War of Resistance: Glory of the Beasts

Chapter 342: Men Also Have to Return Home

Xu Chaoyang returned to Tianjin three days after his wedding.

In other people's cases, the bride would return to her parents' home three days after the wedding, but he was different. He took Yuan Fuzhen back to Dagu three days later.

The first thing they did after returning to Dagu was to set up a "chemical laboratory" in the shipyard. All the instruments purchased on the market were placed in the laboratory. The second thing they did was to bring in an expert from the Department of Chemistry and an expert in physics from Peking University. However, when these experts heard that they were going to Tianjin not to teach at Nankai University but to the Arsenal, they were somewhat resistant.

If Xu Chaoyang hadn't given them the order, they might not have come. Even if they did, they would have said in advance: "Just study the current topic, and return to Peking University immediately after the research is completed."

That attitude is extremely irritating. It turns out that once intellectuals get irritated, their arrogance can make you fly.

What can Xu Chaoyang do then?
I can only endure it.

He also wanted to hold others at gunpoint while conducting research and have a say in everything they did, but once he did something like that, he wouldn't be able to expect anyone to help him with future research, so he had to endure it.

It was under such circumstances that Dagu Shipyard set up a chemical research laboratory, and the first research topic was - nitroglycerin!
Why nitroglycerin?
Those chemical experts who had studied abroad also advised Xu Chaoyang, saying, "Captain Xu, nitroglycerin is extremely unstable. In terms of stability, it is not as stable as RDX."

But Xu Chaoyang was not thinking about this question at all. His answer was: "How much is RDX?"

"One hundred and sixty, maybe it would be cheaper if we do the research ourselves?"

"What about nitroglycerin?"

The chemical expert's answer was: "You can use cooking oil to extract glycerin and then nitrate it."

The answer is obvious. As the head of the family, he not only has to consider the issue of stability, but also the cost!

Yes, nitroglycerin is not stable enough, but the research cost is low. As for whether it is stable or not, he doesn’t care. If you can blow up the laboratory while researching this little thing, then what are you talking about as experts!

The second topic is directional blasting.

This time it was Hu Shi who helped to find the person. The person he found was Xiong Qinglai, a scientist who had just returned to China in 1933 and was supposed to teach at Tsinghua University.

Xu Chaoyang may not be familiar with this person, but his disciples are probably known to everyone. He trained many heroes who contributed to the development of the two bombs and one satellite, such as Yan Jici, Zhao Zhongyao, Qian Shanqiang, Zhao Jiuzhang, who are all physicists, and chemist Liu Dagang.

Xiong Qinglai was brought in by Xu Chaoyang through his connections, and he was kept by spending money on him. At that time, he offered him a monthly salary of 100 yuan, which was silver dollars, not legal tender.

What does this amount to? Mr. Lu Xun's highest monthly royalty was eighty, enough to buy a courtyard house in Peking, while Mr. Xiong's monthly salary was one hundred. He used his experience of wandering around Europe, studying mining in Beaumont, Belgium, transferring to Paris to study mathematics and physics due to the closure of the Paris Mines School due to the war, and obtaining a degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Marseille to directly tell Xu Chaoyang that the money was not wasted.

Not only did he simplify the continuous heating process of extracting glycerin from cooking oil, he also shortened the time required for nitration. After receiving his first month's salary from Dagu Shipyard, he took out a "nitroglycerin bomb" that could be used for directional blasting on the spot!
And the raw material is just ordinary vegetable oil!
They just heated the vegetable oil, kept the oil temperature at 50 to 60 degrees, and then began to stir it to make it evenly heated. During the preparation process, they prepared a solution for extracting glycerol; 100 ml of dehydrogenated methanol was poured into a beaker, and then 4.5 grams of XXX was added, mixed with it, and heated and stirred with it. In order to prevent hydrogen leakage, the lid was covered. After minutes, the sodium hydroxide was completely dissolved in the dehydrogenated methanol.

