Considered by many to be the most significant invention of the 19th century, the Gravitic Field Manipulator, known more colloquially as the Balfour Engine, is the machine that brought the world closer together, and our world closer to others. After the successful synthesis of Cavorite in the late 1790s, a race began for the first technology using its anti-gravity properties. In 1802 Gordon Balfour, an engineer for the Bailey & Brookestone locomotive engineering firm in Kilmarnock, Scotland, began work on his own device. With assistance from some of the faculty of Glasgow University, he produced his first working prototype in 1805, and filed a patent shortly thereafter, though it would be two more years before he unveiled it to the public.
On the morning of Friday, October the 16th, 1807, a crowd gathered at a railway depot to witness the “marvelous machine.” Mr. Balfour had taken out ads in papers as far away as Newcastle for the event. At precisely 10 am a tarp dropped, revealing a heavily modified steam locomotive. Detached from the wheels, the engine began working, generating power for the strange device and conduits that ran all over the locomotive. Slowly, over the course of around 10 minutes, the train lifted off of its rails and climbed into the air, to the shock and astonishment of the crowd. As it neared 15 feet the crowd began cheering, and Mr. Balfour emerged from the cab in order to wave. This is the moment when the famous photograph that appeared in papers across the world was taken.
Assumed by many to be a feat of magic or trickery, over the following weeks, Mr. Balfour would give many repeat performances, to the astonishment of many. The culmination of these would occur on Christmas Eve 1807 when King George III hosted a grand ball attended by many of the prominent members of the European nobility. For this achievement, Mr. Balfour was Knighted, as well as given a gold medal by the Royal Astronomical Society.
The first airships began appearing almost immediately, with the HMS Skywright taking flight in 1809. However, as with all new technology, it suffered from many issues, such as excess heat production, weak engines, and a severely limited range. This being said the Skywright captured the imagination of a generation as it sailed over the British Isles. In 1821 the first airship crossed the Atlantic, the Dutch built SMS Janszoon. By 1830 cargo airships became a semi-common sight, and in 1854 the HMS Hecate became the first vessel to leave Earth’s atmosphere and return safely. In 1855 airships saw their first major military actions, serving in the Italian Wars. (Arguably this had happened earlier with the American military’s development of their airship fleet in the early 1840s, however as those never saw sustained peer-to-peer combat, the Italian Wars are considered to be the first true military usage) The development of air forces quickly became a major priority for militaries around the world, spurring a new wave of innovation.
From this increased spending, Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin was able to create the Imperial Airship Service, greatly supporting this growing industry. Through these connections, he eventually retired from the military in order to start his own company in partnership with a wealthy industrialist, Sigmund Wehnert. Zeppelin-Wehnert Luftschiffbau. This corporation grew tremendously, especially after it diversified into the civilian market, to the extent that the name Zeppelin became synonymous with airship, and eventually overtook it as the colloquial term.
The Balfour Engine works on the principle of creating a gravitic field in which the motive force can be manipulated. Practically, this results in an anti-gravity field that can be attuned to repel or attract the gravity of nearby objects. Using this, the weight of large objects can be used to propel themselves away from or to Earth. This was the most immediate application of the technology and resulted in the creation of new forms of travel such as zeppelins and aetherships. In order to distribute the fields properly, a conduit of cavorite wire must be run over the load-bearing elements of an object. In early versions, the gravitic field only extended around 6” from the conduit, but more modern examples have boosted the radius of the field up to 3’ in distance, allowing for much larger craft. The strength of the field may also be alternately strengthened or weakened, allowing for precise altitude control.
Due to the intense energy demands of early Balfour engines, their usage was rather limited for the decades immediately following the invention. On average, to travel the same distance with the same tonnage, a ship equipped with a Balfour engine required between three and four times the amount of power than its ocean-going counterparts. This was primarily due to energy lost via heat production from resistance in the conduits. Modern alloys and heat venting have brought the ratio down to requiring two-thirds more energy for a comparable vessel. This, along with the growing importance of aether travel, has caused a second wave of technological development, leading to miniaturized versions of the Balfour Engine, along with a ever more widespread adoption.
The Balfour Engine is most famously used as the method of flight for Zeppelins and Aetherships, however they are present almost everywhere one goes in the modern world. Miniaturized Balfour engines (more correctly referred to as circuits, since an engine requires energy production rather than just storage) are used in ever increasing amounts in an ever widening array of industries. They are used in order to stabilize large buildings, such as the famous Reichshofrat's Hall in Vienna, to speed up trains, and to make industrial equipment easier to transport or use. The suits of Powered Armor used by many militaries are only possible due to their integrated Balfour circuits lightening their load. Additionally, the refinery rigs on the Gas Giant Concord are held aloft by this same technology. The modern world would be impossible without the discoveries of Gordon Balfour.
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