Kuzunalis
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FLTL Ch 166. A Hammer, A Rod and A Nail
🕑 Added 2025-02-06 14:30:02 +0000 UTCKivamus snorted, "I don't know that for sure. It's not like I have any experience in making real crossbows, even though I know the basic concept of how they are supposed to work. So it will certainly need some trial and error. But the earlier I start discussing it with the blacksmith, the sooner we can begin making them here after figuring out any problems in the design."
"Of course, that makes sense," Duvas replied before he gave a chuckle. "I can't wait to see the day when our female recruits will be able to go one on one against a trained guard."
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The next morning, Kivamus was pacing in the manor hall, still thinking about what could be done to help the hunters. He had been thinking up ideas from Earth and then discarding them one by one, every time because constructing such an advanced thing wouldn't be feasible here.
Duvas had already told the blacksmith to come to the manor and now the majordomo was sitting near the fireplace along with Feroy, while Gorsazo had gone to visit the longhouse block, probably to start planning where and how he could teach the villagers. Lucem and Clarisa were sitting on the floor, on the hide of a huge bear near the long dining table, while Lucem tried to build some kind of a miniature house from a few pieces of wood he had gathered from somewhere.
As Kivamus watched them while walking, Lucem picked up a piece of wood, and probably trying to imitate a carpenter, he struck on one end of it with another piece of wood. And all of a sudden, Kivamus remembered something which could still help them here.
"That's it!" he exclaimed, making everyone look at him. Since yesterday, he had felt that he had been forgetting something, and seeing the kid strike a piece of wood with another had reminded him of another way that a piece of iron could be magnetized easily, and with no special equipment needed for it.
He quickly walked to the outer door, and after calling up a servant who looked to be barely twenty years old, he told him to bring a straight bar or a rod of iron from somewhere - the thinner the better - along with a hammer. He also asked to bring some small pieces of iron, but Lucem interrupted and asked if a few nails he had seen kept somewhere in the manor house would do. Kivamus grinned and sent them both to bring those things in the manor hall.
By this time Duvas also looked curious, but when he asked about it, Kivamus told him to wait until he was ready with everything here. As they kept waiting, Gorsazo also returned into the manor hall while rubbing his hands together after braving the cold weather outside.
And soon, the servant had brought a hammer and a short iron rod, which was around a foot long, while Lucem had returned with a bunch of small iron nails. After sending the servant back, he scattered those iron nails on the long table, and picked up the iron rod in one hand and the hammer in another. He looked at the curious audience, which had now grown to also include Madam Helga and Syryne, who had been called up by Lucem earlier, and then he started to explain.
"You see," he began, "our planet..." and he suddenly stopped before he said Earth. Thinking quickly from his old memories, he remembered that this planet was known as Eranityn. He continued, "I read in a book that our planet Eranityn has something called a magnetic field, which is what allows the compass of a sailor to work. So what I'm gonna try to do here is to make a temporary magnet by hitting one end of this iron rod with the hammer, which will realign the uh... small particles of iron inside the rod into the same direction, due to which this rod will start to act like a magnet."
Seeing that everyone looked lost by now, he said, "Let me demonstrate first." And just as he was going to hit it, he remembered something else. He couldn't just hold the iron rod in his hands and hit it to make it a magnet. There was a reason why people didn't just do it here already, because they didn't know about another important requirement to do this - the iron rod had to be aligned in parallel with the planet's magnetic fields when he hit it or it just wouldn't work.
While he could guess that the magnetic dipole of this planet would likely be aligned in the north to south direction just like earth - mainly because sailors had already been using a primitive form of compass to navigate in this world - but the magnetic inclination, which was the angle of the planets magnetic field line with the surface of the ground was just as important here. And that depended on their current latitude on this planet, which he wasn't sure about, since the original Kivamus had probably never really looked at a world map of Eranityn. Although he did know that they were located in the northern hemisphere of this world, he needed more accuracy than that.
He looked at Gorsazo. "You must have seen some kind of map of the world, right?" Once Gorsazo nodded, he asked, "Then can you give me a rough estimate of how far north we are?"
"Uh... how am I supposed to do that?" Gorsazo asked with a frown.
"Hmm..." Thinking quickly, Kivamus clenched his left hand into a fist, and pointing to the top he said, "Imagine this is our planet Eranityn, which means this has to be in the north pole, and the opposite direction would be the south pole, with a circular line in the middle being the equator. So where are we? I need to know how far north Cilaria is located on this planet before I try to do this."
Gorsazo gave a slow nod. "I'm not sure how it would be helpful, and it's been many years since I saw a map - not that it was any more than a rough outline of the land masses made by some adventurous sailor in the past."
