Marta had told me to act normally unless I want the others knowing I had awakened my core. Apparently I had scared Thal and Kes yesterday with my laughter. Damn it, I thought that was only in my head.
Though honestly at this point, I suspected everyone at the orphanage knew. They just chose not to say anything. There's an unspoken bond between people who grew up in orphanages. We protected and looked out for one another. Kes, Harth, and Vael might be too young to understand but I was sure the rest did. Especially after some of them saw me hauling a boar carcass back from the woods every few days during summer.
I had commandeered the tool shed for the day, though no body really bothered coming here. It was old, dusty, with barely any room to do anything, though it was just right for what I was about to do. I needed a quiet place where I could work undisturbed, but also a place to store my tools. It would be troublesome to haul the book along with the copper materials and tools every time I wanted to work on enchanting.
The only thing that would have made the shed slightly better was if it had a window to let more air and light in. Though I could not really complain considering the state of the orphanage. I had summarized the main problems to be resolved into three main issues.
First was the energy discharge. To create a railgun, I had to essentially create a suddenly spike in magnetic force and turn it off immediately. The theory was that the sudden increase, chained and timed sequentially with microseconds apart could accelerate a metal slug above Mach 7, or roughly 2,500 meters per second.
The problem with technology back on Earth was that no power generation system could normally create the surge of electricity needed, hence the need for specialized capacitors that had electrocuted me.
If the release of the electrical pulse was too slow or too high, the electrical current could potentially weld the slug to the rails, fusing the metal together instead of firing the slug off the rails.
The sudden increase and decrease of electrical pulse also strains any system that carries this current, which leaves behind superheated plasma that would melt and erode the rails, which brings me to the second main issue.
Heat dissipation.
A large rail gun system that was stationary and had large cooling systems already had limitations on the number of shots it could be fired. A miniaturized railgun, or should I say coil gun had even more issues as any sort of heat dissipation mechanism had to be small enough to fit on the gun.
Even if I could somehow prevent the plasma from seeping out, the friction between the slug and the rails also creates high amounts of heat that might damage the rails in a single shot. The final problem was something that all modern ballistics had to deal with, just not in the same magnitude as a rail gun.
Recoil.
The magnetic field created by the rails to pull the slug forward also similarly pushed the coils backward. This is known as the Lorentz force and initial prototypes of rail gun routinely faced structural failures. The difference with other ballistics was the speed. The higher the speed, the stronger the recoil. Firing metal slugs at Mach 7 speeds created its own set of problems.
While large railguns also had issue of guidance and accuracy over long distances, that was not a problem for a coil gun over a short distance. I decided to start with the first problem. Rather than trying to achieve high amount of discharge in a short time, I had to first prove that I electricity release by magic still obeyed the laws of physics to some extent.
The first thing I thought of was a simple water heater using electricity. Unlike how the enchanting book that said heating enchantment would require use of fire mana, I just needed the enchanting components to serve as the conduit for lightning mana. I would achieve the same effect through Joule Heating, which was the process of heat being released when an electric current passes through a conductor.
The water heater would serve three purposes, one of which was merely to confirm that laws of physics worked in this world and could be replicated through enchanting. The second purpose was to just make everyone's lives at the orphanage better.
Two winters without heating was enough for Damian, who grew up accustomed to the conveniences of modern world. While Asher had technically lived through five winters without it, my memory was fuzzy and it did not help that I knew what was possible.
The last purpose was actually the most important. Using a water heater, I could then measure how much energy was passing through the coils based on the step up or step down runes I was using. By measuring the time taken to boil a known volume of water, I could technically approximate the voltage passing through the system and use that information to design the enchantment needed for the railgun.
The enchantment for the water heater would be simple, there would be a few Step-Up / Down Runes I would use to adjust the voltage, and an Infusion Rune at the output terminus to connect the enchantment to the commercial coil. I would have a basic Storage Rune at the input terminal to store whatever lightning mana I could supply; though based on what I read a copper plate would not be able to hold much lightning mana for long.
There were also a few options for inscribing the runes. The most advanced involved using special alloy mixed with blood of high grade beasts of the right mana affinity for the specific parts of the enchantment. For the most complex enchantments involving multiple mana types, an enchanter would need to use several different alloys for the corresponding mana types.
That option was rarely used as the cost involved would not warrant the efficiency or incremental effect gained. There might be some niche circumstances but in most cases, it would be cheaper to just stack an additional enchantment of the same type.
The more commonly used option by the wealthy was to use either mithril, or gold if they wanted to be more economical to inlay into the inscription. Though that only applied if the medium holding the enchantment was solid.
Enchantments could also be inscribed on soft surfaces like leather armour or cloak, though that will require special fibers treated with an alchemical solution to make them more conductive to mana.
The final and the poor man's version of inscription, was the have the runes chiseled or carved into a solid surface. Much like what I was doing now. I was not so much chiseling the copper plates but more of making indents slowly to create the impression of the rune.
