A few days ago, Zhang Feng did a big thing in Song Yingxing's laboratory, and on that day, Song Yingxing was doing a chemistry experiment with several students and assistants. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info In chemistry, Song Yingxing also has deep attainments.

There is a detailed record of saltpeter in "Heavenly Creation", and China is also rich in saltpeter, which is not an uncommon thing.

When Zhang Feng entered the laboratory, Song Yingxing was using saltpeter to make nitric acid, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate) was calcined in a closed container to produce nitrogen dioxide, which dissolved in water and became nitric acid.

Song Yingxing can not only produce nitric acid, but also produce sulfuric acid, and caustic soda, etc., the basis of modern chemical industry is "three acids and two alkalis", "three acids" are sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, "two alkalis" are caustic soda and sodium carbonate.

Zhang Feng knows that if the development is good, in a few years, it may be possible to develop a certain scale of chemical industry.

However, the development of the chemical industry is estimated to be many years later, and the only chemical industry that exists now is cement and soap.

The last time I fought with the Tartars, the heavy rain caused a lot of trouble to Zhang Feng, Zhang Feng thought of smokeless gunpowder and ****, thought of the rear-loading gun, this time, Zhang Feng was ready to get these things out.

"Lord Commander, you're here."

Zhang Feng nodded, followed by Wang Chaoyong, Zhang Feng specially called Wang Chaoyong over, just to let Wang Chaoyong witness the birth of smokeless gunpowder.

"Old Song, let's do an experiment to verify something."

Zhang Feng has never made smokeless gunpowder, but he knows the principle of manufacturing, so he naturally needs to verify it, and Song Yingxing's big laboratory is the best place to verify it, and there are all kinds of things here.

Historically, one day in 1845, the Swiss chemist Schönbay accidentally knocked over a bottle filled with a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid while conducting an experiment. The solution flowed on the table, and when he couldn't find a rag, he hurried out and brought his wife's cotton apron to wipe the table.

The apron was soaked in the solution and was drenched, and Schönbay was afraid that his wife would blame her when she saw it, so he went to the kitchen to dry the apron. Unexpectedly, when he approached the stove, he only heard a "plop" sound, and the apron was burned clean, without a trace of smoke or ash, and he was astonished.

Afterwards, he carefully recalled what had happened, and was immediately overjoyed. He realized that he had synthesized new compounds that could be used to make explosives. For this reason, he repeated the experiment many times, and confirmed that the results were correct, so he named it "fire cotton", which later generations called nitrocellulose.

The first thing Zhang Feng wanted to verify was the production of "fire cotton", that is, nitrocellulose.

Zhang Feng asked people to find cotton, personally mix a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid, and then soak a ball of snow-white cotton into the mixture, after soaking for a certain time, Zhang Feng took out the cotton with a glass rod and then dried it.

The whole process was operated by Zhang Feng, and the others looked curious, not knowing what the chief soldier was doing.

After the cotton was dried, Zhang Feng said: "Master Wang, you use a fire fold to light this cotton and try it, but be careful not to burn yourself." ”

Wang Chaoyong looked left and right, and after looking at it for several seconds, he didn't see what this ball of cotton was, and thought in his heart, it's just a ball of cotton, how could it burn itself.

So, Wang Chaoyong pinched this ball of cotton in one hand, and held a fire fold in the other, ready to light it and give it a try.

Everyone is speculating that this ball of cotton is very famous, and everyone can't figure it out, but only Song Yingxing seems to realize something.

In the curious eyes of everyone, Wang Chaoyong held the fire, and when the small flame approached the cotton, a surprising scene happened.

I only heard the sound of "plop", this ball of cotton was burned cleanly, there was nothing left, not even a little dust left, and the burning speed was so fast that even Wang Chaoyong did not react, until there was a feeling of fire in his hand.

"Ahh

Wang Chaoyong hurriedly shook his hand, seeing this, everyone laughed kindly, Zhang Feng also smiled, the experiment was very successful, and the nitrocellulose was easily manufactured.

Song Yingxing said: "My lord, this cotton has reacted with the acid just now, and it is no longer cotton." ”

Zhang Feng nodded and said: "Yes, a chemical reaction has occurred, this mass of ordinary cotton has become nitrocellulose, and cotton has become fire cotton." ”

Through the test just now, Wang Chaoyong seemed to understand something, and said happily: "Lord Commander, this cotton burns so fast, and there is no smoke and no residue, can we use it to make gunpowder instead of the black powder we use now?" ”

Wang Chaoyong can be said to know the shortcomings of black powder clearly, the smoke is large, there is a lot of residue, and the barrel needs to be cleaned after a few shots.

Zhang Feng smiled and nodded: "This is completely feasible, we can replace black powder with smokeless gunpowder, but smokeless gunpowder alone is not enough, we still need a thing, this kind of thing is called ****." ”

Ray-mercury is a white or gray crystal that was the first initiating charge used. High sensitivity to flames, needle punctures, and impacts.

