Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

27th March 1660

Manila Bay, United States of the Philippines

Captain Marc Anthony Lopez, wearing a traditional sherwani, sat drinking coconut juice in a stall in front of the three Guwahati-class armed merchant ships docked at the harbour. The cranes were loading all the containers, while the sailors, technicians, engineers, artisans, and officers were steadily loading their personal belongings.

It had been a few months since Marc Anthony came back, and it was already time for him to go on another voyage. This time, he not only had command over three separate ships but was also responsible for transporting artisans and engineers from the Bharatiya Empire, who would be working in the new Spanish colony, Mexico.

Moments later, three young Bharatiya men dressed in white naval attire approached the stall he was sitting in and saluted.

"Captain, all three ships have been loaded and are ready to go. The security and safety checks have been completed, we are awaiting your orders."

Marc Anthony looked at the three men and nodded in satisfaction. These were three of the five men he had taken under his wing on the last expedition. According to the government's request to train talents for Pacific voyages, he took the five youngsters as his disciples, appointing them as executive officers, taking charge of BNV Dharya one stretch at a time while he taught them everything he knew.

Out of the five, three passed his test. The other two could not endure the long journey. In fact, Marc Anthony was surprised by how well all five of them handled it. He knew that all the people given to him were talented youngsters from the Navy who had already served on Delhi-class battleships, but it still amazed him how well they managed the journey over the largest ocean in the world. Although the two ended up failing, it was only because they could not hold on during the final stretch of the journey, not due to a lack of skill.

Once the two gained more experience on a few more voyages, they should also be capable. Stay tuned with empire

Marc Anthony looked at Arvind Menon, Keshav Menachery and Dhanraj, who have passed their first test and had now been appointed as the captains of their own Guwahati-class armed merchant ships. He nodded in satisfaction. "Are all the staff present?"

Arvind Menon, Keshav Menachery and Dhanraj responded in unison, "Yes, sir. All the sailors, navigators, lookouts, officers, and executive officers are present on board."

Marc nodded. "Good. Start the dispatch procedures. I will be on deck in 10 minutes."

"Sir!"

'Stomp!'

Marc Anthony's eyes lit up, no matter how many times he saw it, couldn't help but be amazed at the discipline shown by the officers of the Bharatiya Empire.

' If my crew had even one-quarter of this discipline, maybe I would have actually won against Akhil,' he lamented. But then, looking back at the 2,000-ton giants docked at the port, he shook his head in amusement. 'Ha, who am I kidding? Even if I had defended the Philippines the first time, it would soon have been besieged the second time. It was inevitable from the moment the Bharatiya Empire focused its attention on the Philippines.'

"Captain on deck!" the officer loudly proclaimed, causing the sailors to look at the white man who stood on the bow of the ship.

Moments later, the anchor was lifted, the chains were unattached, and the three Guwahati-class armed merchant ships began to sail towards the Bahul Sea. Hours later, as the salty breeze hit Marc Anthony's face, he smiled.

"I am back."

---

Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Vijayanagar State, Economic Capital Mangaluru

Pillai Optics Research Facility

Ganapatra Pillai was intently looking at the molten glass in the crucible without blinking his eyes. A few days ago, after seeing his father struggle to see objects at a distance, he suddenly got an idea for a mechanism that would allow his father to see better.

He was familiar with concave and convex lenses, and he had read up on research in this field, including a similar design made by an Italian named Salvino D'Armate in the 13th century. Fortunately, due to the invention being three centuries old, he did not have to purchase the research patents from the Venetian Republic.

His father did not have farsightedness, for which Salvino D'Armate designed the glasses, but had nearsightedness, where he couldn't see faraway objects. So, instead of convex lenses, he theorized that two concave lenses would be perfect. And that is what he was currently doing.

From time to time, Ganapatra used the tools he held in his hands to remove impurities and bubbles from the molten glass to make the lens as high-quality and distortion-free as possible.

Noticing that no more bubbles were coming out, he took out the mould the artisan had prepared. It was made of clay. In fact, he first made the moulds in metal, but since he was researching a product that had not been manufactured in the Bharatiya Empire, he found it too difficult to work with metal repeatedly, given that he had failed multiple times. So, he simply employed an artisan who made clay moulds according to his needs.

He took the crucible and slowly poured the molten glass into the mould the artisan had prepared. It was a small 3-inch, plano-concave mould, with only one side carved and the other flat. In fact, the first few times he tried to make it, he attempted to create a concave curve on both sides, but the lens kept breaking, and the distortion became unbearable, so he stuck with a plano-concave design.

Interestingly enough, the first time he put the molten metal into the mould, he made a mistake in mixing the ratio of various raw materials to form the glass. Also, he poured the molten glass from too high an altitude, which exposed it to the humidity of Mangalore's air, making it cool down too fast. But surprisingly, he created a thin and narrow glass tube when the molten glass cooled down mid-air before it reached the mould.

