Creating something new, day 39
Fireworks
The first thing in the morning, is to finish the pyro builds to let them dry and get test ready. I ask Iselin to help me shape a candle around two of the bigger firecrackers, to see if they can camouflaged well and the time it takes until detonation. I thought it was tallow candles we had here, but apparently there is only a more expensive but better candle made from a vegetable oil called 'rovolja'. The oil comes from a plant with yellow flowers, and beside smelling better, they also smoke less and gives a better candle. These are the ones we've had here all along. How would I know? As a modern person I'm just used to paraffin wax candles. As Iselin describe the plant and yellow fields, I think she means yellow rapeseed flowers, so rapeseed oil. It all sounds good considering cleaner burning candle in my lanterns means cleaner glass, which gives more light. Otherwise, I only know of candles made from beeswax that should be stronger, lighter and far less soot. Which also exists here as a luxury item.
Rapeseed oil might work well with a wick in an oil lamp, if it isn't too tough and sticky preventing its wicking up compared to something like kerosene, but there were different types of oil lamps, including ones with the reservoir above so I might try building one. There were also oil lamps that used pressure, springs and clock mechanisms to pump oil but I have relatively poor knowledge of details. I guess I have another project to figure it out. Knowing how useful something is that takes time and money to manufacture, is sometimes an advantage because no-one has tried. I should probably really try to make a proper oil lamp soon, as it will be the only improved lightsource besides rovolja candles and fire that I can count on in the coming months or years. It can also be massproduced to be spread it to others, which I won't be able to do with electric light. Light bulbs will be a hell of a project.
A rapeseed oil lamp or lantern can have enormous value. I might use some of the improvements that oil lamp lighthouses had and apply it on an oil lamps for indoors? I'm not trying to build a class 1 lighthouse, but still. Let's see now, what was it that made oil lamps better there? Of course the tapered tall glass which is a classic on ordinary oil lamps, and most likely for the chimney effect, which sounds logical. The larger bubble around the flame is also logical to keep the glass away from the flame. Then there was the air flow, and I think some use a cylindrical wick. It should be logical that a larger circumference with a larger burning area gives more light while keeping down the overall size, and a cylindrical wick can have air rising in the middle on both sides of the fire. A cylindrical wick is just a long flat one looped back to it self. I do remember seeing some kind of meshball but were it for gas lamps or oil lamps? Why was it used? A mesh should fuck up airflow, so probably for gas lamps, and a glowing mesh might have improved light output, or just kept the light output from flickering. Eh, its for future experimentation. Then of course lenses and reflectors. And of course kerosene, but I have no idea how it can be made here without starting to experiment with separation towers, and doubt that I can even get enough crude oil. It will still be future labwork in the Academy to learn and develop that. It might not matter during my lifetime if rovolja works well enough.
Even simpler lighthouses would be nice. I've always liked lighthouses. They changed the world and in many cases have been so enormously important. Kullen's lighthouse in southwest Sweden is nice and impressive, but I just don't know if this world is ready for lighthouses. It is very possible that there just isn't enough ships and seafarers for it to be useful or practical, or it might be season dependant. There are always a lot of ships in Borgarsandr, but how much traffic is there really? And where do they sail to? I've only seen a couple of months, so I have no idea of the overall picture. I guess I know what I will be talking with Asta about next time she comes here for lessons.
But it would be fun to build a lighthouse, just because I can, with a reflector or fresnel lens to make it focused and combine it with some form of gravity-driven clockwork mechanism to make it rotate to give it a light signature. They may not need lighthouses now, but they will need lighthouses in the future. Maybe I should try to build a few lighthouses to make sailing to Borgarsandr possible around the clock and year. It will be dark with just 6-7 daylight hours in the winter, which isn't enough time. Its just a hell of a long and difficult route out and back in from the sea, and going through the archipelago isn't easier. All these lighthouses will need lighthouse keepers as well, as I can't automate them, and that will not be economical if its all for my own occasional use.
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It's late and almost dark we go down to the beach. My sambos and Alith are along, while Bodil will be nearby overlooking it all and warn if she see anyone approaching. The beach is definitely my usual pyro test area, but there isn't anything important nearby, and only the farm within the nearest kilometer. I think there are fewer visitors down here after all my tests, because the rumor seems to have spread far and wide to avoid it.
The small firecrackers work very well, although they arn't particularly impressive, just as I assumed. However, the two with a little aluminium dust in them, makes a rather impressive sharp light flash. Not much sound, but we all have an afterimage we try to blink away from something like a three meters bright white half globe lying on the ground. Lightning without much thunder impresses my company, because they are only used to fire as the only light and how fire moves. This is completely different, and something I have done here, even if the aluminium technically isn't from here. The camera can't really handle the difference in light, but thats expected.
