Eric Flint - The Grantville Gazette Vol 8, Angielskie [EN](4)(2)
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Grantville Gazette-Volume
VIII
Table of Contents
Assistant Editor's Preface
FICTION:
Joseph Hanauer: Into the Very Pit of Hell
Not a Princess Bride
The Painter's Gambit
Dear Sir
The Sons of St. John
Prince and Abbot
A Question of Faith
I Got My Buck
Capacity For Harm
Flight 19 to Magdeburg
Rolling On
Three Innocuous Words
CONTINUING SERIALS:
The Doctor Gribbleflotz Chronicles, Part 3 - Doctor Phil's Distraction
The Essen Steel Chronicles, Part 2
Louis de Geer
Butterflies in the Kremlin: Part 1
A Russian Noble
NON-FICTION:
Refrigeration and the 1632 World: Opportunities and Challenges
New France in 1634 and the Fate of North America
Aluminum: Will O' the Wisp?
IMAGES
SUBMISSIONS TO THE MAGAZINE
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Contents
Capacity For Harm
by Richard Evans
Belfort, Franche Comté, 1633
"So, Herr Doctor Lebenenergie. You designed this yourself?"
"Not exactly, Commissioner Vaden." Tomas cursed himself for ever thinking that coming to Belfort
would be profitable. He knew that Franche Comté was rife with witch hunts again, but he just needed
some extra copper wire and plates for his second machine. Those could be made in Franche Comté.
"I met with some Americans a couple of years ago. I studied their books on electricity. While I was
there, I saw them use a device that made that power available to them with a press of a button. They
shocked a farmer back to life."
"Sorcery!"
"So I thought at first, sir. But it was nothing but a machine. I hied myself to this town they said they came
from and just walked into their library and asked about these machines. I spent two months there."
Tomas tried to sit up straighter but the bindings prevented it. "I watched their doctors use similar
machines and finally came up with the theory that applying this power in varying amounts to the proper
locations of the body, one could rebalance the ichors within and cure maladies. This was proved to me
when I saw a movie called 'Frankenstein.' They laughed and called it 'fiction' and said it was a moral
lesson about a man's
hubris
. The machines in that movie were well within what we could make right
now.
"So I did." Tomas knew now what that movie had been trying to teach him, but now it was too late. His
only recourse was to make himself useful to these witch hunters. Somehow. "I built my
Elektrischer
Generator
from parts I found near Geneva and Upper Genoa. The lodestone was the most expensive
piece."
"Lodestone? Explain." Someone just out of sight asked. Tomas felt someone moving up behind him.
"Continue, Herr Eichemann." The other Vaden waved the questioner back.
"Certain stones, when hung from a string or wire, will always have one side point to the North."
"Yes, those I know of," the elder Vaden interjected. "They are how the compasses on the ships work,
gentlemen." He shook his head. "We know that is not sorcery. Nor are we here for that reason. I believe
this is much simpler. Continue." The elder Vaden's cold, dead eyes compelled Tomas to obey.
Tomas Eichemann took time to gather his thoughts. He wasn't sure exactly what the two witch
commissioners wanted with him. No one he knew of had accused him of being a warlock—that he knew
of. The two men had just ridden out to his camp and invited him to attend them back in town. Invited
him. With their guards present.
He should have left earlier in the day when he'd heard that there were people asking for the whereabouts
of the traveling doctor and his magical device, the
Elektrischer Generator
. It was always safer to leave
when people started asking questions. Twice before he had managed to flee other towns just ahead of
the authorities. Small towns were the worst; nowhere to really hide. Especially to those who had good
clean clothing, their own wagon with many strange devices hanging from its side, too. Jealousy or
suspicion always resulted in the same thing. Someone had sold the information to someone else who
knew someone who was in a position of authority.
But the smith had promised him that the copper plates for his capacitor and the wires for his two
inductor coils would be ready that afternoon, no sooner.
I should have gone to Geneva instead. No
one would have cared about one more traveling merchant there.
The smith had delivered them as promised. Tomas had just managed to get a couple miles out of town
and make camp when the two men with the wide-brimmed black hats and cloaks of official witch
commissioners had appeared out of the dark. They hadn't been alone. Twenty guards on horse were with
them. All were wearing the colors of the Bishop of Strassburg. They had called him by name. The
invitation hadn't been one he could have refused and lived. The four mercenaries he'd hired to see him
safely through the battle lines had laughed when he ordered them to protect him. Then the sorry bastards
had faded into the nearby woods. Their laughs mocked him even now.
