Hello, Benjamin from Brother’s Campfire here! Today, I will try my hand at a different type of story so…
Gather ‘Round and I will spin you a tale.Â
The green tint on the glasses cut the glare of the torch as he prepped the threaded fittings. Taking a sky-high run was all the rage and the burners had to be just so to get there.Â
Jaydon Bluntbasher was manufacturing a lot of fittings these days. He never fancied the high fliers, preferring two well-placed feet on solid terra firma.Â
“Hey J.B., lend me a hand over here, will ya?”
It was Petra, a gearhead from the inner city. She had earned her place at the shop time and again and rented a booth.Â
“What, is your mechanical dog making farting sounds again?”
“Haha.” Petra was not amused. “One bad project and that is all you see. J.B. I think I have the perfect design for a gas bag that will take us to the top. I just need a good weld on this canister. “
The weld was a simple job for JB’s torch.
“Trying the hydrogen route, Petra? “
“Yeah.”
Sulfuric acid was placed in the canisters with iron bearings. The resulting hydrogen gas was pumped into linseed coated canvas.Â
“So what are you doing differently to gain more altitude?”
“I am bubbling the hydrogen through the water to purify the gas. This will help,”
JB was taken aback by her confidence. “How will you get back down?”
“Slingshot, of course!”
Her wicker basket was small and sleek, not the ornate renditions of the day. Meticulously, Petra measured the fabric that would hold three hydrogen spheres, each measuring 8 feet across. Theoretically, this was more than enough to lift her scrawny little frame.
Petra looked satisfied. “I have more than 200 square feet of fabric. This will end well. Help me put this in linseed, JB.”
The nutty smell of linseed oil was a little strong and JB opened a window. “Why are you soaking it? You only need to do that with the hydrogen spheres. “
“You’ll see.”
JB sparked his torch and went back to work. Petra’s first sphere was full and floated to the low-hanging roof of the shop. Torch in hand, JB looked up at the beautiful workmanship. Yanking hard at the attached tether, he pulled it close. “Wow Petra, this has some lift, why….”
Petra yelled.
“JB! Let it go! The hydrogen…!”
With a deafening bang, the sphere exploded.Â
Aside from ringing ears and a little missing hair, JB was fine. Hydrogen was flammable. Lesson learned there.
Author: Benjamin
Benjamin Thiel is a community leader, urban farmer, and author of The Ongoing Tale at Brothers Campfire. He might know a guy...
Love this! Looking forward to how this story progresses. God bless! P.S. The pain from the CO2 gas they pumped into my abdomen during the surgery finally went away yesterday. I even had some cramping in my shoulders. Moving around helped the CO2 absorb and go away. Did you get pain from that too? Wish they didn’t have to use that gas to perform the surgery.
The shoulder pain was real, friend. It went away after a bit. My hardest part was the attack without pain killers. I am having trouble slowing down.
I wish you speedy recovery friend!
Benjamin 🤠🔥
I’m very excited about this!
Good To Hear!🤠🔥
UUUUU! This is off to a promising start. I can’t wait to see what the brilliant Petra engineer comes up with next 😉
Me either!🤠🔥
I shared it on my blog too 🙂 https://erraticengineeress.blog/im-in-a-story-pt-2/
Way Cool! I will check it out!
Interesting, humorous and ironic.
Thank you!