TL: Rui88
Staring at the heavily guarded gate of the Lord’s manor, the forr alchemist Wells paced back and forth on the open ground in front, so much so that the sentries on duty cast suspicious glances at him.
Finally, he straightened his clothes and walked towards the gate with a resolute expression.
Wells now held two positions: Professor of Chemistry at Weiss Academy (a title invented by Lord Grayman) and head of the chemistry laboratory (the other head was Hoffman, an older alchemist who had also co from Crystal Shine). Based on Count Grayman’s past behaviour, he was the type of “high-level talent” to whom the Count gave special treatnt and was usually treated with great respect. And Wells’s character was the type to say whatever was on his mind; he had always been outspoken in front of the lord.
But this ti, although he ca with determination, he hesitated at the final mont, wavered, and was even afraid.
The matter Wells wanted to discuss with Paul was related to the recent rebellion in Alda. Needless to say, it was a very sensitive issue. Although Paul Grayman was usually cheerful and joked around with everyone, and a harmless prank would be fine, he was, after all, a lord, a ruler. When it ca to the core of such people’s existence…power…he might instantly adopt a different deanour. And that rebellion had aid to take away his power, and even his life.
Wells knew that his request might anger the lord.
Wells was happy that Paul had been able to quell the rebellion, because he had never t a lord so supportive of alchemy, or rather, chemistry. When the rebels in Lakeheart Town spread rumours that the lord had been killed, he was saddened, partly for Paul who appreciated him, and partly because he did not know if the next lord would still be willing to fund the chemistry laboratory.
But so things, even if they offended the lord, still had to be done.
Wells handed his pass…a new asure after the rebellion…to the guard who ca forward to inspect it. After being searched, he entered the castle gate.
…
“Ah, my dear Wells, you’ve co at just the right ti.”
As Wells pushed the door open, a familiar voice rang out. It was from Paul.
Wells did not et Paul in the lord’s office but was led to the lord’s workshop, or laboratory. This did not surprise Wells; everyone knew that Count Paul Grayman was an inventor. Besides carrying out his daily duties as a lord, he often tinkered with strange gadgets in his so-called workshop. Whenever soone visited at such a ti, Paul would call the person to his workshop to show off his new invention.
And, as expected, Wells saw another person in the workshop…Guy Burns, the director of the machinery factory, a frequent visitor to this workshop. The lord often spent ti with him discussing machinery-related problems.
Speaking of this man, Wells had sowhat mixed feelings. On the one hand, both were leaders in their respective fields and had a mutual admiration. On the other hand, the machinery factory and the chemistry laboratory were both money pits and fierce competitors for funding.
After greeting Paul, Wells exchanged greetings with Burns.
“Lord Grayman, I have co this ti…” Wells began to state his request apprehensively.
“Oh, please listen to first… or rather, watch first,” Paul interrupted him, a look of excitent on his face.
Wells looked at the table in front of the lord. On it was a large glass bottle. What made it different from an ordinary glass bottle was that its body seed to be made of two layers of glass. Ɽ𝐀ƝòᛒËs̩
Wells: “This is…?”
Paul: “Ho ho, this is my newly designed thermos.”
Wells: “Thermos?”
“Yes, a thermos,” Paul explained to him. “You see, after these years of effort, the New Life Movent we initiated has popularized a new way of drinking water in the major towns…drinking boiled water. But not every family has enough money to buy fuel outside of winter, so we’ve set up places in all the major towns where you can buy boiled water for a few copper coins. But unfortunately, the boiled water cools down quickly, and the current insulation technology…wrapping the container in cotton or fur…has a very limited effect. So, I designed a new insulation technology, which is this thermos.”
Paul pointed at the double-walled glass bottle.
Wells stared at it for a mont and asked in confusion, “Is there a reason for making the bottle like this? What chanism allows it to keep warm?”
“We know from daily experience that ‘heat’ can be transferred. You see, when you get close to a fire, you feel heat. Furthermore, when you place a glass of ice water and a glass of boiled water next to each other for a period of ti, the ice water becos lukewarm, and the boiled water is no longer as hot. What does this show? I speculate that so-called ‘heat’ is like water. Water flows from high places to low places, and ‘heat’ is transferred from high-temperature places to low-temperature places…under normal circumstances, of course.”
Paul did not elaborate on “under normal circumstances” and continued, “So, where is the ‘heat’ in the boiled water…let’s use another term, heat energy…transferred to?”
Wells: “To the container holding the boiled water?”
“Oh! That’s a given,” Paul said. “But eventually the container also cools down, so the heat energy doesn’t ultimately stay there.”
Wells looked at Burns, who just smiled at him.
Wells thought for a mont more. “The air? Because the space near the boiled water becos hot.”
“Haha! Just as I thought!” Paul exclaid happily. “Yes, the air. The air near the boiled water receives the heat energy and then continues to transfer it to the air further away that has a lower temperature. Eventually, both the water and the air near it cool down. It all makes perfect sense.”
“So, I thought, if there is no dium near the boiled water…that is, any object that heat energy can attach to for transfer, including air…would the boiled water not cool down?”
“So you an…” Wells looked at the strange water bottle, made of two layers of glass. There was a small hole in the outer layer of glass, but this hole led to the space between the two layers. He was beginning to understand what the lord intended to do.
“Yes, I’m going to evacuate the air between these two layers of glass, creating a… creating a vacuum-insulated layer.”
Wells: “Vacuum?”
Paul nodded. “A space where not even air exists, a space of nothingness. Er… at least nothing that we can currently see or perceive.”
The lord always added so incomprehensible supplentary explanations when describing things. Wells had gotten used to it.
“Without a dium for transfer, the heat energy will remain in the water inside the bottle and on the inner glass wall…that’s my theory. Of course, there is still a tiny bit of dium, since we can’t make the two layers of glass completely avoid contact with each other. But I guess it’s like how water flows faster through a thick pipe and slower through a thin pipe. As long as the dium is small, the heat loss will be slow, and the water will cool down slowly. So…”
Paul pointed to another object on the workbench, a machine of a kind Wells had never seen before.
“I commissioned Guy to build a device…an air pump, or you could also call it…a vacuum pump.”
Beside them, Guy Burns proudly puffed out his chest.
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