Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 114 Nitroglycerin and Mercury Fulminate
"Good good."

Zhu Biao walked over, took the gun from him, and couldn't help but touch it, and asked, "Can I use it?"

"I don't know, but the tapping is fine. It hasn't been shot with live ammunition yet."

Zhu Di shook his head.

Zhu Biao looked at Zhu Yunfeng.

Zhu Yunfeng is in charge of bullet manufacturing.

Zhu Yunfeng spread his hands and said, "Don't look at me. It's easier to make a gun than a bullet. I just made sulfuric acid and nitric acid. This is just the first step of the Great Wall."

"Well, don't rush, take your time."

Zhu Biao looked at Zhu Di again and asked, "How many of these guns can be made in a day?"

"It's hard to say about this thing. If you are skilled, you can only make a few in a day. This is because I have stamping parts, otherwise it would take several days to make only one."

Zhu Di said: "The main reason is that there are too few machines. There is only one machine of each type. The barrel, rifling, magazine and other parts have to be polished and cut by ourselves, which is very time-consuming. If there are more machines and more people to operate it, it will be much faster."

“Now there are too many machines and the electricity generation is not enough.”

Zhu Yunfeng came over, took the AK in his hand and weighed it, feeling that it was a bit heavy, and said, "I'll buy a few more generators after a while, and then buy some machines after they're installed."

Zhu Di said again: "Then I will study the structure of the bullet in the next few days and make the bullet. You can get your propellant as soon as possible."

"rest assured."

"By the way, brother, why are you here today?"

"Oh, I almost forgot."

Speaking of this, Zhu Biao perked up and said, "This season's rice is ripe, and the yield is almost nine million shi."

"Not bad, not bad, it exceeded my expectations."

Zhu Yunfeng nodded.

He knew that super rice alone was useless, as the yield increase of super rice was only between 10-20%. Its main function was its strong ability to resist diseases and disasters.

This super rice produced by Gaoke Group is so strong that it can survive even during droughts and with very little water consumption.

Moreover, it will not get common rice diseases and has a very strong survival ability.

But it is basically unrealistic to grow a lot of rice without the help of chemical fertilizers.

Therefore, scientific field management and fertilization are the key to increasing production.

Currently, farmyard manure is produced by Diannongwei, which is affiliated to Luanyisi and nominally led by Zhu Yunfeng, the Prince of Wu. In fact, the number of soldiers is small and they are basically composed of farmers.

They would go to various places to open fertilizer stations, and purchase all kinds of raw materials such as feces, bone meal, bean dregs, rotten leaves, gypsum powder, etc. just like collecting waste, process them into farm fertilizer, and then sell them to the people.

There are certainly many disadvantages here, such as buying at low prices and selling at high prices, and those operators making profits from it.

However, the Luan Yi Si and the Imperial Guards' Commandery will be officially merged into the Jin Yi Wei next year. By then, the Diannong Wei will still be affiliated with the Jin Yi Wei, and the local Jin Yi Wei will be responsible for supervision and accounting, so it should be a little cleaner.

In addition, there are thirteen inspectors and the mobile accountants sent by Zhu Yunfeng himself.

As long as more than 70% of farm manure workshops can be guaranteed to be clean and people can use the fertilizer, it would be good. It is much better than the traditional composting method used now.

"Since you're here, follow me and see my progress."

Zhu Yunfeng handed the AK to Ji He. After everyone had finished looking at the novelty, he called them to his chemical workshop and said, "I added saltpeter powder to water, heated and cooled it, and made potassium nitrate crystals. Then I added sulfuric acid and condensed the gas to make liquid nitric acid."

"Have you made sulfuric acid?"

Ji Hyuk was surprised.

"It's simple. Just heat the sulfur. After heating, the sulfur will generate sulfur dioxide. Use a tube to pass the gas into a bottle filled with hydrogen peroxide, and it will become concentrated sulfuric acid."

Zhu Yunfeng said proudly.

High-purity concentrated sulfuric acid cannot be purchased online, but high-purity sulfur can be purchased.

Sulfur can be converted into sulfuric acid through a simple reaction.

Even though he was a poor student in high school, he is good at technology.

You can find the tutorial by searching on Bilibili.

Therefore, as long as you have the utensils and high-purity sulfur powder and saltpeter powder, it is not difficult to make nitric acid and sulfuric acid.

"Brilliant."

Ji Hyuk gave a thumbs up.

He was admitted to a second-tier university, but he had long forgotten all the chemistry knowledge he taught to his homeroom teacher, so he was really not good at this.

Zhu Biao and Zhu Di had no idea what they were saying, so they naturally couldn't get a word in.

"The only problem is that nitrocellulose can be used as propellant, but the primer still depends on mercury fulminate. This thing is easy to make. Just add nitric acid to mercury, then add ethanol and heat it slightly to make mercury fulminate."

