I will spare you all the details of the prototype discussion, but the nice part about hand-tool crafting is that you have more of a chance to rectify mistakes before you get too far into the mess. My mistake was in trying to design the whole thing from scratch. The carpenter had examples of most of what I wanted to combine sitting on his work bench. Basically I wanted a plane (something I hadn't ever seen in person, but is used to shave thin layers off of a block of wood), but with the blade more vertical. So we had the idea communicated, I left him with one small box of the blades for sizing and testing, and he promised to have that handled within the tenday, since he could pawn the small job off on his apprentices as a small bit of what he called "practice on essential detail work." Which I guess was code for the fiddly bits that he had fun making the design for, but didn't want to make multiple copies of. All told, the prototyping process would run about ₮30 for the initial build of the item, along with one rebuild if any corrections were needed. If no corrections were needed, then I'd get a 33% refund. Any additional units would be created for the cost of ₮4 per item, without a minimum order. If I wanted more after the first batch was built and they had moved on to other things, the minimum order would be five units. That seemed a bit pricey for the upfront costs, I was making much less than that per month in my last position, but that was much less than it would have been to make them out of metals and much faster as well. And I did need them in a hurry, which probably showed, weakening my haggling position. So, I accepted the terms, understanding that I was paying for the master's design time as well as materials and a premium for the rush order, which made it more palatable, despite the estimated total cost of ₮54 to get all the units I'd need and one spare. That was roughly three times my prior salary. Ouch.

With the prototype build now arranged for, I decided to check out the clockworks while I was here in what had become something of a crafting district. This was purely for my own entertainment, but I'd had some ideas come to me that I couldn't do anything with because I couldn't figure out a way to implement them with existing technology or even describe them very well in terms that made sense to this world. I didn't think this would change that, but it would give me a better image of the level of technical craftsmanship that existed within reach.

It turned out I was very very wrong about the first part. I'll put this down in two words. Mechanical calculators. They exist here. I'd forgotten we had those for nearly 100 years before the cheap ubiquitous electronic calculators such as I had used became popular. Even my idea of the adding machine was just an electronic calculator with a built-in mini-printer for the tape, but such things were not original inventions so much as electronic recreations of a mechanical, gear driven system. I lost the rest of the day. OK, that's not fair. I spent the rest of the day gawking at the wonders of mechanical creations in terms of gear driven technology, both the spring-driven, and some of the larger lever and flywheel style armature systems that could be easily adapted to become electrical motors/generators. The joy of simpler electronics was that an electrical motor was effectively just a generator run backwards and vice versa. If I could get one working, I effectively have the other working as well. Given that flywheel-powered systems exist here, then it's clear that basic, large scale electric generation should be doable. I should have realized something like this existed since the test boxes for the electroshock system required the tester to crank up the system a certain number of times, but I had not really paid attention to the set-up. I had been focused on magic at the time, having decided that the local tech was beneath my notice.

Gah. My retrospectively clear bias that because this was a less technically advanced civilization it meant they were dumber than my last one is coming back to bite me right on my assumption! How much other stuff had I just flat out missed because my technological lens was warped by the times I had lived in? Just because it's not electronic doesn't mean it was not a viable solution to the problem. The electronic part made it cheap to bulk manufacture, but it wasn't any better at adding than these solutions were. I was surprised that the Omni didn't have any of these, but then, I hadn't been to the Mathematics or Engineering schools, because they didn't have anything "new" and "flashy" to offer my magic-obsessed self. That's something to maybe consider while I have some time during the testing and data gathering processes before the analysis begins. I really wanted one of the machines, but it was listed at ₮19, and I couldn't justify it until I had a real need for it, or I'd earned a paycheck in my current position, which was paying out more than double what I'd made at Heinrig's store. I'd offered to take less, but was reminded that I'd have to pay for my own lodging in The City, and that I wouldn't have a garden, so I'd have to fund my own cafeteria plan as well. Finally, I'd have to acquire a wardrobe more appropriate to my new station, which Wilhena had seen to the initial purchase and provision, but I'd have to maintain and replace as needed. I wisely decided to cave on that issue.

Once I finished with my gear-driven flights of fancy, I did purchase a small wind-up toy something like those cheap walking chompers, only it was a four-legged crocodilian shape instead of some creepy chattering walking teeth.

I spent the evening using it as a fine control exercise for my telekinesis, winding it up and watching it romp around. It was more fun than playing with rocks, even if it was less power effort, the control required to hold the toy still and simultaneously gently wind the key rapidly drained me.

After I cleaned up and headed to bed, my brain kept going for a bit. Spring powered. Gear driven. Man, I've been blinded by my own arrogance...