He Opened A Matchmaking Agency In 18Th Century London [EN]: Chapter 17

17. Mine Accident

Despite Tae-oh’s continued requests, the mine owner only chuckled.

“Haha, really—what money do you have to cover all those costs? What if that expensive machine breaks down? Do you have the money to pay for all of it? If not, keep your mouth shut!”

Tae-oh took out the investment agreement for 100,000 pounds from his inside pocket and waved it around.

“Can’t you see the agreed amount of 100,000 pounds written here? This money is raised under my responsibility to invest in the steam engine. Moreover, the investors are all generous people, so if I explain the current situation, I can withdraw the money at any time. So, trust me and start the machine quickly!”

When Tae-oh even took out the investment agreement, James Watt, who was next to him, spoke up, his voice laced with worry.

“Mr. Sanderson, I’m not sure how efficient my machine will be yet. I feel sorry too, but if we force the machine to run today, it might cause even bigger problems. I think it would be better to just observe for now, don’t you think?”

However, despite James Watt’s dissuasion, Tae-oh did not back down.

“No! I trust Mr. Watt’s steam engine completely. In this situation, I have no doubt about how much value Mr. Watt’s invention will demonstrate!”

“…Pardon?”

James Watt was passionate about his research and confident in its results, regardless of whether others recognized it. However, he was always cautious about commercial success or use in environments that exceeded its limitations.

To him, Tae-oh’s strong belief gave him an indescribable feeling of emotion.

However, the mine owner still did not change his mind.

“I don’t even know how much water is in there, and how much coal I’ll have to burn to pump all that water out. Why do you keep talking nonsense? It’ll probably take all day just to pump the water out.

And I can’t take such a risk with that investment agreement paper, which isn’t real money!”

“I will take responsibility and compensate for all the losses! So please, start the machine quickly! We really don’t have time!”

At Tae-oh’s desperate pleas, even the miners around him gathered one by one, surrounding the mine owner and sending pleading glances.

The wives and children of the flooded miners also approached, wiping away tears with a small hope that something might happen.

However, the mine owner, undeterred by this atmosphere, raised his voice even louder.

“What? Aren’t you going away? No way! Am I supposed to run that expensive machine just to recover one corpse? Who told him to go in? It’s the fault of the person who went in when I told him not to! I’m never going to run the machine, so get out of here! And you, please stop talking nonsense!”

But it was at that moment.

Matthew Bolton, who had been silently watching the situation, stepped forward and spoke.

“Mr. Rodney, I will guarantee it.”

“…What did you say?”

“I mean I will guarantee the machine. So please, start the machine and pump out the water.”

The mine owner, who had been adamantly refusing, tilted his head.

“Mr. Bolton is guaranteeing it?”

“Yes. If there is a problem with the machine, I will take full responsibility for the guarantee. Of course, I will also take responsibility for the consumption of coal. So, let’s run the machine and pump out the water as Mr. Sanderson says.”

Bolton, who had been short of money due to recent business expansion, was moved by Tae-oh’s confidence in the machine and the pitiful appearance of the miners’ families.

The mine owner finally relented and moved, as Matthew Bolton, one of the most famous rich men and steam engine sellers in Birmingham, offered to guarantee it.

“Hmm-hmm-. Well… since Mr. Bolton is doing that… I guess I’ll trust you.”

The mine owner shouted to the miners who were gathered around.

“Hey! Don’t just stand there, hurry up and prepare to run the machine! We’re going to run the machine and pump the water out of the mine. We’ll need several times more coal than we were preparing for the test run. So bring more coal from the warehouse! Move quickly, quickly!”

As soon as the mine owner’s order fell, the miners began to move in an orderly manner, with the expectation that they might be able to save their colleagues who were flooded in the mine.

“Hoo-”

The moment Tae-oh sighed in relief,

Suddenly.

Someone hugged Tae-oh tightly around the waist.

Looking down, it was a child covered in black coal dust. He looked like the son of the flooded miner.

“Charlie! How can you hug someone like that? You’ll get the gentleman’s suit dirty!”

Tae-oh stopped the surprised mother from running to the child.

“No, no. It’s okay. No problem at all. I can just wash the clothes.”

Tae-oh knelt down and met the child’s eyes.

“Did you hug me because you’re thankful that I helped get your dad out?”

The child nodded silently with tearful eyes.

Tae-oh stroked the child’s head and asked.

“You’re such a good boy. And I’m more grateful and proud that you think so. Charlie, right? How old are you, Charlie?”

