Okay. This thing on? Yeah. Seems to be. Very well then. Experiment log one for the new temperature chamber. This will be material test twelve.
This is the next test for the material I have found on Forres. I’m still working on a name for whatever sort of bastard mineral this is. Most of my ideas were silly, like “Harrock”. Not gonna use that one, though. Whatever the name, I need to know how it behaves under extreme conditions before I can use it to transfer heat.
The material that I found on Forres will be placed in a chamber that can expose it to extreme heat or cool it down to a temperature that nears absolute zero.
The power cell that was purchased from the GRG will act as the source of power. The inert power cell I collected myself will temporarily take on and then disperse excess power.
For now, we will try to melt the material. We can ramp up the temperature slowly by increasing the power output. The entirety of workshop five will be in zero gravity. The heating chamber is currently being emptied of air. Once we have a near perfect vacuum, we can begin. Considering that there will be no air in the chamber, this should be easier than heating it while it is in an atmosphere. The material is kept in place through both a gravitational field and a magnetic field. Unless it explodes, which I don’t hope, it won’t come into contact with the chamber itself.
DOCUMENTATION PAUSED; EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
That was a success. Took a while, though. We got the material to melt at roughly 1930 degrees celsius in a vacuum.
This means that it is very much safe to use in the temperatures that it was planned for.
Once molten, it doesn't go back to its original state. That was to be expected. Time to run the same test on a new sample.
We'll repeat the process a few times to see if it comes to the same conclusion each time. Gotta be thorough with this.
The engineers here in workshop five will be able to handle that.
I'm curious about this new state it is in. Time to find out how it behaves post-melting. I want to see how it behaves if I attempt to use it in the same construction that I set up before. I need to find out if it can still be worked with simple industrial cutting tools or if I actually need to use a mold. Also, I want to know if it still transfers heat to brine. I'll be in workshop two.
DOCUMENTATION PAUSED; EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
The engineers in workshop five have repeated the experiment another nineteen times and we now have a decent amount of molten material. I'd press for more repetitions but we only have so much material before we need to return to Forres and get more. It always melts at exactly 1927 degrees celsius so long as it is within a vacuum.
Another test was conducted where we attempted to melt it in a regular breathable atmosphere. It kept dissipating the heat to the surrounding air which, in turn, heated the chamber itself. This construction is capable of withstanding the heat generated by a battleship sized generator. However, it wasn't enough to get the rocks to melt within an atmosphere. The engineers shut it off before our work could threaten Vieques itself.
We will reduce the temperature of the current batch to near absolute zero so we see how it behaves. As long as it is in the chamber, we might as well use it.
In the meantime, my personal attempts in workshop two were interesting to say the least. The material no longer transmits heat to brine like it does in its natural composition. Instead, it now collects heat until it reaches at least 800 degrees celsius, which is a massive increase from before. I can't make more accurate assesments until I can work with a more powerful heat source. Therefore, I will need to use the Ingenuus power cell to test how it behaves in its new state and at which temperatures it begins to radiate heat again. Also, I will need to expose it to other new liquids. Who knows. If we can make it work like it does in its base form, this might yield even better results than my original idea.
DOCUMENTATION PAUSED; EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
Okay. So now we know not to do that again.
Freezing the material to exactly fifty degrees above absolute zero after it was molten and cooled makes it very brittle to the point where it breaks into pea sized pieces. The single bits are sharp as needles and very easy to magnetize. They are also surprisingly tough once they become too small to splinter further. The gravitational field in the chamber contained most of them but some were flung outwards by the magnetic field and managed to pierce the chamber walls. We need a new optronic relay in the workshop now. Good thing that I brought in way too many. Also, all three cameras in the room were destroyed. One pellet went straight through Earl's lower leg and he was brought to the med bay. I'll leave repairs to people here and take the energy cells to workshop two. Time to check how well this stuff conducts heat.
On to the good bit. By now I know that it will readily transfer heat to pure distilled water. This means that we can potentially use it to transfer heat and power a steam turbine. Mass production would be problematic due to the extreme conditions under which it melts but this could be big. We might need more of these power cells.
DOCUMENTATION PAUSED; EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
The heat transfer rates are in. The material keeps its heat until it reaches roughly 1050 degrees celsius. It then begins to disperse heat. The exceptions to this are distilled water, mercury and different silicon oils.
Distilled water is a worse tool than brine, though it requires less maintenance.
Mercury is poisonous. I want to make the lives of Junkers safer, not more deadly.
Finally, silicon oils are what I am looking for.
However, the material is much harder to cut into shape than its pre-melting state. I had to use some proper hull cutting tools to make it easier. While its heat transfer rate and range is amazing, it's difficult to produce.
So for most cases, we will need to use the base material. However, in power systems like ship reactors, where a lot of excess heat is generated, we can make good use of it.
While the following isn't relevant to the experiment, it's still relevant to me. Earl got lucky. The splinter went straight through his leg and at its absurd speed it barely had a chance to create any frostbite. He'll be up and healthy in about three to five days. Well. As healthy as a person who drinks a liter of Wodka every week can be.
The chamber has been repaired with new plates. It's a good thing that I brought in about three times the amount of required material. If we can keep accidents like this to a minimum then we may be able to use remaining building material and elements for the construction of our two upcoming heat transfer prototypes.
It's time to freeze the base material to near absolute zero. This time, we will disable the magnetic field to prevent potential magnetization. The gravity field generators will need to do overtime. We were lucky that we only had one injury so far.
DOCUMENTATION PAUSED; EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
This stuff is quite interesting. It barely changed when we brought it to absolute zero. The material got a bit denser but that's about it. Heating it back up had no noteworthy effects except that it returned to how it was. It returned to its original state and regained its ability to transfer heat in a very controlled fashion. It might even have retained it, though we can't test for that with our current equipment and the answer would be irrelevant for us anyway. What's important to know is that we can use it in very cold environments and it will regain its functions after long periods of engine inactivity. We've run quite a few tests on the stuff after it was made cold and then reheated. The way I'm saying this, it sounds like reheating yesterday's lunch.
No matter. The important bit is that we now know the heat transfer rates for the material.
All that is left is to find out why the heat transfer fluctuates wildly around 103 degrees celsius. Things are set up here in workshop two. We just need to hit the lever.
...
What?
...
No. No Alexander, I'm not gonna cackle like Frankenstein. And get your ballistic mask back on! We're starting in a few moments.
DOCUMENTATION PAUSED; EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
Very well. With this, all necessary tests are concluded.
As it turns out, the heat transfer rate at 103 degrees celsius is inconsistent because a few select parts of the material begin to melt at this exact temperature. After melting, they quickly solidify again, despite no change in temperature. So long as we keep the temperature at 102.7 degrees, the transfer speed is much better than usual. Once this is exceeded, the transfer becomes inefficient, as the material starts to give its temperature back to the input part of the system instead of only the brine on the output side. I don't think we can make active use of this phenomenon outside of a few select ship systems that have a constantly high temperature but we might be able to gain a bit of extra power from this. Time to submit all of this to the Arbiter. And once the more personal things like names have been redacted, it can be shared with the GRG|.
DOCUMENTATION TERMINATED; EXPERIMENT CONCLUDED
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>