Scarlet Manor is only truly Scarlet Manor in autumn.
The manor, nestled amidst red leaves, exudes a American rural charm that captivates at first glance, making one wish to live in it passionately until the very end.
Charles had originally planned to bring countess Diana and Charlotte to inspect the factory construction and check on the chemists from Philadelphia College before heading to St. Louis for a visit. However, upon seeing the beautiful scenery of the manor, he almost decided to postpone his plans and stay for a few days.
The chemists from Philadelphia College are currently conducting experiments in a large warehouse next to Charles' factory and reside in the factory manager's house. Charles had initially claimed to have allocated a plot of land and several houses to Philadelphia College in Philadelphia, but these were empty promises without actual preparations.
After arriving in Pittsburgh, he placed the visiting scholars from the college at the newly completed Pittsburgh Comprehensive School, where they taught students of various age groups, from ten to twenty years old, and also tutored the school's unqualified teachers. The scholars were initially somewhat displeased, but upon seeing the substantial compensation in pounds, they immediately began teaching.
As for the chemists researching explosives, they designated the large warehouse prepared for the steel mill as their laboratory. Since steel products are shipped out as soon as they are produced, the warehouse was essentially empty and unused.
These chemists were not at all bothered by the warehouse environment; in fact, they preferred such a spacious environment that was resistant to small explosions. Therefore, when Charles visited to check on them, they had no complaints about his arrangements.
However, Charles did not want to break his word and informed them that the land allocated to the college had changed. This time, it wasn't just about giving land to Philadelphia College. Pittsburgh had also specifically designated a university district, planning to build a proper university, and they would be the first users of this university district.
"Sir, I heard you've designated an area near our manor to build a college?" Jonathan asked about the events happening near his family's territory after reporting the latest factory situations to Charles.
"Yes, that was originally a plot of land reserved for public upgrades when Philadelphia sold land, right next to my territory. It just so happens to be perfect for Pittsburgh City's future university district. I had originally planned to have Philadelphia College move to the town and temporarily assign them a few houses.
Now that I want to build Pittsburgh's own university, I decided to specifically select land for construction. As for choosing that particular plot, it's for the future appreciation of the land beneath my feet. Placing the university nearby will certainly drive surrounding development, so let the college be located next to my territory!" Charles nodded.
"Alas, I originally thought that plot of land hadn't been sold, and our family could buy it in the future. But this is also quite good. The college is only separated from the industrial zone by our territory, so future students and researchers will have closer access to the industrial zone, and if our factories have any problems, it will be much more convenient to find people to solve them." Jonathan expressed his opinion.
As a traditional person, he was very keen on land. He did not refute Charles' claim that Pittsburgh would become a city in the future. From the current development prospects of Pittsburgh, becoming a big city, even comparable to major cities in England, was only a matter of time.
Charles could only continue to nod in agreement with Jonathan's views.
"Jonathan, how is the construction of my new residence, the 'White House,' progressing?"
"The main structure has been completed, and now painting and interior decoration have begun. This is the most labor-intensive part, but winter is approaching, and Pittsburgh is very cold, so some decorations cannot be carried out. Many projects will have to wait until spring next year to continue.
Even with full construction, official occupancy will not be until after next summer at the earliest. If we wait for collected artworks and some high-end decorations, it might take another year." Jonathan reported helplessly.
As the family's economic income grew, he also favored building new mansions, and even disapproved of Charles only building such a country villa-style house. During several discussions with Charles, he had repeatedly mentioned that a true castle should be built to display the family's prestige.
However, Charles had no plans to build a castle; impracticality was one point, but the excessively long construction period was the main reason. In any case, countess Diana's castle in Philadelphia was always empty, and he could live there whenever he wanted, so there was no need to build another one.
He only asked Jonathan to fully commit to building the "White House" and, after completing the factory construction, to immediately begin construction using the already prepared materials. In just a few months, the main building had already been topped off.
"This time, for the construction of the university district, our construction team should provide appropriate assistance.
Anyway, some of the decorations for my 'White House' cannot proceed during winter, so we can send a part of the team to support the college construction. They are still in the basic construction phase, which is more affected by the weather, but it shouldn't be impossible to work."
"Okay, I was already planning to send some manual laborers back to the factory, so now I'll just send them directly to help build the college." Jonathan nodded in agreement.
"When the college is built, can I also go to university to study?" countess Diana, teasing the two Bordeaux dogs by her side, tilted her head and asked Charles.
"Haha! Going to a regular school might not be possible, but to attend classes, I don't think any teacher would dare to turn you away. Even if those teachers dared, the students wouldn't agree." Charles said dotingly.
Seeing her playing so happily with the two Bordeaux dogs, he felt a sense of comfort.
Although he had applied to be the girl's guardian, he hadn't actually spent much time with her. Last time, he specifically brought her to Pittsburgh, but then he soon left to report to the Continental Congress, and was gone for over a month, leaving the girl alone in unfamiliar Pittsburgh, feeling incredibly lonely.
Now he was about to depart for St. Louis, and the journey was not safe, so he could only leave the girl at home again. Although he tried his best to spend time with her, Charles still felt guilty. Seeing that she now had two Bordeaux dogs for companionship, it was somewhat of a spiritual anchor for her, and he felt much relieved.
"Then I will definitely go to classes in the future!" The girl said firmly.
"Oh! Why do you absolutely have to go? You usually dislike art and painting so much. Why are you interested now?"
"Hehe! I just want to go. But not for painting and art, I want to learn business, and I also want to learn how to be a secretary." The girl smiled.
"Learning business is understandable. Why learn to be a secretary?" Charles asked gently.
