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I will paint camouflage on the cannon, just because I can and want to, regardless of what my wife and concubines want, but that camouflage will be similar to the future uniforms, especially on the shield. When I take a closer look at the cannon, I realise that a solid shell is missing from the cannon's ammo box.
Who the hell could have taken one?! Why?!
It's literally 4 kg of iron and lead and 7.5 cm in diameter! Ah. I realise what the shape looks like, and who might want to borrow one, so I sigh and call for Alith. When Alith arrives, I meaningfully look at the empty space in the ammo box, and Alith looks a bit guilty, so I whisper, "Did it fit?"
Alith gets a terribly guilty look on her face and looks away before whisperingly responding: "I'm sorry, Sir. But the cannon is so powerful and sexy, and the shells have been popping up in my mind since I helped load the cannon at the firing test. Once I got that in my head, I just couldn't let it go, and the cannon just sits here under the cloth outside our day room as a constant reminder, and I've walked past it so many times each day. It was too embarrassing to ask, and I just hasn't put the shell back yet. I'll fetch it right away."
"Alith, return it discretely when possible, and wash off the shell before you return it. Also keep in mind, that the finish isn't completely smooth and lead is worse than wood, so don't do it again. Your health is important to me."
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Finalising more clocks is going smoothly and relatively quickly, and apart from a flip clock for my bedroom, we have been gradually upgrading the existing pendulum clocks, so the main hall, guest mansion and staff room pendulum clocks have proper striking mechanisms. The staff room clock has a simpler striking mechanism for each hour of the day, but the other two are advanced and divide the day into six hour sections and have a single strike, followed by a double strike, triple strike etc to six strikes and then start again. So the clocks strike six strokes 00, 06, 12, 18. It's easy to count when you hear it, and we should always be able to tell which of the six hour sections applies except possibly in the middle of the winter night if you wake up completely wrong and confused. The sound is deliberately chosen to be quite low so as not to wake anyone up but still be heard. If there is a problem with that, we will simply use the blocking function so that there are no strikes during the night.
The wall clocks powered by the electric timing signal are very flat and look 'modern' as the stepping mechanism takes up very little space, and we hang them in the various larger rooms where we want to display the time, and there is currently a wire available that can be used for the time signal. All sambos wanted clocks in their bedrooms, so as well as building a smaller table top clock that can also be use as an alarm clock, it has been necessary to run an extra wire for the time signal for them, but this has been relatively easy as they already have electricity and are next door or above each other, or in Ciara's and Caecilia's case, next to my room. In the future, I will need to run a lot more wires in the house and make a better network for time signals, and it will probably be similar at the Academy and elsewhere. But, until that construction gets closer to being finished, there's simply no point in making many more clocks, even if there are a few special ones, and prepare for when we do need those clocks.
Because Ciara really loves clocks, the ticking of the pendulum and it going back and forth like a tail, a special clock is being made for her, which is based on one of those cat clocks that has a tail and eyes that swing back and forth, but it won't tick. The plan is a normal time signal clock, but with an electromagnet that sets the tail wagging every time there is a time signal, while the eyes just change which way they are looking. So the eyes don't switch back and forth in time with the wagging tail. Jane's special clock isn't finished yet either. It looks like the others' table clocks, but has extra features she'll hopefully find annoying. Iselin has been very enthusiastic about both special clocks, and she wants her own flip clock on her bedside table. It is likely that somewhere there will eventually be an advanced flip clock that shows the time, day of the week, week number and day and month.
So many projects.
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There have been several batches of copper purification, and the copper crystals have been pretty good too and pretty, but they are damn fragile. I have after much heating managed to melt copper with my new high temperature lab furnace, so I know it can reach 1085 C, and that its thermometer scale works reasonably well, although I doubt the furnace can get much higher, because it took a hell of a time to slowly reach copper melting temperature. In this case that is actually an advantage as a stable temperature around 1000 C create the red oxide layer. However, I think I will continue to use the electrolysis method, as it seems to give the best diodes.