"Continue, Tomas Eichemann. Yes, we know your real name." The elder Vaden sneered at him. "But we
will get back to why you have given yourself the new title and name, later. Tell us more about why you
needed a lodestone."
"The stones have a power inside them that can push something called electrons. Those are particles that
are too small to see. But when they are present in great numbers, we can see their results during a
summer storm."
"This box makes lightnings?" The younger Vaden's eyebrows rose in disbelief.
"Of a sort. Water?" The heads shook from side to side. There would be no comforts until all their
questions were answered. Tomas licked his dry lips. "When spun inside a coil of copper wire covered in
lac, the lodestone—the magnet, as the Americans call it—pushes the particles in one direction. That
creates flow of power. It acts like a water wheel in reverse, pushing electrons through the copper as if it
were a channel. Or you could think of it as a pump pushing water through the pipe.
"When spun at the right speed it creates enough power in a small coil to make it magnetic, like the
lodestone. The coil pulls a metal cylinder bound to a small spring and makes a contact under the lid. Just
like a lodestone attracts metal filings or that nail that your brother has been playing with. This opens the
circuit to let power flow from the smaller generator to a larger coil deeper inside the box. If the device is
working, the two silver studs under that glass lid will throw small lightnings at each other. Then you throw
that small lac covered lever there next to it to close a second circuit.
"This lets the small power created by the hand crank form a larger, more powerful, magnet to spin off
the same gears, so you produce more energy for the same amount of work. This is because the second
coil has more magnets, many pumps, or many water wheels, working together. These iron core magnets
don't really spin this time though. This time it is the coils that spin." The older Vaden nodded his head and
then looked to his younger brother who was standing by the box.
"Close the box, Brother." He turned back to Tomas. "Continue if you would, please." The friendly smile
wasn't forced at all and that scared him deeply. Tomas suddenly recalled prayers that he'd hadn't spoken
in many a year.
"There are two taps, links to the coils, copper brushes that spin along the circular plates shown on the
drawing. That lets the power go towards charging two plates of copper that have sheets of glass between
them. They call that a capacitor. It stores the power until needed. To that is connected another coil, this
time heavier copper wire wrapped around another iron core. This is hooked up to the lac covered wires
that are attached to the proper locations of the body with clamps or leather cuffs with the contacts sewn
into them, so that power can be applied. How much is dependant on how fast you spin the gear handle
and how long you press the red button."
"I see. Like this?"
Tomas screamed. His body jerked against the leather straps binding him to the heavy wooden chair.
"Yes. Yes. But you shouldn't spin the handle so fast. Too much power will harm the patient." Tomas
gasped a bit. "Too much power can burn them from the inside. If the patient has a weak heart, it can kill
him. If the lightnings under the glass are large and constant, you can back off spinning it so fast." Tomas
felt his voice break from his adopted instructor and doctor's persona. He knew it sounded like the
desperate pleadings of a condemned man.
The two brothers looked at each other and smiled. "Indeed?"
Tomas grasped at a straw. "I have the body charts and shock tables in that map case. It's over by my
pack. On the table." Tomas tried to nod, but could only flick his eyes in the proper direction.
"Ah. We shall study it most thoroughly, Dr Lebenenergie. Most thoroughly, indeed." The Vaden
brothers had the most spine chilling smiles that Tomas had ever seen.
The older brother smiled again. He leaned forward and whispered into Tomas's ear. "Yes. I must thank
you. With such a device, I do believe we can process more voluntary confessions per day. And we won't
even leave a mark upon our charges. So the priests who feel that we are beating confessions out of the
accused will have no grounds at all." The smile chilled Tomas to the core. "No grounds at all."
"That was most efficient, Commissioner Vaden. Very well done." Tomas eyes darted over to see who
had spoken and locked his eyes on those of a local magistrate. "I told you, Antoine, these men are
efficient in their work The two best lawyers I've ever met."
"Truly," answered another magistrate. Tomas couldn't quite identify him in the dim lighting. "Though I am
more concerned that we got down all the pertinent details about the device. I believe that is the most
important thing here."
From behind him Tomas Eichemann heard another voice, this one higher pitched. "I've got the
information, sir."
