World Re-visioned

Chapter 22: Forge

Chapter 22: Forge
Copyright 2021 by John Wells. All Rights Reserved.

Next task was setting up the forge. Time to quarry rocks for the fireplace, chimney, and grinder. April used magic to make a laser beam burning a hole into the rock. Once she had a line of them, she compressed air with magic into them, splitting off a slab. This was the way they created most of the ten flat foundation stones. She transported the stone back to the planned fireplace in its position before repeating until done.

Both April and Tina had tried the old fashion method of hand drilling and wedges hammered in to split each creating one foundation stone. But, her magic could do in minutes what that method took the whole day to do, breaking off one chunk. It was too boring to spend multiple years doing, so she took the shortcut.

The chimney was outside the building, while the fire area was inside. A wood timber frame held the stone hood well above and surrounding the fire. Stone walls protected the wood on three sides inside the frame. The sides of the burn area angled down so, as the center burned away, the coal slid in to replace it. The beam that did not have a rock wall protecting it had a custom piece made to slide over it.

A timber set on top of the frame and the larger rail meant to support it. They pegged it in place. On top of it was a stone flue to transfer the smoke from the hood outside into the chimney. The bottom of the chimney was a box built with solid stone blocks from the ground to the flue. The actual smoke hole of the chimney started at the flue level to well above the building. Only the flue and hood were touching wood. There were air gaps everywhere else to prevent water from rotting the wood. The base of the chimney extended beyond the overhang so the chimney could continue pass without touching the building. They curved outside flue top stone so water would run off. They set the stone without mortar. Afterwards, April used magic to remove all the joints, making it a single solid stone structure.

The fan was blowing air into the center of the fire pit. It had gears to set up five speeds from off to high. The bottom of the hole for air continued down to an ash collection bin. A wood door opened to clean it out. The fan must be off to prevent ash blowing everywhere. Magic was used to prevent the rock from melting, since steel melts at a higher temperature than all rocks.

After completing the forge, April returned the loaned one to the AI. Then, she used hers to continue the work. Next, Tina replaced all the wood used in the power system and existing tools with steel replacements April created. Finally, all the rope got replaced with a steel cable formed with the same weaving and magic solidifying. The weaving they did together, though April made the steel threads using an air mold. The old parts got changed into energy and absorbed by April and transferred half into Tina, instead of letting the AI do it for them.

April cuts two blocks for the grindstones of her mill like the others. She uses the magic laser beam to make them round. She makes grooves in them so they move the grain from the center to the outside. Since the amount of powder to produce is small, she makes a relatively small stones weighing less than she can carry.

The fixed bottom stone’s grooves are a straight line that moves clockwise from its center start to its edge end, while the top stone’s move counter-clockwise. The grain enters the wheel in the center when two grooves meet. As the top stone turns, the grooves force the material to follow the bottom stone’s groove to the edge where it exits, because the intersection opening keeps shifting that way.

The top stone can get lifted or lowered to change the size of material it handles. They can control the speed of the spin to adjust the amount of grinding performed.

Both stones have metal shaft going through their exact center. There is a short metal rod in four places that fit into notches on the top stone to allow both lifting and spinning. Magic was used to fuse them to the center shaft and to the top stone. The top of the rod has a spiral pulley fused on to provide the spin. Extra material is used to make a notch in the shaft to adjust the height. The AI will continue to keep the device in pristine shape.