Suddenly, a scholar who had worked in the foundry stood up and said, "Your Majesty, cans can actually be made of tinned iron, and the seal can be coated with a layer of tin. ”

Tinned iron is tinplate.

In Europe, tinplate appeared in the 14th century, and during the First World War, it was used in large quantities to make military cans. And China was unable to produce tinplate until the War of Resistance Against Japan, and even the name tinplate originated from the transliteration of Macao, because canned food was imported from Macao in the early days.

China is unable to produce tinplate because it has not mastered electroplating technology.

In 14th-century Europe, of course, electroplating was not possible, and the traditional tin plating method was used.

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China already knew tin plating. Even mastered the welding technology, Sanxingdui unearthed large bronze cultural relics, each component is welded.

"What's your name?" Zhao Han asked.

The scholar said: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister's name is Jiang Liu, he is from Jiangsu, he runs an iron-smelting workshop at home, and he used to make a living by smelting Suzhou steel. Chen has been exposed to it since he was a child, and he is quite interested in steel smelting. After graduating from Yangzhou University, he was seconded to Jiangxi Foundry with his mentor. Last year, he was promoted to a bachelor's degree because of his merits, and this spring he was transferred to Nanjing Qintian Academy. ”

Zhao Han said: "Let's talk about how to make canned food with tinned iron." ”

Jiang Liu elaborated: "Tin is very malleable at room temperature and is non-toxic, so people often make tin tableware. When Yang Ming Gong lived in Longchang Station and left Guiyang, he specially built a set of tin bowls. In addition, when iron is tinned, it prevents rust ......"

"Huh."

didn't wait for Jiang Liu to finish speaking, but he heard a sneer from the banquet.

Jiang Liu's voice looked for it, and it was Yang Shuang, who participated in the development of canned porcelain bottles.

Zhao Han asked Yang Shuang: "What do you want to say?" ”

Yang Shuang got up and arched his hand: "Your Majesty, making cans with tinned iron, such a simple thing, haven't we thought about it?" First, tin plating requires mercury, which is toxic and cannot be cleaned even if it is heated to remove mercury. I don't believe that you can plate tin on the silver, and after removing the mercury, the silver is still black, which is that the mercury has not been cleaned. He turned around and asked Jiang Liu, "Do you want the front-line soldiers to eat canned poison?" ”

"Not really." Jiang Liu hurriedly denied it.

Yang Shuang continued: "Second, you said that you use tin to solder cans for sealing, from ancient times to the present, the solder is high lead and low tin. Lead is toxic, you know? "Compendium of Materia Medica" contains: Songyang produces lead, and residents make more Hu powder...... Lead gas is poisonous, and workers must eat fatty pigs and dogs, drink alcohol and iron pulp to hate it. The poison in the belly of the spine is sick, and he dies. The young and the old are poisoned and fumigated, and many are chlorosis and paralyzed. ”

"In the development of canned food, the Qintian Institute cooperated with the military grain factory for six years. Experimented with dozens of materials to make containers, all aspects have been considered, and you want to overturn everyone's efforts when you open your mouth? Before you speak, think about it! ”

Jiang Liu was reprimanded speechless, and said with a red face: "It's a mistake, please don't blame Your Majesty, and please also ask Haihan, a colleague who developed canned food." ”

"Well said!" Yang Shuang sat down.

Zhao Han raised his hand and smiled: "Don't be afraid to say the wrong thing, correct the mistake." ”

Jiang Liu was a fierce temper: "Your Majesty, the minister is willing to participate in the development of canned food and improve the traditional tin plating method!" ”

"Yes, I'm right." Zhao Han was very pleased.

If you want to add mercury and tin plating, if you want to solder without lead, you must rely on electricity.

Soldering can be improved by replacing lead with something else, but it is not very efficient to process.

Tin plating can't be improved, and mercury is a hurdle that can't be bypassed.

Jiang Liu's headlong into the dead end of improving the tin plating process, it is almost impossible to achieve results in this life, and the road of scientific and technological progress is so cold and ruthless.

Everyone continued to eat, but Jiang Liu couldn't eat, and thought of ways to improve it.

Although he has a strong temper, he is not a dead brain.

