Air defense didn’t need filling the sky with burning lead, flying splintered shrapnel, and choking clouds of toxic black powder.
Air defense needed an accurate understanding of the delicate hearing physiology of living creatures and the load-bearing shaking frequencies of clockwork airframes.
Lord Giles Croft stood upon the south-facing stone castle wall of Wharf Four, inspecting the pivot gearwork of Projector Unit One.
Before him sat a huge sound horn made from spun sheet brass. It measured eighteen feet across its flared curved mouth.
The horn was mounted upon a heavy cast-iron gimbal ring, balanced by lead balance weights so smoothly that a single apprentice could rotate the ten-ton assembly with one hand.
At the base of the horn sat a massive air-powered oscillator chamber, connected by six-inch steel pipes to the central steam-driven air compressors in the castle wall substructure.
Beside Giles, Sentry Maeve Swift-Ear wore leather ear defenders padded with dense sheep’s wool, her hands resting upon the brass cross handwheels.
“Projector One is lined up to compass bearing one-eight-zero, height twenty-two degrees, Lord Giles,” Maeve reported, her voice muffled behind her padded cowl.
