Midwinter calling, day 9
Wax on, wax off.
After an early breakfast we say goodbye to Ketill who leave with the weapons, crucible steel, letters and so on. Quite a lot of very valuable cargo in that boat. It shouldn't take long to finish the weapons, and he will ask Olafr to make limited engravings on the barrels. It is unnecessary to weaken them now that they're tested, and will remind Olafr to not make engravings that channels water into the flintlocks. When Olafr thinks the three weapons are finished, he will come here for our hunt, as the hunt might inspire improvements on the other weapons. Until then, I'll prepare weighted blackpowder charges in paper.
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Today's electricity and installation work means that all rooms that should have electric light now does, and all rooms that should be connected to the servant system are, with the right amount of switches installed. I'm in my office feeling quite pleased with myself while updating the buildings schematics, when Kari comes in and sits on my lap, kiss me, and then hungry kiss me more and deeper, before resting her head against mine while making a content sigh. Kari wonder if I can say which Midgård technology requires coarse fabric, honey, beeswax, candles, wooden sticks and strong wine or beer. I have no idea what the hell she's talking about - until she says that Jane is collecting it and doesn't want to say why.
Then it dawns on me that Caecilia must have said something to Jane about her body hair, and Jane plans to do something about it. I've never done anything like that myself, but explain that considering the amounts, Jane probably intends to do a full body wax. I have no idea how painful it will be, and having to repeat it over and over all over her body, only to know that she'll need to do it again in the near future. Kari knows how painful it is to pull a hair from her head and looks really worried, and it feels good that she cares about Jane, so I give her tips on offering to help, because Jane will probably need and want help, and check with Unn if she has anything to help for pain relieving or anaesthetic.
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I need to let the Lab Ovens dry for a few more days before I fire them for the first time, even if it is mostly the extra insulated high temp one that might be a problem. I was about to make a mistake as I didn't think about airflow to the oil lamp, but I could put channels for it on both. Both inlet and outlet ducts can also be plugged up to reduce heat loss. I made extra insulation at the bottom where the burners are on both ovens so that minimal metal surface comes into contact with the ambient air and can be closed off when the burners are turned off, and it is also possible to heat indirectly via external channels to slow down the cooling rate.
I'm look forward to being able to start playing with the glass tubes and hopefully make good mercury thermometers, and will try to make test tubes and tempered glass, and preferably more advanced glass objects. I have not solved how to make hoses and connect the lab glass, but in some situations impregnated leather works, and in others hopefully tapered glass tubes will work well enough. With or without some form of sealant. I hope a form of Faraday wax will work for most. The wax does not have to be perfect as long as I'm not going for very high vacuum, and I hope a mixture of one part beeswax, several parts resin and one to two parts venetian red will work for the need I have. Sometimes it's good to have an artist who likes to brag about how much she knows about pigments and other things. If the wax doesn't work, I have to try different things and glues.
I'm actually quite happy with all the glass tubes I have, and that the glazier was able to make three that were more than a meter, but they are far too large internally for a thermometer but can be good for lab equipment or in a mercury barometer to measure ambient air pressure. I need to test the tubes with the thinnest inner channel, so I know what size I need on the bulb at the bottom to get a certain temperature scale. But I cannot directly measure such a thin channel and I assume the channel is not even all the way. So the method I will try is to make a 'large' metal container in brass with a known volume and attach a tube to the end with wax so I can remove the glass tube after testing without destroying it.
Then fill the brass container with mercury and seal it, followed by placing a millimeter scale on the glass tube, and attaching my real thermometer to the brass container so it also measures the same temperature. By exposing the container to different temperatures and see how much the mercury rise in the tube, I will get data on internal volume and hence diameter. I'll also see if it rise evenly over the entire length. Even though it certainly won't be one hundred percent correct, it is good enough to get an estimate for the bulb. I will obviously have to calibrate the finished mercury thermometers.
There will be a lot of fiddling about, but if I choose a larger volume, the mercury movement will be greater with a larger thermal inertia, and during tests I just want to measure the diameter of the inner tube in different places and use as long a tube as possible. To stabilize the fragile glass tube, the container gets a tall brass support to which the glass tube is attached at multiple locations. I miss having different types of tape, but string work well enough for this. I can only test one glass tube at a time with this method, and need to make the hole for the glass tube slightly conical for different tube diameters, but this is a test, and I can then calculate how much mercury the finished bulb must contain to for example have 1 or 5 Celsius per 1mm. With wax, I should be able to test a few tubes a day, while glue takes annoyingly long to dry.
