There is a space for passenger planes in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 49 The Start of the Chemical Industry
  In the county government office, Lin Feng was leisurely enjoying tea and reading a book.

At this time, Lin Jiakang came in and reported: "Sir, Master Xiongzhen is here to see you."

"Oh, Xiong Zhen is here, come in and have tea." Lin Feng greeted.

"No need, Yuan Shan. The main reason I came here today is to invite you to take a look at the compound outside the city. We have already dug the earthen kiln you mentioned last time." Li Xiongzhen said as he walked.

"Oh, it's ready so quickly. Let's go and have a look." After Lin Feng finished speaking, he stood up and set off. Now the county government is completely under his control, and he is very free.

Lin Feng and others left from the north of Fugu City and walked east for about seven or eight miles.

The newly purchased compound is located in the northeast of Fugu City, next to a tributary of the Yellow River called Daqingchuan. The name of the river is very impressive, but it is actually a small river three to four meters wide, and the water is very clear.

To be precise, it cannot be called a compound. It is just a large piece of wasteland. Because the soil quality is not good, the harvest of crops is very poor, and it has always been abandoned.

Since the land here was of little value, Li Xiongzhen, in the name of Zhenming Bank, spent less than 200 taels of silver to buy this vast land covering an area of ​​more than 300 acres, which is the size of more than modern football fields. .

At present, the entire site is basically in a deserted state and is overgrown with weeds. Only two or three acres of land are surrounded by a simple earth wall on the edge of the Yellow River tributary, and several earth houses have been built in it.

Lin Feng came to the simple yard and saw that an earthen kiln had been built on the side near the river. The earth kiln is about 3 meters wide, 5 meters long, and 1.2 meters high, with a square hole of about 20 centimeters left in the middle. Barbed wire was used to separate the vents below, and a small pond was dug to collect coal tar.

Zhang Tiechui has arranged for people to load the best Fugu coal into the earthen kiln. The top is compacted and dusted flat to isolate the air. In the middle, a Tianxin eye is built with fine firewood and raw coal that runs through the entire coal pile. This is used Combustion heating for dry distillation.

Lin Feng checked and found that they all met the requirements written in "International Coking" in "Interesting Chemistry Knowledge", so he ordered the ignition from Tianxinyan, and asked Zhang Tiechui to send someone to keep an eye on the fire until the entire coal pile ignited and the flames reached the mouth of the fire. , extinguish the coke fire with water, and then remove the coke.

Seeing that the waiting time was long, Lin Feng called Li Xiongzhen and others to the simple earthen house to discuss.

"President, because of the rush of time, this compound is not in shape yet. I would like to hear your opinion on how it should be built in the future." Li Xiongzhen said after sitting down.

"It's not easy to buy and level the site so quickly, build an earthen kiln, and build a simple fence." Lin Feng affirmed first.

"This will be the key industrial area of ​​our group from now on, which is the workshop area where products are produced. Currently, it is planned to mainly produce coke and alkali. These are very important basic raw materials and have a wide range of uses. So in the next step, your focus should be on Xiongzhen Move here."

"Understood, I will keep an eye on it."

"This is a workshop area. The construction does not need to be too elaborate, the main thing is to be solid and practical. The next step is to focus on building the core area surrounded by walls, and build two workshops in it. One is mainly the earthen kiln just now, used to produce coke; The other is used to make alkali.

Build a workers' living area, dormitories, canteens, etc. next to the production area to ensure everyone's life. "Lin Feng then talked about the preliminary plan for the construction of the compound.

"Okay, we will implement it immediately." Li Xiongzhen responded.

"The technologies of these products are very advanced, so we must keep them confidential. The core technologies are only mastered by our absolutely trusted backbone, and others are not allowed to inquire about each other.

Workers must be managed centrally and are generally not allowed to go out. Going out must be strictly reviewed and approved. A watchtower should be built around the compound to prevent outsiders from entering and our people from sneaking out. The escort team will send people to guard it. " Lin Feng then arranged.

"Understood!" Li Xiongzhen, Zhang Tiechui, Fang Dashan and others responded in unison.

"President, please give the compound a name, otherwise it will be inconvenient to call it by name." Li Xiongzhen suggested.

"We need a name. This place is located in the northeast of Fugu County. Let's call it Fudong Courtyard."

"This name is good, convenient and easy to remember. The key is that it is down to earth."

"Haha, the name is just easy to remember."

"President, which branch should these two industries be managed under?" Li Xiongzhen raised a new question.

"These two industries will be the core industries of the group in the future, and they will definitely have to be established separately. They will be called Zhenming Chemical from now on.

However, the industry is still in an experimental state, and there is no rush to establish an organization. Zhang Tiechui's Sledgehammer Iron Art will be responsible for it first. After all, coke is mainly used to make iron.

Xiong Zhen, you are the general manager anyway, and you are responsible for taking the lead. There is a shortage of people everywhere now. You have to find and train some talents as soon as possible. Lin Feng said with a headache. He couldn't find a suitable person in charge to set up a branch.

"Company? What is a company?" When Li Xiongzhen heard Lin Feng throw out a new term, he quickly asked.

