18 The Leyden Jar

Near the evening, the sky above darkened quickly. The entire world emanated a strange and mysterious amber light, signaling an impending downpour.

At the square in front of Richard's palace, a bodyguard was holding a bizarre kite made by a craftsman and staring at the sky above him nervously.

Boom! Amid the layers of clouds, thunder roared, and a gust of strong wind swept across the square.

The bodyguard turned around. When he saw Richard nodding, he gulped and mustered his courage as he began flying the kite.

This was not an ordinary kite, but one that could attract lightning, as there was a gold chain on it. The string of the kite had been weaved with a thin silver wire, and a strange-looking bottle was attached to its end.

Richard had thought of this method—using a kite to capture lightning—after experiencing three consecutive failures.

In fact, many people had thought of it before, and some had even taken action to realize it. In June 1952 on Earth, American scientist Benjamin Franklin and his son had flown a kite with a bronze key attached to it. When the kite rose to the sky and was hit by lightning, electricity was conducted via the metal string on the kite, proving that lightning was also a form of electricity. After this, Benjamin Franklin became famous.

On Earth, this was considered primary school knowledge and not difficult to implement at all. The only consideration was how to store the electricity from the lightning, so Richard had chosen to use the Leyden jar, that bottle attached to the end of the kite string, for this.

The Leyden jar had been invented by Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek in 1745 on Earth.

The original Leyden jar had been merely a glass or ceramic bottle with tin foil coating the inner and outer surfaces. A metal rod went through the mouth of the jar, connected by the metal chain into the inner tin foil. On the end of the rod was a metal ball with a diameter of around one centimeter. Similar to the working principle of a capacitor, the jar could store a fixed quantity of electric charge and release it when needed.

Though the structure was simple, the electric currents it could contain were very strong. In a 1748 experiment conducted in Paris, the electricity released by the Leyden jar was enough to make over 200 monks holding hands jump at the same time.

Therefore, this method could definitely meet his requirements.

Richard glanced at the bodyguard as he pondered over this.

The wind at the square became increasingly stronger, and the kite in the bodyguard's hands rose higher and higher until it reached the sky.

Boom! There was a flash of lightning. The dark and gloomy ground suddenly lit up, and an enormous blurry black shadow swept across it. He then heard thunder.

The bodyguard had a fright. Gritting his teeth and holding his breath, he kept pushing the kite to fly higher.

Puff, puff. The strong winds raged, and bolts of lightning flashed across the stormy clouds in the sky.

Suddenly, there was a loud thunder, and a lightning bolt hit the flying kite.

The entire kite turned into a ball of flames, fire spreading down along the string of the kite.

The bodyguard's face paled instantly, and his eyes widened. The moment he saw the flames, he couldn't help but to let go of the kite, and the Leyden jar attached to the end of the kite string was also dropped.

Edward, who was standing by his side, witnessed this. He cursed and gave the bodyguard a hard kick. He then leaped for the Leyden jar, reached out and caught it before it fell on the ground.

Edward's eyes also widened when he saw a flash of blue light landing on the bottle in his hands through the kite string. A numbing sensation enveloped his body and, simultaneously, all the hair on his body stood up. He was terrified—a fear of the unknown—and he suddenly could not move.

After a long while, this numbness left his body, and his hair returned to normal. Edward took a deep breath and started moving. He threw a harsh glance at the bodyguard beside him and then ran to Richard with the Leyden jar.

As he approached the palace, it started raining cats and dogs. All of a sudden, the entire sky turned white, and there were sounds of rain splashing.

Edward was dazed for a moment and thanked his good fortune. He turned around, glanced at Richard and passed the Leyden jar to him. "Your Highness, it's done."

"Okay." Richard took the Leyden jar and nodded slightly. He turned around and left without speaking further.

Behind him, Edward said quickly, "Your Highness, you haven't eaten lunch. What about dinner—" Before he could finish his words, Richard's figure had already ascended to the second floor and disappeared from his sight.

Edward smiled helplessly and muttered to himself, "Sigh, he's not going to eat for a whole day again. If he doesn't take breakfast tomorrow, it will be an entire day. Sigh, it's so difficult to be chief bodyguard."

The sun hadn't fully risen by the time he woke up the next morning.

When the yawning Edward walked past the dining room and took a casual glance at it, his eyes suddenly widened. He saw Richard in the dining room having his breakfast.

"This…"

Edward rubbed his eyes hard to confirm that he was seeing correctly. He walked into the dining room in disbelief and asked, "Your Highness, you- why are you up so early today?"

"Well, I can't sleep," Richard said nonchalantly. He used the knife to slice the white bread into pieces, spread some sour fruit jam on it, and then he put it into his mouth.

Richard appeared to be thinking as he frowned and ate.

Last night, the experiment with natural lightning and the Leyden jar had failed. Otherwise, he would not be having his breakfast that early.

Following The Writings of Monroe, Richard had conducted the second experiment to decipher the science behind the second life construction. After entering the astral projection mode, he had spent a herculean effort to make his consciousness awaken his body and had then released the electricity in the Leyden jar into it. He had been hoping to increase the bioelectricity in his body, enter the highly activated state, and create a magic source.

The electric current of the Leyden jar was certainly strong enough. Soon, Richard's body started to undergo magical changes, but it had only been for a short duration.

This was because the Leyden jar was by nature a capacitor and could only release one-time electric currents. Therefore, when the stored electricity was used up, the highly activated state disappeared instantly, and his body returned to normal. Hence he had not been able to create the magic source.

"As expected, just luck won't help me decipher the second life reconstruction. I have to spend more time and energy in this," Richard muttered.

By the time he had eaten another piece of white bread with sour fruit jam, which tasted as dry as dust, Richard had already made up his mind.

In fact, it was not difficult to obtain a stable source of electric current, even in this medieval world. He could still do that with a few simple materials, yet the process was tedious and he had wanted to save the trouble, which is why he had conducted the fruit battery experiment and so on. However, since that had not worked, he would have to use the most tedious and cumbersome method, and also the most direct way.

He reached out for his cup, gulped down its content, and wiped his mouth with a napkin. He then glanced at Edward and instructed, "Can you find me the royal craftsman?"

"Now? Here?" Edward was slightly stunned.

Richard nodded and confirmed, "Yes."

"Er, yes, Your Highness." Edward walked away quickly.