The other larger firecrackers, made from the shortened rocket tubes are much more impressive, especially the one I put under some sand. My warning to never hold a firecracker in your hand is taken very serious. But of course, the big ones have about 15 times the amount of blackpowder compared with the smaller ones and quite a lot more than a Boomstick shot, and that should make a difference. The echo bounce well between the rocks, and its a good indication of the speed of sound and echo location from a single point source.
My boobytrapped candles works quite well, and looks like regular thicker candles. But after a few minutes it detonates. Its quite entertaining. I have discreetly brought my wristwatch along and I also record them. In the future I have to shorten the wick, as the shortest time was 6 minutes and the longest was 14 minutes, which is far too long for my plan and too much variation. Its very unexpected when it detonates, but thats just far too long. Which, as expected, means making more and improved. R&D is time and resource demanding, but efficient. R&D FTW. I wondering how much silver I'll spend on R&D during my life here? It will probably be several fortunes.
The fireworks rockets work well. My company weren't prepared for real life fireworks, and complain that my description with woosh-bang sound effects was bad. Correct, but bad. Very entertainingly, both Ciara and Kari took a couple of staggering steps back, lost their balance and thumped down on their asses with their mouth gaping, and just stared. And that was after they had seen the firecrackers. Iselin is happy and impressed, while Alith is more the 'fuck yeah, woho!' kind. Everyone sat down after that, and I should have thought about that before. Bodil is still standing up on the cliffs.
I have no idea how high the rockets fly, but it's high enough. I could certainly get Asta to measure with sextant, or do it mself, but I don't need to know, because the goal is 'wow' and not altitude. Triggering an additional display charge is a bit wonky, but it doesn't have to be exactly at the highest point, and the short delay makes it a little more impressive. Copper and iron works, and is quite beautiful, blue and yellow, and it is a lucky coincidence that those are the Academy's colors. If I make glowing rain it shouldn't be dry on the ground as they glow almost all the way down and I think some landed, but we see no fires. Starting a wildfire would have been bad, and we only have a single bucket with us to drench any fire with seawater. However, glowing rain is impressive. The white flash from a little mixed in aluminium powder in the last rockets display charge illuminates the area quite well, and that will be effective to use. All four firework rockets worked as I thought.
For now my firework portfolio will just be simpler roman candles, firecrackers, and fireworks with blue or yellow color, glowing rain and a white flash. But thats enough, and my company is ridiculously impressed. I have no idea if it is even possible to get Strontium or Barium for red and green respectively, or anything else that makes colors, but it would have been so beautiful. Another future project will be trying different things and metals, along with trying to make patterns and star balls that are thrown out, but only when I have plenty of saltpeter. Selling fireworks can probably be a lucrative market, but it makes it possible for others to dissassemble the firework or firecracker and get hold of the blackpowder, so not ideal. The only option would be to sell a show where someone I trust handles the fireworks. Its far safer too.
Its a happy group that goes back to the farm, and after the first shock, they could really appreciate the other rockets more and more. I myself just tried to take notes about which of the rockets and charges looked best, and I will have to make more firework rockets too. A simple premade firework box would be so much more impressive, but I'm quite convinced that I lack competition here in the Alfheimr north.
Kari talk eagerly and exited on the way back. She now understands why we had to wait until it was dark, to be able to see the fireworks in all their glory, but its actually an advantage if I would use two rockets at Jarl Naeswulfs feast, or at least have it along. He wants sejd to impress the guests, and the firework are without a doubt that, but for them to work well, its necessary that the sun has gone down and that it is late.
His feast probably starts early in the afternoon as most major feasts do, to have more time to impress with food, music and any appearances. The downside is that many guests will be quite drunk, and unable to stand on their feet or be passed out before it gets dark enough. Some might even have left the feast. And then the will miss to see the sejd. If they stay in the feast hall, limit their drinking etc, the feast feels dull and a bit of a failure. It ends in a bang, but then its my sejd that makes the feast impressive - not the Jarl's feast as a whole. If the Jarl asks about details before its to late, he has a difficult decision to make. If he doesn't ask before it is too late, he can't change the outcome. If Jarl Naeswulf behaves exemplary, I should inform him before it is too late, but it will still not affect the outcome. He also can't publicly whine about it, because it is impressively sejd, which, however, needs to be done in the dark to work best. He can't even ask me to light the fireworks while the sun is up, because that is an insult to my sejd in many ways. That my sejd isn't worth the wait, and the sejd is unimportant. He may be angry, annoyed and understand that it was planned, but he can't complain, and if he has made any mistakes, he can never again demand my participation or that I show sejd.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Sometimes I just love Kari's scheming, and I tell Iselin and Ciara that tonight I need to reward Kari for her plan, which Iselin with a reluctant smile understands, and Kari's enthusiastic.
