"Soda ash! Soda ash! Soda ash! Why are the other heroes who cross over to burn the glass in one day?! I'm not convinced! ”

Liu Che, a graduate student of the Department of Chemistry of Beijing University, looked up to the sky and shouted, Facts have proved that burning stone alone cannot burn glass.

Well, I have to say that the products of quality education in New China are often high scores and low ability, at least Liu Che is one of the tragic products. The auxiliary raw materials of glass include clarifiers, fluxes, emulsions, colorants, decolorizers, oxidants and reducing agents, etc., and now there are none, Liu Che can't think of it and is not in the mood to think about how to get it out, so he has to try to fire inferior glass first.

The main raw materials of glass are quartz sand, soda ash, limestone and feldspar, of which only soda ash is the most difficult. Soda ash, that is, sodium carbonate, commonly known as soda.

In order to get soda ash, Liu Che fell asleep for a whole day, looking for relevant information.

Natural mineral alkalis mainly come from alkali lakes and solid alkali ores. They are the most important trona resource. The so-called trona refers to a class of minerals whose main chemical components are sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate.

In later China, Inner Mongolia had the most alkali lakes, and the Tibetan Plateau was the concentration of modern saline-alkali lakes. The Nanxiang Basin, located in the Central Plains, is an important production area of ancient trona.

Liu Che was depressed, in the Western Han Dynasty, Inner Mongolia in later generations was still in the hands of the Xiongnu. As for the Nanxiang Basin, it was in the hands of Liu Wu, the king of Liang. God, isn't this a play man?!

Thankfully, many plants contain potassium carbonate and sodium carbonate in their bodies, which contain a certain amount of sodium carbonate with a mass fraction of up to 30% when they decay or are burned to ashes. The Ming Dynasty physician Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" wrote: "Pick the genus Artemisia knotweed, dry it, burn the ashes, and pour the juice with raw water." ”

In the countryside, the grass ash after firewood and grass burning is called small ash (lime is called big ash), which is placed in a basket and poured with water to obtain gray water, which contains potassium alkali, commonly known as grass alkali. Washing laundry is to take advantage of its strong alkali surname. Some plants, especially those that grow in saline soils, can absorb more sodium ions from the soil. The ash burned from them contains more alkali (sodium carbonate).

Well, after finding the plant ash, the raw materials are all ready.

The bulk raw materials (quartz sand, soda ash, limestone, feldspar, etc.) are crushed to dry the wet raw materials. Subsequently, in order to ensure the quality of the glass, Liu Che also specially found a magnet and removed the iron from the raw materials. Of course, this is not a real iron removal treatment, but Liu Che is just looking for some face for the more than 20 quality education he received.

There is a big problem in the firing stage, the temperature needs to reach more than 1500 degrees, and the smelting temperature of the bronze workshop in Shaofu is only 1000 degrees, because the temperature of the smelting furnace is about 1100 degrees. Even if it is the blower equipment added by Liu Che, it is only more than 1200 degrees.

It's so sad! It is no wonder that the new China in the future will engage in aircraft carriers, which is the east that drives the technological development of the entire national defense industry.

Well, you can't use coal and charcoal anymore. Liu Che, as the top representative of the scientific and technological level of the whole Han Dynasty, decided to make coke in Shaofu himself.

Bituminous coal is heated to 950-1050 °C under the condition of air isolation, and finally made into coke through the stages of drying, pyrolysis, melting, bonding, solidification, and shrinkage, which is called high-temperature coking (high-temperature dry distillation).

Coal, which was considered by the people of the Han Dynasty to be "the ashes of the heavenly fire", was called "coal", and coal had become the fuel for the iron-smelting industry. Dozens of miles outside Chang'an City, there is a coal kiln, so Liu Che is not worried about the source of materials.

As for the technical aspect, Liu Che found the earth-based coking technology that appeared in the Tang Dynasty.

Liu Che arrogantly occupied a kiln used by Shaofu to fire pottery (he did not dare to occupy the mouth of the porcelain kiln, he would be beaten to death by the emperor's father), excavated a fuse along the side wall of the kiln, and instructed his subordinates to put a cart of black coal into the kiln

When Chen Yang, the young eunuch (second-in-command) of Shaofu, saw the greatly changed pottery cellar, he almost didn't spurt out a mouthful of blood, and felt that his head was no longer on his neck. To rebuild this kiln, it will take a few days. The first year is approaching, Chen Yang is responsible for the preparation of various utensils in the palace, and now there is a lack of a furnace, what should I do if I can't pay the difference?

