The next step is to make sulfuric acid. This matter is very important. Of course, Li Yi must take a good look at it.

A craftsman poured the gall alum into the jar and smoothed it with his hands. He picked up the lid and closed it tightly. The sealing work was almost done. Judging from the current situation, there should be no air leakage, but we still can't be careless about the preparations.

There is no harm in doing it first, prevention is the priority!

Find a few pieces of cloth, bring a basin of water, soak the cloth in it, and put it on the edge of the lid. Even if sulfur trioxide leaks out, it will dissolve the water on the cloth and prevent it from spreading everywhere.

The most important step is to get a basin of water and put it on the ground. Then use bricks to pad it up and let the spout extend into the water until it is four or five inches into the water.

There are many ways to make sulfuric acid. The lead chamber method was used to produce sulfuric acid in the 18th century. In ancient times, there were two most famous methods for producing sulfuric acid. One was in the eighth century AD, when the Arab alchemist Jabir mixed saltpeter and green vitriol.

Distill them together to obtain "alum essence", which is actually sulfuric acid.

In the middle of the seventh century AD, Hu Gangzi, an alchemist of the Tang Dynasty, obtained sulfuric acid by burning bile vitriol. This method can be roughly divided into three steps. The first step is that after heating, copper sulfate pentahydrate loses crystal water and becomes copper sulfate.

The second step is to decompose copper sulfate to generate copper oxide and sulfur trioxide. The third step is to allow sulfur trioxide to contact water to cause a chemical reaction to generate sulfuric acid.

When the decomposed sulfur trioxide enters the water through the spout, it will react chemically with the water and eventually generate sulfuric acid, which is why Li Yi did this.

All the preparations were done, Li Yi stood aside and said: "It's time to light the fire."

In order to maintain sufficient temperature, a special stove was used. The apprentice threw firewood into the stove hole and began to support the bellows.

The main steps of making sulfuric acid are completed, but there are still some small details to prepare. Li Yi looked at it and found that the fire was good. As long as the temperature goes up, the copper sulfate will decompose.

Find a two-foot-long wooden stick, rinse it with clean water, and Li Yi comes back with the wooden stick. Sulfur trioxide reacts with water to form sulfuric acid. If it is not stirred, the local concentration will be too high, which will slow down the reaction speed.

, stirring is the solution.

Dajiang Liu and the others also knew that their little benefactor knew everything. Many of their research ideas and drawings came from their little benefactor, so they just let their little benefactor do his thing, staring at the jar with his neck stretched out.

Li Yi smiled and said: "Don't stare there, look here." Stir the stick gently in the water a few times and place the stick diagonally against the edge of the basin.

The fire started to rise. The temperature began to rise, and then the crystallization water began to dehydrate.

At this time, the changes are still small, so nothing can be discovered.

After the temperature rises, copper sulfate should decompose, but the amount is not too much. Moreover, sulfur trioxide reacts with water to form sulfuric acid, and sulfuric acid is colorless and transparent. When dissolved in water, it cannot be seen even with good eyesight.

This burning method is a long process and takes a lot of time. The apprentice went to the room and moved chairs out, and everyone sat down and waited for the change.

"Little benefactor, there seems to be more water." The apprentice who was lighting the fire was very observant and noticed something strange in the basin.

Gall vitriol contains five crystal waters, accounting for 36%. After heating, the crystal water separates out, enters the basin through the spout, and cools down again. This water naturally increases.

These apprentices are all talented and have keen observation skills. Li Yi said with a smile: "The bile alum itself is white, and it turns into blue because it absorbs water, which is very beautiful. After heating, the water turns into blue again."

It turns into water vapor. When mixed in a basin, there will naturally be more."

When Li Yi talks about bile alum, he refers to copper sulfate, not bile alum in the complete sense.

After a long wait, the water patterns in the basin became less and less. Li Yi knew it was almost done and asked the apprentice to calm down.

Remove the bricks and put the water basin on the ground. As soon as the spout left the water basin, an unpleasant smell spewed out from the inside, and the people surrounding it hurriedly covered their noses.

Carrying the basin, Li Yi walked straight into the house. The apprentice next to him quickly followed him to see what was going on. Li Yi put the basin on the table, grabbed some soda ash, put the soda ash in the bowl, and scooped out

Add some solution and pour it into a bowl. Bubbles immediately appeared in the bowl, like bubbles spit out by a fish, which was really beautiful.

For future generations, this is nothing. For the prevailing ghosts and gods in this era, it is a very magical thing that there is nothing in the bowl, but bubbles can emerge. Everyone looks into the bowl without even moving their eyes.

For a moment, his face was filled with surprise.

This is when soda ash encounters sulfuric acid and undergoes a chemical reaction to generate carbon dioxide, causing bubbles to appear.

Without the study of basic chemistry, Li Yi said that they would not be able to understand these things, so some natural subjects should be introduced into the school next.

Dehydration is one of the main characteristics of sulfuric acid. When concentrated sulfuric acid touches paper or cloth, it will turn yellow, like withered leaves.

