Chapter Seventy-Seven: Fireproof Rattan Armor

As mentioned last time, Liu Hou lectured to Zuo Ci, and Zhang Xingcai felt very strange, how did these two masters and apprentices seem to have reversed their identities. Before she could figure it out, she listened to Liu Hou continue to introduce the process of treating malaria, so she hurriedly concentrated on sounding:

"We took 500 patients and divided them into more than a dozen groups, and each group performed a herb on it. These herbs are all Artemisia plants. Because decoction destroys the active ingredients inside, we simply grind the fresh herbs with a stone mill, then filter them, and take these fresh juices and give them directly to the patient.

After comparison, we found a kind of "stinky artemisia" with small yellow flowers with good anti-malarial effect. ”

Liu Hou briefly recounted the process of screening herbs to treat malaria some time ago. Zuo Ci didn't ask much about why Liu Hou locked on the artemisia plant, because he knew the origin of this prince.

But Zuo Ci didn't ask, it doesn't mean that Zhang Xingcai doesn't have questions, no, she immediately grasped the key point of the problem: "Why are there only artemisia plants?" There are so many kinds of herbs, why don't you go to the real yàn and focus only on artemisia? ”

"Well, this, that's right, I once read a book that says that artemisia plants can cure malaria." Liu Hou's eyes rolled a few times, and he thought of a perfunctory way to perfunctory her.

"What classics are so powerful, show them to me." Zhang Xingcai asked unceremoniously.

"This, this, is Master Zuo's Taoist secret book, which is said to be a secret that is not passed on, you have to look for him." In no way, Liu Hou habitually kicked the ball to Zuo Ci.

"Oh? Master Zuo even has such a secret book, why have I never seen it. Master Zuo, you are so partial, pass it on to Xiao Adou but not to me. You say, what other secret books, secret books, secret methods, etc., do you want to teach me quickly. ”

Zuo Ci knew that this prince was using himself as a cover. Over the past decade or so, this has happened countless times. If someone else comes to ask, he can prevaricate with words such as "the secret method of the master will not be passed on" or "the secret of heaven must not be revealed".

But now it's different to ask Zhang Xingcai, after Zhang Xingcai worshipped him as a teacher, he has been studying and doing research with him for the past few years. He can be regarded as teaching her everything, and all kinds of scientific knowledge learned from the prince have been taught to her without reservation, and he is more attentive to her teaching than Ge Xuan.

He was also very satisfied with Zhang Xingcai, a studious and intelligent student, and regarded her as his closed disciple. Now that she asked about the secret book, he really couldn't say that he wouldn't show her, but if he wanted to show her, and he didn't have it on hand, what should he do?

"That, that secret book, I don't remember it's too long, even if there is, it may stay in Chengdu, I'll look for it when I go back to Chengdu, see if I can find it." Zuo Ci could only use this kind of words to prevaricate her temporarily, hoping that after returning to Chengdu, she would not remember it for too long.

"Oh, by the way, what are you here for?" Liu Hou saw that the situation was not good, and in order to prevent Zhang Xingcai from continuing to dwell on this issue, he changed the topic.

Zuo Ci understood and hurriedly introduced the reason why they came. It turned out that Liu Hou had written back to Zuo Ci at the beginning of his acquisition of the rattan armor army, asking him to organize forces to study the issue of rattan armor fire prevention.

Zuo Ci quickly set up a scientific research group, led by his proud disciple Zhang Xingcai, who was also particularly talented in chemistry.

After nearly a year of research, they finally made a breakthrough. After countless failed realities, they finally synthesized a substance, which they named as bubble alkali, which is a translucent glass-like substance produced by crushing quartz ore and soda ash and mixing it with heating and calcination in a certain proportion.

Liu Hou couldn't help but sigh when he heard this, many years ago, Lao Dao had developed the habit of mixing different stones together and forging them, but he didn't expect that he still maintained this habit and passed on this tradition to his disciple Zhang Xingcai. I don't know if it's good to say that he has perseverance or what.

Lao Dao continued to state that this translucent thing can be dissolved in water, and after soaking wood, rattan branches and other things in its aqueous solution, it will be difficult for these wood and vine branches to burn. In other words, they finally solved the problem of rattan armor fire prevention.

With Lao Dao's explanation, Zhang Xingcai put a small suitcase on the table and opened it.

Inside the suitcase were a few short vine branches, as well as a crockpot. Zhang Xingcai pulled the wooden cork off the crockpot, and Liu Hou saw that the crockpot contained a piece of translucent things like glass.

"Isn't this glass?" Liu Hou blurted out.

"It's not glass, and although it looks like it, it's really not glass. This stuff is soluble in water, especially hot water. But glass is not soluble in water. Zuo Ci explained.

They have burned out the glass, but most of them are colored glass, and some transparent and colorless glass can occasionally appear, but they have not yet been able to obtain a stable production.

Zhang Xingcai picked up the vine branches, turned around and beckoned his soldiers to come over with a brazier. In the winter in Lingnan, there is no need to bake a brazier for heating, but the soldiers are not from Lingnan, and they are no strangers to braziers.

It didn't take long for him to bring a large clay basin, and Liu Hou estimated that it was probably someone's washbasin, so he couldn't help but sweat.

But for the sake of science, the sacrifice is worth it. Liu Hou instantly helped others decide the fate of the basin, completely ignoring the feelings of that person.

Zhang Xingcai didn't care so much, put those few vine branches into the basin, and asked his soldiers to bring a torch, put the torch into the basin and burn those vine branches. While burning, he introduced: "This is the vine branch that has been treated with alkali, you can see the effect." ”

On the other side, Zuo Ci also asked someone to bring a basin, but it was not a basin, but a bowl for eating, he poured hot boiling water into the basin, put a lump of bubble alkali into the basin, and stirred it with two chopsticks.

Soon it was seen that the glass-like mass dissolved in the water. Liu Hou looked at this scene and fell into deep thought, this thing seems familiar.

Soon, the rattans in the brazier were charred and blackened, but they never burned. In other words, after these rattans are treated with soaking alkali, they will not catch fire. This fully meets Liu Hou's fire protection requirements.

Liu Hou pondered for a long time, and suddenly his eyes lit up, and he said, "This can't be water glass, right?" ”

"What water glass?" Zhang Xingcai asked suspiciously.

"Water glass is sodium silicate, which looks like glass, which can be soluble in water, but cannot burn, and can be used as a fireproof agent for wood." Liu Houdao:

"If it is burned with quartz stone and soda ash, it is likely to be sodium silicate, because the main component of quartz stone is silicon dioxide, and soda ash is sodium carbonate, and sodium silicate can indeed be obtained by reacting the two."

"You knew this early on, this sodium silicate can be fireproof, why didn't you say it earlier, I really found this thing with so many materials." Zhang Xingcai couldn't help but be angry when he heard Liu Hou say the characteristics of sodium silicate.

"This, this, I can't remember it for a while, if I hadn't seen this thing, I would have forgotten about it a long time ago."

"Since you all know, why doesn't Master Zuo know? By the way, Master Zuo, why didn't you tell me earlier about the characteristics of this sodium silicate, which caused me to take so many unjust roads and carry out countless failures? ”

"Uh......" Zuo Ci was speechless again.

ps. One more chapter in the evening