Bright Sword: Follow Kong's fun and build the strongest military industry

After the meeting, Kong Hao came to the sulfuric acid and nitric acid production workshop, which is the top priority of the arsenal.

"Mr. Zhang, what is the current production progress of sulfuric acid and nitric acid?"

"Chief Consultant, we have built a total of ten sulfuric acid reaction devices, which can produce about five tons of qualified concentrated sulfuric acid every day."

"Because of the shortage of containers for concentrated sulfuric acid, we only opened five sets of equipment, and two sets were used to improve the production process, and the remaining three sets were used as backup."

After hearing this, Kong Hao didn't say anything, but just nodded. These outputs were already a huge improvement compared to before.

After all, we used to buy everything from other places, and the quantity was intermittent and unstable. Now we have our own production line, and even if it is a very backward and primitive manufacturing method, the output is still guaranteed.

However, Zhang Gong then talked about the difficulties that the Arsenal is currently facing:

"At present, concentrated sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid have been developed. What we need to do now is to soak defatted cotton in this mixed acid to make nitrocellulose, which is the main material of smokeless gunpowder for bullets."

"But the nitrocellulose we produce is different from what was produced before, and it is also very different from what is produced internationally."

When Kong Hao heard what Zhang Gong said, he felt it was not easy to make a decision without knowing the specific circumstances.

"Engineer Zhang, let's go to the scene and take a look at the situation. It's okay to have problems. We just need to find a way to solve them."

When the two arrived at the laboratory, there were already many people working hard on various experiments.

According to international practice, all personnel in the laboratory must wear white coats so that if they come into contact with any dangerous drugs, they can be discovered and dealt with immediately.

But even such a simple thing is difficult to ensure at the arsenal. Basically, only a few technicians are wearing it, and those who are responsible for helping are just wearing very clean military uniforms.

Seeing this, Kong Hao frowned and said:

"We are conducting some high-risk experiments. We need to ensure the safety of all personnel, especially those in white coats. This should be a priority."

"This kind of accident has happened in many laboratories in advanced Western countries. We must learn from it."

"I will talk to Political Commissar Qin and ask him to allocate some funds to purchase experimental protective equipment from big cities."

Kong Hao didn't want to cause unnecessary harm to the technicians at the arsenal just to save a few dollars.

Now the scale of the Eighth Route Army's arsenal has gradually gotten back on track. What they lack most now are highly educated professionals. We must not allow experimental accidents to occur because of small things.

A young man wearing glasses next to him quickly took out the pen and notebook he carried with him and wrote down Kong Hao's request.

This is the secretary that Director Ren specially assigned to the chief consultant Kong Hao. His surname is Meng, and he is a top student who graduated from Tsinghua University. He had just recently come to the headquarters through untold hardships from the enemy-occupied area.

Originally, Xiao Meng wanted to join the front-line combat troops, beat the Japanese devils and avenge his family.

However, Minister Zhang took into consideration that he was a very rare college student, majoring in mechanics, and finally managed to transfer him to the arsenal.

Xiao Meng was accompanied by several of his classmates, some majoring in architecture, some in mechanics, and even some in metallurgy. In short, they were all professionals suitable for the arsenal.

Before coming to the arsenal, these college students thought that even if they came, they would have no place to use their skills. After all, the Eighth Route Army's equipment was notoriously poor, and it did not have its own military industry system.

However, what they did not expect was that the current arsenal already had some rudiments of industrialization, especially the hydropower station that was about to be built, which was the cornerstone of modern industry.

Once it is built, it will be able to drive a large amount of machinery and equipment in the arsenal, continuously produce various weapons and equipment, and inflict heavy damage on all enemies.

After seeing all this, the newcomers seemed to have found the value of their existence. They put 200% of their enthusiasm into their work and contributed their own strength to the development of the arsenal.

It was Xiao Meng who was spotted by Director Ren at first sight and was transferred to be Kong Hao's secretary to record all the needs of the chief consultant.

Next, the head of the laboratory had someone demonstrate the process of dissolving nitrocellulose.

"Chief Advisor, Engineer Zhang, please come over here."

"This is our latest nitrocellulose. According to international processes, it should be dissolved in acetone, but we can't find any acetone in our base. Even if we do find it, the amount is very small, which does not meet our actual situation of mass production of gunpowder in the future."

"So we used alcohol as a substitute solution, and the effect was quite good. But when we turned to concentrated sulfuric acid and nitric acid that we produced ourselves, it didn't work anymore. It was really worrying."

After that, he did an experiment and found that the nitrocellulose was completely insoluble just as he said.

Suddenly, Kong Hao remembered that he had visited the Eighth Route Army Arsenal in his previous life and heard a little story. His eyes suddenly lit up, and he seemed to have found the crux of the problem.

"Engineer Zhang, do you still have the concentrated sulfuric acid used to produce nitrocellulose?"

"General Advisor, it has been used up a long time ago. Concentrated sulfuric acid is known as the mother of explosives and is the most scarce. As long as the arsenal gets a little bit, even a few bottles, it will be consumed immediately to produce the explosives that the troops urgently need. How could there be any stock left?"

Seeing this, Kong Hao could only carefully explain:

"When I was abroad, I visited the explosives workshop of the arsenal and seemed to have encountered such problems."

After that, he asked someone to find a blackboard, drew a triangle diagram on it with chalk, and explained it in detail:

"Look at this triangle diagram. The top one is the concentration of the mixed acid solution, the bottom left one is the concentration of the concentrated sulfuric acid solution, and the bottom right one is the concentration of the concentrated nitric acid solution."

"If the solubility of one of the following two solutions is different, the effect of the corresponding mixed acid solution will be very different."

"The concentrated sulfuric acid we used before was purchased from outside. Although each bottle was marked with the specific concentration, it may have been affected by moisture during storage and transportation, which ultimately led to inaccurate mixed acid concentration. The newly produced nitrocellulose could not dissolve alcohol."

The technicians present were all elites, and when they heard Kong Hao's analysis, they all felt it made a lot of sense.

Kong Hao continued: "What we have to do now is to conduct a lot of experiments."

"Fortunately, we are able to produce concentrated sulfuric acid and nitric acid ourselves, which can fully support us in finding the right solution concentration ratio to produce what we want."

"But I want to emphasize here that all experiments must have corresponding data. These data are valuable experience and can be used as a reference when we conduct other experiments in the future."

After hearing this, Xiao Meng immediately drew the triangle diagram in his notebook, and also recorded what Kong Hao said. This was also a special request from Director Ren.

In fact, both Director Ren and Political Commissar Qin knew in their hearts that many people in the arsenal had never been abroad and had only learned some skills passed down from generation to generation.

It is completely incomparable with advanced large-scale industrial production abroad. Even college students studying mechanics are restricted by China's weak industry. They have a lot of theoretical knowledge but no chance to put it into practice.