"Gong means everyone's wealth; Si means operation. A company is a property that everyone operates together, which is equivalent to what we call a workshop. Now Franji has begun to call it a company, and they have established one in Tianzhu A huge East India Company." Lin Feng explained.

"Oh, that's what it means. It sounds pretty good."

"It's mainly because it's better to call the subordinate departments a company. If we set up a branch, it would always feel weird if we call it a branch workshop."

"President, if you say yes, it will be yes!" Zhang Tiechui also learned to flatter. "President, our manpower is indeed tight. But I feel that we don't have to do all the work by ourselves. We can cooperate with some big companies in Fugu. For example, the Li family is responsible for the renovation of the agricultural market this time. Here in Fudong The construction of the compound can also be contracted to him." Li Xiongzhen quickly brought the topic back to the topic.

"This is a good suggestion. We can look for cooperation in non-core businesses, so that we can tie these people to our tank." Lin Feng agreed.

"Then do you want to invite the Li family to have a talk now?" Li Xiongzhen said.

"Now? Don't be in such a hurry for the time being. Let's make a plan first. How to build such a large place and divide it into several areas. We have to figure it out. We still have to build the core workshop area, the workers' living area, and the peripheral areas. The walls, watchtowers, and houses for guards can be contracted to the Li family." Lin Feng gave the order after some consideration.

"Okay, then I'll lead someone to make a plan first." Li Xiongzhen replied.

After the discussion was over, everyone had a brief lunch. Zhang Tiechui came over to report that the coal pile in the earthen kiln had been extinguished and asked Lin Feng to go and check it out.

When we arrived at the kiln, the entire heated coal pile had been extinguished and bursts of steam were rising.

After waiting for a while, I watched the coal pile basically cool down. Zhang Tiechui ordered to peel off the ash layer used to isolate the air, revealing the retorted coke.

I saw that the coal had turned into a pure black porous mass. I picked it up and weighed it, and it felt much lighter than raw coal.

Lin Feng asked Zhang Tiechui to pick up a few pieces of coke and try burning it. Soon the coke was burning, and the color of the flame slowly turned blue, which was obviously much stronger than when burning coal.

Zhang Tiechui took out an iron block and placed it on the burning coke. Soon the iron block turned red.

Zhang Tiehammer took a look at the iron block and said excitedly: "President, the forging speed is much faster than before. This coke is really good."

"This coke not only has a high combustion temperature, but more importantly, it can improve the quality of forged iron. The properties of this iron are related to the carbon content. The higher the carbon content, the harder the texture. You guys will test it out." Chemistry only gives a general introduction to steelmaking, and it is up to the craftsmen to test it in detail.

This experiment proved that the technology of indigenous coking is feasible, but from experimental production to mass production, continuous testing and improvement of the process are needed.

But this is not something that Lin Feng should pay attention to personally. As the saying goes, those who can do more work, Lin Feng naturally leaves this matter to Li Xiongzhen.

Once the coking matter is settled, Zhenming Group's two major industrial bases, the iron-making industry, will be established. The next focus is to test the alkali production process.

After Lin Feng came to Daming, he also learned about the ancient method of making alkali some time ago. It was mainly extracted from plant ash, but the efficiency was very low and the purity of the alkali was not high.

The only way to obtain soda ash on a large scale is from minerals, but alkali ores are difficult to find and difficult to mine, so it was not easy to obtain alkali on a large scale in the Ming Dynasty.

Lin Feng then summoned Li Xiongzhen and Zhang Tiezhui and told them about the ammonia-alkali method introduced in Interesting Chemistry, which involves first turning table salt into saturated brine, then absorbing ammonia to make ammonia brine, and then passing the carbon dioxide released by forging limestone through the ammonia brine. , a chemical reaction occurs to obtain sodium bicarbonate, which is filtered and calcined to obtain soda ash.

This aspect seems not difficult, but there were many technical problems to be solved in ancient times, mainly the sealed tube for introducing gas into liquid.

At this time, there is no rubber sealing ring, so it is difficult to solve the problem of air leakage. However, using oil cloth to seal it can solve the problem of slight air leakage.

"President, the salt and limestone are easy to handle, but what is ammonia and where can I get it?" Zhang Tiechui asked.

"Haha, this thing is everywhere."

"Where?"

"It's in urine. You can get ammonia by evaporating the urine." Lin Feng finally revealed the answer.

"Ah, that stinks too much." Zhang Tiechui couldn't help but cover his nose.

"Is it more important to make money or to smell bad?" Lin Feng asked.

"Hehe, of course making money is important." Zhang Tiechui replied with a silly smile.

"You must keep this process technology secret. Key steps can only be handled by the most reliable people. Do you understand?" Lin Feng emphasized.

"Understood, we will definitely make arrangements." Li Xiongzhen and others replied.

"Okay, you go organize a test, and let me know as soon as the alkali is produced." Lin Feng finally warned.

"Yes! Let's hurry up and test." Li Xiongzhen and Zhang Tiechui replied.

　Chemical industry production has checked some information, which is not necessarily authoritative. There will be some adjustments if the plot needs it, so please be careful about the details.

　　Please like the barrage on the easter egg chapter to receive experience points.

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)