The impatient Liu Che is not in the mood to deal with him, as a double master's degree from Beijing University, Liu Che is a little genius, geniuses are often paranoid, especially when they focus on something, geniuses will become crazy. He used his own knife to light the fire with the help of the ignition hole in the side wall of the kiln, and ignited the coking coal stacked in the kiln.

As the coking coal itself burns the coal layer by layer, a large amount of black billowing smoke slowly rises into the sky of Chang'an City.

The entire city of Chang'an was suddenly in chaos, the city gates were closed in a very short time, and a large number of officers and soldiers closed the streets. The guards in the palace and their guards guarded each gate and forbade anyone to pass through. Lang Zhongling (the head of the emperor's bodyguards) ordered his guards to surround Weiyang Palace and Changle Palace to protect the absolute safety of the emperor and the queen mother.

In the imperial study, Emperor Jing was furious and reprimanded: "Nonsense! Are you the princes of the Beacon Theater?! Dare to set fire to the wolf smoke in my palace?! ”

The Son of Heaven was furious, and the prince was urinating.

Liu Che was kneeling in front of the emperor's bookcase at the moment, and he didn't dare to put a fart!

After a long time, seeing that the emperor's father was a little angry, Liu Che said in a low voice: "Erchen has thought of a good idea, which can greatly increase the output of fine iron, and can also refine steel that is several times harder than iron and several times tougher. ”

"Oh?" Emperor Jing looked at Liu Che with some suspicion, and believed it a little in his heart, after all, Liu Che had indeed made a lot of good things, and according to Sun Quan's report, the output of the new iron-smelting workshop was indeed more than ten times higher than that of the old workshop.

Liu Che secretly glanced at his father, and continued to flicker: "This charcoal has been concocted this time, and you can get some coke. Burning coke, compared with charcoal and charcoal, the flame is stronger, the molten iron is faster, the iron smelting is purer, the pig iron becomes wrought iron, and the wrought iron becomes fine steel. Used for smelting, there is a move to get twice the result with half the effort. ”

Emperor Jing pondered for a moment, and said faintly: "I believe you once, wait until this coke is concocted, and let the iron smelting workshop of the Shaofu Zhuye Supervisor give it a try." If it is as you say, then the matter is over; If not, you will inevitably go to Zongzheng Mansion to eat the ancestral family law! ”

Liu Che saw that Emperor Jing was relieved, and the heart hanging in his throat finally fell back into his stomach. My mother, I don't even call "Huang'er" anymore, so it can be seen that the emperor's father is really angry. Pay attention next time, this time there is indeed some Meng Lang. It made the entire Chang'an City a mess, and the emperor's father couldn't explain it to the ministers.

In short, Emperor Jing still had a way, especially when the Queen Mother also stood up to extinguish the fire, he found a trumped-up reason, so he made everyone in Chang'an City shut up, and gradually became accustomed to the thick black smoke that had been entrenched over the palace for ten days.

Ten days later, the coke finally rifted. Liu Che personally commanded his subordinates to inject water from the artificial ignition hole to extinguish the coke, cold the furnace, and pick up the coke.

Soon Emperor Jing received a note submitted by the smelting supervisor, which was full of praise for coke, listed more than a dozen benefits, and hoped to get more coke, which was guaranteed to greatly increase the output of fine iron in a short period of time.

Emperor Jing frowned, and said to Liu Che, who was relieved beside him: "The emperor's merits and demerits are offset this time, and I won't punish you, but this method of coke-making?" ”

Liu Che didn't know what the emperor's father meant, so he hurriedly handed over a booklet and said: "The son has written the method of making coke, and the father can send people to the vicinity of the charcoal kiln outside Chang'an City as soon as possible to establish a coke workshop. ”

Emperor Jing nodded with satisfaction, and said with an interesting smile: "Since the emperor is so knowledgeable, I won't investigate the whereabouts of the remaining half of the coke, and I think the emperor is also of other use." ”

When Liu Che heard this, his little face suddenly turned red. When picking up coke, he secretly ordered people to detain most of the coke, and only sent a small part to Zhuye Supervisor. Obviously, the emperor's father had already received the report, but he just didn't want to bother with him.

"The father is wise, and the son has to create a thing, and he will definitely give his father a big surprise at that time!"

"Oh? Then I am waiting for the surprise of the emperor. ”

Emperor Jing saw the confident prince, nodded and smiled, after all, this son has never disappointed him.

After a few days, Liu Che held a large piece of clean and translucent green glass in his hand, as if he saw a huge mountain of gold, and couldn't help but smirk.

;