The problem of the debt of the Tokugawa shogunate was quietly solved, and although the Japanese gritted their teeth with hatred, they really couldn't guard against those damn arson rockets. Therefore, they can only grit their teeth and admit it honestly. But now Scrooge's attention is not mainly on this matter. Now, Scrooge's attention is almost entirely on the big real yàn room.

In the Dashi yàn room, ammonia synthesis is now being carried out, that is, the synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen in the industrial way. This project can be called far-reaching for humanity. First of all, agriculture, nitrogen is very important for the growth of plants, but although nitrogen is the most important component in the atmosphere, but the free nitrogen in the form of elements can not be directly used by plants, so if you can directly turn the nitrogen in the air into ammonia that can be absorbed by plants through the chemical method, it is almost revolutionary for agriculture.

In the time and space of Scrooge's previous life, a certain large country was able to feed 20 percent of the world's population with 7 percent of the world's arable land, and even not only to feed, but also to ensure that the per capita consumption of eggs, poultry, meat, aquatic products, and fruits far exceeded the world's advanced level. In addition to the hybrid rice of a certain great druid, more important is the world's largest fertilizer production. This is the real guarantee of high agricultural yield in the rabbit country. In other words, some ignorant little rabbits once seriously proposed to the Ministry of Agriculture of the rabbit country: "Can you not use chemical fertilizers, use more farm fertilizer, and let us all eat pure natural." So the agricultural rabbits spread their hands and said, "If we do this, it is estimated that there will be a quarter of the country's grain production left, and about half of the rabbits will starve to death." ”

In the original time and space of Scrooge, in the seventies and eighties of the twentieth century, the agricultural self-sufficiency of the North Stick was still more than enough, but as the hairy bear practiced the Heavenly Demon Disintegration and Shock Dafa, the North Stick immediately ran out of oil for the production of fertilizer, and then, it is said that when the northeast of the rabbit country had a bumper harvest, the North Stick starved to death of millions of people. Of course, if this amount is compared with the white elephant, it is nothing, the yield of one acre of land and one season in the rabbit country can be close to or even more than one ton, and the natural conditions such as water and heat are even better than the white elephant country of the rabbit country, and the yield per mu is not even a quarter of that of the rabbit country. Relying on 40 percent more arable land than rabbits, the total yield is less than half of that of rabbit country, and 2 million baby white elephants die of malnutrition every year. Why is there such a big difference? The simplest number is that the rabbit country uses more than six times as much fertilizer per acre of land as the white elephant country. It was the advent of chemical fertilizers that allowed agriculture to feed so many people for the first time. The most important chemical fertilizer is nitrogen fertilizer, and the production of nitrogen fertilizer is inseparable from synthetic ammonia.

In addition to being used as a fertilizer, ammonia has another function - to make explosives. With synthetic ammonia, there is no need to worry about nitric acid or something, nitric acid or something, and gunpowder explosives and other things naturally do not have to worry. Before the synthesis of ammonia, the gunpowder of the world can basically only come from naturally formed saltpeter mines, of course, by accumulating manure, scraping the corners of the wall or something, you can also collect a little, but in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, to rely on this to support the consumption of the war, it is simply unreliable to say that Ma Niangniang is a star idol that the Chinese people generally worship in their hearts.

Nowadays, some of the world's largest saltpeter mines are basically controlled by the British, so Britain is quite confident in overpowering those guys on the European continent, and one of the important reasons is that once the British get stuck in the saltpeter mines, it won't be long before the Europeans run out of gunpowder. Well, among them, the Germans have the most serious problems. Therefore, the Germans are also very interested in synthetic ammonia, and for this reason, they have seriously selected a group of experts with good level to come to MacDonald's Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company to conduct cooperative research with the Americans.

Ammonia can be synthesized by the chemical reaction of hydrogen and nitrogen, but this reaction is a reversible reaction. Scrooge knew that increasing the pressure would shift the equilibrium towards the ammonia-forming end, while increasing the temperature would shift the reaction toward the end where the ammonia would break down into nitrogen and hydrogen. However, if the temperature is lowered, the reaction speed will decrease, so in order to increase the reaction speed, the temperature must be increased, and the temperature increase will cause the reaction to move towards the end that decomposes into nitrogen and hydrogen. So the pressure must continue to increase. Scrooge knew that in the case of using catalysts, the pressure must also be increased to more than 200 atmospheres and the temperature must be increased to 600 degrees Celsius in order to have a relatively good reaction speed. And in this day and age, well, it's not easy to maintain such a high pressure.

