Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Entry 11: I've got a brand new steam powered combination harvester..




(Councillor Bob Crotchet) Hello, hello. Welcome everybody. Do settle down. We're all here to witness the opening of the Oak River Patents Office here in St. Raphael. It's a wonderful day for the region.

...mumbles from the crowd...

I understand that it's raining Mrs. Sullivan, I meant wonderful in, well, not in the weather sense. 

It's taken us months to, well, just get councillors from all the villages together in one place. Anyway, we were all locked up in a room a weren't allowed to leave until we came to an agreement. The result of the agreement is this - the Patents Office. We can now rest assured that people can live in peace that their inventions will not be stolen. Here to tell you more is newly appointed Patents Officer Mr. Willy Prudhoe.

(Willy Prudhoe) Thank you councillor.

(shout from crowd) GERROFF MY LAND!

(Willy Prudhoe) It's not your land Alderman Harris. We're all very grateful that you discovered this place, but you can't claim all of it.

The patents office is designed to protect your intellectual property and looking around them room I se... hmm. well, maybe not your intellectual property. Anyway, if you invent something, submit it to the Patents Office and we'll keep a record of it. Then if anyone wants to use your design they have to pay you shiny discs, which are now being called `money' or `Simoeleons' as I understand it.

mumble from crowd

No, Mr Bryden, you can't patent your discs. Why? Because we believe that you didn't invent them and anyway a law was passed saying they were unpatentable because they're too useful.

Gosh. You've turned the air blue Mr. Bryden.

Anyway, I'm pleased to announce the first invention to be patented. It was invented by me. I'm calling it the steam engine. Essentially, you heat the water and steam rises, which can do something useful. I'm not entirely sure what yet and I'm sure it can be improved.

Thank you everybody. Have a good day.

--------------


Some time later, the steam engine was modified and various inventions started to appear. These were the steam donkey used in logging ...

Or the steam tractors and combine harvesters that greatly increased the area of land that one family could farm.



Image of steam donkey from wikipedia. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0


Image of steam tractor from wikipedia. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0

6 comments:

  1. This more and more reminds me of the Civilization games' tech-tree :)
    This should speed up developments nicely!

    I think your conversations, like your diary which was basicly a monologue, are very well written! You surely have some talent there!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Shilka, that's very kind. The Civ tech tree! I hadn't thought of that. Maybe my subconscious has been influenced by it.

    I prefer writing this style to a basic description.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your region is growing fast. Already over 10,000 people!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is, but each village is still small. I'm trying to hold off on expanding too quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Did you find the custom steam donkey in the PEG forest scenes? I think that would fit nicely in your region. Have a look.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I will. I've been meaning to go onto PEG's site.

    ReplyDelete