"Master, what's in here?" Bush had been busy all afternoon, and his legs were thin, but his interest remained undiminished, his eyes were wide open, and the small notebook in his hand was full of experimental records.

"There's something we want, but it's not pure, add some caustic soda solution, shake it, and put it here to layer it first. The following solution is left, and then saturated salt water and saturated calcium chloride solution are added to remove the ethanol in the liquid, and there is no longer a white deposit. Hong Tao was 100% sure that the experiment would be a success, because he had already smelled a sweet scent.

"Master, what is this, it tastes good......" Looking at the colorless, transparent and somewhat fragrant liquid in the small beaker, Bush licked his lips.

"You can't eat this thing! Let's go get some hot water first, and the last step is to distill it again. Note that you can't use an open flame at this time, it will boil at room temperature, it is very volatile, the gas will detonate when it sees fire, and hot water is enough to make it boil. Hong Tao covered the beaker and prevented Bush from sniffing it any longer.

The master and apprentice tossed for more than half a day, and finally got a very small bottle of finished product. Hong Tao did not tell Bush what the colorless liquid in the bottle was, but asked Bush to go to Swan's army tomorrow to find a new soldier, and by the way, told Shwan that this soldier might not be able to return alive.

Early the next morning, Bush went to Hong Tao's house and called him up, and he was not allowed to eat breakfast, but dragged him to the courtyard of the laboratory. There was already an Indian soldier standing inside, and when he saw Hong Tao, he immediately knelt down with his legs, he had already frightened these transparent bottles and cans in the laboratory, and when he saw Hong Taozun's true god again, his whole body was soft.

Hong Tao was not polite, took a piece of cotton cloth, took out the vial in the ice cellar, took the beaker and put some distilled water according to the scale, and used the test tube to suck a little liquid in the vial, put it in the beaker, and stirred well. He poured the mixture from the beaker onto the cotton cloth, and suddenly locked the Indian soldier's neck, and clamped his body between his legs, covering the cotton cloth directly over his nose.

"Pour! Pour! Pour! Seven or eight seconds later, Master Hong did his work again, and as he uttered the words, the soldier really went limp. This time it wasn't like he was scared, his whole body went limp, and his eyes were closed.

"Poison, poison, poison ......" Bush didn't think that Master Hong had anything to do at this time, poisoning people with poison, anyone would, there was no need to be so troublesome, there were frogs in the woods that the Indians smeared with poison arrows, and it would be OK to get a little secretion on it.

"Poisonous fart! This is an anesthetic, don't worry, let's see his reaction in a while......" Hong Tao directly slapped Bush in the head, daring to slander the master like this, it is a big rebellion! But he wasn't sure that the soldier on the ground would wake up, if this thing was concentrated and inhaled, it would really become poison.

"It's okay, there's a pulse! Hey, see, he's moved! This time, Hong Tao's luck returned, and after a few minutes, the soldiers on the ground began to move, stretching their arms and legs, and slowly regained their senses.

So what is this colorless, fragrant, low-temperature, light-protected liquid made by Hong Tao? It is ether, anhydrous ether!

That's right, it's the kind of drug that has been widely spread in society in later generations, and many people think that some bad people pour ether on handkerchiefs, and when they see their beautiful sister, they go up and cover their noses, and their sister loses consciousness.

This understanding is wrong, the use conditions of ether are very harsh, it will spontaneously combust and evaporate when it is hot, and it will oxidize when it sees light, and the concentration is high and can directly cause death. Even if the conditions are all met, there must be a certain amount of inhalation, and once you breathe normal air, you will wake up in a few minutes, and you don't have the performance of being a drug under daily conditions.

Hong Tao wasted so much effort for a long time to get out anhydrous ethanol and anhydrous ether, just to be a narcotic charming? Definitely not, the technology of surgery has not yet been developed, and no one can operate with anesthetics. He wants to use these two things as passivating agents, so that the collodion becomes collodion glue, which is no longer so sensitive, so that it can be produced normally, and it can also be used for muskets and artillery firing. Otherwise, no matter how good the cotton is, he doesn't dare to use it, he doesn't know when it will slam, and he hasn't hit the enemy yet, so he will be gone first.

