Alfheimr Renaissance

The Jacob's ladder I have been gradually building on since autumn is finally working as I hoped, and after Bodil and Jalida help me carry it to the great hall, I introduce it. It's not heavy, but we have to be careful with its rods, and for the first tests there will also be a couple of lead batteries in its base. Partly so it stands stable, but also because the house's high-voltage system is not done yet. The people started to gather as we carried the contraption here, even though it's basically straight route from the workshop, and they wonder what I've done this time. Jane has already taken a couple of photos and will be ready with the camera. We place the creation in the main hall, right now in the middle of the hall for the first showing, but then against a wall where it will take power from.

It is a square wooden pillar about 80 cm high with a crank on the front and two copper rods that bow towards each other before going up and slowly way from each other. On the top in front of the copper rods I have painted two symbols: a high voltage warning in yellow and black, and a stylized hand with a red cross over it. The symbols don't really mean anything here, because ordinary people don't have the colour and symbol association that me and Jane do, but at least red is strength and danger and hopefully people will learn what the symbols mean. Everyone in the household takes my symbols serious and now understands what the most common ones mean.

Of course I still warn against touching the copper rods, especially when someone is cranking. It will hurt like hell and can cause permanent damage if it gets bad. Compared to the small falling water generator, this one is much more powerful. It is important to crank with a sufficiently high tempo for this to work. I tried a relay oscillator, but it didn't work well and I guess it was too low a frequency of about 30Hz, and the sparking was a problem if I reduced the contact distance to increase the frequency, but I could partly remedy that with a capacitor. But even with a specially built 'vibrator' I only got up to about 100Hz. So the crank is not a generator, but just spin up a multi contactor disc in high rotation to give a high frequency by connecting and disconnecting the battery to the transformer, and the flywheel that is spun up gives more stable output and surer disconnect. Along with a spring lock, the crank system also acts as a safety so that the mechanism cannot stop in the connected position where the battery is short-circuited through the transformer. That will get 'hot and unpleasant'.

When they have gathered around me and look expectantly on the strange contraption that I built, I start cranking. There is a whirling sound buzzing as everything spins up and a spark strikes between the closest parts of the rods, which becomes a beautiful blue-white-purple arc of plasma that travels up with a sharp sound. Gasps, shock and recoil! Even Iselin. Jane just records and captures it while smiling. I haven't shown or described what the contraption is meant to do for any of them, but Iselin has seen the construction and helped with some experiments as well. Iselin understood the multi contactor, the battery and to some extent the transformer, but did not understand where the current would go because the copper rods just points up in the air, and she knows that current has to 'flow around' for something to happen, and this is not a radio. Just like high frequency and radio, high voltage has its own rules. I remind Iselin that she and Kari wanted me to build something that could make bigger lightning bolts.

Tada!

Even Jane is puzzled when I show that the arc does not rise when I loosen and angle the rods horizontal, and the arc stays between the shortest gap. The copper rods must be vertical for the arc to rise. Jane doesn't appreciate me smugly telling her to try to figure it out. I know she doesn't like it when I make demands on her modern knowledge, and if she doesn't know or can't figure it out. If she doesn't, I will eventually tell her that the plasma creates warm rising air, and the arc chooses the easiest path, which is through the plasma, so it follows up and the process is self-sustaining until the distance becomes too far or the top is reached where the rods are really bent out from each other. The strange smell is ozone, but Iselin is now familiar with that smell, just not this strong.

"Sir, is it possible to make a weapon like this?! Shooting lightning bolts would be so cool!"

Alith's "Oohh!" and eyes says she loves Gunhild's idea, and more people nod.

I don't regret explaining the word cool to them. Both Jane and I tend to use the word occasionally, and the others have adopted the word just like several other words, so Gunhild and Iselin is hardly alone. Unfortunately, I have to disappoint my weapons fanatics and explain that shooting lightning at longer distances is just impractical, but it is possible to build a small device that is battery powered that makes a small lightning, and when placed against the body, the nerves and muscles are knocked out for a short time. This is one reason why no one should touch the copper rods and the warning hand symbol is there, as this arc is strong and will do more damage.

