Wiltz operates in strict accordance with the Guidelines for the Treatment of Laterite Nickel Ore prepared by Marin to obtain large quantities of nickel oxide and sulphuric acid. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Once the nickel oxide is produced, it will be shipped to Cape Breton Island for further refining into nickel. Then, when smelting stainless steel, it is added to ferrochrome and re-melted in a reverberatory furnace to remove impurities.

Of course, nickel can also be melted and mixed with copper to become a white copper that passes off as silver - for Marin, who is good at counterfeiting, white copper is definitely the best way to mint counterfeit coins......

As for sulfuric acid, it is also very versatile. First, it can be used to make copper sulphate and zinc sulphate – both of which are simple and readily available pesticides that can greatly reduce pests and diseases in crops. Although it is not as toxic and effective as the chemical pesticides of later generations, it is not as harmful as those highly toxic pesticides such as cyanide in later generations.

For Marin, copper sulphate, zinc sulphate, stone sulfur mixture and plant pesticides (mainly pyrethrum solution) are simple and readily available. Moreover, because copper sulfate and zinc sulfate are produced in greater quantities than pyrethrum, they can become mainstream pesticides.

In addition, sulfuric acid can also be used to make nitric acid, promote the development of chemical science, and even allow Marlin to make nitrocell cotton (smokeless gunpowder).

There is another use, which Marlin also came up with by chance - that is, it can be used to make optical glass......

Quartz sand, the raw material for the production of glass, often contains various impurities. Among them, the impurity that most affects the performance of glass is iron ions.

In the presence of iron ions, the glass will turn green, affecting the light transmittance and reducing the quality of the glass. The Venetians came up with a way to neutralize iron ions with pyromanganite, reducing the green color of the glass. However, the glass treated in this way has good light transmittance in the morning. But after a long time, the glass will take on a purple color. Moreover, this physical "decolorization" method will reduce the "transmittance" of light, so it is not suitable for optical glass.

In his last life, Marin had seen such a method of making optical glass - that is, pickling quartz sand......

The so-called pickling quartz sand is to use sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid, or even aqua regia, to soak quartz sand powder to remove impurities in quartz sand.

Quartz sand is insoluble in acids, but iron ions, including some other metal ions, are basically soluble in acids. After pickling, the iron ions are dissolved and dissolved in the acid. In this way, the iron ion content in the quartz sand is suppressed very low.

Moreover, all kinds of miscellaneous metal ions have been pickled away. The glass made from this pure quartz sand has high purity and strong light transmittance.

What is such optical glass used for? Nonsense, of course, for making telescopes......

Now, the telescopes used by Marin's men, the army model, can only see things within 5 kilometers, and farther away, directly blurred. The sea is also green, which affects the effect of the telescope very much.

Cleaning the powdered quartz sand with sulfuric acid will reduce the iron ion content of the quartz sand as much as possible. Of course, the main point is that the quartz sand needs to be ground very finely, so that the iron ions wrapped in the quartz sand can fully avoid the fate of being pickled. Of course, even if it is very crushed, it is difficult to avoid the situation where very few iron ions remain. After all, even if you use a steel mill to grind hard, you can't grind quartz sand to an atomic state. But as long as it is ground into powder and pickled again, it is more than enough to make high-grade optical telescopes.

The telescope lenses made by this method will achieve the strongest light transmittance, which is comparable to the so-called "Russian military telescope" in later generations. In this way, spies and scouts, obtaining intelligence about the enemy, will be more convenient. In naval battles, the commander can more easily judge the number of guns on the enemy ship, and even estimate the relevant caliber......

In short, with sulfuric acid, quartz sand can be pickled, the best optical glass and the best telescopes can be made, and the reconnaissance capabilities of the reconnaissance personnel under Marin's command can be strengthened......

……

Therefore, Marin developed the nickel mines in Cuba, and the gains were huge. Not to mention the nickel that came out, it can be used to smelt stainless steel, it can also be used to make white copper, it can be used to counterfeit silver, and it can be used to make fake silver coins. If the European silver coin has a high silver content, it is relatively soft, and the white copper is too hard to distinguish. However, at this time, the European "silver coins" were also very hard because of their high copper content. Therefore, counterfeit coins made of white copper are actually more difficult to distinguish......

Cuba has large reserves of laterite nickel ore, which are in the million-ton range. Marlin was ready to flood Europe with counterfeit silver coins made of cupronickel......

The sulfuric acid, a by-product of processing laterite nickel ore, is also widely used. Whether it is optical glass or pesticides such as copper sulfate and zinc sulfate, it is a very practical thing for Marlin.

You ask me, how are copper sulphate and zinc sulphate produced? It is true that copper is insoluble in dilute sulfuric acid, but what fool would tell you to use copper and sulfuric acid to produce copper sulfate? Isn't it okay to use high-purity copper ore? Whether it is copper oxide or other compounds of copper, they are all soluble in sulfuric acid...... As for zinc sulfate, it is even simpler, the crude zinc ingots scraped off the wall of the cooling pipe of the smelting furnace are thrown directly into the sulfuric acid......

Then, the crystals of copper sulfate and zinc sulfate are purified, packed into oiled paper bags, sealed, and can be transported to various places as pesticides. When you need to use it, open it directly, dissolve it in water proportionally, and spray it directly with a sprayer......

As for how to make a sprayer? Is that a problem? Marin can come up with a manual sprayer that will be carried on the farmer's uncle in a few minutes, which is professionally used to fight pesticides...... After all, in the later generations of Marin's family, a bunch of discarded artificial sprayers were used. When Marin was a child in his previous life, he often dismantled scrapped agricultural sprayers to play, so he was not too familiar with their structure.

……

Wilts' discovery of laterite nickel was a great achievement, but it was only the first stage of the mission......

In the second stage, Wiltz needed to search for the legendary million-ton chromite in the mountains near Moa......

However, at this stage, it is a bit difficult. Because, Marin can't tell what chromite looks like. Unlike laterite nickel ore, the color is red, as long as you calcine it to see if there is a taste of SO2. Some are nickel sulfide, and what has no taste is red ironite, which is simple and crude......

Because he didn't know what chromite looked like, it was up to Wiltz to find the ore himself. Anyway, whatever kind of ore is used to smelt. If you smelt iron, you have to try it to see if it is easy to rust. If it is not easy to rust in a high-temperature water vapor environment, it is likely to be chromite......

Therefore, it is much more difficult to find chromite than laterite nickel ore. Not only do you need to look for iron ore that you don't know what it looks like, but you also need to smelt the ore and test it with high-temperature water vapor for a long time to finally determine whether it is chromite or not.

And if chromite is found, then stainless steel can be successfully introduced......

For this, Marlin offered a high reward - the discovery of nickel ore was just an ordinary unhereditary knight. And the discovery of chromite, directly upgraded to hereditary knights, became a noble family...... If the contribution is huge, the baron can be expected......

So, after finishing the mining and processing of the nickel ore, Wiltz once again led a large group of men and horses, escorted by a large number of locals hired with salt and food, into the mountains to find chromite......