"I don't need the exact location," Kivamus said urgently. "All I need to know is roughly how far north we are in comparison to the equator and the north pole."
Gorsazo seemed to be thinking about it for a minute. Finally, he replied uncertainly, "If I remember correctly, I think we should be located maybe... somewhere in the middle of the equator and the poles? So uh... perhaps halfway between them?" He sighed. "I apologize, my Lord, but I really can't remember any better - and that is if those maps were accurate at all, which I don't believe they were."
Kivamus sighed. What was he expecting here, a real-time satellite map? But having some idea was still better than nothing. He thought about what it meant about the magnetic inclination.
The magnetic field lines would be parallel to the ground at the equator... which meant a zero degree angle between them and the ground. And there should be a ninety degree angle between the ground and the field lines at the poles, so if Cilaria was in the middle of it... probably at the latitude of northern Europe, then the magnetic inclination should be around forty-five degrees here. It was far from accurate, but he should be able to do this with some trial and error.
Taking a deep breath, he held the rod in his left hand and facing towards the west of the manor, so that the rod would be aligned in a north to south direction, he tilted his left hand until it made roughly around a forty-five degree angle with the ground, and started hitting one end of it with the hammer.
Others kept watching him dubiously, until he decided he was done, and he took that rod near the iron nails expecting them to be attracted by it. And... nothing.
"Did it work, milord?" Duvas asked dubiously.
Kivamus sighed and instead of replying, he turned around towards the west again, and this time tilted the rod a little less than the previous time, and repeated the process. And after he was done, he went to the table again to check if the rod had been magnetized. And yet, there was no attraction between the rod and the nails.
Giving a sigh, he took a seat on an empty chair, putting his arms down to give them a little rest.
Madam Helga and Syryne still looked uncertain about what he was trying to do, while Feroy had crossed his arms and was sitting comfortably, probably not believing that it was even possible.
However, Gorsazo tried to console him, without making it obvious to others that he knew Kivamus was trying to use his memories from earth for this. "Perhaps, you aren't doing the... process correctly? You should try it once again."
Kivamus nodded with a sigh. Then he took a deep breath and stood up again, facing the west. And this time he tilted the road a little more than the first time, and began hitting it again with the hammer on the higher side.
His arms were already getting tired, so as soon as he thought he had hit it enough times, he took the rod close to the iron nails again, and this time, the closest iron nail slowly started to roll on the table before it reached closer to the rod and then it gently stuck to it.
Kivamus pumped his fist with a grin. It was certainly a very weak magnet, but it worked! It really worked!
"Wooow..." Clarisa whispered with wonder, and began clapping immediately, with Lucem following her with a victorious yell.
"That's... frankly amazing, my lord," Duvas exclaimed as he stood up and moved a little closer to look at the rod, with Feroy following him with a frown.
Gorsazo walked near him and patted him on his back. "I knew you could do it."
Kivamus wiped his forehead with his sleeves, since he hadn't noticed that he had started to sweat even in this weather after using the hammer so many times and grinned. "It's only a start, Gorsazo, but with this, I might just be able to make a compass for our hunters!"
Duvas took the rod in his own hands, and used it to pick up another iron nail which remained stuck to it even after he moved the rod up from the table. And suddenly, he started to laugh and said, "If only the previous baron had seen this..." He shook his head in amusement. "I'm sure he would have called up the whole court of Count Cinran here to brag about having a magnet in his manor."
Kivamus chuckled, realizing by now that even such a simple thing seemed so exceptional to everyone here. Oh, the things he could make here to show them...
"Can I try it too?" Lucem asked uncertainly, while still gazing at the rod with wide eyes.
Duvas smiled and handed over the rod with a rare grin, "Of course you can."
Then Lucem pulled the iron nail away from the rod, and kept it on the table before trying to pick them up again with the rod, but this time it didn't work that well. The closest iron nail still rolled a little in the direction of the rod, before stopping halfway instead of sticking to it, making Lucem drop the rod on the table. He looked at Kivamus nervously. "I didn't break it, milord! It was already broken!"
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A/N: If any of you are interested, the below video was one of the inspirations for this. It's a really old one too, most likely from 1959.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV0Y2-Vxpz4&ab_channel=ABCScience
Next chapter:FLTL Ch 167. Parchment Print
Comments
Kuzunalis
He simply can't control when the next time lightning will strike, nor is this the right season for that, thunderstorms happened in this place around a month before he arrived.
Gabriel Melnik
Couldn't he make a magnet by getting the iron rod struck by lightning?
