1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 277 Pandora’s Box

Spring is here, and the wheat that Jim planted has begun to turn green. Now Jim is also busy. At this time, there is a lot of farm work to be done. First of all, it is loosening the soil. This is an important measure to promote the early green and healthy growth of wheat seedlings. Because of the loose topsoil, the aeration conditions of the soil are improved, the soil temperature can be increased, and the root development can be promoted. As the capillary tube is cut off, it can prevent the moisture of the lower layer from ascending and play a role in moisture preservation. And this thing can’t be done all at once. The number of times of hoeing the pine-shi is generally 2-3 times from turning green to jointing. The depth of the pine-shi should be lighter and then deeper. Therefore, in an era without mechanization, it is really hard work to take care of a large tract of wheat.

This year’s wheat is not growing well, so top dressing is extremely important. It’s just that the “earth gold” has not been delivered yet, so the top dressing has to wait. This makes Jim a little worried. Fortunately, I was still prepared, and worked so hard to compost myself a year ago.

With the handle of the hoe in his hand, Jim straightened up. He has been busy all morning and needs to go back to eat and rest. Jim walked to the wheat field, sat down on a rock, picked up the kettle he had placed there, took a sip of water, took a bite of the bread his wife had prepared for him, and then habitually looked into the distance . At this time, a small black spot appeared in his field of vision.

This little black spot is getting bigger and bigger, and Jim can finally see it clearly. It is a freight wagon, which is slowly approaching Jim along the road. In the end, it reached Jim’s body, and then stopped.

“Hey, Jim!” Romney in the carriage yelled at Jim, “There is something for you. Well, your earth gold!”

“Really?” Jim stood up and asked.

“Well, it’s in my car.” Romney said, “Come on in the car, first go to your house to unload the goods, um, there are instructions for use, you read carefully by yourself.”

…

“Petrov, go and pull a bunch of rabbits. The experiment will be used!” In the chemical experiment area of ​​the large laboratory, Dr. Harry, who is responsible for the development of pesticides, shouted to his assistant, “In addition, these rabbits They are all dragged out and dealt with.”

Harry is now in charge of the final testing of an epoch-making pesticide. This test is mainly to test the toxicity of this drug to warm-blooded animals. When starting this research, Scrooge once said to these staff: “In this world, the scientist who needs conscience the most is the chemist, and in the chemist, the one who needs the conscience the most is to study insecticide. A chemist of chemical agents. Because a chemist, especially a chemist who studies toxic substances, can easily come up with something harmful to the public if he does not speak his conscience. In this world, the scientist who needs the most cautious spirit is also a chemist. Home, in the chemistry house, the chemists who need the most cautious spirit are the chemists who develop pesticides. Because they are dealing with all kinds of poisonous things, if they are not cautious enough, they may make unintentional mistakes to others. Bring irreparable losses. For a pesticide to be widely used in farmland, the most important performance is not the efficiency of killing insects, but the safety. If we only consider poisoning the insects, it is not for us. It’s not that difficult. Well, for chemists studying toxic substances, let alone poisoning a small bug, it is not particularly difficult to poison an elephant or even a blue whale. But what we need is not energy. The poison that poisons all living things is a kind of insecticide that can effectively kill pests, but is relatively safe for warm-blooded animals.”

In the experiment, the experimental group did get a lot of very efficient poisons. For example, two months ago, they trial-produced the No. 35 test product. At that time, they were under the guidance of Scrooge. Well, as a chemist, Scrooge’s business is usually very busy, but he still often Out of hobbies, I took time out and went to the laboratory to do experiments together. At that time, they reacted methyl oxyphosphorus dichloride with hydrogen fluoride to obtain methyl oxyphosphorus difluoride, and then reacted with methyl oxyphosphorus dichloride and isopropanol to obtain isopropyl mefluorophosphonate ( In our time and space, this thing has a simpler, easier to remember, and more deterrent name, this name is “Sarin.” This is an extremely deadly poisonous gas, even if it is not inhaled, it is passed Skin infiltration can cause Death, and it is extremely toxic. The half-lethal concentration of mustard gas, the famous “King of Toxic Gas”, at the level of World War II is 1300 mg/dm, while the half-lethal concentration of sarin is only 0.1 mg/dm. M!), which is the No. 35 test article mentioned above. God, this thing is very, very, very effective in killing insects, but it is also terribly toxic to warm-blooded animals. This is a terrible and volatile liquid. Even if it is not inhaled, it can be severely poisoned by warm-blooded animals, including humans, even if it is only in contact with the skin. In that experiment, his assistant Tommy accidentally only touched a little bit of volatile gas from the thing on his skin, and suffered severe symptoms of poisoning such as difficulty breathing, and almost died. Naturally, such highly toxic poisons cannot be used as insecticides. Otherwise, the insects will of course die out, but the farmers who spray the insecticide may die faster than the insects. In order to ensure safety, Scrooge quickly sealed up all relevant materials and warned all those who participated in the experiment not to disclose the relevant details of the experiment. Don’t let the Germans in other groups know about this. For this reason, each of them also received a lot of money to silence their mouths.

