Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

I spent four days making my two test dynamos, then one day testing them.  Both use a hand crank to operate their rotor, but one uses magnets to generate power, while the other is a bit more complicated, using cumulative wiring for the field windings, meaning it's a self-powering generator that doesn't need magnets.  The downside to that generator, as I've previously mentioned is that it needs an initial voltage to excite the field windings.  Once it's operational though, as long as it keeps spinning it doesn't need an external power source.

I decided to test the magnet dynamo first.  Any magnets I make are going to be pretty weak, and prone to losing their magnetic fields.  While tectonic sense might be able to provide a jolt of electricity in combination with the blood from the electric fishes, which would allow a jumpstart for the dynamo, I'd rather not make the system dependent on me for that initial jolt.  If we use crystals and the blood to magnetize some steel, and then use that to generate the small amount of energy necessary to start up the dynamo, that bypasses the need for myself to restart it.  Ideally we'll find some lead, and we can make some sulfuric acid to make batteries that accomplish the same purpose without needing the crystals or the blood.

Getting everything set up, and then magnetizing the steel for the dynamo took a few hours, but once I did that, the dynamo ran fine, though not for very long.  As I was afraid of, the magnetized steel lost its magnetic properties in less than a minute in the dynamo.  I somewhat expected this result though.  By running the magnetized steel in the dynamo, I'm basically constantly exposing it to opposing magnetic fields, which have the reverse effect of the process by which I made them magnetic to begin with.

I had two tests that I ran with the second dynamo.  The first involved initializing it's power directly from the blood electric line, since I knew that was a stable source of power.  As I began turning the dynamo, I could feel the electromagnets resisting me, and I used my free arm to disconnect the power source going into the dynamo.  I had attached a coil to the output of the dynamo, which I nudged along some iron filings while I continued to turn the dynamo, to check for electric current on the output.  The coil moved the iron filings, which I wasn't surprised about, considering I could literally feel the resistance in turning the rotor.

The second test with the second dynamo involved the tricky process of attempting to start it using the first dynamo.  This took an hour to get set up, as I needed to make more magnets, then get all my wiring set up sufficiently so I could turn both dynamo hand cranks at the same time.  Once everything was set up, I started turning both cranks at the same time, and although initially I was a little worried, it ended up starting fine.

Now that I know both of these work, I could continue with the whole process to make a large dynamo at our dam, but honestly, we don't have that much of a use for it.  We likely will have uses for it in the future, but those could be years away, and I can't really justify spending the time to build a much larger dynamo and modifying the dam to power it without any immediate uses.  I'd also need to wait quite a few months until after spring to really dig in to the project, considering the dam would need to be bypassed while I work, and spring is when the dam helps regulate the water the most.

We have a few things for which it could currently be used.  For example, we could electrolyze water to get pure oxygen for bleaching the paper we make, but this seems like overkill for just that.  We could also build a radio broadcaster, but we don't have that much of a use for it ourselves, though it would probably benefit the mainland a lot.  I don't actually know if our planet has a stable enough ionosphere to really enable long distance radio communications either.  If it doesn't, then the technology would probably just be stolen and utilized by other nations more effectively than we can use it.  Additionally, other than copper, we're also currently quite metal poor, which limits our uses of electricity even further.  For now, I am satisfied with the knowledge that I can make a large amount of electricity if we need it in the future.

Having finished working in the lab for the time being, I left Tiberius with a lump sum of money to use for project funding for a few months.  I explicitly told him that he won't get any more funds until after the third month of the year, so he shouldn't spend them all at once.  As for myself, I decided to check in on the status of the various things going on around the city.

The population continues to grow and more and more buildings are built through the city.  I should talk with Zeb about building taller buildings potentially.  Currently, most of the buildings are similar to the apartment style building I came up with, though there are occasional single domicile homes for the wealthier goblins, and family homes for the humans and dwarves.  If we keep growing and expanding to the point I'd like us to, then it would probably be smart for us to start planning for that eventual population density, since it won't cost us much to do so.

I'd like to see some three or four story buildings, to increase our population density even more, though those buildings would need to be built away from our inner walls, so they don't obstruct the inner defenses too much.  Land space is a valuable commodity on an island, so we should probably take it into account now as we continue to expand and develop.  It looks like there are now three construction teams, and it seems like Zeb has gotten a few more workers with stone shaping skills. 

That just means we're going to keep growing faster and faster.  I wonder if Zaka can keep up.  If he can't, then we're going to have to figure out how to get more goblins who can summon imps to expand our population.  I have a bit of a theory as to how he gained that ability, and the fact that no other goblins seem to have gained it only reinforces it. 

I think that Zaka's prior isolation on the island may have induced the ability.  From what I've learned from the humanoids from the mainland, it seems like demons seem to grow like weeds unless you wipe them out completely.  Which probably means that when you are isolated as a demon, you probably get the option to summon imps when you prestige.  For a weak goblin, you might not even have the mana to do it, based on what I learned from Zaka, but the crystal cave provided him a source of mana to overcome that normal restriction.

I also had the opportunity to talk with Konkur about the condition of the vein they were mining.  He said that the percentage of the vein that was gypsum was declining and the percentage of quartz was rising.  He also kept a few high quality quartz samples for me to look at.  While they were quite pure, I was a little disappointed by them, though that isn't Konkur's fault.  They are nice samples, but I recall pictures from Earth of massive quartz crystals, so by comparison they just don't impress me much.

Though it's a good sign if the vein is continuing to change in composition.  It means they might actually find more types of minerals if they keep going.  Honestly, that might be what I go to work on next as a project.  Before that though, I should pulverize the existing quartz, to improve its storage density.  Since Zeb has three construction crews now, I should ask him to have them build a new warehouse facility along the road to the harbor, but close to the city.  That way we can use it for intermediate storage before goods are transported over there.