I started with a ship full of max-level veterans, and I'm just a complete noob.

The next morning, Jiang Ming resealed the old coating fragments from tube No. 03 back into the aluminum box and wrapped the sample box with two layers of black cloth.

Zhou Changlin's phone call didn't make him hesitate for long.

The 500-hour life test is still running in Workshop No. 1, and the curve is temporarily stable. However, to truly integrate the electrophoretic deposition process into mass production standards, current curves alone are not enough.

The cross-sectional photograph from that Japanese-made electron microscope was the final thing to shut them up.

When Jiang Ming arrived at the Institute of Aeronautical Materials, Zhou Changlin was already standing at the entrance of the main building waiting for him, with half a cigarette between his fingers.

The main building of the Institute of Aeronautical Materials is a three-story gray brick building. The radiators in the corridor are burning hot, and there are two enamel mugs on the tin covers, the tea water has long since gone cold.

"Did you bring the slices?"

Zhou Changlin stubbed out his cigarette on the windowsill, took the aluminum box wrapped in black cloth from Jiang Ming's hand, and glanced at it.

The bottom of the aluminum box was lined with absorbent cotton, and in the middle of the cotton was a thin, silver-gray piece no bigger than a fingernail, with its edges cut flat by a diamond saw blade.

This is the old coating that was replaced on tube B03. It's a fragment of the cathode plate that was decommissioned after 150 hours of high temperature and water impurities. Jiang Ming deliberately kept a corner of it.

"Follow me, the equipment is on the basement level."

Zhou Changlin led him toward the stairwell, his leather shoes making a crisp sound as they stepped on the terrazzo floor.

The electron microscope laboratory was much larger than Jiang Ming had imagined. The equipment stretched from the ground to the ceiling, and the copper-colored microscope tubes were as thick as a person's thigh. The base was fixed on an independently poured concrete vibration-damping platform, and rubber pads were used around it to isolate the floor from vibration.

A technician in his early thirties stood up from behind the control panel. His glasses were as thick as the bottom of a bottle. He pushed up his glasses and nodded to Zhou Changlin.

"Old Wu, this is Engineer Jiang from the Third Electronics Factory. Today we're working on the cross-sectional morphology of the coating."

Zhou Changlin gave a brief introduction.

The technician took the aluminum box, used tweezers to pick out the slices, and fixed them onto the spring clamps on the brass sample stage. His movements were skillful, and he didn't say a word of unnecessary words throughout the process.

The sample stage was sent into the vacuum chamber, and the mechanical pump began to rumble.

Jiang Ming stood in front of the screen waiting, while Zhou Changlin leaned against the metal cabinet next to him. Neither of them spoke.

It took nearly twenty minutes to vacuum the system.

The technician adjusted the accelerating voltage, and the electron beam struck the cross-section of the slice, causing the fluorescent screen to light up.

When the image, magnified two thousand times, appeared before him, Zhou Changlin took half a step forward.

The overall structure of the coating is clearly visible.

Cerium oxide particles are uniformly distributed across the entire cross-section at submicron size, with almost uniform particle spacing. There are no agglomerated patches common in manual coating, nor are there black voids left by air bubbles.

The particles are arranged so regularly that it looks as if they were measured with a ruler.

"You can see the difference even at two thousand times."

Zhou Changlin's voice was very low, as if he were talking to himself.

"This level of uniformity is something that cannot be achieved by scraping."

Jiang Ming didn't respond; he was waiting for the result of a higher multiplier.

"Old Wu, zoom to 5000x and focus on the underlying interface."

Zhou Changlin turned to the technician and said.

The technician turned the coarse adjustment knob, and the image on the screen jittered twice before quickly stabilizing.

Five thousand times.

The field of view narrows to the very bottom of the coating, to an area approximately 0.3 micrometers close to the nickel substrate.

Jiang Ming saw it.

A very thin, dark line runs across the entire field of vision, estimated to be less than fifty nanometers wide, and its color is half a shade darker than the surrounding coating. It is almost invisible if you don't look closely.

But it is indeed there.

"What is this?"

Zhou Changlin's finger touched the dark line on the screen, his fingernail making a soft sound on the glass.

Jiang Ming stared at the line for a few seconds before speaking.

"Traces of water impurities migrating."

He put his hand into his work pocket, his fingertips touching the half-used pencil inside.

"Under the long-term driving of an electric field, calcium, magnesium and iron ions will migrate and accumulate towards the interface, eventually forming an enrichment zone at the junction of the coating and the substrate."

"The reverse pulse pushes most of the impurities back into the grain, but the layer closest to the substrate has a very short migration path and the largest concentration gradient. By the time the pulse arrives, the energy has already decayed, making it impossible to completely remove them."

