A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 137: Lab Lessons Always Cure the Teacher's Low Blood Pressure

For the transformation, Rorschach needed to understand what processes the transmutation dust underwent within Delyuaz's blue light barrier, and how a portion of it was stabilized and transformed into blue crystals containing ether. He needed to scale up this process to maximize the amount of blue crystals produced and minimize the amount of prematurely decaying powder.

However, this is only one possible route. What he envisions is to directly extract the ether and obtain a continuous "magic well." If successful, it will become the core of Rorschach's future magic tower.

"When studying the transformation process, we are easily misled by appearances and overemphasize what has changed. But people often start by understanding the unchanging elements when they truly grasp the essence of the process." Today is also the day Luo Xia is teaching at the Higher Normal School, and he can now vaguely remember the names of the students in the audience.

Today's lesson was being held in the lab, and Rorschach had to constantly monitor and correct the students' mistakes: "Andrew, you shouldn't be handling the weights with your hands."

"Excuse me, sir, but I am Andrei."

"Okay, Andrei, I'll remember that from now on. You also need to remember the experimental procedures."

The students removed the white phosphorus from the cold water, dried it, and then placed it into a conical flask lined with fine sand. A glass tube was inserted into the cork, and a small air bladder was attached to the part of the tube protruding from the flask.

It's not easy to equip a class with this simple device. For example, there is no artificial rubber or synthetic polymers in this world, and the airbags are made from sheep intestines and rubber tree sap.

The experiment Rorschach was going to lead them on was incredibly basic: the combustion of white phosphorus in a closed system. The students only needed to weigh the system before and after igniting the white phosphorus to find that the total weight of the system did not change. The reactants and products had equal masses; mass is a property that remains unchanged during combustion.

The experiment is simple, but the ignition process is somewhat dangerous. It is very important for these students to gradually learn how to conduct experiments in a standardized manner. White phosphorus has a very low ignition point. Under Rorschach's demonstration, heating the mouth of the glass tube and inserting the stopper along with the glass tube into the flask can ignite the white phosphorus, producing white smoke, light, and heat.

As expected, an unexpected incident occurred: the paper used to absorb water from the white phosphorus was very rough. A clever person, fearing that residual water on the white phosphorus would prevent it from being ignited, rubbed it vigorously in a corner of the classroom and successfully ignited it with the rough paper, causing the white phosphorus to burn happily in the air.

"Ah!" The white phosphorus sample was only the size of a bean, and it disappeared in a puff of white smoke. However, the absorbent paper was ignited by the heat released from the sample, and the white phosphorus experiment continued on the metal-covered experimental table.

Rorschach didn't immediately extinguish the flame with magic. He simply cast a spell to dispel the toxic smoke and then observed how the students who caused the accident tried to put out the fire.

Now, this panicked guy has a bucket of sand at his feet and a bottle of water on the table.

Water. Water. The student nervously grabbed the water and was about to pour it down when he realized that his hand was being held down tightly.

"Damn it!" Rorschach almost cried from the sheer stupidity of his student, having already pinned him down with the Mage's Hand. Bartis watched helplessly as his teacher approached with a dark expression. A ray of frost-laden energy shot from his hand, striking the paper precisely and extinguishing the flames.

"Batis?"

"You didn't call me by the wrong name this time, sir," the students watching laughed.

This guy's a bit airheaded. Rorschach started interrogating him: "Bartis, why are you holding that bottle?"

"Because I want to put out the fire, sir, and there is water in the bottle."

"Can you tell me why there's water in the bottle?"

"Because... oh, because of white phosphorus, which is stored in pure water, sir." You finally understand, young master Battis.

Rorschach released Battis, who had failed to deliver phosphorus into the fire: "I said at the beginning of the experiment that if a fire accidentally broke out during the experiment, sand could be poured on it to extinguish it."

In reality, it's unlikely that pouring that cup of liquid would ignite the phosphorus before extinguishing the flames, but it would undoubtedly increase the danger. Immediately pouring colorless and transparent liquid on fire is a habitual practice that needs to be corrected in laboratories and workshops. Rorschach was thinking about when he should get some active alkaline metals to broaden these people's horizons.

He looked around and said to the students who were watching the spectacle, "Those who haven't finished the experiment, continue. After you finish recording your experimental report, you need to attach a reflection question at the end of the report: Why does this experiment demonstrate the idea of ​​'conservation of matter' in non-magical transformation processes, and..."

If you are an apprentice of the Tower of Stars, you should continue to think about what kind of magic would break this law, and what its manifestations and mechanisms are.

But they were ordinary people. According to the agreement between the school and the magic guild, he changed the subject: "And based on the 'three elements of combustion' we learned before, think about and design three safe fire extinguishing and fire prevention plans."

Luo Xia felt that the assignment was well done, but judging from the students' expressions, he knew it wasn't. Luo Xia believed that the reason it was well done was that "designing effective fire-fighting measures based on the conditions and laws of combustion" was a much-needed aspect in the world's industries that had just moved away from handicraft production. If these students could work in the workshop in the future, this skill alone would be of great value.

It wasn't because he was secretly pleased with giving these students something to do after class. Rorschach put on a stern face and said to Battis, "This student needs to write down five points, and also write a series of reflections on the mistakes you made."

Upon hearing this, the other students suddenly felt as if their homework had become relatively less. Battis's face fell, while the others couldn't help but smile—pain and pleasure achieved a kind of conservation in this classroom.

"Others should also reflect on and summarize the shortcomings of the experiment. For example, Andre can review the operating procedures of the balance again." The teacher's "magic" broke the law of conservation of "pain-pleasure". Now everyone is in pain, only to varying degrees.

Rorschach didn't get any pleasure from "torturing" his students; he assigned these assignments so that his students could do experiments better and more safely in the future.

If only some of you could advance on the path of seeking truth or benefit more people even without magic. "To cultivate the best teachers for the advancement of human wisdom and art," the slogan was shouted loudly. Rorschach looked at the students in the classroom, who seemed clumsy in their work, and sighed inwardly.

In the next class, he planned to assemble another set of the apparatus used to prove the "thermal-mechanical equivalent" in his previous work "Examining the Efficiency Limits of Thermodynamic Conversion and Heat Engines" so that he could explain "energy conservation in a non-magical system" to these students.

As for the system that includes magic, Rorschach felt it was appropriate to explain some of it. From airships to the workshops now where alchemy technology is involved, the content of magic has gradually permeated into industrial production. Even if mages and apprentices monopolize these positions, the demand still exceeds the supply.

The workshop was full of noise, danger, wastewater and exhaust fumes. How many noble mages and apprentices who were usually well-off would want to stay there? If Rorschach's invention could solve the supply of ether, then people who didn't know magic could be trained to operate magic circles in the factory, or even participate in the design of magic circles and spells, even if they themselves did not have enough magic power.

What kind of person is that? A mage who can't cast spells?

Luo Xia watched the students packing up their experimental equipment and chuckled at his own wild thoughts.

The bell rang, and the students rushed to the next classroom. Luo Xia, having finished checking the arrangement of the equipment, was also about to slip away when a colleague at the door called out, "Professor Luo Xia, wait!"

"Did you need something from me?"

"I am Instructor Drouot. I have a lot to tell you. Because you always leave right after class and never come to the research office, I have no choice but to come here to ambush you." The teacher who came to inform Rorschach was a young man, probably around thirty years old, with a faint smell of tobacco on him.

"Then you have won the battle, please speak."

(End of this chapter)