Portuguese and Italian merchants learned about the calculator and calculator cylinder through the surveyors dispatched to the Suez railway construction project.
***
When the surveyors first arrived in Suez, they had requests before beginning work:
- Guides familiar with the local geography
- Maps recording the local geography
In response to the surveyors’ requests, the Ottomans and Portuguese searched for guides familiar with the local geography while also obtaining maps.
However, the Ottomans and Portuguese who obtained the maps wore troubled expressions.
“I feel like we’ll get cursed at if we just hand these over as is.”
Their maps only showed the massive freshwater lake ‘البحيرة المرة الكبرى(al-Buḥayrah al-Murra al-Kubrā)’ located in the middle and the Nile Delta region to the west, while the rest was blank.
Or more precisely, it was blank space marked as desert.
And the reaction of the imperial surveyors who received these maps was exactly as they had expected.
“You call this a map? This is supposed to be a map?”
“What the hell!”
The surveyors who immediately burst out cursing upon seeing the maps soon had to face reality.
“Tsk! Nothing we can do!”
“Such is our fate, eh!”
And so began the surveying work.
***
The surveyors’ first task was to confirm the distance from Suez to the nameless fishing village in the north that had been chosen as the Mediterranean exit point, and to identify potential water sources that could serve as supply points along the way.
Fortunately, they were able to find guides who knew this area very well, so this work progressed smoothly.
Under the iron-clad escort of Ottoman, Portuguese, and French soldiers, the surveyors headed north while meticulously recording the locations of viable water sources and the distances between them.
After spending six months traveling back and forth between north and south, the surveyors soon began writing lengthy reports while simultaneously creating new maps based on their recorded data.
And when the Ottoman, Portuguese, and French soldiers saw the maps thus created, they were shocked.
“My God, such precise maps!”
Looking at maps made far more precisely than those of the time, the soldiers of the three countries looked at the surveyors with renewed appreciation.
***
Until then, the imperial surveyors they had seen were people who lived with curses on their lips. The situation had gotten to the point where various imperial curses had become commonplace among the soldiers of each country who had lived alongside the imperial surveyors for those months.
The interesting thing was that once they started conversing in their native languages mixed with curses, the interpreters suddenly found themselves with little to do.
They had reached a point where most communication could be handled with curses, necessary words – water, food, alcohol, women, tired, etc. – and simple hand gestures and body language.
As a result, wherever the surveyors and their escort soldiers gathered became a chaotic scene with curses from all sorts of countries mixed together. And the nobles from France, Ottoman Empire, and Portugal who visited these places didn’t hesitate to call it a Pandemonium while frowning.
***
In any case, the nobles of each country who were amazed by the maps the surveyors had created requested that they teach them their map-making techniques.
However, the imperial surveyors who received their requests answered with a snort.
“Hah! We’re already dying trying to survey for the railway construction, damn it!”
Of course, the supervisor in charge of the surveyors refused the nobles’ request in a slightly more polite tone.
“We are too busy with our current work to accept your request. We apologize. If you truly wish to learn precision map-making techniques or create such maps, please submit a request to the Imperial Research Institute.”
“The Imperial Research Institute, you say?”
“Yes. That’s where the true masters of cartography reside.”
“Ah…”
Hearing the survey team supervisor’s answer, the nobles could only retreat while clicking their tongues or showing bitter smiles. The Imperial Research Institute was nearly as difficult to access as Area 51.
“I thought it might be easier to get, but I guess this means diplomatic channels are the only way?”
“Quite an elegant way of refusing.”
However, what the survey team supervisor said was true.
When the Research Institute was first established, researchers had to travel throughout Joseon due to the debate over ‘Is the world flat or round?’ And Hyang didn’t miss that opportunity to begin creating precise maps.
The researchers who learned the basic concept of scale from Hyang began surveying using various measuring instruments he had created.
However, theory was theory, and practice was practice. As a result, the researchers had to go through numerous trials and errors while creating maps.
Still, the maps they created through these trials and errors became increasingly precise.
And when such precise maps were created, opinions emerged calling for their destruction.
-If such precise maps fall into the hands of foreign enemies, they will become a great threat! We must destroy all maps made until now!
King Sejong, who received this memorial at the time, angrily refuted:
“Truly words that know one thing but not the other! Not all people of Joseon know all eight provinces of Joseon, so how are they to move without maps? Foreign threat? Don’t our Joseon soldiers also need to know where places are to move! Who is this rice-wasting fool who submitted such a stupid memorial!”
Sejong was so enraged that he even used the harsh expression ‘rice-wasting fool.’
***
While the allied nobles were marveling at the maps, the surveyors writing reports wore rather unpleasant expressions.
