For example, in the Russo-Japanese War and the Battle of Tsushima, the Russian Pacific Fleet was defeated by the Japanese fleet. If you are a liberal arts student historian, you will be talking nonsense, saying that Russia is ****, the officers and soldiers are not well trained, and it is also involved in the political system, as if without his kind of blowing king, the Russian fleet will inevitably fail......

However, they did not notice a detail at all - the shells and explosives used by the paralyzed navies of the two countries were different......

Japan used Shimose gunpowder (picric acid), which was stolen from France, with a detonation rate of 7350 m/s, and was used as early as the Sino-Japanese War. The Russians, on the other hand, used B gunpowder, which was imported from the French, that is, the first generation of smokeless gunpowder. This kind of gunpowder is actually a propellant after processing, and it is a single-base propellant, and the detonation speed is only about 2000 m/s. Japan's Shimose gunpowder has a detonation rate of more than 3.6 times, and it also has its own combustion and toxic smoke effects...... The same shell, the difference in the power of the explosion is too great, and the Russians will naturally lose...... Don't talk to me about the caliber of naval guns, but ask about the huge difference in the power of gunpowder in warheads......

In fact, the Russians were also unlucky, because the Battle of Tsushima broke out in 1905, which coincided with the development of gunpowder technology. Although TNT has also come out, the technology of application and mass production is not perfect. In addition, these technologies are still in the hands of developed Western European countries such as Britain, France, and Germany, and have not yet reached Russia.

The biggest problem with picric acid is that it is easy to react with metal shells, and then lead to self-explosion. But the devil scientist Masayoshi Shimose invented a very simple method - didn't you react with the metal shell? I brush the inner layer of the metal shell of the warhead with a layer of paraffin wax to isolate the contact between picric acid and the metal shell, and it will be fine? Then the Japanese Navy rose......

If we only talk about the power of naval guns at that time, the Japanese navy at that time surpassed Britain and France. However, because the scale is completely incomparable with others, and even someone has to buy a boat, so it is not ranked.

However, after the appearance of Shimose gunpowder, the first unlucky one was the Beiyang Fleet. The imported ironclad ships used by the Beiyang Fleet are true, but the shells of Kinima's shells actually use black powder, which is several times worse than the B gunpowder imported by the Russians from France......

Let's compare the speed of detonation - the Japanese Shimose gunpowder detonation speed is 7350 m/s, the Russian B gunpowder is 2000 m/s, and the black powder of the Beiyang Fleet is 500 m/s......

In fact, the Russians are the worst, and in a few years, they will be able to buy TNT technology from Britain and France, which is no less powerful than Shimose gunpowder......

So, the Russians fought the wrong naval battle at the wrong time. There is no shortage of bravery in Russia, but the power of artillery shells is less than one-third of others...... You can't fight this battle......

As for "I Daqing", let alone mention. When smokeless gunpowder appeared, other countries could spend a lot of money to introduce technology for production. However, the Qing Dynasty's pure liberal arts students (Confucian scholars) officials only knew about the introduction of gun production technology, but did not know the improvement of gunpowder technology.

Even, after the "1888 Commission Rifle" and Mauser's new smokeless powder rifle were installed in the troops, Germany felt that the rifle originally equipped with the Mauser M1871 black powder propellant of the German army could not be wasted, so it sold it to the Qing army. The Beiyang army didn't know that others were eliminating garbage for sale, and bought it as a treasure - look, I have a large number of "Mauser fast guns" in the Qing Dynasty, mighty......

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And what is the difference between a black powder rifle and a smokeless powder rifle? First of all, the caliber is different. Mauser 1871 caliber 11.15mm, bullet specification is 11.15mm*60mm. The new Mauser rifle uses smokeless propellant, and the bullet is 7.92*57mm. Obviously, the two bullets are very different in size. With 7.92 gauge bullets, you can carry a lot more...... Moreover, not to mention the need to clean up the residue of the black powder barrel frequently, plus the smoke of black powder obstructs the sight......

What's more, what's even more amazing is that the flame temperature of the deflagration of the single-base smokeless propellant is actually lower than the deflagration flame temperature of the black powder - the deflagration flame temperature of the black powder is about 2800 degrees, while the deflagration flame temperature of the single-base smokeless propellant is only about 2500 degrees, which is about 300 degrees Celsius...... And the consequence of this is that with single-base smokeless propellant, the barrel is not as hot as using black powder......

However, in terms of power, the power of single-base smokeless propellant is three times that of black powder......

There is a concept that needs to be mentioned here - specific volume. That is, the amount of gas produced after the explosion of one kilogram of propellant (in liters L) - black powder is 280 L/kg, while single-base smokeless propellant is 993 L/kg (this data is the data of the US M6 single-base propellant, and the M6 propellant is the propellant of a 155 mm large-caliber howitzer).

