"The Church is like something that suddenly popped up. (Products#……Net)"
Roland's mind was still echoing with this sentence as he returned to his office.
He closed his eyes and carefully searched through the Fourth Prince's memories, but still couldn't find any more related information. His understanding of the Church was similar to that of ordinary nobles—when he was in the palace, the Fourth Prince didn't spend much time studying knowledge, and his knowledge of the occult was almost blank. But if Tilly was telling the truth, then the Church's propaganda strategy was too strange.
Taking the religious legends of the original world as an example, the origin of gods at the beginning of the world is child's play; the world being created by gods is the unanimously chosen approach. For example, the seven-day creation, karmic reincarnation, etc... a complete set of legends describing the power of God is standard for every religion.
The Church in this world seems quite... naive in comparison.
However, Roland didn't have more clues to continue the research, so he shook his head and decided to put these thoughts out of his mind.
Perhaps after exploring the ancient ruins in the Misty Forest, everything will have an answer.
He walked to the window and looked at the giant coating spread out on the ground in the garden—its green appearance was particularly striking in the white snow.
Now Soroya is gluing together a larger gasbag. The new hot air balloon will be larger and can carry more people. This is taking into account that if a way to rescue the trapped woman cannot be found when exploring the ruins, Anna can simply cut the entire "ice coffin" into pieces and bring her back to Border Town along with a part of the transparent crystal.
The departure time is set for two days later.
Personnel have been arranged. From the Sleeping Island witches, there will be Tilly, Sylvie, Shavi, Ashes, and Andrea. The Witch Union will send Anna, Wendy, Nightingale, Nana Wa, Lightning, and Macy. This lineup can be described as unprecedentedly strong. Attack, defense, and battlefield awareness have all reached the highest level. As long as God's Punishment Stones are not used, it will be difficult for demons to get close to them.
"Your Highness, Chief Alchemist Kaimo Streer wishes to see you," a guard said outside the door.
"Let him in."
Kaimo didn't come alone this time. He also brought his colleague Charmes. "Your Highness, we have made progress on the large-scale production method for nitric acid that you requested."
"Really?" Roland was slightly startled, and then a burst of joy surged into his heart. This was probably the best news he had heard in recent days. He excitedly stood up and personally poured a cup of tea for the two chemists. "Tell me, how is it produced?"
"This is Charmes's credit," he said, stroking his beard. "Let him explain it to you."
"Your Highness," the young Charmes seemed a little restrained. He bowed before speaking. "Your alchemy workshop... no, the chemical laboratory produces nitric acid by dry distilling saltpeter to obtain dilute nitric acid, and then purifying it with concentrated sulfuric acid. I tried to combine the two, directly heating the saltpeter in concentrated sulfuric acid, and successfully obtained a nitric acid solution. Moreover, the purity is very high. You can even observe the fuming phenomenon recorded in 'Elementary Chemistry.'"
"Heating together? But the two are not the same," Roland said strangely. "The temperature of dry distillation is much higher than heating together, and the gas distilled should be nitrogen oxides, which form dilute nitric acid when introduced into water. Concentrated sulfuric acid purification only uses its high boiling point and strong water absorption to reduce the water content in nitric acid, and does not involve a chemical reaction."
"I don't quite understand why, but Mr. Streer then did several experiments and believes that my discovery was a coincidence."
"A coincidence?" Roland looked at the Chief Alchemist.
"Indeed," Kaimo affirmed. "The two are not equivalent, but they produce the same effect. I deduced it based on the chemical formula and guessed that it should be a certain component in saltpeter that reacted with sulfuric acid to generate nitric acid, which then evaporated during heating. According to the reverse deduction of the formula, it looks like some kind of... um, nitrate."
Roland suddenly remembered that the chemistry textbook did mention that before the artificial synthesis of ammonia was invented, people used sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate to react with concentrated sulfuric acid to produce nitric acid. This was also the oldest industrial method. Because the main components of saltpeter are these two nitrates, they are convenient and easy to obtain, and the extraction is relatively easy. As long as the temperature is controlled, the evaporated nitric acid can be continuously collected.
Of course, because this method consumes a large amount of sulfuric acid and is extremely prone to corroding equipment, it was quickly replaced by more advanced technology later.
However, these two points are not too big of a problem for Roland. The territory has not established a complete fertilizer and pesticide industry, and the sulfuric acid produced is only used to purify nitric acid. As for the strong corrosive nature of nitric acid vapor, it can be handled by Soroya's coating.
"Well done," Roland patted Charmes on the shoulder happily. "This method was actually accidentally tested by you."
"You don't know, he showed extraordinary luck when he was at the Redwater City Alchemy Workshop," Kaimo Streer raised his eyebrows. "Before studying chemistry, alchemy itself is an exploration that requires luck, and this kid was able to figure out the double acid method in his early twenties and become the youngest alchemist in the workshop, making a group of thirty- and forty-year-old apprentices envious. You should know that they may only be apprentices for the rest of their lives."
"In any case, this is good news for the town," Roland praised. "You guys try to make a batch of equipment to produce it first, and I will have the witches cooperate with you. If it's feasible, then expand the scale of production."
"As you wish."
"By the way, I have another task to give you," then he put away his joy and said in a solemn tone, "Now that we have a reliable source of nitric acid, I need you to try to make a very dangerous item—Nitroglycerin."
"How dangerous is it?" Kaimo asked.
"The raw materials it uses are very simple, namely the reaction of concentrated nitric acid and glycerin, supplemented by concentrated sulfuric acid as a catalyst, but the temperature must be strictly controlled during the reaction and ventilation must be maintained. Since a lot of heat will be generated during nitration, you can place the container in ice water for testing. Remember, sudden cold and heat, vibration, impact, and friction may cause it to explode." Roland didn't know if this amateur knowledge was reliable, but the ingredients were undoubtedly correct, and even if there was danger, he had to try. "Use a small amount of acid liquid during the test, so that even if an accident occurs, Nana Wa can save you."
"This..." Charmes opened his mouth, but before he could answer, Kaimo had already agreed. "I understand, how does its power compare to snow powder?"
"Worlds apart."
"It seems it will be an interesting experiment," the Chief Alchemist said with a smile.
Nine out of ten chemists are potential explosion art enthusiasts, this is indeed true... Roland thought.
Nitroglycerin is extremely unstable. Nobel's safety explosive is made by adding diatomaceous earth to passivate the ester, which improves safety but reduces explosive power. Roland would naturally not choose this classical method. He plans to add nitrocellulose or nitrostarch to the nitroglycerin. Both of these can play a stabilizing role and further enhance the explosive effect. The former is an excellent smokeless propellant, and the latter is a powerful high explosive. From their names, it can be seen that a large amount of nitric acid is the key to the evolution from black gunpowder to chemical gunpowder.
And he now has this key.
.(。)