Song Gexing

Chapter 123 Fired Glass
Half a month later, the microscope was successfully built. Medical officer Su Song was surprised and said: "This thing can actually observe the smallest details. How about looking into the distance?"

Zhao Zhen assigned three medical officers to Zhao Fang this time, namely Han Zhihe who was good at "Treatise on Febrile Diseases", Su Song who was good at pediatrics, and imperial physician Ling Sun Yong and his second son Sun Zhao.

Su Song is from Quanzhou. It must be the sea in his hometown that makes him obsessed with looking far away. He immediately thought of it after seeing this.

Zhao Fang was stunned when he heard it. A telescope was much simpler than a microscope, but he just didn't pay attention to it. He only remembered it when it was mentioned today.

"Am I stupid! Why have I been aware of it after so many years?"

Only then did Zhao Fang realize that since his rebirth, he seemed to be rushing to get things done and had not taken the initiative to plan in advance.

The same goes for Xixia Zili. Although he did intervene a little in advance, it was only after the war started.

He was very young at that time and was not suitable for overacting, but there were some things he could do in advance, such as adding gunpowder to sugar, which could be done under the pretext of making firecrackers.

Another example is this telescope. Myopia glasses were already available in the Song Dynasty, and there were many in the palace. You could make them by just wasting one or two, but you just didn't think about it.

The same is true for refining table salt. Is it difficult to melt the salt with a handful?Throw a few pieces of charcoal into it, and then you can purify the refined salt, but I didn't do it until I grew up.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help laughing wryly, picked up two crystal lenses, and after installing them, handed them to Su Song and said, "Do you see this?"

Su Song actually mentioned it casually. He didn't expect it to be so simple. He took it over and took a look at it suspiciously, and his eyes suddenly widened.

"His Royal Highness?"

Zhao Fang shook his head, took it over and handed it to Wang Zhongzheng and said: "Send it to the palace for your father to see. If possible, ask the Ministry of Industry to make some copies and send them to General Di. They will be useful on the battlefield."

After Zhao Zhen received the telescope, he looked at Wang Zhongzheng in a dumbfounded way: "You mean, big brother can finish this thing with just a few casual touches?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, His Highness the Crown Prince is so powerful. With this telescope, we will be able to take advantage of it in future wars."

After several ministers took turns to look at it, Pang Ji's face darkened and he said: "Your Majesty, this matter must be kept secret. It must be made by a few specific people at the Ministry of Industry. If this thing falls into the hands of the Liao and Xixia people, it will be very harmful to us." unfavorable."

Everyone agreed that the Liao and Xixia cavalry were excellent, their speed was fast, and they could see far behind, which caused greater harm to the Song army.

Things were quickly arranged. Zhao Fang woke up this time. After carefully explaining the cowpox incident, he went back to prepare for innovation.

"Ma Yue, find a kiln expert who can build a kiln that can withstand high temperatures."

Now that the people around Zhao Fang who had been together since childhood are gone, Ma Yue and Sun Jing have become office workers. The two brothers are also very happy with it and rush to do it when they hear the call.

A few days later, in a remote corner of the Prince's Mansion, a brick kiln rose from the ground. The Song Dynasty already had cement, and the natural high-temperature kiln also reached a certain level.

A truckload of quartz sand was transported into the Prince's Mansion. No one knew what he was going to do. This time, Zhao Fang made the glass himself.

The raw materials for glass actually only require quartz sand and quicklime, but the furnace temperature in ancient times could not reach the temperature of melting quartz, so soda ash needed to be added to lower the melting point of quartz.

Sand can also be used to make glass, but the iron content of sand is too high, and the glass produced cannot be transparent and clear. It must be washed continuously before it can be used. Quartz sand is the most convenient.

But soda ash is indeed not available in the Central Plains. This thing is also a mineral, but there is no such mineral in the Central Plains. The smart ancients used potassium carbonate instead.

The so-called potassium carbonate is very simple, it is the crystallization of plant ash soaked in water and filtered.A few days later, everything was ready, and Zhao Fang started to open the furnace. His wives and concubines came over every day to see him busy, and asked him what he was doing, but he would not say anything.

Now that the furnace is open, everyone came to watch, but Zhao Fang failed. After all, he is a liberal arts student and his hands-on ability is too poor.

But he was not discouraged, and continued to work after summing up his experience. After several consecutive failures, everyone was not interested in watching him, and replaced a few workers to accompany him to continue.

"When Your Highness fired this glass, it probably cooled down too quickly, so it broke into pieces."

Zhang Daniu, an experienced kiln worker, said carefully.

Only then did Zhao Fang realize that he had forgotten one of the most important steps, which was the need to use fire during the plasticization process to prevent the glass solution from rapidly cooling down.

Glass is harder than pig iron, but it is easily broken. This is because chemical reactions at high temperatures leave thermal stresses, reducing the strength and stability of the glass.

Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the temperature during plasticity and let it cool down slowly. Otherwise, the temperature in the furnace is so high, and the temperature difference after taking it out is too large. The rapid cooling will expand the thermal stress and it will break immediately.

This set of annealing process is actually also needed when casting iron swords, but he is a mallet and has never used it before.

After being reminded, I immediately got ready. After continuing to open the furnace, I finally succeeded in producing the first piece of glass, but it was still not ideal. Although it was transparent, it had a bit of green color.

Although it is not ideal, but the light transmittance is stronger than colored glaze, the hardness is higher than colored glaze, and the impurities are less than colored glaze, which is no different from western glass.

There is basically not much difference in the time of making glass between the East and the West, but the colored glaze in the East is indeed not as pure as that in the West.

This is not caused by craftsmanship, but by differences in raw materials. The Chinese discovered the method of making colored glaze when they were refining alchemy.

However, alchemy requires more and more miscellaneous materials, so there are more impurities.

Westerners discovered this method when cooking in outdoor barbecues. At that time, there were only quartz sand and baking soda, so there were few impurities.

"Forget it, just make do with it."

Unable to think of a way to remove the turquoise, Zhao Fang had no choice but to leave it alone. Fortunately, the turquoise was only faint and did not have a great impact on the light transmittance.

In fact, until the early days of New China, there was still a large amount of glass like this, and the color was not removed. To remove the color, manganese dioxide needed to be added during the firing process.

Manganese dioxide also has mineral raw materials, but this thing is very toxic, and it was actually not suitable to add in ancient times. Without gas masks, it will cause irreversible damage to workers' bodies.

Of course Zhao Fang didn't know the formula, and he didn't want to study it. The original intention of making glass was that crystal was too expensive and rare, and the cost of making a telescope was too high.

It's different with glass. The raw materials for this thing are too cheap. The bulk of it is actually the labor cost and the cost of burning materials.

"Fine it according to this method, and remember to keep it secret, otherwise your family will be implicated."

After telling Zhao Fang to take the glass to the Ministry of Engineering and find someone else to polish it, he was too lazy to do it again.

(End of this chapter)