With these two things, is the cotton safe to use? The answer is yes. However, safety is safe, but it is not guaranteed to reach the deflagration rate of the projectile, and it is still useless. There are also two key points to consider here, one is the degree of degreasing of the cotton, and the other is the nitrogen content of the cotton wool. If the nitrogen content is too high, the deflagration speed of the cotton wool is too fast, and it will become explosives, which will be loaded into the gun and explode 100%; If the nitrogen content is too low, the combustion rate will be too slow, and it cannot be used as a hair or ejection, so it can only be used for paint and celluloid.

The finer the fibers of the cotton used to make the cotton wool, the better, and the cleaner the degreasing and stripping, the better. This thing is a tedious job, there is no machinery to replace, can only rely on manpower to pick up the impurities in the cotton little by little, soak and wash with water, and then put it in caustic soda water to heat and boil, and finally take it out and rinse it repeatedly with clean water, wash the caustic soda water, and then dry it in the shade. As for how long it takes to boil in caustic soda water, Hong Tao doesn't know, it has to be the old way, try it slowly. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, and twenty minutes each make a batch for backup. After making the cotton wool, whichever effect is better, use whichever one works.

The problem of nitrogen content mainly depends on the concentration of nitric acid, how to determine how much concentration is appropriate, or the old way, try! Ten different concentrations are made, and the exact value cannot be measured, but it doesn't matter, as long as you finally know which one is most suitable, and then adjust the nitric acid according to this concentration.

More than a month later, Hong Tao's trademark treacherous laughter finally came from the courtyard of the chemistry laboratory, and then as soon as the door opened, the master and apprentice, whose eyes had been red from the double acid solution, walked out with a wooden box in their arms, and walked to Swan's military camp with a tired face full of joy. This box contains several kinds of collodion with different nitrogen contents.

Nitrocellulose cotton will be dissolved by the alcohol ether mixture and become a translucent gelatinous substance, at this time, it will not spontaneously combust due to the increase in nitrogen content, and the degree of impact resistance has also increased a lot, and it needs to be smashed with a hammer before it burns. And after gelatinization, the oxidation reaction of the cotton wool is very slow, which is easier to preserve and transport. At present, the cotton wool in Bush's box is like plastic crumbs, which is the finished product of Hong Tao and Bush flattening, cutting into strips, and shredding the collodion like dough and then drying it.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong with your eyes?" As soon as Si Wan saw Hong Tao coming, he couldn't help but put his hand on the holster hanging from his waist.

"Take your hand off me! You know this is a bad plan, you know? Go and fetch me two deck guns and put them on the range over there. Hong Tao knew that Siwan was not really going to take out a gun and crash himself, but he was afraid that he would bring the gun back, but he resolutely couldn't have the habit of touching the gun when he saw himself.

"Bush, what's in the box?" Seeing that Hong Tao didn't tell him, Swann came to Bush's side again.

"Stay away from me, Your Majesty's spells have already taught me, do you want to be stunned by me like that soldier?" Bush's appearance at this time is like winning the Nobel Prize, and ordinary people cannot look at it with normal eyes, but have to use the corners of their eyes.

"Hey, you dare to bare your teeth with me, believe it or not, I'll beat you!" Swann didn't expect that Bush would dare to argue with him, and his true colors were revealed again.

"You wait! Your Majesty told me, spare you today! "Bush definitely can't beat Swan, and if he wants to use ether to charm him, he has to cover the other party's nose, and the problem is that Swann won't let himself cover it.

"Is it gunpowder? It's quite fragrant...... What His Majesty has made is good, hehehe. Swann was also curious, especially when it came to weapons, and he had to come over to see what was going on, and he had to pick up the collodion and smell it.

"Stay away from me! Bush, first fill the No. 1 drug, use a quarter of the original amount. Hong Tao kicked Swan away, and then watched Bush fill the chamber with collodion, so he quickly ran away, hid in a dirt pit, and when Bush ran back, he immediately pulled the rope in his hand vigorously.

(To be continued.) )