[Bohrnn & GoldWoerth] Apprenticeship: Day 1

by **Kamilla** on April 3rd, 2015, 9:35 pm

Kamilla Circe Gordon

68th of Spring 512AV

It was Kamilla's first day as an apprentice at Bohrnn And GoldWoerth, which was surprising considering she'd only discovered the well-hidden building the day before. She'd been exploring the new city and after a while of wandering through stores had eventually stumbled upon it's alley, bridge and finally it's doors. Kamilla had probably spent near a bell examining the large selection of toys and gadgets, her eyes wide with amazement and intrigue, she assumed it was a combination of the two that had led Bohrnn to approach and offer her an apprenticeship, which she'd quickly accepted.

So, today she found herself in the astonishingly large workshop beneath the store, a massive room filled with machines, tools and people, all hard at work. Once she'd gotten through the simple introductory speech and other formalities she'd been given a small workstation along with a few sheets of paper detailing the six simple machines which she was expected to learn over her first few days. A quick glance at each sheet taught her that these simple machines were the lever, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge and the screw, most sounded vaguely familiar while she could make educated guesses about the rest.

Eager to get started, Kamilla began to read through the first sheet of instructions the moment she'd been left alone, beginning with the title, "The Lever".

'A lever is a machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or fulcrum. A lever amplifies an input force to provide a greater output force, which is said to provide leverage...'

Reading over the page only once, Kamilla felt it was straight forward enough that she already understood it, though she read the sheet a second time to memorise the jargon before moving on to the small diagrams for a short while. The young woman saw no need to dawdle on the basic 'machine' any longer and had soon set the first instruction sheet down and moved on to the second, "The Wheel and Axle." she muttered to herself as she began to read the sheet, hoping it would be as easy to understand as the first.

'The wheel and axle is generally considered to be a wheel attached to an axle so that these two parts rotate together in which a force is transferred from one to the other. In this configuration a hinge, or bearing, supports the rotation of the axle...'

Just like before, it didn't take much for Kamilla to understand the concept, the wheel and axle was similar to the lever in that it reduced the amount of effort needed to accomplish the devices purpose. Next came the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge and the screw, none of which took too much time for Kamilla to grasp, though the screw certainly took a bit longer. She had seen several examples of most of these 'six simple machines' down at Zeltiva's docks, used in the loading and offloading of cargo though she had never given them much thought until now.

by **Kamilla** on April 3rd, 2015, 10:07 pm

Kamilla Circe Gordon

Kamilla wasn't sure how long it had taken her to memorise the six sheets but she doubted it was longer than a bell, though Bohrnn had told her to draw a labelled diagram of each in order to make sure that they settled in her mind, so without delay or complaint, she began to draw each of the simple machines on the blank sheets provided. Although the work may have seemed quite rudimentary, Kamilla understood the importance of creating a good foundation to build upon, just like learning the basic concepts behind reimancy had made all following developments possible.

Drawing may not have been something she was particularly talented at, but the diagrams mostly consisted of straight lines, circles, triangles and arrows, all easily drawn by someone of her basic skills. As she drew each diagram, Kamilla found that she had to glance back at some of the instruction sheets she'd already read, which she'd apparently not learned as well as she thought. This was obviously the exact purpose of drawing the devices and Kamilla found herself slightly annoyed that she'd done exactly what the learning process expected of her, not liking the idea of being average in any way or form.

When she was finally done about another half a bell had passed by and Kamilla was beginning to get frustrated with the simplicity of her tasks while she was surrounded by employees that were hard at work assembling the store's many products. She'd been packed away in a neat little corner where she couldn't ask or bother anyone while they worked, enduring the heat of the workshop in solitude even though the air was filled with the noise of others that occupied the large space.

Barely a moment of respite had passed when Bohrnn had returned with a tray of gadgets and toys that looked to be split vertically down the middle so that one could see it's inner workings from the side. The old lady went on to hand Kamilla each of the devices, expecting her to identify which of the six simple machines, that she'd just learnt about, each toy or gadget used.

Some of the objects were quite simple, such as the wooden toy horse, which clearly made use of the wheel and axle device in order to roll and turn slightly. There was also a wooden dog toy that, when the tail was moved up and down, opened and closed its mouth, an inspection of it's inner workings quickly revealing a fulcrum and therefore an obvious answer, "A lever." she answered only a few ticks after observing the toy in action.

The rest of the toys ranged from simple to moderately difficult as they began to contain more than one machine working together, but Kamilla eventually got through all of them, showing a clear understanding of the basics of gadgeteering and it seemed that Bohrnn was satisfied as she told Kamilla that she was dismissed for the day. Although slightly disappointed at the lack of actual work she'd been given on her first day as an apprentice at Bohrnn and GoldWoerth, Kamilla accepted her dismissal and left for The World's End Grotto where she'd been staying since she'd arrived in Zeltiva. The young sorceress hoped that she'd learn something more useful to her skills as an animator during her next few days in the workshop, but only time would tell.

by **Kamilla** on April 3rd, 2015, 10:22 pm

Kamilla Circe Gordon

During her walk back to the inn, Kamilla wandered by the bustling Zeltivan docks, easily one of the most busy places in the entire city. Although she'd seen the docks plenty of times already, it suddenly felt quite different to her, everywhere she looked she could see and understand most of the many machines that were used to load and unload the wide array of ships that were docked in the large harbour. It was an unusual yet satisfying feeling to look at all the devices that had never interested her beyond their purposes and instead, see them for how they functioned.

An entire bell passed with the young sorceress simply frozen in place as she observed all the devices that inhabited the docks in action. Curiously she inspected each type for a while, then attempted to decipher which of the simple machines it belonged to, only to move on to the next. Just like with the toys and gadgets in the store, some were easy enough to categorise like the inclined planes, such as the planks that bridged the gaps between the ships and the dock, while a few were a bit more difficult to figure out at first, though none were so complicated that they had her completely stumped.

Kamilla couldn't help but feel quite satisfied with her expanded understanding of machines, it seemed that even the simplest examples that she'd only just learned that day were used everywhere she looked. It was as if her world had grown to include gadgets where she had once just seen objects that had a specific function. With all these new discoveries after just one day of being an apprentice at Bohrnn and GoldWoerth, Kamilla couldn't help but be excited about the next few days she would spend in the massive workshop.