The Order War by L. E. Modesitt Jr. Page A

inclined drafting board set back from the forge, then walked over to his bench, where he checked his tools.
    As Clerve laid out the drawings of the flash chamber, Justen checked the hoist and crane that held the flash-chamber assembly, then lowered the circular, black iron structure another two cubits so that the curved base rested less than a cubit above the packed clay floor. He checked the space where thevapor separator would go, using his calipers, locking them and setting them on the full-scale drawing. The actual length between the flange brackets designed to hold the separator was a tenth of a span smaller than the measurements on the parchment sheet. Justen nodded, suspecting that the cold iron had contracted more than calculated, as it usually did. The question lay in calculating the contraction that would take place on the smaller vapor-separation assembly.
    Clerve watched as Justen measured again.
    “We’ll need a half-span thickness in the two-cubit-square plate.” As Clerve started toward the plate storage room behind the hall; Justen added, “Use a cart. That’s four-and-a-half-stone worth of iron.”
    “Yes, Ser.”
    While he waited for his apprentice to return, Justen added more hard coal to the forge, readjusted the air nozzle with the long iron rod, and pumped the bellows slowly, checking to ensure that the sprinkling can was full. Charcoal would have been easier to use, but Recluce still had insufficient forests for resupplying all its charcoal needs. The compromise was the use of charcoal by the town smiths, while the engineers bought coal from Nordla or Sarronnyn, despite the high shipping costs.
    Justen watched the glowing of the coals. At least he didn’t have to work on resmelting the plate from the old Hyel . In a way, the Mighty Ten were really the Mighty Eleven, with the oldest warship being broken, resmelted, and recycled to provide the materials for the warship under construction.
    The cart creaked across the floor; Clerve used a leather harness to pull it easily.
    After taking a deep breath, Justen took the calipers and transferred the measurements to the iron plate. With a light hammer and a chisel, he marked the rough-cut lines. “There. Swing the crane…”
    Clerve positioned the forge crane.
    “Easy now,” cautioned Justen as the two swung the plate into position over the forge fire.
    Then Justen wrestled the special cutting plate into place over the anvil, wiping his forehead with the back of his forearm. The way things were going, finishing the one flashchamber would probably take half a season, not that the engineers were in any hurry. The new Hyel was not planned for launching for another four years.
    After ensuring that the special hot set was laid by the long anvil, he checked the heat of the iron, watching as the area he had marked turned dull red, then began to lighten slowly. Justen waited until the iron along the cut line was nearly orange-white before he nodded to Clerve. They swung the plate over and lowered it onto the anvil.
    Clung…clung… Justen’s hammer strokes were even, steady, splitting the iron along its grain.
    “All right.” The engineer and his apprentice used the crane to lift the plate, which they rotated and swung back over the fire. “Next line is a crosscut.”
    “How many heats, do you think?” asked Clerve.
    “Two, I hope.”
    Once again Justen watched the iron color until he nodded and they positioned the metal on the cutting plate.
    “I was wrong. Three,” the engineer added as they replaced the iron over the forge fire.
    Two heats later, the oblong shape that would be one side of the base of the vapor separator lay on the cutting plate. Justen used heavy tongs to set it on the brick annealing shelf at the back of the forge, not wanting it to cool too slowly.
    Then they readjusted the brackets on the plate, and Justen measured the metal for the second cut.
    “Why don’t we use something like the bench shears?” asked Clerve.
    Justen