Lord: Starting with Summoning the Regular Army of Earth

Chapter 94 The Steel Age Belonging to Emberstone Ridge (Please Subscribe)

On this day, accompanied by Matthew, Evelyn returned to the blast furnace with her optimized plan and the prepared "magic ink".

By this time, the blast furnace had already stopped operating, and the temperature had dropped to an operable range.

Evelyn took matters into her own hands, using her mage's hand to "dip" into the shimmering silver "ink," and with her mental power as a brush, she began to draw an optimized array of "airflow stabilization" runes on the inner wall of the blast furnace's air intake duct.

Her movements were steady and precise, each stroke reflecting a profound understanding of the magical circuitry.

Those runes are not simple patterns, but a kind of "micro-circuit" that guides the flow of energy.

Matthew observed carefully from the side. In fact, with his current abilities, he could also inscribe rune arrays with some practice, but Evelyn's real strength lay in refining these "magic inks" and in her greater skill in controlling these magical inks.

Next, she carefully embedded tiny "heat dissipation" rune pieces, pre-made with magic-conducting material, into specific locations on the outer layer of firebrick.

These rune pieces function like "heat valves," slowly diverting excessive heat from localized areas to cooler surrounding regions, thus achieving passive thermal equilibrium.

The entire process lasted for three standard hours, during which everyone held their breath.

When the last rune was completed, Evelyn let out a soft breath. Fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, and her face and body were covered in furnace ash, but her light blue eyes shone with the satisfaction of completing a meticulous task.

She carefully checked the rune connections at the key points to ensure that the magic circuits were unobstructed.

"Thank you for your hard work, Evelyn!" Matthew handed her a clean handkerchief, his tone full of undisguised praise.

After spending time together and getting to know each other, he gained a deeper understanding of Evelyn and developed more admiration and appreciation for her.

This young woman, who could be described as a "princess" in terms of appearance, temperament, talent, and background, did not have the slightest bit of "princess syndrome".

On the contrary, they demonstrated a tenacity and adaptability that even he, a boy, admired.

Despite facing such a huge upheaval in her family and the unjust deaths of her loved ones, she did not wallow in grief or blame fate. Although it was clear that she was also in pain, she still maintained her composure and wisdom.

They were able to quickly adjust their mindset, observe and learn quietly, and then accurately find the entry point where they could contribute their value.

It's not about empty talk and theory, but about rolling up your sleeves, taking action, and not being afraid of hardship or suffering.

It can be said that he deeply understood the saying from Evelyn: the strong never complain about their environment.

"Thank you, sir!" Evelyn took the handkerchief and wiped the sweat from her forehead. A blush rose on her smudged face, a mixture of exhaustion and excitement.

"The theoretical deduction and micro-model testing have both passed, but whether the actual effect can be achieved in such a large furnace still needs to be tested in practice." She maintained the rigorous attitude that an alchemist should have, but the expectation in her eyes was obvious.

"Start it up!" Matthew nodded to the engineers who were waiting nearby.

As the command was given, the rotation of the waterwheel transmitted power to the huge bellows through the gear set, forcing air into the air intake pipe.

When the airflow entered the pipe marked with the "Stable Airflow" rune, a change indeed occurred. The sound of the blasting air, which had been slightly undulating due to the unstable power of the waterwheel, seemed to become unusually stable, rushing into the blast furnace without any of the previous jerking. The roar of the furnace fire also became deeper and more even.

Everyone present clearly heard the changes.

"The wind pressure has really stabilized!" an engineer exclaimed, his voice filled with surprise.

A stable airflow means that the combustion efficiency of coke will be greatly improved, and the temperature curve inside the furnace will be flatter.

As evenly hot air rushes in from the tuyeres at the bottom of the furnace, igniting the coke and causing the fire to roar again, Evelyn's second safety measure begins to take effect.

In the lower part of the furnace, the embedded micro-heat dispersing runes on the refractory brick linings, which are most prone to overheating due to local coke accumulation or differences in tuyeres wind speed, begin to be activated.