I want several different types of mercury thermometers, with different scales and accuracy. The temperature range is limited between -39C to plus 357C because mercury otherwise freezes or turns to gas. For higher temperatures I so no real need for higher precision and I already have a working solution, and even though it can get colder than -39C in the inland up north, I don't intend to be where it gets that cold. I also find it highly unlikely that I will be able to make a freezer anywhere close to cold enough that it becomes an issue. I'm happy if the freezer works and gets below freezing. It's simply a future problem for either an alcohol or a sensitive gas pressure thermometer.
What I want are several normal outdoor thermometers with -30C to +50C range, that can withstand being outdoors, but the scale only needs to read to 1C accuracy. I can manage quite well with -20C to +40C range if I need to. Then I want to build a few long precision thermometers for -35C to +120C or higher for lab use and other things, and preferably be able to read half a degree Celsius along the entire scale so it is easier to have an exact 1C scale. These will become long and are a compromise like everything else. 1mm per 1C still means a short 155mm scale for that range, so the thermometer will at least be 250mm long in total, but more likely about 300-400mm long. The last type is a high temperature -10C to +320C range with a precision of 5C or better. I can make a line for every other degree or even every fifth degree if needed for a manageable size and readable scale. But one or two is enough, and must not be too awkwardly long and fragile. There is also the issue with bulb size, and fragility. The bulb simply cannot be to large for some uses, especially if I hope to make a fever thermometer.
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I show the guards the newly finished flashlight, and say that it is for general use by me, my sambos and the staff too, but its storage place is on the shelf in the guards dayroom. With a 2300mAh battery and about 20mA current draw, it will last something like 100 hours, so it should be enough to charge it once a week if it is on during half the night. They can always checking the battery with the multimeter in my workshop once a week or so if it is unknown how much the flashlight has been used. If the battery starts to run low, the flashlight should be charged by standing upright in the charging cradle and not continue being used. The cradle has a simple integrated slow charge so it will take about 16 hours depending on how discharged the battery is. For the time being, they should avoid using the flashlight if we have guests, as it is better that we keep certain things to ourselves. It is after all a small magic light.
I should have expected the guards to quickly start dazzling each other by shining in their eyes, even though the flashlight is weak. It will surely be done so many times over the coming nights.
Kari and Jane are drunk, somewhat uncoordinated and smell wine when they discover me sitting on the couch on the mezzanine where I think about radio, coherer, thermometer, glass processing and how I have to make everything and in what order etc. Jane gently sits down and is obviously a little sore, while Kari crawls up to me and gives me a kiss. Kari change so she sits across my lap, and says that she is so happy to not be a hairy human woman. Especially in the face, under the arms and between the legs. I silently thank Kari for that TMI. But Jane is happy and satisfied while she shows her arms and a calf and in English say:
"I never should have let it grow that long. When I got here I did not think about it, and when I did it was kind of nice not having to care for once. Not having to shave or wax. But when I noticed I just couldn't let it go. I was minging! Hardly the perfect tools for a proper job, but it worked! I have to keep doing it once a month but it's better than letting it grow. I started to look like you!" And repeat "I looked like you!" in Norse before giggling.
Kari also starts giggling as Jane pokes at my hairy arm. How much have they drunk? Kari's breath isn't fresh. Kari replies: "You did not. Your breasts are bigger and you miss a part I love."
They keep laughing and giggling, and Kari grabs me between my legs to make her point clear. More giggling. I give Kari a kiss, and embrace her; "I like your body too." Her breath? Not so much.
Kari grabs my head with both hands, and she have a bit of hard time focusing and keeping her balance when she stares into my eyes - definitely heavily intoxicated.
"I love you Robert. Love you above all else. Your good kind soul. Your intelligence. Everything you do to give me wonderful sex!"
Abruptly, Kari hungerily starts kissing me and digging into my pants. I try to stop her, but she angrily grunts and doesn't let herself be stopped. Besides Jane, I see Alith and Gunhild watching us from the day room.
"Kari, ... Jane and ... the guards ... are watching." I manage to get out between Kari's intense kissing, and eagerly digging in my pants.
"Let them! I want to feel you in me!"
She manages to loosen my belt and pants enough as there is a button fly and I have already reacted, so she lifts her dress and contently sinks down on me with a satisfied smile, and a cute satisfied sound as she grinds her groin and settle. Shit... Oh well. I help Kari ride me there on the couch, and help with one hand under her dress and one on the outside caressing her hair, neck and breasts. It's distracting as hell that Jane happily looks on with her head resting on the back of the couch and refuses to leave, but Kari doesn't care and bites me a little too hard in the lip and loudly moans as she finishes. Kari must have been very horny, but I'm happy she didn't squirt which is quite unusual at least for the first orgasm. It doesn't take long for myself after that as Kari havn't stopped grinding, and then we just sit there, and hold each other.