Sweat began to roll down his forehead. What was really going on here? There were at least four other
silent figures in the room. Tomas gathered his breath and looked up at them. "Am I to be charged as a
warlock, then? Or am I free to go? I helped you as I said I would. I have done everything in my power
to show you how to build your own
Elektrischer Generator
. I'll even help you build your own. As many
as you need! But I don't see how a healing machine can help you in your Holy cause, commissioners. It is
a machine to shock the body back into working right. I have many affidavits, witnessed and sealed, of
patients who've been cured by my machine."
"Yes. That you have. And we thank you so much for the neat lists of names you gave us. Many of them
are very rich indeed. You sold them smaller versions for their own use, I see."
"Yes. But those won't last like this one. The magnetics will fail eventually, as will the soft metal gears.
They only make minor shocks that stimulate the muscles and circulation. They will need me for full
revitalizations, as they don't know how to do that. It is very good money. I could share it with you, make
you partners perhaps?" Bribing commissioners was risky, but commonly accepted as necessary. Many of
them were in the business more for the money than any real desire to do Holy work.
The younger Vaden turned to the small crowd behind him. "Gentlemen, he has voluntarily admitted that
he's sold devices to many unsuspecting clients. Devices designed to fail."
The older Vaden smiled. Grimly. "As for the donations . . . That won't be necessary, Tomas. Though we
do thank you for your donation . . ." Someone behind them coughed politely. ". . . offer."
The younger Vaden chuckled. "Yes, indeed. We can both use new boots. The roads here are simply
atrocious, wouldn't you say, Brother?" Someone else chuckled.
"Yes." The older Vaden leaned down over Tomas and smiled. "As for your release . . . not just yet. We
do need to see the full capacity of this machine, after all. As well . . ." He smiled. "We need to see which
is stronger. The guilty soul of a self proclaimed doctor and admitted charlatan or that of a machine." He
waved his hand to the hooded man who stood by the machine. The crank began to spin.
"I do believe you will find a comfortable place in Heaven, Tomas. Eventually."
The black gloved hand pressed the red button. And held it down.
Back
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Next
Framed
Back
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Next
Contents
Flight 19 to Magdeburg
by Jose J. Clavell
Prologue
Living Room
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl upanicza.keep.pl
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Grantville Gazette-Volume
VIII
Table of Contents
Assistant Editor's Preface
FICTION:
Joseph Hanauer: Into the Very Pit of Hell
Not a Princess Bride
The Painter's Gambit
Dear Sir
The Sons of St. John
Prince and Abbot
A Question of Faith
I Got My Buck
Capacity For Harm
Flight 19 to Magdeburg
Rolling On
Three Innocuous Words
CONTINUING SERIALS:
The Doctor Gribbleflotz Chronicles, Part 3 - Doctor Phil's Distraction
The Essen Steel Chronicles, Part 2
Louis de Geer
Butterflies in the Kremlin: Part 1
A Russian Noble
NON-FICTION:
Refrigeration and the 1632 World: Opportunities and Challenges
New France in 1634 and the Fate of North America
Aluminum: Will O' the Wisp?
IMAGES
SUBMISSIONS TO THE MAGAZINE
Back
|
Next
Back
|
Next
Contents
Capacity For Harm
by Richard Evans
Belfort, Franche Comté, 1633
"So, Herr Doctor Lebenenergie. You designed this yourself?"
"Not exactly, Commissioner Vaden." Tomas cursed himself for ever thinking that coming to Belfort
would be profitable. He knew that Franche Comté was rife with witch hunts again, but he just needed
some extra copper wire and plates for his second machine. Those could be made in Franche Comté.
"I met with some Americans a couple of years ago. I studied their books on electricity. While I was
there, I saw them use a device that made that power available to them with a press of a button. They
shocked a farmer back to life."
"Sorcery!"
"So I thought at first, sir. But it was nothing but a machine. I hied myself to this town they said they came
from and just walked into their library and asked about these machines. I spent two months there."
Tomas tried to sit up straighter but the bindings prevented it. "I watched their doctors use similar
machines and finally came up with the theory that applying this power in varying amounts to the proper
locations of the body, one could rebalance the ichors within and cure maladies. This was proved to me
when I saw a movie called 'Frankenstein.' They laughed and called it 'fiction' and said it was a moral
lesson about a man's
hubris
. The machines in that movie were well within what we could make right
now.
