The flashlight-making process was inspired by these indigenous glow sticks.
If I hadn't discovered this bioluminescent Armillaria mellea, I probably wouldn't have thought of using this method to make a biological flashlight.
The flashlight is much simpler to make than the other gadgets I made before. All I need to do is make a large dome to reflect the emitted fluorescence.
Of course, that's true in theory. In practice, some materials still need to be processed appropriately.
I plan to make the old-fashioned long-handled flashlight, and the long handle will naturally be made of bamboo.
Before that, I asked the women of the nearby tribe who went to collect wild fruits and plant roots to help me collect some palm fiber.
The women were happy to help me, and in just one day they collected a huge bundle of palm fiber, enough to make a whole palm fiber mattress.
I asked everyone to help me break up some of the boiled palm fibers by placing them on a wooden felt and using a wooden mallet. To make these palm fibers more absorbent, we first had to extract some of the palm oil they contained.
Then, rub and rinse them in wood ash water, and wash off the wood ash solution with clean water. This will make the palm fibers softer.
I know there is cotton in the tribe, but the bacterial culture system we are making now will be more breathable if we use this kind of brown wool.
Only when fully exposed to air will the light become brighter, which is the real reason why I didn't use cotton with stronger water absorption.
However, these wild cotton plants later became an excellent material for me to make nitrocellulose, and their gunpowder properties were slightly improved.
Now everyone has nothing to do, including the high priest and this kind old man; the whole tribe is curiously surrounding me.
Whatever I need, Dante by my side only needs to say a word, and someone will immediately find it for me.
Right now, all I want is the moon in the sky, and they'll probably try to get it down.
The difference is that working together with a large team makes all the difference. Before, when I was making these tools by myself, I had to do most of the work myself, except for a few simple things that Top could hand me.
With everyone working together, the once quiet cave is now bustling with activity. These local people are very hardworking and happy to help me.
Under my direction, the cave echoed with the sounds of hammering and banging as rolls of brown wool, resembling extra-long toilet paper rolls, were produced.
I had everyone compare these brown wool rolls to the bamboo tubes; those that were too big to fit should be rolled smaller.
They were already very skilled at this task. They had made their own glow sticks in the same way before, so naturally they had no problem with it.
They just thought I was going to make glow sticks when they saw this. Even Dante asked me if I was going to make glow sticks, and said that they already had enough glow sticks and didn't need to make any more.
I just smiled at the young man and told him that what I was going to do was much more impressive than glow sticks.
Dante looked surprised when he heard me say that. He immediately conveyed my meaning, and everyone else had the same expression.
I was not only surprised, but also had absolute trust in them; they believed that the person who led them to victory could definitely make this.
I plan to turn these brown hair curls into bio-batteries to provide energy for Armillaria mellea.
Now, the only part that needs further processing is the connection between the lamp head and the long bamboo tube below.
The lamp head needs to be filled with a certain amount of Armillaria mellea to achieve a considerable brightness, so the "lamp beads" in front, which are large round balls made of palm fibers, are as big as a ball.
This part of the LED is directly connected to the lower section of the brown wool roll. When using it, you just need to pour nutrient solution on it, just like the natives did before.
Now we need to make the most crucial accessory for a flashlight, which is a concave lamp holder that can focus the light. This is also the principle behind how a flashlight can focus light and project it over long distances.
The concave surface of a typical flashlight, which focuses the light, is made of aluminum or a polymer material plated with aluminum.
But I haven't found any trace of aluminum ore yet, and refining aluminum would also waste a lot of time.
I currently have quite a few disassembled clam shells on hand. The inside of these shells is concave and very smooth with good reflective properties. They are definitely no worse than aluminum for use as spotlight holders.
However, the concave curvature of the clam shell is not large enough right now, so I need to soften the hard shell first.
An alkaline solution is needed to soften the bony material of clam shells.
This is because the main components of bones include minerals such as hydroxyapatite, and alkaline water can react chemically with these mineral components in bones.
For example, alkalis can gradually dissolve substances such as calcium salts in bones, thereby breaking down the hard structure of bones and achieving a softening effect.
There are many clam and snail shells of different sizes. Those that are too large are too thick and difficult to soften, while those that are too small do not have much surface area.
I selected some appropriately sized clam shells to use as a reflective layer, and then calcined the remaining clam and snail shells at high temperatures into white calcium oxide raw materials.
Next, simply add some water, and these white powders will react with the water to form a calcium hydroxide solution.
The clam shell needs half a day to react in the calcium hydroxide solution to fully dissolve the calcium salts inside, making it soft and malleable.
While waiting for the reaction, I started sawing off a few sections of giant bamboo tubes that were slightly larger than a ball.
Each section is just long enough to enclose the "light bulb" of the bio-flashlight. I then placed a layer of dry palm fiber inside the bamboo tube to form an arc that holds the "light bulb" in the center.
Next, the brown fibers need to be shaped into an arc. Since a reflective layer made of clam shell will be attached later, resin is used to shape the brown fibers into an arc and cure them.
With the help of the locals, the remaining flashlights were processed into semi-finished products. Since this false honey fungus requires oxygen to participate in the reaction, I no longer put a glass cover on it.
After soaking for a morning, the clam shells had softened considerably. Now, after being soaked in hot water to remove all the calcium hydroxide, the shells had become like plastic, deformable without breaking.
These clam shells are no longer as hard as before; they have become more resilient and can be easily cut with a knife.
I coated the cut clam shells with heated resin and, while they were still hot, attached them to the inside of the pre-made reflective arc bowl.
Because resin was applied to the palm fibers beforehand, the bonding process was quick and very strong.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com