He knew that youthful interests were very important and worried that his words might accidentally dampen Diana's enthusiasm.
"If I learn business, I can manage my own properties and no longer trouble you; if I learn to be a secretary, I can stay by your side and help you with things!" The countess made no secret of her intentions.
"Oh? Hahahaha!" Charles could only respond with a burst of laughter.
Since returning to Pittsburgh this time, Charles had noticed that the girl had matured quite a bit. She no longer needlessly competed with Charlotte for attention but quietly followed behind Charles like a young daughter.
Charles had initially thought the girl was fickle and had found another object of affection, but now, hearing her words, he realized she had other plans.
Although the girl was still young, Charles was deeply moved by her feelings. He had only inadvertently saved her once, yet Diana treated him as true family. He used to think it was a young girl's budding romance. Now, it seemed she mostly wanted to repay him.
Charles longed to relax at Scarlet Manor, admire the red leaves, then sip tea, play with the dogs, and enjoy the company of beauties. Unfortunately, after half a day of such leisure, he couldn't sit still anymore.
Just then, a steam paddlewheel boat was about to be launched at the shipyard. Charles simply took Diana with him to attend the launch ceremony.
Although the launch of this inland river vessel did not require smashing champagne to celebrate like the launch of a large warship, people at that time still attached great importance to various ship launch ceremonies. And Charles, to ensure good fortune, was never stingy, always using special wine for the ceremony.
The paddlewheel boat in the shipyard this time was the largest built so far. Its length had not increased much, still only sixteen meters, but its width had increased by half. The entire boat, including the two large paddlewheels, looked almost square.
"Why is this boat built like this?" Charles looked displeased at the increasingly ugly paddlewheel boat.
Originally, adding paddlewheels to both sides of the boat and a chimney like a green onion was already ugly enough. Now it had even turned into a fat boat. Did William not only lack aesthetic sense in naming but also have such bad taste in shipbuilding?
"sir, this is the optimal inland river steam paddlewheel boat design I've developed after multiple sea trials and months of observation. You see, with this design, the center of gravity is stable, the steam engine can be directly installed at the stern, making it convenient for crew movement. Furthermore, because the cargo space is connected, it can load larger and more items." William explained proudly to Charles.
"The wider the boat, the greater the resistance to navigation. Is that good?" Charles found it ugly no matter how he looked at it.
"No, no, this is a flat-bottomed boat. Although widening it will slightly increase resistance, it's definitely not as much as with ocean-going ships. Moreover, making a boat larger, whether by lengthening or widening, will increase resistance, which is fundamentally uncontrollable.
In reality, the biggest advantage of such a wide hull is its extremely stable center of gravity, making it easy to directly load various goods." William was very firm about his design, and even though he could see Charles didn't like it, he still insisted on promoting his design concept.
"Alas! Designing this paddlewheel boat was truly a mistake!" Charles sighed.
"By the way, I remember I once mentioned propellers to you. Have you researched them? If you've succeeded, why aren't you building propeller-driven boats? Without these two paddlewheels, even if the boat were a bit wider, it shouldn't be so ugly, right?"
"Uh, propellers, we did build that thing, but it's very difficult to drive a propeller with a steam engine. We're still researching how to increase its rotational speed. Although it can be used now, it basically can't propel a large boat." William said sheepishly.
He was single-mindedly focused on building paddlewheel boats and wasn't very enthusiastic about propellers, which is why the propeller, which had been under development for several months, had made little progress until now. Hearing Charles' inquiry, he naturally felt a bit embarrassed, but he couldn't help but comment on this thing he disliked:
"Actually, these propellers aren't necessarily good to use. The rivers here are rich in aquatic plants, and both propellers and paddlewheels often get tangled. When paddlewheels get tangled, you can clean them directly on the boat, but propellers absolutely require jumping into the water to clean them. That's very troublesome in winter, and many of us don't believe this propeller can replace paddlewheels."
"Hmph! That's entirely because the propellers you build have a slow rotational speed. Once its speed increases, you'll see if any aquatic plants can still entangle it." Charles retorted disdainfully.
Propellers are definitely the future direction of development. Once they can operate effectively, they will immediately replace paddlewheel propulsion.
However, Charles still highly respected the opinions of researchers and did not use his authority to force them to abandon any research. He merely tried his best to highlight the advantages of propeller propulsion, urging them not to relax their research on propellers.
After Jonathan presented orders for twenty steam paddlewheel boats from nearby villages and towns, Charles immediately decided to build them with full effort.
After all, these inland river transport boats are different from ocean-going ships; they are much simpler to build, only requiring small shipyards, and have shorter construction periods. At the current level, one can be launched every two or three months.
The cost of small dry docks is also not high; they basically only need a roof. If manpower was sufficient, Charles even wanted to build fifteen to twenty shipyards. Ultimately, based on the number of carpenters, blacksmiths, and shipbuilders, he decided to build a total of six dry docks to mass-produce these ten-meter-long inland river steam paddlewheel boats. He estimated that he could complete his and other users' orders in about a year.
In any case, from its current usage, the performance and efficiency of this paddlewheel boat are very good. Paddlewheel boats are already transporting goods produced by the steel mill to nearby villages and towns, and their efficiency is much higher than that of horse-drawn carriages. The shipbuilding technology is already fully mature, so selling them to others will not be a problem.
Finally, it was the girl, Diana, who smashed a bottle of newly brewed wine against the bow, performing the launch ceremony for this ugly steam paddlewheel boat, named "William No. 5."
"William No. 5" would become his mode of transport as he traveled down the Ohio River to visit St. Louis.