by Miller, Ian
His first thought had been to reverse the principle of a small hand water pump that he had seen once before. Instead of a hand pulling the piston up and down, sucking and pushing water, the steam could come and go, pushing a piston up and down. Simple! Except that it was not that easy. Valves could easily be designed to open when they were pushed from one side, and close when pushed from the other, so the water did what was asked of it, and a hand can equally push or pull. Steam, however, would only push. The problem with the entry valve was that the steam was always pushing, so closing it to stop steam entering was difficult. Worse, if the steam closed the exit valve while it was entering, it would push even harder while it was supposed to be exiting! What could he do?
After speaking on this to Timothy, he received the laconic reply, "Use geometry."
Great! How?
"Quite simple, really," Timothy shrugged. "You need two paths, and a means of switching."
"Explain!" a frustrated Gaius muttered. But Timothy was not that interested in going further. Conceptually, the task was done.
He saluted another cohort, then glanced out at the marching legion. Not far away was a small crossroads, and a number of carts were waiting patiently. Then, as one cohort passed through, a Centurion stopped the next cohort, and waved the carts through. That, Gaius realized, could be the principle. He needed valves that could be opened and closed, and he could see how to achieve that: he needed some form of controller to switch paths at the right times. A rocker arm would do that. The valve could comprise a single path with, say, a right angle in it, and it could switch between two positions. In one configuration it would connect the steam generator with the cylinder, and in the other, achieved by turning it ninety degrees, it would connect the cylinder with the exit route. That should work. The valve would comprise a cylinder with the path through it that moved tightly inside another cylinder with connecting paths to the steam, the piston, and the exit. That would be easy until, he realized, someone had to make this contraption, and join it to the various pipes.
If the piston drove a wheel, that wheel could drive the rocker arm, as it had to be in phase. The problem now reduced itself to working out how he could make levers pull or push one or more valves into one or the other position. He quickly realized that simply fixing the valve to a lever would not do, because most of the time the valve would be closed to everything. It needed to be fully open to steam through almost all the power stroke, and fully open to the exit through the venting stroke. After some thought, he settled on a rocker arm plus a lever. The rocker arm would have a pin, and the lever would permit the pin to slide up and down a space. Accordingly, when the lever reached close to one extreme of its path, it would pull the rocker arm, which in turn would move the valve one way; when it reached the other extreme it would push the rocker arm, which would push the valve to the other position. All he had to do then was get the timing right; that would be roughly calculated, but could be adjusted later by trial and error for finer tuning. If that did not work, an alternative might be a cam; a wheel that would rotate, but because of an asymmetry, such as a groove, or a different radius, would move a switch.
Now that he had defined the problem properly, there were so many possible solutions that he had a new problem: which of these were the most likely to work? He would think about this and design something, then make a model and see if he could make a lever from a wheel move a rocker arm between two positions on a regular basis with sufficient force to turn a valve.
* * *
Eventually, the last cohort was marching down the road, and Gaius could return to his tent. He changed into less formal clothing and sat down to an early lunch of bread, cheese and fruit, then he drank some water. Sooner or later he would have to pack up this tent and leave, but that could wait. His orders were to remain in Judea, which presumably meant proceeding to Caesarea. There was no hurry; he could get started tomorrow, and leaving it for tomorrow might save him effort as he understood that a few soldiers had been sent from Caesarea to assist him.
He had to find somewhere peaceful where he could be alone. There was an olive grove nearby; he would find some shade there, sit and think further on his invention. In the event, nothing came to him, but it was, nevertheless, very pleasant. For the first time in months he was not responsible for anything, and he intended to enjoy not doing anything, and taking a long time not doing it.
He was about to return to camp when he saw a man and a woman walking towards him, and from the way they had altered course after seeing him, and the woman had pointed at him, they were obviously looking for him. As he got up and they got closer, he recognized the woman: Rebecca, the Christian woman he had saved from being stoned for blasphemy by some Jewish fundamentalists.
"Greetings to you," he said, as they approached.
"Greetings," Rebecca replied. "Legatus, this is James, the brother of Jesus, and James, this is Legatus Claudius Scaevola."
"As it happens, I am no longer a Legatus," Gaius replied with a smile, "so I am afraid if you want something, I may not be able to help."
"I gather you were responsible for the extraordinarily large amount of money that was thrust upon us yesterday," James said. "We wish to thank you."
"You will thank me best by using it only for the benefit of the poor," Gaius replied.
"It will all be so used," James replied. "Why did you do that?"
"I chose you to distribute it because I thought you would be the most trustworthy for that purpose."
"What I meant was, why give it to the poor through Christians?"
"You think it was atonement for Romans crucifying your brother?" Gaius asked curiously.
"Was it?"
"Sorry if I disappoint you, but no, it wasn't."
"Good! I would only be disappointed if it were. But you haven't answered. Why?"
