(urth) Forging Terminus Est

[Russell Wodell]

However you explain it, it starts to sound awfully phallic, doesn't it?

2008/7/2 John Smith <jsmith2627 at att.net>:

> Severian's sword Terminus Est is a long, heavy executioner's sword with a
> channel in the spine through which a river of mercury flows.  The mercury
> changes the balance of the sword as it descends and makes the blade feel
> alive.
>
>     I had always thought the mercury channel was an interesting but
> improbable feature.  The channel would weaken the sword and the empty area
> of the channel would have to be a vacuum, because air in the channel would
> impede the flow of the mercury.   If the steel around the vacuum channel
> were not thick enough, atmospheric pressure would crush the blade.
>
>     Some people have argued that the advanced technology that produced ray
> guns and time travel would have no problem producing such a sword without
> the blade being weak.   But I think appealing to advanced technology takes
> the fun out of speculating.
>
>     Wolfe has an engineering background and most technological marvels in
> his books have some basis in fact.   I began wondering if you could produce
> Terminus Est without resorting to the deus ex mechina of advanced
> technology.
>
>     The world of Urth has a lot of left-over marvels from the science of
> the past, but most of the inhabitants live a life with the technology of the
> middle ages.   Sword-making is an ancient art and medieval craftsmen created
> fine blades.   Terminus Est could be made as follows:
>
> 1.    Forge the sword as a swordsmith normally would, heating and hammering
> and folding the steel.
> 2.    After the sword is finished, drill a hole from the tang in the rear
> to close to the tip of the blade.
> 3.    Holding the blade tip-down, fill half the channel with mercury.
> 4.    Use a vacuum pump to expel the air, and then weld a plug at the base
> of the tang.  (Okay, vacuum pumps aren't medieval, but they were in use by
> the latter half of the 1600's.)   Or you might create a vacuum by filling
> the whole channel with mercury with a curved glass tube at the end.  Flip
> the sword over and the mercury would run down the channel and up the tube
> until atmospheric pressure balanced the weight of the mercury.
>
>      If  Terminus Est is 1 inch in thickness at the spine and if the
> channel is ¼ inch in diameter, the walls would be 3/8 inch thick.  This is
> enough to prevent the atmosphere from crushing the blade.
>
>     The blade of Terminus Est is an ell long (40 inches) and the grip is
> two spans (16 inches)   (Shadow, XIV).    So the sword is about 56 inches in
> total.  Leaving an inch at the tip and the tang, you could make a channel 54
> inches long.   If half the ¼ inch diameter channel if filled with mercury,
> the weight of the mercury would be about 10 ounces.  This would be enough to
> affect the balance and make the sword feel alive as you raised the blade and
> struck.
>     By increasing the diameter of the channel, you could increase the
> weight of mercury.   But a larger channel further weakens the sword.   I
> think a ¼ inch diameter channel leaves the sword with sufficient strength
> and provides enough mercury to make the sword behave as Severian describes.
>
>     The channel would still weaken the blade but not  enough for it to
> break under normal use.   Terminus Est shatters only when Baldanders hits it
> with his mace (Sword, XXXVII).
>
>     So I've changed my mind about the improbability of Wolfe's putting a
> mercury channel in Terminus Est.    I think a craftsman could have forged
> the sword without resorting to unknown technologies.
>
>
> Jack
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Jack
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-- 
Russell Wodell

"Quanti canicula ille in fenestra"
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