Battery Making

After much thought, Richard came to a guess: the so-called "Highly Activated State" was most likely an "electrified state."

In the human body, cellular metabolism and neural signal transmission were both accompanied by the movement of potassium and sodium ions across cell membranes, producing bioelectricity. This bioelectricity was very weak, with voltages generally measured in millivolts (mV; 1 volt equaled 1,000 millivolts).

Though weak, bioelectricity was of great significance to humans. Changes in it could directly alter cellular metabolism or function within the body. For example, when a nerve fiber was locally stimulated by electricity, excitability at the cathode increased and membrane potential decreased (depolarization), while excitability at the anode decreased and membrane potential increased (hyperpolarization).

According to the description in the Chapter of Munro of how to construct a magic source, it was clearly a process of altering the body's structure in some way. It also involved so-called Mental Strength, which was very likely related to this bioelectricity. Perhaps it increased the body's bioelectric current to a certain level, allowing the body, under the influence of Mental Strength, to develop the new "organ" known as a magic source.

Of course, this was only a guess. Whether it was right or wrong remained to be verified.

The main reason Richard had summoned the two maids was to try making batteries capable of releasing electrical current for testing in this Middle Ages that had nothing whatsoever to do with "electrification."

The first thing Richard planned to make was the simplest kind of fruit battery. The raw materials required were only a piece of copper, a piece of zinc, a length of metal wire, and a fruit.

Because copper and zinc had different levels of reactivity, once inserted into the fruit, the zinc sheet underwent an oxidation reaction, losing electrons that flowed toward the copper sheet, thereby generating an electric current in the metal wire.

Since there was little difficulty involved, Richard gave a brief explanation and had the maid An Qi make one. She did not disappoint him. Before long, it was complete: a thin iron wire connected a fingernail-sized copper sheet and zinc sheet, both inserted into a pear.

The maid An Qi carefully handed the fruit battery to Richard. The moment he took it and touched it, he frowned, immediately realizing that the fruit battery was inadequate.

It was not a problem with the construction. After all, the method was so simple that it was practically impossible to make a mistake. The problem was the fruit itself. Fruit juice had to be acidic for the chemical reaction to proceed and generate a current. But compared to actual acid solutions, fruit juice was far too weakly acidic, so the current and voltage it produced were both too low.

Richard tested it with a simple tool he had made himself and found that the voltage was under 0.5 volts and the current under 1 milliamp. This level of current was stronger than the human body's normal bioelectric current, but it was far too weak to have any effect on the body's internal structure.

After all, the human body had electrical resistance. If the body itself spontaneously increased its bioelectric current, that was naturally no issue, but ordinary people without Wizard talent could not possibly accomplish that. If he wanted to apply a current externally and affect the body, using scientific methods to unravel Life Reshaping, then he had to overcome the human body's resistance of more than 1,000Ω and apply a stronger current.

The question now was how to obtain a stronger current. Richard frowned, thought for a few seconds, and began having the two maids make different fruit batteries.

Different fruits had juices with different levels of acidity, so the currents they generated naturally varied in strength. If he found the strongest one, it might be able to disregard the body's resistance of over 1,000Ω and meet his requirements.

There were actually quite a few fruits in the Middle Ages. Common ones included cherries, strawberries, blackberries, apples, pears, sweet cherries, plums, grapes, European plums, currants, mulberries, sloe berries, figs, dates, limes, lemons, and more than a dozen other varieties.

At Richard's command, people naturally prepared all these fruits. Before long, aside from a few that had not yet ripened due to the season, the rest were arranged on the experiment table.

Richard waved a hand, and the two maids, An Qi and Lu Na, quickly got to work. Before long, various fruit batteries were arranged in two rows on the table. An Qi's were on the left, and Lu Na's were on the right. Clearly, An Qi had made more.

Richard made no comment. He reached out, picked up one fruit battery, and began testing it. Before long, he set it down and picked up another.

After repeating this many times and testing all the fruit batteries, Richard had a clear understanding. Due to differences in acidity, several fruits did indeed produce stronger currents than the original pear, such as apples and currants. The strongest was the lemon, but even then, the voltage only barely exceeded 0.5 volts, and the current only barely exceeded 1 milliamp.

Under normal circumstances, the minimum current required for an adult male to feel a sensation averaged around 1.01 mA. In other words, with the resistance of the human body factored in, a current of this level was only just enough for an ordinary person to notice.

This was not what Richard wanted.

Richard stood in the laboratory, frowning deeply. Seeing his grave expression, the two maids exchanged a glance and barely dared to breathe as they cautiously lowered their heads. Although they knew full well that Prince would not lose his temper casually, much less punish servants without cause, it was never a good thing when Prince was unhappy.

Richard had no idea what the two maids were thinking. He merely continued seriously considering how to solve the problem.

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