Zhou Changlin did not respond immediately.

He bent down and leaned close to the screen, almost touching the glass with his nose.

It took him a while to straighten up.

"Will this hidden wiring affect the pipe's performance?"

"Before the coating of Ethylene-3 was replaced, the emission current dropped by about three microamps from the normal value."

Jiang Ming said.

"This dark line is the microscopic evidence of those three microamps. Impurities form conductive hot spots at the interface, ablating the coating structure to a depth of about 0.3 micrometers."

"The new coating uses deionized water to prepare the suspension, which eliminates the introduction of calcium, magnesium, and iron ions at the source, so this substance will no longer appear."

Zhou Changlin remained silent for a long time.

The only sound in the laboratory was the continuous hum of the mechanical pumps.

"Old Wu."

He suddenly spoke, his tone becoming crisp.

"Take three cross-sectional photos at this magnification. Give one to Engineer Jiang, keep one in the institute's archives, and keep the third one for myself."

The technician responded and bent down to adjust the camera bracket.

"This photo should be archived."

Zhou Changlin turned to face Jiang Ming, his voice no longer carrying the scrutiny and questioning he had shown on the day of the defense.

"When writing mass production process standards in the future, this will serve as irrefutable proof for the clause 'The use of ordinary distilled water is prohibited'."

"If anyone finds deionized water troublesome and wants to skip this step, just throw this photo in their face."

The photo developing process takes time, so the technician told them to come back in the afternoon to pick it up.

Zhou Changlin led Jiang Ming out of the laboratory, and the two walked down the corridor toward the stairwell.

As they approached the corner, Zhou Changlin suddenly stopped and reached out to block Jiang Ming against the wall.

There was no one else in the corridor.

"Xiao Jiang, I have a question for you."

Zhou Changlin's tone was much gentler than before.

How broad do you think the electrophoretic deposition approach can be?

Jiang Ming looked at him without saying a word.

"Our materials institute is working on thermal barrier coatings for turbine blades."

Zhou Changlin lowered his voice, as if afraid of being overheard.

"We're currently using plasma spraying, but the coating uniformity is terrible, resulting in a rework rate of over 30%."

"If the uniformity in your cross-sectional photo today could be applied to the blade coating, even if we only achieve half of it, it would be enough for our institute to write three reports."

He paused, then rubbed his fingers together.

"What I mean is, would you be interested in co-writing a technical memorandum and submitting it to the materials department of the ministry?"

"Let the higher-ups know that electrophoretic deposition can be used for many applications besides electron tube cathodes."

Jiang Ming pulled his hand out of his pocket and glanced down at the verdigris smudged on the cuff of his work clothes.

"Let's talk about it after the Type B tube has run for 500 hours."

"become."

Zhou Changlin nodded and did not ask any further questions.

"Then I'll wait for your message."

……

When Jiang Ming returned to the factory from the Institute of Aeronautical Materials, it was already completely dark.

The north wind in November made the streetlights in the factory area sway incessantly, and the halos of light drew arcs of varying sizes on the ground.

The lights from Workshop No. 1 shone through the cracks in the tin windows, illuminating the gravel area in front of the entrance.

Xiao Zhao stood outside the workshop door.

Instead of leaning against the door frame and waiting, he stood with his feet together and his back straight, as if he had deliberately come out to intercept him.

"Jiang Gong."

When Xiao Zhao came up to us, he was holding a folded telegram in his hand, the paper already crumpled from his crumpling.

"A telegram from Chen Zhiyuan in the Northwest, delivered by the mailroom half an hour ago."

Jiang Ming took the telegram and unfolded it.

The streetlights weren't bright enough, so he leaned in to see the words through the crack in the window.

The first part is the transportation information for the captured equipment: the equipment has been loaded into a special military freight car and is expected to arrive at the Fengtai marshalling yard in Beijing the day after tomorrow afternoon. At that time, one person from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one person from the Third Electronics Factory will be sent to the station to receive the train.

The second half consists of only two lines of text, and the handwriting is much more illegible than the first part, as if it was added on the spot when the message was sent.

"Besides the Soviet nameplate, there was another line of hand-engraved Russian serial number on the equipment casing, most of which has been worn away by a file, with only the first three letters recognizable."

Jiang Ming turned the telegram over, and on the back were the corresponding phonetic symbols for three Latin letters written in pencil.

МАГ.

The first three letters of "magnetron".

He folded the telegram and stuffed it into his shirt pocket, then looked up at the light shining from the workshop.

The filaments of the five tubes were still burning inside, and the curve for the 330th hour was still moving forward.

The other tube will arrive the day after tomorrow.