"You are cute together." Jane's Norse has become much better and she is quite easy to understand as long as she doesn't get hung up on any word or inflection, even if the accent and pronunciation are a bit weird and she miss pronounce, make the wrong word sequences and inflections, which I do too. But she rarely uses Norse with me. It feels more normal and modern to speak English. She sighs and says; "I miss have man friend."
Close enough and we understand her meaning. Kari answers her while she casually rests her head on my shoulder. "You know you can borrow Robert as long as it's just sex."
"Not same. Robert's yours."
I don't know what to say, because it's just too absurd. I'm sitting here after having sex with Kari, and can feel how I have become limp in her. Alith is leaning against a wall looking smug, with Gunhild peeking over her shoulder, and Kari talks to my friend Jane about lending me out for sex. What happened to the concept that sex is the man taking a woman? I'm just about to reply with something ingenious and witty, when another voice breaks in and Caecilia's opening comment as she comes bouncing up the stairs is; "My turn?" Caecilia seductively leans towards me on the couch, and with flirting eyes gives me a handkerchief for cleaning. I guess her sex sense tingled, and it has of course been many hours since we last had sex this morning.
"No. Tonight Robert is mine." Kari casually replies followed by a deeply satisfied sigh as she continues to hug me and resting her head against mine. So we just sit there; hugging each other with Jane dreamily looking on, while I discreetly try to clean myself and Kari under her dress and button up my fly. It doesn't help that Kari grinds her groin against my cleaning hand, and seems ready for more. After far too many pointed hand gestures, I manage to get Jane and Caecilia to leave.
I take Kari up to my room, but we just lie there snuggled together. Holding each other and just enjoying the others presence. Kari with her long golden hair and her pretty blue eyes. My sexy, sinful, stately and right now very drunk goddess, who is just happy and cuddly in a way she usually is not. My brain makes a mental jump and I have a fleeing thought of Alith as my sexy valkyria who rides me to Valhalla. I really hope I don't die in battle, but again 'death by snu-snu' is a possibility. If you die gloriously in battle, according to the Aesir belief you will probably be brought to Valhalla by a Valkyria, or be brought to Folkvang, but nothing is said about what happens if you die of sex. One should be brought to Folkvang by Freya; The Goddess of magic, war, sex, love and death. Anything else would just be wrong.
Kari mumbles how she is just so happy for her wonderful life, and how her future have completely changed during the last six months. Kari giggles and whispers in my ear that it is ironic how cousin Sefa actually has worse prospects than she do, and Kari feel slightly bad that she enjoys it. They've had a fairly similar life in front of them, only with different end statuses. Sefa also grew up with the knowledge that she will be married for an alliance, and love has never been a part of it. But, unlike her younger sister Ulfarna, Sefa has never been interested in love. For Sefa, marriage have always been about prestige, power, luxury and the kind of life she will have, and how her surroundings look at her husband. She cares less about how the man is, compared to the other things. But Kari is happy that I'm not 10 years younger because Asbjörn and Haera are definitely thinking of grandchildren, and Sefa should have a man her age or just a few years older.
When the Royal family left, Sefa was obviously jealous of her, Iselin's and Ciara's lives here. How luxurious, comfortable and pleasant it is, and that they only travel when they want too. Sefa's ego is huge and she likes to be honored with feasts where she is treated like the princess, but really dislikes travelling around, sleeping in tents, with the rain, damp and cold that often means. Kari giggles in my ear and whispers: "Just like you", before snuggling in a bit more and dragging the duvet tighter over us.
Kari continue explaining that Sefa also dislikes the 'countryside' and unimportant remote or small places in the middle of nowhere, and refuse to live in such a place. Because then she will also become unimportant, which is unacceptable. Which is also one reason we didn't talk about the exclusive Caelhart Auction, since as far as Kari knows - Asbjörn and they have never been invited. Kari is also worried that Sefa is petty and probably feels deeply offended that I avoided her, especially since I am almost double her age. She is Princess Sefa: The most coveted unmarried woman in the north. Kari knows that Sefa's ego is big enough to believe that Freya must have planned for us to get married, simply because she can't possibly be an ordinary unimportant woman on the periphery of my Saga. So it is likely that Sefa will find petty ways of getting revenge. Especially if her eventual husband doesn't match up to her high expectations.
Wonderful.
Just wonderful.