"Hey, it's really sweet? Master Hou, let's try it too! ”

A group of alchemists instantly gathered around in amazement, Chen Xu dropped a drop in each palm, and all the alchemists nodded in admiration after tasting it.

"Master Hou, I didn't expect to be able to make such a sweet sugar solution by boiling oil in alkaline water, wouldn't we be able to open a sugar factory in the future!" A alchemist was excited.

"Yes, sugar is much better than perfume, everyone likes to eat sweet food, and it seems that the yield is not bad, only half a pound of tallow is used, and there seem to be several taels ......of sugar water in the beaker," said the other alchemist, holding up the beaker and watching.

"It's not sugar water, it's just sweet, it's called glycerin, and it can be used to make skin care products to apply on your hands and face, so that your skin won't dry up and crack in winter, and of course, the best way is to make alabaster for easy use and preservation......"

Chen Xu remembered the only cosmetics he had ever wiped when he was a child, the pechoin in an iron box, snow-white and delicate with a fragrance.

Although the formula of the cream is completely unknown, and the production method is not clear, the main useful ingredient is glycerin, and in the end, as long as it can make a non-toxic skin care product that is non-irritating to the skin.

What's more, glycerin is not only used to make skin care products, it can also be used to make explosives, and the power of nitroglycerin is an explosive that even criminals who use it will tremble......

"You have all seen the process of saponification reaction clearly, it is very simple, but you can experiment more to find the best ratio in terms of the weight of the grease and the amount of lye, and I will have someone send you a few barrels of grease and sesame oil for you to experiment with...... By the way, take a good look at the soap in this beaker and see the specific process and time of solidification......" Chen Xu told him to make arrangements and then prepared to leave and go home.

"Master Hou, wait!" A monk named Ge Qing chased him to the door.

"What else? But it doesn't hurt to say that. Looking at Ge Qing's appearance of wanting to speak and stopping, Chen Xu said with a warm smile.

"Master Hou, our laboratory is haunted......" Ge Qing hesitated for a moment, and said with a slightly nervous face.

"Haunted?" Chen Xu was stunned for a moment, shook his head and said, "How is it possible, where did Lang Lang Qiankun come from?" ”

Seeing that Chen Xu didn't believe it, Ge Qing was a little anxious, and secretly pulled Chen Xu to a remote corner outside the door and whispered: "Master Hou, it's really haunted, around midnight last night, I got up to pee at night and saw a green light in the laboratory, which scared me so much that I almost peed my pants!" ”

"Green light?" Chen Xu pinched his chin and thought for a moment and said, "Could it be some kind of glowing green ore, Ben Hou said before that ores like fluorite also glow!" ”

"No, no, it's definitely not an ore, I've been looking for it in the lab this morning, I've never seen a green mineral, I've asked anyone else, and I've never seen anything that glows green......"

"Who else knows about this?" Chen Xu's face became serious.

"Director Xue knows, I mentioned it to him once in the morning!"

"Well, go and call Director Xue to Benhou to ask."

"Yes, Master Hou!"

Fang Shi left, and soon found the director of the fairy wind dao bone, Chen Xu asked about the situation, but the director shook his head again and again, and even blamed Ge Qing for being wrong.

"This matter can't be let go of here, Ben Hou said that chemistry is a magical discipline, maybe it is the phenomenon of some experiments you had yesterday, you go back and let everyone carefully go back to yesterday's experimental process and register it and repeat it, arrange people to see if there is still green light tonight, maybe this is also a great invention!"

"Yes, the subordinates must arrange it!" The Director nodded hurriedly.

Haunting can't be haunted, at least Chen Xu thinks that there are no ghosts in the world, and Chen Xu can't tell what the phenomenon of green light is, but the laboratory will definitely not emit green light for no reason, it must be something or a chemical reaction, these messy phenomena are simply too normal for this kind of chemical laboratory in the original state of management chaos.

Because the current chemical experiments are not much different from the alchemists of medieval Europe, in addition to some normal chemical experiments instructed by Chen Xu on weekdays, such as making potassium hydroxide with lime water and grass ash water, using alkali ore and lime water to react to produce sodium hydroxide, such as using copper sulfate ore to prepare sulfuric acid by high-temperature distillation, etc., there are also methods such as pounding all kinds of unknown ores into powder and mixing them with acid and alkali solutions to see the reaction effect, or heating or distilling these ore powders to see if they can get anything new.

In short, in the absence of a systematic chemical theory, all the research does not have much purpose, and the research methods are very simple, only acid-base tests and combustion and cooking, and Chen Xu didn't care much, and he has always let these alchemists tinker with it themselves, because Chen Xu remembers that the knowledge of middle school chemistry is also very limited, and even the periodic table has not been fully remembered until now.

On the way home, Chen Xu went to a newspaper and asked Chen Ping to help with two advertisements in the newspaper, one was to find caustic soda mine, and the other was to collect black birch seeds.

At present, the industry of making soap and soap is not much of a problem, but the preparation of lye for laboratory use is more troublesome.

Potassium hydroxide is filtered after mixing and reacting with plant ash water and lime water, lime water is easy to say, but grass ash water is too troublesome to get, although plant ash is easy to collect, just every household in Xianyang City burns firewood for heating, and it is no problem to get more than ten tons a day, but it is not suitable for large-scale application, it is very troublesome.