“Ten years old.”

The reality that this small 10-year-old child was mining coal in the mine weighed heavily on Tae-oh’s heart.

“Charlie. Let’s wait a little longer. If we just pump out all the water, your dad will definitely come out alive.”

“Yes. Thank you so much.”

The wife and children of the flooded miner also bowed to Tae-oh repeatedly, expressing their gratitude.

While Tae-oh was comforting the children and their mother, James Watt ran to the steam engine and carefully examined it to ensure that his machine could perform at its best.

And,

Whirr-, whirr-, thump-

As the miners quickly shoveled coal and lit the fire, steam began to rise, and the axis of the massive steam engine slowly began to move.

Whoosh- whoosh- puff- puff-

The steam that went out through the cylinder created movement, and the heavy rod repeatedly went up and down quickly with a loud noise.

Shh- puff- shh-shh- puff- shh- puff-

But as they watched it operate, exclamations burst out here and there from the mouths of the mine owner and the miners.

It was because of the power and speed that were on a different level from the existing drainage system.

“Wow- look at that! The power… the power is completely different? The rod goes all the way up.”

“And it’s incredibly fast too?”

“Yeah, and they haven’t even put in much coal?”

“It’s really unbelievable!”

The miners who were watching the machine forgot about the urgent situation and exclaimed.

They had only seen Newcomen’s steam engine, which had poor efficiency, so they were all surprised by the performance, which was several times better.

In fact, Watt’s steam engine had already had its first demonstration a few months ago with Bolton’s full support. And the steam engine installed now was an upgraded engine with more than 50 horsepower, which had slightly improved the problems that came out of it.

While the existing Newcomen’s steam engine required 20kg of coal to create 1 horsepower, James Watt’s steam engine only needed 600g of coal. It was more than 30 times more efficient.

Gurgle- gurgle-

Before long, the underground water that had filled the mine tunnel began to drain, and the water began to recede rapidly.

“Look there! The water is already flowing out!”

“Oh, really? The old machine used to drain a little bit of water after putting in a lot of coal, but this one works several times more powerfully even if you don’t put in much?”

“It’s a complete monster, a monster! It seems much smaller in size, but it’s really amazing!”

The miners, who had seen many drainage machines, felt that James Watt’s steam engine was a machine of a completely different dimension.

The mine owner also had a smile on his face at the steam engine, which showed performance beyond imagination in an unexpected situation.

He had always suffered from drainage problems, but now he could rest easy, and if he could drain water so quickly, he could dig the vertical shaft deeper than now, so the amount of coal production would inevitably increase.

After a while.

“The water’s all out! It’s almost all out!”

At the same time as the sound that the water was out, the wife and children went down to the mine without even thinking.

Surprised, Tae-oh shouted.

“Oh! How can you send women and children down there dangerously? Stop them quickly!”

Then the mine owner shook his head with a much gentler face.

“Mr. Sanderson, it’s okay. The water is gone, but the tunnel hasn’t collapsed, so it’s not dangerous. And because they worked together, they will know the location of their father best. And other miners will follow them, so don’t worry too much.”

As the mine owner said, other miners followed the family in a line.

After about thirty minutes, the miners who had been waiting at the entrance of the mine clapped and shouted with joy.

Wow- clap clap clap.

“Oh- my god! He’s coming out, he’s coming out!”

“Wow- he’s alive! He was alive!”

“Hahaha. That gentleman was right. John was alive!”

A man, exhausted and covered in black coal water, was being supported and walking out slowly.

Judging from the wife and children who didn’t know what to do next to him, it seemed certain that he was the father who existed most precious in their ‘memory’.

“Haha, this is an unexpected confirmation of the steam engine’s performance.”

Matthew Bolton said, looking happily at the children who were clinging to their father and crying.

“That’s what I’m saying. I’m really glad.”

James Watt also had a satisfied expression. After successfully demonstrating it for the first time a few months ago with a nervous heart, it was the first time he had properly performed it in actual combat.

James Watt looked at Tae-oh with warm eyes and continued.

“If it hadn’t been for Mr. Sanderson at that desperate moment, I wouldn’t have been able to make a quick decision. I was confident in the product to some extent, but I was hesitant because there were no proper results in the field.”

“Anyway, I feel great today because it seems that Mr. Sanderson’s wonderful decision has brought about good results in many ways. Hahaha-.”

The mine owner, who had checked on the flooded miner, spoke with an apologetic face.