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When we return to the farm, we're met by wide-eyed and a little jealous faces from Gunhild and Hillevi - and the farm's other inhabitants with similar expressions. I didn't even think about warning them, and apparently a couple came out and Gunhild explained that Sejdmann Arnesson is down on the beach and doing thunder sejd. Again. So they quickly fetched others and all saw the rockets in all their distant glory.
It will probably reinforce the rumour that is already going on, that I am powerful and that I like to play with thunder to entertain myself, which no one has ever heard of before. Many seem to just assume that the god Thor is my father, or Freya is my mother. There are also those who believe that I'm their secret love child. Thor and Freya, if you presumably exist here, please don't take offence. Its not my idea, and denying it doesn't help. It just becomes 'nudge nudge wink wink, say no more'.
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Alith and Bodil sit down and join Gunhild. It's Gunhild's turn to have the night watch, but they need to talk before she and Bodil go to bed. Its been a long day, and what happened just an while ago has made them sit and think, accompanied by the occasional faint sound of Robert and Kari in his room, while Iselin and Ciara are silent in their beds. Alith need to lighten her heart.
"Sometimes our Lord scares me with his creations. Not because he does them, or knows how to do something, but because he has avoided doing them until he need or has to. It makes me afraid of what he can really do. What he doesn't do.
As you know, I once made the mistake of asking what equipment a warrior in Midgard use and how battles are fought there, and it was obvious that he really didn't want to answer my question, so I havn't asked since. But he said it's something I can't imagine, because its so far beyond ideas and sagas that we never even guessed or thought in those ways.
I didn't understand what he meant, but tonight I think we all got a little glimpse. I have a hard time even explaining what it was like to experience fireworks up close, because it was something I don't even know how to describe, and how would I describe it to someone who hasn't seen something like this before? How can they really understand? It becomes as unreal as our Lord's terrible explanation before we went down.
I think our Lord's life here in Alfheimr is like that all the time - even if he wanted to explain, we can't really understand. How do you explain fire, and how easy it is to make a fire, if a person has never seen or experienced anything other than the sun? We know how certain plants can be used, and Fjölkunniga know better about the use and preparation of herbs and plants, but they probably don't understand why it works. I'm willing to bet that our Lord actually understands that, but can't explain it to us. We've all heard the tale of how he called down Thor's lightning and binded it in the North Arrows. By all accounts that was easy and fast. He's spent a lot more time on what we saw tonight, not to mention his weird rotating wind thing with everything around that. It's not something that is hung up to keep away evil beings, and it isn't a wind chime. He tried to make it as silent as possible, because it would be annoying if it squeaked. We all know that it catches sejd from the wind and somehow stores sejd. And I know it does. I can't say more about it, partly because I promised, but I certainly don't understand enough either. Our Lord have an expression; if something is sufficiently advanced craftsmanship, its sejd. How much of what we see everyday and take as obvious, was once sejd?"
They all just sit there and look out into the darkness while they think. Alith's again reminded of what Iselin said she heard when Robert showed his sejd in Kambsnes. How Robert is trying to understand the mysteries of the world, and it was probably a deep truth on a completely different level than anyone there could understand. He doesn't like to lie.
"I also saw something else tonight. I saw how unimpressed our Lord was. He wasn't overjoyed or proud as he sometime have been for other things - he was half dissatisfied and was careful to take notes so he could do better next time. It was 'meh' or maybe 'good enough', and not that pleased look he gets when he's satisfied with something. It was as if he made something as simple as a wooden doorstop, and as long as it worked he didn't care that it was crooked, covered with sticks and chips and ugly. He will do better next time.
Every time our Lord does something like tonight or shows something impressive, I realize how frighteningly wrong our high self-image is. And I mean us Elves. How wrong our belief is that we're just one step under the gods. How frighteningly wrong our belief is that Midgard is populated by primitive humans. Its us Elves here in Alfheimr that are primitive. So very very primitive. We are children crawling around on the ground, still trying to eat sand and other things we grab, while we hit each other with rocks and think we're impressive and grown up.
