Building Utopia Ch. 10

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Industrial progress finding oil and expanding the settlement
2.9k words
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Part 10 of the 14 part series

Updated 10/31/2022
Created 12/10/2013
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My thanks go out to my volunteer editor Wires for his assistance. His efforts have made this story a much better read. As always all errors remain mine.


While they finished preparation for the upcoming winter Roger and his various teams of what passed for experts began working on technological improvements. They began the crude smelting of zinc, copper, tin, and iron using the materials on hand. The high quality steel available from the vehicles was a godsend. Roger saved the electronics, engines and other peripheral equipment to use later or to use as an example when they tried to manufacture a similar item. The items in those vehicles were worth more than their weight in gold. They were the items that would jump start his new civilization, his new nation, and move their technology almost 425 years ahead in less than one lifetime. All of this did not even begin to take into consideration the metal and equipment in the crashed bomber nearby. My God, they had radio, radar, and ECM (not that they would need that for a spell). There were servos and syncro's, there was hydrostatic drive pumps, hydraulic cylinders, electric motors, gauges and so on. The list is almost endless. He actually owned a treasure trove if he could devise a method of building copies of the equipment.

Of course, Roger was constantly thankful for the treasure trove contained in the True Value semi-truck that arrived with him. How do you place a value on all the items in a modern day hardware store? Even better, how do you value those items in a civilization that had not invented them yet at the worst or, at the best, only had crude examples of them? Roger found and was using so many items from the truck that to list them would be impossible. Many of those items he used sparingly because when they were gone, they were gone for years to come before he could manufacture more.

During his planning to industrialize Roger at first thought he would develop steam power as a first step but then he decided he would try to make a small gasoline or alcohol engine to drive a generator and electrical engines. One thing he really needed was oil. He needed it for fuel as well as lubricants. He thought he remembered the general area in Pennsylvania where it was found in abundance. If he remembered correctly some oil actually bubbled to the top of the ground around what would be Titusville, PA in his timeline. That was in the north and western part of the state.

One of the first things he wanted to do the next summer was take an expedition to see if they could find the oil fields. Their need for oil was great. With oil they could distill fuel and lubricants and even have a base for some medications.

Roger and Ruth spent many hours planning and drawing plans for items they would need. They planned the expedition to the oil fields of Pennsylvania and they planned their educational curriculum as well as the work of the colony for the immediate future. The couple also spent many hours prioritizing their research and construction for the items they hoped to build. They spent many more hours teaching the colonists to read and write for without educated workers Rogers plans for his new civilization would not come to fruition. They used the advanced books whenever they could so they were also picking up some higher level knowledge as they learned the basics.

As soon as the first crops were in Roger equipped his expedition for the oil fields and left Birmingham. This was not an easy trip for many reasons. They tromped through dense forests and over mountains and valleys much more rugged than those they had moved through before. There were many minor injuries from falls also. Unfortunately the Indians they encountered were not as prone to friendliness as those in Florida and near Birmingham. Roger rapidly became thankful he equipped his patrol with modern weapons. He only had 20 men with him and one or two times they would not have won their fights without the modern repeating weapons. Of course the bombs or hand grenades he manufactured from black powder helped too.

Finally, after almost two months travel and much discussion with the few friendly Indians they encountered, Roger and his patrol found an oil seep. They spent the next week exploring the area and collecting several containers of oil to take back with them. On the return trip Roger searched for an easier way to get back to Birmingham. The maps he drew on the trips outward leg now became very valuable. Roger began clearing and blazing a trail toward Birmingham that would soon be turned into a road. After all, he would have to transport his oil or refined products back to his home for them to be of any use to his colony.

Over the course of the next couple of years Roger began to have some success in all the areas he was attempting to progress in. Of course the simplest areas had the most success. Their farming operation became very successful using the modern seeds he found in the truck and his knowledge of agriculture. His rudimentary knowledge of genetics allowed him to begin a breeding program to maximize egg production and meat production from his chickens. He even began a breeding program to improve milk and beef production.

The next most successful endeavor was using his knowledge to build simple labor saving machines. It took him over two years to develop a small alcohol fueled engine but when he did development of other items proceeded at a more rapid pace. He was able to motorize many jobs previously done by hand.

Now development proceeded at a faster and faster pace. As their knowledge increased the people born in this time began to make suggestions and experiment. Knowledge leaped forward. Innovation became epidemic. The children learned at a prodigious pace. In many areas of knowledge they stressed Ruth and Roger then surged ahead of their limited knowledge as they completed research on their own based on hints from the few books Roger had.