Seeing his experiment fail, it was not the disappointment he felt. But looking at the small glass tubes, deformed as the cooling-down process was still taking place, destroyed and scattered on the ground, he suddenly got an idea. "Hey! Could this be used to fill mercury?"

He stroked his chin and thought about it for a while, then nodded. "It should work. Let's try it out next," he thought and memorized what he had done in order to replicate it at a later date.

Moments passed, and the glass eventually began to cool down.

Ghanapatra Pillai quickly took out his glass disk and began to chip off the rough edges on the lens. Next, he roughly ground the lens using a hand-operated lapidary machine. He went on increasing the fineness of the grinding layer in order to improve the polish of the lens. Finally, he took a soft leather cloth, applied rouge on it, and proceeded to polish the lens.

"Good!"

Ganapatra Pillai inspected the lens and nodded with satisfaction.

Finally, Pillai carefully installed the two lenses into the frame he had designed. The frame was completely different from the one Salvino designed, as he found the rivet design very uncomfortable to wear and not practical enough. So, he used steel as a base to shape a frame that would rest on both the ears and the nose, right below the temple. Additionally, he attached a thread to the ends of the frame so it could be tightened from the back.

If Vijay were here, he would be shocked, because what Ganapatra Pillai had invented was nothing but the spectacles of the modern era, with a similar frame design language. It was not until 1727 that a similar frame was innovated in his past life by a man named Edward Scarlett, an optician in England.

Ganapatra wore the glasses to test if they were working, and to his happiness, they really worked. The machine at the end of the lab looked a few feet closer to him. It was a great success.

He happily packed the spectacles he had handmade and parcelled them to his dad. But he did not stop there. Being the general manager of Pillai Optics for a few years, he had already acquired a keen business sense. He could tell that the spectacles he had designed would be a popular product among many people since he knew a lot of people who had farsightedness and nearsightedness.

The costly price of hinged spectacles simply made them unacceptable to many people. With the new process he had discovered and innovated, it should be cheaper to construct and manufacture these spectacles on a large scale. So, he immediately wrote the design drawings for both the lenses and the frame, along with a theorized model for an assembly line. Without hesitation, he submitted them to the IP Department to obtain a utility and invention patent.

In the meantime, he started to research the capillary tube he had mistakenly discovered.

"Pillai discovers cure for blurry vision, know more here."

As soon as the patent was registered and made public, a report was written in the newspaper the next day, and the news spread throughout the empire.

It immediately caused waves among the higher class circles and the elite community of the empire, who could afford the price mentioned in the newspaper. A few hundred Varaha may be a lot for the aspirational class and middle-class people of the empire, but for the higher middle class and above, it could only be considered a little expensive.

"Sir, when will the spectacle be mass-produced?"

"My grandfather has fallen down a lot of times as he finds it difficult to walk. Can the first lens be manufactured for my grandfather? Price is not a problem."

"Mr. Pillai, my aunt has farsightedness. Can you custom-build a spectacle for her? She just cut her hand the other day; it is very pitiful."

Suddenly, Ganapatra Pillai was showered with requests through posts from all over the empire.

Not only that, a manager from Venkatapathy Scientific, a company under the Raya Machinery Group, directly came to obtain the manufacturing patents for the frame and the lenses.

Without even manufacturing a single unit, Ganapatra Pillai obtained a whopping 5 million Varaha from the royal family as payment for the patent rights.

Pillai immediately used the money to set up a dedicated lens manufacturing factory in Anuradhapuri, since most raw materials for lenses came from Anuradhapuri. He outsourced the manufacturing of frames to a third-party metal fabricator and finally established a processing and installation plant in Mangaluru, right next to the head office.

Ganapatra Pillai sent messages to all major hospitals in first-tier major cities about his willingness to directly sell the spectacles to hospitals according to the requirements of the patients.

In fact, he only dared to do this a few months later, after he had discovered how to change the power of the lenses. By the time he had done this, he had also sold the patent for the Pillai-Reddy mercury thermometer he had just invented, and with that money, he once again increased the production capabilities of Pillai Optics.

The year 1660 was a great boon for Pillai Optics. Its star products—microscopes, telescopes, and mirrors for Arkha dristhi communication devices—were, as always, selling like hotcakes, since the demand for these three products was stable. However, the new additions of the Pillai-ready thermometer and power lense spectacles became successful additions to the range of products produced by Pillai Optics, making Pillai undoubtedly one of the richest people in the empire, all without investing in anything else but the optics industry.

Rich people in the empire like Pillai were rare because almost everyone had already diversified their interests once they became wealthy, but Pillai and his family stuck to the optics industry to the end.

P.S. Sorry the way the capillary is made is a little unscientific but I ran out of time