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

The metal door to the confidential cubicle was locked from the inside, the curtains were drawn tightly, and only a sliver of lamplight shone through the crack in the door.

After Jiang Ming came in, he didn't sit down. Instead, he looked at the record paper showing the 580-degree vacuum drop again.

The red ink on the paper tape plummeted at the inflection point, tearing a gash in the entire process curve.

Old Sun might believe him, but trust can't get rid of the water vapor in the crystal boundary, nor can it save a piece of oxygen-free copper.

At 2:10 a.m., Jiang Ming turned the last processing drawing face down on the table, made sure there were no footsteps outside the corridor, closed his eyes, and let his consciousness sink into the ancient book with the bronze cover.

[The "Record of Connections to Heaven," the Scholar's Scroll, the Tracing of Connections Initiated.]

Zhou Changlin's nameplate glowed with a light golden halo, climbing upwards along the academic lineage, continuing to unfold horizontally after passing the Alekseev node, and landing on another branch next to Kozlov.

That was a name that Jiang Ming hadn't activated before.

Grigory Nikolayevich Solovyov, Vacuum Devices Group, Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute, 1889-1949, specializing in heat treatment processes for electron tube cathodes and anodes, and participated in the trial production of the first generation of Soviet radar magnetrons in his early years.

Solovyov's node is gold, he is deceased, and he was a fellow disciple of Alekseev along with Kozlov. He is not affected by the gray seal of von Kármán and can communicate directly with spirits.

[Spiritual dialogue initiated. Target: Grigory Nikolayevich Solovyov. Five attempts remaining. Time limit per attempt: 30 minutes.]

There was no concrete image in his consciousness space, only an ancient and rigorous way of thinking that responded to his question.

Without exchanging pleasantries, Jiang Ming went straight to the question: When oxygen-free copper billets are heated to 580 degrees Celsius in a vacuum furnace, the residual cuprous oxide is reduced by hydrogen released from the graphite heating element, generating water vapor and causing the grain boundaries to crack. How can this hidden danger be eliminated without remelting?

Solovyov responded after a while, but his answer was so complete that it could be directly included in the process sheet.

Before the billet enters the exhaust furnace, it must be pre-annealed.

The temperature should be 450 degrees Celsius, and cannot be higher, otherwise hydrogen diffusion will accelerate, and the potential danger will increase.

The atmosphere conditions are ultrapure nitrogen with a purity of not less than 99.995%, an oxygen content of less than one part per five million, and a water content of less than one part per three million.

Keep warm for eight hours; this time should not be shortened.

At 450 degrees Celsius, the trace amount of dissolved hydrogen inside the copper lattice is enough to migrate from the grain boundary to the surface and escape, but the external hydrogen atoms are not enough to penetrate in large quantities. The continuously flowing high-purity nitrogen gas creates positive pressure, which not only prevents external hydrogen molecules from entering, but also drives the internal hydrogen to the surface by means of the gas phase concentration gradient.

After annealing, the copper billet must be slowly cooled to room temperature under nitrogen protection. The furnace must not be opened in advance, otherwise water molecules will be adsorbed on the surface, and the previous treatment will be in vain.

Jiang Ming pressed for the heating curve, and Solovyov gave the parameters that the heating rate was 60 degrees per hour from room temperature to 450 degrees to avoid uneven dehydrogenation on the surface and in the core of the billet.

The psychic session ended 23 minutes later.

[The psychic dialogue has ended. You have four attempts remaining for today. One attempt will be used today.]

Jiang Ming opened his eyes. The lamp was still on, and there was no movement outside the window.

He pulled out a sheet of paper from the drawer, picked up a pencil, and began to write.

When he reached the third page, the pencil tip broke once. He sharpened the tip and continued writing, his handwriting neat and his numbers clear. He marked the source and explanation for each temperature parameter and time point.

The source should certainly not be Solovyov.

He wrote down the theoretical basis at the beginning of the report, based on the mechanical feedback derivation of the high-temperature gasification phenomenon on the front line of Northwest China, combined with Mr. Qian's previous mathematical model of the relationship between gas solubility and temperature and pressure in fluid media, and by analogy with the diffusion behavior of hydrogen atoms in metal lattices, he obtained the following pre-annealing process parameters.

This packaging isn't perfect, but it at least explains why someone who works with vacuum tubes would think of using nitrogen gas in positive pressure to drive hydrogen.

At 4:30 a.m., the six-page report was completed, along with a temperature rise curve.

Jiang Ming folded the manuscript paper, stuffed it into an envelope without sealing it, and placed it on the corner of the table to wait for dawn. He then slept for less than two hours under the lamp.

At 7:10 a.m., when Lao Sun pushed open the door to the confidential cubicle, Jiang Ming was already awake and washing his face with cold water.

Old Sun stood at the door, his gaze first falling on the envelope on the corner of the table.

"What's the plan?"

Jiang Ming wiped his face with a towel and handed over the envelope.

Old Sun opened the book and started reading, turning from the first page to the sixth page, only pausing twice in between: once at 450 degrees and once at eight hours.

"Eight hours?"

He looked up at Jiang Ming, his finger still pressing on that line of parameters.

