Grantville Gazette 37

The Autochrome process used starch grains dyed in red, green and blue, randomly distributed over a photosensitive emulsion. Or at least that's what the instructions in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica said. 'Do you know what is wrong?'

'It is obvious that there is some step, some additional chemical or process missing from the published directions, so we will do what we always do.'

'And that is?' Lips asked.

'Revert to basic principles. Take what we know, and try adding things to the known until we discover the unknown.'

That didn't fit with the basic principles of chemistry he'd picked up in the few up-time science classes he'd managed to sneak into back in Grantville. Those had suggested a much more theoretical approach. 'Does that work?'

'It is how I discovered how to make the Amazing Essence of Fire Tablets the up-time chemists claimed couldn't be made.' Phillip pulled the camera's blackout cloth over his head.

Yes, well, Lips knew all about those fire tablets. If you knew what you were doing, and Hans Saltzman, Phillip's trusted personal laborant of nearly five years, certainly did know, you could turn those fire tablets into high explosive. It had been interesting watching Hans make up some of the explosive and then detonate it on a farm outside Jena's walls. For such a small amount of explosive, it had made a very big hole. But it was the first time he'd heard that the up-timers hadn't believed it was possible to make the precursor. Maybe there was something to Phillip's approach to research that was better than the up-timer science.

Phillip reappeared from under the blackout cloth and closed the shutter before opening the slides on the film cassettes. 'Everything is ready. If you would like to set the experiment in motion.'

Lips took the hint and turned off the lights before initiating the flame test. Moments later the spectral lines were visible on the detector. Phillip opened the shutter, and Lips ensured the flame had a steady supply of prepared loops for the twenty-second exposure.

****

Lips sat beside Phillip as he studied the color image projected onto the screen. The use of colored filters meant that the sets of black and white photographs taken by the three-color camera could be projected onto a screen to form a single color image. On the screen in front of him was a nearly perfect record of the spectral lines produced in the flame test.

'Well, that seems to have worked,' Phillip said.

'You sound surprised?'

'Of course I'm surprised. Nothing ever works the first time.'

'But Schmucker and Schwentzel's camera worked, so why shouldn't yours?'

Phillip looked up and shook his head. 'The voice of someone who has not yet run into the great Murphy.' He looked Lips directly in the eyes. 'If anything can go wrong, it will. Remember that, Lips. Remember that.'

January 1636, Prague

There was a hubbub of conversation in the meeting room of the Prague chapter of the Society of Aural Investigators, the professional body responsible for maintaining the standards of the profession. Zacharias carried his steaming mug of Tincture of Cacao-the beverage the society had virtually made its own-to the table where Johann was sitting. 'Sorry I'm late, but some fool forgot to refill the Wetmore's reservoir, and it ran out of water in the middle of a calculation. I had to refill the reservoir and bleed the whole thing before I could do anything.'

'Another reading for the king?' Johann asked.

'Yes.' Zacharias was proud of himself. He hadn't come across as overly smug. As Aural Investigator to the king, he was someone-and the increase in business from people who wanted the king's aural investigator to read their aura didn't hurt.

'Did you manage to find yourself a red gemstone for the bracelet?'

'Yes, Roth's had the perfect red gemstone-a Mexican opal. I had them cut and set it in the bracelet.'

'Did it work?'

'It was the calculations based on the bracelet that kept me so long.' He took out a notebook, opened it to the right page, and passed it to Johann. 'Have a look. The king should be highly impressed when I tell him how much closer to the ideal state his aura is.'

Johann skimmed over the numbers before handing the notebook back. 'Of course, it would be a lot better if you could record the aura in color.'

'Of course it would be easier, but nobody is doing color . . .' Zacharias stopped because Johann was shaking his head. 'Someone is?'

'If you'd been here earlier you would have heard Zankel reading from the latest issue of the Proceedings of the HDG Laboratories. It has a centerfold of color photographs from one of the doctor's experiments.'

'What?' Zacharias was horrified that he'd missed such news. He stood and searched the tables for a copy of the Proceedings. Sighting one, he hastened over and secured a copy. He knew he had the right issue as soon as he opened it. There was a centerfold in high-quality white paper with color images of spectral lines from flame tests. He hastened back to Johann and sat down. 'Does he say how he does it?'

'Would you?' Johann asked.

'No.' Of course he wouldn't give away information like that. It'd be worth a fortune. He hastily skimmed through the articles in the journal, looking for anything that might cast light on the question of how it was done, and more importantly, how long it would be before the technique was available for everyday use.

'You can stop hunting. Everyone has already looked, and there is nothing about the method in that issue.'

Zacharias quickly checked the publication date-January, 1636. The Proceedings were published three times a year, so that meant the next issue wouldn't be out until May. 'A letter to the doctor asking about the technique's application to Kirlian imaging is definitely indicated.'

'Already decided while you were playing with the aqualator,' Johann said. 'Martin Zankel has been told to write a letter on behalf of the chapter.'

'We won't be the only chapter writing, you know,' Zacharias pointed out.

'Of course not. But if we don't send a letter the doctor won't know we're interested in knowing the answer. I expect he'll put together a form letter and send it out to anybody who inquires.'

February, Jena

Lips was happily sitting in the sun reading one of Phillip's up-time science textbooks when his light was suddenly cut off. He looked up to see the looming shapes of Fraus Beier and Mittelhausen, and Hans Saltzman blocking out the sun.

'See, he is perfect for the job,' Hans said.

'Just because he reads the doctor's books doesn't mean he understands them,' Frau Beier said.

Lips used a bookmark to mark where he was and shut the book. 'What job?'

'The doctor is distracted by Frau Kastenmayerin's pregnancy, and is not giving his correspondence the attention it needs,' Frau Beier said.

'You want me to go through Phillip's mail?'

'Only the letters that raise scientific concerns,' Frau Mittelhausen said. 'I will continue to manage the business correspondence.'

'But why me? Why not Hans? He knows much more about the new science than I do.'

'Because someone has to run the laboratories while the doctor is distracted, and besides, your Latin is much better than mine.'

'What is it I'm supposed to do?'

'It is a very difficult task. Frau Beier or I would have sent Frau Hardesty a polite letter when she mistook the Sal Vin Betula for an up-time treatment for impotentia coeundi. The doctor saw an opportunity. You must take the doctor's place looking for opportunities.'

'But how am I supposed to do that? How does Phillip decide whether or not something is an opportunity or not?' Lips got three matching shrugs in reply.

'Now you see why I don't want the job,' Hans said

****