Midwinter calling, day 35

Lessons

Kari has decided to visit her inherited lands and mansion after my wedding to Iselin, even if that is three weeks from now. She is needed here, and will send a messenger to her estate. I wonder what the real reason or reasons are, but it means that Kari can participate in electrical training and radio.

Kari and Asta understandably have a little trouble understanding electricity, but they try to learn. Iselin mind just absorbs everything as usual, and she knows quite a lot already and help Kari and Asta learn. I'm trying to keep the pace down and we do simpler experiments, but this will undoubtedly be a hard and intensive course. Unfortunately, I am hardly the best teacher. It will take a long time with many lessons for them to understand, but at the same time it is good practise for me to become a better teacher, so I note things down, both about sub-topics, explanations and experiments. I will teach electricity, electromechanics, electronics and radio to more people in the future.

Beside theory, I mostly show and let them try simpler electricity to make sure they get some understanding how natural it is and how it works. Using the explanation where I equate water with electricity only works for some explanations, because they now understand water systems and faucets, and have seen water wheels. But a waterwheel have water in buckets that weight it down, which is not how electric motors work. I show that an LED only works in one direction, the diode is the same without light, and the multimeter helps me show that the body can conduct current and we test resistance, etc. I show that an LED dimly glows if they lick a little on a finger compared to dry skin, as it is more visual than numbers on a multimeter they can't really read, but we also use an analog meter. Except for Iselin who played with my MP3 player for months. Reading digital numbers and understanding how they go up and down, is something she have learned. An analog scale is much easier to understand than a digital.

Electricity alone is difficult to learn and understand, not to mention radio waves, and it's not like they want to take the long slow methodical path. Maths is the somewhat easier part, and I've had to start with physics lessons. That electromagnetic radiation is everything from light from the sun that can cause a sunburn, to light from oil lamps, to the heat they can feel from a fire, and far down they find radio waves. I can give so many examples and it's lucky I know the subject well, because they ask some tricky questions. I can show and explain how something can shine in infrared before it becomes visible red light when heated, and when something is hot it can be felt from a distance, and that radiated heat can be reflected just like light, and light doesn't have to be warm. The fact that I've already proven that radio works at long distances helps, because they've seen and heard it.

I've already shown pictures and video clips from one of my thermal cameras to Iselin and Kari, and they had fun reactions, especially that footprints stay for a little while depending on the surface heat conductivity. I know how I liked looking at things through a thermal camera when I first got one, and it's funny that the same applies to basically medieval Elves.

It is quite clear that Asta is more interested in learning how to use radios practically, and is less interested in theory, but she understands that this is such important information that she wants to know it, and I can easily explain why she needs to know it since she will have to take care of the ships radio and possibly fix it if it should break, plus she might need to understand and handle a complete electrical system with a generator and a battery. If she is on a long voyage and the generator quits, she need to fix it for the radio to work.

Kari simply wants to learn because it is something important, fascinating and 'invisible' that works, and she wants to know why it works. A magic she can learn that she knows just works if she do it right, and according to Jane, electricity is the foundation of a modern society, and she's not wrong about that.

It will be a long journey to learn electricity and radio, and this will not be the last time someone has to be trained, so in addition to building a couple of radios, as part of the training we will make a training kit in electro mechanics as well as electronics. Basically wooden blocks that can be combined with copper wire via brass screw terminals to get different effects. There will be several simpler electromechanics kits with parts such as a battery, contacts, switches, electromagnets, relays, hand crank generator, electric motor and so on. Easy to make and a lot can be done with a good kit. The electronics kit is more special. In order to not accidentally fry the irreplaceable semiconductors, they get integrated protection resistors so something is connected to the semiconductors, and a small piece of glass on top physically protects the components. Even with those precautions, there will be very few people I'll let touch these.

There will also be work on generator and battery systems. I need power sources other than wind, and the plan is a simple generator on the steam engine. What would be most practical is a system where electricity is generated when the steam engine is running, but nothing is engaged via the belt drives. Except a few small details, I have basically completed a small electric motor and a large one, and they do work as DC generators too. The plan is to build all the motors of both sizes, but try different windings and power for the electromagnet, to gather facts and info for future parts and improved versions, and for pure experimentation and explanation there will also be AC 2-phase and 3-phase generator and motor. Then the problem is how to measure how much power the electric motor have, and how much current it draws. The easiest way to measure power will be to make a simple winch and see how much the motor can lift and how fast, although there will be a simple gear to lower the speed, and I just have take the gearing into the calculation. Basically all future use will use a gear.

Alith and Gunhild give me another couple of lessons in combat as it has been bad the last two weeks with Olafr's visit, Borgarsandr and the Laxlanda trip. I think my weapons handling is starting to go pretty well now, but it helps to have four teachers, and Gunhild is clearly the best at teaching and has the most experience. Krav Maga with Jane as a teacher is also progressing and we are all happy with her knowledge there, but that training and repetition will also take time. Plenty of time. But I will have plenty of free time. Eventually. A lot of combat training is also just things like footwork and interpreting opponent's movement and having the correct response so I'm not out of position, unbalanced or doing stupid shit.