"Not even an hour less is acceptable. The hydrogen diffusion distance deep within the grain boundary is proportional to the square root of the time. Six hours can only clear two millimeters from the surface, leaving hidden dangers in the core."

Old Sun folded the report back and stuffed it into his work uniform pocket.

"Where's the stove?"

"We do not have nitrogen-protected annealing furnaces."

Old Sun didn't reply, he just stared at him.

Jiang Ming had already put on his work clothes and was walking out the door.

"Use old iron drums as a substitute, as long as the walls are thick enough. Use quartz tubes as the inner lining, connect a high-purity nitrogen cylinder to a pressure reducing valve, and maintain positive pressure in the furnace."

"What about sealing it?"

"Use an asbestos gasket and iron hoops, do not use a vacuum seal, just use nitrogen positive pressure to hold it up."

Old Sun mentally reviewed the structure, then turned and called out to people in the yard.

"Da Liu, go to the foundry and find a scrap iron barrel with a wall thickness of no less than five millimeters. The bottom of the barrel must not be rusted through. Also, bring over that 1.2-meter quartz tube from the warehouse."

Da Liu responded and ran off without asking any more questions.

Jiang Ming followed Lao Sun into Workshop No. 1, and the two spent the entire morning converting the iron barrel into an annealing furnace.

With the barrel opening facing upwards, a quartz tube serves as the inner lining. Air enters from the bottom and exits from the top. Nitrogen gas pushes out the impurities in the furnace from bottom to top. The outer wall of the iron barrel is wrapped with resistance wire salvaged from a scrapped electric furnace, and the outer layer is insulated with asbestos cloth. A thermocouple is inserted into the temperature measuring hole, and then connected to that old-fashioned recorder.

Da Liu adjusted the pressure reducing valve of the high-purity nitrogen cylinder to 0.05 MPa, opened the valve to test the gas, and a colorless and odorless gas flowed out of the exhaust port. When a match was brought close, the flame immediately went out.

Old Sun patted the outside of the iron bucket.

"Load the oven this afternoon."

At 1 p.m., four cut oxygen-free copper billets were placed into a quartz tube, with graphite blocks separating the billets.

Close the lid, tighten the asbestos gasket, tighten the iron hoop, and open the nitrogen valve to the set flow rate.

Old Sun personally switched on the electric stove, and the heating wire began to glow red.

The temperature recording pen climbed up the paper tape at a steady pace of sixty degrees per hour.

At 5 p.m., the temperature reached 450 degrees Celsius, and Lao Sun reset the timer on his recording pen to zero.

The eight-hour insulation begins from this moment.

This means it won't be finished until 1 a.m., and then it will have to cool naturally to room temperature under nitrogen protection, which will take at least another six hours.

Old Sun lifted his eyelids to look at Jiang Ming.

"Go back to sleep, I'll stay here with Da Liu."

Jiang Ming turned his gaze away from the recorder.

"Temperature fluctuations must not exceed plus or minus ten degrees, and the cylinder must be replaced when the pressure drops to 0.03."

"Know."

Old Sun took the report out of his pocket and looked at it again. After confirming that the parameters were correct, he locked the report in the tool cabinet.

When Jiang Ming entered Workshop No. 1 at eight o'clock the next morning, the iron bucket had already cooled down.

Old Sun stood to the side, his eyes bloodshot, but his spirit remained unbroken.

"No problems overnight, the maximum temperature deviation was plus or minus six degrees, and the gas cylinder was changed at three in the morning."

Jiang Ming looked at the furnace opening.

"Open the furnace."

Da Liu stepped forward, unscrewed the iron hoop, removed the asbestos pad, and lifted the bucket lid.

The residual nitrogen pressure overflowed from the barrel opening, carrying a dry heat.

Old Sun used long tweezers to pick out the first piece of blank material and placed it on the white paper.

The copper billet surface is clean, without any gray discoloration, and the rose gold color is even and full, even brighter than before entering the furnace. This is the natural luster after annealing to eliminate processing stress.

Old Sun picked up the small copper rod and gently tapped the side of the blank.

The sound was crisp and clean, without any muffled thud or trailing.

He tapped the second, third, and fourth pieces, and each one sounded right.

"It's done."

Old Sun placed the copper rod on the table and smiled at Jiang Ming.

That smile was short, but genuine.

Da Liu rubbed his hands together beside him.

"Master, shall we get on the lathe?"

Old Sun ignored him and first measured the outer diameter and height of each of the four blanks to confirm that there was no obvious deformation during the annealing process.

After recording the data, he went to the lathe and rechecked the worm gear clearance on the indexing plate that he had calibrated the day before.

"Get on the lathe."

The second anode billet was clamped securely by Lao Sun using a three-jaw chuck, with an eccentricity of 3.72 millimeters, and the indexing plate was returned to zero.

He didn't rush to cut; he first let the spindle idle, listened to the bearing noise, and then reached out to touch the back of the chuck for vibration.

Only after confirming that there were no problems did he place his fingers on the infeed handwheel.

The workshop quieted down. Jiang Ming stood to the side, holding the inspection record sheet in his hand, without urging him on.

Da Liu took two steps back, clutched the cotton yarn in his hand, and even his breathing became soft.

Old Sun stared at the end face of the copper billet and slowly pressed down the first cut.