In an episode of the TV series "Palace", the heroine Luo Qingchuan remembered a passage from a teacher in a modern school in order to escape from the underground palace: "Sulfuric acid has been available in ancient China, but it was not called sulfuric acid at that time, but green alum, and it will not act on industrial production, usually used to treat typhoid fever, dysentery and other diseases. ”

Although alum can indeed be used to make sulfuric acid, the statement in the TV series is very problematic!

According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", green alum is a traditional Chinese medicine that can treat typhoid fever, malaria and other diseases. However, alum cannot be burned, so it is definitely wrong to use the method of igniting alum to prepare sulfuric acid.

In Datang's first "chemistry laboratory", the second half of Wang Ji's sentence made Li Zexuan curious, and he asked: "Some experiences in the early years?" What was Mr. Wang's early experience? ”

Wang Ji's old face turned red, and he said with some shame: "The old man was a Taoist priest in his early years, and he also refined the elixir...."

Li Zexuan's eyes widened, looking at Wang Ji like an alien, and said, "Mr. Wang, you have also refined the elixir before?" ”

He only knew that Wang Jiwen was good and had been a Taoist priest, but he really didn't think that this old man was an alchemist, and his forehead was dripping turtles, and the academy really picked up treasures...... Picked up a ghost! Wizard!

Wang Ji was embarrassed, he hurriedly coughed twice, and said:

"Ahem! That's all in the past, don't mention it again! Don't mention it again! ”

Now that Wang Ji, who has studied "Chemistry", he can be regarded as completely understanding how ridiculous those alchemy acts were at the beginning, and the elixirs he refined were just poisonous pills! If Li Zexuan hadn't asked today, he would never have been able to mention the matter of alchemy back then, in his opinion, this matter should be regarded as a stain on his life!

Li Zexuan pursed his lips and smiled, "Haha!" Then don't mention it! Mr. Wang, you continued. ”

Wang Ji glanced at Li Zexuan with "resentment", and then continued:

"Back then, when the old man was alchemy, he threw green alum into the furnace, and as a result, the furnace was corroded and a small piece was lost! A few days ago, the old man inadvertently remembered this incident again, and combined with the "Chemistry" textbook compiled by the mountain chief, he felt that the reason why the Dan furnace was corroded was probably because the green alum was decomposed at high temperatures and produced sulfuric acid! ”

When Li Zexuan heard this, his face was complicated for a while.

In his previous life, he read a post in Tieba and said: Why did the alchemy of the West develop into chemistry, while the alchemy of the East only left some illusory elixirs?

In fact, this argument is a bit too one-sided, the ancient Chinese alchemists were not useless, they invented gunpowder, invented sulfuric acid, discovered redox, metal replacement, acid-base neutralization reactions.

For example, Ge Hong, an alchemist in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, successfully summarized that "Dansha is burned into mercury, and it is returned to Dansha after accumulation". This is the first time that human beings have obtained a substance identical to a natural product through chemical means, which can be called a great creation;

From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, many alchemists' writings recorded that iron could be replaced by putting iron in a solution of cholelum (copper sulfate). This method is called bile water copper immersion method, which can obtain copper powder without high-temperature smelting, easy to operate, low cost, and is the world's earliest metal replacement reaction;

In 650~683 A.D. (during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty), the alchemist Gu Gangzi recorded in the ninth volume of the "Yellow Emperor Jiuding Shendan Sutra" that "refining stone gall to extract the essence method", that is, dry distillation of stone gall (alum) to obtain sulfuric acid. If expressed in chemical equations, it is:

CuSO4·5H2O=CuSO4＋5H2O

CuSO4=CuO＋SO3↑

SO3＋H2O=H2SO4

This is the world's first and well-documented case of sulfuric acid production!

Alchemists in the West, on the other hand, originally sought to refine base metals such as copper, iron, and lead into valuable gold and silver, with the aim of increasing wealth. In the Middle Ages of the West, alchemists believed that all metals were composed of mercury and sulfur, of which mercury was the origin of all metals, sulfur was the common component of all combustible substances, and gold and silver contained the purest mercury and sulfur.

Therefore, in their view, the difference between ordinary metals and precious gold and silver lies mainly in the different proportions and purities of mercury and sulfur contained in them.

Revered as the Stone of the Wise, this "Philosopher's Stone" is sacred, with magical omnipotent properties, and countless alchemists have gone to great lengths to find the legendary Stone of the Wise.

In this way, alchemists have been engaged in this ineffective labor in the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms for a long time.

From the ancient Greek era to the Middle Ages, people spent more than a thousand years experimenting with alchemy, and finally the dream of refining stones into gold did not come true, but a thousand years of chasing did not make them give up their dreams!

Therefore, from this point of view, the alchemy of the Western Middle Ages represents a spirit of scientific inquiry, perhaps this is why the alchemy of the West has been continuously developed, and finally found its home on the road of science, while the alchemy of China and the Arab countries, although it developed earlier, only stayed in the original form of chemistry.

Looking at Western alchemy with dialectical thinking, it can be seen that Western alchemy has developed from the early blind pursuit of stones into gold, to the later exploration and knowledge of natural substances, with ups and downs in the middle, although it eventually died out, but without the painstaking exploration of early alchemists, it is likely that there would be no chemistry in the modern sense.

The sixteenth-century English philosopher Francis Bacon once made a fair and reasonable assessment of the contribution of alchemy to science. He said:

"The perseverance of the alchemists in finding gold has enabled their descendants to obtain many useful inventions and useful experiments, and indirectly led chemistry on the road to light!"

Ancient Western alchemists and Eastern alchemists, to some extent, they are a group of ancient chemical super geniuses, but many alchemists have a lifelong goal of refining elixir, so that many of their useful inventions have not been widely used for a long time, such as gunpowder!

And Wang Ji has now gradually evolved from a traditional alchemist to an alchemist who is constantly seeking knowledge! His goal in life is no longer alchemy, but to seek knowledge through exploration!

(Many people may not believe it, but Newton, the master of physics, in addition to the dazzling titles of physicist, mathematician, and mechanic, he also has a little-known title, that is, alchemist)

"Mountain chief, the old decay has a question, when the sulfur is burned directly, why can't the sulfur dioxide produced continue to react with oxygen in the air to form sulfur trioxide?"

…………………………………

The second update!

(End of chapter)