Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 552 War Years ([-])

Shao Yuanyi bid farewell to his wife after breakfast, and then rode to the pier.At this time, a small inland river steamer carrying goods to Mucaoling was just about to return. Shao Yuanyi took out an invitation letter from the Chemistry Institute of the Academy of Natural Sciences. With this letter, he could take any domestic transportation to the destination for free.Sure enough, after reading his invitation letter, the captain respectfully let him into the cabin.

There were still three people sitting in the cabin, one of them was an officer, one was a businessman, and the other was dressed in black leather, who looked like an investigator of the Mei Agency.A Malay sailor carefully brought a pot of yerba mate tea and several wooden cups to everyone, and then carefully left.Shao Yuanyi glanced at it and found that in the past, some peanuts from South Africa were usually served with the yerba mate tea, but it has obviously been canceled now.war of the Damned!Shao Yuanyi cursed, "The peanuts are gone, but the fare has not dropped. Fortunately, I don't need to spend money."

Regarding the few passengers who were traveling with him, Shao Yuanyi wisely did not talk to them.After spending half a day in the rickety cabin, when he woke up, he suddenly found that he had arrived at the pier of Ping An Harbor.After stretching fiercely, Shao Yuanyi picked up his handbag and strode onto the pier.

The pier is full of steam cranes breathing black smoke. These powerful cranes hoist heavy raw materials such as iron ore into the steam train carriages docked by the pier. When several carriages are full, these The low-speed locomotive with low horsepower started slowly, transporting several wagons of iron ore to the ironmaking workshop of Pingan Iron and Steel Plant through the factory railway.

In addition to these trains carrying raw materials, there are sometimes flat-bed trains that pull various industrial products to the pier.These industrial products are various and have everything, but most of them are relatively bulky objects, such as rails, artillery, steel armor, steam engines, boilers, machinery and other products.

Sometimes there will be some ships in Ping'an Port carrying goods to Ping'an Machine Weaving Factory in the upper reaches of Ping'an River - the factory with the highest profitability in China. Most of these ships are loaded with food or fuel, but there are also a few The ships carried chemicals such as soda ash and dyes, which are important raw materials used in the textile process.

Over the years, with the development of the domestic chemical industry, especially after a considerable number of outstanding junior high school graduates have entered the only high school in China - the Senior High School Affiliated to the Academy of Natural Sciences for several years of systematic study, whether it is inorganic or The field of organic chemistry has come a long way.Thanks to the only two chemistry teachers in the group (one works in the Chemistry Institute of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the other teaches in Bingtuanbao), the number of students studying chemistry in China has finally reached a relatively high level in the past two years. The number of students in the affiliated middle school and Bingtuanbao has reached more than 120 in total.

Most of these students were assigned to several enterprises, such as: Northern Chemical Factory, Northern Pharmaceutical Factory, Northern Armory Factory, Coking Factory, Dyestuff Factory, Pingan Iron and Steel Factory and other enterprises as senior technicians.After several years of training, their current performance is still so-so, which greatly relieves the time travelers, because it means that there are successors to their careers.

Among the various categories of the east coast chemical industry, it seems that the coal chemical industry has achieved greater achievements.Through countless experiments, the East Coast people have entered into a very detailed research on the various components of coal tar, especially in the dye industry. Through continuous experiments and permutations, the East Coast people have now produced dozens of Color dyes make the advantages of East Coast textiles in the high-end field (dyed cloth, printed cloth) more and more consolidated.If some important intermediate chemicals such as strong oxidants such as potassium dichromate have not been able to be industrialized on a large scale so far, the dye industry on the east coast can really achieve huge development, and the output can be multiplied by at least dozens of times, completely monopolizing The whole textile market - well, that doesn't seem to be a good thing for East Coasters.

In addition to dyes, the coal tar gas from the coking plant also has a large amount of gas and asphalt that can be used. In addition, two former students from Chuanzhong Middle School and several "students" successfully produced acetic acid (acetic acid) through calcium hydroxide and sulfuric acid. ), which further expands the utilization rate of coal tar.

However, the Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Natural Sciences invited Shao Yuanyi to Ping'an County (where the Institute of Chemistry is located), not because of coal tar and dyes, but because of their organic chemistry after years of research and practice. Finally succeeded in restoring a gadget - a drug called aspirin.Many doctors with a certain status and reputation in the country, including Shao Yuanyi, were summoned to the Pingan County Chemical Institute. Each of them will be given some aspirin, and then they will take it back to the patient and record all the conditions in detail. Finally, they will give feedback to the People from the Institute of Chemistry.After the final confirmation that there is no problem, aspirin can be handed over to the northern pharmaceutical factory for experimental production.

