It probably takes a couple of hours to prepare everything, and Ida has also been sent to warn workers and master builder Pedr that it will sound a bit like thunder later in the afternoon, and that everyone should stay away from the area south of the road around the mansion.
The beach and open meadows around the cove south of the manor is the test area, where the forest and the mountains is good cover and back stop and there is a few hundred meters of mostly open ground. Beside the targets, Hrappr have also carried down two small tables and four chairs. Ciara will of course participate but Kari will records results as she is better at writing Norse. Last time Kari worked for the King and had to stay in the garden while the rest of us were on the beach, so now she wants to see it closer. Jane is also welcomed because she already understands, even if she doesn't know how blackpowder is made. Alith is of course here, but also Bodil. I tell Caecilia to stay with Gunhild who can watch from the mansions pavilion, so there is someone there and they can get used to it. This will take time, and there will be more tests in the future. So better to look from a distance and know what to expect.
Everyone has understood to cover their ears with their hands, but we have brought earplugs for everyone, and I will also use the earmuffs. More earmuffs need to be manufactured. I'm a little worried about firing an untested weapon and using improvised sandbags and ropes to stabilize the rifle and hold it in place, and a long string is used to pull the trigger. A simple thick wooden shield stands in between that can catch splinters, and I of course wear my eye protection as well. It is a bit difficult to reload as the whole table must be tilted, but better than holding the weapon if it goes 'kablooie'.
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The tests are very successful. The shots echo out over the water, and we hear the echo's return seconds later from various islands and cliffs. Ketill just stares with his mouth open during the first shots but starts to collect himself and helps with tilting the table. He doesn't really understand what I do. After the first two shots, I have gone up in size gradually, and with how the sound changed and the sharp crack, the balls definitely went through the sound barrier each time. Jane reacted to the change with a: "Now that is a proper gun."
The sound wall will absolutely be a future subject to explain to Kari and Iselin, but the important thing is that everything still works fine, and the last three shots have been with the largest load. I still can not find the slightest hint of any problem with the barrel, the attachment of the barrel to the stock or that particles etc would fly into the face of the shooter. The last one was checked with sheets of paper where the head will be, although that might happen anyway. I'm very happy with that. I don't know how much the slightly angled pan helps, but I am satisfied enough, although I will continue to use eye protection because it is an unpleasant pyro effect near my eyes. Maybe a little metal shield or other protection in line with the eyes? Hardened glass just feels unnecessary complicated.
I may have over-specified the thickness of steel and Olafr craftsmanship is undoubtedly excellent, but the flintlock weapons are something I or people I care about will use and I do not want it to explode or hurt them. Now in the beginning, we will continue to check the barrel and so on after each time they are used. But the normal load is planned to be only half of those three biggest test loads, so it feels safe enough that I will try shooting the musket.
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The tests continue but as hand-held in a sitting shooting position at the table or standing, with cleaning of the barrel between every other shot. The sight needs to be adjusted a bit and in the future I'll probably replace the rear with a better diopter sight with screw adjustment in height and side, but the musket is intended as an all-round weapon, with either solid round ball or shotgun pellets, so it has other requirements than hunting rifles or target rifles. Most people use more instinctive shooting with shotguns - not so much the sight - but for a solid ball, a slightly better rear sight is more practical. Maybe a folding sight? For now I use a file to tweak the sight.
Making a reflector sight or red dot sight feels silly and hard to do, especially getting its curved glass surface right, even if that should just be a matter of time and effort. There will be many attempts to make something to reduce the parallax error, but it won't be much problem if the dot is close to the middle. Even if I have some small surface-mounted LEDs etc, the battery will eventually run out, even if I use rechargeable batteries. However, it can last my life here, so maybe in the future. It would be kind of fun on a shotgun, but the question is how visible the dot will be in most light conditions without color filtering coating on the glass that increase the contrast between the dot and the surroundings. The dot doesn't have to be red, but it's usually a good color contrast against nature that is at the end of the spectrum for filter coating, and the earliest red dots by Swedish company Aimpoint was severly limited by 1970s LED technology.
On the other hand, a telescopic sight about x3 or more with a simple German post or cross is not difficult, as long as I stick to making the adjustments in the sight base, and don't move the sight around between weapons. But for this musket, I guess a simple flip or rotating rear sight for two or three different ranges will be most practical. A 'diopter' for precision at longer distances like 200 meters for shooting a lead ball, and a quick one for shorter distances and faster alignment. Even if the ball will travel far, it feels like two sights are enough because the spread is probably too large further away to be really useful. Maybe three ranges.
