Tosra & The Auction, day 18
3 days later
Working pressure
Work, work and more works, but at least a lot has been done. I miss my machines and tools, like a handheld electric drill, good soldering station, hot air station, etc. A small belt sander or rotarytool would also be wonderful. Or just an electric work lamp. My headlamp is very useful, but I have to keep most people away when I use it.
But there is so much work that needs to be done, and things like manometers and safety valves are something I never built before, and Iselins enthusiasm makes the work easier. I am most interested in seeing the steam boiler system in operation and knowing it is a project that works, but not Iselin. The advantage of that is that she was happy when I gradually let her take over more and more of the work of soldering all joints between radiators and steam pipes. She loves how magical it is to solder something and see the solder flow out, and with the MP3 player filling her ears with music, she has often been away in her own world. It is cute to hear her hum along, whistle or sing while she works, because she both fail at the lyrics mostly in languages she can't understand, and she doesn't understand how loud she does it, and up in the attic or behind a closed door, the staff doesn't see it so she isn't holding back. That she shakes her body and slightly dance while she works is the icing on the cake.
I need to figure out how to propose to her.
Ciara just seem happy to be along and be helpful, to both me and Iselin, and she like to make finely wrapped wires. While we build the steam system, we prepare for electrical power and signal lines. To make it easier, as well as use the steam line which is a strong big copper pipe as a common earth conductor, we follow the steam lines, and pull a separate thicker positive wire, basically a thin copper rod wrapped in paper or cloth, physically isolated from the ground on the other side a wooden beam, and lay a bunch of thin signal conductors along. Most of the time we just pull everything to the other end and lay it in bundles. It is fortunate that I have already ordered more copper wire, as this takes a lot. There will be a junction box to make it practical and hidden away, but it isn't finished yet. But I have pull down power and installed a 12V outlet in my study, and install the USB quick charger. And promised them we will play a bit of computor games again tonight.
I make the same wiring solution to the west side of the second floor but go down through the unused extra room on the second floor and continue down to the guards day room, but there will be some extra signal conductors for alarms etc. and also some wires that go directly from the western to the eastern junction box. I don't know if they will be needed, but I might as well do it when now, and it is quite quick to do everything at once. Eh, some time in the future I will probably be annoyed I didn't lay more lines. There will be many more lines that go to the staff's commonroom, kitchen etc.
Everything follows the steam boilers pipes and collects and ends in a large cabinet above the stairs in my workshop attic, where the steam pipes branch anyway. Color combinations of sewing thread as well as glued paper labels will hopefully make it a little easier to know which conductor is which at the other end. In the future, before they are connected properly, the various positive wires will have simple fuses of a thin iron wire that are protected by glass, so even if the fuse melt and drip liquid iron, it shouldn't start a fire, and fuse boxes are clad with brass sheet on the inside to be even more fireproof. I will upgrade the fuses below the stairs to the same solution as well.
Soldering takes the most time, but the trickiest thing about the steam boiler system was to give the manometers scales that showed the same, and figure out how the fuck I would calibrate them. There is no reference here. The one things I came up with was static pressure from a water column which also gives the pressure at the height of the water column, but practically I have no possibility right now to make a 40 to 60 meter high pipe. The second was an increase in air pressure via heating or pumping, where a deadweight valve act as a pressure reference, and one of the designs on the safety valves is a deadweight valve, and a small hand pump was quite easy to make. Its basically a bad and ugly glorified bicycle pump with the possibility of screwing or soldering on several manometers and it even has an outlet valve. But it works.
To keep leaks down, the pump has stacked intake and outlet valves with leather gaskets, and the piston has several stacks of gaskets to reduce the losses there, even if its piston is small. As a bonus, the same pump should be able to suck a decent vacuum, but I hardly tested it, except that we saw that the manometer went backwards. To be able to reach high pressure, the diameter of the pump is quite small, and the deadweight valve is also dimensioned to be able to pump up high pressure at about 15 bar. I'm not looking forward to actually pumping something to such a high pressure, as things tend to explode violently if they fail, so that will be outdoors, behind a protective wall with a lever, and pipe through to the container.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
The design of the manometer, or a pressure gauge as it is also called, is relatively simple with a slightly flattened thin-walled small tube that is wound like a coil for 4 turns with a long arm at the end, which is connected to the hand via another lever with a small gear ratio. The higher the pressure, the more the coil straightens, which movement is amplified by levers and gears to cause the pointer to rotate.