Jane quickly realise mentioning a tazer gun was a bad idea, and I dash their hopes for a handheld tazer as I continue to say that unfortunately it's just dumb to build with what I have and can do here. I don't really want to use Midgård components to transform up DC, and really have few suitable components although it is possible to do with a transistor and fly-back transformer. But maybe with a pulsating relay or vibrator oscillator. Tazer use does not require a stable arc. But then there are high voltages, and problems with batteries, although I actually have the cells from disassembled things and the compact small batteries. There are ways to make something tazer-like so I'll think about it, but it won't be small and practical.

However, it might be handy to have a small handheld spark device that provides a spark enough to light the oil lamps instead of having to do it with flame and fire as now, but I wonder if the rape seed oil is that volatile and easily flammable. But yes, we can try and Iselin is so game to help with that creation. She isn't the only one.

Gunhild's question about shooting lightning have made me start thinking about whether I can build a laser. Rather, I am quite convinced that I can build a laser, because that can be relatively simple with a so-called TEA laser that uses the nitrogen in the air and high voltage, but it will be a 337 nm UV laser with just a very short light pulse every time it triggers, so that laser is unfortunately practically useless for me. The most difficult thing with building such a laser here, is in addition to generating high DC voltage, a sufficiently thin and effective dielectric insulation in the capacitor. But thin glass should work and beside that I carry a lot of plastic bags and more durable plastic folders with me, as well as aluminised food bags that might work. I have built such a laser before. But it's technically not a true laser, and a UV or IR laser that is weak and pulsed is more of an interesting curiosity than impressive, which also applies to my little red laser pointer. That weak red beam is only somewhat impressive in the dark, while looking back towards the laser, and it is a bad laser with very limited coherent light. A practical laser in the visible range would be impressive and absolutely best to demonstrate the principle of a laser, or a burning laser in the higher IR range. A 1 to 10 watt laser in the lower IR or visible range would be damn evil in a battle to target the enemy and instantly blind them, or at least seriously damage their eyes.

You trying to attack me? I take your eye sight. To blind someone from a long distance, now that is frightening magic.

Although, if I can take an enemy leader's vision it might be useful, and might call off a battle.

A huge disadvantage of such a powerful laser in the visible range is that there is a high chance it will take my own sight or someone I care about, long before it takes an enemy. A quick glare against a metal surface or bright surface is enough, and there are no laser eye protection here. Sunglasses are not laser protection. The enemy may be wearing metal helmets and so on, but there is no perfectly flat metal surface here, so from a distance it would scattered the light enough. But shit happens.

Still, I want to do a laser, and preferably a useful laser.

A laser consists of two main parts, the laser medium which is where the beam originates and is amplified, and the energy source which provides energy to the laser medium. The laser medium can for example be a semiconductor diode as in ordinary laser pointers, or a crystal as in the first Midgård laser which was a synthetic ruby, or it can be a gas such as CO2 as in ordinary industrial lasers that cut metals, or a liquid with dye. There are more variants and combinations, and a lot of stuff can be a laser medium with the right pumping and circumstances, including normal air, but where in the electromagnetic spectrum the laser emission ends up can hardly be influenced, and it might be terribly inefficient, so most laser mediums are not useful or have an impractical output effect and so on. There are reasons that some lasers are more useful than others. Good, compact and dependable infrared diode lasers are the main reasons that fiber optic communication have become such a huge part of infrastructure, and with several different wavelengths 'colours' in one fiber, a lot of data can be transmitted through one fiber.

