Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1833 Aluminum Comparable to Gold and Silver
A gray and white brick and tile factory building on the outskirts of the capital, this is the laboratory of Imperial Chemicals, a woman in a light purple long dress came in with two subordinates.

When the technicians and workers in the factory saw the person coming, they all said, "Miss!"

The brick and tile workshop looks unpretentious and even crude on the outside, but inside it has the most advanced boilers, machine tools and cutting equipment for industrial metallurgy in this era. It was Li Jinde who invested a lot of money to buy from the government and let his employees conduct research.

If you are a traditional businessman, you must think that the Imperial Chemicals run by Li Jinde must be crazy. They have not focused on a certain industry, but are always developing new products. From rubber to fertilizer to metal, the span in the middle is too big.

Originally, Li Jinde wanted to study the provision of high-quality metal parts for automobile manufacturing factories, and sell rubber tires as accessories to government-run factories.Auto parts and engines require some high-strength metal materials, as well as iron ships, which is an industry that Li Jinde wants to develop.

It's just that the results of the research exceeded his imagination.The so-called intentional planting of flowers will not bloom, but unintentional planting of willows and willows will make shade. In the early days of industry, no one knew what new discoveries would be made during the research.It is not uncommon to stumble upon a use for another substance while researching one thing.

Compared with the large-scale steelmaking of government-run factories, Imperial Chemicals is a private factory after all, taking a small but refined route, and developing spare parts for automobiles, iron ships, and engines.

This field requires talents who understand physics, chemistry, and metallurgy at the same time, which is one of the most difficult fields.

The metals that promote the development of productivity in agricultural society are not gold and silver, which are not hard enough, but copper and iron. Iron civilization appeared instead of bronze civilization.

Pig iron, wrought iron, and a small amount of steel can basically meet the needs of the agricultural society. However, after the industrial revolution began, steel was used in large quantities, and some new metal materials began to appear and become popular.

Chen Yuanyuan joined Imperial Chemicals as a researcher after graduating from the Department of Chemistry at Peking University. Now she has become a senior researcher based on her experience and achievements, independently leading this small team that researched metallurgical technology in the 17th century.

The woman in the light purple long dress entered the unpretentious brick house and found Chen Yuanyuan near the Boiler Law.

As one of the eight beauties of Qinhuai, Chen Yuanyuan did not come from a humble background in this world, and he did not have to be accused of harming the country and the people. Instead, he was a top student at the Imperial University. In a high position, the annual salary may not be less than 1000 taels of silver, not including the income from selling patents to factories.

As an employee, this is a very high-paying job. Chen Yuanyuan's family property may be more than that of Liu Rushi who works for the military project.

"Sister Yuanyuan, I heard that your team has developed a method to mass-produce aluminum. Is this true?" asked the woman in the light purple dress.

"Miss, why are you here?" Chen Yuanyuan was still holding a statistics sheet in his hand, and was a little surprised when he saw the woman in the light purple dress, "The capital university is over?"

"Hee hee, aluminum is more valuable than silver. I heard that there is a way to mass-produce metal aluminum. Isn't it true that our imperial chemical industry will become rich as a country?" said the woman in the light purple dress.

This person known as the eldest is naturally Li Jinde's only eldest daughter, Li Yinger.

As the daughter of a wealthy businessman with millions of taels of silver in her family, she can indeed be called a young lady. Her usual change may be more than a commoner's lifetime savings.

But even Li Yinger was shocked when she heard that the rare metal aluminum can be produced industrially.

This is the mid-17th century, and aluminum is very rare!

Until the early 19th century, metal aluminum was still rare. The French emperor used aluminum forks at banquets to show his wealth to the guests. Generally, only the emperors and nobles could afford aluminum products!

What would it mean to discover an industrial method of producing aluminum on a large scale at a time when it was very rare?
Chen Yuanyuan shook her head: "Miss, you are thinking too much. The so-called rarity is more expensive. If aluminum can be mass-produced, the price of aluminum products will drop significantly. There are a lot of aluminum compounds in nature, so there is no shortage Aluminum element, but because of its weak oxidation, aluminum is not easy to be reduced from its compounds. The price of metal aluminum will depend on its production cost. The technology we use may make the price of metal aluminum thousands Double down."

"Well, I thought we could get rich overnight like discovering a mine containing a lot of gold and silver. If the price of metal aluminum drops a thousand times, then it is probably more expensive than steel."

Li Yinger rolled her eyes in regret, as if she had a plan: "No, sister Yuanyuan, is it true that we are the only ones in this world who can produce metal aluminum on a large scale? Then we can not announce this technological achievement to the outside world." , but only produce a small batch of aluminum every month and sell it at the price of gold and silver. After everyone finds that the amount of metal aluminum on the market has increased, we will announce a research breakthrough. In this way, won’t we make a fortune? ?”

When Chen Yuanyuan heard that Li Yinger proposed an alternative way of making money, she couldn't help feeling that this move was too cruel. She wondered if people who bought aluminum with gold and silver would collapse after they discovered that aluminum metal could be mass-produced.

"Miss, I think it's better not to deceive people like this..." Chen Yuanyuan said, "Technical achievements should be used to benefit people as much as possible in addition to making profits, which is the right way."

"I'm just joking. If people outside know that I do this, my father's reputation will probably be ruined by me. Now metal aluminum is only a small part of luxury goods, the market is not big, and we Imperial Chemicals do not lack it. Some money." Li Yinger stuck out her tongue, and then fell into deep thought again, "If you can find important uses for aluminum metal, even if the price of aluminum metal drops, you can make a lot of money from it. I don't mean collections where rare things are expensive Value, but real practical value. For example, steel can be used to produce cannons, kitchen knives, and iron-clad ships. As a metal, aluminum should also have its own unique uses. Sister Yuanyuan, did you think of its use when you were researching? "

Chen Yuanyuan smiled slightly and asked his subordinates to bring a piece of metal.

"Is this an aluminum ingot?" Li Yinger looked at the piece of metal in front of her, which looked different from iron ingots, silver ingots, and copper ingots.

"To be precise, this is a metal more valuable than pure aluminum - aluminum alloy, an alloy of more than 90% aluminum, 4% copper, a small amount of magnesium and manganese." Chen Yuanyuan patted the aluminum alloy, "It's hard for you to imagine that when several metal elements are combined, their strength will change drastically."

(End of this chapter)