Herald of Steel

Chapter 638 Viewing the Aqueducts (Part-1)

Chapter 638

"My lord, welcome! What do you think? It's quite the size if I say so myself!"

Alexander had of course let the council member in charge of this project know of his intended visit and Uzak was there to greet him soon after he arrived, pointing to the aqueducts and marveling at it for a while.

Following this the stonemason then took Alexander around the construction site of one of the aqueducts, showing him the progress they made.

Though even though he said one, Alexander had actually designed all of them to be interconnected, so that if one of them broke down or required maintenance, the water flowing through it could be redirected.

But each aqueduct was made to serve the areas around it, making them fairly localized, so it was not wrong per se.

Anyway, after exchanging the usual pleasantries, Uzak then took Alexander to the construction site, showing him around.

As he was doing so, at one point he suddenly stopped, before looking up at the huge, thick pillars of the aqueduct, and letting out a sigh of admiration.

"Ah! I never thought such huge structures were possible."

"It's all due to these arches! So magnificent!"

"They are so strong and robust compared to just a line. We could have never imagined such a simple solution existed!"

"My lord is truly omniscient!"

What the man here was so enthusiastically referring to was how the arched shape between the pillars helped the aqueducts reach the size and shape they were seeing.

When Alexander had initially proposed the dimensions of the structure, not just Uzak, other stonemasons had also expressed their doubts regarding the possible structural integrity of it, saying if they were to build the aqueducts to Alexander's specifications, the whole structure might very well tumble under its own weight.

"All these…ummm bridges between the two pillars might break my lord," Uzak had said pointing to the individual straight lines between the pillars.

And then advised him to tone down the size and scale of the structure to reduce the load on it, moreover arguing, "It will also cost less and be quicker to build!"

But Alexander did not view that as an option.

Because one needed them to be high up, much above the city so that gravity could work effectively to pump the water all around.

Water always tried to reach the height it was dropped from, as it exerted pressure on itself evenly and it was this phenomenon that enabled aqueducts to deliver water throughout the city.

Without this, and with the absence of modern electric pumps, there could be no way of delivering running water.

And so, if one were to decrease the height of the aqueducts, it would also reduce the height difference between the water and the city, which would in turn decrease the pressure of the flow and hence the speed, giving rise to concerns such as some parts of the city not getting any water as it would not be able to flow out of the pipes and become stagnant.

There was also another reason behind Alexander's wish to make them really tall.

And that was that by making them so large, they would be able to get access to cleaner spring waters from higher up the hills.

It had to be remembered that not all sources of water were created equal, with the higher one went, the purer the water became, and vice versa.

This was because as the water flowed downhill, it inevitably picked up sand, silt, and earth, making it dirtier.

This was also why lakes and rivers were usually not used as sources of water for aqueducts, the former being stagnant and considered unclear, while the latter had too much silt and many times even waste from people using it upstream.

All this made Alexander unable to compromise on his designs.

And so facing the problem, Alexander turned to the Romans and looked at how they solved it.

And the answer was by using the arch shape to connect the pillars instead of a straight line.

This was because when this particular shape was used to connect two load-bearing points, due to the geometry of the shape, the forces exerted on it were distributed evenly throughout the whole structure and then redirected towards the strong, load-bearing pillars.

So when tons of water would flow over the arch shapes, its weight would actually be borne by the pillars.

Whereas if a simple straight line was used to connect the two, that thin, weak section would have to bear the entire brunts, making it much more likely to snap along a weak point over time, thus turning the entire aqueduct inoperational.

When Alexander had made the suggestion, the artisans were understandably a bit skeptical of the efficacy of the idea.

After all, how could just simply changing the shape of something make all their problems go away?

A problem as big as this?

But once they did do so under Alexander's insistence, they were amazed to see it actually worked!

The structure held and showed no signs of breaking.

And that was why Uzak had addressed Alexander as being omniscient or all-knowing

As Alexander went over the site, suddenly one particular sight caught his eye.

It was not anything out of the ordinary at first glance, in fact Alexander seemed to have even missed it till now.

But it did finally register with him, the sight of many men, tirelessly at work laying the brick and cement mortal while hanging from the scaffolding at precarious angles.

Alexander was at first amazed at these men's courage and skill to be able to work with such concentration and even nonchalance at such heights, without a drop of fear in them.

Alexander doubted these men were compensated even a tenth of their deserved pay for the dangerous situation they put themselves in.

But these men nevertheless put themselves in these positions just so they were able to put food on the table for their families.

And seeing this, Alexander even felt a bit shamed at his own lack of diligence for not having arranged any safety mechanisms.

Hence turning to Uzak, he pointed to the workers on the scaffolding and said,

"Uzak I noticed that the men on the scaffolding were working with no type of protection, no rope tying them or any type of net to catch them if they fell down,"

"They just have their legs expertly hooked between the pieces of scaffolding as some sort of precarious handle."

"That is a bit too dangerous, don't you think?"

"Try to make here a bit safer."

"If they fall and die, it will not only be a tragic loss of life but much more a waste of a good worker."

"It will even cost me money."

Alexander knew workers dying due to work-related accidents were nothing to even bat an eye about for most.

Falling from heights, death from falling debris, and other accidents were treated as just occupational hazards.

It was no more noteworthy than a leaf falling off trees, not even worth a second look.

So Uzak was here not being callous or negligent, but that this was simply the norm, something people simply came to expect and bear.

Hence Alexander framed it like it was about the money and the labor shortage.

"Haha, my lord truly is truly of gentle heart. I'm sure the workers will be overjoyed once they know of your concerns."

Uzak appeared to be genuinely impressed at Alexander's thoughtfulness, as he slightly bowed, before adding,

"But my lord, construction projects are inherently dangerous. And death and injury are a part and parcel there."

But adding in a reassuring tone,

"But since my lord has spoken, I will try to endeavor to make the site as safe as possible."

"Rest assured!"

Alexander was pleased to hear this commitment and so hugged and nodded.

Though he was not expecting anything major to come out of this, as even the awareness of deaths during these projects was not in many's consciousness, but at least these were baby steps.

Uzak might not know exactly how to proceed in making the site safer, but Alexander was confident the man would learn and figure it out on his own over time, especially if Alexander were to nudge him from time to time.

Finishing this, Alexander then at last asked the most important question, which was,

"So how long till can we expect the aqueducts to be operational,"

To which the council member put on a long face before saying,

"I've previously told you of the difficulties my lord. We need more of everything. More men, and more material, particularly more cement and much more stone."

"If I could have that, I could finish all the ones by this year. Or I will need one more." Uzak answered in detail.

And then after a pause added,

"The most time-consuming is actually digging. Digging through the hills to channel the water through, digging underground to place the pipes, and digging to build wells and cisterns."

"We need to dig so much!"

"And many times we even get lost during so. It's all dark after."

"Or sometimes we find the tunnel is not straight and have to dig again."

"All of this wastes a lot of time."

"That's why I asked for more men. Not just workers but also skilled supervisors to prevent these mistakes!"

The man even sounded a bit exasperated. as he tried to show Alexander all the difficulties and challenges he had to face to try and get the aqueducts going.