Creating something new, day 19

Back in Borgarsandr. Terrance.

It's evening when we reach Borgarsandr. A messanger is sent to fetch horses and the wagon from the farm, and it probably take an hour and a half before they’re here, so we can shop and pick up ordered things in the meantime.

But I start by gathering all the seafarers, and offer them permanent employment, and after talking to Asta and a couple of others during the trip, I set their salaries to 16% above what is normal, 1/6, and their service will mostly be easy where they often have days off. I offer Asta to continue to be Captain and Navigator, and also puts the Captain's salary 16% above normal too. Inform that the more skilled she becomes, and the more she learns and becomes better at educating, the more her salary will be raised. When she feels confident in her knowledge and understanding, I also want her to start teaching the seafarers who want to learn navigation etc, partly so that she can practice teaching, and partly to give those who want an education get it, and it that makes them more valuable. In the future, perhaps the most competent will be promoted to Captains over another ship, since its just a matter of time until I build more modern ships, and probably several, but that Captain and crew need to learn to read, write and count as well.

As my Captain, I let Asta keep a North Arrow as her personal compass, and the ship compass with oil works slightly better than without, so as long as there are no problems that arise during the long-term test, most ships compasses will be oil filled. The Millennium Eagle will serve as a test for a lot of things. I should put shock absorbers on the ship's compass attachment, and make another ship compass to be in the captain's cabin. The ship's compass is so important to a ship that I want them to have two identical ones.

The idea is that there should be at least two of everything important on the ship. One that is exclusive to the Captain / Navigator and another set for training, borrowing and in reserve. I have already given Asta two Ring sundials and two divider calipers for measuring on the maps for the ship, so the ship needs an extra ship compass, which will probably be without oil for safety, two sextants, a set of maps and two binoculars.

Asta has already tried to compile what she remembers and have visited, with the maps she received, and what the places are called and located, and the same with rivers and bodies of water. I have asked her to be careful so it will be right instead of getting everything, and she will buy green ink to make markings, so in the future they may turn black when we have confirmed. The ship's maps are working maps, so she can make notes and updates on them that we can use on future maps. Asta is especially fascinated by the new numbers and math, which is good because she will need to learn a lot of it. So it is planned that she will come to the farm to learn and practice with the others, and eventually move on to trigonometry. She has a lot to learn, and I hope that she can learn it decently this winter.

On the way back to the farm, I think about work and other things. I need to finish building my other sextants, and try to simplify one and improve the ones I have. Through measurements on the way home, I have determined that I practically have about +/- 6 km accuracy, and I’m so very happy with that right now. Took measurements in Skiringsalr, at the Academy and when we were almost in Borgarsandr. Showed this to my Sambos, Asta and Alith, and even though they didn’t fully understand the math, Asta understands the value, and Alith are begining to understand. Asta need to learn the sextant properly and will quickly get better than me, because she will use it so often. I will definitely make a better sextant sometime in the future with a better vernier scale or a micrometer wheel, but a micrometer wheel will require a lot of careful manufacturing and developed production capabilities until its worth doing. This is good enough right now, and its more important to solve longitude measurements as accurate or better. Maybe Asta can be persuaded to spend the winter collecting data to create a star map? She knows quite a lot of star names.

I need to build more sundials and many more monoculars, for future gifts and sales, and I should order even more lenses etc. Building a classic telescopic monocular would be better and cheaper, but making the telescopic tubes is a really big problem, so it will be in the future.

I also need to order furniture, since that too needs to be manufactured from scratch. It will be too much furniture for a single craftsman, and we want quite a lot nicer done, even if furniture is easy to replace in the future. I’ve made sketches and lists of furniture to get made, but has prioritized the most important as good beds first, followed by chairs, tables, interior doors, some large upholstered three-person sofas and armchairs, wardrobes, shelves, etc. As well as wooden window blinds. I want to be able to limit light in bedrooms, and a little sunlight protection will be nice in the summer for those who have south-facing windows in their rooms, or my bedroom who also have east facing windows. There is enough space between the exterior and the interior window for very wide blinds if we want, but it will not be too wide, just an generous overlap to give darker rooms. Several bedrooms will use brass or iron reinforced blinds with small chains instead of strings - as an extra security against arrows. Alith really likes it when I think of such security details, and she love my window design.

