Since he couldn't slack off, he had to produce caustic soda first.
He searched for methods to prepare caustic soda.
Fang Er was dumbfounded again!
Damn it!
Why did making anything require a pile of chemical substances?
Industrial caustic soda is typically prepared using sodium carbonate (soda ash) and calcium hydroxide (slaked lime) as raw materials.
And the preparation of sodium carbonate requires ammonia water and carbon dioxide.
Alright.
This leads back to ammonia water.
Ammonia water is prepared using...
Oh!
Okay, this can be done!
Because coking can yield coal tar and ammonia water!
There was no more to say.
He called for Zhuzi and instructed him to lead people to Chang'an to buy stone coal!
Stone coal was what people of this era called coal.
While waiting for the stone coal.
Fang Er, along with the craftsmen, set about building a coking furnace.
Two days later, the coking furnace was completed.
Truckloads of stone coal were also delivered.
This stuff, Chang'an indeed sold it, and it wasn't expensive, even cheaper than charcoal.
He found out that this stuff was generally considered poisonous!
Only families who couldn't afford charcoal used it.
And every year, some people died from heating with stone coal.
This was carbon monoxide poisoning!
The delivered stone coal was loaded into the coking furnace, and the furnace door was sealed.
This process was similar to dry distillation.
Except that dry distillation didn't require consideration of sealing.
Coking, however, required the exclusion of air and was carried out under high pressure and high temperature.
For the sealing issue, due to the absence of a pressure gauge.
Fang Er borrowed the principle of a pressure cooker.
At the exhaust port above the coking furnace, he used a steel ingot weighing over a hundred pounds as a pressure relief valve.
As the charcoal below the coking furnace was ignited.
The pressure inside the furnace increased with the rise in temperature.
And to ensure the furnace walls wouldn't burst under high pressure, Fang Er crazily made them ten centimeters thick!
When the pressure reached a certain level, the steel ingot above the coking furnace was lifted by the immense pressure.
As the steel ingot was lifted, the exhaust pipe and the coking furnace were connected.
The gas inside the furnace then flowed outwards through the exhaust pipe.
To reduce the steam pressure discharged from the furnace.
The exhaust pipe was made very long! Very long!
Winding and twisting, it stretched for a full fifty meters!
Over a dozen farmhands, upon hearing the sound of the high-pressure gas from the exhaust pipe impacting the pipe.
Continuously sprinkled water onto the pipe!
To cool the steam inside the pipeline.
The final section of the exhaust pipe was made into a U-shape by Fang Er.
The bottom of the entire U-shape sat in a water pool.
The water pool wasn't just clear water; a large amount of saltpeter was also added.
The steam, after initial cooling, passed through here and was rapidly cooled again.
The coal tar and ammonia water in the steam were condensed and separated, remaining at the bottom of the U-shaped pipe.
At the outlet, there was a lit torch.
Because the discharged steam still contained a large amount of gas, which Fang Er couldn't collect.
It could only be burned off!
When the gas burning at the pipe naturally extinguished, it meant the coking process for this batch was complete.
He detached that section of the U-shaped pipe, poured out the coal tar, and then reinstalled it.
The entire batch of two thousand pounds of stone coal, after coking, yielded only sixty to seventy pounds of a mixture of coal tar and ammonia water.
The coked coal was collected and stored in a warehouse.
This was excellent material for steelmaking!
It could greatly speed up the steelmaking process!
The temperature was much higher than that of charcoal combustion.
Under normal circumstances, it could reach twenty-three hundred degrees Celsius.
In extreme cases, it could reach up to three thousand degrees Celsius.
Fang Er took away the mixture of coal tar and ammonia water.
He instructed them to continue coking.
In the workshop.
The coal tar and ammonia water were allowed to stand.
As time passed.
The two substances gradually separated due to their density differences.
The coal tar settled at the bottom.
Fang Er carefully collected the ammonia water above into another container.
Holding a glass tube, he blew air into the ammonia water.
Hmm, this was the only way he could think of to add carbon dioxide to ammonia water.
He blew until his cheeks ached, but no sodium carbonate crystals appeared.
Rubbing his cheeks, he called in a few farmhands from outside and handed them the glass tube.
He sat on a chair himself, waiting for the moment when sodium bicarbonate crystals would appear.
The four farmhands, with their backsides sticking out, held the glass tubes and blew forcefully into the ammonia water.
Although they didn't know what they were doing, since Fang Er had ordered it, they simply did it.
After about the time it took for half an incense stick to burn, crystals finally began to appear in the ammonia water.
When the four farmhands stopped, they felt it was quite peculiar!
Just by blowing like this, they could extract something from this water?
Heh heh, it was fun!
Seeing their expressions, Fang Er directly handed over all the subsequently produced ammonia water to them.
The sodium carbonate crystals were calcined again to obtain sodium carbonate!
That is, caustic soda!
Fang Er prepared a solution of caustic soda and heated it.
Then he added lard.
As the temperature rose, and with constant stirring to ensure sufficient reaction.
When the color turned milky white, and it became increasingly difficult to stir.
Fang Er extinguished the fire.
Using a spoon, he scooped out this paste-like soap.
Alright, it could already be called soap.
He poured it into pre-made molds for shaping.
After it had completely cooled, he opened the molds, and a bar of soap was made!
Fang Er still wasn't at ease and tried it himself.
Its cleaning ability was no different from the ones bought from the system.
The only difference was that they weren't as good-looking as the system's products and didn't have a fragrance.
But for selling in this era, it was sufficient.
He took the soap and went outside, looking at the bustling activity in the workshops.
With the production of coke, the steelmaking speed had more than doubled!
Furnace after furnace of molten steel was cast into blanks.
As the forging hammers fell, sets of plate armor were produced.
Long steel blanks were sent to Fang Er's workshop.
Zhao Gang used the lathe to process them into gun barrels.
Fang Er considered for a long time.
The workshops needed to be standardized.
The positions and heads of each workshop needed to be clarified.
The next morning, Fang Er called all the craftsmen together.
And held a small meeting.
Fang Er announced the appointments.
Zhao Gang, appointed Head Craftsman of the Firearm Workshop.
Ma Shan, appointed Head Craftsman of the Cement Workshop.
Niu Liang, appointed Head Craftsman of the Carpentry Workshop.
Wang Mo, appointed Head Craftsman of the Coking Workshop.
Lin San, appointed Head Craftsman of the Caustic Soda Workshop.
Wang Wu, appointed Head Craftsman of the Printing Workshop.
Ma Qi, appointed Head Craftsman of the Glass Workshop.
Zhou Mu, appointed Head Craftsman of the Soap Workshop.
Unknowingly, so many things had been accomplished, and Fang Er felt a great sense of achievement.
These people were originally blacksmiths or carpenters.
But with the gradual increase in projects, they demonstrated their abilities, so Fang Er readily promoted them.
At the same time, the entire workshop was divided into eight areas, with each area responsible for a specific technology.
The only exception was the Cement Workshop.
The workshop here was only used as a warehouse; the actual production took place at Ash Mountain.