Chapter 125 - 125 Vacuum Flask
On a certain clear day, Steve gathered with his family and Cyril's family in the manor's garden, letting the children play.
The manor's garden had been completely replaced with soil by Steve, and lush green grass grew thickly. It was designed so that children would not get injured even if they fell. Both Steve's children and Cyril's children had not yet fully graduated from the crawling stage, making them prone to falling.
Watching over such children were their wives, while Steve and Cyril were working.
Christina, Nancy, and Aila looked at their respective husbands with exasperated expressions.
"Aila, your husband is also a workaholic."
Christina pointed at Steve and Cyril.
"Hahaha. Well, the reason I can live as a noble is thanks to that. Besides, he always takes one day off a week to take care of the children. Compared to other nobles I've heard about, I think he spends time facing his children."
"That's right. Chris, you tend to think based on Lord Archibalt or the Archibalt family as a standard, but try remembering your own childhood."
Nancy said this, and Christina recalled her childhood. At that time, the Earl of Macintosh rarely returned to his domain, and it was common for both husband and wife to work in the Royal Capital. Even when he did return occasionally, he only met with the vassals of the domain, and rarely ate meals together with Christina.
Once she grew up enough to go to the Royal Capital together, there was time spent together, but it was not to fulfill the role of a parent; rather, it was to be together in search of a fiancé for his daughter.
Thinking about it that way, Steve washing diapers could be said to be doing something much more like a parent.
A long time had passed since coming to the House Archibalt, and before she knew it, Christina's thinking had become based on the Archibalt family, where the family was always together.
"Is that asking too much?"
Christina asked the two of them.
"No. According to Lala's research, the longer the time spent with parents during early childhood, the better the child becomes. It is still under research, but wouldn't it shake up the way of noble society?"
Aila answered. Regarding this, there were few research examples yet, and the theory was still being investigated to see if it was correct, with more cases to be confirmed later, but it caused a huge shock upon its announcement.
This caused some social movement. Noble parents began to try to make time for their children. Daphne, who was already doing this originally, began receiving consultations from other mothers.
Now, while receiving the gazes of such wives, what were Steve and Cyril doing? They were conducting experiments with vacuum flasks.
Steve used his magic to make stainless steel vacuum flasks and compared the temperature changes with jars that were not vacuum flasks.
In the morning, hot water was made, put into each container, brought to the garden, and they waited for time to pass.
The hot water in the jar was no longer emitting steam, and when Steve measured the temperature with his magic, it had dropped to 25°C, the same temperature as the air. However, when the lid of the vacuum flask was opened, steam came out. Even after three hours, it maintained 85°C.
"It's a success."
Cyril poured the hot water into a cup and felt the temperature with his body.
"The problem is that it cannot be mass-produced."
General vacuum flasks have a double structure, creating a vacuum in the space between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder.
The reason for doing so is to block "heat transfer," which is the movement of heat. Temperature drops because heat moves, and this consists of three types: heat conduction, convection, and radiation.
Heat conduction is molecular motion. When heated, molecular motion becomes vigorous, and when molecules collide, energy moves from high-energy molecules to low-energy molecules, causing heat to move. However, in a vacuum, there are no air molecules, so this heat conduction does not occur.
Convection is the phenomenon where hot air expands and tries to float, transferring heat to the surroundings through heat conduction. This also does not occur in a vacuum where air does not exist.
Radiation is the phenomenon where heat is transmitted via electromagnetic waves. If heat does not travel in a vacuum state, the sun's heat would not reach Earth through space. However, in reality, the sun's heat reaches Earth because heat travels via infrared electromagnetic waves. The vacuum flask has a mechanism using copper or silver to reflect this radiated heat and prevent it from escaping.
These things rely on the existence of a vacuum, but creating a vacuum is not easy. Furthermore, the stopper of the vacuum flask must be soldered within that vacuum. Even water bottles sold cheaply in Japan as vacuum flasks would be difficult to make in another world.
Incidentally, this time, Steve used Separation Magic to separate air from the vacuum flask's space to create a vacuum. Welding machines can also be made with magic, so a vacuum furnace soldering machine could be created. Although there is a view that welding and soldering are different things, since soldering is included in the welding category of Industrial Magic, a vacuum furnace soldering machine can be made.
However, there was a problem: if trying to stopper and solder in a vacuum state, how would the work be done?
For the bottle's resistance welding, Steve also needs to make a resistance welding machine with his magic. Resistance welding is generally known as spot welding. Additionally, when rolling iron plates to make pipes, the two ends are welded with resistance welding to form a cylinder. While the resistance welding machine can be made with magic, the equipment to roll the iron plates cannot be made.
Therefore, regarding these vacuum flasks, they are planned to be sold to nobles through the Oclair Trading Company. Since there is no merit other than being rare, it is unknown how much will sell.
The reason for prototyping the vacuum flask this time was that numerical values were needed to explain invisible molecular motion and the movement of heat. Cyril planned to summarize this in a report and send it to the Royal Research Institute.
Just as the confirmation ended, Isabella came crawling over to Steve.
