Chapter 6
An Imperial College lecture room
Late spring
The late morning sun poured in out of a blue sky. Matthias couldn't help letting his attention wander away for a moment. Guiltily, he snapped back to where he was, with Raimund Treck at his left, Artur across the table, and a slightly dusty Professor Dailey finishing a process diagram on the chalkboard. Matthias had already copied down almost all of it.
Raimund was what Matthias's up-timer friends called a dude. He didn't go so far as to put on silks and extravagant lace cuffs the way some nobles did, but he wore very good wool in conservative styles. Today his doublet and breeches were a quite dark blue. On the expensive side, but not taken to an extreme. He'd mentioned that his family was long-established in mining and refining in the mountains. They seemed not to be the absentee-owner sort, though. His hands had been rough from work when he returned from break at the start of the term. Learning the business from under the ground up, apparently.
Raimund looked up from his notebook. "Professor Dailey, how about instead of doing all this analysis next week on a metal sample that other people have analyzed before, I do it on a piece from my second cousin's mine?"
"That's a bit more ambitious, Raimund, but this college isn't in the business of holding anyone back. If you want to make the effort, it's more than worth the academic credit. But I wouldn't have another analysis to compare it to, so let's see if another student would like to test it. Matthias, you feel ready to give a real unknown a try?"
Matthias shifted in his chair, thinking. Artur grinned at him from across the table and gave him a thumbs-up. Matthias made up his mind. "I have to do it sometime, don't I? Okay, we'll see what happens."
Dailey rubbed his hands together. "Fine. Just keep thorough records, both of you, and don't influence each other until you have your first results written up. Then collaborate if you want. Now that I think of it, if you want a real learning experience, you could do it on an ore sample, instead of the smelted metal."
Raimund looked a little startled. "My cousin's ore? Isn't that just extra work?"
"Maybe, maybe not. Who knows what's in there besides metals? You'll never know until you look. And you'd want to find out what the compounds are, not just the elements. That affects the way you'd process it commercially." He grinned. "Which is what you've got in mind, right? You two have some reading to do."
The Domplatz, Magdeburg
A couple of weeks later
The old gray cathedral was beautiful this time of day, with the colors of the sunrise shining through the tall windows. Matthias was paying just enough attention to the other worshipers leaving to keep from walking into one of them. His toe caught on a loose cobblestone as he came down off the steps. He recovered from the stumble without even looking down at his feet.
Raimund clapped him on the shoulder. "Was the sermon that fascinating? Or is it that blonde beauty on the other side of the square? For sure you're not looking where you're walking."
"Mmph? Sorry, Raimund, I'm trying to decide what to do. Dora―I'm just worried about how long it's taking to finish this whole curriculum and start bringing in some money. I'm happy she's doing so well saving for a dowry, but what do I have to show her father?"
"Money, is it? Money? That's staring us in the face. You saw what we found in the ore samples."
"Yes, I saw, all right. More silver than I would have expected, a little gold, some other odds and ends. Not too hard to pull out, that's just electrochemistry."
Raimund's hands waved with excitement. "And the sulfuric acid, Matthias, that's worth money too. Those smelters have just been letting the sulfur stink up the neighborhood!"
"Different problem. The electricity, though. I haven't studied that yet. Have you?"
Raimund clapped him on the shoulder. "Homework. Just more homework, we do it every night. But Jupp Fimbel is taking the electrician course. We might get him interested."
"It's not just the special homework, Raimund, it's the time away from the other homework. Most of the classes I need next don't start until the fall term. I could live at home and study ahead on the math this summer, and maybe graduate sooner."
"Well, the summer term is three months. We could do a lot in three months."
"Three months. Yes. As you say, an electrorefining line doesn't seem all that complicated, if you could get us enough water power." He looked off across the square, drew in a breath, exhaled. "Three months, win or lose . . ." He walked along beside Raimund, turning it over in his head. He was still deep in a brown study when they joined the lunch line at the college refectory.
The Hammel home, Sömmerda
A few days later
Dora missed her friends from Henschleben and the surrounding villages sometimes. It wasn't a great distance to walk, but it was often difficult to find the time to go over and visit. Sunday afternoons were the easiest.
On the other hand, she was altogether pleased with the house that came with Papa's position at the mill. It was larger than where they'd lived before, cozy instead of cramped, less than a year old and much more modern with an enclosed stove to cook on. Not only that, it was all living space. Because the forge and tools were at the mill, there was no need to have a smithy in the front room. Instead, they had a generous-sized table and comfortable chairs, and no soot or sparks. And it had been built at the edge of the town, close to all the shops. That was sensible enough, no place in town was more than ten minutes from the mill anyway.
