Chương 172: 169. Compass

Kivamus sighed and shook his head.

"No, it's not. Let me explain it fully." He pointed at the compass.

"Okay. So what I have done here is to allow the rhombus shaped needle to freely rotate on its stand, which is made from another needle. And since the rhombus shaped needle is magnetised now, it starts to rotate because of the planet's magnetic field, until it aligns itself in a north-south direction." He continued, "Like I had told you all earlier, our planet has two poles - north and south, because it is a magnet. Similarly, every individual magnet also has two poles - again, north and south.

And the reason for the compass working to align itself in a north-south direction is that similar poles always repel, while opposite poles attract each other. I could show you that as well if we had some stronger magnets here, but you'll just have to trust me for now." He added, "And that's why one end of this needle was attracted towards the north, while the other was attracted towards the south.

And since its stand allows it to move freely on any level surface, you can use it anywhere, at any time to find the directions." Feroy's eyes were wide in surprise.

"But that's... It means..." He shook his head and took a breath before speaking again.

"That means with this compass, a person would never get lost even in the forests, even in the dark! Ah... if only I had that in the past..." Kivamus nodded.

"Indeed, and this is what the sailors use at sea to find their directions, especially since they don't have any natural markers like mountains or rivers to find their orientations. I haven't seen their compass, but from what Gorsazo told us, they just hang a lodestone on a string. That will work just as well on the ground, but it would certainly make it very difficult if the seas are rough. But this design is something which will work nearly all the time."

"But all of this still sounds like witchcraft to me..." Duvas said with a frown.

"Are you sure this... magnetism has nothing to do with that?" Before Kivamus replied anything, Gorsazo stared at the majordomo and said, "You aren't really setting a good example here, Duvas. You are one of the only three fully educated people in the village, so you aren't supposed to be believing in such superstitions, are you? You already know that witchcraft doesn't exist." Duvas exhaled loudly.

"I know, Gorsazo, I know... But I am also old, much older than anyone else here. It's difficult for me to accept something so... so... futuristic! The compass works on an invisible power of magnetism for Goddess' sake!" The majordomo glanced at others in the manor hall, who were looking at him carefully and sighed.

"But you are right, I can do better than this." He looked at Kivamus, "I apologise, my lord. I know you have studied a lot of books and you know a lot of things which the rest of us can't dream of, but sometimes it's not easy for me to adjust to new things. Forgive me for questioning your methods." Kivamus smiled at him.

"Don't worry about it, Duvas. It's alright. And I can assure you there is no witchcraft involved in anything I do. It's all just science - which at the very basic, requires you to question every single thing around you, and then after making a hypothesis about why something is happening, you do experiments to either prove or disprove your hypothesis. If you were proved right, you have a new law about the natural world, and if you were wrong, you just try again."

Most of the people around the table looked confused at that definition, although Syryne seemed to be thinking seriously about it. Kivamus sighed. It's not like he would be able to make everyone understand about the scientific method in a single evening. The fact that they had even accepted that the compass was not working by using the powers of witchcraft was already a good progress for today.

"Wait a moment..." Syryne asked with a frown.

"If the needle's North Pole is being repelled by our planet's North Pole, then why is it pointing to the north anyway? Shouldn't it be the opposite?" Kivamus nodded.

"Actually, it is indeed the opposite. The geographical north - that is the north direction on the ground - is the opposite of the magnetic north, which is actually located near the South Pole of the planet. What it means is that while the compass' North Pole is pointing towards the planet's geographical North Pole - which is what we need - it is actually pointing towards the magnetic South Pole of Eranityn."

"That is so confusing, milord..." Gorsazo muttered with a frown. However, Feroy shrugged.

"If the needle always tells us where the north is, who cares how it finds the directions." Kivamus chuckled.

"Perhaps... And that's why we need to keep it simple when we explain it to the hunters." He added, "Now I am going to magnetise the rest of the compasses as well, and then we will give them to the hunters so they can familiarize themselves with it tonight before they leave with the compasses tomorrow."

"I have a question, milord," Cedoron asked.

"If you have already uh... magnetised those needles, why did you need so many iron rods?" The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"The thing is," Kivamus explained, "that all these are temporary magnets. That means they don't last very long, unlike the lodestones which the sailors take with them - which will basically last forever. That's why the hunters will need to magnetize the needle again and again after it loses its effect. That's the reason why I wanted to test if we can magnetise the iron rod with the help of a spear - or even a sword - which the hunters will always be carrying with them.

