Project
P consumes an estimated 10 iron, 4 copper, and 2 biological resources, and outputs a Homo-Polar Generator
(wiki) (
Patent), and a magnet forger.
build a coil of wire (with 3 of the copper the forge makes), wired up as a solenoid (aiming to maximize the strength of the magnetic field) (the coil diameter is the same as the circular disks created below)
We Now have a Magnet Creator, for magnetic material forged within the coils. (cooling a magnetic material from above the
curie temperature to below in the presence of a magnetic field is how you make a permanent magnet)
the 4 new iron sheets are cast as large circles and magnetized. (10 power?)
Act surprised when traces of neodymium, and residual copper from previous furnace operation result in stronger magnets than expected.
6 iron sheets are formed into 2 millstone type disks. The 4 magnetized sheets are then placed top and bottom of each millstone type disk (now we have 2 magnetized millstones)
1 copper is drawn into iron wire.
a leather belt is created long enough to go around both magnetized millstones, and the wire is glued on the inside. One of the circular sheets used to form each millstone is slightly smaller, so there is a groove for this to run in.
1 metal is formed into 2 axels.
The alternator is moved from the windmill back to the generator
Both of these wheels are now moved into the back room of the kitchen, and mounted as a new
Homo-Polar Generator. 2 disks done because we can't create any kind of sliding electrical contact at the moment, and a pair of disks eliminates this loss.
You don't need strong magnets for this application, as weaker magnets just extract power more slowly, but with a windmill, that would just mean that it can spin a little faster in any given wind to generate the same power.
Power generated is proportional to the length of the cylinder, the linear velocity of the edge of the cylinder (radius and rotational speed), and the strength of the magnetic field.
(untill we have better magnets, this'll have to do for a windmill generator - this technique isn't used as a generator in modern times, because you can do it much more compactly with even a poor quality alternator. The advantage of this is that this setup can store lots of energy (angular momentum), and provide it quickly (very low internal resistance). This technique when reversed, is used in a rail-gun (electrical power creating velocity, rather than velocity creating electrical power).
In the future the disks can be easily re-forged into other things, or used as a high current electrical storage device.
GM note : i'm not sure how much copper is needed to make the magnet forger, because 1 unit of metal seems to be about 1/20 m3, and that would make 600m of 1cm diameter wire, or 7000m of 3mm diameter wire.
(1/20th m3 is equal to 1.5m x 1.5m by 2.22cm (ie, the armor plates on the car) ). We might have used way to much copper there, at 4 units all up.