"Then this will probably disappoint you. I honestly don't have a good reason. I came across a group of Jewish thieves who were trying extortion on a caravan and a group of Roman auxiliaries who were probably also demanding money from the caravan for protection. I was really annoyed, but I didn't know what to do. Then that solution just came to me. It was the one solution in which nobody in the wrong could benefit, and the ones who did benefit were those who were completely innocent, at least on this matter, and who really needed help. I trust you to give it."
"And you didn't try to benefit yourself." This was a statement, not a question.
"Why would I?" Gaius said in a puzzled tone.
"That you ask that question is its own answer."
"You're going to try to convert me," Gaius smiled.
"No, I'm not," James shook his head. "There is no need to convert you, as you put it."
"You can't be both a priest and a Legatus," Rebecca added.
"My brother was a great teacher," James continued, "and he always insisted it's what you do that counts. The solution, as you put it, may have come to you, but it came from somewhere."
"And you know from where." This was also a statement.
"Where you think it came from is irrelevant," James shrugged. "What is important is that you listened."
"You must keep listening," Rebecca added. "There will be many more times . . ."
"I'm afraid you're wrong there," Gaius gave a harsh laugh. "My reward for bringing peace and stopping unlimited bloodshed was . . ."
"Your reverse will be temporary," Rebecca interrupted.
"You seem certain?"
"I am certain," she said. "If you keep listening to where your idea came from, you will do much good."
"I am a soldier," Gaius said in a slightly bemused tone. "A soldier's job involves killing."
"Yes, but what happens when you have won?" Rebecca asked.
"I see where you are going," Gaius nodded. "What I don't understand, though, is why you came to me?"
"You have done a good deed," Rebecca replied, "so I prayed for your soul."
"And?" Gaius asked impulsively.
"I received a
n answer," Rebecca said. "I was instructed to tell you that to find your own way, you must keep listening to the goodness in your heart and open your eyes so you will see all that is around you, open your mind so you can do something with what your eyes and ears provide, and when things seem to go bad, and they most definitely will, you must do what your heart tells you is right."
"I see," Gaius said, without any particular conviction.
"I was also told that you would doubt this," Rebecca continued, "but eventually you will see. In the meantime, you must listen. You should also do one more thing that the Master taught."
"Which is?"
"The Master taught that we should do unto others as we would wish them to do unto us. When you conquer, think about the conquered. Put yourself in their place, just for a moment."
"They would want us to leave," Gaius smiled, "and we're not going to do that."
"Yes, but if they accept that they are conquered, there are different ways of being treated."
"Yes, there are," Gaius nodded. A strange feeling came over him, as he realized that Athene had said almost the same thing. "I shall remember what you say."
"And now we must leave," James said, "for we have taken too much of your time. Again, thank you for the money, and may the Lord be with you, now and for ever more."
"And with you two," Gaius replied.
As he watched them walk away, he later told Timothy, for the first time since he had received his orders dismissing him from the legion, he felt at peace with himself. With the peace came realization: another part of the prophecy had been fulfilled. Perhaps his career was not yet over.
It was only later that another thought occurred to him: was Rebecca's answer from the same source as his prophecy?
* * *
When Gaius reached Caesarea, he reported to Marullus, Prefect of Judea. His instructions from Caesar had included continuing with his non-military career, and to assist the Prefect with administrative tasks, which might provide useful experience and might also benefit Judea. As it happened, Marullus was elsewhere, and it was unclear when he would return.
There was some news from Rome awaiting him. Lucilla had married Quintus. Strictly speaking, as eldest living male within the family, he, Gaius, should have arranged the marriage and given Lucilla away. Knowing his sister, the first part would have been impossible. As it was, there was no immediate male relation available and apparently this lack of available males made this the wedding of the year in Rome, for Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus announced that he had been instructed by the divine Tiberius to look after Lucilla, and he would honour that responsibility by giving Lucilla away, and by ensuring that Quintus would answer to the Princeps of Rome if he did not treat Lucilla properly. After considerable religious procedures, and considerable feasting, the spelt bread was duly eaten and Lucilla was taken into Quintus' house.
Quintus then decided that he would make himself responsible for the running of the family estate. His argument was there was nobody else to do it, given that the eldest son was absent. Even if his younger brother could have run the business, he too appeared to have died with the rest of his family in the cave-in. Gaius snorted at this news, and sent a message back that the Steward was doing a fine job, and while he, Gaius, appreciated Quintus' offer of help, the Steward would make the final decision. The Steward, after all, was answerable to the Head of the family.
He so wanted to return to Rome, but after much agonizing he accepted Claudius' advice. He could do nothing for the dead, but Little Boots could ruin his career. Without doubt, he thought bitterly, Little Boots considered this a sort of test. There was nothing for it, short of inciting a revolt, to sit back and await the pleasure of Little Boots.
