Li Yu was indeed too ahead of his time. He basically completed the first-year courses of psychology and education in more than half a month.
In this era, the Capital University was not yet a university in the pure sense. It often had to undertake consultations with the imperial court or other industrial and commercial personnel.
Tianjin Customs Department Tang Shaoyi took two people to the university hall today to find Li Yu.
"Mr. Li Yu, you are fine." Tang Shaoyi said.
Li Yu had met Tang Shaoyi, shook hands with him and said, "Tang Daotai, I'm glad to meet you."
Tang Shaoyi said, "I don't go to the Three Treasures Hall for anything." He introduced the two people behind him, "They are Zhang Xinwu and Luo Jianqiu, businessmen from Tianjin."
The two of them also knew Li Yu's name very well: "Hello, Mr. Li Yu, we have admired you for a long time!"
Li Yu didn't know why, but he shook hands with them and said hello.
Li Yu asked Tang Shaoyi: "What's going on at Tang Daotai today?"
Tang Shaoyi took out a cigar, then lit it with a match. She held up the match stem in her hand and said to Li Yu, "There is indeed something going on. We are here for this."
"Matches?" Li Yu asked.
"Exactly!" Tang Shaoyi said, "These two are preparing to restore the Tianjin Tap Fire Bureau."
Well, during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, people really didn't care about physics and chemistry. As long as they knew you understood Western learning, they would come to you for any problem.
Li Yu smiled and said, "I don't know if I can help."
Zhang Xinwu said: "Mr. Li is too humble. With your great knowledge, how can it be difficult for a small matchmaker to get you?"
Tang Shaoyi smoked a cigar and said, "That's right! Brother Li Yu, I've seen your skills before. Even Governor Yuan praised you very much. I don't believe that a little matchmaker can find the stars in the sky."
Li Yu felt a little dizzy: "That's not the case..."
"That's not the case! Anyway, with your help, I don't think there's anything I can't do. After all, I'm asking about Western studies. I had already asked Mr. Zhang before I came to the university. When he heard that he was asking about chemistry, he immediately asked me
Looking for you, Mr. Zhang really trusts you." Tang Shaoyi said.
If you really think about it, although Li Yu's chemistry level was not particularly high, it seems that no one in the late Qing Dynasty knew it better than him.
And theoretically, chemistry and physics can explain each other at the microscopic theoretical level. In fact, all chemical phenomena can essentially be explained by the interaction of the outermost electrons, and the atomic field also belongs to physics.
Others had come all the way, so Li Yu had no choice but to say: "Then let me give it a try."
Luo Jianqiu said happily: "You only need to try it casually to solve our problem."
Li Yu smiled and said: "If I can solve it, I will naturally spare no effort."
Zhang Xinwu and Luo Jianqiu will later become the founders of China's match industry. Even though they are just small matches, they actually have a very difficult road.
"Everything is wasteful and ready to be revitalized" is very suitable to be used in China at the beginning of the 20th century. There really was no modern industry at all. Large heavy industries were not mentioned at all. Even small ones such as matches and pencil production were huge problems.
Tang Shaoyi said proudly: "Let me tell you, it is best to come to the capital to find Li Yu. Even if you hand over thousands of taels of silver to foreigners, they may not be able to teach you."
Li Yu asked: "What difficulties do you have?"
When it came to business, Tang Shaoyi immediately became serious: "Of course it's for our own match industry. Fifteen years ago, Li Hongzhang and Li Zhongtang founded the Tianjin Fire Bureau in Tianjin, specializing in the production of matches. But it didn't take long to start production.
, products from Swedish and Japanese match companies poured in. It must be said that their matches are indeed safe, reliable and better to use, and the prices are very low. As a result, the products of the Tianjin Fire Bureau continued to be unsaleable, and few
It went bankrupt in the year.”
The world's earliest safety matches were invented by the Swedes, and they were the first to enter the Chinese market. Later, Japanese matches were also imported in large quantities, and Japanese matches once occupied more than 85% of China's match market.
Although matches are not as large as other industries, even in the late Qing Dynasty, they reached a scale of tens of millions of taels and were not a niche market.
Moreover, these tens of millions of taels of silver are all net flows, and most of them go to Japan.
This situation did not improve until the national match industry developed twenty or thirty years later.
Li Yu said: "If the price is not advantageous or the quality is not up to standard, it will be really difficult to compete with matches."
"That's right! What they want to do now is to improve the product level. The Tianjin Fire Bureau has ordered a lot of equipment at that time. Although it is old, fortunately it can still be used. The initial investment in equipment is not large. The most important thing at present is that the technology is too advanced.
Behind," Tang Shaoyi said to Zhang Xinwu, "Bring me a box of products."
Zhang Xinwu took out a box of matches from the package and handed them to him. Tang Shaoyi placed the matches produced by the Tianjin Fire Bureau in front of Li Yu together with the Swedish matches he had just used to light the cigar, and said, "Can you see the problem?