And sodium hydroxide is different, there are a large number of alkali lakes and alkali ores in nature, and even some saline-alkali barren beaches can pick up alkali stone, the main ingredient is sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate, both of which are the best raw materials for the preparation of caustic soda, and alkali is not unfamiliar to the monks and civilians of Daqin, medical monks will use it in ordinary times, and Zhao Qing is responsible for finding these minerals in the past, but now that there are newspapers, many things only need to be advertised in the newspaper, It won't be long before someone comes to the door to provide clues or even bring things to the Academy of Sciences.

In short, everything that is published in the Daqin Metropolis Daily must be valuable, not to mention that it doesn't matter if it's worth it or not, if you have dates or not, you can not only have a good relationship with the Academy of Sciences, but even get the personal thanks of the Marquis of Qinghe, which is also a great honor.

And Chen Xu collects black tree seeds for the production of soap.

Tree is an ancient tree species, some places called wood tree, is a very valuable economic forest tree, arbor, heart-shaped leaves, roots and bark leaves can be used in medicine, there are insecticides, detoxification, diuretic, laxative effects, but also to treat liver cirrhosis and eczema dermatitis and other diseases, autumn leaves are red and bright like fire is very beautiful, but also a very valuable garden ornamental tree.

The mature black tree seeds are wrapped in a layer of snow-white wax, which is actually a kind of stearic acid, which can be used to make candles, and now Daqin has been widely used, and in addition to making candles, this thing can naturally be used to make soap instead of beef and sheep lard and sesame oil.

Daqin is still in an era of extreme shortage of materials, Chen Xu is working hard to implement the iron pot plan, and in recent years, he has also asked the household department and agricultural colleges to vigorously promote the cultivation of sesame seeds, because to use the iron pot to fry vegetables, then edible oil is an indispensable seasoning.

Although sesame oil can be obtained through planting, but the yield is very low, if the management is not good, an acre of land can only get half a stone or even ten catties, so ordinary farmers plant a little bit of the whole family is not enough to eat, as for animal fat is not enough to eat, when raising pigs and sheep can not be popularized, animal fat is a heavily scarce resource, as for butter is more scarce, since the invention of the Quyuan plow, the role of cattle has become increasingly prominent, although the killing of cattle is not prohibited at the official level, but in fact, no one will be willing to kill their own cattle, However, Daqin has a small population and a wide area, and the Liang State and the Liao State are rich in cattle and horses, so there is no shortage of large livestock in Daqin at present, but beef and butter are not a luxury item that ordinary people from small households can afford.

In order to eat a meal of braised beef noodles in Xiaohe Village, Chen Xu waited for a full year, and the cow fell to death in winter when he went down to the river to drink water.

Therefore, it is the best way to replace edible oil with the economic forest of black tree seeds, and the large-scale purchase of black tree seeds can also give the lowest civilians an additional way to make money, just like the purchase of flowers and mountain grapes, wild fruits, and cold powder seeds, these things will not be consumed by the poor, but all the money earned is the money of the rich, and finally the money will be circulated to the poor farmers in this way.

Chen Xu believes that after these two advertisements are typed, they should be able to get a response soon.

After returning home from the newspaper hall, Chen Xu asked the housekeeper to get a few large barrels of lard and sesame oil to send to the chemical laboratory, and then arranged for someone to go to the experimental factory to ask Gong Yisheng to help build a double-layer steamer.

The next day, Chen Xu took a slow and leisurely ride to the College of Engineering again, but as soon as he arrived at the door of the chemistry laboratory, he found that there was a large group of people inside.

"Well, it's as sweet as honey, it's delicious!" When Chen Xu walked into the laboratory, he saw Hu Kuan holding a beaker and smiling.

"Hide quickly, Master Hou is here!" A Fang Shi hurriedly pulled Hu Kuan's sleeve to remind.

Well, Hu Kuan shook his hand and quickly hid the beaker behind his back, nodded with a flattering smile on his face, and greeted him: "Master Hou is here!" ”

"Is it good?" Chen Xu's dark eyes were almost unclear.

"Hehe...... Hu Kuan smiled and blushed as he put the beaker on the workbench.

"Secretly drink the test preparation, a fine of 100 yuan, you can't see such a big laboratory system?" Chen Xu rolled his eyes angrily.

"No, no, yesterday I heard a few Fang Shi muttering that the laboratory was haunted, Kuan didn't believe it, so I came here today to inspect it, and came in and found a few guys drinking honey water, so Kuan couldn't help but taste it, and found that this honey is indeed very sweet, are you planning to open a sugar factory?" Hu Kuan said with a cautious smile.

"I said yesterday that this is not sugar, although it is sweet, it cannot be eaten as sugar...... Forget it, I can't tell you, where is Director Xue? Chen Xu turned his head and glanced at the crowd and asked.

"Master Hou, the supervisor took someone to the warehouse to look for ore, and he will be back soon......"

Just as one of the alchemists was answering, he only heard the sound of hurried footsteps outside, and saw the old alchemist of the fairy wind Dao bone and another middle-aged alchemist striding in, still carrying a pocket in his hand.