Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
However, whatever lift and cargo-handling equipment is placed on the superstructure of the indestructible pillar of black rock will require power. Which no doubt is provided by an Elemental Furnace. So when the lift and cranes aren't in use, there should be spare power for heating a small guard post on the top.
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I was assuming that the winches would be handled by Mi-gö or
Kadavergehorsam in the design. However, the need for flak defences suggests a different way of doing things.
Don't think of the steel "corset" of the Pillar as structural. It can do that job, but under this new concept it's primarily designed as a heat distribution system. You have a large elemental furnace at one of the intersection points of the steel pentagram, with a small building around it that keeps the people on top warm. Heat is conducted through the steel to keep the various winches ice-free, the flak guns at above freezing point, and so on. When the people need to do work on top of the pillar, or fire the flak, they come out briefly, and then go in again to warm up.
To make this work, you need a very good insulating material to keep heat in the steel long enough for it to keep things warm at distances of a few metres. Can the magicians help with that? You still use low-temperature steel for the structure so that it can survive losses of heat or insulation without risk of shattering. You can't use contraction in the cold to hold it all together, but it stays warm enough that you can use bolts instead.
It would be a good idea to put the heated hut next to the lift down to ground level, just to make life easier for people going up and down. The lift will need its own heating anyway. You might also put the crane on top of the heated hut, since the elevation is convenient for not cluttering the top of the pillar, which isn't a very big area. You put the hut and lift on the side of the pillar that has a tall building closest, since that's a direction that flying attackers are less likely to use, and it's hard to fit a flak gun into the available space on that side of the pillar.
Does all that make sense?