Apart from some discreet morse practice, there hasn't really been any work or crafting done in the last few days. But Olafr is still enjoying himself helping out at the forge, so I can do some work. The work with trying to make mercury thermometer has fallen by the wayside, but none of the glass tubes have cracked after annealing, so time to try filling them, as well as trying to seal my light bulb prototypes.
The light bulb prototypes are fragile, and are spaced out metal wire bonded together in a lump of clay, which has a carbon source attached between them from a mixture of tar and carbon black from the oil lamps. By heating it in a closed metal vessel, the carbon source is carbonized, and since the tar is also carbon, it is also carbonized. What remains are spaced out metal wires with carbon filament between. To help the carbonization, I have thoroughly smeared the carbon source with the tar-carbon mixture. To increase the chance of success, I try three different carbon sources; reed straw, string and a piece of paper I had with me which I soaked and spun together. I also want a long filament for more light and higher resistance, so the string and spun paper makes several loops between metal wires, while the reed forms an arc. Having many filaments in each light bulb, will make it faster to experiment, as I can try different lengths and parallel or series connect different sections, and when I burn out a segment, I can continue experimenting with the other sections.
I prefer to allow extra time to get as good a vacuum as possible, especially in the light bulbs, so most of the time is spent letting the mercury slowly fall down the tube to make a vacuum, but for obvious reasons this is done well ventilated and outdoors. Mercury vapor settles like an invisible poison on all surfaces, so the small workbench for this will be dedicated for mercury experiments. One problem is that I don't trust the vacuum seal once removed from the vacuum system, so it has to be quick, but the design of the vacuum system allows me to use the brass parts to fill and seal, and there is also a simple magnetic valve. Sure, there will be extra mercury I have to empty back, but I have plenty of mercury.
I heat a pot of mercury and thermometer tubes in a lab oven, but the oven is not completely sealed as that the thermometer tubes poke out. However, the inside shouldn't be too hot since mercury boil at 357C. We prepared a mug of water with ice in a container with sawdust for extra insulation, and Caecilia comes with a jug of freshly boiling water and one of cool tap water.
With Iselin, Kari, Ciara, Jane, Caecilia and Alith as focused observers, I begin by carefully remove the mercury pot and removing its lid. I take out the thermometer tubes, put the vacuum system tube into the mercury, open the valve and watch the vacuum suck up mercury to the bulb in the top while I blow on the glass tubes bulbs. It seems to completely fill the bulb, and I become slightly annoyed that it surprised me, especially as the tube is angled. There is vacuum inside and I know how high a mercury will rise in a mercury barometer. I lift the tubes out and turn them bulb side down. First they get a long dip in the almost boiling water and I separate them from vacuum system. Then I put the tubes in the cool water to bleed of heat, and then finally in the ice cold water to make the mercury shrink to its lowest point. Elvira comes and leaves a new vessel of boiling water when Caecilia calls for her.
I need to seal the tops and light bulbs and heating the end with my modified jetboil is quick, and I just flatten the light bulb prototypes around the metal wires as the glass starts to melt, and put them in the hot lab oven. Next is the thermometers and when the glass seems to melt together completely, I take the cup of previously boiling water and lift it up so that the bubbles of the thermometers become hot, the mercury rises and forces out a small air bubble at the top. I quickly remove the heat, cool the thermometer in the cool water and turn off the jetboiler. I can't anneal the thermometers, and I really hope the thermometers glass don't crack. But I can't do anything but wait and see. It will be fun to see how good the light bulbs are, both in terms of light and lifespan.
They help me clean everything up and we are extra careful with the mercury. I know there will be more mercury use in the future, but I'm not looking forward to it. I need to make some kind of fume hood lab station, with forced ventilation, prepared vacuum system and other things, but a separate exhaust over my workbench will be good for when I'm soldering too.
If these prototype works, next time I will make even more at once so I save on the jetboiler gas, even though I have already tried to add a shroud and heat focus to the burner so that its surface is smaller and the heat more focused.
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Me, Kari and Ciara are getting pretty good at recognizing and transmitting simple norse code, while Iselin is learning at a blistering pace. We can now use norse code, and the exercises with the norse code trainer works well enough. They all think norse code is a very good name for the system, so that will stick.