When Dora arrived home around sunset, Mama called out from the kitchen, "There's a letter from Matthias. I'm busy here, but you could open it up and read it aloud."
"All right, Mama." She found it on the table in the front room and broke the seal.
My dear Dora,
Your successes at the mill fill my heart with gladness. I have good news as well. Through a fellow student at the college, an unexpected opportunity has appeared, which offers hope of profit much sooner than I had imagined. I'll write again after I look at the possibilities with my own eyes. It was so good to see you between terms at Easter, but unfortunately, if we do this, it means I cannot come home this summer . . .
By the time she finished, Mama was standing in the kitchen doorway with an astonished look on her kind face. "He's not coming? Do you think something is wrong?"
Dora lowered the letter to the table. "I don't know, Mama. He doesn't explain what this opportunity is. I hope it isn't something dangerous or illegal and he just doesn't want to worry us. I'll write back tonight. Maybe he'll tell us more."
"Yes, yes. Maybe I should write to his aunt, too. She might know something."
∞ ∞ ∞
After the supper dishes were washed and put away, and Papa settled down with one of the books Karl Reichert had recommended, Dora took the letter upstairs to her room. She read it one more time, before taking down the box from the top of the wardrobe where she kept them all. Making some money so soon would be a good thing, but the letter didn't really say very much, and it said nothing about their possible future. There was nothing personal in it.
It had been good to have him visit at Easter, and show him what she was doing. He'd seemed happy to see her, even shyly kissed her cheek. But now that she looked in the box, this was only the second letter since then. And not to see him at all this summer?
She reached a hand inside the wardrobe and felt the magenta wool fabric of the Sunday dress she hoped to be married in. It was only because both she and Papa had such well-paying employment these days that she even had such a fine dress. Well, as Papa said, that was still a few years off, even if she was accumulating a dowry much more quickly these days.
She reached down for the little lap desk she kept under her bed, and took out a sheet of paper. What to write back?
West of Mansfeld
June
The longer Matthias had listened to Jupp Fimbel, the better he felt about him being one of their party. His down-to-earth practicality tended to balance Raimund's enthusiasm. Maybe his age had something to do with it, too. He was close to thirty and he'd been a journeyman mason before the wars sent him running. It helped that he'd begun in the electrician-technician program in Imperial Tech's very earliest days, while the college was still recruiting engineering faculty. Jupp was on the small side. From what Matthias had been told, though, that was more an asset than a hindrance to an electrician.
Jupp was taking his first long look at the site Raimund had wangled from his relations. They were standing near the bank of a small pond backed up behind a mill dam powering some mine works. A sheep pasture stretched up a moderate slope from where they stood, growing a little steeper toward a grove at the top. Perhaps two thirds of the way up, a drift into a mined-out deposit burrowed into the side of the hill. This wasn't the high part of the Harz range further west. Still, they were in a mountain valley. He was staring up the slope with a sort of a half-frown on his face. "Oh-oh. I don't like the look of this."
"The look of what, Jupp?" Raimund had his thumbs tucked in his belt.
"It's a couple of hundred of meters from the wheel house to where you want us to set up the pots. I wasn't figuring on that." Imperial Tech being what it was, a good many of the students had taken to the cool-factor habit of talking in metric units. It saved explaining which city's foot or pound you meant. "Electrochemistry uses low voltage DC and a lot of current, you understand? We're going to need heavy wire for a long run like that, and poles and insulators to carry it. That won't be cheap. I can change the Home Power Plant order to thirty-six volts instead of twelve, of course. That will help, but it means dividing up the pot line into more cells."
"But my cousin's letting us have the old mine tunnel for nothing. We don't have to pay to put up a shop. Or wait for it to get built."
"So? We've still got to pay to take power from the wheel for the generator. And for everything we'll need to bring the power up there." He looked doubtfully at the opening in the hillside. "If we run a line up, I hope you two chemical geniuses don't mind some heavy work."
Matthias thought about that for a few moments, and finally spoke. "The first thing we'd better do is go see whether there's enough space in that tunnel to fit in our apparatus and move around. If there isn't, none of this matters."
Raimund nodded and took his hands out of his belt. "Yes, all right." He led off.
July
The first reasonably wide spot in the tunnel was too far inside for much daylight to penetrate. But at least the floor was reasonably level, and pitched to drain outward. There were plenty of mines in the Harz where it wasn't. So they'd set up, and compromised on a less expensive power line they could double-up later. The poles barely cleared their heads. After all, it was only low voltage.
Raimund held up his lantern over the wooden rack they'd thrown together to hold the pottery crocks. It looked like―yes. The color was different. There was definitely new copper plating out on the cathodes. He reached out a finger to feel the texture and thickness.
