Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Chapter 293 New Gunpowder

People nearby have long been accustomed to explosions in the laboratory.

The explosion occurred in Cui Ruoyun's laboratory. Since this domineering female Sima moved here, it can be said that there has been an explosion every three days and a big explosion every two days.

Although the explosion was louder today, everyone didn't care.

Sure enough, after a while, the disgraced Cui Ruoyun ran out of the laboratory, still shouting, "I succeeded! I succeeded!"

Cui Ruoyun opened the chat in the game, opened Jian Xia in the special friend column, and sent a message.

"Xia Xia, you said you came to Shazhou City for a meeting, have you arrived yet?"

Jian Xia quickly replied: "I'm going to Shazhou soon, what's the matter?"

Cui Ruoyun said excitedly: "I made gun cotton!"

"You wait for me, I'll be there!"

In less than half a day, the dusty Jian Xia arrived outside Cui Ruoyun's laboratory.

She came to Shazhou from the Guazhou Iron Works to report on her work.

Another purpose of Jian Xia's visit to Shazhou is to participate in the Western Regions Commodity Fair held by the Westbound Business Group.

The situation in the Western Regions is a little unstable now, and most of the players from the Western Merchant Group have chosen to return to Shazhou.

Only Sun Jianguo and a few other players insisted on continuing westward.

The business group brought back a large number of special products from the Western Regions, and Jian Xia wanted to find out if there were any ore gems.

But when she heard Cui Ruoyun made gun cotton, Jian Xia rushed over immediately.

Cui Ruoyun pushed open the door of the experiment. The explosion just now happened in a reinforced laboratory cabinet, but the shock wave still shattered many test tubes, and the mixture of these chemical substances caused a small fire.

But now the fire has been extinguished, and the walls and roof of the laboratory are scorched black. It seems that this is not the first time that the laboratory has caught fire.

Cui Ruoyun said excitedly: "The saltpeter mine in Zhangye is indeed of high quality. Look, this is the high-concentration nitric acid I prepared."

Cui Ruoyun excitedly took Jian Xia to visit her laboratory, seeing a tank of nitric acid, Jian Xia took two steps back.

Although she is not a chemical dog, this strong acid is also used in metallurgy.

This thing is extremely corrosive, and Jian Xia doesn't want to be the first player to die in an experimental accident.

Cui Ruoyun continued: "The sulfur I bought from the Western Regions has also arrived. This is the concentrated sulfuric acid I prepared."

Then Cui Ruoyun came to another test bench, she took out a ball of white cotton and said, "Look, this is nitrocellulose!"

Jian Xia took the ball of white cotton carefully. Metallurgy is also a branch of chemistry. Of course she knew that this was not ordinary cotton.

This is the second gunpowder invented in human history, and it is still widely used in guns today.

This seemingly harmless white cotton has a higher explosive power than black powder. If this small ball of cotton is ignited, it can blow Jian Xia's arm off!

After observing for a while, Jian Xia quickly put down the ball of "cotton".

She looked at the excited Cui Ruoyun and said, "With the propellant, can we produce muskets?"

Cui Ruoyun is not so optimistic. She said: "It's still early. In history, from the invention of nitrocellulose to its application in firearms, scientists spent decades to make this substance stable and safe."

"Although I have the experience of predecessors, it will take some time to prepare safe products outside the laboratory."

After finishing speaking, Cui Ruoyun looked at Jian Xia and said: "The main reason is that your material is not up to par, and you haven't produced a high-strength alloy until now."

Jian Xia said unconvinced: "I don't even have a precision analysis instrument, so I can only try and make mistakes, or should we change?"

After the bickering, Cui Ruoyun said: "As long as the safety of the gun cotton is increased, it can be used as a filler for shells, and we can create grenades that can explode."

Both cannonballs and bullets have undergone two stages of development.

At the beginning, shells and bullets were live ammunition, and iron balls and steel balls were fired. The main lethal force was the propulsion produced by the propellant.

The black powder exploded in the barrel, and the expanding air pushed the iron ball away, hitting the target with kinetic energy.

This is why Zhang Guangde's artillery is better at attacking cities, but not very powerful in field battles.

Live ammunition is not very lethal to personnel, and can only kill the enemy if it hits the vital point.

Obviously, the gunpowder at this time has no crushing power on the battlefield.

What really made firearms a modern weapon was the invention of fillers.

The gunpowder is filled in the shell and the bullet head, and the propellant is only responsible for pushing the shell out of the barrel, and the filling powder causes the shell to explode, causing mass destruction.

From this era, firearms began to rule the battlefield.

Unexpectedly, Jian Xia shook her head first, and she said: "Our casting technology is not up to standard, and we can't cast hollow shells."

Cui Ruoyun asked, "Couldn't it be possible to make two hemispheres and weld them together?"

Jian Xia smiled and said: "There are no welded shells. The shells are all formed in one piece. Welding is not reliable. The explosion will only split the shell into two halves, and it is impossible to cause damage by shrapnel."

"Then how is the hollow shell cast in one piece?"

Jian Xia said: "Actually, it is centrifugal casting. The molten iron is poured into a spherical mold, and then the mold is rotated to distribute the molten iron evenly on the inner wall of the casting mold through centrifugal force. After the molten iron cools down, a complete hollow cannonball can be obtained. "

"Isn't this method very simple? Isn't it just a rotating mold?"

Interlaced like a mountain, although metallurgy can be regarded as a branch of chemistry, but Cui Ruoyun is also a complete layman.

Jian Xia said with a smile: "Centrifugal casting is not so simple. The speed should not be too fast or too slow. Too fast will affect the stability of metal crystallization. Such shells may explode in the barrel, and that is a suicide weapon. gone."

"The rotation speed should not be too slow. If it is too slow, the shells will not be uniform. The shells fired like that will not be able to calculate the landing point, and it will be useless if the shells are not accurate."

After saying this, both of them sighed in unison.

The development of any technology embodies the wisdom of a large number of scientific researchers, and the development of any technology also relies on many pre-existing technologies.

The development of science and technology is definitely not the ability to create missiles just by knowing a reaction equation.

Jian Xia sighed and said, "Why is it so easy for me to read novels and TV, and make howitzers casually?"

Cui Ruoyun said: "Let's take it step by step. Anyway, we have the guidance of our predecessors. As long as we can solve these problems step by step, we will definitely be able to produce qualified guns."

Jian Xia changed the topic and said, "Have you been at home for a long time?"

Cui Ruoyun is unkempt, if Li Yan hadn't specially sent a maid to serve her, she would have looked even more sloppy.

Jian Xia pulled her and said, "Go and wash up, let's go to the Western Regions Fair, there must be a lot of good stuff!"

(End of this chapter)