It was some days later before a deal was made. The deal was made because the Schmidt family had the best shop for what the kids wanted. Not the only one, but the best. By the time the deal was made Karl was less sure that the kids were a ruse. They actually seemed to know what they were talking about.
August 12, 1631: Dave Marcantonio’s Shop
David Bartley, the proud uncle, watched Brent, Trent, their father, and Mr. Marcantonio—new daddies all—gathered around at the birth of their machines. Triplets, but not quite identical. David, as was appropriate for an uncle, was pleased, but not totally enraptured by the appropriate number of fingers and toes, or in this case gears, levers and cutting blades. Donny, on the other hand, was thrilled to be included.
The machines worked, but like many babies were just a bit cranky. There were places where the gears stuck, just a bit. It was hoped that with use they would smooth out. It would take some skill to use them. Not so much as Mr. Marcantonio had, nor so much as the down-time smiths had. These were finishing machines that took a blank provided by a down-time smith or foundry, and fined them up. Trent and Brent would be using them first, and for the moment they would stay in a corner of Mr. Marcantonio’s shop.
August 25, 1631:
After the initial burst of activity, things slowed to a snail’s pace as more urgent jobs claimed more and more of Dave Marcantonio’s time. He was fitting in parts of their machines wherever he could, but he didn’t have a lot of slack time. They were doing a lot better with the down-time contractors, in spite of the fact that they had to watch every cent, and bargain prices generally don’t go with fast delivery.
Still, money-wise they were doing better than expected. Mr. Marcantonio had the blanks he needed to make the next four of the production machines, and at about two-thirds of what they had expected to pay. They also had a small but respectable stock of down-timer made sewing machine parts, at better prices than expected. Partly this was due to Johan’s bargaining skills, but mostly it was because the down-time shops had been losing a lot of their normal business to the up-time shops, and they badly needed the work.
Sarah, and especially her parents, were worried about the situation. One of the dangers of introducing a lot of new products into an economy is that it can cause deflation that leads to a depression. Some of the merchants and many of the farming villages around the Ring of Fire were accepting American money, but not all of them. Without the American money, the sudden influx of goods and services could end up ruining everyone within fifty miles of the Ring of Fire.
Which was why they were getting their parts for such low prices. The craft shops in the area were desperate for business, any business. The HSMC’s money was buying more than it should have been.
August 27, 1631: Delia Higgins’ Garage
“It’s still good,” said Brent, as they fiddled with one of the five partially completed sewing machines, “it’s only about an eighth of an inch shallow.”
“I don’t know,” said Trent. “If the catcher is an eighth of an inch off the other way it’ll jam.” The catcher was the twins’ term for a device that hooked the thread and pulled it around the bobbin every other stitch. Unfortunately, several of the parts to the bobbin assembly were still waiting on finishing machines to come out of Mr. Marcantonio’s shop. So, while the needles went up and down, and the “thread puller” pulled the thread at the right time as far as the boys could tell, they were still some distance from actually sewing a single stitch.
September 1, 1631: Grantville High School
“Hey, Brent. Do you really own a company?”
“What are you taking this year?”
“What’s this shit about you owning a company?”
“Yea, they make sewing machines so they can have cloths for their dollies.”
“Except, they ain’t actually made no sewing machines yet, and I hear they never will.”