Matthias swatted it away. "For heaven's sake, remember what's in those cells, will you? And we don't need sodium chloride and whatever else is in your fingerprints getting into the electrolyte."
"Sorry." Raimund pulled his hand back. He leaned over for a close look instead. "Matthias, is it supposed to be bubbling like that? I don't remember you saying anything about that. Or any of the books."
"Bubbling? No, I don't think so. That would mean something else is going on besides moving copper ions."
"So what do we do?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe the copper sulfate concentration is wrong. Or the acid. Now that there's the train, I could go up to the college library in the morning and see what's in the literature."
Raimund straightened up and let the lantern hang by his side. "How about the big library in Grantville?"
"I don't know, that would be a lot more train fare, and it would take a whole day each way instead of a couple of hours. Besides, we don't have any friends down there I could stay with. I hear it's really expensive."
Jupp cut in, "Well, whatever way you two work it out, we won't have any answers this afternoon. But right now, you don't want it doing that, right? Could be the current's too high for the size of the cells. Or the size of the electrodes. Or something. I could try turning down the excitation on the generator."
Matthias stepped back from the apparatus and turned toward the entrance. "It's worth trying. All right, I'll stand at the entrance. Raimund, you can shout to me whether it's stopped or started again. Jupp, I'll make hand signals to you, to turn it up or down."
Early August
Jupp and Raimund stood nose-to-nose with water dripping off their hat brims, out in the fine drizzle a few steps uphill from the tunnel entrance. It was at least a break from being underground.
Jupp flung his arms up. "Fine, Raimund, fine. You're right, the purity is up since you stopped fighting with Matthias about buying the sulfuric acid from Gribbleflotz. And we know what voltage and current to use with this setup now. I still say this isn't working for us."
"What do you mean? The copper's building up. So is the anode sludge where the precious metals are."
"Look at the numbers! At this rate, how soon are we going to have enough to sell? There isn't room in that cramped little tunnel to expand, and even if we could, our power line couldn't carry much more electricity. And that so-called friend of yours in charge of the wheel won't let it run all night. That's killing us."
"But look at the progress we've made!"
"Not enough, Raimund, not enough by half. And if you like spreading out your bedding on top of a leaf pile in a tunnel and cooking outside so we don't choke on the smoke, you're welcome to it. Well, I heard something when I went to the inn for our mail this morning. When Matthias comes back, tell him I'll be away for a couple of days looking into a possibility."
"What? When are you going?"
Jupp looked off to the west at the cloud deck. "As soon as the rain stops."
A few days later
They usually ate supper around sunset, so they'd have the twilight for washing-up.
Matthias looked at what was on the campfire―about what you'd expect, when you were spending as little as you could on living costs. No sense even talking about it. He shrugged, and picked up a bowl and spoon.
He'd just started eating when Jupp came in sight down on the road. Jupp strode up the hill, dropped his bag just inside the entrance, and sat. "Good, you're both here. I have an answer, and we need to move."
Raimund spun on the log he was sitting on. "Move? Why? Where? Anyplace else would cost more."
"To Gräfenstuhl. It's a village a little way west of here. A miller named Hartmann has been putting together an electric company. They're already running in a heavy line to power a mill, and get this: there's a widower moving out to take a factory job in Halle. It means an empty house with a shop downstairs. We can get the lease cheap. We'll finally have the space we need for the pot lines, Raimund, and steady power all day and all night."
Raimund got a confused look for a moment. "Wait a minute, power plants make AC, don't they? That's the wrong kind of electricity."
"Yes, yes, I'll have to get us an AC motor and different pulleys. I know where to get them. We'll drive the DC generator with it."
Matthias groaned. "And how long will all this take?"
"Two weeks, I think. By then the power line should get there. But we need to get that lease before someone else does."
Matthias groaned. "Another two-week halt. More stuff to buy. Wunderbar." He reached for a bowl and spoon to pass to Jupp. He sighed. "Can we sell our wire and poles, at least?"
Gräfenstuhl
Late August
Jupp was a lot happier these days. The house must have been built for a trade that had apprentices, not that they were ever likely to have any. Not for a long while, at least. There were three stories. The whole ground floor was shop space, except for a small kitchen at the back with an actual hearth to cook in. They had plenty of room to spread out upstairs. The previous tenant had even left the beds and some furniture behind. There were a few neighbors to talk to, and now that they were in a village on a postal rider's route, they didn't have to go to the inn for their mail any more. And he didn't have to fool with the generator all the time. The AC induction motor just spun it at a steady rate. The walls could have used some cleaning and a fresh coat of whitewash, but he hardly cared. One thing he liked was that the village was so small that both sides of the wagon road weren't built up. There was a pleasant view out the front, when they had time to enjoy it.