Anyway, to get energy into the laser medium, things like electric current, high voltage field, radio energy, chemical reaction, strong light or another laser are used. There are many ways but not all are practical or suitable for everything, because the laser medium must be energized in the area where it absorb the energy. A bad car analogy is that an electric motor and a gasoline engine provide horsepower to move a car, but it doesn't work to connect a power cable into a gasoline engine or pour gasoline into an electric engine. In the first laser with synthetic ruby, a xenon flash lamp was used, because the crystal is transparent and light goes in, and a tiny bit of the white light flash has the right 'colour' to be absorbed, but the crystal cannot be excited with, for example, electricity.

Most lasers require the light to bounce back and forth so it amplifies itself and comes in phase and with the same frequency, becoming coherent light energy. The word laser is an abbreviation that translates to 'Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation'. Often this is done with two mirrors, one at each end of the laser medium, that should be slightly concave with a focus over the mirror distance so the light bounce back and forth, with one mirror emitting 0.1-5% or so of the light energy, and this becomes the actual laser beam.

The xenon camera flashes I have may be powerful enough to work as 'optical pumping', but its pulse rate will be low even if I modify it. It will only give an extremely short pulse with laser light from a laser medium and it will be relatively weak and quite useless, although shorter intense pulses can be useful or very valuable in certain contexts. The xenon flash will also have a limited lifespan, but at least it's something for experimentation.

So the problem in building a laser in this world is finding an appropriate laser medium, being able to drive and pump it properly, and building mirrors, silvering the ends, or bevelling the glass at the right angle so that the beam is reflected back and forth. I can forget semiconductors and probably dye as well as crystals, so a gas laser is most likely to build. A nitrogen TEA laser would have been the simplest because it doesn't even need mirrors, but it is pulsed in the UV range. A CO2 laser would be the most powerful even though it has invisible 10.6 µm output, but tricky to build, due to the power source and gas purification etc. An argon laser which has blue-green colour would be nice, but I can forget about creating pure argon gas. Or krypton.

Had the car with its car stereo come along here, I would have taken out the red laser diode for DVD reading and made a more powerful red laser pointer; not enough to damage from a distance but still fun to play with. The laser for CD reading would also become a IR laser pointer, but less useful due to it being 780 nm.

Damn.

It would have been so incredibly useful and valuable to have had the whole car with me, because even if it was damaged from a crash, a lot would have survived, and that's so much electric stuff like cables, lights and electronics, and so much valuable metals, rubber, plastics and other things, not to mention glass, mirrors and stuff. And all the technology and stuff I had with me in the car too, in the form of dashcam, drones, tool boxes, etc.

Maybe I should send someone to take a trip across Hardangervidda along the stretch where the road is in the coming summer, to check if a car happened to come to Alfheimr. There is almost no chance, but Jane and I were about 8 km apart when we travelled here, and the road over Hardangervidda was only around 20 km from me. And there are people camping and such there too. If I could find a car, it would be worth so much, so I should definitely send some to wander around Hardangervidda. Having them actually walk along the most likely places for a car will be hard if they can't read a map, but I can teach them that, and give them a compass.

But back to other thoughts about laser and lights.

I haven't come up with an important use for my little red laser module, so it's about time I make that gold ring with the laser in it that I can put on my finger when needed and that can be activated with my thumb. A magic light pointer that should be a quite cool magic effect in a dark feast hall with smoke from fires and torches. I just have to remember to have it in my pocket when we leave the islands. I'm going to make an adjustable mount for the laser ring so it can act as a small laser sight on my rifle scope, just because it's extra absurd and slightly more useful.

How many small laser sights have I made before in life for airsoft weapons and other things? Most of my own had it, often a combo module with red and IR laser and a focused white light illuminator. Usually cheap 6.5mm laser modules, but there have been so many lasers I've played with or built from laser diodes and optics. And other types. Lasers are cool, and in many situations practical.