They might even be able to use their daggers to magnetise the compass needle in a pinch." He continued, "This way, once the needle stops working - probably after a few hours or so - they will have to magnetise the iron rod again, which will last as a magnet for an even shorter time, and then they will need to magnetise the needle again using the rod, before trying to get a fix on their directions."

He added with a sigh, "I know it's complicated and far from an ideal solution for the field, and in the future if we can get access to a lodestone, I will try to make it simpler, but this will have to do for now."

"Don't worry, milord," Feroy commented, "if this works every time just like you have said it would, our hunters are still going to become a lot more efficient than now."

"Indeed," Gorsazo agreed enthusiastically.

"We can even say that it is... revolutionary!" Lucem looked at his mother.

"What does that word mean?"

"Uh..." Helga added after a pause, "It means something which didn't exist earlier." Lucem nodded sagely.

"So will we get more meat on our plates from now on? Since it didn't exist earlier?" Everyone chuckled at that question. Helga patted his head.

"Let's hope so, Lucem." As a sudden gust of cold air made him shiver, Kivamus looked towards the window where the sun had gone under the houses of the village by now, and told Feroy to close the window.

"Is there anything we need to keep in mind to use this compass?" Feroy asked once he had closed the window.

"The conditions aren't always this stable in the field, and the hunters won't be able to ask anything from you if they have any question." Kivamus thought about it.

"Hmm... The first thing is that if you drop either the needle or the iron rod, it will lose most of its magnetism, which means you will have to start over again. Apart from that, we don't have any glass here to seal the compass inside it, so every time the hunters are done with it, they will have to put the rhombus shaped needle inside the wooden box so that it wouldn't get lost. And when they need to find the directions again, they will also have to balance it again on the smaller needle after magnetizing it.

The good thing is that the rods are small enough that they can easily keep it with their other stuff without it weighing them down unnecessarily, especially since they won't have to carry a hammer for this." He continued, "I will demonstrate everything to the hunters myself later on so they can ask any questions they have." He tried to think if there was anything he was missing.

"The process of magnetizing things will still remain the same, but you will need to hold the iron rod in a similar direction every time when you are trying to magnetise it by hitting it with another piece of metal. That means you already need to have an idea of the directions."

"Then what use is this compass if it only works when we already know the directions?" Feroy asked with a frown. Kivamus took a deep breath.

"Like I said earlier, this is far from a perfect compass - it is a primitive design at best. But the compass needle will still hold its magnetism for at least a few hours, and if you don't shake it around too much, it might last for even longer. That means, if you see the sun even once during the day, you can guess the directions at that time and do the process of magnetising the rod and the needle.

That way, even if the sun is covered by the clouds later, you will still be able to find your directions accurately throughout the day. Or, if you do it in the evening, you will be able to find directions for most of the night using the compass, in case you really did have to keep travelling at that time."

He continued, "It will be even more important when they are travelling under the dense canopy of the forest in the summer, since they can climb on a tall tree or a bluff, from where they can guess the rough position of the sun even on a mildly cloudy day and based on those directions, they can magnetise the needle at that time. That will allow them to keep track of the directions for hours - even after they have continued their journey under the dense canopy."

"I think I understand now..." Feroy muttered.

"It will certainly take some effort to use it, but it's still better than having nothing when you get lost in those forests." Kivamus nodded and looked back at the table.

"Okay then. Now let's make a few more compasses! Cedoron, you fix the smaller needles at the centres of the wooden squares. Feroy, we have already checked that a spear will work just as well as a hammer, but using a hammer is still much easier. So put that spear in a corner, and start magnetising the iron rods with a hammer. Once that is done, I will use those rods to magnetise the compass needles, and then after checking that all of them are working properly we will show it to the hunters."

He looked at the curious faces of others.

"Actually the rest of you can try it as well." Immediately, Lucem and Clarisa jumped from their seats with matching grins and walked closer to the table. So after handing them a rod each, Kivamus told Feroy to supervise them so they wouldn't hurt themselves. He picked up another rod and gave it to Gorsazo, who seemed like he wanted to try magnetising the rod as well, with the blacksmith watching curiously.

They only had two hammers in the room right now, so others would have to wait for their turns, but everyone looked like they wanted to give it a try. Kivamus smiled with satisfaction as everyone got busy either trying to magnetise something, or waiting for their turns while watching others enthusiastically. This was only a beginning, but it was certainly a good start for science in this world.