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

Jiang Ming left Workshop No. 1 and ran all the way back to his single dormitory, braving the biting cold wind.

He kept saying he was going to get some sleep, but how could he possibly fall asleep at such a critical moment?

After pushing open the flimsy wooden door, Jiang Ming immediately shoved the rusty iron bolt all the way in.

He walked to the window, yanked the blue curtains over, and covered the window completely, leaving not a single sliver of light.

Then, he went to the washbasin stand, scooped up the icy well water with both hands, and vigorously rubbed his face twice.

The biting cold seeped into his brain through his skin, instantly waking him up.

Jiang Ming walked to the single bed, took off his shoes, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes.

My consciousness suddenly plummeted.

The bronze-covered book, "The Record of Human Connections," slowly unfolded in the depths of his mind.

[System Notification: Current Realm: Novice. Three daily summoning attempts remaining.]

[Do you want to connect to the unlocked historical figure: the late pioneer of early vacuum tube and radar physics?]

connect!

[Spiritual communication initiated. Duration limit: 15 minutes. Countdown begins.]

The surrounding darkness receded like a tide.

The pioneer's steady voice, imbued with the vicissitudes of time, resounded directly in the void.

"Young man, you've run into trouble again so soon?"

Jiang Ming didn't waste any words.

Time is too precious.

"Senior, I want to modify a Soviet rotary vane pump with an ultimate vacuum of only 10 to the power of negative 4 to 10 to the power of negative 5."

"I plan to make my own seals using fluororubber to replace the original nitrile rubber."

"What are the fatal flaws in the material selection and processing technology?"

The pioneer was silent for two seconds.

The next moment, his tone instantly became extremely stern.

"The direction is right."

"Fluororubber's oil resistance and low air permeability far exceed those of nitrile rubber, making it the only choice for high-vacuum oil-sealed rotary vane pumps."

"But remember this: the Achilles' heel of this stuff lies in the vulcanization process!"

The pioneers' voices carried a strong academic pressure.

"A fluororubber and peroxide vulcanization system must be used!"

"Moreover, the control of vulcanization temperature is extremely demanding."

"If the temperature deviation exceeds plus or minus three degrees, the cross-linking structure of fluororubber will be destroyed, and its airtightness will plummet."

"Even after being installed in the pump, it still leaks air!"

Jiang Ming's heart tightened, and he quickly pressed for more information.

"Senior, what are the specific vulcanization temperature and time parameters?"

"Try it yourself!"

The pioneers responded without hesitation.

"The purity of the materials you have and the power of your heating equipment are all different. The fixed parameters I give you will only harm you."

"There are no shortcuts in science, calculate it yourself!"

[System notification: The duration of this single psychic session has reached fifteen minutes. Connection disconnected.]

Jiang Ming suddenly opened his eyes and took a deep breath.

This cheat is truly impartial; it doesn't allow anyone to cheat even a little bit.

Without pausing, he closed his eyes again.

Should we initiate a second channeling session?

Open!

The pioneer's voice rang out again, seemingly expressing some appreciation for Jiang Ming's persistence.

"Any other questions?"

"Senior, the sealing element is only one aspect."

"There must be some shortcomings in the mechanical structure of this Soviet pump."

How should the rotor clearance and exhaust valve design be modified?

The pioneer answered this time with a crisp and clear answer.

"The Soviet design style was characterized by its clumsy, large, and crude nature."

"The preload of the exhaust valve spring on their pump is too high!"

"This will lead to high exhaust back pressure, and residual gas cannot be completely discharged."

"Make a note of this line of thought."

"Reduce the spring preload of the exhaust valve by 40%!"

"At the same time, guide grooves are added to the valve plate to guide the airflow to be discharged quickly."

"As for the rotor clearance, it must be recalculated to match your micron-level seals."

Jiang Ming's mind raced, and he memorized every single word.

[System notification: The duration of this single psychic session has reached fifteen minutes. Connection disconnected.]

There's one last chance left.

Jiang Ming gritted his teeth and closed his eyes for the third time.

Should we initiate the third channeling?

Open!

"Senior, there's one last thing to confirm."

"We originally planned to use a hydrogen-nitrogen mixture as the sintering atmosphere."

"Does this gas mixture present any corrosive boundary conditions for the fluororubber seals?"

The pioneer in the void let out an extremely solemn sigh.

"You're quite observant, aren't you?"

"This problem is fatal."