Zhu Yunfeng said: "This thing is too dangerous, even more dangerous than nitroglycerin. If you add some diatomaceous earth to nitroglycerin, it won't explode even if you hit it with a hammer. Mercury fulminate will explode if you just throw it on the ground. I still don't dare to touch it directly."

As they were talking, several people came to the laboratory. It was still a small workshop, but through the transparent glass, they could see that there were all kinds of equipment inside, and there were fully armed soldiers guarding outside.

Not only the chemical laboratory, but also the hydropower station and workshops outside are full of soldiers. This is the basic industrial base of the Ming Dynasty.

Although it was so simple that it was not as good as any metal processing factory in their county.

But this is the only industry in Ming Dynasty.

Open the door of the laboratory, there is protective clothing at the door. Put on the clothes first and then put on the gas mask.

Because whether it is producing sulfuric acid, nitric acid or mercury fulminate, the gases produced are poisonous, so it is necessary to take precautions in this regard.

When you enter the laboratory, the first thing you see is a test bench, on which are placed various test tubes, beakers, measuring cylinders, conical flasks, funnels, sinks, medicine spoons, balances, glass tubes, and other instruments.

At this time, there were many glass bottles on the table next to them, with labels saying "sulfuric acid", "nitric acid", "ethanol", "hydrogen peroxide" and so on.

Many raw materials are actually available for purchase, but this is limited to those that are relatively safe.

Therefore, we can use these safe raw materials to produce in the laboratory those controlled substances that are not available on the market and are expressly prohibited.

of course.

The exception is lead azide, a safer primer than mercury fulminate.

Because its raw materials, dinitrotoluene and sodium azide, are also controlled items, Zhu Yunfeng had to settle for the next best thing and work with mercury fulminate.

"Now sulfuric acid and nitric acid have been successfully produced."

Zhu Yunfeng walked over, took out a beaker, and said, "Let's add some diatomaceous earth powder to the beaker first."

"You're going to start right away?"

Ji Hyuk was shocked.

"Don't worry, I can't kill you."

Zhu Yunfeng rolled his eyes at him and poured some diatomaceous earth powder from a glass bottle labeled "diatomaceous earth powder" into the beaker.

Then some sulfuric acid and nitric acid were poured in, which formed a mixed acid of nitric acid and sulfuric acid.

"Pay attention."

Zhu Yunfeng looked more cautious this time. He picked up a three-meter-long dripping tube covered with a shell and said, "I'm going to drip glycerin."

If you drop glycerin, it will be nitroglycerin, which will explode if you are not careful.

of course.

Diatomaceous earth powder has been added, so the probability of explosion is unlikely, but we still have to be careful.

Hearing his words, everyone took a few steps back.

Zhu Yunfeng held the long dropper in his left hand and first sucked glycerin out of the glycerin bottle. Then he stepped back a few steps and slowly dripped a few drops of glycerin into the beaker like pouring Kung Fu tea.

"clatter!"

Drop glycerin in.

Nothing happened.

However, the nitric and sulfuric acid mixture became slightly turbid.

This is the nitrification reaction.

After the reaction is over, nitroglycerin will precipitate to the bottom.

After a while, turbid nitroglycerin indeed appeared at the bottom.

Zhu Yunfeng carefully sucked it out with a syringe, held it up in front of everyone and observed, "This is nitroglycerin."

"Will it explode if you throw it on the ground?"

Ji He looked at it curiously.

"It shouldn't happen with diatomaceous earth. Now this thing needs a detonator to explode."

"What about nitrocellulose?" "See that cotton over there?"

Zhu Yunfeng pointed to a sack in the corner with the word "cotton wool" written on it and said.

"I saw it."

"Put a few drops of this stuff on cotton and it will become nitrocellulose."

"Well, it looks easy."

Ji He was surprised.

"It's no use. I still need mercury fulminate."

Zhu Yunfeng poured the prepared nitroglycerin into the glass bottle and said, "I am very careful when doing experiments now, for fear that they will explode."

Zhu Biao was very smart. Although he didn't know what they were talking about, he heard that diatomaceous earth could be stable, so he said, "Will it be safe to put diatomaceous earth into the mercuric fulminate?"

"That's a good question. I haven't searched it online yet. But nitroglycerin is stabilized by diatomaceous earth and needs to be detonated with mercuric fulminate. So if mercuric fulminate is also stabilized by diatomaceous earth, what else do we have to invent to detonate it?"

Zhu Yunfeng asked back.

"Forehead"

Zhu Biao showed an embarrassed expression on his face and said, "I'm an outsider, you guys can handle it yourself."

"Forget it. We were supposed to do it today anyway. Since you're here, why not make the mercuric fulminate as well?"

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head.

Then he cleaned the beaker, set it aside to dry, took another beaker, and poured concentrated nitric acid into it.

Then pour some metallic mercury into it.

As soon as the mercury entered the solution, it began to react violently, emitting toxic gases and forming mercuric nitrate. The solution also slowly turned green.

Zhu Yunfeng asked Ji He to open the window, while he prepared the round-bottom flask with a serious face. He first poured in a little ethanol, and then poured in the mercuric nitrate he had just prepared.

