Thank you all
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Blitukus nodded, then spoke to Kazo, "Technology is the art of directing and converting physical forces and energies to accomplish physical tasks. It is a matter of designing and building devices that take a source of physical energy and, in the end, do something useful. Seeing as you already know about gears, levers, and other basics, it should not be hard for you to get started. Physical energies come in many forms, be it motion, heat, electricity, chemical sources, or energy from fundamental particles themselves... although I am not sure regarding the harnessing of the last... In general, I would recommend breaking down your desired task into the physical processes that are absolutely needed. Then ask yourself, what physical forces or conditions cause these processes? How can these processes be replicated? How will the energy for this be derived, and how will it be handled? And always make sure you are using the most effective and efficient methods you can think of." Kazo replied, "It sounds like solving a puzzle! I like puzzles!" Blitukus responded, "In some cases, designing a new device is much like solving a puzzle. Another thing to keep in mind is that certain materials can only handle a certain amount of physical force, and also can only handle certain temperatures. All machines must stay within these limits, otherwise the material, and therefore the machine, will fail. This should be part of the common sense you must always follow... but after that incident involving a catapult firing far to the side... anyway..." Kazo asked, "The catapult spell... I always loved using it on rodents to see how far they would go. What is this technological catapult and what happened?" Blitukus replied, "A catapult is a simple device, consisting of a 'spoon' and a rotating axle mounted upon a frame. A source of tension or torque... either a string or a spring of some sort... is attached between either the axle and the frame, or the 'spoon' and the frame. When the 'spoon' is drawn back slowly, using one of a variety of force-amplifying machines, this energy of motion, kinetic energy, is stored in whatever is creating the tension or torque, as potential energy. Then, the 'spoon' is tied down, preventing the energy from being released. The 'spoon' is then loaded with a projectile, typically a rock. Then, the tie is severed, allowing the potential energy to, much more rapidly, convert back to kinetic energy, much of this energy being transfered to the rock. The rock then flies forth, hopefully hitting the intended target. What happened to me and my comrades several years ago... I was 14 at the time... was one of them had made the axle too narrow... the forces upon it as the catapult fired were too great, and the axle snapped, causing the rock to fly far off course, nearly hitting someones well... luckily for us, it only
nearly hit it." Kazo smiled, "Unexpected results involving flying objects are always fun to watch!" Blitukus snickered. Blitukus walked over to the calculating machine, Kazo following. Blitukus pointed at the rollers, "Another rather simple example... no, not the whole machine, just the rollers." Kazo walked up and looked closely at the rollers. Blitukus pointed at various parts of it, "This device performs the task of counting a number based on the rotation of this axle, the energy provided by the motion of the axle itself. Note how this roller has the numbers 0 through 9 painted on it. It represents a single digit, and for each one tenth of a rotation, it increments by one. Notice the large gear and the small gear, the small gear connected to the axle. The circumference of the large gear is 10 times that of the small gear, so when the small gear rotates once, the large one rotates one tenth of a rotation... one number on the roller. Each further digit is connected to the previous in a similar manner, since each digit is ten times the one before it. This gives the tens, hundreds, thousands place, and so on." Blitukus then spun the roller slightly, spinning it back afterwards. Kazo replied, "I get the idea. Thanks, Blitukus. I'm eager to put it to use now!"
