Daming Military Empire

Chapter 417 Studying Technology

Metal smelting and metal purification can be done easily with a certain foundation in this era. Zhu Cijiong was afraid that Song Yingxing would not understand what he said. Now it seems that Song Yingxing should understand most of the knowledge.

However, the purification of metals is not limited to the method of heating and reducing. There are many other methods that require the addition of acid-base additives to restore them. I wonder if there is such a thing as acid-base additives in this era?
Zhu Cijiong thought for a while, then continued to ask: "Chang Geng, have you ever heard that there are some water-like things that can dissolve metallic things?"

This Song Yingxing really knew, he said without hesitation: "This humble minister once heard that there is a thing called green alum oil, which is as colorless as water at first, but if you throw copper powder into it, the copper powder will dissolve quickly. , and vitriol oil turns blue-green."

Fainted, this green vitriol oil could not be sulfuric acid!
Zhu Cijiong immediately asked: "Do you know the method of making green alum oil?"

Song Yingxing nodded and said: "Gu Gangzi, an alchemist in the Tang Dynasty, recorded "the method of refining stone gallbladder to extract the essence" in Volume [-] of his "Huangdi Jiuding Shendan Jingjue". This humble minister has seen it."

This Song Yingxing, just reading these miscellaneous books, it's no wonder that he failed the imperial examinations many times, and in the end he was only a candidate, but this kind of talent is good, this is what we want.

Zhu Cijiong excitedly asked: "Then have you ever made green alum oil?"

Unexpectedly, Song Yingxing said in shame: "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I have heard that this green alum oil can dissolve not only gold and iron, but also flesh and blood, so I dare not try it. I have never done it before."

That must be sulfuric acid, Zhu Cijiong nodded and comforted: "Well, there is no big mistake in being careful, if you need to trial-produce this corrosive water solution in the future, you must wear rubber gloves or other protection, so that you will not hurt yourself And for the convenience of observation, it is best to use a transparent glass bottle or glass tube as the container."

Song Yingxing's eyes lit up when he heard the words, and he nodded frequently, as if he wanted to try it right away. "

Seeing Song Yingxing's appearance, Zhu Cijiong knew that this guy's enthusiasm for research had come up again, so he simply asked directly: "Chang Geng, do you have time for the past few months?"

Song Yingxing thought for a while, then asked cautiously: "I don't know how much time the emperor said?"

Zhu Cijiong smiled and said: "Naturally, the more the better."

Song Yingxing thought about it again, and directly gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty, please forgive me for being bold, you also know the fame of this minister, and the current position has come to an end, the officialdom is really not suitable for me, it is better for me to resign from this position and concentrate on it." Come to develop something for the emperor."

Hearing this, Zhu Cijiong said rather ashamedly: "Chang Geng, this, although I am the emperor, I still have to follow some rules. You have made a lot of great contributions to me and Daming, but this position has always stayed where it is. Yes, alas."

Song Yingxing hurriedly explained: "Your Majesty, I don't mean that. I'm actually more interested in technical things. I'm really not interested in being an official. Anyway, there are many officials in the Ministry of Industry. The official is qualified for the position of the humble minister, and the students under the humble minister have also risen. Even if the humble minister quits now, there will be no problem at all, so the humble minister wants to leave all the mundane things behind, concentrate on studying technology, and hope the emperor will help him."

Hearing this, Zhu Cijiong frowned and pondered. Song Yingxing's contribution to Daming is simply too great, and he must not be wronged. This alloy technology must be researched and trial-manufactured by a special person. How can he not only concentrate on research, but also get what he deserves? What about respect?
Give him an idle job?This seems a little inappropriate. With the rapid expansion of the Ming Dynasty, people are needed everywhere, and officials are needed everywhere. Now the court and government departments have basically disappeared. It's not embarrassing for him to be given a idle position for a real official position now!

After much deliberation, Zhu Cijiong finally came up with a bold idea, that is, to set up the post of dean for each college of Ming Dynasty. At first, he was given the title of fifth rank, and his status was equivalent to that of a doctor in each department. To encourage everyone to delve into technology and learn!
Just do it when you think about it, with his current prestige, who dares to jump out to object, so he kindly patted Song Yingxing on the shoulder and said: "Chang Geng, then I will wrong you to be the dean of Daming Institute of Technology, and you are also a fifth-rank title." , Double your salary, don’t worry about other things, just study metallurgy technology, I will give you ten deputy places, all of them will be awarded the title of seventh-rank, to assist you in your research, as for the candidates, you can choose by yourself, as long as you like it, there will be one. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have fame!”

Song Yingxing heard the words and said excitedly: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness."

Zhu Cijiong nodded, pointed to the desk next to him and said, "Well, go get a pen and paper, and I'll tell you what you want to study."

Song Yingxing heard the words, rushed to the desk impatiently, quickly took the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, put it on the conference table, brushed the ink a few times, and waited quietly.

Zhu Cijiong sorted out his thoughts, and said slowly: "What I want you to develop is an alloy called tool steel. The so-called alloy is to fuse several different metals together in a certain proportion, like bronze, which is copper and The alloy of Japanese lead, this kind of tool steel alloy, is much stronger than high-carbon steel, and it is an excellent material for making various machine tool tools. However, the metal it fuses is not recorded in ancient books, and it needs to be trial-produced. These metals are manganese, chromium, vanadium, tungsten, cobalt, molybdenum."

Zhu Cijiong said while gesticulating on the table with his fingers, showing these characters one by one to Song Yingxing.

If Zhu Cijiong wants to purify that metal first, it must be tungsten, because tungsten wire inside and glass outside are light bulbs. Now that electricity, wires, and glass are available, tungsten wire is missing, even tool steel If you can't do it for a while, but you can make a light bulb, that's a great progress!

Zhu Cijiong thought for a while and continued: "First, you should find a way to extract tungsten. Tungsten is a steel-gray or silver-white metal, which is mainly extracted from wolframite and scheelite. There is a large amount of scheelite in the Huguang area of ​​Daming. The color of scheelite is off-white, and there are also yellowish brown, green and light red, etc., with oily luster. It is generally biconical octahedral or plate crystals, and sometimes oblique crystals can be seen. Stripes, and some crystals are crust-shaped, kidney-shaped, granular and dense block."

In order to speed up the progress, Zhu Cijiong was too lazy to play charades, and directly poured out all the shape attributes and origins of the tungsten ore, and then he continued: "The smelting methods of this tungsten mainly include soda sintering method and hydrochloric acid decomposition method, soda Also known as alkali, it is processed from salt and limestone, and the specific production method is."

Zhu Cijiong directly babbled about the knowledge in his mind, and Song Yingxing just brushed it off. Zhu Cijiong originally thought that he would have a lot of questions, but he didn't expect that from the beginning to the end, Song Yingxing had no questions at all. Instead, he nodded frequently and praised .

Judging by his expression, he clearly understands it completely. This guy is simply a genius in metallurgy!

(End of this chapter)