Lord: Starting with Summoning the Regular Army of Earth

Chapter 95 Steam Engine

With their initial success in optimizing the blast furnace, Matthew and Evelyn did not rest on their laurels and immediately plunged into deeper explorations of technological integration.

Evelyn used the inspiration she drew from alchemy tools to improve and design rune arrays such as temperature-sensing runes and elemental resonance runes. She then carefully embedded these runes deep into the refractory brick linings in key locations such as the furnace throat, the middle of the furnace belly, and near the slag heap to prevent them from being damaged by high temperatures and erosion from the molten metal.

Subsequently, she built a simple "receiving station" next to the blast furnace—a metal plate engraved with complex magic-guiding circuitry, connected to several glass tubes of different colors, each containing a small, lightweight ball suspended inside.

Each glass tube corresponds to a runic signal.

When a specific signal is received, the small ball inside the corresponding glass tube will bounce or levitate slightly due to the magical disturbance.

Although this "indicator" is extremely rudimentary and cannot even perform quantitative measurements, it successfully transforms the "state" inside the blast furnace into an externally observable "signal".

For the first time, the craftsmen operating the furnace were able to "see" whether the furnace temperature was abnormal, whether a large amount of molten iron had been generated, and whether the properties of the slag had changed.

This has led to a shift from purely empirical operations such as feeding, ventilation, and slag discharge to operations based on evidence, further stabilizing the smelting process and reducing the scrap rate.

With a more stable and controllable blast furnace, and with Evelyn's similar optimization of the stirring furnace using simple runes, Emberstone Ridge finally had the technological foundation to trial-produce high-quality steel.

Under the guidance of experts such as Zhang Hongjian, Wang Qinian, and He Wentao, the technicians successfully produced the first batch of medium carbon steel with good toughness and strength by precisely controlling the carbon content of pig iron, repeatedly forging and removing slag, and trying simple quenching-tempering processes.

This marks a new milestone in Jinshiling's materials technology, making it possible to manufacture steam engine components that withstand high pressure and high temperature.

The steam engine project, which had been on the agenda for some time, could finally be implemented.

That day, Matthew convened a seminar with all the engineers involved in the steam engine project, as well as Evelyn and Will.

As the meticulously drawn steam engine design blueprints were slowly unfurled before Evelyn, even the genius girl from the alchemy family couldn't help but show a curious expression on her face.

On the drawings, boilers, cylinders, pistons, connecting rods, flywheels, valves—each and every precisely interlocking component—are presented with meticulous lines and annotations.

It gave her a strange yet harmonious sense of beauty, making her even more curious about what it was.

In fact, as he gradually came into contact with the technological concepts of Earth, she became curious about the technology from another world, just like Will.

However, Will had already understood the principles of the steam engine and was accustomed to the cognitive shock brought by Earth's technology.

To help Evelyn understand the steam engine, Matthew personally explained its principles to her: water is heated to produce steam, the steam expands and pushes the piston, and the piston's linear motion is converted into the rotational motion of the flywheel through the connecting rod and crankshaft —

Listening to Matthew's words, Evelyn's light blue eyes were fixed on the blueprints, as if the mechanical parts drawn on them had come to life and become a steel behemoth that was constantly running and releasing tremendous force.

A completely new knowledge system is also impacting her cognition, expanding her mind, and gradually allowing her to break free from her previous habitual thinking, as if she has discovered another side of the world.

"Using the phase change of water? The expansion of steam to drive machinery?" She repeated these keywords in a low voice, each word both familiar and unfamiliar to her.

Water, fire, and motion are all fundamental elements and common phenomena in alchemy, but coupling them together in such a direct, pure, and large-scale way, transforming them into a continuous driving force, is completely beyond her cognitive framework.

In her world, the idea of ​​moving objects is often to use magic, or to rely on human power, animal power, water flow, wind power, etc.

The design we see now offers a completely different path.

Without relying on any mysterious magic or powerful creatures, it simply heats readily available water by burning fuel, altering its properties, and through a sophisticated mechanical structure, it steadily and continuously converts energy into powerful propulsion.

"This—this is simply a Midas touch!" Evelyn exclaimed in disbelief, her voice filled with admiration.

She gently ran her finger along the cross-section of the boiler on the drawing, her eyes shining: "It's like firing the most exquisite porcelain from the most ordinary clay. It doesn't rely on any mystical power, but rather utilizes the basic rules of ordinary things—it's truly ingenious!"

Matthew had expected Evelyn's reaction, after all, Earth's technology was a game-changer for this world, even if this world possessed supernatural powers like magic.