Blitukus responded, "I did have a rather straightforward project I had intended to do, a mill. Perhaps we could work on it together?" Kazo smiled, flicking his tail, "I'd love to!" Blitukus then left the cavern, walking into the farm room, Kazo following. Blitukus spoke, "I was intent on knocking down these walls and removing the floodgates you see here to make room for the mill. Our task is to grind up plants into their respective products... our source of energy, the river you see before you. I will leave it up to you to design the rest." Kazo replied, "What an interesting puzzle!... but I assume engraving runes into the millstone would be cheating. It needs rotating motion... but the river is linear. A wheel would work... and the water would push against flat surfaces. A wheel with flat surfaces on it, placed in the river can drive a shaft... and the rotation can be transfered to a vertical shaft with gears. Hmm..." Blitukus nodded. "So it seems you have learned the basics of technology rather quickly." Kazo smiled, "So where can I draw this out?" Blitukus replied, "Unfortunately, we are limited in our writing utensils... coal dust is all that is available. I will bring it here." Blitukus walked away, then returned with the cup of coal dust a few moments later. Kazo accepted it, and began drawing out remarkably precise designs on the wall. The mill he had designed also included a lever to lift the paddle wheel out of the river when it wasn't in use, and a lever to move the millstone for collection and cleaning. Blitukus nodded, "Perfect. Now, we need the stone blocks to put this together. I am quite glad you had arrived knowing the basics... I would rather not have to spend a month telling you the basics of mathematics and physics, after all." Kazo snickered, "Just like how I was glad I didn't have to spend a month telling you about the basics of willpower and the essence of it all! What a coincidence!" Blitukus smiled, "Indeed. Now... hrm... I only have one pick axe. I will dig out the limestone here and ready this space. This limestone must be conserved... it has an important use I will discuss later. Meanwhile, if you exit and turn left, the first door to your right will take you to my work room. Feel free to explore there." Kazo grinned, "Sure thing!" Kazo then left, headed for the work room. Blitukus took out his pickaxe, and dug out the limestone obstructing the future building sight. This unearthed a reasonably sized chunk of limestone, which he moved back into the corridor... it would be rather wasteful for it to get washed away in the seasonal flood. Blitukus then began to take apart the farm floodgates... he noticed the crudely chiseled floodgates and basic mechanisms... but 5 years prior, they were all he had... He felt it in his heart. He was dismantling a piece of history... but as Kazo had reminded him, history was one thing... his own future always lay ahead. Blitukus finished removing the floodgates, then filled in the channels left behind. His future food supply now relied on, as some odd dwarves from the far deserts had referred to it, 'Nile Farming'. Still, he likely wouldn't need to grow any more food until after he had completed his quest. Blitukus walked back into the work room, and looked around... Kazo was nowhere to be seen. CLANG! Blitukus looked up... Kazo was standing atop the magma furnace, little else visible but his blue, glowing, reptilian eyes. Kazo grinned, "This odd metal shines like nothing I've seen before!... and it makes for a dead giveaway, but that's beside the point!" Blitukus replied, "That metal is the technological equivalent to mithril, known as Steel." Kazo snickered, "So raccoons somehow inspired it?" Blitukus replied, "No, steel, with 2 E's." Kazo replied, "For some reason I like the sound of that name!" Kazo then hopped down, gracefully landing on the stone floor below. Blitukus spoke, "Now, we should make the blocks, wheels, and other components needed." Kazo and Blitukus then split up the jobs, gathered materials, and began to produce the needed parts. When they were done, they brought the parts out and built the mill to specification.
