Chapter 169 Watches, Alarm Clocks and Photocopying Machines
"Your majesty, so these 'watches' and alarm clocks would be able to tell the time?"
"Hmhm... they will!"
Tim was really mind blown by the fact that such a thing could even exist.
Sometimes, he felt like Landon wasn't human.
No no no... scratch that!
Most of the time, he felt like Landon was a God in human skin.
The more he read the notebook in his hand, the more fidgety he became.
"Your majesty, will we sell these goods out of Baymard in future?"
"Yes... these ones will be sold out, since they work on Batteries."
The concept of Batteries, wasn't new to Tim and a lot of workers within his industry.
The only battery that existed in Baymard right now, was the one for heavy machines.
These ones consisted of sulfuric acid solution, and several flat plates that acted as galvanic cells in series.
Granted when they made their first battery ever, it wasn't as well done as those ones back on earth.... but it still got the job done either way.
The only problem was that those ones didn't last as long as those ones back on earth.
When they made their first battery, its outer box was made of metal... and some of the plates were done unevenly.
But once better tools and plastic came into the picture, Landon switched it up and modified several outer components once again.
All in all, these batteries were constantly improved upon monthly.
For wrist watches, tiny 'coin' or 'button' sized batteries were ideal for them.
And for wall clocks and alarm clocks, the Batteries needed to be like the ordinary batteries made back on earth.
Landon was talking about the ''A', AA', 'AAA' battery types and so on.
To make batteries, one needed special materials and chemicals that would aid in the transfer of electricity.
There needed to be a cathode, anode, and a fluid or material that would aid in electrical flow.
Landon was sure that the people outside Baymard, wouldn't be able to come up with the exact components and chemical solutions required for battery production.... without guidance.
So why should he be worried?
Even if they made the other components of the watches and put them together, the watche's hands wouldn't tick without a battery.
Take for example Lithium batteries.
He had already planned on extracting Lithium from 'Lithium Feldspar rocks' underground the caves, and use them to make ordinary batteries as well as coin batteries.
Lithium was the core drive within these types of batteries.
And if people didn't know how to extract it from ores and rocks, how were they suppose to make these batteries?
Plus other places didn't have plastic or rubber, to make the outer frames for wall clocks... as well as alarm clocks.
So there was essentially nothing for him to worry about.
Once Baymard officially opened up to the public in July, these items would be exported to various regions around Hertfilia.
"And your majesty, this photocopying machine is supposed to lessen the burden within the Printing Industry?
If it does what you say it can do, then the workers would probably celebrate in your honor!"
"Was it that bad?"
"Your majesty, you have no idea!
We have a massive waitlist from all the workplaces already."
Well, Landon could understand their joy as well.
To put it simply, when any workplace needed to make copies of any document, they would immediately place orders with the printing... do that their copies could made.
This industry handled school papers, reports, books, I.D cards, driving licenses, and other important documents around Baymard.
So if the hospital needed 20 copies of a particular document, the workers within the printing department would have to get it done for them.
Of course the hospital would have to pay for these services as well.
And all these printing orders had put everyone around Baymard on a waiting list, which greatly slowed down development and productivity.
Hence Landon had wanted to make photocopying machines A.S.A.P.
Firstly, all industry and workplace documents should be photocopied within those particular workplaces.
For security reasons, it wasn't proper to have confidential documents leave those workplaces.
And secondly, this would greatly improve productivity and efficiency around Baymard.
Everyone wouldn't need to run up and down the place, as they could just make several copies of multiple documents within their offices or workplaces.
And the printing Press could finally focus on their numerous jobs, like printing books, I.D cards, labels on several company boxes, plastic bags, clothes and so on.
Plus having a photocopying machine will also be good for the Landport and banks in future.
Any visitor or customer's document that needed several copies, could be done within those establishments... rather than running back and forth, and keeping these people waiting.
Now focusing on the machines themselves, the interior part consisted of 5 main components within them: a light bulb, a photosensitive drum, 2 rollers, a toner, and a conveyor belt for loading the paper.
Baymard already had conveyor belts... as they were previously manufactured at the start of October.
And of course light bulbs and rollers already existed as well.
So that just left Landon with the toner and the photosensitive drums to make, which weren't hard to do.
Anyway the machine worked like so:
When one places his/her document upside down and presses the start key, an intense beam of light (from the bulb).....flashes onto the document.
This light then gets reflected towards the photosensitive drum.
Now here's where the magic really happens.
This drum is electrostatically charged by a high voltage wire.. as well as coated with a photosensitive chemical (selenium).
Since Selenium is a semiconductor... that would mean that it would act as an insulator in dark areas, as well as conduct electricity when light falls on it.
Bottom line, when the light gets reflected off the document..... it reaches the photo-conductive drum, and gets its ions displaced.
As negative charges make an electrical shadow, the drum begins to rotate.
And finally, this negatively charged shadow moves towards a positively charged toner.
Negative and positive... you get the picture.
Both charges stick to each other, and an inked image of that document is formed within the charges.
Then a new sheet of paper is feed into the hopper of the photocopying machine.
The hopper carries the paper on a conveyor belt upwards, and moves towards the drum and the toner.
The charges drop onto the new sheet of paper, and the document is finally photocopied.
As the photocopied paper makes its way out of the machine, it will pass through 2 hot rollers.
These rollers aid in fusing the toner particles onto the paper permanently, by inserted heat and pressure onto it.
The whole process involved light, reflection, conductivity and ions.
Well anyway, this machine will have an "On' and 'Off' button on it.... and would work electrically, and steam powered (for those within buildings that don't have electricity).
A photocopying machine doesn't necessarily need the internet... it wasn't a printer.
Also, Landon had decided to add several other buttons at the corners of the photocopying machine.
Kind of like a keypad.
If they wanted to make 10 copies, they just had to tap '1' and '0' keys.. and then press 'Start'.
Well... with this, he decided to start teaching the workers a little bit about computer engineering as well.
Up next Landon Wanted to focus on Radios.