A primitive printing press was built and operated. More textbooks were printed to make learning easier and the spread of knowledge faster.

In their spare time, five of Roger's men began to experiment with aircraft. Within a year of their first experiments they had a flying single seater. It used one of the small engines built for other uses and was a propeller job but it did fly. Roger opened up another division of research and let those five men run his nascent aeronautical industry. He provided what little engineering knowledge he had. Once again, they did their own research and soon knew more about aircraft than did Roger.

Many people began working on their own projects after normal colony working hours. Capitalism was born once again. Eventually, Roger had to institute a banking and monetary system because the barter system did not work well for many of the privately manufactured goods. Roger sold or in most cases gave away many of his businesses to those running them. Now the need for money was even greater.

Since the workers were used to the "crown" or "government" keeping and redistributing a share of every item built or produced they did not complain or resent that practice continuing when they became owners of a business or farm. Roger instituted a flat arbitrary tax rate across the board of 15%.

There were also rapid advances in health care. Two men and one of the unmarried women had shown not only interest but a great aptitude for medicine. Some of the other women became something like a cross between midwives, nurses and EMT's. They were learning much from the medical texts found in the vehicle of the deceased professor. It would be years before medical care progressed to the level of the late 1900's on his time line but already what they were learning improved care for his settlement. Infections were being healed when before the person might die of gangrene. They learned how to produce penicillin and some of the other simpler drugs and were doing so. They gained some rudimentary knowledge about many of the more common health problems and how to treat or prevent them. In short, medical care was already at the level available during the late 1890's to early 1900's on Roger's previous time line.

Roger did not limit his medical care to just his colonists either. He made it known throughout the area that his healers would treat anyone who needed help as long as they were friendly to the colony. This consideration helped cement the friendship of many of the Indian tribes in the area and resulted in the assimilation of even more people into the community.

They were producing oil from the fields in Pennsylvania and were learning to make fuel and lubricants from it. They developed a low quality gasoline and some other oil derivatives. Roger was feeling pleased with the progress of his small Army as well. Much of the petroleum produced went to the small military and to manufacturing. Now that they had crude gasoline Roger went back to the drawing boards to develop gasoline engines. He still intended to use the cleaner burning alcohol engines for some items but really needed the gasoline engines for their greater power and efficiency.

They now had three small settlements connected by a road network and by a small rail network. At first they used the horses to pull wagons on the roads and rails but after the small engines were developed Roger built self powered vehicles to move materials and people around. He built crude electrical motors and went straight to small diesel electric railroad engines. Admittedly the engines could not pull large loads but they did as well as or better than a horse and small wagon. Roger even built some small four wheeled peddle powered vehicles for movement on roads and rail. For small loads or for individual movement those worked well on short distances.

It was becoming difficult for Roger to justify NOT using the vehicles for personal transportation because he found many of his experts and workers were needed in different locations often enough and rapidly enough they needed the faster transportation. He decided he needed to relax his prohibition against personal transport in order to facilitate progress. He did mandate smaller lighter vehicles to maximize fuel efficiency. Roger also required use of rail and other public transportation whenever possible. Unfortunately, rail transport was impractical unless the worker was going to a town along the existing rail lines or one that could be reached easily from one of the rail stops. Even then the use of an internal combustion powered vehicle was justified from the rail terminal to the remote location.

Now much of the progress of Roger's budding nation was stifled by the lack of educated and willing workers. Not many of the Indians were interested in being assimilated into Roger's technological civilization. To the chagrin of many tribal elders the young men would sneak off to Roger's settlements to learn about his marvels. He gained some workers from the Spanish in Florida and even a few Frenchmen from the Louisiana area. Occasionally, one or two English would be added when they were brought back by one of Roger's exploration teams. Roger needed colonists and he needed them now and he needed better educated ones which were almost impossible to find.

Roger walked into the small school Ruth was operating for him. They still had few enough students that they learned the basics in one large room. School began for children at age 4 and ran year around except for the few days in the spring and summer when they were needed to help with the gardens and later with the harvest.

The normal school day began at 0730 and ended at 1200 when they broke for lunch. After lunch the children were free to play unless they were old enough to begin working with one of the experts in the various fields. The first five years of formal education the students were given all the basics. The year a child turned 9 years old they cycled through all the different specialties until the specialists and student identified the career path the student would follow. By the time a child was ten to twelve years old their career path was usually chosen and they trained a minimum of two to four hours an afternoon in their future specialty. Normally by the time the child was 12 they had absorbed all the "book larnin" available and spent most of their school days doing actual work in their specialty. After a year or two of work in their specialty the gifted students also began doing research trying to expand knowledge in their field or recreate an item Roger had an example of from his previous timeline.

