Chapter 390: Stick Grenades and Guncotton

The sun shone through the glass windows of a large conference room within the Industrial District of the city of Kufstein. Various men dressed in work clothes were gathered around the table, stained with the various fluids that an engineer would commonly encounter. At the head of this table was a familiar young man, the eldest son of the legendary engineer Ludwig Schmidt. 

Jakob was designing a new weapon, and the men surrounding him were the Research and Development team assigned to the Austrian National Armory. Usually, Ludwig would be at this meeting, but the man was getting on in years and had many other tasks to work on. With this in mind, he placed his eldest son as the head of the Research and Development department.

At the moment, Jakob and his engineers were working together to design a replacement for the old cast iron grenades that were essentially nothing more than a hollow iron ball filled with black powder and utilized a slow-burning match to detonate. 

While the mighty King of Austria, Berengar von Kufstein, had laid the groundwork for the development of arms and munitions, a certain amount of responsibility had fallen to these men, and it was with this in mind that they fervently worked to live up to the standards of their respective positions.

The rudimentary design on the table was akin to a Stielhandgranate or stick grenade from Berengar's past life. Much like the Chinese variant of the stick grenade from the 20th century, they had opted to use TNT as the explosive compound contained within. However, where they were struggling to finalize the design was in regards to the ignition system; for the time being, they could not think of a way to ignite the grenade safely. 

Right when they were about to give up on the design altogether, a knock resounded throughout the room, which originated from the doors of the conference room. Shortly after this, the doors crept open to reveal the elegant figure of the young King of Austria.

Upon seeing their Monarch enter the room, the engineers all became dead silent, as they were not expecting his arrival and did not know how to react appropriately. Berengar had a dignified expression on his face as he explained his reasoning for stopping by.

"Apologies if I am interrupting your little meeting, but Ludwig informed me that you guys might need some assistance on whatever it is you are designing. I have an hour or two to spare, and as such, I decided to drop by."

After hearing this, Jakob swallowed the saliva pooled in his mouth before responding to his King's remarks.

"It would be an honor for his majesty to aid us with our newest design."

Having said this, the young engineer sprawled out the paper, which contained the details of the prototype grenade on it. Berengar glanced at it for a few moments with an amused expression. He found it interesting how these engineers had begun to put together something he was already planning to introduce in the near future. 

After looking over the device, he instantly realized what they were struggling with and quickly grabbed ahold of a nearby fountain pen, where he began to make alterations to the ignition system. The stick grenade was not an exceptionally complicated device, and truth be told, these men were completely overthinking this particular component. 

The actual method from his previous life was relatively crude; unlike other designs, it did not use something akin to a percussion cap to ignite the explosive compound. Instead, it had a sheet steel cylinder embedded within the top of the handle, which was connected to the detonator. A pull cord ran throughout the entire length of the hollow wooden handle and protruded from below.

With this method, one only needed to pull the drawstring; this would drag a rough steel rod through the igniter within, where the abrasion from contact with the steel rod would cause the fuse to ignite; after this was achieved, it would take roughly four and a half seconds for the burning fuse to reach the explosive filling where it would then detonate. 

After making this minor adjustment to the grenade, Berengar made a few other minor additions to the design, such as a clip so that the grenades could easily be attached to a soldier's belt. When it was complete, he showed it off to the engineers with a smug expression on his face.

"I believe this has resolved the difficulties you were having, has it not?"

After seeing the completed design, the Engineers stared in awe at their King. In a matter of minutes, he had resolved the issues that they had spent weeks wrapping their minds around. Just what kind of intellect did this man have? Having completed the basic Stick Grenade Design, Berengar stood up from his seat and walked towards the doors, leaving behind one final phrase before he departed.

"You should be proud of yourselves; you have designed an effective grenade to replace the dreadfully outdated devices currently in use by our grenadiers. With this, you have increased the degree of firepower that an average Landwehr can be equipped with. Your only problem was that you were overthinking the ignition system; sometimes, a crude method like this is exactly what is needed."

After saying this, he left the Engineers to themselves; the manufacture and initial testing of these weapons would be left up to the men in this room. After the grenades had proven safe for handling, they would be sent to the Department of Defense for extensive testing under field conditions. After being approved for use in combat, they would be sent to the army. 

Berengar, on the other hand, had done his part and was quite pleased with the results. He saw this as a huge step forward on the path to self-sufficiency; after all, he was not immortal, and the day he died, his Empire would have to maintain and expand upon everything he had built. 

With this thought, Berengar had another matter of importance enter his mind. While the implementation of the Stick Grenade was essential to the efficiency of his soldiers, there was another and arguably more critical invention that Berengar had to consider implementing as soon as possible. 

Having realized this, Berengar immediately began to stride towards the Chemistry Department, after arriving at his destination, all of the men within its halls immediately halted what they were doing and paid their respects to the young Monarch. Berengar was not in the mood for flattery and immediately inquired about the whereabouts of a specific chemist.

"Can any of you tell me where Aldo is?"

The moment he said those words, he heard a voice he was all too familiar with call out to him. As usual, the man behind the voice began to speak with endless praise.

"Do my ears deceive me? Is that the King of Austria here to visit me personally? What have I done to deserve such an honor?"

Berengar's brow began to twitch as he heard Aldo's usual adulation; this man truly never gave up an opportunity to kiss ass. However, Berengar quickly recovered from his impatience and regained the dignity of a monarch as he played along. 

"My dear friend Aldo, I had a sudden epiphany and thought to myself, who better to confirm the results of my speculation than the chief chemist of my Kingdom?"

Aldo immediately began to flatter Berengar further while simultaneously getting to the point.

"Oh, King Berengar, I am truly unworthy of your attention. However, I would be more than happy to entertain another one of your brilliant ideas, show me what exactly you had in mind!"

Having heard this, Berengar wasted no time; he immediately grabbed ahold of the nearby blackboard and began writing out the general formula for nitrocellulose, the critical component in smokeless powder.

Nitrocellulose was essentially little more than cellulose treated with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acid. In fact, For some time now, the Kufstein Chemistry department has been experimenting with cellulose developed from the fiber of hemp. As such, they had a small stockpile of the material lying around. 

In Berengar's past life, cotton was the primary material used to create cellulose, hence the nickname "guncotton" after all, as much as 90% of the plant could be converted into the material. However, cotton could not grow within Austria's borders; thus, hemp was a decent alternative. While hemp may only generate up to 70% of the material known as cellulose, one could grow three times as much hemp as cotton on a single acre. 

After looking over the formula for a few moments, Aldo and his Chemists immediately gazed in shock at Berengar; However, they could not confirm the results at the moment; such a formula could theoretically prove to be valid. Having provided the chemists with the recipe for Nitrocellulose, Berengar then began to depart from the Kufstein Chemistry Department, leaving behind a single phrase as he did so.

"I'll leave you to your work..."

It was only after his figure had vanished from sight that the chemists immediately began to work on the creation of smokeless powder. There would be a fully detailed report on their findings placed upon Berengar's desk within two weeks. 

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