At this time, the cauliflower oil is almost heated. Mr. Xiong pours the hydroxide solution into the cauliflower oil and continues to stir and heat it. After they are fused, they will immediately react to cause trans-esterification. The reaction process lasts about an hour.

No longer heat at this time, continue stirring, and allow the solution to cool quickly. At this time, except for vegetable diesel and glycerin, the other substances will condense into jelly. At this moment, the light yellow liquid is vegetable diesel, and the orange liquid that sinks to the bottom of the beaker is naturally glycerin.

Another beaker was used to separate the vegetable diesel and glycerin. At this time, the vegetable diesel and glycerin were still impure, so the remaining purification work was even simpler. As for nitric acid, it was readily available. At that time, there was already "ammonium nitrate fertilizer" on the market. In order to save trouble, Mr. Xiong did not choose to use ammonium sulfate and saltpeter to make nitric acid by double decomposition reaction, but directly extracted fuming nitric acid from the fertilizer and then used nitric acid to nitrate the glycerin.

It is not known whether it was the outsider's good advice or the effect of Xu Chaoyang's monthly salary of 100 yuan, but under the premise that Mr. Xiong worked simultaneously with the chemical laboratory, he had already produced nitroglycerin explosives, and those talented people and professors at Peking University who were supported by a large amount of money had just extracted glycerin.

Next comes the directional blasting design after a lot of mathematical calculations.

This time Xu Chaoyang doesn't have to put all these things into wine bottles. He has a factory that can produce nitroglycerin explosives containers. Not only can he produce nitroglycerin explosives containers, he can even let Mr. Xiong use nitroglycerin as raw material to make "time bombs".

When Mr. Xiong handed in the answer sheet and Xu Chaoyang took his men to the outskirts of Dagu to conduct a test explosion, all those who had served in the army, who had watched Xu Chaoyang use black powder to make explosive packs, and who had seen them make landmines, were stunned at that moment!
boom!
With a loud bang, a small bottle of explosives was detonated, creating a huge gap in the mountain and filling the mountain with smoke and dust. It was not until this moment that Xu Chaoyang understood why humans only gained the ability to change the terrain after Nobel developed explosives.

"Brother, now that we have this thing, we don't have to worry about the Japanese moving their machine gun positions towards us anymore. Next time we go to war, I'm going to bury this kind of explosives all over the battlefield!"

Qu Yong didn't know what equivalent was, nor did he know how much explosives were needed to cause such an explosion, or how to directional blast. He just knew that if he buried this thing all over the front line of the position, he would be able to blow all the Japanese to pieces!
This thing is so scary and its instability is so scary that even Mr. Xiong has to operate it with caution.

"Captain Xu, actually, this thing can be made a little more stable. For example, if we adsorb this explosive onto diatomaceous earth... and then mold the diatomaceous earth into a shape, its stability will be much stronger than it is now..."

Xu Chaoyang heard what Mr. Xiong said: "What are you talking about?"

"Yellow dynamite."

This is the product that transcends time after black gunpowder, and it is also the kind of thing that made Nobel famous all over the world. It was also the product that was finally developed after the pioneers of Huangyadong Arsenal had no other options but to use honey to replace the effect of white sugar. Now, after Xu Chaoyang hired Mr. Xiong at a cost of 100 silver dollars a month, and the talented people of Peking University helped him, it was so easy to research it?

original……

We have everything.

original……

Back then, we only set our eyes on foreign countries, hoping to spend money to buy ready-made products, which led to the inability of many industries to develop.

original……

Compradors only know how to do business. Only independent research and development can benefit the country and the people!

"Brother-in-law."

Yuan Keqin, a member of the Yuan family who was following Xu Chaoyang at the moment, spoke up: "I heard that this thing can also cure angina pectoris..."

Xu Chaoyang immediately turned around and looked at Yuan Keqin: "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, we can't just spend without earning anything. How about I go to the major hospitals in Beijing and Tianjin?"

(End of this chapter)