Midwinter calling, day 36

Looming future

Drilling out the cannon barrel has been slow, but it has been done, and it seems to be a very good job. I have a huge respect for those who figured it all out the first time, and attaching and fitting the cannon was difficult. But water power works well to rotate the cannon, while the drill depth of the bore is hand fed with a crank. Making the center not move and actually be centered was another problem, but that was solved with a collar around the outside of the cannon, and small wheels against the outside of the cannon. By using the mechanism and rotating barrel as a simple massive lathe, it was possible to make the surface there fine, and then there was the actual drilling. But a long strong wooden beam with multiple guideing wheels seems to have kept it stable enough, and the cannon is not that long. The hardest part has been the drilling, and all the chips that have to be cleared, to slowly drill a small bit, feed out, clean, check the sharpness of the drill, and start again. At least I haven't had to do that job, and Gunhild have been happy to be oversee the work.

A small positive thing is that the cannon has become somewhat lighter, but it is not that noticeable. We will save and reuse the metal shavings for future castings here on the island. With an angled brass mirror on a long stick and a flashlight, I inspect how the hole turned out and there don't seem to be any cavities, which I'm pleasantly surprised by. I guess we'll truly see the first time the cannon is fired with overpressure. I don't want to have to make an iron pipe to use as an inner pipe, and if this is really bad, it just might have to be scrapped and started over. The workers are pleased when they are called back in and given the good news. Gunhild have seen my flashlights, but everyone don't have to know what kit I got.

We'll try to improve the small iron cannon's barrel surface by trying to drill it as well, but there isn't a lot that can be remove from the sides, and I don't want to weaken it unnecessarily. So it's more about making it better than making it perfectly drilled, but the iron cannon is not a priority. It works as it is, but slightly better is slightly better, and I simply want these expensive things as good as they can be if I need to ever use them.

But now they will try to rifle the bronze cannon barrel. A gear is installed on the mechanism that feed the drill in and out, and it will very slowly rotate the cannon so that it makes one turn to the bottom. With a special cutting head, rifling groves are cut one at a time, and the cutting head is adjustable to cut the grove a little deeper and wider each time, so there will be several cutting repetitions for each grove. Just a little at a time and slowly and carefully.

I have finished the loom, assembled it and am in the process of installing the thread in the loom when the others understand what it is I have built - a new type of loom and more advanced - so I get very motivated helpers to ensure that the loom is quickly ready for use, and it is a bit funny to see how Iselin 'draw rank', while Hillevi said it was her turn. A loom need so damn much thread and preparation for weaving takes a lot of time. They will start using the loom with two pedals and test that it works well while they learn the technique and try out which shuttle is best etc, before they move on with more advanced weaving like with two over and one to two under, patterns and other. All of the women - Jane excluded - can weave and know the principle and different patterns from using vertical looms, so they will quickly become skilled at this, I assume. Jane is mostly curiously looking on and eventually she asks;

"Okay, I sort of expect you to know a ridiculous amount of science, technology and general nerd stuff, like figuring out how to make a glass mercury thermometer which I had no idea was that bloody complicated - don't you dare saying this is hard level again! - but a more advanced weaving loom? That didn't even cross my mind. I never even thought about improving the hanging vertical looms they're using. How?"

"In Scandinavia, all kinds of crafts and such are still a popular hobby, particularly among the older. Before I saw the vertical looms they use here, I was kind of expecting them to use something like this even though I knew of other far simpler designs. My grandmother had a horizontal loom like that when I was young, and I remember using it twice to help my grandmother, and I made a small rag rug, maybe a meter long, when we visited when I was about 8 or 10 years old or something. Patience of a child. So I based this loom on that memory. The hardest part was actually figuring out how to make the loomcomb, reed or whatever its called in English - don't ask me why it's called 'weavespoon' in Swedish - and to be honest a lot of the flexibility and adjustments in this loom are because I don't know how it should be, or if there is a better way. Like the thread shuttle. I don't know which will be best, so slightly different design, two with wheels, one with adjustable tension on the thread and so on."

"You remember a loom you used a bit when you where 9, well enough that you could build this? That's bloody impressive."

"Not really, you took music and piano lessons, equestrian lessons and such when you were young. You remember those and can design saddles."

"Robert, I spent so much time doing that. Years. And that was just ten to fifteen years ago. You couldn't have spent more than a few hours, before I was even born. Wow, that made you sound really old. "

"Well, I'm old for this world. I should have grown kids and be a grandfather. I guess the loom was fascinating because it stuck. I even remember the colours and general pattern of one rug; white, light blue, dark blue and black, going back and forth in stripes. I have seen big mechanical machine looms in technology museums, but they're very different. Looms where among the first machines that started the industrial revolution, and are important. I plan to make about two successively more advance looms, but this is the first. One will be a small upgrade with what I recall is called a flying shuttle, which makes it possible for one person to weave wider, and the next after that is to automate weaving. In the hand operated you pull a bar or string to send the shuttle to the other side, and it will probably be a lot of trial and error there. That loom will be using a standing comb instead of a hanging one like this, because it will help the shuttle stay against it, where the shuttle runs in the V shape between the comb and the threads.