Upon completion of the mill, Kazo spoke, "Let's see if it works or not!" Blitukus asked, "What if it does not?" Kazo smiled, "Then I hope it fails catastrophically enough for it to be worth our time!" Blitukus snickered. If something DID go wrong, Blitukus still didn't want to waste food... he retrieved the dimple cup, and the empty sand bag from the glass furnace, and returned. He placed the dimple cup in the mill, readied it, then lowered the paddle wheel into the water. It worked exactly as expected, Blitukus collecting the dye in the bag. 2 dimple cup spawn were left over as well. Blitukus placed the seeds and the bag back into the barrels in the corridor, then walked back, pulling the lever to raise the paddle wheel out of the water. Kazo smiled, "Glad to see it works! I think I'll just head back over to that work room. I want to know how that stuff works!" Blitukus nodded, "Just leave things as they are, please. I will also be doing work in there soon." Kazo replied on his way out, "Of course, what a great opportunity to observe!" Blitukus followed Kazo, collecting a cave spider web on the way, and walked to the loom, weaving it into cloth, Kazo watching him and taking note of the tools he used. Blitukus then weaved it into another bag, and proceeded to continue milling plants, this time milling the cave wheat into flour, collecting the seed as well. Blitukus now needed somewhere to cook the flour into bread... his ashery no longer served any use, so he would take it apart and clean the stone, using it for a kitchen afterwards. Kazo decided to volunteer his efforts again. When they were done, Blitukus thought about it... one bit of flour alone wouldn't be enough to make a decent loaf of bread. He remembered what he had heard about dimple cup spawn... dimple cups had no nutritional value whatsoever, and neither did their spawn, but their spawn did have a rather pleasant flavor when cooked. Blitukus wasn't a chef... but he knew the basic idea. He took the flour, and mixed it with water and what else he could improvise for it... there were no chickens around for hundreds of miles, so eggs were out of the question, and little else as far as additions to the flour could be improvised. He took the dimple cup spawn, chopped it up, and placed the pieces into the 'dough', then cooked it. A while later, 3 meals worth of bread resulted. At least he now had a better variety in his diet. Next, Blitukus decided to try his idea with cooking dwarven booze. Blitukus reviewed his books regarding alcohol. As he read... he looked up to see Kazo looking at him. Blitukus spoke, "You have a habit of sneaking around." Kazo replied, "Yes I do. I love surprising people, it's like a hobby of mine!" Blitukus snickered. He then allowed Kazo to read with him. Kazo commented, "So it looks like they still use the same recipes." Blitukus replied, "Dwarves are renowned for their stubbornness." Kazo smiled, "That's just part of the reason why they're so fun to talk to! I can't get enough of listening to them argue among themselves!" Blitukus snickered again. When he was done reviewing his reading material, Blitukus put the book away, then proceeded to brew one of the pig tails into dwarven ale. When he was done producing the ale, he brought it back to the kitchen, retrieved proper chemicals, mixed a solution, then began to boil and cook it further. Blitukus spoke to Kazo, "This is another parallel. The mages of the ancients had alchemy. Today and tomorrow, we have chemistry. They are very related, and there are some books detailing a bit of chemistry back in the stack in my room." Kazo replied, "I think I'll have to read those some time. It sounds like technology has a new take on almost everything! I can't wait to try all of these new fields out!" Blitukus smiled, "You will have time. Currently though... I just hope this is edible at all... it does not smell very edible..." Kazo smiled, "Let's see you eat it when it's done." Blitukus replied, "Perhaps... but I may decide against swallowing it..." Blitukus walked out, and brought back the cave wheat seed... he knew the oils from this seed might serve as a catalyst in some carbon-consuming reactions, so he sliced it and added it to the solution. Eventually, as liquids boiled away, the solution solidified. Blitukus allowed it to cool, then shaped it into biscuits. Blitukus sniffed them... and found that even he, a canid, still thought twice about consuming them.
NOT how my mother used to make them...
Kazo watched eagerly. Blitukus sniffed them again... and hesitated. Kazo spoke, "If this experiment fails I can always heal you. It's always nice to see what doesn't work too... Let's see what this new food of yours does!" Blitukus looked at Kazo, then looked at the dwarven ale biscuit... he hesitated again, then bit into it. The biscuit actually didn't taste as bad as it smelled, but it still never tried to hide the fact that it was chemically modified. Blitukus forced himself to swallow it after chewing it enough... he found that his stomach seemed to readily accept it, and that it was quite filling. Blitukus spoke, "If I do not get sick throughout the course of the day, then I have a new source of food." There wasn't that much physically there... but it seemed so filling and energy rich, that that little bit would count for 6 meals worth. He moved the food back to the stockpile, saving it for later. It may not be masterpiece meals, but he now had more than enough food to last him through until the end of his quest. On top of it, it seemed Kazo was quite readily picking up the concepts of technology... although what he would use them for was his own agenda.
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I know it's relatively short... conversations can be hard and I'm still nervous if I'm getting it all right or not. Well, if this turned out good then it means there isn't much to worry about. Then again, this was a rather uneventful update.
[ January 04, 2008: Message edited by: AlanL ]
Author
Topic: A Kobold's Quest II (Read 76120 times)