Saltpeter?

While thinking about the relationship between saltpeter and ice, Bigo asked someone to bring the saltpeter.

Liu Tan asked someone to bring some water, one of which was a little boiled water, and the other was a little more raw water.

After putting boiled water into a small copper basin, he put some saltpeter into the large copper basin. After carefully placing the small copper basin inside the large copper basin, he began to slowly pour water into the large copper basin.

When saltpeter dissolves in water, it absorbs a lot of heat, and the water in the small copper basin will cool down rapidly, but whether it can freeze depends on the ratio.

Liu Tan didn't know what the correct ratio was, but this thing was better to try than anything else.

He asked people to prepare a lot of saltpeter. As the saltpeter in the large copper basin completely dissolved, the water in the small copper basin began to gradually form ice chips, then a mixture of ice and water, and finally turned into ice.

All of this happened almost in full view of the crowd. Bigo was so stunned that he couldn't help but mutter, "This must be a magical technique."

Liu Tan looked at him helplessly and was too lazy to explain. He could only tell the other party that saltpeter would absorb heat when dissolved in water, but at the same time he had to explain what heat was and why it would take away heat.

To be honest, Liu Tan knew the result, but he couldn't explain the principle.

Just let these people misunderstand.

He asked people to record the total amount of saltpeter and water, calculated the ratio, and then asked his subordinates to make ice according to this ratio.

As for this little bit of ice, it was just right for him to study how to make smoothies.

According to current productivity, the easiest way is probably to chisel it by hand, but the problem is that manual work also has various problems.

The first thing is that unless you chisel it in an ice cellar, if you chisel it slowly, it will just melt into water.

Secondly, it is difficult to avoid touching hands during hand-carving. He can ask the maker to wash his hands, but he cannot get over it in his heart.

Not to mention that the food has also been cooked by human hands. At least there is no raw food these days, so there should be no chef who is so crazy as to put his hands in the pot to rinse them.

Liu Tan touched his chin and suddenly said, "It seems that the reamer I made earlier may come in handy."

Bigo was a little confused: "What kind of reamer?"

"It's the thing we made before that was used to crush straw for honeycomb coal." Liu Tan gave it to his subordinates after he finished making it. If he hadn't suddenly remembered the ice crusher just now, he wouldn't have remembered this thing.

But when I think about it, a reamer doesn't seem to be suitable. What is really suitable is an ice shaver.

It is definitely impossible to make an electric one, but a manual one is not difficult at all. You just need to get a round barrel, place an ice skate at an angle under the barrel, and install a spiral pressure plate on top, and then a rotating handle on the top.

Pour the ice into the barrel, then rotate the handle to control the disc below to rise or fall. When it falls, pressure is applied to the ice on the opposite side. At the same time, there are spikes at the bottom of the disc to fix the ice and drive it to rotate.

The most difficult part of the entire ice shaver is probably the screw at the top.

The so-called spiral rod needs to be controlled by a spring. Fortunately, such a thing as a spring had already been invented before, but it was not as sophisticated as the ones in later generations and could not withstand a high pressure coefficient.

This thing was too simple, and there was not even any room for improvement. Liu Tan simply did not contact the Gongshu family, but asked his carpenter to make one directly.

After finishing it, he tried it himself and found that the effect was quite good. Because the whole shaved ice machine was made of wood, it looked quite fun.

On a whim, Liu Tan had someone make another one. He made the lid into an arc shape and added two round ears, then painted the whole thing black and white. He drew black circles on the body of the machine, making it look round and curly, which looked quite cute.

Liu Tan looked at this and said, "Go and choose the best wood and make another one."

Bigao was a little surprised: "Is this not enough?"

"No, this is too big."

Because we anticipated that we would be serving a lot of people, we made this shaved ice machine quite large so that we could produce a lot at one time.

However, after making it into the shape of a panda on a whim, Liu Tan suddenly thought that this thing would be quite fun.

Thinking that his father could spend a long time playing with a flush toilet, he should be very interested in making shaved ice by himself, so I just made a few small ones in different shapes and let him choose whatever he wants when the time comes.

Even other people who came with Liu Che could play with it, but they would have to be made smaller, without animal shapes, and simpler to distinguish them from Liu Che's.

Liu Tan even began to think about whether to make one out of Dunhuang jade, but then he thought about it, this is an everyday thing, and jade is relatively fragile. Wouldn't it be a disappointment if it broke?

If you don't use Dunhuang jade, you can only work on other places, such as inlaying gems, using black gems for the rolling eyes, and then using special techniques to paint a plush texture on it.

He has to do this himself.

Liu Tan never expected that he, a poor painter, could show off his painting skills after traveling through time.

After the finished product was completed, the ordinary shaved ice machine suddenly became more valuable. At the same time, Liu Tan felt that he seemed to have found a new way to make a fortune.

The temperature in some parts of the Northern Territory is not high in summer, but in other parts of the country, although the average temperature is not high, the temperature difference between day and night is large.

Dunhuang is located in this area. Shaved ice is a very good way to relieve the summer heat, and the most important thing is that it is low-cost!

There are people selling ice outside now, but not only is it inedible, it is also very expensive. Most of it is stored by ordinary people in the winter and bought in the summer to earn more money.

Liu Tan calculated the price and found that even if he set the price of his shaved ice higher, there would definitely be people who would buy it. What's more, shaved ice is not just ice, it is also topped with sweet and sour jam.

Among these things, jam is the most expensive because it contains sugar.

Of course, the jam given to Liu Che must be made with white sugar. If it was sold, malt sugar would be used. In order to save costs and lower the price, few people could afford the high price.

After making the shaved ice, Liu Tan ran out of inspiration for a while, so he decided to deal with some business to change his mind.

As he was processing paperwork, he saw that the latest fiscal expenditure included dam construction, and couldn't help but ask, "How is Xu Lin's eyes recovering?"

Xu Lin's eyesight problems were caused by long-term malnutrition. It certainly won't heal overnight, but as long as there's improvement, there's hope.

Zhu Shan was stunned for a moment before saying, "This...this...I don't think I heard what Mr. Xu said."

Liu Tan put down the paperwork in his hand and said cheerfully, "Then let's go see him."

Well, he skipped work openly under the pretext of caring for his subordinates.

Zhu Shanfu was silent for a moment before ruthlessly shattering his thoughts: "Emissary Xu has been away from the capital for over half a month."

Liu Tan was stunned: "What did he do?"

Zhu Shanfu whispered, "Envoy Xu said he wanted to build the dam as soon as possible. If we delay any further, we'll miss the farming season."

Liu Tan was somewhat helpless: "One more or one less won't have such a big impact temporarily. Forget it, if he likes it, let him do it."

He could more or less understand Xu Lin's thoughts. It was nothing more than that the knowledge he had learned for so many years and the dream he had pursued for so many years had finally come true. Naturally, he would be filled with enthusiasm. He thought that he would feel better after this period.

However, when this was mentioned, Liu Tan had a new idea: Should he create some water entertainment projects?