“The desert is the problem…”
“The desert is one thing, but water is an even bigger problem. It’s freshwater, but…”
What troubled the surveyors was the water quality of the oases scattered throughout the desert and the massive freshwater lake – known as the ‘Great Bitter Lake’ in history before Hyang’s intervention – located along the route.
***
“People drink this?”
The surveyors wore incredulous expressions upon seeing the water at the oasis their guide had led them to.
The small lake before their eyes was filled with cloudy water.
At the surveyors’ words, the guide rather replied with an expression of incomprehension.
“Of course, isn’t it? If you don’t get water here, you’ll dry up and die within days.”
“But the water quality is quite poor…”
“You won’t die from drinking it.”
“…”
The surveyors who fell silent at the guide’s words took out their notepads and added content.
-Water purifiers absolutely necessary.
And this water quality issue remained the same when they reached the massive freshwater lake. Though the water was somewhat clearer compared to the oases they had passed through, it was still very turbid compared to the water commonly seen and drunk in the empire.
“Well… They said the sailors were living like immortals, stacking water purifiers in Aden and Suez and purifying everything from drinking water to washing water…”
“When even the clear water is like this, what can you say…”
***
“The water’s one thing, but figuring out how to get rid of that sand is another job entirely.”
When one person grumbled while writing the report, everyone else nodded.
The biggest enemy in laying railway tracks was the desert sand. Railway construction was impossible before solving the problem of feet sinking into the sand.
To solve this, the surveyors thoroughly questioned the guides about geographical information.
After securing some information this way, the surveyors made a request to the allied nobles.
“You want us to find workers? How many?”
“The more the better.”
“That makes it difficult to gauge…”
“For now, please find about 3,000 people.”
“Well, that much… I’ll send slaves within a few days.”
Having thus been allocated slaves, the surveyors began digging up the deserts north of Suez using the slaves.
“No need to go far, let’s dig about 100 jang (approximately 300m).”
After working for a month at Suez’s northern boundary, the surveyors nodded.
“As expected, we’re hitting solid ground.”
“If we dig down about 4-5 jang (approximately 12m-15m), we can make a solid foundation.”
Having gotten a general idea, the surveyors began calculations to derive more specific figures.
And the allied nobles who saw this calculation process couldn’t hide their amazement.
“Such precise calculations are possible with those wooden sticks?”
Among the tools the surveyors used, the abacus was familiar to them. However, the counting rods were completely beyond their comprehension. Calculations were completed by arranging and rearranging well-trimmed wooden sticks. Even more amazing was that when checking the results later, they were almost never wrong.
“It’s like magic!”
“Is this the mystery of the East?”
While the allied nobles were marveling, the surveyors were becoming increasingly troubled.
“This damned sand!”
“At this rate, we might run out of counting rods?”
It was right then that the calculators and calculator cylinders sent by Jinpyeong arrived.
“I can’t just let my children suffer!”
And the surveyors who read the included instruction manual immediately shouted hurrah.
“Hurrah!”
“We’re saved!”
“Long live His Majesty the Emperor! May you live ten thousand years!”
***
With the arrival of the calculators and calculator cylinders, the surveyors’ work picked up speed, and their figures became even more precise.
The allied nobles and Italian merchants observing them from the side began focusing on these calculators and calculator cylinders.
The calculator that produced results immediately after pressing the number-engraved keypad and pulling the lever was amazing, but even more amazing was the calculator cylinder.
The calculator cylinder was a marvel itself – after inputting numbers and calculation methods by manipulating the number plates arranged around the cylinder, giving the crank attached to the lid one strong turn would produce results with a loud noise.
“Such large unit calculations are possible with something so small?”
“To think it can even do arithmetic operations with such a small size!”
In reality, the calculator cylinder’s size was not small, being about the size of two measuring boxes combined, but it was sufficiently small in the eyes of the allied nobles and Italian merchants.
“This is absolutely necessary for us!”
And so the Italian and Portuguese merchants who immediately realized its value rushed frantically to the empire.
***
Meanwhile, upon hearing through the Minister of Finance that Europeans preferred the calculator cylinder because of its small size, Hyang muttered to himself.
‘That thing? Well… Considering the current era, I suppose it is an ultra-compact cutting-edge device.’
Meanwhile, Europe, having obtained the calculators and calculator cylinders, naturally tried to understand their structure.
However, the moment they turned over the calculators and calculator cylinders for disassembly, they wore dejected expressions.
There was a sturdy seal on the bottom joint, and next to it was a warning.
-Warning: Products with damaged seals cannot be repaired.
“Damn it all…”
However, there were those who attempted disassembly despite such warnings. But Hyang’s well-used black box was installed inside.
The moment they opened the lid, several of the smallest and hardest-to-find gears shot out, and the deliberately thinned axle broke.
As a result, the craftsmen who opened it could only clutch their heads and collapse in defeat.