"Under extreme high temperature and high vacuum conditions, if the nitrogen content exceeds 75%, it will slowly corrode the surface of fluororubber."

"Over time, micron-sized pits will appear on the surface of the seal."

The pioneer paused for a moment, then issued a crucial warning.

"I suggest you keep the nitrogen content below 60%."

"In addition, I just deduced something based on your description."

"The batch of Soviet surplus fluororubber in your factory warehouse has been stored for so long that the purity of the industrial grade II product is likely only 92 percent."

"It's a full three percentage points lower than the theoretically required 95%."

"Material defects cannot be changed; you can only compensate through machining."

"You must compensate for these three percent of material defects in the drawing tolerances."

"Otherwise, ten to the power of negative five is just a pipe dream!"

[System notification: Today's summoning attempts have been exhausted.]

Jiang Ming opened his eyes, panting heavily.

The impact of knowledge was so strong that it pushed him to the brink of despair.

The purity is only 92%.

Tolerances must be tightened further!

Frustrated, Jiang Ming grabbed a handful of his hair and jumped off the bed.

He walked to his desk and turned on the dim, old desk lamp.

Then, he took out the "Dictionary of Soviet Internal Communication Terminology and Vacuum Tube Parameters" that Chen Zhiyuan had stayed up all night copying.

He then pulled out Qian Xuesen's handwritten notes on "Starting from Zero: Complete Lectures on the Fundamentals of Mechanics" from under the bed.

Finally, he spread out a thick stack of blank draft paper.

Let's get started!

Jiang Ming went completely mad, plunging headlong into the tedious and numbing calculations.

He opened Qian's lecture notes and found the chapter on the kinetic theory of gases.

Referring to the original parameters of the Soviet pump in Chen Zhiyuan's dictionary, Jiang Ming began to reverse-engineer the limiting relationship between rotor clearance and vacuum degree.

The pen tip rubbed rapidly on the scrap paper, making a rustling sound.

"The spring preload has been reduced by 40%."

"Back pressure reduced."

Substitute the rotor clearance formula.

Jiang Ming muttered to himself as if possessed.

Halfway through the calculation, he suddenly discovered a fatal mistake.

"wrong!"

"The coefficient of thermal expansion of fluororubber wasn't taken into account!"

"It's ruined!"

Frustrated, Jiang Ming crumpled the piece of scrap paper covered in formulas into a ball and slammed it against the wall.

Let's start over!

But after barely sleeping all day, his body finally couldn't hold on any longer.

Jiang Ming had just rewritten two lines of formula when everything suddenly went black, and he collapsed onto the table, falling into a deep sleep.

I slept very briefly, but it was a deep sleep.

When he woke up again, it was completely dark outside the window, and the dormitory was as cold as an ice cellar.

Jiang Ming's stomach was cramping with hunger.

He pulled out half a frozen cornbread from the drawer, and swallowed it down with a few mouthfuls of cold water from the enamel mug.

Then he turned the desk lamp back on and gripped the pen tightly.

Keep calculating!

He clenched his teeth, his eyes filled with terrifying red blood vessels.

In an era when even rudimentary calculators were unavailable, he relied entirely on his once-struggling brain, using the most primitive vertical calculation method, to painstakingly develop all the calculus and fluid mechanics formulas.

Extreme fatigue surged through his nerves like a tidal wave.

But he dared not stop.

If Old Sun miscalculates even one decimal point, the parts he processes will become nothing more than a pile of scrap metal.

The entire anti-interference military vacuum tube project is doomed!

Time ticked by, and the pile of scraps of paper on the ground grew higher and higher.

As the sky outside the window gradually changed from deep black to a pale, fish-belly white, Jiang Ming finally stopped writing with his pen.

He slumped weakly against the back of the chair, his whole body aching as if his bones had been broken apart.

But on the desk in front of him, there were four precise drawings of sealing components and a modification plan for an exhaust valve.

Every line and every chamfer on the drawing is clearly marked.

Jiang Ming picked up the enamel mug on the table and swallowed a mouthful of water, his throat dry.

His gaze was fixed on the almost absurd tolerance number in the lower right corner of the drawing.

To compensate for the three percent defect in material purity, he forcibly reduced the already stringent tolerances by a significant margin.

Jiang Ming looked at the number and gave a helpless, bitter smile.

"This is finer than one-tenth the thickness of a human hair; the rest can only be made by Old Sun rubbing it by hand."