Of course not all people were fitted for academia. Many of the young were directed into the more usual occupations of this time period. They were farmers, miners, hunters, construction workers and so forth. This did not require that all obtained the equivalent of a college degree in the technical specialties Roger was trying to resurrect. A certain number of students thus left the education system at age 9 or 10 after they had absorbed all the basics of the 3 R's (Readin, Ritin, and 'Rithmetic).

This day, as classes continued, Roger surveyed the different groups of students and listened to their lessons. The older children helped the adults teach the younger ones. From time to time even Roger still taught some classes. He helped with mathematics, engineering and some of the ethics and law classes. No, he wasn't a lawyer but he wanted basic respect for authority and law ingrained in his students from the very beginning. He had written all the laws that existed for his colony and he made sure all his colonists understood and followed the law. Each of his settlement leaders had authority to pass sentence and meet out punishment for minor infractions but Roger retained final say for what he considered to be capital punishment. He retained jurisdiction over cases that affected the whole colony, its safety and security, as well as violent crimes.

Finally the school day ended and the teachers dismissed the students for the day. Ruth smiled and walked over to where Roger was seated. She bent and gave him a gentle kiss then sat across from him. She said, "You weren't scheduled to be here today, Roger. You must want something. What can I do for you?"

Roger sighed and said, "The same thing, Ruth. We need more workers, more researchers and I just don't have them. The English will be upon us in droves soon and I have to have a large enough population and a strong enough technical base and army to prevent them from getting a foothold in America. Is there anything you can do to speed up your output?"

"Roger I'm sorry but really there isn't much more I can do to help you. Oh, we may be able to cut a year from the schooling on many of the children but they are so young now when you put them to work it just tears me up. We are stealing their childhood from them now. They are young and immature. Many of them lack physical strength and good judgment. I fear we are stressing them as much as we can. Thankfully people of this time are more used to constant work and struggle so they aren't suffering as would the young of our old time period if they were put under this much stress. I still worry about what we are doing to these children though."

"Yeah, but remember, many people of this time period are out on their own by the time they are 14 or 16. We still give them a lot of free time in the afternoons and their apprenticeships are not that demanding. Much of their afternoon work is driven by their desire to learn a new occupation more than the demands of their immediate supervisory or by me."

"Roger, you know these people adore you. Almost all of them down to the youngest child would die for you if the need arose. They know you are the driving force behind this colony, this nation. They know your brain contains the key to a better life for them if they can just learn and produce the things you tell them about or have examples of. They drive themselves. Look at those men that took their own time and built the first aircraft. They would work on that airplane in the evening after twelve to fourteen hour workdays in their normal occupations. They did that all for you and because they wanted to see and use the marvels you told them about."

"I know, but, heck, I need even more men and women in the militia. At some point soon I want to form a standing army. We will need a navy soon and merchant marine. Every invention we make or rediscover here just increases the number of men and women we need to utilize the technology."

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13 Comments
LilacQueen15LilacQueen15almost 2 years ago

He's overlooking the obvious here. England. Why did some come to the Colonies in the first place? A better life. Debtor's prison still exists. Poor houses and orphanages. The streets. Even the brothals. There are a tremendous number of people that want a better life. France eventually as well.

He needs to teach languages as well.

ausvirgoausvirgoover 2 years ago

Loving it, although i'm concerned that the colony is moving too much towards non-sustainability with its use of oil.

Also, Roger needs to set up a system of succession, in case something happens to him. While this need not be fully democratic it needs enough popular input to avoid tyranny if the wrong person gest to be in charge.

MarkT63MarkT63almost 3 years ago

Curious to see where the extra people will come from... Maybe Illegals from Central America??!!

rightbankrightbankabout 7 years ago
Ah the complexity of civilization

mixed with the simplicity of ignorance.

AnonymousAnonymousalmost 8 years ago
a trip to NW Pennsylvania unlikely?

How about a trip with animal powdered carts and foot traffic for Another 300 or so miles from Missouri to Santa Fe? Ever heard of the Santa Fe Trail? And the Tennessee River provides raft or barge traffic for about a 3rd of the way. Very doable for a high priority commodity.

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