Chapter 97: The Central Heavy Industry Laboratory

However, this, in turn, placed an endless burden on the Office of Truth. When writing a paper, citing classics and evidence is a basic form of argumentation. Now, asking everyone to use them implicitly was something the Elders couldn’t manage. They often focused on one thing and neglected another. After reviewing a few papers, Dr. Zhong and the others established a system: from now on, all such papers would be sent to the Office of Truth for wording review before publication.

“Although the electric motor has been made, and the metallurgy side says they are confident in producing silicon steel, when I think about it carefully, the gap in materials science is still very large…” Faraday said, emboldened by the alcohol.

“What about the planned 100kW low-speed, air-cooled permanent magnet generator?” Dr. Zhong asked with concern. “What will you use for the permanent magnet material?”

“Isn’t that a matter of materials science?” Faraday said. “But based on my limited knowledge of materials science, iron oxide permanent magnets are probably the most likely. I remember that the raw materials for this are abundant, and the process is simple, mainly ball milling and sintering. The disadvantage is that it’s relatively brittle, but it’s fine for use in a generator. If that doesn’t work, we can also consider natural permanent magnets like magnetite. I remember this can also be artificially manufactured.”

Dr. Zhong shook his head, feeling that it wasn’t that simple. Materials science had always been the weak link in the Yuanlao Yuan’s industrial system. After the establishment of the Ma Niao Steel Company, a Central Heavy Industry Laboratory was specially set up to support it, and only then did industrial materials science make some progress. The Ma Niao Steel Company was able to smelt different grades of carbon steel and had produced manganese steel on a small scale. This was all thanks to the elemental analysis provided by this laboratory.

“If the silicon steel doesn’t work out, are you planning to use carbon steel?” Dr. Zhong asked.

“Then there’s no choice but to take the old road,” Faraday said, looking worried. “It’s not that it can’t be used, but finding the complete set of production drawings and process manuals for 19th-century electric motors would be a bit troublesome. We might have to ask someone to redesign the whole thing.”

Qian Liushi interjected, “Once we can mass-produce electric motors, the next step is to tackle the generator. Your manuscript fee will have to be generous then. I hear the General Office is about to launch a new service for Elders, a special supply store called ‘Heaven on Earth’ or something. Our meager monthly allowance probably won’t be enough.”

Dr. Zhong gave a dry laugh. “Basically, everyone who submits a paper gets it published now, and the manuscript fees are not low. Everyone just writes about the entire research and production process, cobbles together ten or twenty thousand words, and that’s it. Someone even submitted a fifty-thousand-word paper with the experiment records and work logs as appendices. I have to say, we can’t just pad the numbers. After all, this journal is for archiving, and we need to have some hard academic standards.”

After the banquet, Dr. Zhong got into his carriage. His lair, the Taibai Observatory, was on the border of Lin’gao and Chengmai, a considerable distance from the core area of Bopu-Bairen. And the Lin’gao City Railway currently only had tracks laid to the Ma Niao Peninsula. Therefore, he was specially equipped with a two-wheeled carriage. In addition to the driver, there were two armed guards with the carriage. As a result, in the eyes of the natives and naturalized citizens of Lin’gao, Dr. Zhong was a mysterious and important figure. Because he rarely appeared, and when he did, he was in a carriage, always accompanied by guards, a grander spectacle than even Chairman Wen or State Secretary Ma.

However, on his way back to the Taibai Observatory, he had to meet one more person.

The carriage arrived at a remote corner of the Ma Niao Industrial Zone. Since Ma Niao had become the new heavy industrial zone, newly built steel smelting and heavy chemical enterprises were all located here. It was a place of truss-style factory buildings and forests of smokestacks. The steady thrum of steam engines mixed with the sharp whistle of boiler exhaust.

This corner was farther from the production workshops, surrounded by a belt of trees that served to reduce noise and block the sea breeze, making it relatively quiet. The Lin’gao City Railway had laid a special branch line here with a platform. The sign on it read: “Central Heavy Industry Laboratory Station.”

Dr. Zhong got out of the carriage near the platform and showed his credentials to the Lin’gao Garrison Battalion sentry on the platform. Then he walked alone down the path through the woods.

The road was paved with coal slag and was very flat. A railway track ran parallel to this small road, indicating that heavy objects were often transported between the train and the laboratory.

The small road was only fifty meters long, but there were sentries at both ends. Dr. Zhong showed his credentials again at the guardhouse at the end of the road before stepping through the gate of the Central Heavy Industry Laboratory.

The Central Heavy Industry Laboratory was a three-story building in the shape of a hollow square. It was equipped with various laboratories and experimental equipment, covering all aspects of experimentation, analysis, and calibration in heavy industrial production. There were two other laboratories of the same level: the Central Light Industry Laboratory in Bairen and the Central Biology Laboratory.

