Eric Flint: Grantville Gazette. Volume XX

"Oh, I agree," he laughed. "A street full of houses with Christmas trees in the windows is a sight to treasure forever, though."

The boss was coming up the hill. Gerd Hartmann was with him, looking like he was ready to spit thunderbolts. The stranger behind them must be the foreign expert to figure out what was wrong with this new pumping machinery… what was he supposed to be again? Some new kind of mine engineer? Theodor Dranitz picked up the lantern at his feet and lit a second one from it. He handed it to Herr Winkler as they reached the entrance, but it was Hartmann who performed the introductions.

Theodor led the way to the shaft head, and began descending the ladder. The miller followed him down, and then the visiting engineer. Finally the boss started down. The engineer was still ten feet up on the ladder when a sudden realization struck Theodor. "Herr Bosboom, wait!"

Crack! There was a clatter and a muffled exclamation. The beam from the odd-looking lamp swung around wildly.

"Hold on, I'm coming back up. Here, I'll guide your foot to a solid rung."

He braced himself between the ladder and the opposite side of the shaft, and lifted. The light steadied above him.

"Are you all right?"

"I think so," came out with a hiss. "It feels like I strained my left shoulder. I should have let the lamp fall and grabbed on with both hands."

"I'm sorry about this. I've been meaning to replace that weak rung. All this confusion… Can you make it down the rest of the way now?"

"Yes, but give me a moment."

Bosboom slowly descended the last few feet. Herr Winkler came down, and Theodor led the party off along the tunnel. By now the whirring from Bosboom's lamp was slowing down, and it was starting to get dim. Hartmann asked, "Herr Bosboom, would you like me to wind that for you?"

"Thank you, yes. I wish I had some ice for this shoulder."

Theodor replied, "The water in the flooded shaft is almost as cold as ice. I can dip a rag in it for you when we get there, if that will help."

"It's worth a try."

Bosboom stopped when he saw the charred fragments lying on the tunnel floor. "What happened here?"

Theodor said, "One of the cover boards caught fire when all this happened. I knocked it off so the flames wouldn't spread. That's when I got this burn."

Bosboom looked down at the bandage on Theodor's hand, then turned and raised his lamp. Herr Winkler didn't seem to notice when the engineer stiffened. Hartmann did. He asked, "What do you see there, Herr Bosboom?"

"These wires here look like iron. They should be copper. That's one major problem right there."

Herr Winkler snapped, "There's no copper wire made around here. We were told that iron could be used to carry electricity."

Bosboom looked over his shoulder at him. "That's a common mistake, unfortunately. Our instruction sheets warn against it. Besides all the other reasons not to use it, iron wires would have to be at least two and a half times this diameter to carry the current. That's why they got so hot and started a fire."

Winkler waved his hand at the wires. "The smith charged me enough for the iron wire. Copper would have been unbelievable. That would have to come all the way from Saalfeld!"

"Actually, no. We have plenty of it at the sales offices in Halle and Magdeburg, and there are others selling it too. That's not the worst problem I see here, either. Well, let's continue the inspection."

Theodor answered, "This way, then, Herr Bosboom," and stepped forward.

As the party moved through the tunnels, Bosboom kept looking around at the bends, the drain channels, and the wooden covering over the electrical wiring.

Finally they came to another shaft, filled with water almost to the top. Theodor reached down into the water with a rag, and handed it to the engineer. Bosboom clapped it to his shoulder, and began examining the equipment lying on the tunnel floor, moving his lamp around as he did.

There was a cast iron pump secured to a hoisting rig, connected to a long canvas hose stretched out along the tunnel, and a loose coil of electrical cable running down from the end of the wooden raceway. The engineer looked it all over. Then he knelt down and took a close look at the pump.

He sniffed at it. "What on earth? Ohhhhh. "

The boss snapped, "What now?"

"Just a moment, while I make certain." Bosboom took the rag off his shoulder and wiped the nameplate clean. He brought his lamp up close.

"Well. To start with, this isn't a mine pump. It's for a village water supply system, and it's only meant for clean water with no muck in it. If the length of that discharge hose is any indication, it can't possibly force water up from anything like the depth of this shaft, and I don't see the pressure relief valve it's supposed to have in case of a blocked outlet line. That's why it stalled out and overloaded the wiring. There's no fused disconnect switch on the wall here. Now that I think of it, I didn't see one at the mine entrance either. On top of everything else, you had the fuses at the generator bypassed. This motor smells like it's cooked."

Winkler looked wide-eyed at him. " Cooked? Why would anybody cook a motor?"

Bosboom's shoulders shook for a moment. He coughed, then got out, "Sorry. A figure of speech I heard at the factory. It means it was probably ruined by overheating."

"So what does this mean? How do I make this pump the water out of here so we can get down to the ore seam?"

"With this pump alone? You can't. It's impossible. The most it could do is push the water up the entrance shaft and out of the mine, if you didn't have a drain tunnel at this level."

"What? This is supposed to be a good pump. It cost enough!"

"It is a good pump, or it was. It's just not the right pump for this job. It's not even the right kind of pump. All right, I've seen what I need to. Let's climb back up and go over what has to be done. We'll start by going through the instruction sheets for the equipment in the mill, I think."

Theodor dipped the rag in the shaft again and handed it back to him. "I'll climb right below you, in case you need help on the ladder. I'm very sorry about the fall."

Winkler stalked off down the tunnel.

Ilsabe nestled the covered pot into the coals, and scooped more coals onto the lid. "That will do it for now, Mama."

"Good. Why don't you go tell Papa and Stefan when we'll be eating? Peter will be back by then, if I know your brother." She winked.

"All right, Mama."

She walked downhill to the mill and stepped inside. The stranger kneeling on the floor must be the expert Papa was expecting. He was doing something to that machine of Herr Winkler's that had caused so much trouble. There were tools and small parts lying around it.

Papa was saying, "Stefan, his shoulder is hurt. Go help him."

"Don't you want me to finish getting this load under cover before dark, Herr Hartmann?"

"Well…"

"Papa, I can help."

Papa looked over in surprise. "Oh, Ilsabe. I thought you were busy in the kitchen."

"No, most of that is done. Mama sent me to tell you that supper will be ready in about an hour. I can stay and help here if you need me."

"Well, yes, you came at a good time. Ilsabe, this is Herr Jan Willem Bosboom. He's here from the company that made all this electrical machinery. Herr Bosboom, this is my daughter Ilsabe."

The stranger looked up. "I'm pleased to meet you, Fraulein Hartmann."

"Pleased to meet you, Herr Bosboom. What would you like me to do?"

"I need you to pick up one end of this generator while I put a block of wood under it. Then the other end, and I'll prop that side up as well. After that you can take off these nuts and we'll pull it apart."

Papa picked up his grease pot again and went back to the mill machinery.