The art of SCIENCE!

[allegedprisoner]

Sender: L. Balsa
To: Everyone
Subject: A potential solution

Good afternoon, everyone. As some of you may be aware, a kind of crystal that powers appliances has been discovered. In its current state it seems rather inefficient, as one must provide the crystal a steady source of strong dreammotion energy to keep it charged.

But what if you only had to give it one strong burst?

In the past, I believe I had a fascination with perpetual motion. While this is allegedly impossible due to the first and second laws of thermodynamics, but I don't think that will be much of a problem in these conditions. Allow me to explain through diagrams.
[ Here he sketches out a rough draft. It looks like some weird fusion of a tesla coil, a water wheel, and whatever this is. ]


The machine you see here requires only a single crystal, preferably spherical in shape. Hypothetically, as I have said, you would only need to provide a single burst of dreammotion energy to propel the crystal forwards. This will make the wheel turn, and as the crystal is already energized, the wheel should remain in motion and generate a decent amount of power for your home or business. I realize this is not true perpetual motion, but it should solve our electrical woes.

A special thanks to
[ There's a pause in writing. ]
Ms. Zelda for gifting me that crystal for Christmas. It has proved instrumental for my research. I've already made several prototypes for testing, so if anyone is willing to provide devices or appliances to experiment with I would greatly appreciate it. I'll even repair any damage that may occur in the process.

Comments

Sender: Otto Octavius

[sciencesquid]

[Two days in this world, and at last, Otto comes across something that makes sense. Relatively. The 'dreamotion' aspect of it rubs him the wrong way, but the theory behind it is sound. He knows it well. Never worked on a grander scale, unfortunately.]

How do you plan to convert the kinetic energy of the perpetual motion into electrical energy? Is there a generator involved?

[allegedprisoner]

Technically speaking, this is the generator. The first part of it, anyway. I'm thinking the wheel itself could function as a rotor and build it into either a dynamo or an alternator- Whichever one would prove more useful in this world.

This is all in theory, of course, hence the experiments.

[sciencesquid]

[Oop, he should've specified he meant a turbine generator. But it's fine.]

Ideally, you would want an alternator. A three phase alternating current is more energy-efficient, as it allows for a higher charge rate. Aside from that, an alternator is more durable. It does have a greater risk of overheating, though in modest household usage, that shouldn't be a problem. The grander issue would be that you will need rectifier diodes to convert the alternating current back to direct current.

If you've been preparing for experiments, I assume you already have all the materials, yes?

[allegedprisoner]

I'll keep those in mind, thank you Mr. Octavius.

More or less. I happen to be on good terms with the local hat maker, who graciously lets me use his workspace in exchange for attending his tea parties. Brilliant fellow, that man. Built some incredible machines himself, inner workings and all.

Besides that, I've been working on this project for [ How long was it? Did this place have a calendar? This place needs one... ] a few months now. Why do you ask?

[sciencesquid]

Dr. Octavius, actually.

[Meanwhile, Otto's already taking note that some local hat maker apparently has a workspace full of technical goodies. He'll have to find out where that is so he confiscate materials from there, should he ever need them.]

From what I've seen of this place so far, I've gotten the impression there's a bit of scarcity when it comes to technical materials. Do all the necessary parts even exist here?

Sender: Jiang Cheng

[legbreakings]

[ Here comes a reply from someone who knows almost nothing about modern technology and absolutely nothing about how it works, except... ]

Does it let you use the cold box?

[ Not electric lights or indoor plumbing, no, it is the fridge that has left a lasting impression on him while encountering it before. ]

[allegedprisoner]

[ It takes Luca a moment to figure out what this person is trying to ask. ]

I'm assuming you're talking about the icebox? Those require electricity to function, so yes.

How did you manage to get your hands on one, by the by?

[legbreakings]

I was taken to a different place before. It had all kinds of gadgets from the future. Light and warmth and running hot water. I found most of it useless but the cold box was useful.

You can store food in it. Or corpses, I guess.