When it comes to powder load, I just go on the sound and guessing, and how the musket feels against my shoulder. It is possible to make good hits on the wooden target of 50m without problems as long as I think about the delay. The ball just punch holes straight through the target, which is quite impressive when the wood splinters fly. I should have told Hrappr to use thicker planks, but he must have figured we would put one of those straw arrow targets in front. However, it is quite easy to see where the hit is, and there is enough precision that the target could have four marked circles. In the future I will test the precision and spread, but will now move on to try some shotgun loads.
Which proves to be effective, but they don't make holes straight through. But I sure wouldn't want to be the target.
Alith almost drools as she studies the target at up close, and gently caresses the musket. I will not make a fucking joke about this as with the sword, but it is probably too thin for her taste even if the length appeals. When we return and I offer Alith to try, it's like she teleports. Suddenly Bodil is standing there alone holding two spears and shields and looking confused, and Alith is sitting at the table with the musket in front of her.
Alith must have studied me very carefully because she tries to do exactly the same thing, including my quick finger and hand flexing. I use her to give the all instructions for grip, handling, aiming and trigger control, and I lend eye protection. I let Alith shoot three times, and the last shot standing. Alith seems to be on the verge of an orgasm, so I take care of the weapon and ask if anyone else wants to try. Everyone wants to, and Ciara is first. Alith, who is controlling her breath, slowly returns to Bodil, takes her spear and shield and sits down on the ground next to her, staring in front of her with a smile. Bodil seems a little hesitant to try.
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But everyone shoots at least one shot, including Ketill. Ketill seems terrified of the weapon, but he shoots anyway. Kari is quite useless and closes her eyes, looks away, etc. Jane is less bad, but no one likes the pyro effect from the flintlock and its delay. Ciara could probably be a good shooter; she doesn't even seem to flinch from the firing, and my instruction to try to keep her eyes open and on target shouldn't prevent reflexes. I really hope that a directive from me won't prevent her reflexes.
We summon Hrappr to tidy up the range and carry stuff back to the basement, as well as make new targets for future tests.
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Bodil has gotten the wooden parts for most lamps and switches done, oiled and pretty, which means that it has to dry. But it's only a matter of days until I can replace all lamp installations with nicer solutions. Bodil loves to use my scroll saw for woodwork, and is proud that she is the only one besides me and Iselin that is authorized to use it. Bodil don't always know what I'm building, be she is quite eager to help. Bodil seem to like building things like this, as carpentry isn't really seen as women work, but most of my stuff is weird, small and intricate compared to furniture. And there is sejd inside.
Oh man, now I really want to make a 'sejd inside' branding symbol inspired by the old 'intel inside' from 90s. Sejdmann inside? No. Bad idea.
Ketill is in my primitive forge down by the barns, so I install the prototype servant system in the staff room and install push buttons in suitable rooms. The stepping cylinder will be replaced in the future when there is a another receiver built and more rooms connected and with that shield hiding the texts, but for now I connect wires for my three rooms, Iselin, Ciara, Kari and Jane's bedroom, the meeting room and the great hall. Tomorrow I will connect the two guest rooms, the gym, the library, the attic and the vacant room on the second floor. A luxurious bonus in this system is that a room can have several buttons connected in parallel, so in my bedroom I install one button by the bed and one by the couches, and in the meeting room and the great hall there will eventually be similar systems with two or three buttons.
Even though Ciara and Kari know how it works and helped build it, it's almost magic that I press a button in my office, a muffled bell rings in the staff room and they see it quickly ticking to 'Office' on the wheel. It is above all that it rotate in steps with that ticking sound that they are fascinated by, along with other internal clicking. Something that moves by itself without anyone being around, and this is smaller than a steam engine. But they have learned to connect an 'electromagnet' via two wires in the 'electrical socket' and the spool with copper wire attracts iron, but not any other metal. Honestly, it's kind of hard to not call it magic.
