1321

## **Stonehearth creates the tools of the mechanical trade**

### Mechanical Engineering…

After the mechanical miniaturization of 1320, in **1321**, Stonehearth created the tools to not only do it again, but to do it better. This included the measurement device of the screw micrometer.

Once they had the momentum on creating tools, they went crazy with it, next creating the screw-cutting lathe. This opened the door to the development of the machine tool, where Stonehearth would spawn their engineers and tool and die maker. The lathe standardized the size of the screw threads, soon leading to a greater conversation…

It included mechanical engineering pieces such as the anchor escapement, coil spring, and balance spring. Finally, it included a tool to fix the rest of them: *the* *wrench*.

Much of this, in one form or another, had been invented before. In fact, it had been invented over and over as tinkers protected their craft in the same way as wizards.

### Closely related was the optics of magnification…

With the mundane optics inventions including multiple magnifying lenses now becoming a prerequisite to mechanical miniaturization, the optical evolution continued with the invention of the Microscope.

This scope, like the telescope before it, utilized multiple lenses to take a small scene and enlarge it, with the ability to focus. One critical difference was the recognition that the subject matter of a microscope needed very careful lighting.

## **...And Discovers Tiny Worlds**

Shortly after the invention of macro magnification; the Stonehearth College discovered the *World Microscopic*

Some six months after the invention of the microscope, the College announced a series of discoveries made with the new device: *there were creatures that appeared to be alive and were smaller than the eye could see – and they lived everywhere, including the average well water*.

Theory: many of them were likely responsible for a great deal of disease and death (including the amoebic dysentery that once killed a Prince). There was suspicion that the plague may of this nature.

It was pure Stonehearth audacity: they were targeting the Black Death itself; a foe far greater than Amn ever had been. The news of the plague vector was enough to get attention, not just in Faerûn but as far as Kara-Tur.

Just a month later, the College announced the discovery the presence of a specific tiny creature (of hundreds now catalogued) that appeared responsible for the plague.

### The discovery raced through Faerûn to a surprisingly mixed reception.

It was heretical to some that some philosophers utterly rejected known occult and metaphysical pathologies. It was like taunting the malevolent mystical.

Second, the possibility that there could be such a kind of life was utterly unbelievable to many others. To the educated courts, the news was received with guarded optimism. Few wanted to give credit to Stonehearth for the discovery though over the next few years, the reticence of other courts leaked into the populace, creating a pro-Stonehearth underground (in a sort of "they actually told us and we didn't listen" sort of fashion).

### It was enough in *The Gate* to institute robust sanitation measures.

The Hamlets and the rest of the shanty towns around The Gate were instantly engaged. This was more than a fashion, it was indeed a matter of survival.

Sanitation took a new level of importance. They’d heard the warnings, but now there was something to back it up. Potable water was the first concern, and was immediately implemented, with plans being drawn up to create a system to ensure clean water to every subject. Aqueducts became a major civil issue, especially in the larger, stinkier cities.

Likewise, sewage collection and disposal became a major issue. It wasn’t just about the disgusting smells, this was the beginning of the recognition that disease could lurk in the unseen. Where people had a hard time believing, the College brought in recognized divine authorities. Paraphrasing Leviticus: *Cleanliness was next to Godliness*.

The flushing toilets weren't new, in the largest sense, but the technology had been lost to the west and only marginally adopted in the east. The Royal Society went to work on the engineering problems, eventually bringing forth various designs to be standardized, all of which utilized some sort of water trap.

Finally, sewage treatment was an important consideration. There was no point in shunting it away from one place, just to get another place sick down the river. The impact of sewage was already known, even rising to policy level when the Grand Dukes proclaimed that “throwing rushes, dung, refuse and other filth and harmful things into the river shall no longer be allowed”.

With the precedent of the dukes who “forbade the throwing of filth and garbage into ditches, rivers, and water,” enforcement and alternatives became a serious question.

This left the question of exactly what to do with it – and the College was working on that. In fact, there were already examples and the Gate was ready to follow suit. Some cities introduced the use of city refuse and sewer water as fertilizers on their land.

Plans were discussed at the College of digging under the streets of Baldur’s Gate to install septic sewers. This was a dirty, messy plan – but people were good with it. They liked it enough that construction would begin soon to be in operation by the end of the year. The cesspools were heavily utilized, not just as the dumping point (so to speak), but rather for harvesting ammonium nitrate for gun powder and fertilizer.

### Cats

Over the course of the year, further discoveries were made as they traced the path of the creatures back from the blood, into fleas and onto the rats that carried them. Cats had an instant reverence among the culture.

## The Impact on Medicine

Turning the microscope on ourselves, it was reinforced that not everything microscopic was bad. Blood itself contained microscopic elements necessary for life. Not sure how, yet, but *not* having them would kill a person.

But in that, distinctions had to be made. Speaking of blood, they found a whole variety of tiny creatures in wounds. These were likely the basis of infections – and have solutions from the ancient lands, where they used specially selected mold and plant materials and extracts to treat infections.

Herein was the discovery that led to the Germ Theory of Disease and the eventual founding of the Stonehearth Medical College.