Programable Alchemical Apparatus

Inspired by Opus Magnum Written by James Woodwright

Programmable Alchemical Apparatus or PAA for short is equipment that helps the alchemist to perform alchemical operations in an automated manner. The Technolgy comes in kit form. It comes in multiple tessellatable bases, mechanical arms, piston arms, tracks, brass cubes, brass discs and glyphs.

Kit Parts

Tessellateable Bases

The Bases are made up of a series of hexagons that tessellate, these, in turn, can be fitted together like puzzle pieces to make a larger base, for larger projects. The bases are made out of green tarnished copper metal that has been pressed to make the bases. The bases are made from green tarnished copper, so pieces stick together much more easily.
Hexagons are used as that is the shape with the maximum number of sides you can have that tessellates and has a good number of spots when rotating around a centre.

Mechanical Arms

These arms are fixed in maximum length and can grab items on the apparatus. In the kit, there are multiple lengths that can be used. When length needs to be more dependent the piston arms are used instead.

Piston Arms

Piston arms, are like Mechanical Arms but can change their length, allowing for fewer parts being used.

Track

Track are plates with a channel embedded to which using a ring and fixtures to arms or pistons will enable them to move along them. The track must terminate in a plus sign at one end and a minus sign at the other. There can only be one of each in each track, to make the construction of the track easier, the connectors only work for the plus or minus depending on the side it is connected to. Tracks cannot have multiple paths.
A track doesn't have to be laid out in a straight line. There are multiple angles that can be added these are 60, 120 and 180 degrees. When an arm or piston is on a track and is moving the orientation of the arm or its “wrist” doesn’t change either.

Brass Discs and Cubes

Brass Discs

Brass Discs are what are used to assign values to the arms. These numbers go up to a set point, which is the maximum of these parts in the kits. While numbers can be produced that are higher this normally makes the program more likely to become unlikely to be debugged or more likely to have spaghetti code. There are two of each number so that there can be one insert on the arm or piston and the other in the instruction tray ^[1].

Brass Cubes

The Brass cubes are what is used to program, the alchemy machine or project. These cubes are inserted into an instruction tray ^[1] which is connected to one of the bases. It is impossible to remove the tray from the bases without breaking it.

Glphys

Programming The Device

In all kits there is one base that has the instruction tray ^[1], this tray has a slot for one of the brass discs that correspond with an arm or piston. On the right of where the disc would go is a selection of square holes where each of the brass cubes goes in. Each cube has a symbol that relates to one of fourteen commands ^[1]. If the instruction tray ^[1] gets full. as there can't be multiple lines of code, as each line relates to each arm and piston. The instruction tray ^[1], can be lengthened with more spaces for brass cubes to be inserted.

Intended Audience

The intended audience for the kits is those who are in the alchemy department of the University. However, the department that deals with runic inscriptions also takes part in making the brass cubes used to program the device. So while they don't use the kits themselves, they have an interest in what cubes are needed as these are the only part of the kit that can be requested a greater quantity of without needing more kits.

Issues With The Technology

One of the issues of the technology is as it is mainly found in the university and in kit form, each kit comes with a set amount of parts so a project might require multiple of the same kit size. The parts are better protected and are more economical if they come in kits.
Currently, kits use alchemical processes, not chemical processes so materials can be made using PAA but the end product that requires chemistry is not supported using the kits. Development is in the pipeline where these can be done.
The kits also make dust of the metal element which means the metal then needs to be melted by the metalsmithing department to be of any use.

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[1]Mentioned in the computer game, Opus Magnum - Steam Link

Appears in
The Artistocracy Chronicles Books 2 - 3