How would you turn a spanreed into a fabrial radio?

[+Oltux72 he/him]

Do we have mechanical engineers among us? I'd use an airtight chamber sealed at one end with a metal foil. Then I'd attach one tip of a spanreed with a rod to the center of the foil. Then the spanreed is rested on a well lubricated pivot allowing free swinging in the plane defined by the rod and the spanreed. Here we go. What do you think? As far as I can see Roshar at the time of Rhythm of War has all the necessary technology.

[Quantus he/him]

Yup, that should do it, Cool idea!  A Spanreed can essentially become an infinite string in the old two-cup child's "radio", all you need is a functional drum and resonator chamber/cone at each end.  Depending on how sensitive the spanreeds can be to vibration-scale motion, you may or may not need to tweak the the mechanical bits you describe to act as an amplifier, but it sounds like it would do the trick if I'm picturing it right.  Metal parts might cause some unintended fabrial interference, so organic materials might be better.  

 

Now here's where it get's fun: you should be able to then make a purely mechanical "switchboard" that would let you physically couple spanreeds together, and thus bridge one (or more) spanreeds lines to a shared voice chat.  If they're lucky and/or clever with some dampers and whatnot it might work with an open line for everyone and a common sound chamber in the middle (probably with some echo problems at least), otherwise they might need a more complex system for each participant to switch from Receive Mode to Transmit mode like with your average handheld radio.  

Edited October 6, 2022 by Quantus

[Treamayne]

Don't forget what we learned in RoW about unequal gemstone halves amplifying a fabrial connection. If a small stone was used on the "mic" portion and a larger used on the "speaker" you would have a functional amplifier. 

Not just a radio - you could effectively have a "bug."

[Quantus he/him]

3 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

Don't forget what we learned in RoW about unequal gemstone halves amplifying a fabrial connection. If a small stone was used on the "mic" portion and a larger used on the "speaker" you would have a functional amplifier. 

Not just a radio - you could effectively have a "bug."

Does that hold true with Spanreed Gems that are Cut in half after the spren is trapped?  It would mean cutting the spren into unequal parts and I dont know if that would still work.  

[Treamayne]

15 minutes ago, Quantus said:

Does that hold true with Spanreed Gems that are Cut in half after the spren is trapped?  It would mean cutting the spren into unequal parts and I dont know if that would still work.  

That's how it was demonstrated (though I remembered it backward). Here's the passage - RoW Ch 84:

Spoiler

In her experiment, nothing happened. The spren couldn’t get out of the ruby, even with the tone calling it. The spren was vivid blue, as it was corrupted, and appeared as half a spren: one arm, one leg. Why continue to manifest that way? Flamespren often changed forms—and they were infamous for noticing they were being watched. Navani had read some very interesting essays on the topic.

She picked up a small jeweler’s hammer. Carefully, she cracked the half ruby, letting the spren escape. It sprang free, but was immediately captured by the dagger. Light traveled along the blade, then the ruby at the base began to glow. Navani confirmed that the half spren was inside.

Interesting, Navani thought. So, what if I break the other half of the ruby and capture that half in the same gemstone? Excited, she reached to grab the other half of the ruby—but when she moved it, the dagger skidded across the table.

Navani froze. The two halves of the spren were still conjoined? She’d expected that to end once the original imprisonment did. Curious, she moved the dagger. The other half of the ruby flew out several feet toward the center of the room.

Too far. Much too far. She’d moved the dagger half a foot, while the paired ruby had moved three times as far. Navani stared at the hovering ruby, her eyes wide.

Raboniel hummed a loud rhythm, looking just as startled. “How?” she asked. “Is it because the spren is corrupted?”

“Possibly,” Navani said. “Though I’ve been experimenting with conjoined spren, and corrupted ones seem to generally behave the same as uncorrupted ones.” She eyed the dagger. “The gemstone on the dagger is larger than the one it was in before. Always before, you had to split a gemstone in two equal halves to conjoin them. Perhaps by moving one half to a larger gemstone, I have created something new.…”

“Force multiplication?” Raboniel asked. “Move a large gemstone a short distance, and cause the small gemstone to go a very long one?”

“Energy will be conserved, if our understanding of fabrial laws is correct,” Navani said. “Greater Light will be required, and moving the larger gemstone will be more difficult in equivalency to the work done by the smaller gemstone. But storms … the implications…”

So you would have to cut in half to conjoin, then move half to the larger (or smaller) gemstone. . . 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Letryx13]

I made a post like this a couple of weeks ago.  I don't think they could make span reeds into radios, but it's probably possible to use the surge of Illumination (which can mimic sounds) and link two fabrials to make a kind of surgebinding radio.  In my head, it's a pair of mirrors affixed with gemstones that each reflect what the other one is showing when activated.

