Chapter 10

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.