Previous – Book1 Page174 – Next
the first time this week, they’ve moved me to working with R&D.”
“Aaron Dee?” thinks MaxChaos, but decides not to ask.
He had thought that this side project with HayWire would involve gunpowder. He’s not entirely sure that hydrogen is safe, because he remembers hearing stories about it when he was young.
Wasn’t there an airship which used hydrogen, and it exploded, killing everyone?
“Wouldn’t it be better to just get some sulphur and make our own gunpowder?” asks MaxChaos.
“I’ve been trying! But you can’t exactly tell a master watchmaker that you’d like some sulphur. He’s going to ask why! Once I realised we had various chemicals in stock, all I had to do was match what we have to what the text books say. Some acid and some sort of reactive metal can make hydrogen. Oh, sorry, you don’t read do you?”
“You’d better watch it!” MaxChaos retorts, “I’m good with a bow and arrow!” He adds, “and I can read and write! I just don’t spend hours in the library like you.”
MaxChaos is just trying to stop the conversation getting out of hand. He’s calm enough, and he’s genuinely interested in inventing something new.
Traditional animal traps are fine for rabbits and things, but hunting boar or deer still requires a bow and arrow. He’d like an old fashioned gun, or something better. He’s convinced that gunpowder is a necessary stepping stone to building a workable gun.
“Do we have any reactive metal?”
“We’re using iron shavings for now, they’re mildly reactive. If this proof of concept works then we’re going to try to find something higher up the metal reactivity series!”
Unsure exactly what that means, MaxChaos asks, “like what?”
“The next two are chromium and zinc, but I’d really like something more volatile, like sodium.”
“Where are we going to find sodium?”
Previous – Book1 Page174 – Next