For now, the goal is not high tempo, and we will transmit using a rather slow tempo and there will be more than three lengths between letters, and pauses will also be longer. But it does not matter. The only important thing for testing is that it works, and that we hear and can communicate. We will primarily use a simple code list like 'Q codes' for this test, although they're basically Z codes due to the changed alphabet. Simply a distinctive sounding letter that few words or things start with, followed by one or two more letters, and I've written a list what different letter combinations have for different meanings, both technical descriptions as for signal strength, make a long transmission so I can set the tuning, transmit with low or high effect, repeat broadcast, return shortly, go to voice, etc. There are also simple ones that everything is okay, we will stay one more day, we will leave tomorrow, etc.
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We have a small nice feast in the evening where Merchant Ithuin, Asta and Pedr are also invited along with Iselin's parents and of course Olafr. Olafr will accompany us back to Borgarsandr tomorrow, and so will Merchant Ithuin and two of Pedr's workers to upgrade the B-mansion. All my sambos are in complete agreement that since we are going to keep and use the B-mansion every time we are in Borgarsandr, we should upgrade it with some amenities. After spending a few days here Olafr absolutely understands that, and is thinking about upgrading his home. When he returns for the wedding he will bring his housekeeper Bekkhilda so she can see the kitchen and learn how to use it it all before he have it built next summer. Olafr does not cook. Or wash clothes or clean. That and the home is women's work, while the forge, fields or forest is men's work. Sure, I might dabble in everything and Olafr have no problem with that since I'm a Sejdmann. He is not.
The others leave, but sambos, Jane and the guards join us as we relax in the sofas and talk, and Olafr is so pleased with these days, and says that I more than fulfilled my promise that we would hunt together and it would sound like thunder. The first morning hunt was wonderful, but the second one still managed to beat it. Elk hunting. Elk. The first time Olafr ate elk meat, and so too for a lot of other people, and we all liked the barbeque grill. The weapons are so terribly powerful and excellent for hunting, and Olafr completely understands why I wanted them. It is an incredibly powerful sejd that is very manly and Olafr is so pleased that he could do a good enough job. Olafr will make sure that the remaining firearms are finished and will serve their purposes well. After all, we have gained experience with the weapons and hunting and there will be three double-barreled shotguns and one more rifle, because hunting big game was fun, and I will give Olafr a couple of more steel lumps for the extra weapons.
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When I started asking leading questions, Olafr understands that I figured out how he made his barrel machine out of iron and wood to make the rifled barrels. He started thinking and built a simpler machine when he made the tubes for my cane, and we talked about a machine back then, and just because it was interesting, he kept tinkering with it afterwards. When I left the firearms drawings he thought more about it, and it was the only way they could be made good enough, so he worked on it. The barrel rotates freely and is handled by the apprentices by hand, and a fixed part can be slowly fed in to cut the inside round with a hardened steel tip. He used his contraption to make the musket and hunting rifles because making such a long and really straight pipe with such a small diameter is impossible, so he undersized the tube during forging and slowly drilled out the last few millimeters in diameter, then added an end plug for one end of the tube which was heat shrunk in place and then riveted. For the rifled barrel, he made a self-rotating reamer they hammered through the barrel, and used two different reamers to get the bore finished before adding the end plug. Finally he used the machine to make the outside smooth. They practised on ordinary iron pipes before trying with the steel barrels, because there is such a big difference in machining them. Steel doesn't cooperate, but is so much nicer and gives better end results, and he understands why steel is needed after experiencing the finished thunder weapons.
Olafr promises to show the machine on my next visit to Borgarsandr, and it is clear Olafr is so proud of his machine. It was far a more interesting challenge to make it and the barrels than just another sword, axe, spear or knife, and again he starts talking about the village forge and sawmill. Olafr might be a renowned master blade smith, but I think he is just bored doing that kind of work day after day, so it is no wonder Olafr enjoy making my firearms and have spent so much time helping the workers building the forge and sawmill. I really want to show him my workshop machines and their line shaft system and steam engine, but that will have to wait until at least after the wedding. Who knows? Maybe I should offer him another hunt.
