I'm in The Midden or The Midden Dark now and came upon the Flame Atronach Forge but was unable to create any of the three items mentioned in the book. I wanted to create an Atronach and have both the salts required and a ruby, but was unable to put them in the container. I love my Staff of Flame Atronach (and am in love with those flaming girls!) and wanted to get more if I could. The Forge told me I didn't have the right ingredients.

Then I moved on and came upon the Relic Ring Finger and tried to activate it (E) but nothing happened. Any explanations?

You need a broom I believe.

For the relic, you need the rings to place on the gauntlet. You'll find them in a chest in the library.

Do you actually want spoilers or just some brief explanation?

If I were you I would continue on the College Questlines and such.

First off, he's in the Cheats, Hints, and Spoilers section. Second, neither of those quests is involved in the main College of Winterhold questline; nor are they referenced at all by any of the side quests.

OP: First of all, the ingredients you stated will only produce a standard Flame Atronach that is hostile to you. Since the Flame Atronach drops some Fire Salts, this means that using this recipe just consumes a Ruby. In order to get a Staff of the Flame Atronach, you need Fire Salts, a Broom, Corundum Ore or a Corundum Ingot, and a Greater or larger (so Greater, Grand, or Black) Soul Gem.

You do realize that Atronachs are Daedra and are technically genderless right?

Which means Malog Bal is essentially both the king and queen of [censored]

*runs to hide*

They sure look like they have bosoms to me every time I fire them up!

Atronach Forge combinations http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Atronach_Forge.

The deal with the hand explained http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Forgotten_Names.