We - as in we Elves - should be so grateful that our Lord is here, and that he is such a good and generous man, who just wants to teach children and make our world better - make us grow up a little more. Think of all the impressive things he has already created like IUDs, blade steel, North arrows, ships compasses, monoculars, maps and sextants. In just a few weeks! It's so very advanced for us, and sejd, but for him its primitive. As if he gave us pointed long sticks instead of just stones, and our Lord really can't give us knives and swords. He can't give us what he wants - because we are too primitive. Just think of the new wonderful carriage. For our Lord, its terribly simple and primitive, and he have shown me and explained what carriges in Midgard are like, and that was certainly not the whole truth, for I can't understand. The new carriage is so primitive for our Lord, and for him hardly any difference from the old but still beautiful wagon. Just a small first step on a long journey. In a couple of years, our Lord hopes that he will have built a carriage that doesn't need a horse to pull it. It will be pulled by firewood. And it's not sejd, and anyone will be able to use it. He reckons we will understand it, and use it. And for him it is still primitive."
Bodil and Gunhild just stare at her and Alith feels exactly the same.
"The craftsmen here could have made wagons like the new one decades or centuries ago - it just hasn't happened. We elves havn't understood. We have been happy, because we didn't know better. Just look at the road being built on his Academy Island. So impressive, but our Lord knows that it will last for centuries, for its centuries since such roads were built in Midgard. Without thinking about it, he happened to say that if the road is maintained and winter ice doesn't crack the surface too much, that road will last for millennia. But they don't make such roads anymore in Midgard - theirs are much better. Our Lord thinks so far into the future, and he doesn't plan only for the next few years. Not just his life, or even his children's life. The road across the island is so wide because two carriages will be able to pass each other without problems, and if the ditches on the side are covered with stone, there will be room for people to walk on. For in a couple of centuries, a town might have expanded over the islands mountains, and houses will be built along the road. That road will allow for many carriages and people in motion, so he consider it to be a wise decision to build the road wide enough now. For that road will remain and work well in a few hundred years. That road isn't to impress guests. In his mind its just practical and a good idea. Just like the copper roof and all those windows."
Alith decides to tell them something else she has heard, even though it feels like a small betrayal of Robert's trust.
"Our Lord's plan is to spend the rest of his life, to make our world skip centuries of gradual development and improvement, perhaps a millennia, and especially when it comes to food, water, home, heat, health and safer life. And its only now that I have begun to understand what it really means for him. But it also means Midgard is atleast a millennia ahead of us. Someone who hasn't seen a few of the sejd things he brought with him, can't understand what that means. Its totally impossible, and I really hope he trust you enough in the future to show you too. He only showed me because someone have to protect him. It got me thinking. How did we live a thousand years ago? How much have our world actually changed in just the last two hundred years. What do we have now, that we didn't have then? If we went back in time a thousand years, I don't think we would feel so out of place. They wouldn't have glass windows, or paper and books, and thats pretty much all I could think about. And I don't know how to make either glass windows or paper. Our Lord? He knows that and so, so much more. At every craftsman we've ever visited, he always try to learn exactly what they can, and can't make. They're all to primitive."
Bodil and Gunhild just slowly nod along that they agree.
"He will spend his life to give us Elves all the knowledge and help he can. He does it because he is a terribly good selfless man, who wants to help children grow up, so our lives get better. So we live longer and healthier. Imagine if he were like an ordinary greedy Jarl, Storman or even King. If he were like Daes King Magnbjorn who wants to conquer the south to increase his power, and wealth. A Conqueror; a man who takes what he wants and kills, enslaves and plunders. Our Lord could have conquered this and other Kingdoms and surely conquered a large part of the world in just a few years. Then he could have enjoy all the women and riches he wanted, without sharing his power and instead founded a new lineage, where his descendants ruled everything with secrets and knowledge he left them. Most would see him as a demi god. Many already do.
I have no doubt at all that our Lord would be able to do it; in power, knowledge and cunning, and he understands that others can do it - especially other humans. It is our job to protect our Lord from dangers and stupid greedy elves, and he has already been forced to kill for the first time in his life, just to continue to make our world better and safer - for us. For our children and grandchildren. We should dedicate our lifes to protect him at all cost. For the next time a man from Midgard comes here ...it may be as the Conqueror who enslaves all of Alfheimr."
Her words have been heavy to say, and surely heavy to listen to. Alith really likes her life and Robert, both as her Lord to protect and as a friend, and she finds herself smiling when she thinks of Robert's phrase 'with benefits'. She love those benefits.
But she finds it hard to sleep. They have an enormous responsibility, and she understands how important their service and duty is for all future generations. They all have to choose between dreams and hopes, or give them up for the future of their world. A difficult decision, but there have probably never been shieldmaidens with such an incredibly important duty, and life as Robert's guards will be easier and more luxurious than their wildest dreams, because Robert takes care of all the women around him. It just comes too natural for him, and he doesn't seem to be able to stop himself from pampering them. It will be fun to see how his future maids are treated. Alith looks forward to experiencing his mansion and seeing all those things she heard him talk about.
... but sleep eludes her.