We all debate if a double-barrelled musket maybe should have one barrel loaded with bullet and one loaded with pellets when hunting, to give more flexibility depending on what prey shows up as long as the distance is not too far, but it requires a stronger heavier barrel to shoot the bullet, so a pure shotgun might be worth it. Everyone agrees that the double barrel shotguns should be able to shoot both as that is best for all round hunting, because getting a prey and food is more important than what the prey is. It is also possible to load one barrel with small light pellets and another with larger and fewer for bigger game.
We talk about ballistics etc, and we toy with the idea of making a double barrel weapon that combine a rifled barrel with a shotgun barrel, which is something Olafr is eager to do once the concept have been explained, but for now he will do three double barrel shotguns in an over-under configuration, where the upper barrel is thicker to handle solid bullets, but no rifling. It is very likely that most hunting will be birds and small game such as rabbits, hare, foxes and so on, which shotguns will be best for, and having two of the same load will be best for bird hunting. Olafr will also make a new and improved musket, as the double barrel shotguns will be heavy, and hard to handle for some shooters. Olafr is also going to forge a pair of longer thinner steel butcher knives and make a meat axe and bone saw for butchering, because that will happen and the animals are worth it, and he wants to try to follow my quick sketches. It won't need to be his excellent craft, but Olafr volunteered to do it just because it will be 'fun', and he want to match the look of butchering set with the weapons. He want to do inlays.
When it comes to equipment and firearms, what I would really like more than anything else is silencers for the rifles. It is damn unpleasant without hearing protection. As long as the sound is muffled and reduces future hearing damage, it feels like a good idea, because even though that silencer will need to be cleaned after every hunt and reloads take more time, it feels worth trying to do it. For the time being, I will bring ear muffs, which can be moved down over the ears if time permits.
The subject change to hunting methods, good equipment for future hunts and so on. More orange cloth for marking is a given, and I mention that the hunters can wear it. Most animals will not see orange in a green forest, since they cannot see red at all, and some animals cannot see colors. They find it really hard to believe, but that's how it is, and Jane say that most hunting clothes have some orange to help see each other. I will try to prove that it is so, the question is how? But having an orange vest or headgear works well and it is good for safety if there are several hunters spread out or walking in a line, and my sambos decide they will make a couple of simple orange vests with pockets for hunting accessories, and orange bands for hats.
A small good sports whistle will be good for calling attention or coordinate people, and we will try to make a good bullroarer too and see how useful it is. Neither a whistle or a bullroarer take up a lot of space or are particularly difficult to do, and it will be possible to send 'Norse code' with them. Simple clear patterns that are repeated can mean different things, because we only need a few different signals, which makes the guards more motivated to learn the Norse code.
A small hunting radio would be useful but still problems with getting the sound out and the radio being big. But a really mobile walkie talkie radio would be practical, especially if it works with voice in the surrounding area, because then the mansion can reach the one carrying the radio or vice versa, and can be especially useful in the event of accidents or other things like we're on Orusingen and get visitors here. More like a cell phone than a hunting radio, but same same. There will be future tries with different hunting methods like using hunting towers, hides and orange dressed beaters who drive animals towards hunters. Maybe hunting with dogs too, although I don't want dogs here. I'm not a dog person. To be honest, it will be a bit of fun to try different hunting methods, and sitting in a hunting tower or hide for a morning or several is something I can visualize doing and liking even if nothing happens. It can be peaceful, and is a good future pastime. I sure won't complain about more meat on the dinner table, and everyone sees hunting as very manly, so it's good for my reputation too.
Kari will stay on the island while the rest of us go to Borgarsandr, so we can do the first true long-distance radio tests, and we will try to transmit to each other every afternoon before sunset and after sunset, as well as the morning before we leave Borgarsandr to return here. I need to install an antenna in the B-mansion, but I don't think I'll have enough time the first evening even though I will try. The short days effect sailing to Borgarsandr as well, but with improved sails we should make it down by leaving really early in the morning and we should arrive just after dark. I don't know what the proper name for the sails are in Midgård, but the Millennium Eagle now has two different front sails for slightly different wind directions, and the crew enjoyed how fast the ship generally travelled during Iselin's journey.
Because Kari will stay here, I spend the rest of the evening and night with Kari, and we both appreciate it.