Capítulo 21: A New Subsidiary?
It took two weeks before the plant became operational and started producing air brake and locomotive draft gear on a large scale. The engineers that were hired by Poul are now working alongside him as they design a new product that will take the safety of railway transportation to a whole nother level.
Besides the main office house of the Axelsen & Nielsen Air Brake Company is ten thousand square feet of a building that will serve as the office and a home for the engineers. It has a natural heating system and water filtration system similar to the apartments of the five hundred workers.
The building ran on gas, meaning the light source of the building is from gas lamps. It was an expensive commodity but that's only temporary. When the young industrialist duo got their hands on the direct current generator and light bulbs from James Russel, he'll shift it to save cost.
Inside the building was a drawing room. There, engineers have their own spaces where they can draft schematic and detailed designs of the existing product of the company should they have something to add or improve on the design. And currently, the engineers were all there, listening to the words of Poul who was speaking in the front while pointing a stick on the blackboard.
"Remember when I told you that there is a bigger enemy that an air brake can't beat? Well, I'm going to reveal it to you right now. It's the mess that the railroad companies created," Poul revealed and continued. "There are over hundreds of railway companies building miles and miles of railway tracks haphazardly and without concern for public safety. As you can see in this map, you can't even differentiate who owns who."
The engineers looked at the map posted on the board. There, they saw railway tracks completely overlaid the twelve states. They couldn't even see the name of the cities in the states as a track that could've belonged to one of the hundred railroad companies is on top of it. Not only that, the railway tracks are spreading to the west due to the westward expansion.
The more they look at the map, the more they see the point Poul was making. It was a safety issue. Railroad companies build railway tracks wherever they please. There's no concern for public safety or for the passengers of the locomotives.
This made them curious as to what Poul had to offer to fix the given issue.
"I have an idea, but it will take a huge capital to build and a lot of convincing talks. It will be a separate entity from the Air Brake Company—"
"Wait, may I interrupt?" Walter asked in his naturally deep voice.
"Proceed," Poul permitted.
"A separate entity? Are you planning on starting a new venture?"
"Yes, and I have just the right name for it," Poul paused for a dramatic effect. "I call it the Axelsen & Nielsen Interlocking Switch and Signal Company. It's going to be under the Air Brake Company, a subsidiary if you might call it. Its sole purpose is to manufacture railway signaling equipment, build new systems, and provide services. All of you here are going to help me design about one hundred to two hundred devices and patent them."
"Can you provide a simple explanation as to how it works?" Timothy raised a hand as he spoke. The concept was new to everyone so it's only natural to ask.
"It's easier if I start with the problem," Poul began. "Steam locomotives often operate on the same tracks, and the driver of the train doesn't have any idea that there is another train using the same track. To know that, there'll be checkpoints of men waving signals that give the driver instructions, like, should they stop? Should they reduce speed? Or wait as the switchmen pull a lever to switch tracks? Whatever the point is it's too manual and oftentimes there are human errors. Our niche is to make it automatic, using systems of pneumatics and electricity,"
After he explained it to them, the engineers were a little bit unimpressed with the idea. Poul understood their reactions as they must have not yet conceptualized the idea in their head.
"Come on guys, am I the only one getting excited here?" Poul said, feigning sadness.
"Uhm…Sir Poul. Is there another easier explanation that can help us understand your idea better?" One of the engineers asked.
Poul rubbed his chin and hummed as he thought.
"Basically, the signals will indicate to the train when to stop, start, slow down, move forward under control, or move forward at full speed. The concept of interlocking was created as far back as the late 17th century. Interlocking simply is the operation of switches and signals so that trains move on certain sequences. Automatically of course."
"So like the air brake system?" Walter spoke. "It's like how you remove the need for a brakeman to stop the train manually at each car."
"Yes, yes!" Poul clapped and pointed at Walter. "That's exactly right. Automating the systems would save railroad companies a lot of money."
"I think I understand it now," Timothy chimed in. "It was a basic yet ingenious principle and I would love to work on that. So, Sir Poul, how about the air brake? Are we going to ignore it? Like you know there could be an improvement to be made?"
"The air brake system that I develop is an automatic one. It's a fairly advanced technology that offers safety to the passengers and to the train. It doesn't need improvement, yet. Let's focus on this one first."
"Well, you are the boss. We are hired to do our job given to us," Timothy stated.
"When are we going to start?" Walter asked.
"We are going to start in the new year. Okay, that's all everyone, dismissed."
Poul ended the meeting and quickly left the engineer's office and headed straight to the main office.
Upon arriving there, he saw Jonathan, eating grilled steak and corn on the cob.
Jonathan glanced up and winked at him. "So you already informed them about the new venture?"
"Yes, they were enthusiastic about it," Poul said as he grabbed one corn and took a bite of it.
"Really?" Jonathan raised a brow, sensing a lie on Poul.
"Okay, you can't be excited at the thing you can't understand. Give them time," Poul replied before taking another bite of his food.
Jonathan chuckled at that answer. "Do you think they are going to get suspicious of us randomly introducing revolutionary technology?
"That's impossible. The nineteenth century is the era of miracles. Even a kid can invent revolutionary technology. Speaking of which, I read a newspaper about a certain princess in the British Empire performing medical miracles. Do you think she's like us? Instead of an engineer…she's a doctor? Hmm…now I wonder, could it be the same doctor who checked Morgan's daughter? The more I talk about this, the more I get interested in this princess."
"If it happens to us, then it can happen to others. For us, getting whisked into this world after death is already an impossibility. We cannot be certain anymore. Let's focus on our business first. Now that our new and improved factory is operational we can start making forty air brakes and twenty locomotive draft gear per day. Enough to meet the demand by the end of the deadline, which is ten months from now."
"Yeah, and we can't deny the possibility of government intervention in safety. It has been their concern and is looking for a way to prevent it. If our air brakes, signaling, and interlocking system proves to be effective. Then imagine a scenario where the government would mandate every railroad company to retrofit all trains with air brakes and implement our system?"
Jonathan sighed in glee. "More money I guess."
"When that day comes, our operation will surely expand at an unprecedented rate. We are badly going to need a secretary? Do you have any luck with Mister Morgan?"
Jonathan shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. He doesn't have someone he can recommend to us at this moment. Don't worry, we'll find one soon."
"I sure as hell hope so," Poul said.
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