Chapter 1244: Fair Land (First Update, Please Subscribe)

No matter what the outside world thinks of Emperor Zhu, it is certain that it was he who created this country.

This is something that no one can deny. Before him, the Pampas was just a grassland. Even in South America, it was just the source of raw materials for Europe. The Pampas was for European cattle grazing, the Amazon was for European forests, Peru was for European silver mines, Chile was for European copper mines, and Brazil was for their sugar cane, coffee, and spice plantations...

In a word, South America at that time had neither industry nor the dawn of modernization. It seemed that the dawn of the Industrial Revolution had never shone on this fertile land.

But the appearance of Emperor Zhu changed everything here. He not only allowed modern civilization to take root in this land and let science shine on this land, but more importantly, this land that once belonged to white Europeans became fertile land for China. Tens of millions of Chinese people blossomed, bore fruit, and multiplied in this fertile new continent of South America.

This is the most beautiful and creative era. For every Ming Dynasty person, their soul has been recast. As long as they are willing to work, they can get rich rewards. As long as they are willing to use their intelligence and talents, they can obtain huge wealth.

This land is neither stingy to those who work hard nor favors those who work wisely. It is fair to all diligent people.

Tang Haodong is a chemistry teacher at Luoyang High School. He graduated from South China Normal University. He came to Luoyang five years ago, the capital of Henan Province - well, Henan is located south of the Amazon, that is, Pará State, and Luoyang is the city of Pará, a city that prospered because of the wild rubber trade.

Since the imperial rule, the rainforest has been reclaimed into tropical plantations, and the influx of a large number of Chinese immigrants has further prospered the city while also changing its demographic structure - the Chinese have become the mainstream of the city.

However, all this has nothing to do with Tang Haodong. His job is to teach and educate people. Of course, the school environment also allows him to have time to engage in research.

In the Ming Dynasty, everyone has the opportunity to become an inventor and to change their own destiny through their own intelligence and talents. Of course, inventors are also talents highly respected by society.

They invent and innovate, they change humanity, and of course, more importantly, they own wealth.

Inventor...is equivalent to status, wealth and reputation in Ming Dynasty.

The bright moonlight was reflected on the window of the school's chemistry laboratory, but the lights in the laboratory were still on. The light from the electric lamps shone into the room through the glass windows. Tang Haodong, wearing a white coat, walked around in the room from time to time. In front of him was a pile of glassware.

"…Bayer's first method of synthesizing indigo was too long and had a very low yield. It was not only too expensive but also of poor quality, so it could only remain in the laboratory stage. He then studied a second synthesis route, but it was not applied either. The reason was that the synthesis route he proposed was very complicated and very expensive. Indigo and alizarin both have natural sources, and it would be meaningless if the cost exceeded that of natural indigo…"

Tang Haodong was not talking to himself, but explaining his idea of ​​synthesizing indigo to the students around him who were interested in chemistry and had outstanding chemistry grades. While Tang Haodong was explaining, his students were recording the experimental process in their experimental notebooks.

This is a high school laboratory and also a place for invention. Last year, when the news that Bayer won the 1886 "Emperor Seidel Prize in Chemistry" for proposing the structural formula of indigo reached this remote town, Tang Haodong, a high school teacher, began research in this area.

Synthetic indigo means wealth. There are indigo plantations outside the city. Indigo is also an important export commodity of Luoyang. However, this does not prevent him from destroying their jobs. After all, the plantations can grow other things instead of indigo.

Although Luoyang is remote, the high school chemistry laboratory is well equipped with experimental equipment, many of which were donated by local wealthy businessmen. This also opened the door to Tang Haodong's invention. If the bluegrass plantation owners outside the city knew that the equipment they donated was used to make an invention that would destroy their jobs, I wonder how they would feel.

However, they cannot help but feel much. After all, it is only a matter of time before natural dyes are replaced. The reason is very simple. Since the British synthesized aniline purple in 1856, mankind has entered a period of great development of the chemical industry. In the past thirty years, cheap artificial synthetic dyes have replaced natural dyes.

The indigo that Tang Haodong wants to synthesize now is the most widely used dye. Not only is the blue dye used in large quantities, but it is also the basic color among dyes. The indigo used all over the world is extracted from various blue grasses, and its price has remained high.

For this reason, in the past few decades, British, French and German chemists have been trying to synthesize indigo. It was not until 1870 that Bayer obtained indigo by reacting indigo with phosphorus trichloride, phosphorus and acetyl chloride. Although he later invented another method, it still could not replace natural indigo because of its high cost and low yield.

The synthesis method that Tang Haodong is currently testing is the one he invented three months ago. Taking a different approach, he bypassed indigo and instead used indoxyl condensation to synthesize indigo. How is indoxyl prepared? It is obtained by condensing aniline with chloroacetic acid to obtain phenylglycine orthocarboxylic acid, which is then subjected to alkali melting treatment. The main problem with this process is that the costs of aniline and chloroacetic acid are relatively high. Because the content of aniline in coal chemical by-products is relatively small, and aniline dyes have now begun to be used on a large scale, the actual demand for aniline is very large, which further pushes up the cost. Therefore, Tang Haodong has been studying new synthesis routes. In order to solve this problem, Tang Haodong tried to start with naphthalene, which has a high content in coal tar and is cheap.

However, this synthesis path is very troublesome and has not been opened up until now. With a frown on his face, after the experiment failed, Tang Haodong checked the test report again. What exactly needs to be improved?

Gu Huaxin, who was assisting the teacher in conducting the experiment, noticed that the teacher was frowning and thinking, so he spoke.

"Teacher, in fact, the method you invented before is almost production-worthy. I calculated that its cost is 10% lower than that of natural indigo."

“What if the plantation decreases by 10%?”

Tang Haodong asked casually,

"By then this invention will have no meaning at all. Let's try another path."

Perhaps because he was a little upset, when he tried the experiment again, he moved a little more violently and accidentally broke the thermometer during the reaction.

“…”

Just as Tang Haodong was frowning in annoyance, he unexpectedly discovered that the reaction in the experimental dish had changed.

"this……"

"The teacher seems different from before..."

The classmates stood by and said.

"It's probably the mercury in the thermometer that combines with the sulfuric acid to speed up the reaction..."

Indeed, as Gu Huaxin said, mercury combined with sulfuric acid to form a mercuric sulfate catalyst, which unexpectedly accelerated the reaction.

It was this accident that immediately opened up the entire process...

Looking at the indigo obtained through the reaction, Tang Haodong said with some excitement.

"We, we succeeded...successfully..."

(End of this chapter)