Iselin loved that job too, and her enthusiasm infected me. She really loves to understand what is happening and that she can see it in front of her in something she does. The first real complexe mechanical construction she made, to measure something she never even considered before. When we could see that the gauge hands move according to the same on the scales, even though the scales were different due to differences in production... to say we were happy and pleased is an understatement. The workshop sex was improvised but fantastic, clear top ten.
Why havn't I already proposed to her?
I have to figure out how to make the marriage proposal special for her. She deserves something so very special.
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To be easily accessible and within earshot, Elvira or Jalida often casually clean of find work to do in the mainbuilding, or just sit on a chair on the second floor balcony, waiting for someone to need assistance or wish for something while she does some craftwork, and that just feels so wrong, but it seems to be just me who thinks so, although I can probably count on Jane agreeing when she returns. Sometimes the maid is accompanied by Caecilia, but Caecilia prefers to be close to me most of the time. Too close.
I have asked Caecilia not to hover or camp too much near me, as it has really started to get annoying to have her close all the time, and I usually have no assignments to send her on. Especially when I have work to do and she tries to entice me to sex because she seems bored. Focusing and motivating myself to do boring work is hard enough without her laying seductively somewhere close, preferably so I just happen to her in my field of view. And singing. Or humming. I think Iselin eventually said something to Caecilia about taking a step back, because it's bad enough that Ciara keeps an eye on me, but she is quiet, and not that annoying. It also took me a while - and not at all after comments by Iselin - to catch that Caecilia gotten a bit antsy due to us not having had sex for a week. Its just a damn week, and I know that she shared Iselins bed two nights.
I have tried to chat and talk with the maids, especially when we lived and ate with them in the wing, but we have nothing really to talk about, and it irritates me a bit that I am treated like the high lord and they are just low maids barely worthy to talk with me, but I know I have to get used to that too. Just not too used to it. I have tried to ensure that they know they can come to me if there is something, and that they have what they need and that they enjoy living here, and I find some pleasure in hearing Elvira say that they sometimes have too little to do and are almost bored. I suspect they have worked as hell during long days before in life, as their arm muscles seems to prove. Not that I have been looking at their bodies, although Jalida seems to be a bit of a showoff. It proves that my creations have saved some work. They will get used to having more free time, and it's just good that they're not getting worn out every day, but with the animals there has been more to do, especially for Ida, but Jalida and Elvira take some of her tasks so it balances. However, there will be more work in the future. Right now, cleaning or laundry isn't a huge time sink for them, especially when so many are away, even though laundry takes time and effort. A simpler washing machine that agitates the laundry would definitely be a good idea, but how do I do that? Then I intend to teach them to read, write and better math so it is good that they have time left over.
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The carpenters have completed the remodelling to have the new attic stair take some of Ciaras room and finished that part by hanging a door. The door can be permanently lifted off, and the door is mostly so that we can lock access to the attic when needed, as well as being insulation and dampening sound. In the future, the attic door might be completely removed or get a curtain or something in front, even though the door isn't in the way in a completely open position. The attic needs to be furnished with a better floor and the inner roof isn't completed. Then the small separate rooms must be built and so on, but making wooden planks is a lot of work. I really want a sawmill, just to get exactly the same planks and have a supply of them just waiting to be used. The carpenters will also oil treat the stairs and attic floors when they are finished and before the space starts to be used. But from now, at least the staff have easier access to the food supplies in the attic.
I have already finished a lot by myself for the water installation for my bedroom and meeting room, and arranged the escape crawl space to the guards attic storage room. Still, a lot of work left which I need to do by myself, but once done, its done, and I can do more fun stuff, and I try to separate work in 'day job' and 'hobby/evening projects'. Being limited by daylight and oil lanterns suck. I really should try to make a few LED lamps by taking LEDs from my flashlight and so on, but there is a hell of a difference in a worklight and roomlightning.