But while the high temp lab furnace fires up once again, copper is purified and the electrolysis bath continues, we take down all the thermometers and verify that all still show the same at minus and in heated water, which feels very good and reassuring. I've once again started thinking about eye protection and sunglasses, and tempering glass has gone well, so I can make some sunglasses or eye protection with tempered glass. I'll find, grind and temper some glass plates in coloured glass. Especially the glass plates in slightly darker red-orange glass and yellow glass will probably be good because some parts completely lack small bubbles. I need to make a proper microscope.
We continuing to mould more rain gauges using the same template as last time. I'm going to build more barometers too, so I can start setting up weather stations in many places. If the maids in Borgheim want to learn radio, they can also learn to collect data from a weather station, and I want Asbjörn to have one and probably Myrun too, and one at Asbjörn's new lighthouse at Vinga island would also be practical, as well as in Forsheim, Laxlanda or the future inn in Elfrhamr. The Völva living in southern Orusingen would also appreciate a barometer, and could get a whole set if she agree to gather and share data.
Both Iselin and I are happy as we test all the copper oxide diodes, and measure that they work without any diode being shorted. We mount them in stacks, sadly they seem to have quite a lot of forward resistance, enough that I probably won't have to add a resistor to limit charging current in many cases, and that makes me a bit more worried about heat generation and cooling. But all the diodes except the smallest single diode for radio receivers have fins that poke out to dissipate heat, and we will use paint with thin clay to try to insulate them a little better on the outside and keep out oxygen etc. Eventually our work has become four <60V capable rectifiers, so I'm now going to start planning for higher voltage AC power plant and higher voltage battery. There have also been single diodes suitable for radio receivers although they are not that small, and diode stacks using the larger diodes rated for <20V that can handle more current, and I'll have to test how much current that is, and a finished rectifier bridge that can convert AC to DC for <20V.
Jane still find it hard to believe that we're literally making semiconductors in Elvish middle ages.
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It's evening when Iselin and Caecilia comes to fetch me from the workshop. I don't react at first, and is just about to proudly show Iselin the promising Zinc Negative Resistance tests, but I see that both of them have put on make-up, and not as is usual here. I also recognise that red tone on their lips. Indeed, Jane has helped them, and they find it strange. Even though they don't really see themselves in mirrors many times each day, they can see what the other looks like, and Jane has taken photos and used the mobile phone camera in selfie mode so they could see themselves. Iselin doesn't think lipstick is for her as it feels strange, but she likes the way Caecilia looks in it and has done so since she was 'Elsa', and clearly once again, Caecilia comments that Iselin looks extra beautiful with make-up, which gives Iselin a sweet smile. But then again, isn't make-up almost always worn to impress others? Both are so gods damn beautiful, with make-up just being that extra touch.
Damn... These two beautiful young women are my wife and my courtesan. Wow. Schwing!
Iselin likes the eye shadow though, and black eyelashes are okay. I've learned and am quick to say that make-up is their choice, and given what should be possible here, I prefer them both without lipstick if it smudges like crazy, so we can kiss whenever we want without having to worry about smudges or needing to wash clothes or maybe damaging clothes, which they both agree with.
However, both agree that there is a market for more and better make-up, and Iselin has already decided to support Jane's experiments in it, including Alfheimr lipstick. I'll have to talk to Jane about it, so she's wary of anything that could be dangerous, but I think she knows that. Botox is hardly the first poison used to look beautiful, and in the 19th century arsenic was commonly used to lighten skin and show that you were rich enough to not work in the fields.
As we walk up the stairs, I notice Iselin whistling Rihanna's 'Umbrella' as she dances up the steps in her stilettos. If I remember the video correctly, I suspect I know why she wants eye shadow and care less about red lips. Huh. Iselin's birthday is coming up, so I should take a screenshot and ask Jane to paint a Rihanna 'fan girl' picture for Iselin. Can I make an umbrella with impregnated fabric or something that is actually really good rain protection?