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"Lambert gave you lands but no people? How odd. Perhaps my father could
supply a few dozen peasants."
"Well, thank you, but I'd hate to impose on a man I've never met. Anyway, there
are plenty of people out of work in Cieszyn. I think our best bet would be to go
there and put together a construction crew before going to Three Walls."
"Three Walls?"
"I've decided on the name because the valley we'll build in is boxed on three sides
by high mountains. God has built three of our walls. We need only build the
fourth."
"A nice thought. Hmm ...at this speed we'll not make Cieszyn by nightfall."
"Right. The girls couldn't stay in the saddle that long anyway. I think we'll call on
Sir Miesko and Lady Richeza for the night. There's a stream and a meadow an
hour ahead. We'll break there for dinner."
Sir Conrad's language was always colorful. At the meadow, we helped the ladies
off their palfreys, unsaddled the mounts, unloaded the mules and hobbled all the
animals save Conrad's Anna, who refused it. Conrad treated Anna as an indulgent
father treats a favorite daughter, permitting her to race about the woods around
the meadow. Only after she had completely circled the meadow twice, once near
and once far, did she come in to drink and crop grass. It was just exuberance on
her part, I know, but I had the uncanny feeling that she was searching for
possible ambushers.
I turned from these musings expecting to find the ladies preparing dinner, but
the fact was that they could barely walk. Conrad himself was busily chopping
wood and in a remarkably short time he had a merry fire going. He seemed to be
enjoying himself, proud of his woodcraft, and made no suggestion that any
should aid him.
Yet seeing him indulge in this woman's work embarrassed the girls such that they
limped up and took over the preparation of food from him, which left him free to
join me lying on the grass.
He was silent for a while, so I said, "Share your thoughts, my friend."
"Well, I'm thinking about that coal mine. It's filled with water and we'll need
some sort of pump to empty it."
"Another of your windmills?"
"I don't think so. The valley is surrounded by fairly tall mountains with only a
small entrance between the two cliffs. There won't be much wind there."
"It sounds easily defended."
"There is that advantage. But pumping that mine is going to be a problem. Wind
power is out. There is no stream, so water power is impossible. Animal power?
The area is heavily forested and it will be years before we're self-sufficient in food.
Importing animal feed would be expensive. But, if we have coal, I wonder if we
couldn't come up with a crude steam engine. Pistons, cylinders, and high-
pressure boilers are well beyond us, but perhaps a condensing steam engine..."
"Sir Conrad, you have lost me again. Please explain how it were possible to raise
water with vapors."
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"Let's see ...I've explained that matter exists in three phases: solid, liquid, and
gas. If you heat a solid enough, it melts. If you heat a liquid enough, it boils."
"That much is obvious."
"Okay. Now ordinarily the gas phase is much larger than the liquid phase. A given
amount of material takes up much more room."
"I'll take that on faith."
"You don't have to take it on faith. You have observed it! You've watched a pot
boiling. Look there, where the girls are cooking. Steam is going out of the pot,
overflowing it. Further, that steam was once water, as, is proved by the way the
water level in the pot gets lower as more steam goes out."
"I said I believe you!" I sat bolt upright.
"You said you had faith! What I tell you about science should never be taken on
faith! Each and every step should be proved by direct observation. I am trying to
teach you how to understand and manipulate the physical universe. I am not
trying to teach you a religion! That's not my job!"
"I'm sorry, Sir Conrad. Please continue." He has such a temper! I think he doesn't
drink enough wine.
"No, I owe the apology, Sir Vladimir, and in fact there is a certain religious aspect
to science. You see, God made all beings, all things, the whole of existence. He is [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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