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The World of Sevrea

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Technology

Copper and zinc are rather unknown on Sevrea. Either they aren’t as plentiful, or they reside much deeper inside mountains than most people dig (without advanced mining tools), or both, but they haven't been discovered in plenty. Cobalt, however, is very plentiful and is used as an alloy to make blue steel. Its prevalence also factors into art and decoration – most glass is mixed with at least some cobalt to hide the flaws, and the resulting blue glass is, ironically, prized for its purity.

Somewhere during the Empire Age, some long-forgotten genius invented what became one of the most widespread remnants of the fallen empire -- the chem-battery, also called the chem-globe or chem-ball.

The basic form of the chem-battery is a glass globe suspended on glass struts inside another glass globe, with each layer containing a different chemical of some stable form – gas, liquid, or powder. At one point on the outer globe, there is an indentation of thinner glass that sits above (but does not meet) a similar projection on the inner globe. A raised lip around the indentation can fit a cork stopper. When a metal spike is tapped through and the opening is plugged with a stopper all at once, the spike breaks through to the inner globe, mixing the two ingredients and setting off a highly potent chemical reaction. The chem-battery has been known to come in three separate configurations, depending on the use:

• A second projection on the outer shell, at ninety degrees to the indentation, is covered by thin, weak glass on the inner side and a metal valve on the outer side. This type of chem-battery is mostly used as ammunition in a pistol-like gun, and as the ball is loaded into the gun, the valve is opened. The reaction explodes through the weaker bit of glass and shoots out through the valve. This type of chem-battery is mostly used as deadly ammunition, and the reaction usually produces a jet of flame, a burst of acid, a stream of gas, or the like, though there have been a few more utilitarian chem-batteries known to exist.
• There are two projections side by side, not with weaker glass, but with a metal contact in each. The chemical reaction inside the globe produces a huge spark which discharges through and across the contacts. These globes can also fit into a smaller style of "pistol" which extends the two contacts to the end of the barrel; these are commonly used as things like stun guns and (expensive) fire-lighters.
• The outer globe is totally sealed, and the reaction upon breaking the inner globe and combining the two chemicals produces intense heat. These are used as emergency field heaters, as sources of cooking heat when there is no wood, and even to heat water into steam in small steam engines.