These rune fragments consume almost no energy themselves. Their working principle is similar to a "thermodynamic ramp"—when the temperature at a certain point is significantly higher than the surrounding area, the rune will extremely slowly guide the excess heat along a tiny "path" made of magic-conducting material to the area with a lower temperature.

From the outside, the red glow of the furnace wall no longer has particularly glaring bright spots, and the temperature distribution throughout the furnace appears more uniform.

However, just as everyone was eagerly awaiting the final result, Evelyn proposed an even more advanced idea: "My lord, the current stable airflow and balanced heat are still in open-loop regulation, relying on preset rune effects. If we want to control the smelting process more precisely, such as finely adjusting the airflow in real time based on the furnace temperature, or sensing the melting state of the molten iron ore, perhaps we could try introducing a more complex monitoring and feedback mechanism."

During this time, before the alchemy equipment and materials arrived, she didn't sit idle. Instead, she learned a lot about the advanced blast furnaces and smelting technologies on Earth from Matthew, Will, and various experts and engineers.

In order to play its role in more ways and enhance the function of the blast furnace.

Her words piqued Matthew's interest, and he looked at her intently.

Evelyn explained earnestly, "We can try embedding miniature temperature-sensing and elemental resonance runes in several key locations, such as the furnace throat, the middle of the furnace belly, and near the slag spout. These runes cannot provide specific values, but when the temperature exceeds a certain threshold, or when the concentration of a specific element changes significantly, they will emit extremely faint magical fluctuations at different frequencies."

Matthew immediately understood her meaning: "You mean, use these magical fluctuations as a signal?"

"Yes, my lady." Evelyn nodded. "We can make a small indicator that is sensitive to these kinds of magical fluctuations, and even—in the future, if we can make a more sophisticated array of receiving runes, perhaps we can transmit the signal to a simple mechanism that controls the bellows valves, achieving basic automatic regulation. For example, when the furnace temperature is too high, the indicator will sound an alarm, or automatically close the damper."

This idea made Matthew's eyes light up, and he was filled with excitement.

This is practically the prototype of an alternate world version of "distributed sensors" and "automatic control systems".

Although the methods are primitive, the underlying principles are completely the same.

After Matthew translated Evelyn's words to the experts and engineers present, Professor Wang Qinian couldn't help but clap his hands excitedly in praise: "Brilliant! If we can sense when the furnace charge begins to melt over a large area, or when the slag alkalinity changes, we can control the process more precisely and reduce the scrap rate. Even if we can only achieve an alarm function now, it can still make our operations change from being based on experience to making adjustments based on evidence!"

Matthew didn't keep Evelyn waiting there, but instead told her to go back and finish her design, while Matthew continued his magical practice.

When the moment of tapping iron arrived again, Matthew brought Evelyn back to the blast furnace.

The blast furnace taphole opened again, and a wave of heat swept in as molten iron flowed out.

This time, instead of flowing out intermittently as before, it formed a bright, continuous, and metallic-lustered jet of hot iron, like a tamed fire dragon, flowing smoothly into the ladle.

The molten iron is brighter in color, has excellent fluidity, and produces significantly less slag.

The engineers used long-handled iron spoons to take samples, and after they cooled, they carefully tapped them to observe the cross-section.

Although it still falls short of high-quality steel, the quality has already shown a visible improvement.

"Commander! Success! The quality of this batch of iron is close to that of high-quality pig iron! If the refining process keeps up, we are confident that we can produce qualified low-carbon steel in the near future!"

"Great!" Matthew cheered, raising his arms, and everyone around him smiled excitedly.

This success not only produced a batch of high-quality iron, but also validated a brand-new technological path—systematically applying magical runes to industrial production, which can break through the bottleneck of purely mechanical technology and achieve a leap in craftsmanship.

Matthew looked at Evelyn, who was equally delighted beside him, and his heart was filled with boundless anticipation.

The value of this genius alchemist girl lies far more than just optimizing a blast furnace.

Next, he needs to explore more possibilities with Evelyn, not only to continue optimizing the blast furnace, but also to start researching how to apply rune arrays to rolling, quenching, and even future steam engine transmission systems.

He wants to establish a set of standards for our own magical industry.

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