol of modern society. For example, when he was in the port of New Sauer, Lawrence heard many people think that this city is an important symbol of backwardness. That is, there is only the smell of the sea and the forest in the air, and there is not even a little bit of soot.

But then again, thanks to the priests and druids of the natural gods, they have developed technologies that can remediate various pollutions. Therefore, the waste gas and wastewater discharged from these factories are only ugly in color and pungent in smell, and will soon be harmlessly decomposed by nature.

So for the workers in this world, the environment in the factory is not very harmful to their bodies. What really affects their life expectancy is the high intensity of labor, certain noises, and the prevalence of infectious diseases caused by the harsh environment of the neighborhoods where they live due to dense population and basic unmanagement.

Fortunately, in this era, due to the high profits of the industry, various commodities have become cheaper due to modern logistics, and various Orthodox churches have severely cracked down on the excessive exploitation of workers for various reasons. Therefore, it is far better for the workers to go to the city and work in a factory than to farm land for others in the countryside.

When Lawrence's carriage arrived at the gate of the dairy, he was surprised to see a long queue of people waiting at the gate.

So after entering the door and exchanging greetings with the factory director who came to greet him, Lawrence asked what the people queuing up at the door were doing there.

"Under your order, this dairy factory is preparing to expand, so naturally more workers are needed." The factory manager introduced to Lawrence. "While we had prepared some technicians for the new factory, most of the workers needed had to be rehired."

"These people who are queuing up at the door now came to apply after hearing that we were going to recruit." The factory manager puffed up his chest and said proudly. "After all, we are the best factory in this area."