Actually, I should make a simple quick mount for my own Mini Maglite LED and attach matching parts on the underside of the double barrel shotgun and the hunting rifle. Tacticool as shit or something. I haven't had any other use for the Maglite so far, and right now I don't need another work light or something. The Maglite is better focused and has sharper light than the guards flashlight, but stupider lit as I have to screw in the front, but the light is focused enough that I can roughly aim with the light. Even if I use the lathe to make a new push button rear, the problem is that the maglite flashlight changes light mode between activations if that activation is short, but frankly, I can probably live with that for most hunting. Actually I could probably do some shutter style light block to let light through, but that waste batteries. The Nitecore Tube lamp modified would be better, but I don't want to modify unnecessarily.

Actually, the guards could really use another flashlight, and a better one.

After thinking about it, I choose to scrap the one they have and make two new flashlights, each with a Lipo cell from the scrapped Wouxun radio so the NiMH cells are free, and the flashlights are charged in the same way, in a charging dock they can share. The charger for the flashlights will be a simple dock made of wood and brass with the charging circuit from the bluetooth headphones, but the charger needs 5V so it will be left in my workshop. They will have the same type of switch solution as the old flashlight had, but will also have a push button. The light source of the newer flashlight will be the focusing LED of the scrapped DSLR camera with a lens that gives stronger and more focused light. This is the dark time of the year, and they too could use a weapon light, so I'll make a modification to the lights and shotguns, so that the flashlights belt clip can click onto the shotguns front strap mount, so the flashlights also can be used as bad weapon lights. Maybe we can do night hunting for small animals in the forest, or just rats in the barn helped by the light reflection from their eyes, and there is a small tactical advantage in the basement all year round.

With Bodil's and with the help of several others, we start building and modifying. Bodil asks if it's okay for her to decoratively carve the casings for the flashlights and the dock, which I gladly give her, so we'll put in the electrical stuff of the flashlights when that wood work is finished and oiled.

Long dark winter nights mess with my circadian rhythm, but life in this world is better at keeping it in check. It's evening and I'm sitting in my office and after I've updated the diary log, I'm trying to solve various design problems and issues. So many projects and things to think about. I create lists, but there are still problems and I forget things. There is a knock and Jane ask:

"Robert, can I borrow the bluetooth speaker?"

I just point to it without taking my eyes from the papers. It's not the first time they borrow it, and the music group often uses the bluetooth speaker, so she knows what to do. This fecking problem! Lousy writing tools sure isn't helping! I need to make proper fecking pencils! Which is another project! Argh! Music starts playing, and I recognise that rhythm with guitar and drums that starts 'Kiss - I was made for loving you', and I find myself nodding to the beat. I hear the door lock click, so I turn around. Jane is leaning with ther back against the door, wearing one of her Midgård shirts, jeans and high heels, but what is most surprising is that she has put on lipstick and eye shadow. Have I ever even seen that on her before? She's seductively wagging her hips to the beat and has a sinful smile as she points to me and says:

"Stay in that chair and don't move."

It takes a few seconds before I realise that Jane is giving me a sexy striptease while she dance and sings along to the song, where she of course changes 'girl' to 'boy'. It's damn easy to play along in her fantasy which is sexy, erotic and my first striptease. I can't remember any girlfriend ever done a proper striptease before.

When the song ends, she has put her bra on my head and is smiling expectantly, so I stand up and say in classic Tarzan style; "Me Robert. You Jane." I lift her up over her shoulder in a fireman's carry as she starts pretending to be a kidnapped Victorian lady and pretend to fight back and complain about being kidnapped by a jungle barbarian as I take the speaker. I carry her into my bedroom as she begs me to be careful as I, "ravage me all night long." Jane giggles and smile as I lay her into my bed. Good end to this evening.

The evening becomes more intense when later, with a playful smile and eye gesture, I questioningly pull long fine pieces of fabric up from one of the bed's hidden compartments, one by one. Jane immediately gets a sinful smile and lies down with her arms up and out, but she is first given a blindfold as we play with each other's bodies, mouths and tongues, before I gently and sensually bind her hands.