“This is too embarrassing. I really never dreamed he would be alive.”

“Whatever happened, it’s all good because he’s safe.”

“Yes. Anyway, thank you so much. And since I saved the miner, I will bear all the costs of the rescue.”

“Yes, please do so. Hahaha.”

While they were rejoicing, someone quietly approached them.

It was little Charlie, who had thanked Tae-oh earlier.

Tae-oh, who turned around, smiled brightly and asked.

“Oh- Charlie. So you’re happy that your dad came back safe?”

“Yes. I’m so happy I can’t even express it. Thank you so much.”

“Okay. God really helped.”

“Thank you so much. If I can ever do it later, I want to repay this favor.”

“Okay. Live hard and let’s meet again when the opportunity comes. I will remember the name Charlie.”

Tae-oh hugged Charlie affectionately and patted him.

Thanks to that, his expensive suit was even more of a mess, but his heart felt cleaner.

As Tae-oh and his party, who had safely finished checking the machine, walked down to get on the carriage, every miner they met took off their hats and bowed politely.

It was a sincere expression of gratitude to the gentlemen who had worked hard to save their colleague.

*

The carriage that left the mine was heading to Matthew Bolton’s house.

Tae-oh had decided to have dinner with Bolton at his house.

Even on the way home, the topic of conversation was still the steam engine.

“In order for the steam engine to create proper pressure, very precise pistons and various precision instruments were needed. But it was almost impossible with the current technology, so I was frustrated at one point.”

“But how did you overcome that?”

“Fortunately, I was helped by a mechanical engineer named John Wilkinson. Thanks to his outstanding skills, we were finally able to unleash the performance of a proper steam engine.”

However, as it became more sophisticated, the production of the steam engine required more money.

Accordingly, the selling price of the machine was inevitably very high.

Matthew Bolton predicted that this would be the biggest obstacle to the sales success.

“If the price is too high, no matter how good the performance is, the market won’t show much interest… That’s the biggest problem right now. We have invested everything in the steam engine, so we must succeed.”

Tae-oh carefully opened his mouth at Matthew Bolton’s impatience.

“This is just my personal opinion, but how about doing this?”

“Do you have any good ideas?”

But a somewhat unconventional idea came out of Tae-oh’s mouth.

“Don’t receive the machine price for the time being.”

“What? Don’t receive the machine price?”

“Let’s just provide the steam engine to the operators who need it for free.”

James Watt flared up at Tae-oh’s words.

“Haha, Mr. Sanderson, are you kidding me? We’ve spent a lot of money researching and manufacturing the steam engine, and you’re telling me to give away the machine for free before we even recover the investment?”

“No. I’m not kidding. Mr. Watt, think about it. If you put the machine out at a high price that you want to receive, it’s obvious that you won’t be able to dominate the market in a short period of time.

And even if you get a patent, it’s obvious that latecomers will imitate Mr. Watt’s machine and put out similar products at a lower price. Then Mr. Watt’s steam engine will be completely pushed out of the market.”

Matthew Bolton, who had been listening quietly, nodded his head greatly.

“So, Mr. Sanderson’s point is that we should dominate the market and generate profits by distributing the product almost for free, but in a way that we get the profits, right?”

“Yes, that’s right, that’s it. When I heard you talk earlier, you said that Watt’s steam engine costs less than half of the fuel cost used to run the existing Newcomen steam engine, right?

In that case, we can install the steam engine almost free of charge, excluding some costs, to the mine owners who used to use Newcomen’s [an earlier, less efficient steam engine], and instead, we can take a certain portion of the amount of fuel costs saved.”

At Tae-oh’s unconventional proposal, another complaint burst out from James Watt’s mouth.

“No, isn’t giving away something that I’ve worked so hard to create for free rather devaluing my invention?”

Certainly, James Watt was very good at research and development, but he seemed to be in the dark when it came to selling products and generating profits.

Bolton smiled and persuaded James Watt.

“No, no, James. Mr. Sanderson’s story makes a lot of sense. When you put a groundbreaking product on the market, it’s most important to take the lead quickly. In addition, you need an innovative sales method to break into the product market that has already been dominated.”

Bolton looked at Tae-oh and continued with curious eyes.

“By the way, this is really amazing? To be honest, I was worried about this issue for a few days, and I was thinking about using a method similar to what Mr. Sanderson said. Hahaha.”

Bolton smiled, but he looked at Tae-oh intently.

It was a look that he had met a very special person at an unexpected opportunity.