Chapter 161: Alchemy and Chemistry
The generator was a half-day’s work.
Roland had dismantled enough DC motors as a child to know the basic structure without thinking: stator, rotor, commutators, the continuous cutting of magnetic field lines by moving wire. The principle was the same whether you were driving something or generating from something — motor and generator were the same machine run in opposite directions. Mystery Moon magnetized the stator while Anna shaped the components with a precision no machinist in this era could have approached, and by the following morning the whole assembly was connected to a steam engine in the castle yard and producing a serviceable current.
Then the guards brought word that the alchemist had arrived.
Kyle Sichi was not, Roland noted, what he had expected. The man didn’t wait to be acknowledged before speaking; he was barely seated before the first question was out of his mouth.
“Your Highness. I would like to speak with your alchemist.”
“We have no alchemist in Border Town,” Roland said. “Until this morning. You are now our alchemist.”
The speed with which Kyle’s expression recalculated was impressive. “Then — those formulas were written by you?”
“Not by me.” Roland kept his voice easy. “They came from an ancient text discovered recently. Several hundred years old. The scholars of that era apparently called the discipline ‘chemistry.’”
Kyle absorbed this with visible effort. An alchemy book four hundred years old — older than the King’s City Workshop by half again its lifetime. The thought of a prior generation having understood these things and the knowledge being lost seemed to arrive in him like a weight.
Roland continued before the man could spiral further into it. “The book proposes what the scholars called the Theory of the Immortality of Matter: that matter, the substance of all things, neither appears nor disappears — it only changes form.” He gestured at the cake on the side table, an afterthought left from breakfast. “If you eat that, the matter of it enters your body. Some is absorbed and becomes part of your tissues. The rest is expelled. But if you weighed what you absorbed and what you expelled, and compared it to the original cake, the total mass would be the same.”
“Hold on.” Kyle leaned forward. “If I burn a piece of wood to ash, the ash weighs less than the wood did. If matter doesn’t disappear, where did it go?”
“Into the air. The heat converted the solid material into gas and water vapor. The gas escaped the ash and dispersed. What you see on the floor is only the residue.”
“The air—” Kyle stopped. “You’re saying air has mass.”
“Air has mass. You can verify it easily: put sawdust in a sealed bottle, weigh it, burn the sawdust inside without opening the bottle, weigh it again. Same number.” Roland set his tea down. “The gas can’t escape, so it stays inside and is still measured by the scale.”
Kyle stared at the table between them for a long moment. “This was written four hundred years ago.”
“It was.”
“Could I — could I see the book?”
“After we discuss terms.” Roland produced a folded paper. “Your compensation will be at Redwater City rates — a fair market wage. Confidentiality is required: what you learn here stays here for the duration of the contract. Five years. After the five years end, the confidentiality provision expires, and you’re free to publish or share anything you’ve discovered.” He pushed the contract across the table. “Border Town will provide housing and a laboratory. I will give you access to the text — it’s titled Elementary Chemistry — and if there are things you can’t work out from it, you can ask me.”
Kyle read the paper. Roland watched him read it and noted the moment when the man stopped reading carefully and was merely going through the motions of reading, because the answer was already decided.
He stood and bowed. “I am willing to serve, Your Highness.”
“Good.” Roland came around the desk. “Your laboratory is beside the Chishui River. Let’s go. I’ll introduce you to the glassware and explain the workshop rules.”
Kyle fell in beside him, and Roland could see the thought forming in the man’s expression — the same thought that everyone who spent more than an hour around him eventually arrived at.
How does a prince know this much about alchemy?
Roland didn’t address it. The book explanation was sufficient. What mattered was getting the acid.
“What do you need from me first?” Kyle asked.
“Concentrated acid,” Roland said. “The highest concentration you can manage. Both types.”