I would then channel mana into the indentation while focusing on the intent of the rune to create the effect. I would need to join the runes up either sequentially or in parallel, depending on effect I wanted to achieve. The logic was almost like designing a circuit.
There were mana disadvantages to this method, first being that it was more prone to damage. If there was some impact that damaged the shape of the indentation, the rune would lose its effect. Another was the longevity of the enchantments as copper plates do not retain mana well.
This was also the main reason enchanted items were not more widespread in this world. They were often only used by royalties and nobles who had the coin to spare of frivolous stuff. Most enchanted items were mainly used by high grade adventurers or the military; such as life saving armour or weapons that could turn the tide of a battle.
Considering the wages of a high skilled enchanter, most people would not bother with creating simple enchantments on normal metal that had to be reinscribed very frequently. However, the chisel method was sufficient for my purposes.
It took be a few hours as I was not familiar with a chisel and hammer but I did eventually create the most basic enchantment that was supposed to channel lightning mana through a copper coil. I had to spot weld the coil to the plate using my lightning bolt, which arguably was a lot more difficult than just zapping a giant wasp.
With bated breath, I submerged the copper coil into a container of water I had prepared and began channeling lightning mana through the enchantment to activate it. It took a few minutes but I could see the water heating up.
Yes! I screamed internally. I collapsed on my back, lying on the floor of the toolshed after an intense few hours of work. While it was not strenuous, the immense concentration it took to make sure I did not make any mistake while hammering the runes was taxing even for me. Any error on my part would mean I had to start all over on a new copper plate.
I had wasted five plates before I could create the first correct enchantment. Those plates would not be completely wasted as I could bring them back to Branwen for her to even out. It would be much easier to heat the metal with her fire magic to make it more malleable. However if I had exhausted all the plates, that would mean I need to put my experiments on hold until the plates were recycled.
Now that the first step was successful, I could proceed with my next step which was to record what combination of Operator Runes would provide the voltage that I needed. I looked at the the blisters and redness on my hands from the hours of chiseling I had done.
Sigh, I was not looking forward to this.
It was a few more weeks before I had managed to create all the different combinations of the basic water heater I needed to carry out my measurements. The weather looked like it was going to snow anytime soon and the last of the autumn leaves had already fallen off the trees in the Greywoods.
I had to get more copper plates and sent those I wasted back to Branwen which she happily recycled for me for a small fee as it was relatively easy. She was also relatively free as the harvest season was over and the number of farmers needing their tools repaired had reduced.
It was also timely as I had also managed to create three separate water heaters. I had told Marta to stay out of the tool shed as I was working on a surprise for everyone and I wanted to make sure it was viable before showing them.
In the end, I had ended up using a large sum of the coin I got from selling the Glimmerwasp Nectar to get more materials so that I could build three water heater units. It would basically work as a radiator powered by the enchantment and lightning mana.
I also got more copper plates which I inscribed with the storage runes and connected them to the water heaters. While it was a stop gap measure, I could charge the plates with lightning mana and they could hold the charge throughout the night to keep the radiators working.
I had also included an Operator Rune that would channel the mana through three different sets of Step-Up Runes before going into the copper coils for three temperature settings. I had not worked out how to fashion a dial yet and only I could operate these for now but it was enough to get us through this winter.
I had lugged these three units into the common area to show Marta and the other kids before dinner for extra suspense.
"This better not be another material you harvested dangerously" Marta looked at me with warning, indicating that there would be hell to pay if it was.
"More sweet sauce?" Kes asked.
"No, this is something better!" I finally lifted the blanket I borrowed to cover the water heaters. "Tada!! Radiators!"
"Ready Eaters? What do they eat?" Merv asked.
"They don't eat anything. Well actually, you could say they eat the cold away from our rooms" I leaned into to Merv's misunderstanding. It was probably too complex to explain modern physics to them.
"You mean like those fancy enchanted heaters that nobles use?" Thal asked. Ah right, I forgot magical versions do exist, chastising myself for not leading with that.
"Yes exactly, except this is my own version"
"This won't burn the house down right?" Marta asked skeptically.
I turned one of them on at the lowest setting, and in a few minutes everyone could feel a gentle heat radiating off the device.
"Wow!! Yay we'll get to stay warm" Kes jumped and hugged me. "Thank you"
I guess the younger ones had a much easier time just accepting it for what it was. Thal and Merv just looked at each other and shook their heads before a warm smile appeared on their lips.
"Come, I made three of these. One for each of our rooms, help me get this upstairs before dinner"
I could see the three youngest jumping up and down with joy, looking forward to not having to spend the upcoming winter freezing in the cold.
While spending the time and resources to make these heaters definitely set me back on my project, I deemed this a worthy trade off as I looked at the smiling faces of everyone. Glimmerwasp was off the table but I could still hunter other beasts for coin. Something which I looked forward to after weeks of being holed up in the tool shed.