Seeing the officers sealing the coal-loading place, Su Song said: "A coal is used to burn fire and keep warm. It is like sealing it in a stone chamber, and then burning coal underneath is like a steamer. What is the reason?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "All things in the world are pure like gold and silver, and very few. How to separate these mixed things? One way is to use water, put the things into water, some dissolve into water, and the insoluble ones are naturally left and filtered. For example, to refine salt, this method is to use this method. Another way is to seal it up and burn it to fire and distillate it. When it is burned, some transform the qi and some stay inside, and it will naturally separate. This method is often used by the ancient alchemists, such as fire method and copper, etc., and many of them are transformed from this method."

Su Song nodded, feeling that Du Zhongxiao said something reasonable, but also felt something was wrong.

To understand the properties of natural matter, these two methods are indeed the simplest. One is water-soluble, and of course other solvents can also be used to slowly accumulate experience and summarize. Another is dry distillation, allowing the substance to decompose at high temperatures, and then collect it in sections to analyze the components of a large number of natural matter. Many chemical substances are discovered using this method.

How to cook? In fact, Du Zhongxiao didn't know how he could remember this knowledge clearly, let alone if he had read it in his previous life, he couldn't remember it. He just remembered that coke was distilled from sealed dry distillation. As for which stove to use and how to make the best quality, it can only be summarized slowly in the practice of dry distillation. Everything is difficult at the beginning. As long as it starts, there will always be skilled craftsmen who can slowly summarize it.

When he arrived here, he discovered iron ore from Fangcheng Mountain. Recently, Du Zhongxiao suddenly became interested in chemistry. Unfortunately, he had not learned much of the chemistry knowledge he had learned, and it was messy and had no rules. He could only take it step by step. After summarizing the chemistry knowledge he had learned these days, Du Zhongxiao realized these two methods: one is dissolution and filtration, and the other is distillation and decomposition. It is really the supreme method of studying chemistry.

As long as you master these two basic methods, a lot of basic chemical knowledge can be solved according to the edge. A few days ago, I tried wet copper smelting, which was to dissolve and filtration. Now, to make coke, it is to try dry distillation.

This method is really wonderful. When watching the fire burning under the furnace, Du Zhongxiao had already thought that many chemical raw materials can be made in this way. For example, how to make nitric acid? Simple, put the nitrate into a closed furnace and distillate it. If it cannot be distilled, it is because the temperature is not enough. Find a way to use better fuel, strengthen the blowing, and dissolve the distilled gas into water and dissolve it into nitric acid. How to make sulfuric acid? It is also simple, put the alum in a confined space and distilled it. If it cannot be made, use better fuel and vigorously can always do miracles. Of course, there is an annoying thing about sulfuric acid, and the gas produced may be sulfur dioxide or not.

One high-temperature dry distillation and the other solvent dissolve can solve many problems. Unfortunately, Du Zhongxiao's energy and time are limited, otherwise he could produce a lot of chemical raw materials. However, it is hard to say how useful the chemical raw materials produced are in this simple and crude method.

Su Song's vast knowledge is the best in this era. In addition to knowledge and articles, astronomical calendars, alchemy and medicine, he learns almost everything. Chemistry is actually somewhat similar to alchemy. Remember not to eat the burned things as elixirs at any time, but to analyze them carefully, which is also a science.

What are mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry, sometimes it is so simple. What should I do if I can’t remember a lot of knowledge? It’s just a miracle that can be done, it’s simple and rough. Maybe the quality is not high, maybe what I get is not what I want, but I can always start with a way of thinking. Who knows what unimaginable things will happen when encountering talented people and strangers of this era?

Du Zhongxiao made his fortune by distilling and making liquor, and he has a lot of experience in this method. Now that he has iron ore under his governance, he has to rely on chemical knowledge and wants to distillate everything. Now, he burns charcoal and waits for some time to make a set of distillation tools, and find a few people to distillate the things he can find one by one, and see what fun things he will find.

Looking at the blazing fire under the stove, Su Song said, "How long does it take to roast it with fire like this?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "First burn for 7,749 hours to see what it looks like. If it is a good thing, slowly reduce the time."

Su Song frowned and said, "When Xiaoxiao, how do you know that coal can be used to smelite after distillation like this? You always feel that this is not reliable."

Du Zhongxiao said: "What do you think about it? I will make the firewood into charcoal. Now Hedong Road uses coal to make iron. Although coal is called charcoal, it has not been distilled like charcoal. It is hard and brittle, and it is useless. If coal is distilled like charcoal, wouldn't it be both good? The iron refined in this way is both pure and charcoal is the benefit of low price and high iron. Is this the reason?"

Su Song smiled bitterly and shook his head. Although he didn't know how to refute it, he felt that this was not the case.

In fact, from a scientific point of view, this cannot be said, but charcoal and coke are still somewhat similar. They are both distilled to remove some useless ingredients, leaving behind useful ingredients, increasing the hardness of the fuel and increasing the combustion temperature. Since charcoal was used to smelter, we should think of using coke to smelter. Now the furnace for burning charcoal is actually a kiln for burning charcoal.

Seeing the officers sorting various coals into sealed furnaces, they ordered everyone to return to the yamen.

They sat down in the sunshine of the Houya, served tea, and the two of them talked about some gossip.

Du Zhongxiao said: "This time I went to Yingtian on Jingxi Road. Everything was going on. Time was too tight, and many things were not done well. It was like opening fields. When I came, it was almost spring and I had time to plant everything. I could only rush to plant. These days I went to the nearby villages. It was very simple. It was hard to say how much food I could harvest in autumn. It was not like when I was in the volcanic army, I opened the fields for several months, opened the land, built the roads and ditches, and planted wheat seeds in autumn. The next year was a good harvest."

Su Song smiled and said, "In fact, this is true in many places. There are not many places where you really cultivate carefully. Not to mention the distance, just like Jingxi Road, Fangzhou and Jinzhou areas to the west, there are also slash-and-burn farming, and the population is also thriving."

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "I always think that farming like this is a waste of resources. When I am idle for some days, I want to recruit some people who read and read, and some old farmers, and specially set up a place to let them farm together. The old farmers farm according to their experience, and the scholars write down and tell them what to do and what not to do well. They sort out one by one and slowly organize them into books. Those who come to Beijing West Road to open fields are all boatmen. They have not planted fields for decades, so someone must teach them."

Su Song said: "This method made it possible for the time of Emperor Taizong to set up agricultural teachers in the world, but it was abandoned later. If you want to teach people to farm, you can learn to set up agricultural teachers at that time, and the government will subsidize some money and food, which will be beneficial."

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "Farming is also knowledge, but in fact, things in the world are not knowledge? Exploring and smelting iron, repairing and making agricultural tools, everything is knowledge. For all knowledge, you can set up schools, hire masters, and pass on teaching. In the field business, you can set up schools to inherit knowledge."

Su Song smiled and shook his head: "It will cost countless money to do this."

"Yes, I just lack money, everything costs money. We are in business, and what we lack the most now is money. So I want to set up a factory, recruit people to do business and barter, and make money. In the past few days, I will open a sugar shop first."
Chapter completed!