Day 479: magnets

Day 479:

So I played around with the red rock and here’s what I discovered:

  • When you hit it, it releases a spark from the place you hit it to the far other end.
  • If you have a piece of iron at the far other end, it will react to the spark’s arrival similar to a magnet: which is to say, it moves.
  • Based on my infinitesimal education on electricity, I think it means when you hit the rock, you create not just a spark but a magnetic field around the spark.
  • Magnetic fields will turn things.

Am now experimenting with how big a thing it can turn.

Day 478: Home again home again

Day 478:

I ran out of handle wood to make axes, so I’m back to my home base, still short of the last of the diamonds I want to have before I go back east.

I could just skip the last of the diamonds but then who knows what else I’m be giving up?

On the other hand I might be digging this direction to get to the big mountain, it’s hard to tell.

In other words, I’m over tired from hauling  bags and bags of red rock back and forth and I’m ready for bed.

Maybe tomorrow before I head back I experiment with pouring those wheels I keep talking about.

Day 477: Tons of red rock

Day 477:

Okay, so I’m going to have to do something with this red rock soon because it’s taking too much space up.

I tried lighting it on fire, that didn’t do anything.

Hitting it causes a spark, but some experimentation shows that the spark isn’t enough to light paper. Not sure about gas, don’t plan to experiment with gas. Gas explosions bad.

So maybe I could use it as a switch?

The Company’s electronics were always going bad so I know some very rudimentary electrical engineering, but we’re talking like super super basic stuff at the level of “make sure the power’s off before changing the light bulb”.

But electricity uses… well.. circuits… and I’m decent at plumbing circuits… they can’t be too different… On the other hand, can’t make wire out of the red rock.

Maybe if I line up the powder thick enough it’ll carry a spark?

Investigation to come!

Day 476: Losing things

Day 476:

I dug into a chamber that, based on the age of the broken tools abandoned there and the torches I left behind, I started mining a few days ago.

I don’t remember anything about it, though I do recognize the tools. In fact, I’d wondered where they’d gone.

I think there’s some kind of bad spirit about this particular set of chambers.

In the past, bad spirit has meant everything from unstable to deadly to haunted. (And haunted, in turn, has meant everything from “being driven out by someone” to “scientific explanation found later” to “totally unexplained”.)

If I had to guess, i’d bet fumes of some sort, but not the standard carbon dioxide/carbon monoxide/methane/sulfur kind. There’s no scent. My torches aren’t flaring. I’m not coming out with any reddish kind of hue to my skin like I’d get with some fumes. And I’ve been pretty deeply trained in recognizing the symptoms of most of the frequently-found fumes because, well, one never knows when one might rip their suit.

So it’s a mystery, but not the type I want to solve. The type I want to run away from. I’m clearing out of here for the next few days to rest my head, and then I’ll see what’s next on the agenda.

Day 475: Lost

Day 475:

I had another one of those time blackouts, where I don’t remember what happened. I was mining, and then I was standing in the pit trying to figure out how to get home, and I couldn’t figure it out.

I tried digging west, which I guessed was the right direction, but I was wrong.

So I did what any wise digger does and dug a stairwell up, until I came out into one of my chambers.

But I was so disoriented even then that I had to climb three floors before I finally figured out where I was.

It’s late now. I don’t know how long I was down there, but I’m thinking a nap would be a good idea.