Philip widened his eyes with interest. Now that was something he understood. “It’s a naval wonder. It sailed with sails, steam engine and collapsible paddle wheels. A brilliant innovation, I wish I’d thought of it myself. They’d operated the steam-powered paddle for only eighty-five hours, but if they’d done so for a third of the time longer, the ship would’ve arrived least three days sooner. If not earlier. It’s simple mathematics.”
“They ran out of fuel,” the earl remarked. “Hence it had to rely more on sail than steam.”
“Imagine crossing the Atlantic on a vessel powered entirely by steam.” Philip felt his cheek heat with excitement. “According to my calculations, we could travel across the ocean to America in fourteen days, maybe less.”
Lord Royston shuddered. “Nothing in this world will get me to set a foot on that smoking monster. When people spotted it off the Irish coast, they thought it was on fire, on account of all the smoke. Read it in The Times.”
“Steam.” Philip stabbed his fork in the air. “Not smoke. The propulsion technology behind it is such that the fuelled boiler heats up water, and the ensuing water vapour is transmitted to the engine. I’ve considered a similar design for my own invention but have come to the conclusion it isn’t functional for my particular purpose.”
Blank, polite faces stared at him.
The earl gave him an assessing look. “Threthewick here is an engineer and inventor. You will have to tell me all about it after supper. But I am afraid we are boring the ladies with our technical talk.”
Philip finally popped the fork into his mouth, satisfied. This was what he wanted.
After supper, when the men retired to the billiard room to smoke and drink port, like Miss Weston had said they would, he’d taken the earl aside and blathered his ears full with his proposed invention, to the point of grabbing a newspaper off the coffee table and sketching a basic diagram into its margins.
The earl had listened politely.
When he started to sketch, he’d followed his movements with an alert look in his eyes.
“What on earth is that?”
“That is the front wheel that can be pivoted with the lever, here.”
“I mean what you are holding in your hand.”
“That?” Philip twisted the metallic tube between his fingers. “Oh, that’s a pencil.” He shrugged. “I asked my grandfather to make it for me. He’s a better blacksmith when it comes to fine work and jewellery. I am done with constantly having to sharpen the tip of my pencil, so I designed this.”
“May I?” The earl held out his palm. Philip gave it to him.
“But to return to the problem at hand. I’ve submitted all the papers and a prototype to the patent office in London a good year ago, and it has passed the first two commissions, but now they keep delaying further examinations so it can be signed by the king. No one seems to be able to tell me what’s the status quo. I don’t understand it. It shouldn’t take so long.”
“The bureaucracy at the patent office is a nightmare. There is no rhyme and reason to it. Say, how does it work?” The earl kept fiddling around with the pencil.
Philip showed him. “I intend to submit an improved prototype shortly. I was wondering whether you could use your influence at the patent office to, er, help things along.” That was awkwardly put.
“This is brilliant, Threthewick. Brilliant.” The earl clicked the pencil and scribbled something on the newspaper. “The mechanism behind it?”
Philip sighed. “It’s simple. The mechanism propels the lead forward.” He explained it in greater detail.
“A propelling pencil that doesn’t need to be sharpened. Utterly brilliant.”
“Yes, yes. But my patent —”
“Did you think to get this patented?” The earl lifted the pencil.
Philip shrugged.
“You must.” The earl slapped his shoulder. “You have a brilliant mind, Threthewick. You must join my Society of Engineers, which I plan on launching soon. It will be an honour to have you join us. I’ll see what I can do about your patent for your other invention — what’s it called?”
“A Two-Wheeler.”
“Right. I have considerable influence there, but if things get stuck at court, my hands are tied. There are more powerful men who can pull strings.”
“Morley?” Philip gnashed his teeth.
“Your grandfather hasn’t been seen in the House of Lords the last few decades. Can’t imagine him having any say in the matter. I was thinking of someone else.”