But precisely because of this, the way Blue Star utilizes ordinary things to achieve extraordinary functions stands in stark contrast to the supernatural power system of this world.

After Matthew explained the principles of the steam engine to Evelyn, the meeting got down to business, and the first thing to discuss was naturally the casting and finishing of the cylinder block and components.

Theoretically speaking, Matthew should be able to solve this problem with "The Hand of the Mage".

"But another thorny issue is the sealing of high-temperature, high-pressure steam," said Cui Hongyuan, the project's chief person in charge.

The piston and cylinder of a steam engine, as well as the various valve interfaces, all require a material that can maintain elasticity, wear resistance, and is not prone to aging and embrittlement under high temperature and high pressure to serve as a seal.

Rubber products have played a crucial role in the industrial history of Earth.

However, no natural materials similar to rubber have been discovered in this world at present.

The engineering team had previously tried several alternative solutions.

They used oil-soaked hemp rope, tanned monster hide, and even fiber fabrics mixed with special resins —

However, apart from the processed monster hide which is barely usable, the other materials are not feasible, and even the monster hide, according to the assessment, is estimated to be unlikely to last long under the continuous impact of steam.

At this point, the meeting room fell into a brief silence, and the atmosphere became somewhat heavy.

The most difficult step in industrial development is going from 0 to 1; once that's overcome, going from 1 to 100 becomes much easier.

Evelyn naturally noticed the solemn expressions on everyone's faces and couldn't help but ask Will, who was standing next to her, about the situation.

Will gave a brief explanation, but it wasn't quite accurate, so Matthew added: "What we need is a kind of elastic texture, similar to cooked and cooled animal tendon, or some kind of elastic resin. It needs to be compressible, able to return to its original shape after being loosened, and able to withstand soaking in hot water and the impact of steam, without easily deforming or aging."

Matthew tried to use objects that might exist in this world as metaphors, even gesturing with his hands to describe the famous stretching and rebounding motions.

"In the world of my summoned creatures, there is a material called rubber, which is produced from the sap of a tree and can perfectly meet these requirements after processing."

Upon hearing Matthew's description, Evelyn seemed to have thought of something: "Elastic—compressible and resilient—resistant to high temperatures and impacts—sir, the properties you described remind me of a kind of—biomaterial."

"Biomaterials?" Matthew and Will both looked over, their eyes filled with anticipation.

After all, in this world, no one knows better than an alchemist how to obtain "materials".

"Yes," Evelyn said, organizing her thoughts, "In many mountains, such as certain swamps or underground caves in the Misty Mountains, there lives a low-level monster called a slime. They have no fixed shape, resembling a slowly moving puddle of viscous mud. Their bodies are mainly composed of a highly viscoelastic gel, making them difficult to harm effectively with physical attacks; wounds from swords and blades will heal quickly."

She paused, then continued, her tone carrying the confidence of an alchemist: "I've seen related records in my family's alchemical notebooks. Some alchemists have tried processing the remains of slimes and discovered that their core gelatinous substance, after being treated with a specific alchemical solution and heated and shaped, solidifies into a dark brown, water-insoluble solid material with excellent elasticity and toughness. The notebooks record that this material can even resist the burning of weak acids and flames to some extent. However, because it is not very valuable and is quite troublesome to process, it hasn't attracted much attention."

Matthew's heart skipped a beat.

Elasticity, toughness, corrosion resistance, and potential high-temperature resistance.

This sounds like an alternate world version of the prototype of "natural rubber".

"Evelyn, are you saying that the slime's body might be able to extract the sealing material we need?" Matthew's voice was filled with suppressed excitement.

"Theoretically, that's a possibility, my lady," Evelyn said with cautious optimism. "But the processing method recorded in the notes is very crude, the resulting material properties are unstable, and the slime itself has a slightly corrosive and foul odor, requiring neutralization and purification. I need some samples to test and optimize the purification and curing process before I can determine if it can truly meet the requirements of a steam engine."

"Great!" Matthew exclaimed excitedly. He firmly believed that as long as the theory was solid, nothing was impossible, and Evelyn had indeed brought him a whole new possibility.

"Evelyn, I'm leaving the refining and testing work to you. Just let me know if you need any support. If you can really solve the rubber material problem, it will be a huge relief for us."

Seeing Matthew's excited expression, Evelyn was also very happy and became even more determined to make the material for Matthew's sake.

The engineers and experts seemed to have figured something out as well. They exchanged glances, their hearts filled with anticipation. They knew that as an alchemist, Evelyn was an expert in materials science in the world, and it was clear that she knew something about rubber materials.

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