Using pressure-resistant vessel technology from Germany, chemists from the United States and Germany began their research. The research was divided into several project groups, one responsible for the manufacture of pressure-resistant vessels, and the other responsible for the industrial production of raw gases - pure nitrogen and hydrogen. Scrooge was even personally involved in the second group's research.

How is hydrogen produced? Well, those who have studied chemistry in junior high school will immediately tell you to put some metal zinc in hydrochloric acid. Yes, in the chemistry room of the school, hydrogen is made in this way. However, the cost of producing hydrogen in this way is very high, and it is just a matter of playing in the room, and if you really rely on it to synthesize ammonia, it is estimated that you will lose money.

"There are two ways to produce hydrogen, one is to directly electrolyze water. Well, it's technically easiest to do. And we now also have the capacity to generate electricity on a large scale. With guò in this way, we can get very pure hydrogen. However, considering the current price of electricity, the cost of doing so is still not cheap. And our goal is to eventually make cheap urea for farmers to use, and if the price is too high, the farmers can't afford it, and there is no point in such a thing. So I think we should choose a way that is more technically responsible, but can be less costly. Well, we can blow water vapor on top of the red-hot coke, so that we can get almost an equal volume of carbon monoxide and hydrogen mixed gas. "The next question is how to get rid of the carbon monoxide." ”

"We can pressurize the gas mixture, so that the carbon monoxide is liquefied first, and then we take the liquefied carbon monoxide out and put it in tanks, and the rest of the gas is hydrogen." An American engineer named Hardy said, "And the by-product of the gas can come in handy for other purposes." For example, it is used as fuel or something. ”

"Or add some water vapor and let them react to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide." Another German chemist, Harrell, proposed such a construction.

Of the two options, Hardy's solution is technically simpler, and at room temperature, it only takes 35 atmospheres to liquefy carbon monoxide, which is really not difficult compared to the pressure of more than 500 atmospheres needed to synthesize ammonia in the future. In the second option, hydrogen and carbon dioxide will be generated, and the amount of hydrogen produced in the final product will be twice as much as in the first option. As for the impurity carbon dioxide, it is also much easier to remove it than carbon monoxide. So Scrooge finally decided to use the second option for research.

Although writing the equations for these chemical reactions is very simple, it takes less than two minutes. However, it is not so easy to make it a reality. However, these specific technical problems are not something that Scrooge has time to manage, and he still has a lot of things to do, and he can't spend on such technical issues. Moreover, making money is to come and enjoy life. Scrooge wasn't as hedonistic as Morgan, but he wasn't Rockefeller's hobby who had no hobbies other than counting money. Besides, Scrooge still has an old friend to say hello to.

This old friend was Joshua 61 Rothschild. At that time, he used to be the representative of the famous Rothschild family in the Americas, but after the outbreak of the Civil War, the Rothschilds judged that the United States would eventually break up, and because of the split, it would sink, and eventually become a "normal American country" like Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Coupled with the business opportunities brought about by a series of changes in Europe, as well as the impact of the economic crisis of 1857 in the United States, the Rothschilds voluntarily withdrew from the United States. However, the facts soon slapped the Rothschilds in the face, and the United States finally prevailed over the danger of secession, and even experienced a bout of economic prosperity under the interference of Scrooge. In this situation, the Rothschilds also began to plan to return to the United States in order to get a share of the development of the United States.

When Joshua came to the United States, he first contacted his old friends. Now his old friends are now bold, well, Scrooge is already the richest man in the United States, and JP Morgan has grown into a huge rich man who should not be underestimated. Now he can no longer use the wand of guò capital to control these two guys, on the contrary, the return of the Rothschild family to the United States needs to see the faces of these two guys in many things.

Joshua's first contact was with Morgan, who told him that he was interested in some of Morgan's railroads and a coal mine, and that he wanted to buy them at a good price.

Morgan is quite uninterested in the attempt of the Rothschilds-led European capital to try to enter the United States, so although Joshua's price is very sincere, Morgan still said that he needs to think about it.

In fact, Morgan's so-called careful consideration is just to delay the time and unify his opinion with Scrooge. Well, without Scrooge's cooperation, it would still be a bit difficult to rely on him alone to confront those big capitals in Europe. So, the front foot sent Joshua 61 Rothschild away, and the back foot Morgan called Scrooge, well, shortly after the invention of the speaker, MacDonald launched the telephone service and established the New York Telephone Company, and Morgan and Scrooge were the first users.