Chapter 161 Alchemy and Chemistry
The principle behind a DC Generator and its structure was very simple. During his childhood, Roland had once taken apart more than a dozen fourwheel drive motors. From the ordinary stock motors, to the legendary golden panther, and also the build it yourself type hand rotators made out of copper wire. These motors were all considered to be regular DC motors.
There was no difference in the structure of DC Generators and DC Motors, at their essence, they were all the same thing, their function was interchangeable. As long as there was another machine to help the rotator of the DC Motor rotate, and causing the wire to continuously cut through the magnetic induction line, it could continue to generate and induce an electrical current without end.
With the help of Anna and Mystery Moon, Roland needed only half a day to finish assembling a simple DC motor. All the parts of the stator were made out of wood and then given to Mystery Moon for her to magnetism them. The rotor was made of a wooden log with commotators embedded at the tip of both ends. The rotor would be connected by a shaft to the steam engine through a hole in the center. This structure was very convenient to produce, but at the same time it also ensured that the commutators would be isolated from each other.
As for the new steam engine, Roland and Mystery Moon just stood to the side and looked on as Anna performed her incredible processing techniques. If they needed to make larger parts, she would spread out her black fire, wrap it like a cover around a bunch of ingots and let them melt within the cover. She would then mold the iron into the required sizes. Afterward, she only needed to cut out the right form.
On the next day, when Roland was ready to go to the calcining room in his backyard to test out the generator’s effectivity, the guards also brought him
some very pleasant news. The Chief Instructor of Silver City’s Alchemy Workshop had come to Border Town, and also, there was more than one other person that had come with him.
Kyle Sichi acted in a very decisive manner, in the afternoon, on that very same day he took his family and more than a dozen disciples with him and boarded on the next merchant ship heading towards Border Town. Unfortunately, Chavez had ended up hesitating for a long time, but in the end, decided to reject Kyle’s invitation.
Kyle hadn’t disclosed the contents of the letter to any of the other alchemists since the more people who knew about it, the later the departing time would have to be scheduled. Kyle worried that it wouldn’t take very long before the news about his success in reproducing Crystal Glass would reach the Duke’s ear, and if by then he still wanted to go out, now after becoming known to have the ability to create high-profit luxury products, the Duke certainly want to keep him firmly under his control.
He had written down the formula for crystal glass and its firing method on paper, then stored it in the formula cupboard of the refining room. This would in turn also give the Duke the opportunity to heavily invest in the production of crystal glass and in so doing also invest in the Alchemy Workshop indirectly. But comparing it with learning about the truth of alchemy, whether it was the recipe of crystal glass or the Alchemy Workshop in general, they both wouldn’t even be worth mentioning.
Five days later, Kyle finally had the opportunity to see the author of the letter, Roland Wimbledon.
Right now they were in the castle’s reception hall, and Kyle had just finished giving his greeting, but even before he had placed his butt on the chair, he couldn’t stop himself any longer from speaking out. “Your Highness, I would like to have a friendly conversation with your alchemist.”
“My alchemist?” Hearing his question the Prince just grinned “Before you came to Border Town, we had no alchemist here, but from now on you are
my alchemist.”
“You mean … those alchemical formulas, were written by you?” Kyle suddenly thought of another possibility, my counterpart is a prince, who has received all his knowledge from private teachers and other mentors. So, if he knows about these formulas, doesn’t this mean that King’s City Alchemy Workshop had already known about the essence of alchemy for a long time? And we, in our delusion thought we were finally getting ahead of them, now that seems to be just utterly ridiculous.
“Not exactly,” Roland said. “These formulas came from an ancient book which were written more than four hundred years ago and were recently discovered by me. It seems that hundreds of years ago they called alchemy ‘chemistry’.”
“What…” When Kyle heard that the formulas didn’t come from King’s City’s Alchemy Workshop, his heart suddenly felt a lot better. But the Prince’s answer still surprised him. An alchemy book that was more than 400 years old? One had to know that even the King’s City’s Alchemic Workshop only had a history of less than 200 years, could it be that the later generation will also look at our inventions?
