Greetings, Mister Principal

Chapter 36: New Matter and Old Theory

It was not so much an electrolytic magic circle, as it was a constant direct current generator. The magic circle could convert magic into an electric current and conduct it through wires arranged around the magic circle.

To activate this magic circle, a mage of the first-ring or above was required to continuously provide magic power, or two standard magic stones for energy.

This was not the magic circle created by His Excellency Cornwall Penzance, but it was invented by a mage named Alessandro Cuomo way earlier, and he had applied for a patent for it, but because of his early death, so the patent has already been released to the public for everyone to use.

A curious mage replaced the wires with other metal materials and found that when the current became stronger, the wires would also glow and heat. In this way, he made a gadget for lighting, which was used by some upper-class nobles, and it was quite popular. Of course, this was another story.

At this time, the three people in the laboratory were all staring at the wires inserted into the inverted tubes. At the place where they could not see with naked eyes, the current was rushing in the wires like a rushing river. The moment they came into contact with the water and the energy was scattered, prying open a profound structure.

The macroscopic performance of all this was that a tiny air bubble emerged from the electrode.

This was just a small bubble, almost undetectable, but it was very conspicuous in the inverted test tubes.

Claire held her breath, staring at it.

The bubbles gradually increased, expelling the water in the test tubes, and the amount of gas produced by the two electrodes was obviously different. When the water at one side was almost exhausted, there was still nearly half of the water in the test tube at the other side.

At this time, Reiner motioned to stop the experiment.

Now they were presented with two test tubes that seemed to be empty, but everyone knew that there was some kind of gases inside.

According to the weighing, the mass of the water in the sink was indeed reduced.

Reiner's hypothesis was becoming reality step by step.

"First of all, let's arrange our current thoughts. Under the decomposition of electric current, water has indeed become two kinds of gases. This conclusion should be no problem, right?

Confirmed to the two ladies, Reiner was also quite excited at this time.

Since water could be decomposed, it meant that this was not some kind of magic element, but a real compound. If the properties of these two gases could be verified in the next step, it meant that Reiner's conjecture was not wrong, at least, so far, the common sense of chemistry on earth that he knew was still valid in this world.

"Yes, but it could also be water vapor. You know, electricity current is similar to flame and can change objects."

Claire put forward an opinion. Now she was not thinking about whether the basic element of water could really be decomposed or whether the previous theories were correct. She just wanted to verify what the composition of the gas was as soon as possible.

"Then we will verify the nature of these gases."

Reiner first picked up the gas released by the positive electrode, which had a smaller weight.

Claire cast an appraisal spell, which could distinguish the three states of water, but when she got feedback, the Professor was stunned.

"It's not water vapor... not even a known substance?"

If it hadn't been for this conclusion to come from her own appraisal skills, then Claire would definitely think it was an illusion.

"Will it be a flame-retardant gas?"

Reiner asked. The flame-retardant gas he was talking about was carbon dioxide produced by calcining Grey Stone. He just temporarily gave it a name.

He certainly remembered that in the water electrolysis experiment, the positive electrode should release oxygen, but Reiner still needed conclusive evidence, so he decided to verify it first.

Sharon stared at the test tube and remained silent.

"Let's try it."

A match was lit, and only sparks were left after it was blown out. After releasing the finger that sealed the test tube, Reiner pushed the match into the test tube opening.

In an instant, the embers that had been extinguished burned again, emitting a dazzling bright light, but after only a moment, the match returned to its already extinguished state.

"It appears that this gas is the opposite of flame-retardant gas and can help combustion. It is temporarily named as combustion-supporting gas."

Reiner summarized and recorded observations in his notebook.

"It's almost the same as the feeling of the fire element."

Sharon mentioned. Claire came back from thinking.

"Yes, it can make the extinguished embers burn again. Could it be that this is the substance of fire element?"

Another excitement emerged in her heart, Claire called.

For many years, although there have been theories of the four basic elements, different from water and earth, mages have been unable to find the substance of the fire element. In other words, people were unable to find a stable substance that could be studied. If this special gas was the fire element, then alchemy theory could undoubtedly move forward for decades.

"You think? We can measure the mass of these gases later. According to the guess in the latest "Alchemy", the fire element should have a negative mass."

"Negative mass?"

Claire was a little confused. Naturally, she hadn't read the latest papers, and the concept of negative mass was too bizarre. Even if she was told that it was proposed by the academic experts on Alchemy, Claire couldn't believe it for a while.

"The gas here seems to be used up. Let's take a look at the properties of the gas in the other test tube."

Reiner said, let Claire cast the appraisal technique, and the result was still unknown gas.

"If the gas just now was a fire element, then the gas here should be ash gas without the fire element and cannot burn. According to theory, is this correct?"

Claire thought for a while before nodding to confirm.

"Then we use an open flame to verify it."

Similarly, he struck a match, and Reiner cautiously moved it to the tip of the test tube that was slanted downward and released the thumb that held the test tube.

To Claire and Sharon's surprise, the flame did not go out, nor did it burn more vigorously, only a faint sound came from the test tube and it echoed in the quiet laboratory.

"What is this?"

Claire was completely puzzled. Obviously, the nature of this gas was different from the flame-retardant gas, and it was not a combustion-supporting gas. This was the third gas.

Two brand-new substances were obtained from the electrolysis of water.

Discovering a completely new substance alone could publish a paper that was qualified enough to be published on "Alchemy", let alone discovering two at the same time. Moreover, these two substances were obtained from water, which was known as the "basic element" and could not be broken down further.

Feeling difficult to breathe, Claire fell into a chair. Fortunately, Reiner's previous actions had already loosened her long-established cognition. Otherwise, Claire was likely to suffer magic backlash and fainted on the spot because of this huge impact. Her brain may even explode like those ancient mages!

Then, as if it was the end of the experiment, Reiner brought the test tube containing the explosive gas to Claire and Sharon.

The two opened their eyes and clearly saw a few drops of crystal water inside the test tube