novelraw Chapter 272: Seeing what humans cannot see
Chapter 272: Seeing what humans cannot see
And so, Gyda ordered the guards to bring the first item they would bid on, which was currently stored in the adjacent room where the inventory of manufactured goods was kept.
The guards, who were regular men equipped with iron armor, iron helmets, and standard iron spears, walked in a straight line into the room carrying a wooden table. On this wooden table rested a glass box that was covered entirely with a red cloth.
The attendees were amazed by the design of the container before they even saw the invention itself.
The glass box allowed light to pass through it cleanly without visual obstruction, which was a physical property that these men of war and power had only previously seen in very small, imperfect pieces of jewelry or irregular window panes imported from distant territories.
While this observation was happening among the guests inside the building, the commoners outside the structure looked through the windows to observe the proceedings taking place in the main hall. The men and women outside possessed a lower social rank, worked primarily in agricultural or manual labor sectors, and did not have the monetary wealth required to participate in the exchange of high-value goods taking place inside the room.
They spoke to each other in low volumes, exchanging factual statements about the objects on the tables and calculating the total sum of coins that the foreign leaders had brought with them in their heavy leather pouches.
After securing the attention of the people in the room, Gyda stepped forward from her position near the wall and moved her hand toward the table where the guards had placed the object.
"Gentlemen, welcome to the world’s greatest auction!" Gyda said, projecting her voice across the room so that all the attendees could hear her statement clearly.
She then moved her hand and removed the red cloth from the glass box to reveal the object situated inside the transparent container.
The people in the room leaned forward on their benches to look at the object, which rested on a flat wooden stand.
The invention was a simple microscope, which consisted of a very small, completely transparent glass sphere placed in a tiny hole inside a flat metal plate.
The metal plate was attached to a threaded iron rod that allowed the user to move the plate up and down by turning a small knob, which adjusted the physical distance between the glass sphere and a lower platform where various small objects could be placed for observation.
In his mind, considering the history of glassmaking and the current state of technology in the world, Ragnar knew exactly why this object was unique and valuable.
’The lenses in this century are rare and primitive, but no one has yet made a microscope to magnify small things...’ He thought, maintaining a neutral expression on his face as he watched the crowd process the visual information.
In the current time period, the few lenses that existed were used primarily by monks to read text and were made from polished quartz or uneven glass that heavily distorted the image and provided very little magnification.
The glass sphere in this particular device was produced by melting high-quality silica sand in a high-temperature furnace and letting a small drop of molten glass cool perfectly, creating a symmetrical spherical lens that magnified objects placed directly beneath it by a significant, measurable factor.
With those details presented visually to the crowd, Gyda began to explain the specific function and purpose of the tool to the assembled leaders.
She detailed how the curvature of the glass altered the path of light, a concept that was foreign to the military tactics and land management strategies usually discussed by these men.
After explaining the mechanics of the device, Gyda identified a specific participant from the crowd for a practical, hands-on demonstration.
"I ask the wife of the ruler of Ireland to step forward and look through the glass at the wing of the fly and the drop of water..."
Gyda instructed, gesturing with her hand toward the woman sitting next to the Irish leader on the left side of the room.
She stood up from her wooden bench and walked across the stone floor toward the table where the simple microscope was located, displaying a facial expression that indicated basic curiosity mixed with factual skepticism regarding the claims made by Gyda.
While the room remained completely silent, the Irish woman leaned over the metal plate and placed her right eye close to the small glass sphere. Gyda positioned the wing of the dead fly directly under the lens on the lower viewing platform.
The woman looked through the glass and saw the magnified structural composition of the fly’s wing.
The lens revealed the complex network of physical veins that structurally supported the wing membrane and the tiny hairs covering the surface, which were anatomical details that the unassisted human eye simply could not perceive under normal lighting conditions.
Following this initial observation, Gyda replaced the fly wing with a flat piece of clear glass containing a single drop of water sourced from the local well.
The woman looked through the lens again and observed the microscopic contents suspended within the water droplet.
With all these visual inputs processing in her brain, the woman reacted to the microscopic organisms moving within the boundaries of the water droplet.
She saw details of tiny living monsters and physical vein structures that no human in her geographic region had ever seen before in recorded history.
The organisms swam through the water, possessing distinct shapes, internal structures, and appendages that resembled the anatomy of larger animals but on an incredibly small, microscopic scale.
"There are living things moving in the water!"
The woman exclaimed, lifting her head away from the device and taking a step backward away from the table. Her verbal statement caused a rapid and significant shift in the behavior of the other attendees in the room.
The rulers, military commanders, and landowners stood up from their chairs and moved toward the center table, expressing a strong desire to look through the glass sphere themselves to physically verify her claim.
They went into a state of high activity, speaking loudly to one another and demanding a turn to use the device, entirely abandoning their previous formal etiquette...
After all the rulers had taken a turn to look through the glass sphere and confirmed the factual existence of the magnified structures and tiny organisms, they returned to their designated seats.
They logically concluded that this tool provided the ability to inspect the quality of agricultural materials, the cleanliness of drinking water supplies, and the physical composition of natural resources at a level of detail previously thought entirely impossible.
Because these men derived their military power and political authority from the direct control of land and natural resources, they immediately recognized the practical, economic utility of owning such an instrument...
Their desire to possess the tool for their own kingdoms completely overrode their earlier skepticism regarding its value.
And so, the official auctioneer, who was a man employed specifically by Ragnar to manage the exchange of currency and record financial transactions, announced that the bidding process would commence.
The attendees started bidding immediately, shouting numbers across the room.
The bids increased in increments of ten and twenty coins as the men vocalized their offers.
They utilized different physical currencies, including silver dirhams imported from trade routes and locally minted silver pennies, which the auctioneer quickly converted into a standard mathematical value in his ledger to accurately determine the highest valid offer.
In his mind, Ragnar listened to the increasing numbers being shouted by the rulers. ’It was easy to make, and it will certainly surprise these people.’
The total material cost of the device was merely a fraction of a single silver coin...
Despite the exceptionally low production cost of the item, the bidding among the foreign leaders continued to escalate rapidly.
’It’s also completely inexpensive. But let’s see how much they’ll bid on it...’ Ragnar thought to himself, observing a landowner from the eastern coast offer two hundred silver coins for the device.
They believed the perfectly round glass sphere was a rare gemstone or a product of complex manual labor.
While the bidding finally reached its natural conclusion, King Aedh MacNeill of Ireland submitted a final, undisputed offer of three hundred silver coins.
The auctioneer formally acknowledged the Irish ruler as the successful buyer and recorded the transaction details in his written ledger, confirming the transfer of ownership.
Gyda walked over to the table where the successful buyer was seated among his personal guards.
She carried the glass box containing the simple microscope and placed it firmly on the wooden table in front of him.
"The first transaction is complete..." Gyda stated, waiting for the buyer’s guards to secure the glass box before turning her attention back to the crowd.
She then turned her body to face the center of the room again, directing the visual focus of the attendees toward the second covered object resting on the display table.