Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2834 Fireworks

"The dehumidifier barrel is filled with calcium chloride provided by the alkali factory, which can absorb moisture in the air," Qi Kelong said. "Once the ammonium nitrate is exposed to moisture, it may harden and become very troublesome, so the humidity in the workshop must be controlled. Look over there-"

The conveyor belt was filled with bullet shells brought by Maniao, although they were the latest 75mm breech-loading shells. These black iron lumps were turned and polished, shining with dark reflections. Of course, they were not as attractive as the brilliant golden color on the bullet assembly line. Moreover, in order to save costs, the commander changed the bullet belt from copper to lead alloy, which looked black and gray. Ruibao followed Qi Kelong's instructions and saw the female workers put a funnel-like thing on the open end of the top of the shell and conveyed it to a machine. It extended a threaded metal rod downward, which went through the funnel and deep into the shell body. When the motor sounded, the threaded rod began to spin. Ruibao approached curiously and saw the spiral pipe on the machine continuously discharging light yellow powder particles into the funnel mouth. They first accumulated at the mouth of the funnel, and soon fell into the shell shell as the threaded rod rotated and disappeared in between.

"Is this gunpowder?" Mai Ruibao stared at the small particles that were white with a hint of yellow and looked like debris. He couldn't associate this kind of broken rice flour-like thing with gunpowder, explosives, etc.

"It's 80/20 Amato," seeing Mai Ruibao was puzzled, Qi Kronon continued to explain: "It's a mixture of ammonium nitrate and TNT, with ammonium nitrate accounting for 80% of the mass. It's an explosive close to zero oxygen balance. So the explosion is so fierce. Compared with it, black powder," Qi Kronon blinked mischievously, "is just a mole."

Before he finished speaking, the screw began to rotate in the opposite direction with a buzzing sound, and gradually pulled upward from the shell body. The spiral tube-shaped delivery port no longer discharged explosive particles. "Reporter, this is a spiral charging machine. It can realize automatic charging and compact the explosives, increase the charging density and thus increase the explosive power of the shells." The loaded shells were transported to the explosion-proof room. Through the glass, Ruibao saw some workers holding knives to operate on the head of the shells, and then using brushes dipped in some liquid to apply it. "The mouth of the charge needs to be scraped flat, and a hole for the explosive tube needs to be drilled. After everything is completed, a layer of asphalt paint needs to be applied to the charge surface to isolate moisture, because ammonium nitrate absorbs moisture too easily."

Sun Shangxiang suddenly spoke to Qi Kelong: "Comrade, have you always been working here?" Mai Ruibao suddenly remembered that this was the first time Miss Sun had visited a naturalized staff member since she got off the subway: "Excuse me, do you love this job?"

"How can I not love it? Teacher Qi taught me all his knowledge and led me to the path of studying chemical engineering. How can I not love everything Teacher Qi taught me and love the work that can apply this knowledge?" Qi Kelong's face flushed again: "Comrade reporter, if you know about explosives, you will know that it is very interesting and cute." She raised her hand and pointed to the conveyor belt that came out of the explosion-proof room and disappeared at the end of the factory with the shells. "As long as they pass the qualified inspection and are equipped with fuses, it is equivalent to the child you gave birth to finally become an adult. You can wait for him to show his talents one day."

Miss Sun frowned, and put her pen on the interview book but didn't write a single word. It was obvious that she didn't understand Qi Kelong's answer at all. The interview couldn't go on. In order to ease the awkward situation, Mai Ruibao had to change the subject: "This automated loading of shells is efficient and fast, but can the production of new explosives keep up? Will we use black powder again?"

"Teacher Qi said that the productivity of the specialization is just a small test at present. Even according to the current output of chemical products, the 80/20 Amato produced in a year can at least load 1 rounds of 75 shells. After Danzhou's chemical industry is fully completed, it can load more than 75 rounds of 20 shells every year. In fact, it is impossible to use so many, because half of the shells are shrapnel, and that one only uses black powder." Qi Kelong was excited about the conversation and led Mai Ruibao and Sun Shangxiang into the adjacent factory building: "Come and take a look over here, the loading process is simpler."

The conveyor belt in this workshop transports wooden power strips, with small shiny steel pillars neatly arranged on the sockets. Ruibao learned from Qi Kelong that this was a grenade shell for a Type 34 machine gun, and a charging funnel was also inserted into the opening at the head. Gradually, he was more and more surprised: workers pushed a flatbed cart, opened the "insulated water bucket" on it, scooped out a kind of yellow "oil" from it, divided it into several buckets, and poured it into the funnel one by one. He looked closer: the inner wall of the bucket was painted with scales to facilitate the workers' quantitative operation, and the "butter" remaining at the bottom of the bucket was still steaming, like melted soap. Chairman Wang on the side asked Chief Qi with great interest: "What kind of explosives are being poured in?"

"Titanium 70/30, 30% RDX."

