Chapter 1313: The Information Age
In Graycastle, Neverwinter.
The reports regarding the battle on Archduke Island as well as the situation in the Kingdom of Wolfheart were delivered into Roland's hands two days later.
Compared to the past when it took a week to send a letter from the City of Evernight to Neverwinter, it was undeniable that their communication speed had made huge progress. Both short-distance, quick delivery by flying couriers and long distance delivery through twenty-four hour steam-powered boats were now a part of the messaging system. There were dedicated personnel and boats responsible for the delivery of crucial messages, and in some cases even planes were used. This time, the reports were delivered by Tilly.
"Good job." Roland solicitously handed her a Chaos Drink. "Is the situation over there okay?
"Wouldn't you know if you just looked at the report?" Tilly took the cup and glanced at him sideways. "For you to act so considerate, do you have something you are guilty of? Could it be that you still don't have a clue about my plane?"
"Pfft..." The sound of Nightingale stifling laughter came from behind him.
"How could that be, I've already selected the best model from many blueprints. When Anna can find some time, we will start the prototype production right away."
"For Anna's sake, I'll let you off this time, Brother." Tilly downed the drink in one go, wiped her lips and walked towards the exit of the office, "'Seagull' will be heading back soon so I'll be returning to the Aerial Knight Academy first."
"You're not even going to stay for one day?" he asked, slightly surprised.
"I have no choice. Right now the only things on the frontline that can threaten the Sky Lord are 'Seagull' and Andrea. Also... I don't want to miss a single opportunity to get my revenge." Tilly waved at Roland with her back facing him. "Well then, I'll be going now, Brother."
Nightingale sighed softly as she gazed at the closed door. "Everyone... is working hard."
If it was possible, I would rather they worked hard in other areas, not in warfare , Roland thought. However he didn't say it out loud—because before the Battle of Divine Will ended, before the fate of humans was determined, nobody could free themselves of this burden. Apart from shirking responsibility, there was no meaning in saying this now.
After a moment of silence, he unsealed the report.
After he finished reading all the reports, Roland at last understood the meaning behind Tilly's words. To be able to pass down the evacuation command in time and successfully ambush a grand demon lord whose movements were untraceable above the vastness of the sea was an incredible feat. Edith Kant and Andrea were undeniably the key contributors to the battle. But in the same way, the sender of the vital intel couldn't be ignored—victory would not have been possible without this person's selfless act.
"What do you plan on doing?" The issue had clearly caught Nightingale's attention.
"No matter what his original motive for sending out the secret letter was, his name and contributions shouldn't be forgotten," Roland said in a low voice. If this was in Roland's previous life, finding an unidentified informer after a long, drawn-out battle would be virtually impossible. The words on the epigraph of the gravestone would likely be: "Your name is unknown; however, your deeds are everlasting." Here, the existence of witches changed this. They allowed every single warrior who contributed to saving the fate of humankind have their name remembered in history. "After the First Army regains control of the Kingdom of Everwinter, get 'Black Money' to help Summer determine this person's name and background."
If the culprit who murdered him was still alive by then, they would not escape severe punishment by law.
Nightingale nodded. "If only we can quickly create the communications equipment that extends over thousands of miles that you spoke of."
"Unfortunately that is not one of my strengths." Roland couldn't help but rub his forehead. Recalling the circuit diagram that he had been forced to memorize made his head throb.
"Now you finally understand my feelings during an exam," Nightingale said with her hand to her mouth.
"Hard as it is, I'm at the very l east not like a certain someone who simply falls asleep on the table and hands in an empty test at the end." Roland glared at her. "I've actually almost done creating the prototype."
Indeed, although extremely slow, the radio communications project had never stopped.
Like the piston engine, after considering numerous designs proffered by the Design Bureau of Graycastle, he decided to select two among them and have them worked on simultaneously.
These two were the spark-gap transmitter and the amplitude-modulated transmitter.
The spark-gap transmitter was the father of telecommunication. Its design was extremely simple and didn't need any electronic components. All that was needed was a transformer coil to step up the voltage to charge the capacitor until the voltage in the capacitor was large enough to ionize the air and produce an electric spark. This part was similar to a lighter, except the current discharged by the spark would not be wasted and instead, would oscillate rapidly back and forth between the plates of the capacitor through the inductor and spark gap, creating electromagnetic waves. Finally, these electromagnetic waves would be transmitted through an antenna.
In other words, as long as one could control the switch of the power source, intermittent electromagnetic waves could be sent out, and by listening to the duration of the sounds, receivers could translate them into the corresponding signal. The beeps of varied lengths of telegraph codes originated from this principle.
Although it still sounded a little confusing, Roland took the most ingenious approach, which was to have the radio communications team at the Design Bureau of Graycastle to build a machine that worked with readily available materials, and then copy it.
For example, if you place a piece of oiled paper between two pieces of tin foil and then seal it with wax, it becomes a basic high-voltage capacitor.
The inductor would be even easier to make. It was nothing more than a coil of wire wound round and round an insulated pipe.
When not taking mass production or specifications into consideration, Roland could complete the device by himself. Although compared to the industrial products that came in a package the size of a fingernail in his previous life, these devices would appear bulky and crude, but the effects were basically the same. After the construction of the launch tower was completed, he would be able to perform the first wireless transmitting experiment of the era.
However, the shortcomings of a spark-gap transmitter were also very obvious.
Even if it passed the trials, he would have to design a code that matched the language of his kingdom if he wanted to use it officially. Training senders and receivers would also require a lot of time. Also the spark-gap transmitter had an extremely wide frequency spectrum so only one transmitter could work within a particular region. It wasn't suitable for the intelligence personnel to use on the frontlines.
Thus, his ultimate goal was still to use an amplitude-modulated transmitter (AM transmitter) that amplifies a signal using a vacuum tube.
The biggest advantage of the AM transmitter was that it could directly transmit voice signals.
In principle, radio and telephones were very similar in nature. Both transform the oscillations of sound into the changes in current or electromagnetic waves. After these travelled over long distances to the receiver's location, it would be turned back into sound once more. The only thing was that the frequency of the human voice was too low, causing the wavelength of the signal wave to be too long. The longer the wavelength, the larger the required antenna size—if the voice signals were directly transmitted, the length of the antenna would be over a hundred kilometers. This would be something impossible to create with their construction capabilities.
So in order to send out the voice signal, it would have to be carried by a higher-frequency wave.
This was where 'modulation' came in.
Once the new wave form created by the combination of the two was received, the receiver had to filter out the high-frequency waves through a series of demodulations and only keep the meaningful low-frequency waves in order to turn it into the final sound of the voice.
Once the AM transmitter succeeded, both the First Army and the intelligence community would be granted with real-time communications capabilities.
For war, the significance of this required no explanation.