The sun stands low over the sea when we roll into the farms courtyard, and Hillevi greets us with smile. The trip to Skiringsalr wasn’t that long, but I don’t look forward to sailing and traveling in the future, especially not when the weather is bad. I so miss my car and to be able to make such a trip in a single day. A quite comfortable and air-conditioned day.

Relax in the bathtub, thinking about the days that have passed. I’ve had a lot of time to think during the trip, and sketched on furniture and other things. I need to finish building those sundials and give one to the King, and see if I can place a sundial somewhere in Borgarsandr so people can start learning time measurements, and bring a sundial with me to the Academy. Should think more about making a lathe or so. I want proper bearings, axles, balanced wheels, gears, etc. Of course, it is possible to produce much of it without a lathe, and they already have simpler foot-trampled wooden pole lathes here which can make those wooden plates, bowls and frisbees, but they arn’t built for metal turning, and not the precision I need. Its all hand held tools. A metal lathe also makes other things possible. Other machines. Screwthreads. Precision and precisely round balanced axles and shapes. But I should create a couple of books first. Its important too. So many jobs at once. Only the ship's crane is a hell of a lot of work and sketches for all the parts.

Make drawings for the brackets for my bedroom terrace, so they will be ready when they need to be mounted. I came up with the idea when Alith raised their concerns about the mansions safety and protection. She really likes the reinforced doors and windows, and the extra reinforcement some rooms have in the soundproofing between the floors, but she didn’t like that outside my bedroom there will be a terrace. Even with a security door, it is a dangerous element, because even if its 7-14m above the ground, it juts out from the southeast corner and its possible to raise a ladder to it quietly from the south side cliffs, or throw a rope up, climb up and gather people for an attack, and I’m a heavy sleeper. Someone can just smash the south window and shoot arrows in my body, even if drapes into the sleeping area will make it difficult to aim. Which is another reason for the reinforced window blinds.

She's absolutely right about her consern, and if they have thought about it, so can someone else, so my solution is pretty simple. I can’t prevent everything and will keep the terrace, but I can arrange a similar solution as to the last section of the inner upstairs balcony in front of the corridor leading to my bedroom. The terrace is supported at the outer end on two massive posts that go diagonally down in to masonry supports against the cliff and the mansions foundation, and the inner edge of the terrace against the mansion is intended to be attached to three vertical posts that stand against the log wall inside the outer facade, so that the terrace doesn’t load the log wall itself either outwards or downwards. The foundation work is already done and the rest is being manufactured. But now that will slightly change so that the diagonal posts bottom end, under thin outer veneers, have axles, so the terrace can rotate away from the mansion. The terrace is attached to the mansion both with hooks that anchor the terrace to the mansion and rests on strong blocks that are angled outwards both above and below. These blocks are attached to the strong posts inside the outer facade, right down to the foundation of the building, so the terrace isn’t permanently attached to the mansion, but it will hardly be visible. So in normal cases, there are four strong metal blocks, each with a metal hook that keeps the terrace very stable. The terrace can’t move to either side, up, down or out from the mansion wall, and the primary load goes down into the foundation and bedrock via the posts and into the extra strong beams between the floors to the mansion's internal load-bearing structure.

For safety, there are two release mechanisms, so one can break or be repaired without releasing the terrace, and the design is made to be simple and reliable without any need for maintenance. But if both mechanisms are released, lead weights fall and then the blocks and hooks are folded in and the terrace's own weight and load on it means that it will fall out and away from the mansion and down into the trees and rocks outside. Whether the wooden posts hold or not is irrelevant given that it is a hell of a crisis if the terrace is released, but they are massive logs so the joint and axle is the weakest link, and it is better that the joint breaks than that the attachment in the stone foundation cracks. No one should die, as it is only a 7-14m fall, even if it is a mixture of rock or small trees below. It will probably just be broken bones as long as no one lands on their head, although broken branches might impale someone.

Alith liked it and approved, and I told her about some other of my ideas both pre-existing she doesn’t know about and additions for later. She’s really looking forward to electrical alarm systems on some doors etc. Luckily Alith isn’t like Kari, because she had probably by middlemen got some nasty people that the King and others want to see dead or have problems with, attack - and then lay in ambush.