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[Fist_Of_Armok]

There is a science fiction series of which I am quite fond where all the oil has run out, and humanity has turned to genetech and mechanical energy as replacements. Teleporting (or cloaking, it's never really made clear) cats called Cheshires (if you speak English) or Demon Cats (if you're Asian) run rampant, and the unit of value, planetwide, is the calorie.  Many corporations have removed the ability to grow from the seeds of any plant they sell, and guns powered by coiled springs that fire bladed discs have replaced the classical firearm.

These coiled springs are my suggestion for an addition to Dwarf Fortress.

I've seen some fortresses with multiple waterwheels and many windmills, ones going nowhere due to an excess of motive power.

Why, then, not make these coiled springs as a trade-good? Plenty of power for the mountain-bound mountainhomes, a new item to trade and trade for, a little something new and different in Dwarf Fortress.

Give it a thought.

[G-Flex]

Making functional springs that big might be problematic. Not sure.

[lucusLoC]

I am not sure about energy as a trade good, but a coiled spring in a box could be a usefull item. You could have a winding station, manual or powered, that winds up springs to be put into devices. The problem with all these threds is what do you actualy do with that power? Currently we realy only have pumps. But never mind, i digress. See that big ol long mechanics thread for more.

[irmo]

It's even more problematic to transport these springs anywhere, while compressed. It's like taking down a garage door spring without unwinding it. It's insanely dangerous.

The obvious way to trade energy in this culture is in the form of grain. It travels fairly well, and you can feed it to draft animals which can haul stuff or turn machinery, or you can eat it/make beer out of it/whatever.

(If you just want to store mechanical energy on site, try building a water tower.)

[LegoLord]

There are occasions in which the convinient energy source is no where near where the energy is needed, so I can see this at least being useful.  Appropriate for the DF time-frame, I don't know.

[qwertyuiopas]

How about as a large waterwheel size thing that uses 10 energy when there is a surplus but can store 10% of it, up to 2000 ticks of 100 power? Could be used to start massive machinery by storing a smallish power input in a large number of them, then swapping gears to initiate the massive superdwarven device...

[alway]

Interesting idea... One thing it brings up is the idea of replacable power cores; which is essentially what this is.
Here's a quick picture for how it could work:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Top shows the general, 'charged' version which would be traded as a power source.
Middle shows the sort of assembly which would make sense for it.
Bottom shows it after it is used.

[irmo]

There are occasions in which the convinient energy source is no where near where the energy is needed, so I can see this at least being useful.

I just don't see how you'd use less energy carrying a big deadly metal spring around than you can reasonably fit in the spring. The major use of coiled springs as energy storage, historically, is wristwatches. Think about the power requirements of a wristwatch.

Water power is a fairly robust way to do this, though installing it is kind of expensive. (Pump water up to a higher z-level, channel it to where the power is needed, put in a waterwheel.) Once we get draft animals, they'll be the way to go--all you have to do is bring the occasional bag of feed to the mule.

[LegoLord]

Um.  What does that have to do with not having a good power source near where you need it?  They're good points, only why did you quote me?

[Fist_Of_Armok]

Interesting idea... One thing it brings up is the idea of replacable power cores; which is essentially what this is.
Here's a quick picture for how it could work:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Top shows the general, 'charged' version which would be traded as a power source.
Middle shows the sort of assembly which would make sense for it.
Bottom shows it after it is used.

That's another way to do it.

This was also partially inspired by the Gnomish mechs in DragonMech; they use tightly coiled springs to power their mechs.

All things considered, the springs would only be dangerous if you make them out of inferior material-a limit on power per metal would be reasonable-copper can only save a few revolutions; steel can save hundreds, et al.

A much easier, much simpler, much more tradeable way of saving power.

[Derakon]

The use I'd see for this isn't as a trade good, but as a way to power traps. A given weapon trap could only fire so long as its power mechanisms still held power, after which point the power mechanism would need to be replaced. Forges could create these mechanisms, which could then be prepared at a new workshop which would either require dwarf power (which would make dwarves tired, as querns and pumps do) or an attached mechanism supplying power. Spent mechanisms could of course be recharged and re-used.

The nice result of all this is that a heavy emphasis on weapon traps now requires a large force of smiths and mechanics backing it up to ensure the traps keep running.

[Sensei]

I hate to say it, but this idea is pretty much totally unfeasible. Even if you change fluid dynamics to make perpetual energy generators impossible. There are simply not a ton of ways to harvest stored energy from a spring. You can only make it push or turn something a small distance- not to mention it would take a few seconds to switch it to a different gear and make it do something else. This pretty much make sense for weapon traps and that's it. It would be way easier to turn a millstone than to carry a spring capable of powering it to and fro a water wheel, even if it was right next to the millstone. And THEN you could just wire it in directly.

[buman]

While the direct description of a 'spring in a box' item that is charged up doesn't make sense, I think we can agree that the traps need to be fleshed out a bit. Adding new single use components like springs to traps based on its type, especially for multi use traps like pressure plates and weapon traps would help fill this gap.

[Idiom]

Mechanical energy storage?

Flywheels. Even NASA is having some good results with them. Just requires some fancy lubrication, some high quality polished metal parts for all contacting parts, and something to spin it up. They do lose energy over time, as slowly as the quality of the flywheel allows. Although springs lose energy over time too.

Make a note that springs do lose strength when compressed for long periods of time.

[Techhead]

You also forget that counterweights can also be used to store energy. The only problems is that it is very stationary, somewhat bulky, and might require large gear ratios.