Chapter 304: Magic Metal

Murphy handed the Goblin metal smelting technique to the Magic Research Institute.

They have recently been studying a problem that has plagued the institute for a long time: the compatibility of Magic Power with technological products.

It is well known that an overly active high‑Magic environment causes precise technological creations to fail; Murphy sensed this back at Hogwarts, and it will be a huge obstacle to his path of science‑magic integration.

If science and magic are fundamentally conflicting, then any talk of science‑magic integration is nonsense.

Fortunately, after early research, scientists have ruled out the possibility that the two are a "conceptual conflict"; the failure of technology in high‑Magic environments is most likely due to Magic Power fluctuations interfering with precise electronic devices.

Regarding this, Haldane believes the essence of the conflict is Magic Power's "possibility expansion effect" making electronic devices unstable: designs that should not leak current can now leak, components that should conduct become insulating, and the more precise the electronics, the more likely such disturbances occur.

For example, the Chip: after more than a year of development, the Chip made by the Protection Umbrella Company has reached a minimum process of 0.1 micrometer; a single field‑effect transistor is so tiny it can only be seen with a microscope. Changing the switch state of such a minuscule circuit is far easier than changing that of an ordinary macroscopic circuit.

This is the inevitable result under the Probability Payment Hypothesis of Magic Power.

How to keep precise technological products—such as Chips—stable in a Magic Power environment, scientists have proposed two schemes.

The first is a Magic Power isolation scheme; these scientists think a Magic Power shielding material can be designed, similar to electromagnetic interference shielding, to isolate Magic Power disturbances.

The second is a Magic Power substitution scheme. These scientists, very radical, argue that shielding Magic Power runs counter to the goal of science‑magic integration; since Magic Power can affect electricity, why not reverse the operation and directly replace electricity with Magic Power to drive technological creations.

In fact, this method is quite feasible; they have long discovered that many technological creations can operate via Magic Power, but Magic‑powered creations often produce unexpected changes, such as making cars self‑driving, adding seat ejection and other odd functions—even if the designers did not intend those features.

Controlling Magic Power to operate according to the designer's intent is the difficulty of this scheme.

To this end, they are trying to use the enchantment ritual developed by the Weasley twins to control Magic Power, and Goblin metal appears highly compatible with this approach.

The Magic Research Institute has already accumulated extensive experience in Magic Power research; in the second week after Murphy sent the Goblin metal smelting plan, they completed the analysis of the technical route.

"Goblin metal is mainly divided into three categories," Haldane showed Murphy several metal ingots.

"Copper forged with Magic Power is called Mountain Copper; silver forged with Magic Power is called Secret Silver; gold forged with Magic Power is called Essence Gold. These appeared in ancient legends; some were not forged by goblins, but they are essentially the same substance as Goblin metal."

"The Goblin Gold Coins we once used have good enchantability because their substrate is made of Essence Gold material."

"However, our research found that this Magic Power forging method can affect not only metals like copper, silver, and gold; iron, aluminum, magnesium and other metals can also have their properties altered, and even some non‑metallic substances such as carbon and silicon can undergo unique changes under Magic Power."

"This may be the essence of why gems emit a Magic Power glow. We are conducting in‑depth research on this…"

"Returning to Goblin metal, its manufacturing is actually very simple; essentially it is smelting and doping metal with Magic Power," Haldane explained. "It is much like the electric furnace steelmaking in metallurgy: a rapidly changing Magic Power field heats and melts the metal. Metals forged with different Magic Attributes form specific crystal cells, and different attributes and frequencies of Magic Power cause huge variations in their permeability."

"This metal has a very high affinity for Magic Power and can easily have magic of specific attributes attached."

"Being able to attach magic is nothing special, but being able to attach magic of specific attributes is very useful. Combining the enchantment ritual with Magic Power shielding material can create a Magic Power circuit that only produces a particular magical effect and is less prone to other Magic Power interference."

Murphy nodded; this is why he values Goblin metal, "Can we design Magic Power Chips with this?"

The pinnacle of precision manufacturing is naturally the Chip; the ultimate goal of the Magic Power substitution scheme is to replace electricity with Magic Power to drive such a precise product as the Chip.

"In theory it is possible, but our research on Magic Power‑doped materials has only just begun; whether suitable materials can be found still requires many experiments."

Murphy nodded, "Tell me whatever you need."

Now that Gringotts exists, Murphy's Muggle wealth and Wizard wealth are fully connected; aside from needing to mind the fragile Wizarding economy so as not to collapse it, there are essentially no restrictions—any task that can be bought with money is no longer a bottleneck for him.

"Currently, the biggest problem in metal smelting is a stable source of Magic Power," Haldane said.

"Now that we perform Magic Power smelting, we still need Wizards to operate manually, and manually inputted Magic Power has great volatility, making it hard for us to precisely control the properties of Magic Power metal."

"In fact, this is one reason for the inconsistent quality of Goblin metal; goblin craftsmen's skill largely reflects their control of Magic Power stability during smelting."

"And using magical creatures or Wizard blood to make Magic Power potions as a source faces problems of too little Magic Power and decay, making large‑scale production difficult."

Murphy also knows this problem, but all known Magic Power sources seem to be biological.

"Perhaps… Magic Stone?"

Murphy thought of a possibility.

Murphy had once contemplated the Magic Stone's ability; its miracle of turning stone to gold implies an immensely powerful energy conversion function, perhaps the Magic Stone is a massive Magic Power source.

Thinking of this, Murphy was furious at Dumbledore.

Damn, this old guy really delays things.

But luckily he already got Nikelmei's alchemy data; without a Magic Stone, can I just make one myself?

That said, although that pile of data has already been organized, he still hasn't had time to study it properly.

He hasn't even taken the hard‑won Immortality Potion; instead he gave a bottle each to Snape and the institute for testing.

Meanwhile Snape is still in charge of Magic Stone research and production, and it's unclear how far his research has progressed.

Perhaps he should go to Hogwarts to see the new Headmaster.

(End of Chapter)