[allegedprisoner]

Fascinating! The last place I've been wasn't nearly as advanced, but I have meet a few people from the future who have described the technology from their world. For instance, did you know they will develop wireless telephones that fit in the palm of your hand?

[ If Luca was dropped in a modern setting, he would surely adapt to the technology in the span of a few weeks. ]

Corpses? Are you a mortician?

[legbreakings]

No, but you never know when you might need to store a corpse. Not that I ever kept one. We stored our food in the box, that would have been disgusting.

We had these "mobile phone" objects in the place I was before. They were annoying.

Sender: Zelda

[multidisciplinary]

[ Zelda is delighted that her gift to Luca has been so helpful to him. When she first discovered it, she personally found the bizarre crystal-powered kettle to be interesting, but generally unreliable. Boiling water should not require a mastery of Songerein's fickle dreamotion; a proper copper kettle and a fireplace will serve Zelda just fine, thank you very much. So she decided to regift offer the crystal-powered teapot she thought might enjoy it more (or take it apart for science, it didn't matter to Zelda).

She recalls the first conversation she had with Luca, not long after their first arrival in Songerein months ago. Back then, he mentioned had been working on developing a perpetual motion generator in his homeland (or so he thought; it seems his memory has always been poor). So Zelda is excited to read not only that he is continuing this research, but that her crystal-powered kettle helped make a breakthrough. ]

Luca, that's marvelous! I never considered that the crystal could be used in such a way.

Does the dreamotion energy not fade from the crystal over time?

[allegedprisoner]

[ Ah, and this must be the woman who gave him that crystal. Wonderful to see she's around to help him out further. And to give him from respite from the mad phone crusher. ]

That's what I'm trying to figure out. In my home world, I think the experiments failed because the machines would lose momentum over time. I was hoping to find some way for a machine to be completely self-sustaining, but no luck with that.

However, the crystal could be used to provide the kinetic energy to keep the generator moving. I'm not entirely sure how long a single "charge" would last, but I'm hoping the generator would last long enough to only need to be recharged every so often. I'm aiming for a 168 hour lifespan for the device, but I would consider a 24 hour lifespan a success.

[multidisciplinary]

[ Zelda is as excited to offer her additional assistance as she is to hear about Luca's breakthrough. Shh, it's okay; the technology abuser can't hurt you.

She takes a minute to ponder the predicament. She's not really sure why anyone would need to utilize energy constantly. The princess's kingdom has not yet learned to harness electricity, not developed luxuries like lights, indoor plumbing, or electric appliances. Zelda would be more interested in a way to store energy to use it later. But others in Songerein seem to come from worlds where energy use constant, and she's interested in learning more about that. ]

Irregardless of the length of time the charge lasts, the crystal might need to be recharged periodically. Is that correct? At least, until such a time that you can perfect perpetual motion generation.

[ She's thinking about how else it might be possible to make this invention self-sustaining. ]

Do you think there might be a way that the crystal could draw a charge from our dream lanterns? If they are constantly channeling our dreams, then wouldn't that mean they are constantly channeling dreamotion energy?

[allegedprisoner]

That is correct. While ideally I'd like to invent something that never needs to be charged, the more immediate need is something that only needs to be charged periodically. It's a much more viable option than our current method of powering things.

[ He stops to ponder that for a moment. ]

Using the dream lantern for a conduit could be an option, but considering the size of those things I wouldn't try to use it for powering larger machines than what Futaba calls a cell phone.

[multidisciplinary]

[ Oh good, she's glad he affirms that she's understanding him correctly.

But said upstanding comes to a full stop when the words "cell phone" appear on the page. ]

I fear I am not familiar with what a cell phone is. Could you elaborate? Is it comparable in size to a slate tablet or lap- [ What did Futaba call it? ] lap computer?

Sender: Futaba Sakura

[mwehehe]

Heh, all of us are really tryin' with this, aren't we? I can bring by my laptop so you can look at it after I dissect it for ya, see if we can't update that sketch of yours into something else, huh?

