Ashan 13: 720
Eli was seated on the rug in the middle of the floor, inside the small room that he and Perdita had rented together. It was still cold out, in spite of the mild warming trends of Ashan; and most of the work that needed to be done, at least for now, could be done indoors. For the past three trials, ever since he and Perdie had sat on the shore while he'd told her what he was planning, Eli had been gathering the necessary supplies, tools and materials that they'd need.
The materials were scattered all around him on the floor. On the bed, leaned up against walls or propped in corner. Some of the things were new, like a tool or two in addition to what he'd owned already. Other things were gently or well worn, and yet some others looked like he might have raided a trash bin or two for them. The young man was determined that one trial, he'd been known and respected enough for his work that he wouldn't have to worry about gold nels to fund his work, and never have to scavenge for materials. Some trial though wasn't now.
In front of him on the floor was what at first might look like a stack of papers or an oddly designed book. But it was one of the first things Eli had shown and explained when he'd brought a roll of clean brown paper back from the butcher. Sketch and design books were good, he'd explained while carefully unrolling the paper to all of it's length, and beginning to fold it accordion style. But a proper engineers ought to have a set of plans that contained all of an idea together, and could be spread out in front of them, step by step.
He'd started at the beginning, drawing what might be a finished concept of a land glider. The Land Glider, Eli told Perdie, just as she'd named it herself. And then each page, whether looked at alone or stretched out, broke the project down into phases, bits and pieces that should all come together. He'd gotten an old, stained triangular sail, he'd told her, from an old man down at the docks whose small boat had gotten scuttled up on the rocks by a rogue wave and was itself beyond repair. The boom had been broken but he'd figured a broom stick in this case would do the trick just fine.
Looking up from his plans and meeting Perdie in the eye, he said, "You know, Domnall back in Rharne told me more than once I was mad for thinking I could build a machine that would fly with me in it. I told him that I considered it a compliment because there's never been a visionary who wasn't accused of being just a little off his rocker. When this one's finished, it won't be ready to fly just yet. But thank you for not thinking I'm mad for trying. Or at least," he added and grinned just to tease her. "For not saying it out loud. Seeing how you worried before about me putting carriage horses out of work."
So he'd gotten extra sail cloth, Eli continued, ticking through a number of the things they had at their disposal now. A couple of brooms...More broom sticks. Spools of good sturdy twine. Some good cut pieces of lightweight but strong wood, and lots of other useful bits and pieces. He'd even found what would serve as a wheeled frame for the body that Perdie had suggested. An old, three wheeled gardening cart. A good sized one, but he'd removed the carrying and dumping bit from the frame so that there was only that and the wheels. The first one was mounted so that it would turn this way and that, the back two rolled but were mounted on a fixed axle.
"So we've got the sail. And from the sail cloth and narrow strips of wood, that's what will make the stabilizing sails, or wings, on the sides, and the rudder in the back. All of them could be folded in on themselves if fashioned like a lady's fan?" he wondered aloud. The tail, shaped much like the tail of a bird or a fishtail. And the side sails more like a bird's wing, or maybe a bat since they wouldn't have feathers. Of course Perdita would have a better idea than him of how to create the basket so it would be as light as possible, but also strong enough to carry him, or him plus another.
Flipping back to his drawing of the wheeled frame, he looked down at it for a few trills with a contemplative frown before glancing up again. "I've been thinking about these wheels. They're smaller, but made like wagon wheels, so they're good and strong. But they're also fairly narrow. It would be fine on a smooth cobbled road or hard level ground, but they're also narrow enough that they'd bounce in and out of ruts. And if it was sandy ground, they might bog down."
"It would be better if we could make them wider, or even surround them with something to build on their width. Something that could hold up to the weight and strain. But rather not go with metal, since that would add more weight to the frame."
Which narrowed the options some, Eli realized. "The only other thing that comes immediately to mind, is to replace the wheels completely with new wooden ones that are much wider and sort of...I dunno. Curled up some at the edges so that they don't dig into sandy or muddy ground and collect it. You have any ideas about that?" he asked. And why not ask her? It was Perdie who suggested the body of the thing could be fashioned much like a basket. And it was a very good idea indeed.
