Due to the extremely urgent demand for explosives from all sides, the explosives factory put into trial production under the slogan of "production while building".

Limited by the chemical industry's own level and production capacity, the first batch of black powder was officially manufactured from 1629 to the beginning of 1631, and only three types of explosives in the Senate had increased: maroon gunpowder, nitroglycerin, and thundermercury. Maroon gunpowder, which had only recently been put into production, was used as a propellant for the increasing number of batteries and large-calibre guns used by the navy - maroon powder burned slowly and was used as a propellant for heavy artillery that was not easily exploding.

Generally speaking, the Senate has a complete range of explosives industrial products: gun propellants, initiating charges, and explosives. Although the level of jishu is not high, it can roughly meet the current needs.

The biggest problem is that there is a large gap in explosives, which are in great demand for the military and civilians. At present, the only explosives that they can mass-produce are nitroglycerin, which is adsorbed and passivated with diatomaceous earth, the dynamet explosive.

Because nitroglycerin itself needs a sufficiently large-scale glycerin industry, the glycerin industry needs a sufficiently large-scale oil-based industry as a support. Moreover, the texture of glycerin needs to be quite pure - the chemical industry of the CWI mainly produces glycerin by saponification, and there are many impurities. Capacity is limited. So far, the dynamet explosives are only used in small quantities for civilian works, and the military is widely used to load artillery shells and grenades.

Although some people think that it is okay to load grenades with dynamet explosives - it was common in the old time and space to use dainamet explosives to load mines. The problem is that the dynamet explosives cannot be used to load shells. The G-force of the shells is in the thousands, and the dynamet explosives will inevitably cause the bore.

The detonation velocity of black powder is too low, there are many residues, and the sensitivity is high. As a propellant for a Mini rifle, it's okay. As a military explosive, it is really difficult. The engineers of the CWI had been looking for a suitable replacement to replace the dominance of black powder.

The requirements are that the manufacturing process is as simple as possible, the supply of raw materials is sufficient, the power is sufficient, and there is a certain safety to be able to be used to load shells.

In response to this requirement, the personnel of the chemical department and the military industry department proposed two sets of plans: one is to use phenol, a by-product of the coal coking plant, to make picric acid, and the other is to multiply the power of black powder.

The process of picric acid is relatively simple, in the history of the old time and space. Britain synthesized it in 1771. Phenol is sulfonated with concentrated sulfuric acid or sodium sulfite, and zuihou can be nitrated with concentrated nitric acid. The difficulty is in the preparation of phenol. If there is no coal coking industry, it is necessary to use the lipid cracking process or wood tar refining. They now have a ready-made coal tar industry that provides phenol on a fairly steady basis. Then making picric acid is relatively easy.

The production of picric acid is codenamed 0017 Project - because of the production process proposed by Xu Yingjie, the yield of Zuihou is 17%.

Another item in addition to picric acid is the multiplication of the power of black powder. This was proposed by Lin Shenhe. To put it simply, it is to improve the processing method to multiply the power of black powder, so that it can temporarily replace some fierce explosives.

Now Lin Shenhe's place of work is in a dirt and stone fence in the explosives factory, which is only more than one meter high. A wicker fence was planted around the fence, and seven or eight prisoners were filling in the middle with stones. The enclosure is surrounded by plantations and natural forests planted by the Ministry of Forestry, and it is extremely secluded. Outside, it looks like just a forest, and an inconspicuous dirt road winds its way to the enclosure. There is a ditch on the side of the path, and at the end of each bend there is a mound of earth to block debris and shock waves in the event of an evacuation. The trail is just for walking. There is also an improvised railway under construction, and for the time being, only hand-cranked railcars and ox-drawn railcars can be used. The official name of this enclosure is the First Research Center of the Special Chemical Complex. Lin Shenhe's project code name is Project 2300.

He was now wearing a black cotton overalls and watched nervously as several workers unloaded an inconspicuous machine from a rail car.

The machine is not large, and it is simply wrapped in a waterproof canvas. Workers carry them to the lab. Jiang Ye, who was in charge of installing and debugging machinery, jumped out of the car.

The two exchanged pleasantries briefly, and then entered the special laboratory of the research center together.

The laboratory is surrounded by thick concrete walls with sandbags inside and out. The roof is a lightweight wooden structure, which is equivalent to a pressure relief plate. Outside the room, there are two deep blast ditches - if the people in the laboratory can escape in time, they can jump into them to take refuge.