[Quantus he/him]

43 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

That's how it was demonstrated (though I remembered it backward). Here's the passage - RoW Ch 84:

  Hide contents

In her experiment, nothing happened. The spren couldn’t get out of the ruby, even with the tone calling it. The spren was vivid blue, as it was corrupted, and appeared as half a spren: one arm, one leg. Why continue to manifest that way? Flamespren often changed forms—and they were infamous for noticing they were being watched. Navani had read some very interesting essays on the topic.

She picked up a small jeweler’s hammer. Carefully, she cracked the half ruby, letting the spren escape. It sprang free, but was immediately captured by the dagger. Light traveled along the blade, then the ruby at the base began to glow. Navani confirmed that the half spren was inside.

Interesting, Navani thought. So, what if I break the other half of the ruby and capture that half in the same gemstone? Excited, she reached to grab the other half of the ruby—but when she moved it, the dagger skidded across the table.

Navani froze. The two halves of the spren were still conjoined? She’d expected that to end once the original imprisonment did. Curious, she moved the dagger. The other half of the ruby flew out several feet toward the center of the room.

Too far. Much too far. She’d moved the dagger half a foot, while the paired ruby had moved three times as far. Navani stared at the hovering ruby, her eyes wide.

Raboniel hummed a loud rhythm, looking just as startled. “How?” she asked. “Is it because the spren is corrupted?”

“Possibly,” Navani said. “Though I’ve been experimenting with conjoined spren, and corrupted ones seem to generally behave the same as uncorrupted ones.” She eyed the dagger. “The gemstone on the dagger is larger than the one it was in before. Always before, you had to split a gemstone in two equal halves to conjoin them. Perhaps by moving one half to a larger gemstone, I have created something new.…”

“Force multiplication?” Raboniel asked. “Move a large gemstone a short distance, and cause the small gemstone to go a very long one?”

“Energy will be conserved, if our understanding of fabrial laws is correct,” Navani said. “Greater Light will be required, and moving the larger gemstone will be more difficult in equivalency to the work done by the smaller gemstone. But storms … the implications…”

So you would have to cut in half to conjoin, then move half to the larger (or smaller) gemstone. . . 

Nice!  And thanks for the passage.  So I was remembering correctly that you have to split the initial spren/Gem in equal halves but can relocated a half to make the amplifier.  The only practical downside is that (for now) it requires the shunting capability of Raysium to recapture and relocate the half-spren.  

[Treamayne]

51 minutes ago, Quantus said:

The only practical downside is that (for now) it requires the shunting capability of Raysium to recapture and relocate the half-spren.

It was shown that way, but you might also be able to do it with the Vacuum Tube (the way Navani moved the light to make Anti-Voidlight). Since they ue a vacuum effect to trap the spren in the first place, it seems reasonable. 

[Quantus he/him]

14 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

It was shown that way, but you might also be able to do it with the Vacuum Tube (the way Navani moved the light to make Anti-Voidlight). Since they ue a vacuum effect to trap the spren in the first place, it seems reasonable. 

That could probably work.  If it's all about not letting the half-spren escape so doing the whole experiment inside a vacuum chamber to cut off escape (and/or maybe even just an aluminum box?).

As a side note, Im honestly curious about the future of spanreed tech moving forward since the whole Spren-splitting process seems to be one of the more objectionable practices to the Sibling.  But they also say more than once that flamespren dont seem to mind so maybe all it will take is more specific spren restrictions (and spren consent).

[Frustration]

I'd skip radio entirely and go straight to a telephone.

If you really wanted a radio I think some form of modified rhythms would be better.

[HSuperLee]

35 minutes ago, Frustration said:

I'd skip radio entirely and go straight to a telephone.

If you really wanted a radio I think some form of modified rhythms would be better.

I could be misunderstanding, but I'm fairly certain when people are talking about spanreed radios, they mean what we'd generally call telephones. What we call radios are really more of radio receivers, where as a telephone is a radio transceiver, capable of both transmission and reception.

[Frustration]

5 minutes ago, HSuperLee said:

I could be misunderstanding, but I'm fairly certain when people are talking about spanreed radios, they mean what we'd generally call telephones. What we call radios are really more of radio receivers, where as a telephone is a radio transceiver, capable of both transmission and reception.

Well in that case it is definitely possible.

Quote

Kurkistan

Are Conjoiner fabrials sensitive enough that pairs of them attached to taught membranes could work as telephones (conjoiner-phones?)?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. (Though this is somewhat far off, technologically, for the people on Roshar.)

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/190/#e4114

 

 

 

[Quantus he/him]

10 hours ago, HSuperLee said:

I could be misunderstanding, but I'm fairly certain when people are talking about spanreed radios, they mean what we'd generally call telephones. What we call radios are really more of radio receivers, where as a telephone is a radio transceiver, capable of both transmission and reception.

It did start that way, but Im trying to figure out a mechanical work-around for the 1:1 nature of spanreeds so they can get boradcast capability (as well as a more automated network of them).