Jane do significantly more training than I do, as she also do body workouts, run, close combat and ranged weapons in addition to languages, maths and radio handling, but then she has few other things to keep her busy and training buddies are easy to find. She's turning in to a bit for fitness freak, and there is more than a bit of healthy competition between her and the guards. Jane is a better archer than I am, and she finds some satisfaction in having Elvish women teaching her to shoot a bow, but then Jane really loves the Lord of the Rings movies. She's just a little disappointed that the Elves here don't have cooler elvish names where Bodil is particularly bad, Hillevi so-so, Gunhild sounds okay and Alith gets a good along with Iselin.

Jane is not alone in pushing me to try making a better bow, and is something I need to take up with one of the bow makers in Borgarsandr next time I'm there. It would be fun to try making a laminated compound bow more in the Mongolian style, but don't know if it will work well in this climate. I'm worried that the bow will delaminate under the forces involved. I also want to try making a modern bow with a cam wheels and a sight, because I understand the principle, so should be able to solve it with a lot of tests. Maybe I can get a bow made with steel arms? How strong are their bowstrings and will they work as I need? The elves are generally good with fairly primitive bows, and even things like a thumb ring are advanced for them.

Crossbow would be an interesting project. It is not used here in the north, but is found across the sea to the south and there are some in Alba. Considering how Ciara and Gunhild explained them, they seem quite primitive. No foot loop at the front and loaded with hands or a belt hook while standing on the bow, and the sear for the bowstring appears to very simple. I'm hardly a crossbow fanatic like Jörg Sprave, but I should be able to make a far better crossbow than what they have told me about. Adjustable steel bow with a foot loop and bow locked to a proper wooden stock with wedges. A rotating sear with a single-stage or two-stage trigger, which is cocked with a goat's foot lever or windlass, or just an integrated lever down below. None of that is crazy advanced. I have almost everything I need for it; steel, wood and knowledge, even if the knowledge is limited. Besides the help of a skilled blacksmith so I don't have to do all that work by myself, all I need is a very strong bowstring and an arrow/bolt maker. However, it would be more interested in making a more modern crossbow with compound bows, cams and bullpup design with pistol grip, sights and safety. Still, best to build a simpler classic crossbow first, then make a powerful one, then complicate it in a couple of steps.

Alith and Gunhild have been experimenting with making a blackjack aka sap for a while now, because it's a simple less lethal weapon, although the designs I've shown are a bit more advanced than a leather bag with a weight in it. Still, even the advanced one is just four thick leather layers with a lead weight of about 300-400g and a long piece of spring steel down through the shaft and ending in a leather strap. Blackjacks in all their forms a more or less compact weapon of approx. 15-30cm which is very effective against an unprotected body, and intended to be used against the neck and head for blows to the sides of the neck, ear, temple and skull. They have already learned the difference compared to a thick wooden baton, and there is no question that blackjacks will become common weapons that my sambos will also learn to use for personal defense. That doesn't have to be more advanced movement than figure 8 punches or windmill circles, but a couple of quick strikes to soft spots or hands and then taking a step back can be enough when it's not a matter of life or death. It is after all intended to be used as a more effective alternative when the goal is not lethal violence.

I am glad that Jane's Krav Maga training has resulted in the guards having made good thick padded training protections, and a couple of training mannequins have also been made in different styles and materials. Even things like the reed mats work quite well, but are cumbersome to carry in and out as they are tied together. Most training equipment has been given dedicated bags to carry it in, but it would have been good to have a dedicated combat training room.

There is so much training and practising going on. Ciara and Jane practise Norse basically every day, while I don't really practise it any more, but I get lessons from every day talk and I take notes. One issue is very technical words that they simply don't know if it even exists in Norse, and if no-one in my company have heard of it, we basically borrow a Swedish or English word. Then I try to learn Laitje too, which I almost regret since Caecilia try to talk to me in it all the time, which can be annoying, and not just during sex. I really hope that Laitje will be worth learning.

Lessons with Maths, physics and other things also continue, but they manage quite well without my help nowadays. When they get stuck or have questions, I try to explain and help solve it, and give problems to try to figure out, especially from things I've already encountered. Just such a thing as figuring out the volume and thus the weight of something, or the density of something, are simple but advanced problems for several of them. But they didn't even have a good value of pi. I've lost track of how many times Jane have complained that she can't escape math even by travelling to the Elvish Middle Ages, but at the same time she is relieved that they really are primitive so she is one of the regions, if not Europe's, best mathematicians.

A recurring problem they use for practise is sun measurements and the time equation which we get more data on week by week, and we now have enough to get a pretty good idea of how the curve will be, because it will be a distorted figure 8 shape. Also, math is practised more or less all the time when they see numbers and use them in, for example, in the games to calculate what the dice must show, or in the economic ledges that Kari is teaching Iselin, or like Asta for navigation calculations. I do like to see that Hrappr, Ida, Elvira, Jalida and Rikvi are starting to be able to make their way through the books too, and everyone is proud to even have the opportunity to learn. I think increased self-worth will be a good bonus for increased literacy. The same applies to the numbers and math, which is new to Ima and Shakini as well, and when those who know a little help and explain to others, they strengthen their own knowledge. All of it means that most people get what is most important to learn something. Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.