“This kind of thing is too dangerous, God bless us, it is us who found it, not the Germans. Let the Germans have this. God knows if they will use this as a weapon in war. If this thing appears in On the battlefield, that is simply a human nightmare. Think about it, tens of thousands of people can be killed like insects killed by insecticides. It does not even need to be a large-scale operation in a country like Germany. , The preparation of this thing is so simple that as long as it knows the way, an ordinary college student can make this thing in a small house in his backyard, and then kill the whole town in one night. Jingguang. This is really terrible! So these technology materials must be sealed up and must not be let others know. This is responsible for all mankind!”

Scrooge said this very solemnly at the time, and then he went to the next door to make a phone call. After a while, a group of heavily armed black water security guards came in without saying a word and loaded all the test data into it. I got inside a few iron boxes, then carried it out, not knowing where it was sent.

But today’s experiment is quite successful. Judging from the half death dose of rabbits, this insecticide is not very toxic to warm-blooded animals in terms of its ability to kill various pests. It is not too dangerous for farmers to make an emulsion and spray it in a sprayer. It is enough to wear a mask at most.

This insecticide is called bis-p-chlorophenyl trichloroethane. In the laboratory it is the fifty-eighth test product. There are more than a dozen test products competing with it, but Dr. Harry is very confident in own’s product. Although his product is not the strongest against insects or the safest, he is the most powerful. It is stable and the most convenient thing for industrial production. In this sense, he believes that the No. 58 test product he is responsible for developing will surely defeat those opponents in the finalized competition.

It is interesting to say that his friend and competitor, Dr. Court, has also developed a new insecticide, which is more than ten times more effective than his products, and is less toxic to warm-blooded animals. It was almost imperceptible. Well, Dr. Court even drank a test tube in front of Scrooge. At that time, almost everyone’s eyes were conquered by what Dr. Court took out of the pyrethrum. Although the preparation is a bit difficult, even Scrooge believes that it is not impossible to rent a large piece of land to plant pyrethrum. Then, as the experiment progressed, the weaknesses of this thing gradually became exposed. Well, this thing is too unstable and afraid of light. As long as it is exposed to the sun, it will break down in a short time. But isn’t the wheat field of Who’s exposed to the sun? So, um, according to Scrooge, this thing is good for indoor mosquito killers. As for pesticides, let’s forget it. In contrast, the No. 58 test sample is almost never affected by the natural environment. Degradation is obviously much easier to use.Scrooge is also very optimistic about the fifty-eighth test product, and has even given him the abbreviated name: “DDT”.

“Teacher, why don’t these dead rabbits be sent directly for incineration?” Petrov asked as he threw the dead rabbits into the cart one by one, preparing to push them out.

“Ah, I heard that we need to peel off the skin first, because rabbit skins are still very useful. We can make several coats from the skins of rabbits that die every day.” Dr. Harry replied, “Our experiment funding is albeit Abundant, but where we can be frugal, we must be frugal.”

…

The soil gold is indeed very effective. Now, comparing the wheat of Jim’s house with that of the neighbor’s house, it is obvious that the difference is obvious. Compared with the wheat of Jim’s house, most of the wheat in other neighbor’s houses is thin and yellow, only Jim’s wheat. The wheat in the field was green, sturdy and neat, and it looked like a bumper harvest, which made Jim quite proud. To be honest, Jim has never seen wheat grow so well.

“If you don’t have any baskets, and there are no serious pests, there will probably be a good harvest this year.” Jim thought.