The method of mercury tin plating has not been improved from the pre-Qin period to this time, and it is very difficult to think about it. Then start with soldering, find a material to replace lead, and use another tin alloy to weld and seal (pure tin can also be soldered, but it is not resistant to low temperatures, and it will crack directly in northern winter).

As for the canned shells, they can be stamped directly with a steam engine without tin plating for the time being. It doesn't matter if it's rusty on the outside, just scrub the inside before canning, and it doesn't matter if there is a rusty smell when eating canned food.

Yang Shuang felt that he had spoken too heavily before, so he simply took the bowl quickly, moved to sit next to Jiang Liu, and whispered: "Wrought iron is not easy to solder. ”

"Huh?" Jiang Liu was stunned.

Yang Shuang said: "Soldering on wrought iron and steel is very easy to crack. We've tried, and it really doesn't work, unless the canned shells are made of copper. Copper is expensive! ”

Jiang Liu said: "Although copper is expensive, you can take it back after eating canned food." Take the previous expedition to Mobei as an example, if you carry a large amount of canned food, the front-line soldiers can eat vegetables, vegetables and fresh meat. ”

"You can also fight a war by eating cured meat," Yang Shuang said with a smile, "As for vegetables and vegetables, if you fight on land, you are not afraid of scurvy." Some things can be replaced, certain leaves and grass, boiled water can prevent scurvy. ”

Jiang Liu said: "But you need it at sea." ”

Yang Shuang said: "Take the ships to the west, you can replenish along the way. What really needs canned food is the fleet that goes to the Americas, gathering more than a dozen ships in total. Making porcelain bottles for them is the most convenient and cost-effective, the cans can be eaten, the porcelain bottles can be sold, and it can also save space in the cabin. You specially got a steam engine to make copper-shelled cans for more than a dozen ships? It's a proper loss-making deal. ”

"No, no," Jiang Liu shook his head, "There will be more and more ships going to the Americas in the future, and there will be a great demand for copper-shelled cans." In addition, I may not only go to the Americas, but I have heard that there is also land all the way south. Also, if you are shipwrecked and don't know where to drift, it's good to have some copper-shelled cans on board. ”

Yang Shuang said: "Then wait until there are more ships going to the Americas, otherwise if you make copper cans now, I'm afraid you won't be able to sell a few cans at all, and you won't even be able to make money back from purchasing steam engines." Although the military grain factory belongs to the imperial court, it can't pay too much, it will be eaten in front of the old men of the military department. The canned porcelain vase is very easy to get, and the porcelain factory can burn some wide-mouth porcelain bottles, and the navy and maritime merchants can make money when they come to purchase. ”

Jiang Liuran was silent, he hadn't considered this kind of practical problem.

After returning to Qintianyuan, Jiang Liu was temporarily transferred to the military grain factory, and he proposed a copper-shell canned food plan to the factory supervisor. The factory supervisor asked him to continue the research, as for whether to do the research or not, he had to consult the Ministry of War, after all, the steam engine is very expensive.

Jiang Liu felt that most of the applications could not be approved, and the more he thought about it, the more depressed he felt, so he simply resigned and went home.

He thinks that copper-shelled canned food has a head, anyway, his family has money, and he asks his father to give money to set up his own factory.

And then, everything went very smoothly.

Since the lead-tin alloy cannot be used, the copper-tin alloy is used for welding, which is just a matter of becoming more expensive. The flux has been available for a long time, but it is not as advanced as in later generations, but the main ingredient has always been rosin, and the bronzes unearthed in the pre-Qin period also used rosin as the flux.

By the way, the pre-Qin bronzes, including those used to hold food, also had a large amount of lead left during soldering, but the ancient nobles did not know that it was poisonous.

He manually knocked out the copper can shell, threw the cooked vegetables into the copper shell, and welded and sealed it himself.

Then boil it with boiling water, boil and fry it for the first time, and the water of the vegetables vaporizes and expands, and the weld joints are washed open. In canning terms, this is a time when the top gap is too small and there are too many things inside.

After repeated trials, Jiang Liu was finally able to control the top gap space.

But how do you open a can?

The welding was too strong, the first can, Jiang Liu's pry for a long time, and finally smashed it open with a hammer, and the vegetables inside were scattered all over the ground.

Jiang Liu sat in his yard, looking at the vegetables on the ground, his emotions were slightly complicated.

