Chapter 17: Electric Arc
Li Shiming held two black silicon carbide rods in his hands. It took him five full days to prepare these rods.
Due to limited resources, he used a relatively primitive method called the burial sintering technique.
From his servant Mo Yan, he learned that there was black stone in a nearby mountain—black stone, or coal. Since burning coal produces toxic gases, very few people in this world use it as fuel.
He used five large carts of coal to successfully create the two silicon carbide rods.
However, because his consciousness was present in the server room, he was able to isolate the heat and harmful substances, otherwise, he wouldn’t dare perform such an operation in the confined space of the server room.
With the current level of technology in this world, even if he revealed his method of creating silicon carbide rods, no one would be able to replicate it.
It was only because of his consciousness constantly monitoring the material changes in the server room that he was able to succeed.
His consciousness manipulated several custom-made parts delivered by Mo Yan, combining them with the heat-insulating materials he fabricated to create a peculiar device.
Even experts from his past life would be unable to tell what this device was for.
Even with the two silicon carbide rods installed, the device couldn’t perform the intended function.
It was an electric arc furnace missing a crucial component—the high-voltage power pack and the electrical control devices.
Li Shiming wasn’t lacking knowledge on how to create high-voltage power packs, capacitors, resistors, and other electronic components, but the problem was that there was a severe shortage of basic materials, so he had no way to begin.
He thought of a simple solution: the uninterruptible power supply in the server room could output the high voltage needed for the electric arc furnace with just a slight adjustment in the instructions. As for the electrical control issues, the uninterruptible power supply could handle them as well.
The main reason he wanted to build the electric arc furnace was for self-preservation. With it, he could refine iron himself. Using his consciousness to control it in the server room, he could shape the steel into any form, ensuring precision.
Furthermore, with the electric arc furnace, depending on the input power, temperatures ranging from 1300°C to nearly 2000°C would easily allow him to process and create most basic materials.
Only with these basic materials could many technological products from his past life be recreated in this world.
Of course, he wasn’t in a rush to process the materials. Before he could focus on making these basic materials, there was still one crucial item he needed to make first.
During these days, he reduced his electricity consumption and used his consciousness to drive the generator, replenishing the power in the uninterruptible power supply. Today, he finally filled it up.
The accumulated electricity was intended for the electric arc furnace.
He summoned the design blueprint he had modified several times, which had finally taken shape.
It was a steam engine, and the blueprint not only showed the steam engine’s design but also a detailed alloy composition chart for each component.
With his consciousness, he guided the high-voltage electricity output from the uninterruptible power supply into the two silicon carbide rods, causing a superheated white glow to form between them.
The iron and other metals, already prepared, were then manipulated by his consciousness and sequentially fed into the electric arc furnace, turning into molten alloy.
The high temperature in the electric arc furnace didn’t affect his consciousness at all. He monitored the molten alloy, and when it became the desired composition, the electric arc furnace was disconnected from the uninterruptible power supply.
His consciousness held the molten alloy out of the electric arc furnace, shaping it into the necessary parts in mid-air.
In the server room space, his consciousness functioned almost like multiple high-precision equipments.
It was precisely because of the unique nature of the server room that he was able to bring his ideas to life.
After cooling, the first part was retrieved from the server room space.
Holding the part in his hand, its metallic texture with a hint of his past life’s style made him feel an overwhelming sense of emotion.
He had made many things before, but they didn’t resemble the style of his past life. The part in his hand was the first real manifestation of his previous world’s technological achievements in this world.
Even this part alone was something no ordinary craftsman could create.
Not to mention the carefully perfected alloy formula, the precision down to the micrometer would be beyond the capability of ordinary artisans.
Without precise machinery, only those known as master craftsmen might have the ability to achieve this, and Li Shiming had never witnessed such master craftsmanship. Even with his background, he could not afford to hire one.
He checked the power consumption, and the electricity used by the high-voltage transformer was still within a controllable range, so he continued operating the electric arc furnace.
One by one, alloy parts were created. By the time the last part was completed, ten days had passed, leaving only three days until the Autumn Examination.
The reason it took so long was mainly because of the time spent replenishing the power; the electric arc furnace consumed electricity at an astonishing rate.
The electric arc furnace was a bit small, which meant that components like the flywheel and boiler had to be made in segments, with the parts later welded together by the electric arc.
His consciousness could sense the internal condition of the parts in the server room space; otherwise, segmental manufacturing would have posed a significant risk.
Luckily, none of these issues hindered his manufacturing process, and soon a steam engine appeared in the server room space.
He added water and coal to the steam engine, ignited the coal, and once the water heated up, the flywheel began to turn slowly. As the water temperature rose, the flywheel sped up.
The flywheel drove the rotor of the generator, which generated electricity.
The electricity flowed into the uninterruptible power supply, replenishing the power consumption.
As long as there was water and coal, electricity would continuously be produced.
The generator was also modified. With the electric arc furnace in place, he used his consciousness to craft micrometer-level precise rollers and replaced the leather lubrication system on the generator, greatly improving its efficiency.
The electricity produced could not only power the electric arc furnace but also keep the large IBMz15 servers from going into sleep mode, allowing him to fully utilize it’s computational power without restrictions.
Li Shiming no longer needed to consume his own mental energy. As long as he periodically replenished the coal and water and regularly expelled impurities and gases from the server room space, everything would function smoothly.
He hadn’t wasted any time on cultivation either. He had reached the peak of the first layer of the Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique and would soon be able to attempt breaking through to the second layer.
He wasn’t sure how fast his cultivation was progressing, but the spiritual qi in his body had significantly increased, and he was barely able to begin learning low-level techniques.
He planned to start learning three techniques after the Autumn Examination, as these were the only three he had access to.
Li Shiming’s consciousness entered the large IBMz15 server. With 190 CPUs, 40 terabytes of memory, and an array of hard drives all active, his consciousness connected to the server.
Once the large IBMz15 was fully operational, he felt a moment of dizziness. It was caused by a large volume of data refreshing simultaneously, and his brain couldn’t keep up.
He couldn’t help but smile wryly, realizing that it was him, not the server, who couldn’t keep up with the processing speed.
He adjusted the connection to the server, creating a buffer in the memory for data exchanges between the server and his brain, thus solving the issue.