"So I did." Tomas knew now what that movie had been trying to teach him, but now it was too late. His
only recourse was to make himself useful to these witch hunters. Somehow. "I built my
Elektrischer
Generator
from parts I found near Geneva and Upper Genoa. The lodestone was the most expensive
piece."
"Lodestone? Explain." Someone just out of sight asked. Tomas felt someone moving up behind him.
"Continue, Herr Eichemann." The other Vaden waved the questioner back.
"Certain stones, when hung from a string or wire, will always have one side point to the North."
"Yes, those I know of," the elder Vaden interjected. "They are how the compasses on the ships work,
gentlemen." He shook his head. "We know that is not sorcery. Nor are we here for that reason. I believe
this is much simpler. Continue." The elder Vaden's cold, dead eyes compelled Tomas to obey.
Tomas Eichemann took time to gather his thoughts. He wasn't sure exactly what the two witch
commissioners wanted with him. No one he knew of had accused him of being a warlock—that he knew
of. The two men had just ridden out to his camp and invited him to attend them back in town. Invited
him. With their guards present.
He should have left earlier in the day when he'd heard that there were people asking for the whereabouts
of the traveling doctor and his magical device, the
Elektrischer Generator
. It was always safer to leave
when people started asking questions. Twice before he had managed to flee other towns just ahead of
the authorities. Small towns were the worst; nowhere to really hide. Especially to those who had good
clean clothing, their own wagon with many strange devices hanging from its side, too. Jealousy or
suspicion always resulted in the same thing. Someone had sold the information to someone else who
knew someone who was in a position of authority.
But the smith had promised him that the copper plates for his capacitor and the wires for his two
inductor coils would be ready that afternoon, no sooner.
I should have gone to Geneva instead. No
one would have cared about one more traveling merchant there.
The smith had delivered them as promised. Tomas had just managed to get a couple miles out of town
and make camp when the two men with the wide-brimmed black hats and cloaks of official witch
commissioners had appeared out of the dark. They hadn't been alone. Twenty guards on horse were with
them. All were wearing the colors of the Bishop of Strassburg. They had called him by name. The
invitation hadn't been one he could have refused and lived. The four mercenaries he'd hired to see him
safely through the battle lines had laughed when he ordered them to protect him. Then the sorry bastards
had faded into the nearby woods. Their laughs mocked him even now.
"Continue, Tomas Eichemann. Yes, we know your real name." The elder Vaden sneered at him. "But we
will get back to why you have given yourself the new title and name, later. Tell us more about why you
needed a lodestone."
"The stones have a power inside them that can push something called electrons. Those are particles that
are too small to see. But when they are present in great numbers, we can see their results during a
summer storm."
"This box makes lightnings?" The younger Vaden's eyebrows rose in disbelief.
"Of a sort. Water?" The heads shook from side to side. There would be no comforts until all their
questions were answered. Tomas licked his dry lips. "When spun inside a coil of copper wire covered in
lac, the lodestone—the magnet, as the Americans call it—pushes the particles in one direction. That
creates flow of power. It acts like a water wheel in reverse, pushing electrons through the copper as if it
were a channel. Or you could think of it as a pump pushing water through the pipe.
"When spun at the right speed it creates enough power in a small coil to make it magnetic, like the
lodestone. The coil pulls a metal cylinder bound to a small spring and makes a contact under the lid. Just
like a lodestone attracts metal filings or that nail that your brother has been playing with. This opens the
circuit to let power flow from the smaller generator to a larger coil deeper inside the box. If the device is
working, the two silver studs under that glass lid will throw small lightnings at each other. Then you throw
that small lac covered lever there next to it to close a second circuit.
"This lets the small power created by the hand crank form a larger, more powerful, magnet to spin off
the same gears, so you produce more energy for the same amount of work. This is because the second
coil has more magnets, many pumps, or many water wheels, working together. These iron core magnets
don't really spin this time though. This time it is the coils that spin." The older Vaden nodded his head and
then looked to his younger brother who was standing by the box.
"Close the box, Brother." He turned back to Tomas. "Continue if you would, please." The friendly smile
wasn't forced at all and that scared him deeply. Tomas suddenly recalled prayers that he'd hadn't spoken
in many a year.
