"So the best way is to soak it in vinegar."
"It takes at least ten minutes, and some cultural relics may even be soaked for 24 hours. However, we don't have enough time, so I won't demonstrate that much."
"It will only take about ten minutes to remove the surface rust and take a rough look at the outline."
After Ren Yan finished speaking, all the students in Class 9 nodded to show that they understood.
Many people even take out their mobile phones to take notes out of habit.
Ten minutes later, Ren Yan took the brush and carefully began to brush off the outermost layer of rust:
“This step is a dry brushing method, but it’s still different because I now know the rust is too thick, so I don’t need to be too concerned about my movements. I just need to control the strength.”
"The real dry brushing method is to control the range of the brush to be between 0.5-0.7 cm away from the cultural relic. If it is too close, it will easily damage the structure of the cultural relic itself."
"It's too far and it might not be cleaned properly."
"So for this step, you need a steady hand."
After more than ten minutes of careful cleaning, the rust on the surface of the object being cleaned had obviously faded a lot, and there were also various rust spots that had fallen off on the deck.
Thanks to the long-term immersion in sea water, the rust is not very stubborn.
However, when the rust on the surface fell off, Ren Yan frowned again.
Because within these rust marks, there is a faint green color.
Combined with the nature of the metal, a thought suddenly popped into Ren Yan's mind.
And there are obviously more than one people who share the same idea as Ren Yan.
After seeing these green colors, Wang Yu asked:
“Is this thing made of copper?”
Ren Yan nodded: "And it may be more than that simple."
"The layer of stone we saw before might not be stone, but a shell made of other materials."
"Look at this..."
As he spoke, Ren Yan pointed to the other side of the object being cleaned: "After a simple cleaning, these stones have begun to break away, and a layer of patina is exposed inside."
"So this layer that looks like stone is most likely dust accumulation, or it may be a surface layer deliberately painted with some materials by the ancients..."
"So this thing is made entirely of metal?" Sun Hao blinked.
"No, strictly speaking it is a bronze product." Wang Yu shook his head.
"Is there any difference?" Sun Hao was stunned.
"Of course. If it is really a bronze product, then our previous speculation that it was an anachronistic relic might be wrong."
"After all, humans have been using bronze since BC, and the first gears appeared in the 13th or 14th century."
"So, in that era when pirates were rampant, it was quite normal for man-made objects to have bronze gears."
"Not necessarily." Hearing this, Ren Yan shook his head: "The gears from the 13th and 14th centuries were at least half a meter long, but the one in front of us only looks like a dozen centimeters."
“The gap is still huge.”
"Besides, if we don't clean it out, we still don't know what's inside."
Ren Yan frowned as he looked at the thing in front of him, and suddenly he had the illusion that Class 9 had caught a great treasure.
"Go, Awei, boil some water!"
"We need to clean it up and find out what this thing is."
After a brief thought, Ren Yan looked at the squad leader.
Classmate Wei didn't waste any time and immediately took Li Cheng to the kitchen to boil some hot water.
After more than ten minutes, the cleaning object became wet and the steam from the birds was floating from it.
This time, not only Ren Yan, but also some of the more careful students in Class 9 picked up the brushes and joined the cleaning army.
With the demonstration of their teacher, even though everyone in Class 9 still felt a little guilty, their progress was much faster after all.
As it grew dark, they finally managed to identify the overall outline of the target.
But instead of improving, everyone's expressions became even more solemn.
In front of them was a rectangular bronze box-like object, covered with greenish-blue rust.
On the outer shell, as Ren Yan guessed, there was a layer of lime shell as protection, but at this time the lime shell was almost falling apart.
The bronze body is exposed everywhere.
At the same time, there are still some patterns remaining on this outer shell. Most of them are circular, and many places are completely hollowed out.
And inside this hollow space, there are densely packed layers of gears.
Although they were not cleaned very well, their jagged appearance still betrayed them deeply.
The side of the bronze body also confirms this point well.
Wherever there is room for cleaning, the appearance of the gears has been revealed.
Even though some small pieces have fallen off, and even after the test of time, these sealed gears still mesh with each other without the slightest deviation.
The workmanship may seem simple, but it gives the people in Class 9 an unprecedented sense of mechanical rugged beauty.
They look simple, but neat and uniform.
It looks incomplete, but it has stood the test of time and now appears in front of them in a relatively complete form.
At this moment, even without Ren Yan saying anything, everyone in Class 9, including netizens, had already confirmed one thing.
This thing must be the legendary relic of an anachronism.
This kind of workmanship, which seems rough but is actually exquisite, is quite difficult to produce even with modern technology.
Not to mention, it was an era when pirates were rampant...
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