He swung open the door and stepped out at the sound of hooves outside. It was about the right time of day . . . Sure enough, Raimund was just climbing down from their neighbor Oswald Weckesser's cart with a big grin on his face. "Jupp! Matthias! It's payday! You won't believe what that load of purified copper sold for in Mansfeld."
Matthias just looked back at him over the tank line as he came in the door. "I'm glad of that, but I think we've got more problems again. I'm not sure what's going on here."
"What? What do you mean?"
Matthias pointed at one of the cells in front of him. "I think it's slowing down. The current's been dropping, and the voltage has gone up. And the color of the electrolyte is changing."
Raimund came over and peered into the crock. "Wasn't it a deeper blue before?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. Something's not right. I don't think we should spend any more money on equipment or chemicals until we figure this out."
Raimund's smile disappeared. "You can, can't you? How long do you think it will take?"
"I don't know, I don't know. Maybe it's some kind of contamination, maybe the chemicals are breaking down somehow, but I don't see why they should. We don't have a real lab here, you know." He chewed on his knuckle for a moment.
"Well, what do you think we should do?"
"Honestly? I think the best chance is to take some samples of everything up to the college, and get some time in the lab there. If we can find out what's in the solution, and in the raw anodes, maybe I can figure out what kind of reaction is going on. Maybe a week, if it's complicated. I don't think Germund has a new roommate yet, so he'll probably let us sleep there."
Raimund rolled his eyes.
Jupp directed a sour look toward the brand-new second motor-generator set, still in its crate.
The Imperial College chemistry laboratory
The next day
They'd been granted some lab time after instruction hours, with a suitable charge for consumables and breakage.
Raimund stared for half a minute through the square of cobalt glass in his left hand. There was a good strong glow from the blob on the end of the wire he held sticking into the gas flame. It was the solid residue from evaporating a sample of the electrolyte. Finally he turned to the big handbook lying open on the bench, and ran his finger down the column. "It looks like sort of a bluish green, I think. But phosphorus wouldn't make sense. Maybe zinc? But why would that be in the electrolyte?"
Matthias went flipping through his notebook, for some entries he'd made in the spring. "Well, we found some in the ore. We both saw it. Let's see about a confirming test, and then do a quantitative analysis."
"But zinc is a metal, Matthias! Why would it end up in the electrolyte, instead of falling out with the anode slime?"
"I don't know. But if it's there, we'll figure it out. We've got the handbook, right? Or we can go visit the professor and ask him, if we have to."
Gräfenstuhl
Three days later
Hooves and harness sounded outside the front door and came to a stop. Jupp went out to see. Sure enough, it was Matthias and Raimund climbing down from a passing freight wagon. Raimund pulled down a canvas sack with both hands and started waddling toward the door, half off-balance. "What on earth do you have there?"
"Lead sheets. Didn't you get the letter we sent from college? We'll use them for anodes, to plate the zinc out of solution and turn the zinc sulfate to sulfuric acid. That way we won't have to dump what we have and buy more from Gribbleflotz. We're losing copper sulfate, no way to stop that, but we can get more from my cousin's mine drainage. All we have to do is catch it in a jug and carry it away. We only have to purify it, then we can use it. Matthias, show him the cheat sheet."
"Of course." Matthias put down his traveling bag inside the door and rummaged inside.
Jupp got out of Raimund's way, then started reading the paper Matthias handed him. "Purification of copper sulfate by repeated crystallization. Settle it overnight to remove large foreign particles, then filter it through sand. Boil off most of the water . . . Ice? We need ice? Where are we going to get ice this time of year, Matthias?"
"I'm almost sure we can get out copper sulfate without the ice, we just won't get as much. But we can purify a big batch this winter."
Jupp pointed to the part he'd just read with his other hand. "But still, this is a whole list of new things we have to do. It's sure to slow us down."
"Probably, but would you rather pay Gribbleflotz prices for more copper sulfate? We're going to be needing it from now on. The zinc in the raw copper replaces some of the copper we plate out of the electrolyte. That leaves zinc sulfate. I don't see how to turn that into anything but more sulfuric acid. The electrolyte will still clog up after a while with other trace metals, but a lot slower, and we can distill the acid afterward. I checked. We shouldn't need to buy more acid, we'll have acid to sell."
"Fuel. What's it going to cost us to do the distilling?"
"How about electric heat? Didn't you say we're not using all the electricity Hartmann allows us?"
"Yes, but didn't you say it takes a lot of it to boil water?"
Matthias sighed. "I suppose we'd better run the numbers. At least, we could get some distilled water from it."
Jupp turned and put the paper down on one of the benches. "I suppose you should. We learn something every day, and isn't that a frightening thought? Well, why don't you look around here and make sure everything is running right? I'll start getting supper together. You two must be hungry."