The fire is lit!

24th April 1574

"Hang the core now. We need the counterweight to be quite a lot heavier than the cylinder itself."

With the miners standing idle and watching the peculiar building with a visible confusion on their faces, I continued to order around my workers who turned out to be almost as enthusiastic about this project as I did.

Even though the official purpose of this machine wasn't properly explained to anyone but the craftsmen, it was inevitable that the rumours would appear even amongst the common folk. But while I was happy that everyone was eager to do their part of the work, seeing how some of them acted quite recklessly as if trying to finish their tasks as soon as possible, I couldn't help but start to get slightly worried.

As for the core of the counterweight, it was nothing else than a several iron disk-bound together by chains and nails, making it easy to attach anything to it whenever we decided the weight of the working arm had to be greater.