"Naturalists? Can you be a scholar who studies these things?"

Hearing Xia Lin's solemn invitation, Captain Nick showed a heartfelt look, but he said a little unconfidently about Xia Lin's seemingly exaggerated reputation as a naturalist.

"Of course! In my opinion, there are only two kinds of things that need to be studied by scholars, one is the humanities and the other is the natural sciences.

Among them, the humanities are the sciences that study everything related to people.

For example, literature is the study of language and writing, so that language and writing can be more suitable for the needs of social development; History is the study of human history, from which we can find the laws of social development and explore a better structure of human society. Art is the study of people's aesthetic laws, so that people's souls can be more enriched and build a better environment.

The natural sciences are different from the humanities in that they do not study people, but the world and nature, for example, the new varieties of animals and plants and various minerals that you record during your voyages, the ocean currents and geographical conditions you encounter belong to the research category of natural sciences.

If you study this, you can also be called a scholar, and the knowledge you have obtained from your research seems to me to provide a basis for us to understand the world and change the world!"

Xia Lin said affirmatively.

"Humanities...... Natural science? It's an interesting statement, but you're the first to think that the fruits of my voyage are useful, and you're willing to provide me with such a large sum of money. In that case, then I am willing to accept the funding of the New Leaf Chamber of Commerce!"

Captain Nick didn't expect that his interests and hobbies would be raised to such a height related to changing society and changing the world, although he didn't think that his interests and career were worthy of Xia Lin's praise, but in the end he nodded and decided to accept the funding of the New Leaf Chamber of Commerce.

Twenty gold lunts a month, after deducting the money for the maintenance of the Thorn Bird and the salaries of the crew, as well as the materials needed for the voyage, he can still have a lot of gold lunds left, and in the face of such a gold owner, Captain Nick naturally wants to seize this opportunity.

"That's great! So let's draw up the contract now! Once the contract is signed, I'll send someone to receive your logbooks soon!"

Charlin was also pleased to have a financial relationship with Captain Nick, a medieval naturalist who was able to solve many of the raw material problems he would encounter in industrial production.

After looking at the three maps and charts, Xia Lin found that these minerals were all on some inhabited islands, which meant that he could get the ownership of these islands from the empire at a low price, and then slowly develop them.

Although it would take a lot of upfront investment to develop these inaccessible islands, it was the most suitable option for the New Leaf Chamber of Commerce, but after thinking about it, he had to prepare to set up a shipping company and buy a few ships suitable for long-distance transportation.

Or build another shipyard by yourself, recruit a group of old shipwrights, try to see if you can develop a faster ship type, and then install a few cannons on it, that is the prototype of the navy.

After signing a contract with Captain Nick, Charlin gave him an urgent task to wait for the logbook he had accumulated over the years to be handed over, and then set sail to the graphite mine to dig up some graphite ore and bring it back.

Graphite is a good thing, and Xia Lin's electric arc furnace still uses the adamantite electrode, and after every day of production, it must be closely guarded by people like the machine tool factory and the machine processing factory, so as not to be stolen by others.

If graphite is available, a graphite electrode can be obtained by simple grinding, purification and pressing.

Xia Lin originally planned to start the construction of the chlor-alkali industry on the electrolysis plant in the second phase of the Xinglan Industrial Park construction plan.

In the chemical system, three acids and two alkalis are the most important quadrangular puzzle and the central puzzle, among which caustic soda and soda ash Xia Lin have been produced by soil method, nitric acid can be prepared by saltpeter reaction, and sulfuric acid also has a simple dry distillation bile alum preparation method.

It's just that Xia Lin didn't have a suitable ceramic or glass acid-resistant container to make the reactor, and at the same time, sealing was also a big problem, for the sake of his own and the workers' teeth, Xia Lin didn't have it for the time being

There are plans to launch these projects.

Only hydrochloric acid, if it is not produced by electrolysis, it can only react with salt and concentrated sulfuric acid, which is thankless, so the electrolysis plant has always been a matter that Xia Lin attaches great importance to.

With the production of graphite electrodes, this problem is no longer a problem, and with the technology that can be lit up by the chlor-alkali industry and the triacid and two alkalis, Xia Lin can't help but smile when he thinks about it.

The products of electrolysis saturated brine are hydrogen, chlorine, sodium hydroxide, hydrogen and chlorine reaction can produce hydrogen chloride, which is dilute hydrochloric acid when it enters the water, and calcium hypochlorite can be obtained by entering the slaked lime, which is the disinfection product of bleaching powder, which is good news for the new army that is about to be established.

Chlorine is also one of the simplest types of gas, and if you have the right containers and seals, you can make some chlorine gas bombs, but then you have to equip the soldiers with gas masks, so you have to light up the activated charcoal......

After thinking about it, Xia Lin found that his thoughts were a little too far away, and he quickly gathered his mind and went back to the research institute to prepare for the institute to recruit new researchers.

The new Carr Institute is designed to accommodate a total of 200 researchers, security personnel, and janitorial maintenance personnel.

Thinking about it this way, there are not enough people in the current research institute, so you can send out a few more sets of papers for the first-year students of the Royal Academy of Magic to do, and if there are suitable people, they will be recruited.

It's just that the first year student has just entered the school, and I'm afraid that at present, it is the level that can release spiritual power, and it does not have its own magic power, and it is impossible to conduct research on a ring of spells, and the limitations are still a bit big.

Thinking about it this way, Xia Lin felt that the Royal Academy of Magic only had more than a hundred sergeant students per grade was still a little too few, and it seemed that he had to mention the matter of expanding the enrollment scale of the Academy of Magic with Dean Manan.

With cheap paper, the cost of cultivating mages has dropped a lot, and it originally took almost ten gold lundes to cultivate a ring mage in three years, maybe now four or five gold lunts can be cultivated.

According to Xia Lin's estimates, the Karl Institute only needs to pay two hundred gold lunds a year, and entrust the academy to train students in a manner similar to that of the northern military, and the students can use those children who have mage talents, but are not so talented, should be enough to get enough researchers.

These students can also be called graduate students, and after graduation, they become research fellows.