To the surprise and delight of his close associates, the taciturn Lytol became an avid user, accessing files from the widest range of topics. He insisted on taking the late shift, as he never required more than four hours of sleep anyway.
"Lytol's always been a deep person, with unexpected reserves-or he wouldn't have survived as long as he has," Jaxom replied to those who commented on Lytol's new obsession. "Though I don't understand his fascination with all that dry historical stuff when there's so much more that we can apply to living and working here and now."
"On the contrary, Jaxom," the Harper replied. "Lytol's investigations may be the most significant of all."
"Even more significant than Fandarel's new water-turbine power stations?"
The Mastersmith had taken great satisfaction in demonstrating how a model of the proposed generator worked, as his foundry labored day and night to complete the components of the full-scale machinery.
"That is certainly significant now," the Harper replied, choosing his words carefully. "But there's the problem of general acceptance."
Various study rooms had been set up, each dedicated to a different subject. Two of the larger rooms became laboratories to teach the basic sciences that Aivas felt were required as foundation courses, as he termed them: chemistry, physics, and biology. One room had been set aside for short consultations, and another for general teaching; a fairly large room was set aside for the healers, and its walls covered with various diagrams "of the most gruesome sort," in Jancis's estimation. Aivas also requested that a room be reserved for special students, those who were taking concentrated courses in a variety of subjects: Jaxom, Piemur, Jancis, K'van, T'gellan, N'ton, Mirrim, Hamian, three journeymen, an apprentice of Hamian's, four other young bronze riders, two brown, four blue, and three green riders. Other riders would follow when there was space in the classes, since the Weyrs were the most eager to take advantage of Aivas.
Occasionally Robinton liked to walk down the hall and listen in on the instructions. One day when he peered in on a lesson including Jaxom, Piemur, Jancis, and two Smithcraft Journeymen, he saw an astonishing sight.
A ring of dull metal hovered about two inches above the high worktop in front of them. As they reached forward to touch it, it slipped along the bench as if it were on invisible rollers. Aivas continued his explanation.
"The lines of magnetic force in the ring are induced in such a way that they exactly oppose the electromagnets that are generating the field."
Robinton made himself small against the doorjamb, so as not to disturb the fascinated students.
"This is far more dramatic at very low temperatures, where there is no electrical resistance, the rings are superconducting, and the current passes without any loss. There are not the facilities here to show you this, but you will be ready for the superconductivity lesson in three or four weeks. Jaxom will be ready for it sooner; Piemur must do more on winding electromagnets with proper toroidal windings. Journeyman Manotti, your metal formers were not up to the standard required, but you have a week in which to improve."
Robinton tiptoed quietly away, not wishing to embarrass the students. But he was smiling as he sauntered back to the entrance halclass="underline" a good teacher should give praise, encouragement, and admonition as required.
There were auxiliary workshops for smith, glass, and wood crafts in the larger of the excavated structures at Landing, staffed with masters, journeymen, and apprentices.
One morning, Lytol and Robinton were startled to hear a loud explosion and rushed to the source of the sound, which had come from Master Morilton's glass forge. There they found Master Morilton helping Jancis to blot the blood from a mosaic of cuts on the face of Caselon, one of the Glass-smith's apprentices. There were tiny bits of mirrored glass everywhere.
"Now," Master Morilton was saying calmly, addressing his remarks to the others in the forge, "you appreciate why protective goggles are so important. Caselon could well have lost his eyesight when that thermos glass exploded. As it is..." Morilton glanced inquiringly at Jancis.
"As it is," she said, with a wry grin, "Caselon's going to have the most interesting pattern of scars. Oh, don't worry," she added as the youth cringed. "They'll heal to nothing. Don't grimace. You'll only bleed until I've got you properly annointed with numbweed."
As Lytol turned to deal with the press of curious people who had rushed over, Robinton looked about the place. Master Morilton had certainly set up quite a crafthall here. A pump was going tapockety-tapockety in the corner. A tube reaching up to the apparatus had a leather collar at the top, on which were the remains of a mirrored bottle neck. The rest of the glass was everywhere in the room, a myriad of tiny glinting pieces.
"Shards," Caselon muttered, trying not to flinch from Jancis's ministrations. "That was my twentieth!"
Robinton then noticed that nineteen vacuum flasks were neatly racked on Caselon's half of the worktable; another twelve stood on the other side, where another apprentice, Vandentine, was working. How they had escaped the flying glass splinters, he didn't know.
"We are not in competition mode here, Caselon," Master Morilton said, wagging a stern finger at the boy. "What exactly happened? I was concentrating on Bengel's wand work."
"I dunno," Caselon said, shrugging one shoulder.
"Aivas?" Master Morilton asked. The glasswork facility included a direct connection to Aivas.
"When he molded the glass, he didn't ultrasonicate it or even tap it as you have taught him, to get the bubbles out of the mix. He was too busy trying to outproduce his partner. There were bubbles in the glass, so that under vacuum it imploded. But you may now use two of his vessels to demonstrate the properties of liquefied gases."
Numbweed had stemmed the bloodflow from Caselon's face, so Master Morilton gestured for him and Vandentine to follow him to an adjacent room. Robinton trailed behind. In this room, there was a different kind of pump; from a frost-covered nozzle, drops of a faintly blue liquid dripped to fall into a thick, mirrored catch-pot every second.
"The blue liquid is the air itself, the air in this room," Aivas continued, "which we are compressing and then rapidly expanding so that it cools again and again, further and further, until a tiny fraction of it liquefies."
Master Morilton said, "Don't touch the radiator vanes-they'll blister your fingers. This, Master Robinton," he added, smiling at their guest, "is a multistage refrigerator, quite different from the one you've been using in Cove Hold to chill fruit juice and foodstuffs."
Robinton nodded wisely.
"This last stage is the most difficult," Aivas said as Master Morilton gestured for Caselon to fill his flask. The room was filled with mist as the liquid air seethed until it had cooled Caselon's flask. Robinton moved his feet away as some of the pearly drops ran across the floor toward him. "Now, Caselon," Aivas instructed, "return to your workspace and observe the antics of liquid air."
Caselon was already doing so as he left the room.
"Play with air?" Robinton asked, perplexed, and he noticed Master Morilton's knowing smile.
"This liquid helium," Aivas went on, "or rather, these liquids can flow in opposite directions at the same time; they will creep out of the top of a tall vessel and leave none in the bottom, and will even creep faster, much faster, through tiny holes than through large ones. You may fill a flask with liquid air yourself, Master Robinton, and experiment on your own. This is one of the most dangerous, and therefore educational, exercises for the students to do. Jancis, Sharra, there are flasks for you, too; this experiment is an important one for both of you." The way the two girls smirked at each other suggested to Robinton that they didn't know why it would be. "When you have become familiar with liquid air, we can begin to learn about the special properties of liquid hydrogen, and especially of liquid helium."