I really hope to eventually make an automatic programmable pattern weaving loom using punch cards probably in wood and linked together with leather straps or strings, but that won't be for at least a couple of years. I also hope to build a carding and a spinning machine to produce threads on bobbins, but I need time to practice with the material and try. I need to figure it out, because even though I have used one and know the general idea, reality always complain if the details are fuzzy. I've seen a few designs and my mother had an antique, and you must have seen them too, at least in paintings. Disney's Sleeping Beauty was sent to sleep by a spinning wheel, and 'Maleficent' showed them."

The Disney reference give Jane a smile, and we watch as the others are working on the loom.

"Will you be giving away all the plans for this too?"

"I don't know. Things like this is a huge dilemma for me. Consider this: I make a company that buy wool or linen. Then I have workers using machines for carding it, spinning it and weaving. Say it all produce work equal to some ones normal work in quality, but at a third of the time and cost. I can pay my workers well and still sell cheaper than everyone else, and make good profit. Good right?" Jane nods, and it's Capitalism 101.

"Here's the problem: Say you have a sheep farm and you sell the cloth that you have carded, spun and woven. That's your main income, but it is a staggering amount of work, and the normal price here is just something like 1 ounce silver for 9 meter long and 90cm wide cloth. Then I come along and sell cheaper. What will people buy? The cheaper cloth if its the same quality, so the sheep farm will have to lower its price to compete. But what if my cloth is cheaper and still a bit better. The sheep farm have to lower their prices more to be able to sell, and the sheep farm live close to margins already and that will ruin them. The work and time they put in won't be worth it, but they might not have much choice. They might just have to lower cost, sell slaves, and instead sell the wool directly to me, and then maybe go to work for me weaving it. Their life might not be better, but I will be richer, and other people will be able to buy better cloth for a cheaper price. Fewer people will have work, but since a lot of that is slaves the market for them will decrease which is a good thing.

But what if I buy slaves to work at my company. No wages. What if there is no other work to be had? Poor becomes poorer. Starve. Be forced to sell their land, and then I can probably buy the farm cheaply because who wants to buy a farm that works at a loss? Most farms have different animals, and sell their surplus they produce to afford to buy other stuff they need, but not all land works for every animal or crop. I will be competing with them. People farming in the hills of Scotland was forced away by landowners, because the landowners could make more money by raising sheep and selling the cloth. Introducing machines, even something as simple as a loom might make a big impact in the long run. More machines? Bigger impact."

Jane looks at me and she gets what I mean, and she knows I'm not really interested in getting filthy rich. IUDs, life preservers, hammocks, water pumps, sanitary items, nutritional knowledge, better agriculture, ferries, etc, are cheap technologies that improve for many, while not worsening their lives or those of others. Firearms, medicine, etc, affect society but not in the same way. Spinning and weaving machines will change society, and what people earn money from. And desperate people make desperate decisions.

"Sure, I can simply not make that company and not buy slaves, but I believe that anyone that sees a machine like that loom being used, will be able to figure it out and copy it. They are not stupid, and it's not like I used magic to make it. Someone else will make that company and they will most likely be greedy and not care, or just see improved business opportunity. I don't see a market to sell looms, but I might. But once created they will have an impact, and sooner or later society will change. I can of course not 'invent' stuff like this, but sooner or later someone will. So, what I can do is try to make the change for the better if I can try to control it, aware of its likely impact, and before there is a huge population that will be badly effected.

Certain machines would save a lot of time for the common woman and daughter, carding machine and spinning wheels in particular, and I hope that it will be possible for most to make their own or that I can sell them quite cheaply, so they will be having more free time to learn stuff or play, although that time will probably be used for other work instead.

I hope to use the efficiency of mass production to keep some control of the invention. If I introduce something important that everyone wants, and do it cheap with mass production and machinery, more can buy it, and no one will really be able to copy and sell it as cheaply if they can't compete with my production method or scale. They might make one for themselves or sell by trading their time for a bit of money, but they can't sell them for much more than I do, if my supply match demand. New inventions for stuff that haven't existed before, don't really take work from other craftsmen. It usually takes time from generic unskilled labourers. It will create work for maintenance of my inventions or making improvements, and that will probably be higher status work.

Most likely I will make a deal with say a woodworker to produce the machines, or split the parts between several woodworkers for just that extra bit of trickery, or just hire workers to make them in my own factories. Then start a company with the seamstress guild or whatever that group is called, so they can use the looms and someone else will run the company and deal with day to day business, but I get part of the earnings. I become a passive partner, but keep at least some of the control.

A big horizontal loom like this will probably be too big for the average longhouse, but it would be possible to make a folding one to stow away and use less space when not in use, but still take more space than a vertical one. Even a spinning wheel might take up too much space, but could be made to disassemble. Although it is likely that both will become status symbols they want guests to see. One idea is that I create weaving shops in many villages, where women take their wool and work my machines, or something like a cooperative where they borrow machines and pay a percentage. I don't really know or have decided that yet. It is damn tricky to get the right balance with economics, society, time and control, and I sure as hell don't understand life here well enough."

Jane is clearly contemplating about what I've said and its implications, and that I'm not just making stuff for the sake of making it. We just stand there and look at my sambos working on the loom and they basically ignore us as we talk in the background. They're used to us talking, although I always feel bad about keeping them out when using English.