Chapter 10: then translation of chapter title

Zhang Qian brought the crowd to the prepared podium, looked at them and said: "I will now start lecturing on the manufacture of smokeless powder and yellow explosive (no need to add the system, you understand), you all have been assigned by the Brigade Commander, so you definitely have some foundation, you also have studied chemical engineering, if you have any questions during this process you can interrupt me anytime."

To produce smokeless powder, the first step is to produce sulfuric acid; without it, no matter who you are, even if you rack your brains, you cannot make smokeless powder, because sulfuric acid is the mother of gunpowder.

Then what methods are there for producing sulfuric acid? Currently, the world mainly has two processes for producing sulfuric acid.

The first is the contact process; the equipment is complicated, I won't go into that, but importantly it also requires fine platinum powder as a catalyst.

Platinum powder is just ridiculous; the base doesn't even have platinum, where would we get the powder? So this method is basically blocked, after all the equipment is too complicated to set up and there's no platinum powder.

The second method is the lead chamber process; this method is relatively simple: sulfur and saltpeter are placed in an iron spoon and ignited, then the produced sulfur oxide gases are combined with water to form sulfuric acid. However, due to the strong corrosiveness of sulfuric acid, the entire production process must be carried out in a lead chamber that can resist strong acid corrosion, and the lead chamber requires a large amount of lead plates to build.

But the problem is, the base is now blockaded; where can we get those lead plates? This route is also blocked.

"Actually, when I thought about this point, I almost wanted to give up; the conditions of our base are too poor, we lack too many things, many people even only know what lead is through a pencil. Even if we bother the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Machinery Factory, it would be quite troublesome, and they have other tasks as well. But since the method is devised by people, without lead plates I can only look for substitutes that can replace the lead plates, and this substitute must also be something we can source locally and use immediately."

Zhang Qian looked at the crowd, then pointed to a large ceramic vat.

"This ceramic vat is not for drinking water; the ceramic vat that ordinary families use to hold water or store grain can resist acid corrosion. We can take two water vats, make one the 'male' and the other the 'female', pair them up and stack them into a vat tower, drill holes in the vats, and connect each vat tower with pipes. In front of the front tower are installed two devices: one is a triangular copper sulfur box, into which sulfur is placed and ignited, using a bellows instead of a fan to blow air, producing sulfur dioxide gas; the other is a saltpeter jar, filled with saltpeter, heated to produce nitrogen oxide gas. All the produced sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide gases, and oxygen, etc., enter the vat tower together, and through multi-stage circulation evaporation they form sulfuric acid."

Zhang Qian took a sip of water, then looked at the people who were pondering.

"What I just described is the method for producing sulfuric acid; once we have sulfuric acid, adding nitrate to it ultimately yields nitric acid. But this is only the beginning; we still need nitrocellulose."

However, the production of nitrocellulose is comparatively complicated, still because the base lacks everything; even with Zhang Qian's academic level, he conducted many experiments before finding a suitable substitute.

First, we need to use sulfuric acid and nitric acid together with cotton to carry out defatting; this defatting cannot be done by industrial methods in the base, and laboratory methods yield insufficient output. However, he procured a large iron pot for defatting, which is called "the mountain folk have their own clever tricks."

Others use a pulper to make pulp; since we don't have one in the base, we can substitute a stone mill, directly grinding it out.

Developed countries use a dryer for drying; our kang (heated brick bed) can also achieve a similar effect.

Others use a slicer to cut slices; no problem, we have scissors.

Carry out the slicing.

Others have rolling rollers; we don't have such advanced equipment, but we have a rolling pin (for dough).

The working people are the most glorious.

"Don't think what I said is easy just because it sounds simple; the actual operation is very complicated." Looking at the eager crowd,

Zhang Qian said: "Throughout the entire production process, we must be cautious; homemade production means greater risk."

After a morning passed, the people had gained a certain understanding of the principles of manufacturing sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and nitrocellulose. After lunch, they returned to the workshop to begin studying the principles of nitroglycerin and nitrostarch.

"Since the base lacks the conditions to decompose fats with high-pressure steam, I thought about it and adopted plant oil (such as peanut oil) reacting with lime water to produce calcium soap, then grinding the calcium soap into powder and soaking it in water to obtain a glycerol solution. Finally, the glycerol aqueous solution is filtered, evaporated, and concentrated to yield relatively pure glycerol. To make the operation simple and production mobile and flexible, we can use a porcelain plate as nitration equipment, operating by the river or spring, using river or spring water as cooling water to control reaction temperature, allowing the mixed acid made from concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids to esterify with glycerol smoothly. The product is left to settle and separate, then, by using washing equipment made of ceramic vessels to remove residual acid, we obtain qualified nitroglycerin."

"The production of nitrostarch is much simpler than the previous few; in an appropriate amount of concentrated nitric acid, with stirring, add an appropriate amount of concentrated sulfuric acid, the quantity of which I have already written in my experimental record. After cooling the water bath to room temperature, add crushed starch, then……"

(I dare not write this part; the previous few were already a bit risky, and this nitrostarch also comes out, I feel people would be gone if it were too dangerous.)

"You can think about it first; if you don't understand, it's fine; if you have questions, boldly ask them, and I will answer each one."

Zhang Qian returned to the podium and said to the crowd: "Our theoretical lesson for today ends here."

Nitrocellulose can be used to manufacture smokeless powder, effectively avoiding problems such as insufficient chamber pressure, poor gas flow, excessive residue, and incompatibility of recoil devices and gas-operated automatic mechanisms with black powder ammunition.

Currently, the base's arsenals produce hand grenades imitating the German M24 grenade. However, due to the propellant, its power is far inferior to that of the original German factory; given the base's current industrial level, it is difficult to manufacture TNT, but replacing the propellant with nitroglycerin can greatly increase its power.

As for the use of nitrostarch, Zhang Qian intends to use it to imitate the American Mk2 hand grenade. The current Mk2 grenade's interior is filled with TNT, but during the early war the US faced a TNT shortage, so the interior was often filled with a nitrostarch composite.

The M24 grenade is an offensive grenade, while the Mk2 grenade is a defensive grenade; using the two types together can greatly enhance the unit's combat effectiveness.

After a week passed, the comrades had become familiar with the process of makeshift chemical engineering; fortunately, no accidents occurred.

December 10, 1939, the Jinxi Northwest Chemical Plant was officially established. The chemical plant was initiated by the head of the Procurement Department, Zhang Qian, who imparted skills and trained many military-industry talents, providing the base's arsenals with tons of raw materials.