Although the performance of the original version of B gunpowder in France was worse than that of the M6 propellant of the American army in later generations, it was not a problem to exceed three times the volume of black gunpowder.

The process by which a bullet or shell is pushed out of the barrel or barrel is actually the gas produced after the gunpowder deflagration is propelled. The longer the barrel or barrel, the longer the work time, and the greater the muzzle velocity of the warhead as it leaves the pipe. And after leaving the muzzle or muzzle, it is by inertia. Because, there is no gunpowder gas behind to push the warhead on.

In the case of a certain length of barrel or shell, it is clear that the more gunpowder gas, the stronger the thrust, and the greater the muzzle velocity of the bullet. Thus, a bullet with a single-base smokeless propellant can have a much smaller caliber than a bullet with black powder. Moreover, the ablation of the barrel is weaker than the use of black powder......

Modern firearms generally use more powerful double-base or even three-base propellants. This is because the two-base and three-base propellants are more powerful, and can make the bullet smaller and the caliber of the gun smaller...... In this way, the guns are cleared, and more bullets can be carried...... For example, the caliber of the mainstream modern NATO rifle is 5.56 mm, and the Huaxia is 5.8 mm...... This is much smaller than the 7.92 mm of the German army and the 8 mm of the French army during World War I......

However, this also comes at a cost. Modern rifles have a small caliber, but the ablative power of double- and three-base gunpowder is stronger, and the ablation of rifling is serious. Therefore, the barrel of modern rifles needs to use special steel, or chrome plating on the inner wall of the barrel to increase the life of the barrel. For example, the 56 and a half rifle, if you use 45 gauge carbon steel, the barrel life is 10,000 rounds. After chrome plating on the inner wall, the service life becomes more than 100,000 rounds......

Of course, that's what is needed for both two-base and three-base drugs. And if you use a single-base propellant with a very small ablative force, let's use ordinary carbon steel...... For example, Hanyang is made, and the inferior steel of Hanyang Iron Works is used, and it is also used to fly......

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As a military fan, Marin obviously knows the formula of the famous B gunpowder - 98% nitrocellulose, 2% paraffin...... After dissolving in a solution of ethanol and ether 1:3, it can be ...... after air drying Then knead into strips and cut into pellets......

Now, though, Marin doesn't have paraffin in his hands. Moreover, paraffin wax is the lowest stabilizer, in fact, it can also be replaced by beeswax. In any case, both can be dissolved in this 1:3 solution of ethanol and ether.

However, what Marin lacks now is not only paraffin, but also nitrocellulose, which is the main body...... Because, Marin doesn't have cotton in his hand now......

Fortunately, nitrocellulose is also called nitrocellulose, and without cotton, Marlin uses linen instead...... It's all fiber anyway, and the quality is almost ...... at most

……

After obtaining nitrocellulose, Marlin took beeswax and dissolved it in a solution of ethanol and ether 1:3 together with nitrocellulose. Because he was afraid that the stability would not be enough, Marlin directly increased the proportion of beeswax to 3%, so as not to have enough stability of gunpowder.

You must know that although single-base smokeless propellant is called propellant, it is more powerful than black powder. Its weakness is only compared to those fierce explosives of later generations. In terms of explosive power, single-base smokeless propellant is several times more powerful than black powder...... For the sake of safety, Marlin increased the proportion of beeswax......

Next, it's time to air dry......

In fact, in later generations, there is a way to recover ether. Like, what is the use of vacuum low temperature distillation. However, after all, Marin is only a middle-school chemistry expert, not a chemical engineering college student. Therefore, it does not understand any decompression and low-temperature distillation technology. Moreover, in the 19th century, it seems that chemists at that time also chose to let the ether dissipate in the air during the air-drying process for safety...... Although this is a waste of ether, it is better to be safe......

When the air was almost dry, Marlin had these mushy single-machine propellants washed in water, and it was washed in multiple rounds......

This is seen in an article about the propellant of World War I, which said that the early B gunpowder, because of the large amount of alcohol ether remaining, caused the performance to be unstable, and it was easy to spontaneously ignite and cause explosions. At that time, there were even warships in France that were sunk by the self-detonation of a powder magazine......

At that time, the United States and France had a very good relationship, and after the Americans introduced the technology of B gunpowder, they found that as long as they paid attention to cleaning afterwards and tried to wash off those alcohol ether components, then the safety of gunpowder would be greatly improved.