Such was life. But however bad Little Boots might seem, at least it was not as bad as the last days of the Republic; when Caesar bribed his way to the Senate with Crassus' money and supported Crassus in his search for military glory, to the cost of how many Roman lives? When Caesar used legions to conquer and loot Gaul for no better reason than that he had to pay off the debts incurred while bribing his way to influence. When Caesar invaded Britain, then left largely because the tributes he got were as much as he felt he could milk easily from that wet and dismal land. Ironically, that gave Little Boots an out for his disastrous attempt to invade Britain for when the first Gaius Julius Caesar could not conquer Britain, somehow it did not seem as bad when the second one did not.
Not that that was much of a consolation. His immediate problem was Little Boots, and there seemed to be nothing he could do about such a problem.
Chapter 3
His thoughts returned to his engine. The only time he ever thought about his engine, he noted to himself wryly, was when things were going badly for him in every other way. Right now, they could hardly be worse, so he was back to it, perhaps on the basis that it was the only problem he had where he thought he could make any progress at all. The trouble was, he was not exactly making progress on it either. He needed inspiration, and moods like this were not the place to find it.
Until this point, he had really been playing with this concept of an engine. The engine had been a distraction, and a reasonably successful one for it had given him sufficient challenge during dark times that he never resorted to despair. However, now his general thinking was beginning to crystallize onto a final object, which meant that the time was approaching when he had to test his theories. To do that, he had to get things made so that he could assemble it, but before he started making things, he needed to make some decisions. The first decision was whether he would really commit to it. This was going to take a lot of time, and a lot of money. Did he really want to spend that time and money? But for Athene and her prophecy, the answer most certainly would have been, "No!" Now he almost felt he had to. From her tone, and her body language, it had seemed very important to her, but why?
Then, if he decided to proceed, he needed to know how big the final engine was going to be. There were two questions here: how big could it be, and how big did it have to be to demonstrate the principle. The smaller it was, the easier and cheaper it was to make changes if something went wrong. On the other hand, it had to be big enough to demonstrate that it could do something meaningful, and it should be designed in such a way that a larger version could easily be made, essentially as a scaled copy. He would have to think about this.
Meanwhile, if steam was going to drive this piston, he needed to get lots of steam in very quickly, which meant he needed big enough pipes. How big was 'big enough'? The issue really was, though, how big should, or perhaps it was could, he cast his cylinder? And his piston? Once he decided that, the valve had to be made so that steam could be driven in and out of the system, and fixed to the cylinder so that it would stay there.
That meant designing some means of fixing everything, but leaving room for anything that had to move. The valve, or valves, had to connect the cylinder to both the boiler and the condenser, which also had to have a means of returning water to the boiler. That would need a small return valve that might operate by opening the condensate to the boiler when its top valve was closed. This might be drivable through the same rocker arm, but the two valves would have to be some distance apart, so maybe not. Could he design a cylinder-type valve with two paths, one of which would do one job? What would it look like, and how could it be put together. Perhaps he should make wooden models made with his key pieces, and see if that would help his thinking on the layout.
Then he needed to build a much larger version, but out of what? Iron was the most desirable, but maybe bronze would be easier, at least to start with. Could he make a big enough mould? For bronze, at least the answer was yes, and even if he did not know how to do it, the casting of large bronze items had been done many times. If he specified what he wanted, he would find someone to cast it. The next problem was how to fit the valves? Fire-welding? Maybe. But if he could cast his cylinder with the end sealed, but with small piping extended for the valve or valves, th
at would be a lot easier later, and hopefully a lot stronger. This joining of things was becoming more of a problem than he had considered, largely because if his machine was going to do anything useful, the steam pressures were going to have to be very high, and that very same pressure that was going to do his useful work was also capable of blowing his machine apart.
He would think about it, and record his thoughts.
* * *
"Your engine won't go for long," Timothy warned, after Gaius had explained his latest designs, "if steam is flying everywhere."
"The trick is to recover the steam!" Gaius said triumphantly. "Let me think. I've got an idea on that too."
"And where does this recovered steam go?" Timothy asked.
"To another cylinder," Gaius explained. "There we condense it, and keep the water to reboil."
"And all your steam comes flying out when you try to put the water back in," Timothy pointed out.
"Just need a suitable valve," Gaius shrugged. "A minor detail! The most important detail is can we get anything to work at all?"
"I don't see the point of something that lasts just a few minutes," Timothy muttered.
"The point is, if you can make it work at all, you can work on the problem areas, improving them, and eventually you can make it work well. If you can't get anything out of it, you don't know what to do next, and sooner or later you give up."
"Which, of course, you have no intention of doing," Timothy nodded, almost in dismay.
"Not yet," Gaius shrugged.
Timothy stared at him, then finally asked, "Why this burst of enthusiasm for this steam motor?"
"Takes my mind off my problems," Gaius admitted. "Little Boots is doing what he can to mess up my career, and there's nothing I can do about it."
"Slaves tend to have their careers messed up too," Timothy pointed out.
"It seems I never learn," Gaius shook his head. "I should never have given you that opening." He paused and looked ruefully towards a palm tree. "Yes, life's unfair, and I've had a better start than most, but I wasn't complaining. I was merely explaining. I'm really pissed off, but what can I do?"