This thing is really not easy to do, otherwise those people in Qintian Academy would have already figured it out, where would they still be able to get his turn?

The method of using copper-tin alloy to plate tin is obviously not feasible.

For the next year, Jiang Liu experimented with various soldering materials. Even when I go to bed at night, I lie in bed and read ancient books, trying to find some inspiration from them.

Finally, he found it, and it was a commonly used material - lead (zinc)!

The earliest record of the lead was during the Five Dynasties, but the zinc produced at that time was not of high purity.

Until the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, calamine zinc smelting was born. The zinc block unearthed from Guangdong in later generations has the words "the thirteenth year of Wanli", and the purity is as high as 98%.

It took more than half a year for Jiang Liu to be busy with the preparation of tin-zinc alloys, and his soldering formula should not only ensure that the welding is firm, but also ensure that it can be easily opened.

The final solution is to use a tin-zinc alloy to solder the seal. When he soldered, he soldered in a copper strip with a handle at the end, which could be forcefully pulled apart, and then used a knife to pry open the lid of the can.

When everything was done, a steam engine was brought in. Jiang Liu himself understands machinery, and made a kind of canned copper shell stamping equipment supporting steam engines.

However, the raw materials of copper sheets have to be supplied by other enterprises, which can be solved by finding a copper basin factory.

Copper basin is something that ordinary people really can't afford to use. In the past, it was all done by hand, but in the last two years, it has begun to use steam engine stamping, and the cost has dropped a lot, and families with a little wealth can buy it to save face.

You have to have a stove, it's not good to rush cold.

Fortunately, his father was the owner of the smelter, and he quickly built the furnace.

Workers were recruited for production, and the first batch only had canned soybeans and canned cabbage, and the price was skyrocketing.

At this time, two and a half years have passed since Jiang Liu's resignation.

Because it was too expensive, I asked several maritime merchants in a row, but no one wanted to buy it.

Jiang Liu could only change his thinking and divide the pricing of canned food into two types: selling price and deposit.

The selling price is not too high, but the deposit is expensive.

The deposit will be refunded as soon as the customer returns the copper can. The copper cans are in good condition and the deposit is fully refundable. If the copper can is in damaged condition, the deposit will be deducted according to the degree of damage.

Finally, a maritime merchant tried to order a batch.

Li Quan and another maritime merchant who went to the Americas were also willing to order when they heard the news.

In the first year, it was a good loss.

Not even counting the cost of equipment such as factories and steam engines, copper tank processing, can welding and workers' wages alone cannot be earned. Because the purchase volume was too small, and a large amount of canned food was backlogged, he had to think of something else.

For example, to the emperor!

Jiang Liu had friends in Qintianyuan, and it was relatively easy to offer canned food to the emperor.

When Zhao Han got the copper canned food, he had forgotten that more than three years ago, a young man volunteered to improve the can.

The backlog of canned food produced by Jiang Liu was quickly purchased by the military.

Before the military grain factory produced its own, it was all purchased from Jiang Liu. Jiang Liu is also very discerning, and sells the patent of the copper canned food to the imperial court, and only charges one or two silver patent fees every year.

He needed the help of the imperial court to open the market, and as long as the navy purchased a large number of them, the maritime merchants would come to the door themselves.

At that time, even if the canned food of the military grain factory is put into production, Jiang Liu will lose the military procurement, and he will be able to make money from maritime merchants.

The advent of copper canned food has a very far-reaching impact on Datong China.

In particular, canned meat (luncheon meat) was developed, and a large amount of flour and leftover meat were used to make delicious canned meat. After the sales volume goes up, the cost can come down, and the copper pot can be refunded to get the deposit back, the price is cheaper than buying fresh meat to eat, and the common people can eat meat often.

There is also the grassland area, the sheep rushed to Shanxi to sell, the price has risen a lot, and the price cannot be sold in the grassland. A canning factory can be built in Zhangjiakou, and cheap coal can be used to drive a steam engine, and cheap mutton can be purchased nearby for processing, and canned meat can be shipped to Shanxi and Hebei.

This makes the grassland and the hinterland more closely tied to the economy.

It even took over Australia in the future, where pastures were everywhere. Wool can be used as textile raw materials, mutton and beef can be processed into canned food, and transported by sea to make a profit.

82 Chinese Net