Poor family mother and son

Chapter 541 Black Gunpowder

Hou Ze said again: "I told my brother about this first, and he said he would handle it so that I don't have to bother you, but I think I have to tell you too. If my brother makes any moves, you can help cover it up." wear some."

See, it's not just Chu Qing who divides trust into levels, Hou Ze also divides trust.

Although Hou Ze only spends a short time with Wei Chengyi, he ranks him as a trusted person at the same level as Shui Maomao, while Xiaobao is farther away, and Chu Qing is even farther away.

So what he was considering was to ask his brother to deal with Shui Maomao's aftermath, but the incident was provoked by Xiao Bao, so Chu Qing couldn't be idle and had to help his brother deal with the aftermath.

"Must!" Chu Qing answered simply, her own children are mixed with others, and the parents must be a good backer.

Hou Ze also talked about the division of processing and consignment sales.

Hou Ze didn't understand why Xiaobao did this. He brought all the goods to others, but he didn't sign a contract, and even told them [-]%, why was it necessary?

If money is really counted, isn't it just as much as others say?

Besides, Chu Qing is Xiaobao's mother, so no matter how much money she actually earns, she can't keep it for the child?How can it be taken out?

If he is Xiaobao, just offer it with both hands to show your filial piety.

But Xiaobao is indeed rich, and his mother doesn't seem to know much about it. Now it seems that she doesn't care.

This mother and son are strange, they seem to be in charge of their own affairs, and they seem to be taking care of their own.

Chu Qing told Hou Ze to let him stay in Xinlunzhou for a few more days. She had something for him to bring back, but it took time to prepare.

He also told the person to take Hou Ze to take a good look around Xinlunzhou, mainly to visit his own property, let him get acquainted, and see if there are any brothers from the Chuanbang who are interested, and she will invest.

Because of the difference in Hou Ze's trust in Chu Qing, Xiaobao and Shui Maomao, Chu Qing feels a little ashamed when he thinks of the difference in how he treats Wei Chengyi and Xiaobao.

So she decided to win Hou Ze's heart closer, which would be better for Xiaobao.

Chu Qing bought some firecrackers, opened a "studio" in the house in Xinlunzhou, and nested in it for five days, saying it was a "smoke bomb" for studying Xiaobao.

But what Chuqing really wanted to make for Xiaobao was a lethal bomb, and the smoke bomb was just a cover.

Removing impurities and purifying saltpeter is an exhausting job. Fortunately, because of the slow traffic and poor information in this world, Chu Qing has already practiced very patiently.

The purification process is simple to say, crush the saltpeter into powder, mix it with plant ash, put it in a large pot and add water to dissolve it, then heat it, simmer slowly, and stir repeatedly.

The main component of plant ash is potassium carbonate, which is used to provide potassium ions, and then reacts with calcium nitrate, magnesium nitrate and other components in saltpeter to form potassium nitrate and calcium carbonate.

Potassium nitrate is easily soluble in water, while calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, etc. are insoluble in water. Filter the solution to remove the precipitate, and physically separate carbonate and potassium nitrate.

This step is to remove calcium ions, magnesium ions and carbonate groups in the aqueous solution. In fact, this step is very simple, just like the sand in the rice washing water, just filter it out, and Daxuan craftsmen can basically do it.

After that, it's time to separate the sodium ions in solution.

This is a physical process that primarily utilizes the solubility of potassium and sodium carbonates and nitrates at different temperatures.

Potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate have one thing in common - as the water temperature increases, the solubility increases significantly, but the change of sodium nitrate is smaller.

Therefore, it is only necessary to boil the current mixed solution to make it close to saturation, and then turn off the flame. During the process of cooling down, a large amount of potassium nitrate must be crystallized first.

But only one time is not enough, because during the cooling process, sodium nitrate will also crystallize out, so the steps of dissolving-heating-cooling must be repeated continuously to improve the purity of potassium nitrate.

Although sodium nitrate is also a strong oxidizing agent and a combustion aid, if the gunpowder contains too much sodium nitrate, it is very susceptible to moisture.

Daxuan has not discovered the function of this step, and does not know the principle of it. The craftsmen also organize production based on the technology passed down by word of mouth.

And just the previous step of filtering the "garbage" was not very dedicated.

Except for the small workshops that make fireworks and firecrackers, it is for their own work, and they can do their best. On the contrary, those craftsmen in the Ministry of Industry who spend their wages for a living are always "almost enough", leaving more "garbage" to make up for it.

In fact, it is clear that in the modern era of that world, it knew to separate sodium nitrate according to its solubility, but it also lost in the process of purification.

At that time, the army was equipped with a large number of firearms, and the demand for gunpowder soared. The government not only controlled the cost of raw materials, but also tried to save time and labor. As a result, the purity of potassium nitrate was not high, and it was very easy to be affected by moisture.

Sodium nitrate is very hygroscopic, and the produced gunpowder contains a lot of sodium nitrate, which will form agglomerates after being damp, which cannot be loaded into the gun barrel and needs to be ground into powder again.

The soldiers and pharmacists engaged in these two processes, nothing more than crushing, splitting, smashing, rubbing with tools such as hammers, axes, bars, etc. The powder will be impacted or rubbed to absorb heat, and an explosion is inevitable.

In the Ming Dynasty, the capital and gunpowder bureaus in various towns often experienced big explosions, which is related to this.

Anyway, at that time, there was a lot of waste of materials, but the gunpowder produced was not satisfactory.

After drying in the shade with potassium nitrate, the rest is mixed with sulfur and charcoal.

"One nitrate, two sulfur and three charcoals, add some sugar for six and a half years!" Chu Qing muttered, "This is definitely enough for me to be sentenced to life!" The scales in the pharmacy weighed the materials one by one.

Regarding the gunpowder formula, Chu Qing almost got into a fight with a male classmate in high school.

The reason is that the male students insisted that "one nitrate, two sulfur and three charcoal" is a ratio, that is, one part of saltpeter, two parts of sulfur and three parts of charcoal.

The three girls headed by Chu Qing emphasized weight, not proportion.

Because Chu Qing's father once said that the scale in ancient times was 16 taels. If you want gunpowder to be powerful, you need enough saltpeter, so the saltpeter should be one catty, and the rest should be calculated as taels.

That is, one catty of saltpeter, two taels of sulfur, and three taels of charcoal. This ratio is very close to the optimal combination ratio of potassium nitrate (75%), charcoal (15%), and sulfur (10%) later developed by modern scientific research.

However, the reason for the almost fight was separated from the formula itself, and rose to the issue of "patriotism".

The male student said that because of the ratio of one part of saltpeter, two parts of sulfur and three parts of charcoal, Huaguo gunpowder was invented early, but it was useless for war. than Western science.

However, Chu Qing firmly believes that the formula is correct because of his relatively "low-level patriotic thinking", and that it is the misunderstanding of later generations and the problem of craftsmanship that lead to our defeat in the war.

It's okay for two people to fight, but adolescent children are very competitive, and each has a close partner, so it turns into a quarrel between two groups.

There are too many people talking, and there are no good words in the quarrel. Personal attacks are inevitable, and a fight almost broke out.

Alas, youth is so good.What a wonderful world.

Can not go back.

Add powdered sugar into it clearly.Thanks to Xiaobao for his filial piety, he was the first one to think of providing powdered sugar to his mother when he arrived in the south.

After potassium nitrate and white sugar are mixed in a certain proportion, they can undergo a chemical reaction by heating, thereby producing a large amount of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, and releasing a large amount of heat at the same time.

This is a good catalyst and combustion accelerant!

(End of this chapter)