"Isabella, come here."
When Steve picked her up, Isabella started crying.
Seeing this, Nancy ran over in a panic. When Nancy picked her up, Isabella stopped crying.
Steve spoke to Cyril with a bitter smile.
"She still cries when I pick her up sometimes."
"Mine too. She doesn't cry even when the wet nurse picks her up."
"How about investigating how children distinguish between males and females?"
"I hope the research results come out before the next child is born."
Fathers discussed the worries of raising children, but in the end, they did not conduct that research.
While holding Isabella, Nancy asked about the vacuum flask.
"Lord, what is this tube?"
"It's called a vacuum flask, a water bottle where the hot water inside doesn't cool down easily. If you put cold water in, it stays cold."
"Is it magic that keeps the hot water from cooling?"
"No, it's science."
Hearing "science," Nancy tilted her head.
"Why is it called a vacuum flask if it's not magic?"
"Because it's a bottle that doesn't cool down like magic."
The term "vacuum flask" is common in Japan, and there is no confusion because there is no magic, but in a world where magic exists, it causes confusion.
Steve reflected that he should have thought of another name.
"If warm hot water can be stored without using magic, it would be very useful for armies operating in cold regions."
"I didn't think of that idea."
Steve admired Nancy's line of thinking, fitting for a soldier.
However, since it cannot be mass-produced, Steve would have to respond to orders from the army, but that would not sustain the domain's industry.
There were many such items, and this was a worry for Steve. While profits came into the House Archibalt, the common people did not receive those benefits. The food self-sufficiency rate was near 100%, and if the weather turned bad, food shortages would occur immediately. He wanted to increase industrial production so that food could be bought with money.
As a result of expanding the factory, the food required for the increased workers and their families had increased, so the situation remained unchanged.
Furthermore, there were meals for guests at the hot spring inn, making it strict to cover food needs solely within the domain.
If food shortages occurred and factory profits alone were insufficient to buy food, the lord would have to deplete assets to purchase it, so having plenty of money was never a problem. Mass production was impossible, but Steve thought it would be good to have places that bought in large quantities, so he asked Cyril if the army would buy them.
"Will the army buy them?"
"As Lady Nancy said, units in cold regions would want them. It depends on negotiations with the budget."
"At the rip-off prices for nobles, they won't buy."
"For now, since it cannot be imitated, there is no rip-off price; the seller's asking price is the fair price. Well, perhaps that will make them allocate research budgets to try to solve it."
If the voices demanding it became loud, as they did during the hot spring incident, the country would not be able to ignore it and would allocate research budgets.
"Speaking of which..."
Steve had only been thinking of stainless steel vacuum flasks, but if they were glass vacuum flasks, he had a vapor deposition device, and if they could create a vacuum state, it might be possible.
He had estimated the jigs for a glass vacuum flask production line in his previous life and had visited a factory line. He remembered that.
And he showed Cyril a double-glass vacuum flask.
"If it's glass, we can have glassblowers blow it by hand and cover it with an outer cylinder."
Incidentally, JIS Standards have a specification called "mahoubin." It stipulates both glass-made and stainless steel-made mahoubin. Steve is not familiar with those standards, so he is only talking about the vacuum flasks he has used or seen.
"Does this mean we can mass-produce vacuum flasks in this domain?"
"No, it's difficult because there are no glassblowers. Perhaps we could send someone to apprentice at a workshop and bring the technology back."
When glass vacuum flask production first started in Japan, domestic glassblowers could not make glass vacuum flasks, so they hired craftsmen from abroad to produce them. Based on the Royal Research Institute's research, if production succeeded at some workshop, he was considering sending someone to apprentice there.
Also, there are JIS Standards for vacuum. Vacuum is not the absence of air, but a state within a space filled with gas at a pressure lower than atmospheric pressure. It specifies five stages from low vacuum to ultra-high vacuum, and it is not about the presence or absence of air.
Therefore, vacuum pumps can also be handmade. It would be fine to create a mechanism like those used in school experiments: attaching a simple valve to a syringe, sucking air out of the container, and expelling it outside. If pressure can be reduced, a vacuum is achieved.
Nowadays, these can be bought at a 100-yen shop, but in a world where precision machining is impossible and resin molded products do not exist, reproducing them is difficult. However, since the structure can be conveyed, Steve drew an idea diagram for a vacuum pump in Cyril's notebook.
"I'll send a few people to the glass workshop using the sales revenue from the magic-made vacuum flasks."
"I will cooperate at that time."
Cyril took on the job of introducing the workshop.
And, as expected, an order came from the army for the vacuum flasks. For soldiers in cold regions, Steve sold them to the army at an affordable price, and the army was very grateful.
The army lobbied the country, and a Knight Baron title was granted to Steve. This is a title that can be given to children who cannot inherit the Archibalt Viscountcy, allowing them to become nobles.
Incidentally, they were sold at rip-off prices to nobles. To prevent the black market diversion of army vacuum flasks, serial numbers were engraved on the flasks, so no insolent person appeared to try diverting them while Steve's back was turned.
Thank you always for your typo reports.