A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 238 Wireless and Wired Telegraphs

"Thank God Maxwell!" Rorschach had returned to his dormitory in the Tower of Stars and was desperately trying to recall the contents of his electrical engineering and electronics course.

The dwarves had discovered the principle of magnetism generating electricity, but they didn't realize that electricity generating magnetism also works; you could say they were single-minded. Of course, these dwarves also hadn't discovered electromagnetic waves.

In the lab, Rorschach explained to everyone that he had noticed a set of interference signals on the instrument measuring ether fluctuations when he was researching the building. The spectrum showed additional stray peaks, such as the Tower of Stars, which had not appeared in Professor Poincaré's lab.

Upon further observation, it was found that there were noise spikes when the generator set in the power room was running, but not when the power unit was shut down.

"Could it be that the generation of ether is causing the interference?" Snow reminded Rorschach that he couldn't arbitrarily say it was noise generated by the generator.

"But after the unit was shut down and the collector was used to provide ether, the clutter disappeared again."

It was only then that Snow acknowledged Rorschach's conjecture. Rorschach proposed conducting experiments to verify his hypothesis and asked the Alchemy Department to prepare some equipment.

At night, Rorschach returned to the Tower of Stars to begin designing experiments. Compared to Maxwell's equations in the field of electromagnetism, Rorschach could only recite Maxwell's equations in thermodynamics, but that didn't stop him from revealing the existence of electromagnetic waves to others and passing on the derivation of the formulas to other brilliant minds.

To prove the existence of electromagnetic waves, the task was to create them and then detect them. Rorschach "designed" the transmitter and receiver:

The transmitting end is an oscillating circuit composed of a spiral coil and a tin plate capacitor. When it is energized and then de-energized, it generates a current with a constantly changing direction, which excites electromagnetic waves.

The receiving end is a ring-shaped induction coil. When it receives an induced electromagnetic wave with the same or similar frequency as itself, an electric spark can be seen at the terminal.

While both are waves, the transmitter can be compared to a tuning fork in electromagnetism, which can emit waves of a specific frequency. Unfortunately, the receiver is not as versatile as an eardrum and requires frequency tuning to ensure that the specific wave from the transmitter can be received.

The next day, Rorschach delivered the blueprints to the Alchemy Department, who had brought enough materials to assemble these items.

"Is the required power very large?" The mages planned to start the generator.

After receiving a negative answer, the alchemist didn't stand on ceremony and directly used the level-zero spell [Electric Claw] to charge the capacitor at the transmitter. This spell simply electrifies your hand; by touching the circuit, the charge is transferred to the capacitor. When he released his hand, he shook it: "A little numb."

Snapped!

Everyone saw that on the other side, the uncharged coil terminal flickered.

"Really?" The others immediately moved the receiver a little further away and repeated the previous steps.

*Snap!* Another spark ignited.

However, when moved to about three meters away, the receiver could no longer see the electric spark.

"This effective distance is too short!" A gunnery instructor expressed his disappointment. It was his own signal beacon proposal that had been rejected: "The signal beacon tower can transmit signals up to 24 kilometers away!" He was clearly satisfied with the transmission distance of his proposal and did not want it to be rejected.

Fortunately, the alchemy team members who developed the Ethernet transceiver were experienced and immediately realized the relationship between transmission distance and frequency: "The attenuation is very severe, do we need to adjust the transmission frequency?"

This is a blind spot for me. Luo Xia only knows that the frequency band for the listening comprehension section of the CET-4 and CET-6 exams is around 85MHz. But how to adjust it specifically, and how to design the transmitting and receiving ends, is something he doesn't know.

The following experiments were led by Snow. He first tested the properties of the newly discovered wave and concluded that, firstly, this wave is similar to light, it can be blocked and obstructed, and it can be reflected and deflected. By simply modifying the circuit and upgrading the charging from "electric claw" to "lightning beam", the effective distance was successfully increased to 100 meters.

"The advantages are fast response and the ability to transmit over a distance; the disadvantages are that it is similar to visible light, which will disperse and attenuate, and can be blocked."

Everyone agreed that this technology has obvious drawbacks. If a transceiver station needs to be built every 100 meters, the cost will be higher than that of a signal tower.

"Since electromagnetic waves attenuate so much in the air, could we find a carrier for them, such as a wire?" Rorschach asked with some regret. He had originally wanted to go straight to the radio technology tree, but unfortunately, he was neither a professional in the field nor a radio enthusiast, so he could only settle for the idea of ​​wired telegraph.

"This seems feasible!" The guys' eyes lit up immediately. Conducting electricity requires copper wire, which is much cheaper than the mithril wire used to transmit ether.

Of course, there were also dissenting voices. Compared to dwarves and mages, there were not many engineers familiar with electricity, and many gave up after their attempts at radio failed.

Some people couldn't understand how to carry enough information: "If electricity can transmit letters, then we should listen to what God wants to tell us when it thunders!"

Snow ignored the apt irony; he and the alchemists knew the wired version would definitely work. Snow had already decided that radio communication should also be feasible, but more experiments and adjustments were needed.

Rorschach sensed that even though the current project didn't involve magic, there was still a significant difference in how ordinary people and mages treated technology:

As for spellcasters, everyone has mastered the [communication] spell, so even if Rorschach proposed the idea of ​​a "telephone," they might be able to accept it quickly. However, it would take some effort for the instructors at the Artillery Academy to understand it.

In the following days, the newly designed transceiver device and a one-kilometer-long cable were unveiled, the latter taking some time to complete. Members of the experimental team went to the open space outside the greenhouse and stretched the cable as long and straight as possible, with a group of people at each end.

Rorschach also learned the minor spell "Electric Claw" and, as the one who proposed the idea, became the first telegraph operator.

For the mages, there was no need for a telegraphing device; they only needed to extend their electrified fingers to touch the end of the wire and tap it rhythmically, and Rorschach would send out a signal of three short and one long.

On the other end, the corresponding engagement time of the relay is recorded by the receiver.

Rorschach then produced several combinations of long and short tests, and after final verification, all five sets of experiments were successful.

"What's the limit? Ten kilometers? Twenty kilometers? Or hundreds or thousands of kilometers? I think we can try to make the longest cable ever!" Snow smiled with satisfaction after confirming that all the messages were correct.

"Anyway, I finally felt confident enough to report to Cano and tell him that we hadn't wasted so much money!"

At night, Luo Xia lay on his dormitory bed, an induction coil he had brought back from the lab sitting on his desk. He still felt resentful that the radio project had been shelved.

"Snapped!"

Rorschach obtained the "charge-driven" attribute from [Electric Claw], and using the panel along with "frequency vibration" from [Communication], he transformed himself into a humanoid transmitter. Now, lying on his bed, he rhythmically emitted electromagnetic waves, causing the coils to crackle.

"Electricity generates magnetism" Rorschach suddenly realized that he might be able to cosplay Magneto.

(End of this chapter)