Of course, that doesn't mean you're completely fine. Later, before World War I, the French not only tightened the cleaning process, but also found a better stabilizer - diphenylamine. The amphenylamine effect is far greater than that of paraffin, which can make B gunpowder very stable. Then, this new single-machine propellant, with the addition of diphenylamine, was called "BM" gunpowder. The U.S. import is called the M series. For example, the M6 gunpowder, which was still used in later generations, was a later version of this gunpowder......

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After cleaning, Marin had the single-base smokeless gunpowder air-dried, rubbed into strips and cut into pellets. After that, another process was added - surface passivation......

According to later theories, it is better to burn the propellant of a long-barreled weapon slowly, so that the gas expansion will be slow (relatively) and persistent. In the barrel and barrel of the rifle, the gas produced by the propellant will work for a longer time.

Therefore, the gunpowder of later generations is often passivated on the surface of the particles......

How to passivate it? In later generations, some countries such as Huaxia used camphor. Camphor can be soluble in alcohol and ether, but poorly soluble in water...... Taking advantage of this property, it is possible to dissolve camphor in alcohol and then spray it on the surface of granular gunpowder...... For example, a piece of gauze is used to place granules of gunpowder and a camphor alcohol solution is sprayed on its surface...... When the alcohol is dried, there will be a thin layer of mothrophor on the surface of the gunpowder particles......

This mophor membrane allows the gunpowder to slow down when it first burns...... But when it burns inside, the burning rate increases......

Coincidentally, when the gunpowder gas pushes the bullet towards the muzzle, when the bullet approaches the muzzle, it is also the time when the surface passivated gunpowder particles burn most violently. The bullet is then pushed out of the barrel by a thrust of the most powerful gunpowder gas, and the muzzle velocity reaches its maximum......

……

Camphor is an excellent passivator, but apparently Marlin doesn't have it right now......

But this thing, Marlin will have in the future. Why? Because the island he plans to occupy is a camphor kingdom...... There are camphor trees everywhere, and if you want camphor, it's not easy to die?

The stability of camphor is obviously very good, and Nobel, the king of explosives, once made a bi-base smokeless propellant in 1887 - the same amount of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, plus 10% camphor...... This kind of propellant is more powerful, but France has already adopted B gunpowder at that time, and everyone's production line is ready, you Nobel jumped out and wants to smash people's jobs? Therefore, Nobel was persecuted by France, the French factory was seized, and he was forced to go into exile in Italy......

However, Marin doesn't have camphor in his hand now. How to surface passivate gunpowder particles?

Quite simply, Marlin is still going to use beeswax......

He soaked beeswax in alcohol, slowly dissolved it, and then sprayed the beeswax alcohol solution onto the gunpowder particles. Finally, the surface of the gunpowder particles is covered with a film of beeswax...... Of course, you have to pay attention to the concentration, if the gunpowder particles are all beeswax on the outside, they will not burn out......

While spraying the beeswax alcohol solution, Marlin also made some graphite, pressed it into a very fine powder, and mixed it with the beeswax alcohol solution and sprayed on the surface of smokeless gunpowder particles......

Graphite can prevent static electricity and is an important component of gunpowder in later generations, although it is generally only a small proportion, even less than one percent, but it is also very important......

Graphite is insoluble in organic solvents, but graphite powder can adhere to the surface of smokeless gunpowder particles by virtue of the wetting characteristics of beeswax alcohol solution. Static electricity is generated on the surface, and graphite powder plays a role on the surface......

Alcohol cannot dissolve nitrocellulose, although it can dissolve the beeswax on the surface, but this is originally an alcohol solution of beeswax, and after air drying, it naturally forms a beeswax protective film......

After washing and drying, Marlin made the world's first single-base smokeless gunpowder 377 years ahead of schedule...... Moreover, because of the use of multiple rounds of cleaning, as well as surface passivation technology, and the addition of graphite powder, this single-base smokeless gunpowder is a mature version as soon as it comes out......

The only drawback is that it is too expensive to produce – during the production process, the alcohol and ether are completely air-dried and dissipated into the air and cannot be recovered......

You must know that the alcohol of Marin is all extracted from grain winemaking, and the ether is made by concentrated sulfuric acid and alcohol laboratory preparation...... Now food is so expensive, and concentrated sulfuric acid is also rare...... Therefore, the cost of this single-base smokeless gunpowder is a big drop......

Therefore, this smokeless gunpowder is currently only a beta version and can only be used for internal testing. It must wait until there is a way to bring the cost down before it can be used on a large scale. Otherwise, Marlin would not have been able to afford the cost of using smokeless gunpowder on a large scale. However, in a small number of elite troops, Marin can still be applied on a small scale. For example, in some key battles, the use of more powerful smokeless gunpowder can change the tide of battle......