These laboratories were all industry-specific laboratories, providing services for the production and R&D of various industries. However, they were under the direct leadership of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Near the laboratory building was a two-story dormitory with a canteen and simple recreational facilities. The Elders and naturalized citizen employees who worked here lived here on weekdays. To the north of the laboratory building stood a wind turbine generator set, providing emergency power for the laboratory equipment. Normally, the laboratory was powered by the 100kW mobile generator set in Ma Niao.

The laboratory building was brightly lit, not with gas lamps, but with real electric lights. Dr. Zhong walked into the laboratory building and registered at the front desk. Even as the highest leader of the laboratory, he was not exempt from the regulations. Normally, visitors were not welcome here.

The female receptionist asked him to wait in the reception area in the lobby, and she would go get someone right away. Unauthorized personnel were not allowed to enter the laboratory—this was also a rule.

Dr. Zhong leaned back on the rattan sofa, drinking the boiled water the receptionist had brought him. Since the “strict economy” notice was issued, all departments had stopped serving tea to visitors and at meetings, replacing it with boiled water. After a while, a young woman arrived. It was Ge Xinxin, who had spoken about silicon refining at the power work conference.

She was wearing a lab coat and a work cap, with the marks of a mask and safety glasses still on her face. Her eyelids were slightly swollen, giving her a look of overwork, a face that most Elders currently shared.

“Dr. Zhong,” Ge Xinxin walked over quickly and extended her hand. Zhong Lishi hurriedly stood up from the sofa and shook her soft but slightly rough hand.

“Hello, don’t always call me Dr. Zhong. There’s at least a squad of doctors in our Yuanlao Yuan,” Zhong Lishi said modestly.

“Not at all, you are a role model for us to learn from,” Ge Xinxin said half-jokingly.

The two sat down, and a faint scent of perfume wafted to Dr. Zhong’s nose. He knew that even if the female Elders had brought some perfume with them, it would have been used up long ago. From the simple scent, with no distinction between top and middle notes, he guessed it was aromatic essential oil that Ge Xinxin had distilled herself.

Quite a bit of life interest, Dr. Zhong thought. I’ll get a still myself someday and make some for Xiao Ying and Cretia.

Ge Xinxin was a peculiar existence among the female transmigrators. When she registered, she listed her specialty as French, with “none” for other skills. So she was assigned as general labor, doing logistics and administrative work after D-Day. It wasn’t until the establishment of the Ma Niao Central Heavy Industry Laboratory that she unexpectedly volunteered. Originally, the Elders in the industrial sector were unwilling to accept a girl who seemed to have nothing to do with chemistry or steel. But when Ge Xinxin demonstrated her skill with a burette, it made Ji Tui Si, who was in charge of the interview, gasp. Her stable, standard operation, especially the technique of adding a quarter of a drop at the end of the titration, was a skill that could only be acquired through professional training. And when he saw that Ge Xinxin didn’t even look at the periodic table when doing the final calculation, but directly substituted the atomic weights of the elements to be tested into the formula without a single mistake, he directly recommended to the Organization Department that Ge Xinxin be appointed as the director of the chemical laboratory, in charge of chemical experiments. Later, during a production accident at the chemical plant, her first aid measures for the injured made Director Shi suspect her identity. Even the several doctors in the hospital might not have been able to operate so correctly and decisively.

As a woman, her behavior was not particularly sociable. Her appearance was quite good among the female Elders, but no male Elder had ever pursued her. Not because they didn’t want to, but because they often couldn’t find her, as she shuttled between her dormitory and the laboratory. She was like Dr. Zhong, completely immersed in her own castle of a laboratory. After the dormitory building of the Central Heavy Industry Laboratory was built, she moved there and completely disappeared from public view.

She rarely appeared except on major occasions.

Even most of the female Elders rarely had a chance to speak with her. The only people she had frequent contact with were the staff of the Great Library, but only to handle book borrowing procedures. Her reclusive nature earned her the nickname “The Phantom of the Chemical Plant.”

This “Phantom of the Chemical Plant,” due to jurisdictional reasons, had slightly more contact with Dr. Zhong. This time, she had taken the initiative to request a meeting with Dr. Zhong. He estimated it was most likely related to the power work conference. If she wanted to start a new R&D project, it would inevitably involve the issue of project approval from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Sure enough, Ge Xinxin took out a project proposal from her pocket. Dr. Zhong opened it, looked at it, and nodded. Not bad. Her thinking on this issue is much deeper than many of the Elders who only deal with things on a case-by-case basis. Only by opening up this link can many other unresolved links be solved.

“Is this your project proposal?”

“That’s right,” Ge Xinxin nodded. “I’ve already done some preliminary research, but the next step requires too many things. It’s not something I can solve here, so I want to formally apply for a project.”