The flintlock musket currently used by Zhang Feng actually uses flint to stimulate sparks to ignite black powder, not a fire cap made of ****.

"Commander-in-Chief, what is Thunder-Mercury?" Wang Chaoyong looked curious.

Zhang Feng said: "I'll try it first, make this thing, and then everyone will know." ”

For thunder-mercury, Zhang Feng has not actually made it, only knows its manufacturing principle, the conditions were immature before, but now it is different, Song Yingxing's laboratory is not only complete, but also has nitric acid, sulfuric acid, etc., as well as ethanol.

Zhang Feng made "gray thunder-mercury", first reacted with mercury and nitric acid, then added ethanol, and finally obtained a gray powdery object, which is ash****.

"Gray Thunder-Mercury" may be relatively unfamiliar to everyone, but during the Chinese New Year, everyone may have seen the crackling guns played by children, and when they fall to the ground, they will "snap". The cannon used in this cannon is gray thunder-mercury.

Ash-**** was manufactured, Zhang Feng personally experimented, wrapped a little gray thunder-mercury in paper, and then knocked it with a wooden stick, with a crisp sound of "pop", in everyone's opinion, this is very magical.

As an experienced commander, Wang Chaoyong's eyes lit up, and he immediately realized something, shouted, and then said happily: "Lord Commander, this can be used as a stimulating medicine, and our paper shell bullets and grenades have this thing, and it will be fundamentally changed." ”

Zhang Feng nodded and said, "That's right, fundamental changes will occur." ”

With hundreds of years of knowledge and insight, Zhang Feng was well aware of the role of thunder-mercury in the war, so Zhang Feng decided to mass-produce and improve the paper shell bullets, using paper shell bullets with thunder-mercury primers, and then using a firing pin to excite them.

A few days later, Zhang Fengzhen designed and manufactured a paper shell with a thunder-mercury primer, but the paper shell used black powder because of the difficulty in manufacturing smokeless powder.

The production of smokeless gunpowder by the above methods is unstable and prone to explosion, and Zhang Feng can't solve this problem for a while, Zhang Feng only vaguely knows a little bit by memory, and it seems that he wants to add a stabilizer, as for what stabilizer, Zhang Feng can't think of it for a while.

Maybe this problem can be solved in the future, and maybe a more stable smokeless gunpowder can be produced in the future, but for now, only black powder can be used for the time being, but the thunder-mercury manufacturing is relatively successful, which is enough to make Zhang Feng very happy.

With Thunder-Mercury, the grenade can be improved, no longer ignited with a fire breaker, but directly loaded with a pull fire, pulled directly, and then it can be thrown out.

The General Soldier's Palace, the back hall.

There are a few rounds of paper shells on the table, and at first glance, they seem to be no different from the paper shells used today, but if you look closely, there is still a big difference.

Because this is a paper shell bullet with a primer, hitting the primer of the paper shell bullet, the paper shell bullet can be excited, unlike in the past, when a thin wire was used to pierce the paper shell bullet, make a little black powder and use flint to produce spark excitation.

Wang Chaoyong looked curious, looked left and right, and couldn't understand it at all, and in the end, he couldn't help but ask: "Lord Commander, how do you play with this thing, our current flintlock musket can't use such paper shells at all." ”

Zhang Feng said with a smile: "The current flintlock musket naturally can't use such paper shell bullets, because our current musket is a front-loading gun, and this kind of paper-shell bullet is used for a rear-loading gun." ”

"Lord Commander, what is a rear-loading gun, is it a gun that loads bullets from the back, is this okay?" Although Wang Chaoyong didn't believe it at all, his tone was already full of excitement, because Wang Chaoyong knew that if there was really such a gun, the tactics would be fundamentally changed.

Front-loading guns, you need to load from the muzzle, a flintlock pistol, erected more than one meter, which must stand up and load, the target is relatively large, on the battlefield, the larger the target, the more dangerous.

Rear-loading guns are different, because instead of loading from the muzzle, they can be reloaded from the back of the gun, so that they can be reloaded while half-crouching or lying on the ground, and if they are lying on the ground, the target is much smaller.

Zhang Feng said confidently: "The rear loading gun will definitely be able to be manufactured, and I have already given the design drawings to Zhao Zuolin and them, and they are already manufacturing the sample gun." ”

"Ah, the prototype has already begun." Wang Chaoyong was startled at first, and then immediately ran out happily, shouting happily as he ran, "Lord General Bing, I want to go to the Shanghai Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, I want to take a look at our first rear-loading gun." ”

Where is there a major general and division commander here, seeing Wang Chaoyong's appearance, Zhang Feng couldn't help but smile, smiled and shook his head gently.

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