The staff think it's impressive as hell, and that I spend such time and energy saving them from running around or standing ready to serve. Because that is how it's usually done among the richest here. A maid is just standing by a wall waiting to be of service or run a errand. One of the maids, usually Elvira, has often just sat on the chair by the wall on the balcony in the middle, and done some needlework while she waited for someone to need her help. Someone is always available when we eat. I've now gotten used to it after many weeks, but I still don't like it, and how hard is it to pour a drink for myself? But my sambos and maids have cooperated in making sure I don't do it. I can't reach any without getting up, since they make sure that the jugs and bottles are never close to me. I can order them to put the jug within reach, but as the Lord of these islands and the man of the manor, I will be served. Period. Jane, Iselin, Ciara and Kari understand me, and I can't really complain that they try to make me embrace the culture and get used to it. Some meals are different and less formal, although it feels like a reward for behaving the rest of the time.
The maids can now spend most of their time in the staff room or kitchen instead, and do some work, hang out with each other or just relax a bit. They are currently carding and spinning all the wool from the estates in the south that we got via Tingsman Jensi who sorted out Radgeirrson's mess. However, they have put some wool to the side so that I can try to make machines to do that work. They're really curious about those machines. With everything I've made they have high expectations.
If someone needs a maid, they will be called directly to that room. That they might have to make an extra run just to ask what is desired, doesn't bother the maids at all. I've warned the maids that there will probably be a lot more calls in the beginning because everyone is eager to use the servant system, but eventually it will become an everyday thing. Kari and others think that I should get better at using Caecilia or the maids, instead of going to the kitchen and fetching stuff myself. It just feels so unnecessary and a waste of time, unless my hands are full.
Anyway that is one project finished well enough, so I start building on the spark gap transmitter. A spark gap transmitter is ridiculously simple if the range only needs to be very short, and the first parts are two small batteries in series for higher voltage, a button switch to press to transmit, and then the most important part: a spark coil / transformer. It's basically an inner coil primary and a secondary outer coil with multiple times more turns, with a small contact blade at one end that attracts to the coil when the magnetic field becomes strong enough and thus breaks the current to the primary coil. This break create a voltage spike in the secondary coil, and a simple capacitor reduces sparks on the contact blade. A similar system but with the contact blades actuated by a cam are used in old internal combustion engines to provide sparks to the spark plugs, and a more modern electronically triggered one for modern cars.
The high voltage side of the spark coil / transformer have a variable spark gap, and since I want a more efficient frequency tuned system, a variable capacitor and a coil / transformer, with an output coil to connect the antenna that is just a long wire in each direction, or preferably grounded in moist ground at one end, and a very long wire that goes high in the air on the other. These are unnecessarily many components for something that just needs to work, but I would like to achieve a range of at least 30-50m in fully mobile devices, and I aim for about 14.4MHz to be easier to manufacture in components and antennas, as I have a crystal oscillator for that. What takes time is to wind the coils and especially the secondary on the spark coil, but I try to limit the size and amount of wire that is needed. If I wind the coil one turn after another like a normal electromagnet or transformer, it might spark inside the coil windings. Which is very bad. The solution I will use is to build in many thicker disc shaped coils which are then insulated, stacked and connected, so the highest voltages are further apart. It also makes it easier to manufacture because each disc has only a small part of the total amount of turns, so everything doesn't need to be done at once, and more discs can be added afterwards. I have a limited amount of fine copper wire.
Then I need to think about adapting everything to high voltage to prevent sparks where it shouldn't be. Which gets tricky especially with the capacitor and coil. I only have simple iron for the core, but the problem with eddy currents in the core itself can be reduced with a core that consists of many small insulated iron wires. In common transformers the core is usually sheet metal pieces in EI form, but that won't be good here. I want the coil to be long, and also need to isolate the core from the high voltage, so sparks don't use it as a path. High voltage is tricky, and I might encase parts in ceramic or some kind of resin that is a better insulator than air.
I will only get an estimate of what the frequency is. The resonant frequency can be calculated with f=1/(2π√(LC)), and it is also possible to calculate the L value of coils and C value of capacitors, but that is not exact enough when combined with my construction options, so I will have to tune it. Which won't be fun, as that is tricky enough when you have measuring tools for it. I'll probably have to build something. Whether it ends up as 13MHz or 17MHz is quite insignificant, as long as everything is tuned to each other.
Huumm... is one of my big carbon resistors good enough to be used as a dummy load antenna? I should improve those anyway with some kind of pine tar soot mixture pressed into shapes, and then heat it enough in an oxygen free environment to carbonize the mixture. Can I make carbon rods like that? A carbon rod arc light should be kind of impressive even with short duration. I'm gonna get wicked UV burns if I use that for too long and unshielded.
And now I kind of want a white lab coat, with big cloves and welding goggles on my head...