Thought it would be troublesome, they could once again go to Isteria to purchase copper or bronze, and manufacture the axle or bearing in the village.
Either way, because he expected the axle won’t became useless so soon, there would be no problem for it to turn by the time Nelson’s subordinate Isaac arrived.
When the necessity arose, the axle could be made from whatever kind of wood, or the axle could be exchanged with the one from waterwheel no. 1 or they could just leave the waterwheel aside.
「Bronze.... Could the village smelt that and make an axle from it?」(Kazura)
「It’ll be good if they are able to, but it might be faster to request it from the blacksmith in Isteria..... Alright, I wonder if it’s adequately dry like this?」(Valetta)
They had wiped off a large amount of water, Kazura looked at the waterwheel and took a short rest.
After this, they would assemble the waterwheel no.2 while the currently installed waterwheel would be demounted, for that change it was necessary to dug out the wheel-bearing pillars.
Though it was very hard labor, since the villagers had been physically strengthened by the food that Kazura brought, they seemed to carry out the task easily.
「Do we also need to help with assembling the waterwheel?」(Kazura)
「Yes..... However, it seemed that they’ve already finished the assembling.」(Valetta)
Hearing Valetta’s answer, Kazura looked towards the villagers, they already finished assembling the waterwheel.
As expected, since they had made the parts themselves, they could quickly assemble it.
「What? It’s true. Then, let’s take a break until the waterwheel get dry.」(Kazura)
「Yes, you’re right.」(Valetta)
Even if the new waterwheel had been assembled, the old waterwheel needed some time for it to get dry.
Since there was no need to install it in hurry, they decided to take a break for a moment.
✦✧✦✧
After the villagers – who had just finished assembling the new waterwheel – took a break for 30 minutes and drank the water from the river, they would detach the old waterwheel.
Kazura wanted to join in detaching the waterwheel, but the villagers replied,
「If it just detaching it, we can do it ourselves. Kazura-sama can take a rest.」(Villager)
Together with several villagers who weren’t participating and Valetta, Kazura watched the villagers performed the task without a problem.
Thanks to the scorching sun the waterwheel had become sufficiently dry, so they were able to safely remove the waterwheel from its bearing without their hands slipping.
They then dug up the bearing that was fixed to the ground, because of their physical strength the villagers were able to finish the task quickly, and they replaced it with a new bearing made from wood.
In the same way as the waterwheel from Japan, because the pumped water was constantly flowing through the bearing, they could completely cool the heat generated from friction.