"Can Tehua already produce RDX?"

"The pharmaceutical factory has already started supplying hexogenin. It's not a complicated process to nitrate hexogenin to make RDX. It's just that the consumption of nitric acid is too high, which is not very economical compared to TNT. We are now using RDX as a booster. The navy requires machine guns to be able to blow up fire attack ships as quickly as possible, so we have no choice but to give it to them at a lower price." Qi Chuqin was talking excitedly when he was interrupted by a female scream. Everyone's eyes were focused on Sun Shangxiang. As she was walking, she raised her leg and bumped into the bucket on the cart, and she screamed in pain from the burn. "Hey, little girl, be careful, there's a steam pipe there." Mai Ruibao noticed that there were iron pipes with valves standing next to the conveyor belt, connected to the joints of the "insulated water bucket" - it turned out that the interlayer of the bucket was filled with high-temperature steam, "This is the only way to keep the RDX mixture in a molten state."

Sun Shangxiang refused Mai Ruibao's offer to help her rest, and limped behind the leaders. Chairman Wang commented: "This process is very good, with little reliance on professional equipment, and it is easy to expand production." "Chairman, it's a good idea. The casting method is simple and efficient," Qi Chuqin said passionately as always: "I can completely modify the formula of Amato and increase the TNT content to 40% or 50, which is very suitable for casting explosives. The army's mountain, field artillery and naval artillery shells can all use the casting method, and the production efficiency can be increased several times. In short, if we need more TNT, please ask the Planning Institute to allocate more quotas of nitric acid and sulfuric acid to us, so that the specialized TNT continuous production line can be fully utilized."

"Commander, I have a question." Sun Shangxiang suddenly asked, "Why do the explosives produced by our Song Dynasty have such strange names? Where do names like Ti-en-ti, Urotropine, and RDX come from?"

"Well, these are basically the English abbreviations of the chemical formulas of these products..."

"Since they are all made in our Song Dynasty, why do we use English abbreviations?"

Sun Shangxiang's soul-touching article caused Qi Chuqin to crash instantly.

He had taught the principles of naming compounds, such as why it was called trinitrotoluene, but no one had ever asked how its trade name came about. So far, even his most capable and closest apprentice had never raised this question.

Seeing Qi Chuqin speechless, Wang Luobin immediately made up a paragraph. "As for this question, English has its advantages in abbreviations, which is easier to write and remember. For someone who doesn't know much about chemical engineering, which is easier to remember, TNT or trinitrotoluene? Therefore, in Australia, many industries use English as abbreviations."

Qi Chuqin quickly said, "Chairman Wang is right." He thought to himself that Wang Luobin was worthy of being the Chairman of the Senate, and his ability to talk nonsense was really great!

Sun Shangxiang opened her mouth. It seemed that the previous explanation did not completely convince her, but in the end she did not ask any more questions.

"Before I came here, I specifically asked Comrade Wu De about the first phase goal of the joint logistics arsenal in terms of armaments, which is to produce 10 new bullets and 1 new explosive shells annually. I am very moved by the on-site visit today. All comrades were sent to a remote place, and they worked hard to create such a big career and achieve the set goals in less than three years. I am really amazed, and I also regret that I have been away from the production line for too long." At the lunch table, Chairman Wang talked freely: "Some comrades in the Central Committee are indeed worried that investing too many resources in armaments will cause waste and affect the development of other economic sectors. Someone gave an example: The Japanese only fired 43000 shells to win the Sino-Japanese War. The Ming Dynasty did not have the Huai Army and the Beiyang Fleet. Why did the Senate have to have so many shells and bullets? I said that it was not right. The Japanese Army mobilized 6 divisions and sent a total of 17 troops, not counting the Combined Fleet. Can the Fu Bo Army catch up with a fraction of this number? If there are not enough people, we have to consider expanding the advantages of shells and explosives."

"I can tell you clearly that according to reliable intelligence, the military threat from the Ming court is imminent, and the Qing Dynasty is also very likely to enter the country according to historical inertia. The struggle faced by the Senate is complex and arduous, but today I see the achievements of your struggle, and we have sufficient guarantee to achieve a comprehensive victory at a relatively small cost..."

Mai Ruibao and other naturalized citizens were sitting at another table. He didn't understand what Chairman Wang said, but the word "Manchu" made him shudder all over, and he almost couldn't hold the chopsticks. Recalling the visit to the quality inspection room at the ammunition factory just now, Qi Kelong pointed to a 75mm shell sawed in half vertically, pointed out the distribution of explosives on the cross section, and talked about the knowledge of shell charging. By the way, he complained that the wall thickness of the shell body cast by malleable cast iron material was too large, which squeezed a lot of charging space and limited the power of the shell: "Teacher Qi taught that high-strength forged steel shells can greatly reduce the wall thickness, and the charge of shells of the same caliber can be increased by 1 to 2 times, and the lethal fragments will also be greatly increased-"