The lab was empty, with only a few cylinders of various sizes except for the concrete base on which the machines were installed. The lighting is natural light from the skylights on the roof – the glass is covered with a black shade net to reduce the temperature of the sun. Rows of copper "radiators" were installed on the walls and under the floors of the house, but the cold was terrible - the temperature in the room was only 12 degrees Celsius according to the homemade alcohol thermometer. Instead of steam, water flows from the radiator, which is cooled by a mixture of ice salt. Because fireworks are strictly prohibited, their best refrigeration equipment, gas air conditioning, cannot be used, and the refrigeration effect of ground energy air conditioning may not be satisfactory. This forced refrigeration effect is used.

"It's cold enough—" Jiang Ye was sweating profusely, and he was wearing a short-sleeved undershirt, and he immediately shivered when he walked in.

Lin Shenhe gave him a coat: "Wear it, you must keep it low temperature here in order to produce safely." ”

The canvas was unraveled, and inside was a bland machine. If anyone knows a little about mechanical equipment, they can see at a glance that this is a hydraulic screw press.

"Made according to your requirements." Jiang Ye instructed the workers to install it while introducing, "It is a hydraulic screw type, with a simple structure and stable stroke. Stable pressurization can be rotated by hand. Exactly what you asked to come up with. Molds, press heads, and other areas where friction can occur should be made of brass to avoid sparks. ”

Lin Shenhe circled around the machine a few times: "You have to ensure that you fully meet the requirements of jishu, or I will be wiped out as soon as I start work tomorrow......"

Jiang Ye knew that he was working with his head when he engaged in fire explosives, and there was no exaggeration.

"You can rest assured, exactly according to the information you gave Jishu. From the manufacture of parts to the assembly of the machine, the patriarch made it himself, and he did not dare to let the naturalized people do it. ”

Lin Shenhe nodded. He was still a little relieved. His process is not very difficult, but the requirements for the surrounding environment are very high: the ambient humidity cannot be lower than 60%, and the temperature cannot be higher than 20 degrees. Otherwise, it will cause an explosion -- no matter how powerful the black powder is, it is still no problem to kill and injure a large number of people in such a room.

The temperature he has been roughly solved with water air conditioning. Humidity - The humidity in the summer months is very high, sometimes reaching more than 90%. Even so, he ordered an air humidifier from the machine factory to humidify it when necessary. He also specially prepared a naturalized citizen to monitor the thermometer and hygrometer.

Jiang Ye was a little curious: "You are so mysterious, what kind of magic are you going to play?" 'Black powder multiplies', is it ready to be mixed with nitroglycerin? ”

"Black powder mixed with nitroglycerin, that was for suicide." Lin Shenhe said, "What I want to use is black powder, and I don't add anything else." ”

"What's that for?" Jiang Ye's curiosity grew.

"You should always know that the denser the explosives are in space, the more powerful they will be." Lin Shenhe said, "The multiplication of the power of black powder is based on this principle - to increase the density of black powder as much as possible. ”

The specific name of Project 2300 is black powder high-energy charge jishu. Lin Shenhe had been keeping this jishu secret before--he himself was not very sure about it, and after D-Day, as the head of the military industry department, he privately used the equipment and raw materials of the laboratory to carry out several small quantities of shiyan, and also used the task of performing public security warfare in Danzhou to carry out actual combat shiyan, thinking that there was no problem before formally proposing this plan.

To put it simply, the black powder high-energy charge jishu is to press high-quality powdered black powder into a black powder column by low-temperature wet pressing process. Creates a high-density column of black powder. Due to the extreme density, this kind of charge column can no longer be detonated by the traditional ignition method, and a special detonator must be used to detonate, which has greatly improved the safety.

Power, using the low-temperature wet pressing method to press the black powder column, can increase the filling density to 2.3g3. This kind of high-density charge column needs to be detonated with an initiator, and the detonation speed can reach more than 2600. The black powder filling density of the traditional filling method is not higher than 1.7g3, and the detonation rate is not higher than 00 - the fact that black powder is deflagrated rather than exploded. In terms of power, it is no longer multiplied - this method of press-fitting the column can increase the explosive power of the same weight of black powder by more than 60%. According to the detonation rate, it is equivalent to 39% of TNT and 36% of picric acid.

Lin Shenhe is very clear about what this effect means: that is to say, there is no need to spend a lot of resources to order new technology points in the technology tree, but directly ignite the black powder to "upgrade" to multiply the power. The economy is far better than the 0017 project. This is a great attraction for the Planning Institute and the Executive Committee.

To make picric acid, it means that a large amount of phenol is needed, a completely new production plant is built, and additional sulfuric acid and nitric acid are needed. The power of black powder is doubled, and only a few machines need to be added, and the original inventory of black powder can exert greater power. To be continued......