The Power-Transfer Machine (aka the Transformer[1]) was a magi-technological device in the laboratory of Mordack's Castle.
Background[]
From the point of view of the Daventry universe, Mordack's power-transfer machine is a key indicator as to just how evil that sorcerer had become. Technology is looked on as evil my many in Daventry, and Mordack's cheesy-looking contraption of steam and wheels and levers would make many there shudder. It is organically powered, which is a small consolation to its critics.
The power-transfer machine was kept on the balcony above the main part of Mordack's laboratory. Its purpose, as far as anyone has been able to determine, is to siphon magical power from a fully charged magic wand to another, one from which most or all of the power had been drained. While Graham is no advocate or apologist for technology, he holds little prejudice for the few in Daventry that do. Because of this open-mindedness, he was able to bring himself to use the machine to charge Crispin's magic wand. In a way it's ironic that the Kingdom of Daventry, founded upon and embedded in the magics of the universe, was saved by such a device.[2]
The heart of the machine is filled with smelly liquid that resembles that of moldy cheese. It literally is powered by cheese or the active mold or yeast found in cheese. Graham figured it out when he smelled the aroma of the machine and it jolted his memory of the cheese he kept in his pocket[3]
It is noted that their aren't any buttons visible on the machine, and it was invented a long time before remote controls.[4]
Behind the scenes[]
In the KQ5 hintbook, Roberta Williams describes the machine as 'needing a certain ingredient to start it up", and that that certain ingredient is namely cheese. It describes the cheese as the 'missing ingredient' to start up the machine.
The cheese is used to charge the magic wand so that Graham can cast shape-changing magical spells. Cheese in appears in myths and stories related to magic shape-changing into animals. In The Odyssey, the sorceress Circe turns Odysseus’ companions into animals by feeding them a magic potion mixed into a drink made of cheese, barley meal, honey and wine. The fourth century Christian theologian, St Augustine of Hippo, agreed that such things might be possible, though unlikely.
William of Malmesbury seemed convinced that enchanted cheese was a genuine risk, though, and in his 12th-century writings William explained that female Italian innkeepers were especially prone to using enchanted cheese to turn their customers into beasts of burden.[5]
Cheese or cheese byproducts actually can be used to generate electricity.[6][7]
References[]
- ↑ TOBOKQ3E, pg
- ↑ KQC, 2nd Edition, pg 498
- ↑ KQC4E, pg
- ↑ TOBOKQ3E, pg 185
- ↑ https://theconversation.com/amp/the-spellbinding-history-of-cheese-and-witchcraft-153221
- ↑ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/france-has-power-plant-fueled-cheese-180957642/
- ↑ https://www.zmescience.com/research/technology/power-cheese-53360/