Chapter 213 — What Cecil Territory Can Sell
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
The workers and alchemy apprentices were making a final inspection and adjustment of the reaction vessel, confirming the seal of every connecting pipe and testing the operation of every rune array, to ensure that this vessel—whose scale far exceeded any conventional alchemy table—would not suffer a fatal accident once officially put into operation. Its most important part, the central reaction cauldron, was being inspected by Pi Yun himself.
As the part subjected to the highest pressure in the entire system, this unassuming metal vessel could well be called the crystallization of Cecil Territory's cutting-edge technology. It had been shaped personally by Nicolaus Egg, with elemental runes for corrosion resistance and high temperature and pressure inscribed within; at the same time, under Gao Song's guidance, Nicolaus Egg had also designed for it the first mechanical pressure gauge in history—using a segment of elastic metal tubing as the sensitive element, and relying on gears and linkages to drive a needle that displayed the data. Its precision was not high, but it was passable.
In Gao Yang's view, the principle of the pressure gauge was not complex, and with Cecil Territory's current machining technology it was entirely achievable; the difficulty lay in standardizing the pressure scale. Fortunately, this world with its wondrous physical laws at least had a reasonable "atmospheric pressure." Gao Yang and the Ironstar folk had struggled for a long time before measuring the local standard value of atmospheric pressure, and using it as the standard they had established a series of pressure and stress standards, then engraved the scale values relative to atmospheric pressure onto the gauge's dial. In a world where no standard parameters of any kind yet existed, Gao Yang, with a clear conscience, acted as the formulator of a series of standards, and prepared to apply these standards of his to every field developed from then on.
And besides the advanced measuring devices, the precise pipe connections, and the high-strength tank body, this equipment had another special feature: it no longer used open flame as the heat source for heating the medicinal liquid, but instead used fire elemental runes inscribed on the bottom of the reaction vessel for direct heating. Most druid potions did not require the high temperatures needed for smelting metal; fire elemental runes could fully serve to heat the tank body, and compared with the open-flame devices on an alchemy table, the heat from these elemental runes was more stable and more controllable.
At last, the final inspection was complete. Pi Yun left the inspection area of the reaction vessel, and an alchemy and herb apprentice who looked no more than twenty-some years old stepped forward—he was the alchemy factory manager Pi Yun had selected. One could tell the young man was still somewhat nervous, but he nonetheless started up the various parts of the reaction vessel according to the most standard procedure. As the pre-prepared materials were injected into the feed port, the magic runes throughout this "large-scale alchemy device" began to charge gradually. Gao Yang could feel the flow of magic; under the action of the inverter array, the raw natural magic activated those ancient divine-art runes, and everything began to operate naturally of its own accord.
Unlike the roaring commotion when the first mana engine started up, the reaction tank before them would not produce much noise even at full power. Although there were operating mechanisms around it such as stirring devices and pump devices, the original mana engine, after several optimizations, no longer produced such astonishing noise, and the mechanical devices used on this reaction vessel were all "small machines" with less commotion; when working, it could be called quite "quiet."
As for the large vessel at the very center, it was even quieter: there were no mechanical operating components inside it at all.