This is the most critical step - heating.

During the heating process, toxic nitrogen oxides will be emitted, and after the heating is completed, the sediment at the bottom is mercury fulminate.

However, heating it is a bit troublesome. What if it explodes?

"How about we put the alcohol cup down there and run?"

Ji He came up with a bad idea.

Zhu Yunfeng rolled his eyes at him and said, "That will definitely explode."

"What should we do?"

"let me see"

Zhu Yunfeng thought for a moment, and suddenly an idea flashed in his mind: "Oh, right, I can heat it with boiling water."

The most commonly used heating vessel in the laboratory is definitely the alcohol cup.

The tutorials he had watched online before were all about alcohol cups. Although the process was safe and there was no explosion, Zhu Yunfeng was a little scared.

However, he remembered a sentence in the online tutorial that the heating process does not actually require a very high temperature, boiling water can also be used.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yunfeng immediately took a beaker, filled it with water, and boiled water in an alcohol cup.
"Go out and wait."

It takes a long time to boil water in an alcohol cup.

Zhu Yunfeng asked everyone to go out.

When he got outside, Zhu Di took out a box of Huazi from his pocket, lit one for himself, his eyes filled with melancholy.

Zhu Biao frowned and asked, "Did you smoke?"

“It’s very stressful.”

Zhu Di sighed and said, "I will have to make many more guns in the future."

"Don't listen to his nonsense. It was his sister who fooled around with him and taught him bad things."

Zhu Yunfeng mercilessly exposed him and said, "How is it, is my sister fun after removing her makeup?"

"Hey hey hey hey."

Zhu Di chuckled and said, "They haven't taken off their makeup yet."

"6!"

"Old Four, don't bring some dirty diseases back to Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Biao frowned even more tightly.

He had heard that modern men and women were not chaste and could go to bed within half an hour of knowing each other, and that all kinds of diseases such as venereal disease and AIDS were rampant.

Zhu Di said cheerfully: "Don't worry, we are all wearing safety measures."

"Humph."

Zhu Biao snorted coldly, feeling increasingly dissatisfied with the fourth brother's debauchery.

But he didn't say anything.

After all, the fourth brother can no longer become the emperor, so let him indulge himself as long as he keeps a sense of propriety.

While they were talking, the water in the room boiled.

Zhu Yunfeng put on his protective suit again, asked the three people to wait outside the house, and went in himself.

First he extinguished the alcohol lamp with a lid, then he took a deep breath and poured boiling hot water under the round-bottom flask, letting the boiling water cover the flask.

"Grrrrrrrrrr!"

A rapid reaction occurred in the flask, producing a large amount of toxic gas, which was led outside through a tube.

This was the first time that the Ming Dynasty suffered from industrial pollution.

After a few minutes, the reaction ended, and there was still a lot of mixed liquid of mercuric nitrate and ethanol left on the upper layer, and a layer of gray precipitate about one centimeter thick appeared at the bottom.

This is mercury fulminate.

The mixed liquid of mercuric nitrate and ethanol can be separated from mercury fulminate through a separation device, but Zhu Yunfeng did not dare to do so.

Because of what he read on the Internet, mercury fulminate must be placed in a relatively humid place. If it is placed in a dry place and the temperature is too high, it may explode on its own.

So it is safer to keep it in the solution.

Zhu Yunfeng slowly picked up the round-bottom flask and poured the liquid inside and the mercuric fulminate into a glass bottle.

The remaining liquid can be further heated to produce mercuric fulminate.

"Is this mercury fulminate?"

Zhu Yunfeng took the glass bottle and walked to the door.

Zhu Biao, Zhu Di and Ji He stood at the door and looked at it curiously.

"Yes, but the purity is not high enough."

Zhu Yunfeng said: "High-purity mercury fulminate is white."

"So does it work now?"

"Of course you can. It's slightly weaker than high-purity mercuric fulminate, but not that much weaker. It's a piece of cake to use as a weapon primer."

"Eh."

As soon as Zhu Yunfeng finished speaking, he saw Ji He reaching out to take the bottle, so he knocked his hand away and said, "Be careful, if this thing falls, at least one of us four will be injured."

It is unlikely that he will die. After all, only a small amount of mercury fulminate was produced, and the explosion would not be too powerful.

But this is a glass bottle, covered with glass shards, enough to make the four of them suffer a lot.

"Can you show it to me?"

Zhu Biao asked.

"Hold it firmly and don't drop it."

Zhu Yunfeng handed it over gently.

Although mercury fulminate is relatively stable in solution, he doesn't want to be blown up.

Even the thought of having such a dangerous thing in my hands makes me a little scared.

Fortunately, Zhu Biao's hands were steady. He took it and held it in front of his eyes, saying softly, "This is the future military force of the Ming Dynasty!"

With mercuric fulminate and nitroglycerin, even if all else fails, it's easy to make a steel cannon.

(End of this chapter)