Concentrated sulfuric acid still needs to be purified, and one method is the direct heating method. Sulfuric acid has a high boiling point. Even if the water evaporates, the sulfuric acid will not evaporate, and the concentration will increase just by heating.

But this method has a shortcoming. That is, the evaporation of water will take away the sulfuric acid, causing losses. The current sulfuric acid is very valuable to Li Yi, and he would rather spend more time than lose the sulfuric acid. Besides, the current sulfuric acid

The concentration is less than 10%. If the heating method is used, the loss will be very large. This kind of loss is not affordable now. Although choosing zeolite is troublesome, the benefits are huge.

Ask the apprentice to take out a few pieces of zeolite and put them in the stove to burn. Clean the bowl just now and scoop out half a bowl of sulfuric acid. It's just a test, it won't be much. There is no need to increase the entire concentration. Besides,

.This dilute sulfuric acid can be used again. After repeated use, the concentration will naturally be much higher. At that time, it will be much easier to increase the concentration.

The charcoal fire in the stove hole was still very bright, and when the zeolite was thrown in, it would make a hissing sound within a short time, and the water would bubble and roll on the zeolite. It was really beautiful and attractive.

After making concentrated sulfuric acid, Li Yi moved the container, wiped it clean with a piece of cloth, and poured the concentrated sulfuric acid into the porcelain. Tighten the lid and wipe the joints with yellow wax. The air tightness problem was solved. There is no need to worry about the sulfuric acid absorbing water again.

share.

This container is porcelain specially made by Anxin, which has good corrosion resistance. There are threads on the lid, which greatly improves the air tightness. If you apply yellow wax, no moisture will get in anyway. Fortunately, Li Yi used threads

A small improvement has been made to the porcelain, otherwise even if concentrated sulfuric acid is made, there is really nothing to store without a glass container.

Glass is very precious right now and cannot be used to make glass bottles yet.

With zeolite and concentrated sulfuric acid, it was very simple to make ether. Li Yi let the craftsmen study it on their own and left.

Accompanied by Master Liu, he arrived at the ordnance station.

Recently, pig iron has been gradually introduced into Anxin, which has made up for Anxin's previous difficulty in using iron. Therefore, the development and manufacturing of some firearms has slowly begun and is on the right track.

The current ordnance production is imitation of the Hongyi six-pound cannon. These Hongyi cannons are the standard artillery of the imperial court. Many artillery factories in Beijing and Tianjin can produce them. Li Yi spent a lot of money to copy the drawings. An Xin, your craftsman went through several

After months of research and production, several cannons were cast.

There are not many cannons in Anxin now. There are currently three Hongyi cannons, which in Li Yi's opinion is far from enough.

There are now more than 600 people in the private camp. These people are the thermal weapons troops prepared by Li Yi. They are fully capable of arming at least twenty artillery pieces.

Nowadays, everyone knows that the Ming Dynasty artillery was introduced from the Western Yi, but the firearm manufacturing technology of the Ming Dynasty is still more advanced than the Western Yi. Not to mention the Ming Dynasty, even Hou Jin also knew how to cast artillery by the lost wax method, and treated the artillery differently.

After position annealing treatment, the performance of the cast artillery has exceeded that of Western artillery at this time.

Of course, these techniques were passed down by some Han craftsmen.

The lost wax method is already very advanced in this era, but in Li Yi's view it still has many shortcomings, so Anxin uses the more advanced iron mold method, which is definitely ahead of the world trend.

Yes, this iron mold casting method was invented by a man named Gong Zhenlin in the Qing Dynasty. The process is simple, reduces costs, and is not affected by climate. If wrought iron is used instead of pig iron, the problem of honeycomb astringency can also be solved.

This is of course a very excellent technology. You must know that in Europe, from the 16th century until before the Opium War, artillery casting used the clay mold integral mold casting method or the lost wax method. Only after the Opium War, lathe cutting and casting was used

Law.

Moreover, both the clay mold method and the lost wax method require one to three months to cast a cannon. Although the lost wax method is not affected by the season, each cannon takes two or three months. And the success rate is the same.

It's not very high. For every ten cannons cast, the pass rate is only 20-30%.

The pass rate of the iron mold cannon casting method can be as high as 50%. It takes less than a month to cast a cannon and can be carried out in all seasons.

Li Yi entered a manufacturing room of the ordnance depot. The heat in the room was overwhelming, the iron slurry was soaring, and all the craftsmen were busy.

The person in charge of artillery production is an old craftsman from the northwest. His skills are not very high, but he is well-informed and has strong guidance skills, which is of great help to the research and development of firearms.

This old craftsman was over fifty years old. When he saw Li Yi coming, he immediately knelt down and kowtowed. Li Yi stepped forward to help him up, but he did not accept the kowtow this time.

There is no way, the status of craftsmen is low, and life is hard. These older people are used to groveling for life.

"Little benefactor, by the end of this month, we will be able to cast five large Hongyi guns and load them with a weight of three kilograms. With the iron mold casting method, the success rate of cannon production has greatly increased. Next month there will be ten

A cannon..."
Chapter completed!