"There are two taps, links to the coils, copper brushes that spin along the circular plates shown on the
drawing. That lets the power go towards charging two plates of copper that have sheets of glass between
them. They call that a capacitor. It stores the power until needed. To that is connected another coil, this
time heavier copper wire wrapped around another iron core. This is hooked up to the lac covered wires
that are attached to the proper locations of the body with clamps or leather cuffs with the contacts sewn
into them, so that power can be applied. How much is dependant on how fast you spin the gear handle
and how long you press the red button."
"I see. Like this?"
Tomas screamed. His body jerked against the leather straps binding him to the heavy wooden chair.
"Yes. Yes. But you shouldn't spin the handle so fast. Too much power will harm the patient." Tomas
gasped a bit. "Too much power can burn them from the inside. If the patient has a weak heart, it can kill
him. If the lightnings under the glass are large and constant, you can back off spinning it so fast." Tomas
felt his voice break from his adopted instructor and doctor's persona. He knew it sounded like the
desperate pleadings of a condemned man.
The two brothers looked at each other and smiled. "Indeed?"
Tomas grasped at a straw. "I have the body charts and shock tables in that map case. It's over by my
pack. On the table." Tomas tried to nod, but could only flick his eyes in the proper direction.
"Ah. We shall study it most thoroughly, Dr Lebenenergie. Most thoroughly, indeed." The Vaden
brothers had the most spine chilling smiles that Tomas had ever seen.
The older brother smiled again. He leaned forward and whispered into Tomas's ear. "Yes. I must thank
you. With such a device, I do believe we can process more voluntary confessions per day. And we won't
even leave a mark upon our charges. So the priests who feel that we are beating confessions out of the
accused will have no grounds at all." The smile chilled Tomas to the core. "No grounds at all."
"That was most efficient, Commissioner Vaden. Very well done." Tomas eyes darted over to see who
had spoken and locked his eyes on those of a local magistrate. "I told you, Antoine, these men are
efficient in their work The two best lawyers I've ever met."
"Truly," answered another magistrate. Tomas couldn't quite identify him in the dim lighting. "Though I am
more concerned that we got down all the pertinent details about the device. I believe that is the most
important thing here."
From behind him Tomas Eichemann heard another voice, this one higher pitched. "I've got the
information, sir."
Sweat began to roll down his forehead. What was really going on here? There were at least four other
silent figures in the room. Tomas gathered his breath and looked up at them. "Am I to be charged as a
warlock, then? Or am I free to go? I helped you as I said I would. I have done everything in my power
to show you how to build your own
Elektrischer Generator
. I'll even help you build your own. As many
as you need! But I don't see how a healing machine can help you in your Holy cause, commissioners. It is
a machine to shock the body back into working right. I have many affidavits, witnessed and sealed, of
patients who've been cured by my machine."
"Yes. That you have. And we thank you so much for the neat lists of names you gave us. Many of them
are very rich indeed. You sold them smaller versions for their own use, I see."
"Yes. But those won't last like this one. The magnetics will fail eventually, as will the soft metal gears.
They only make minor shocks that stimulate the muscles and circulation. They will need me for full
revitalizations, as they don't know how to do that. It is very good money. I could share it with you, make
you partners perhaps?" Bribing commissioners was risky, but commonly accepted as necessary. Many of
them were in the business more for the money than any real desire to do Holy work.
The younger Vaden turned to the small crowd behind him. "Gentlemen, he has voluntarily admitted that
he's sold devices to many unsuspecting clients. Devices designed to fail."
The older Vaden smiled. Grimly. "As for the donations . . . That won't be necessary, Tomas. Though we
do thank you for your donation . . ." Someone behind them coughed politely. ". . . offer."
The younger Vaden chuckled. "Yes, indeed. We can both use new boots. The roads here are simply
atrocious, wouldn't you say, Brother?" Someone else chuckled.
"Yes." The older Vaden leaned down over Tomas and smiled. "As for your release . . . not just yet. We
do need to see the full capacity of this machine, after all. As well . . ." He smiled. "We need to see which
is stronger. The guilty soul of a self proclaimed doctor and admitted charlatan or that of a machine." He
waved his hand to the hooded man who stood by the machine. The crank began to spin.
"I do believe you will find a comfortable place in Heaven, Tomas. Eventually."
The black gloved hand pressed the red button. And held it down.
Back
|
Next
Framed
Back
|
Next
Contents
Flight 19 to Magdeburg
by Jose J. Clavell
Prologue
Living Room
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]