“Yes, in the book, those scholars had formulated a hypothesis, which they called, “The Theory of the immortality of matter.” It states that matter which is the source of all things in the world will neither disappear nor will it increase. It will only transfer from one form to another. But in the end, they are all a piece of the same cake,” Roland pointed to a cake placed on a nearby table, “If you eat that, it will enter your stomach, from there some of the parts of which it’s formed will be absorbed by you, becoming a part of your body, while the rest of it will be excreted. So, if you now would take the integrated parts and the expelled parts and compare them with the former cake, the quality of the matter should still be the same.”
“Hold on… Your Royal Highness,” Kyle expressed his thoughts, “If I take a piece of wood, cut it and burn it to ashes, no matter how much it previously weighed, the weight of the ashes after the fire will be lighter than that of the former piece of wood. If the matter didn’t disappear, then where did it go?”
“These problems are also explained in the books,” Roland said laughingly. “The missing matter was turned into gas and water, and the water was heated up so much that it turned into gas as well and evaporated. So, in the end, you can only see the residue from what was left behind.”
“Gas?” Kyle got an unexplainable feeling in his heart, “Do you want to say that the air also has a weight?”
“Of course, the air also has mass.” The Prince nodded in confirmation, “It is also very easy to verify this point, just put a pile of sawdust into a bottle, then cover the bottle and place it on a scale. Afterward, you set the sawdust in the bottle on fire and weights it again. you will eventually discover, that the weight of the bottle hasn’t changed. This is because the gas had no way out and still remains inside the bottle.”
“This… was this also written in the ancient books?” Kyle eagerly asked, “Could you let me see that book?”
“You can, if you accept a few of my conditions first,” Roland gave him a piece of paper.
“You only have to name them.”
“First of, if you want to work for me, your salary will be calculated according to the regular payment of Silver City’s Alchemy Workshop. Secondly, once you accept this job, you must comply with the confidentiality regulations. That means, everything you learn has to remain a secret to other alchemists. Thirdly, if you agree to the terms, you have to sign this contract.
“The deal lasts for a period of five years and when the five years are over, you are free to go on to choose your own fate. Furthermore, your alchemy discoveries won’t be placed under the confidentiality restrictions any longer. You will be free to show your discoveries to your colleagues at the Alchemy Workshop. If you accept these three conditions, according to the contract, Border Town will provide you with free housing and a chemical laboratory. And lastly, I will lend you the book title “Elementary Chemistry” to study, and if there is something that you don’t understand, you can always come and ask me.”
These doesn’t seem to be very harsh conditions, Kyle thought, although those words such as confidential regulations, chemical laboratory and so on are really hard to pronounce, I think I was able to grasp the general meaning, also, a five-year contract also isn’t that long. Kyle had previously thought that the Price would make it a requirement that he would have to stay in Border Town forever.
And… even if he had demanded harsher conditions, Kyle would still have wanted to see the book with his own eyes, the book on which was recorded the essence of alchemy.
After he had thought it through, Kyle got up from his seat and bent his waist: “I’m willing to serve you, Your Royal Highness.”
“Excellent, now we have a deal,” the Prince did not seem to care about the etiquette, “Your workplace will be directly beside the Chishui River. After signing the contract, I will take you with me and have you familiarize yourself with the laboratory I will introducing you to the usage of the glassware and informing you about the workplace’s rules.”
Hearing all this, Kyle felt that there was something wrong with this situation, how can it be that the Prince is so skilled in alchemy, making people think that he is always keeping another card up in his sleeve? Shouldn’t he be just some ordinary noble that found an ancient book and simply brushed up against alchemy?
However, these were all only minor details, he suppressed his doubts and asked, “Does Your Highness need me to refine something for you?”
“I do, I need a highly-concentrated acid. The higher the concentration, the better.” The Prince replied.