It is said that ten years ago when Wang Liao, the only authentic doctor in the group, suddenly asked whether it was possible to try to restore the classic drug of aspirin, the Ministry of Health began to conduct cooperative research with the Institute of Chemistry.It’s just that at the beginning, this kind of research progressed very slowly due to the lack of people, materials, and materials. What’s even more frustrating is that Wang Liao, the proposer, only had a vague understanding of the general process of aspirin production in modern drug production. .As for the original origin of this drug, I don't know if I didn't listen carefully or what, I only know that it is a certain important ingredient salicin extracted from willow bark, and then synthesized with acetic acid or something.

The speechless chemistry audience could only study by themselves. Fortunately, Song Qiang, a high school chemistry teacher, took time out of his busy schedule to recall what he had learned about aspirin.It's just that when he taught students to do experiments, they used ready-made raw materials such as salicylic acid and acetic anhydride. As for how these raw materials came from, it took a lot of trouble.Because modern drug production, including raw materials, are basically artificially synthesized, but the crossover crowd obviously do not have these conditions at present, so finding substitutes from nature has become an inevitable choice. At this time, the willow bark mentioned by this half-hearted doctor Wang Liao It came into everyone's eyes.

The process of synthesizing salicylic acid was finally successful after numerous failed trials.First of all, at the beginning, we lacked qualified glass test vessels. Later, after the quality of the test vessels in Henan Glass Factory was qualified, we started serious research. This has already wasted a year or two.Next, it took a lot of time to separate, identify, and purify salicin from willow bark. After that, there is still the problem of how to hydrolyze and oxidize salicin into salicylic acid. Often a small detail can get stuck Everyone for several months or even a year.

After successfully purifying salicin from willow bark and then producing salicylic acid, everyone started the long journey to prepare another important raw material, acetic anhydride, which was a painful process.We first produced acetic acid (that is, acetic acid) from coal tar, and then decomposed and dehydrated it at high temperature to form ketene. As for the control of the temperature and the necessary reaction conditions, it took countless hours to make everyone want to die. Got what everyone wanted.

After ketene is obtained, it reacts with acetic acid under the catalysis of concentrated sulfuric acid to form acetylsalicylic acid, that is, aspirin.This process is easy to say, but it contains a lot of difficulties and points of attention. Any mistake in any place may lead to the failure of the experiment.Everyone's test records piled up a whole box, which shows the difficulty of the process.

It took more than six years for Aspirin to finally make its first samples the year before last.After the first batch of medicine came out, some Guarani people were asked to do human trials at that time, and it was finally found that the effect of this medicine was not very good.Afterwards, we spent more than two years continuously improving the preparation process of the drug, during which time we continued to find Guarani people for human trials. It was not until August this year that the drug finally achieved a high curative effect.

At this time, people from the Institute of Chemistry and the Ministry of Health summoned Shao Yuanyi and other doctors to let them take the drug prepared in the laboratory home for long-term clinical trials to finally confirm its effect.If the response is good, then the northern pharmaceutical factory can start research on the technology needed for industrial production-in fact, they have already started to do so.

Shao Yuanyi finally came to the Institute of Chemistry at noon. After exchanging pleasantries with several familiar officials from the Ministry of Health, Shao Yuanyi was led into the laboratory.A young top student (high school student) handed him a batch of medicines packed in wooden boxes, and explained to him the properties and uses of the medicines in detail, and then asked him to take them back for clinical trials and record the process in detail.

Shao Yuanyi naturally nodded in agreement.In fact, he himself is also very interested in this drug. It has such a remarkable effect and can treat so many ailments. He really wants to rush back immediately to find some patients to try.If it is really effective, this is a great merit, and it is also a gold-absorbing weapon. If it is sold openly, it may make more money than textiles.

Of course, it might be another disaster if you open it up and sell it. This is hard to say.The big tree attracts the wind, people from the east coast are already so conspicuous, and there are already so many ways to make money. If you can still make money by selling medicine like crazy, wouldn't it force the Europeans to come and grab you.

After bidding farewell to the officials of the Ministry of Health, Shao Yuanyi hurried back to the pier, preparing to return to Mucaoling Township by boat.Now it is the time of war, and there are still many things to be busy at home, so we can't stay outside for too long.

PS: Thanks for the inspiration provided by the book friend Dandan Maorong.

(End of this chapter)