King of The Wall

2021-01-06

Chapter 379 Nitrate Production Experiment Workshop

There is currently no nitre mine available for mining, and the chemical system is also Not yet, in this case, Igor can only rely on the forces of nature to provide oneself with the nitrate it needs. He has heard about the so-called native method of nitrification, but unfortunately - as a technology that is not related to oneself's career and interests, and has long been eliminated, Igor has never understood its detailed process.

Fortunately, he probably understands the principle.

The fluffy "snowflakes" precipitated from the corners of toilets, pig pens and stables are both natural nitrates, which come from the decomposition and nitrification of organic matter by bacteria... This process is selectively and focused on the reaction. In the pond, isn't it the source of the idea of making nitrate by native method?

Everyone understands the truth, but he has obtained a method of making nitrates suitable for the world of ice and fire through experiments from scratch, but he has no time and energy to do it himself.

Wanting to skip the basics so that people in this world who don't even have the concepts of chemical elements and microbes understand concepts like nitrates, ammonizing bacteria, and nitrifying bacteria is nothing short of a dream, but people who drive It is not necessary to know how to make an engine. Igor can completely skip the principle and let the personnel of the Industrial Research Institute act as oneself's "hands" by means of vertical command, instead of oneself to carry out repetitive and monotonous trial and error work.

In the guidelines written by Igor himself, Igor likens the making of nitre to brewing - brewing requires yeast and grain, and making nitre . . . The required bacteria is "nitrogen", and feces and urine are the raw materials that play the role of food. Next, it is only necessary to find and summarize the production plan and reaction environment that are most suitable for the actual industrial park by means of comparative experiments, and then large-scale soil-based nitrate production can be realized in the world of ice and fire.

What Qyburn is doing in this semi-open-air workshop is to find the best process and environment for nitrification.

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"This is a district, where the project started, and different raw materials are put into different salt fields here: all kinds of livestock and human excrement, which are mixed with each other. For comparison." Because he couldn't stand the smell in the test site, Melisandre decided to go back to Black Wall Castle to find a place to rest early, while Qyburn led the visiting team into the gate and began to introduce the surroundings like a family, "This comparison has basically been done. Near the end, we can conclude that human and livestock excrement can be used with similar effects. Considering the stability and availability of raw materials, we prefer to use human excrement.”

Qyburn sentence After finishing speaking, Nina also explained in a timely manner: "King's Landing, not to mention, there are enough people. The toilets in the industrial park have long been established, and we have also adopted a series of reward and punishment measures to make employees develop the ability to use toilets. Habits... As for King's Landing, we have already started communicating with Prime Minister Davos. It doesn't take much, as long as we can get permission to build toilets in Flea Bottom and civilian areas and let the garrison cooperate with us to guide the residents to use the raw materials More than enough."

"Very good." Igor nodded. He said yes, but there was a faint worry in his heart: Daenerys occupied Dragonstone and invaded King's Landing, the capital of Seven Kingdoms is now under martial law every day, what toilet is built in this juncture... and let the garrison not defend the city to cooperate with the teaching Resident use? I'm afraid I'm not losing my mind.

This is a question on the surface, everyone can think of it, but no one raised it to lower their morale, Qyburn continued with everyone: "This is the second district, and the test is 'nitrogen'. 'A suitable environment for the action of manure and urine. After a period of comparison, we have come to several conclusions: firstly, nitrate production is more efficient in non-open air conditions; secondly, unlike winemaking, manure and urine are Fermentation cannot be in a sealed environment, and there must be a certain amount of ventilation - this is not difficult, the problem is that ventilation conflicts with insulation: after some tests, we basically determined that the temperature that can make people feel comfortable is just right. Let the nitrification work to the fullest. However, the season has come to winter, and the temperature has dropped to near freezing point. To maintain a suitable temperature, a more airtight environment is required, and the airtight environment contradicts the need for ventilation. A balance between the two is achieved to achieve the best production environment.”

Basically all the influencing factors mentioned by oneself have been counted, Igor nod, temperature is no way, winter has come, right now Westeros can only meet the natural temperature required for nitrification, but only the southern coast of Dorne, but the remoteness is decidedly impossible...

"You can consider setting up a greenhouse in the direction of the connection of the ventilation openings, and artificially predicting The way the heat flows into the air and controls the blowing speed, both to maintain the temperature environment and to provide fresh air. But - 'a comfortable temperature'? That's too vague to control the temperature more precisely."

No one answered, including the vice president who was leading everyone on a tour of the testing ground. Everyone had no idea what Igor was talking about. Qyburn's phrase 'comfortable temperature' is a fairly precise and rigorous description in this day and age. Ordinary person uses words such as "cold", "hot", "lukewarm" to express their feelings about temperature - you know: in Westeros, even the natural phenomenon of winter requires Citadel to release white Raven To announce is the official entry.

...

After a few seconds, Qyburn asked cautiously: "Then, my lord, how can we get a more precise control of the temperature?"

This The world doesn't have a thermometer yet! Igor slapped his head. Before, he did not need to know the temperature accurately in daily life, and the high temperature of hundreds of thousands of degrees when Queenscrown smelted metal could not be measured by simple thermal expansion and contraction, so he did not realize until today. at this point.

"Let the glass workshop try to make some thin tubes, one end is connected to a hollow ball, and some colored liquid is filled in it, do not use water - it will freeze. Use air to expand and contract to cause liquid in the thin tube The principle that the surface rises and falls with it, the temperature can be measured more accurately." Igor said casually, "Mark the scale on it, and use the freezing and boiling temperature of water as the standard points of the two extremes, so that different thicknesses can be uniformly calibrated. And the size of the thermometer... hang it in the nitrile production field, and you can achieve the goal of mastering the precise temperature of the appropriate nitrile production."