[No, she hasn't forgotten.]

[allegedprisoner]

Excellent! I'll be at home. [ Here he attempts to describe where it is since we don't have addresses yet. ] Look for the hollowed out tree with my initials carved on the door (Had to use my sword to do it, it's the best I can manage until we can make plaques of some sort).

Come at your earliest convenience.

[mwehehe]

[And so Futaba will make her way over to Luca's treehouse, laptop in hand.

A quick walk and a knock later, she'll grin wide when he opens the door.]

Get ready to have your socks knocked off at seeing this baby!

[And with a flourish, she hefts up her laptop to hand over to him to at least look over before they dissect it.]

I'll help you take it apart, but you should give it a lookover first.

We have entered the Action zone.

[allegedprisoner]

[ Luca had been occupied by his work when he was interrupted by the knocking. ]

Coming! [ There's a shuffling of papers, then some footsteps, and finally he answers the door. Boy does he like what he sees. ]

Oh! Is that the laptop you mentioned? [ He graciously lets her pass it to him, and he is astonished by the size of it. ]

Of course, miss... [ What was her name? Nevermind. ] Didn't think the machine would be this portable- Come in, we'll look at it together.

[ He makes sure the lid is closed properly before placing it under his arm (It's reminding him of a book...) and holding open the door for her with his other hand.

It seems he's converted the living room into some sort of workshop area. The couches have been moved to the walls to make room for tables and some of the contraptions he's been working on... And, oh, so many notes pinned to the walls. Notes labeling the hallways, notes to remind himself of various things, notes congregated near a large desk and spilling onto it... ]

Please excuse the mess, [ Luca mutters as he clears some space for the laptop. ] I've been meaning to organize a little better, but I haven't gotten around to it.

[mwehehe]

Eh, my room doesn't look any different. There's a bunch of us trying to figure out the electricity thing, so I wouldn't be surprised if everyone else looked similar, y'know?

[Futaba shuffles on in behind him, finding a place to plunk on down.]

It's not quite my phone like I mentioned in the Index, but this is like a bigger version anyway. Phones and even most laptops nowadays run on lithium batteries, which is a kind of alkali metal converted into a smaller housing. [Just gonna point out the battery on the laptop.] There's a lot of chemistry involved, but it moves a lithium ion through a negative electrode, through an electrolyte, to the positive electrode, and it moves back while you're charging it so it can recharge through a plug or some other means.

[It's a lot of technobabble that may partially go over his head right now, but probably seeing as much of it in action as he can will help.]

The plugs here don't do anything, so I haven't been able to use this much unless I charge it with the dream energy here, but you can turn it on and mess around with it a little before we turn it off and take it apart. Oh, but when we do that we'll wanna make sure nothing can make a static charge on us, that'll break some stuff in it if we aren't careful.

[That's a problem for future Luca and future Futaba, though.]

Sender: Eustace

[flamekthunder]

I don't have anything on hand that I can think of, but I wish you luck as this sounds like it could be benefiical to everyone.

Have you tried the crystal inside the pendant we received after returning from the dreamshift?

This took a while, whoops

[allegedprisoner]

Thank you, sir. I haven't tried the crystal in the pendant yet, since that would require dismantling it. It also seems a bit small for the purposes of larger scale energy generation.

Why do you ask?

np np

[flamekthunder]

No real reason, just a thought. It seemed similar to the rainbow crystals so I wondered if it could be used to amplify the power.

[allegedprisoner]

Why didn't I think of that? I'll have to try it during the experiments.

[ Something might explode, but that's for future Luca to deal with. ]

Wouldn't be able to apply it on a larger scale, though. Newcomers and the like wouldn't have access to the pendant and I get the feeling the crystals inside are very hard to come by.

[flamekthunder]

That's a fair enough point, and if there is something similar it would still need to be found.

But it wouldn't hurt to test the theory in case future dreamscapes provide similar "boosters," or if one could be engineered.

How difficult is it to study the components of the crystals?