He said it easily, but there were not many people around who could understand it. . Everyone looks at me and I look at you, all of them are blank: For them who don't even know the thermal expansion and contraction, it is really embarrassing to accept the design concept of the thermometer.

But Qyburn got it.

It turns out that it can be like this!

The expulsion of the former Maester can't understand the surprise in his heart at this moment: he is the only one of the first, third, deputy, and four deans of the institute, who has never met Igor, and until now he has always told the institute. That kind of -- no rational temperament, up and down, the legendary chief logistics officer, the current Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, was blown away by the brainless atmosphere and felt uncomfortable. But at this moment, he suddenly understood why the oneself group of colleagues were so mythical about the black clothed man in front of him.

If Igor's "Guidelines" that he saw a few months ago, comparing niter making to brewing, only made Qyburn slightly recognize the wisdom of oneself, the head boss, then today's talk makes him Fully realize that the rumors are true. But what shocked him the most was not that Igor could think of a solution to a problem and come up with a new invention in his breath, but the tone of his casually, as it should be by rights before and after the big call— -what does this mean? It means that this so-called "thermal expansion and cold contraction" and the temperature measurement equipment designed based on this principle are not temporarily thought of by his dive light flashed, but are originally in his knowledge system, and it takes time to think about it. It can be taken out instantly.

How much knowledge and understanding of nature does this require?
Is this... the advanced knowledge from that mysterious country across the Sunset Sea? Qyburn couldn't bear it anymore, and wished he would drag Igor back to his room on the spot, tied him up and locked him in a cage, interrogated all the knowledge in his mind, and solved a lot of difficult questions that had accumulated in his mind for a long time.

Of course, this is just thinking about it, the identity gap is there, Qyburn has gained professional dignity and a sense of accomplishment in the Night's Watch Industry Research Institute, and realized his own value... And these things are hard to come by. bought. He still wants to continue to mix, even if he has the ability, he will not really mess up.

Igor doesn't know that oneself's casual remarks will make a huge wave in the hearts of listeners. He is used to the situation that "just a few pointers can make the technology tree of this world grow a little higher", Night's Watch The industry is oneself's property, where he is impossible to hide or deliberately mystifying, and it is also the visits and guidance under this mentality that make him enjoy a high reputation among the technical personnel in the industry - the surrounding big In the circle, in addition to the management who had to accompany him, there are many golden ideas waiting for him to pop up.

Seeing that everyone was confused, he shrugged: "Forget it, I'll go back and draw a diagram for you, skip this topic, next area?"

He is Head, said the next area is the next area, everyone temporarily put their doubts behind, and swarmed to the last part.

"After the fermentation of the nitre field is completed, it is the last step." Qyburn pressed down seeing others do what one loves to do, one is inspired to try it again, and led everyone here, "We After testing how long it takes to ferment all the raw materials, the tentative conclusion is that it is about a month, which should be further shortened. The fermented nitrate is collected and placed in a boiling water pot, drenched and left to stand, and then the upper layer of juice is taken out and filtered several times. The obtained clear liquid is added with plant ash as suggested by adults and then precipitated, and in the end, there are basically only the nitrile and useless salt we want in the water." The vice president recounted at a moderate pace, "But at this time directly If it is evaporated to dryness, there will be too many useless salts in the resultant, and we are now looking for ways to extract the nitrate alone or to remove impurities."

"Different substances have different solubility in water, and the same The solubility of substances at different temperatures will also change greatly, and if you take advantage of this, you may be able to find a way." Igor has basically returned the chemistry knowledge to the teacher, but the point of this general class is hard to forget. , "At this point, you can discuss and study with the assistants of the Alchemist guild who are still in King's Landing. They often have to dissolve this and extract that when making Wildfire, and maybe they can provide some help."

What Igor mentioned was just an ordinary recrystallization operation in the real world. In fact, the Pyromancer of this world has even mastered part of the essence, but these operations are the internal secrets of the Alchemist Guild to them. I can, and I am willing to explain the principle in such a succinct and direct way in one sentence. Probably only Igor can do it. For Qyburn, who started to get involved in the field of chemistry halfway through the monkhood, this is another unheard-of new harvest. ... He silently wrote down the concept of "solubility", feeling suddenly enlightened and vaguely thinking of a solution.

"Why is there no one here?" At this time, Igor discovered a problem. In the final process area of boiling salt, large and small pots and pans are stacked together, and they should have been working on a fire. In a frenzy place, there are no workers in cold and cheerless. "Has the production of saltpeter started, and how much stock does the industrial park have now?"

"This is the experimental area for nitrate production." Nina hurriedly Explain, "But you instructed in your last letter to us that the attack of Others is imminent, and the land grant is in urgent need of nitrous supply. Let us give priority to collecting ready-made nitrous in our operations, and the continuous production of nitrous can be slowed down."

Igor did write such a letter: "Well... but slow down, it's not for you to stop."

"It's not that it's stopped, it's The nitrification process has not yet been perfected, and each improvement plan will take at least ten days to see the effect. We impossible to have a large number of workers waiting here. You are rushing to work day and night."

"Boil the nitrile field? You haven't even finished the fermentation step, how can you get so much nitrile to boil, and you have to set up a special venue - rushing to work day and night. ?"

Nina pointed to Qyburn: "This is about the accidental discovery of the research institute. Sir, you told us in the syllabus that the soil dug under the corner of the long niter can be used for nitrification. 'Nitroferment'...but Vice President Qyburn tried it while waiting for the fermentation result, but found that there is no need for the complicated series of intermediate processes of adding manure, urine, fermentation and reaction. Soil itself can extract nitrate.”

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(end of this chapter)