?”
Li Yu looked at it for a while, "It seems that the color is a little wrong, and there is a box with no friction surface on the side."
Tang Shaoyi laughed loudly, "It is indeed Mr. Li! I can see the problem at a glance."
Li Yu frowned, it was not a small problem.
Tang Shaoyi said to Zhang Xinwu: "You can ask professional questions."
Zhang Xinwu pointed to the matches produced by the Tianjin Fire Bureau and said: "Mr. Li must have noticed that we produce yellow phosphorus matches, but Swedish Match uses red phosphorus matches."
Li Yu nodded: "One word difference makes a world of difference."
The "yellow phosphorus" and "red phosphorus" Zhang Xinwu talked about are actually the unified names of white phosphorus and red phosphorus in modern chemistry. If you have seen white phosphorus, you will know that in many cases white phosphorus is actually yellow in color.
White phosphorus and red phosphorus are the most typical examples of "allotropes" learned in high school chemistry.
Although their atomic compositions are both P, the atomic structure of white phosphorus is a regular tetrahedron, while that of red phosphorus is a chain structure.
The microscopic composition directly affects the macroscopic properties.
White phosphorus is extremely flammable and will even spontaneously ignite in the air. It can only be stored in water, and white phosphorus is highly toxic.
However, red phosphorus has a much higher ignition point, is not flammable, and is basically non-toxic.
The reason why Swedish matches are called "safety matches" is because they use red phosphorus instead of white phosphorus.
Zhang Xinwu said: "The yellow phosphorus (white phosphorus) matches we produce are not as good as Swedish matches in terms of craftsmanship. Now the price of Swedish matches has reached 70 yuan per box, which has a huge impact on us."
What startups fear most is to be targeted by industry giants. You can imagine how it feels to be targeted by Boss Ma just after you set up an e-commerce company.
Li Yu picked up two boxes of matches. Although the price was as low as 70 yuan, they were not cheap. There were only 12 matches in a box. Ordinary people couldn't afford it, and it was usually only dignitaries who were willing to use matches to light fires.
Li Yu understands the situation of Zhang Xinwu and others: "The problem now is that not only the product is not good, but the brand is not as good as matches, and there are even big safety issues."
Luo Jianqiu said: "Yeah, what's even more frightening is that some people have committed suicide by swallowing our yellow phosphorus matches. There have been several murder cases, and even the government is eyeing us. If Tang Daotai hadn't come forward, I'm afraid we would have been sealed off again.
."
Most officials in the Qing court did not understand modern industry, and with the pressure from foreigners behind their backs, they would almost kill national industries with a stick indiscriminately.
Li Yu understood their situation: "It is indeed necessary to make technical innovations."
Tang Shaoyi said: "That's right. The equipment is now available, but the key point is that it cannot meet the technical requirements. If Mr. Li Yu can solve the technical problems and improve safety first, I think the other difficulties mentioned just now can be solved."
"
Li Yu thought about his chemistry knowledge back then, and then said, "I understand, I'll let you go and have a look."
"Great!" Zhang Xinwu and Luo Jianqiu were very excited. "If you don't take action, I'm afraid there won't be anyone else who can help in the entire land of China."
Zhang Xinwu once studied at Tianjin Beiyang Academy and also studied Western learning.
But just like the Capital University, the newly opened universities were basically responsible for the tasks of primary schools in Western countries. And most of them focused more on foreign languages and politics and law, and had little involvement in the scientific field.
Zhang Xinwu is a passionate young man. Although he doesn't know much about chemistry and has never heard of "allotropes", he still has to do it with a strong determination in his heart. Even though he knows that foreign matches are better, he just wants to be himself.
national products to compete with them!
Such people were not uncommon in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and Zhang Xinwu was engaged in a relatively meaningful chemical industry. Li Yu should help him no matter what.
Li Yu and Tang Shaoyi found Zhang Baixi, the Minister of Management and Education.
Tang Shaoyi's Tianjin Customs Department only had an official rank of fourth rank, but from its birth, the Customs Department was a super-powerful department. They managed the customs duties of the Qing Dynasty, and their actual status was second only to the local feudal officials.
So once Tang Shaoyi took action, Zhang Baixi had nothing to say.
Zhang Baixi said earnestly to Li Yu: "I didn't expect that you would have to take on such an important task as soon as school started. I know that foreign things are not easy to study, but you are different! I believe you can do what Li Zhongtang couldn't do back then.
If it can be completed successfully, I will reward you on behalf of the university!"
Li Yu solemnly said: "I will definitely live up to the name of the university."
In the era when Li Yu lived, the aura around him was mostly given to him by Peking University. Now that he has the opportunity to boost the reputation of Peking University in the early days through his own efforts, he will definitely spare no effort, and there is nothing to say.
Tang Shaoyi guarded such a big gap in the Customs Road. Although he was not greedy, he was still very rich. The four of them took the Beijing-Tianjin train first class tickets bought by Tang Shaoyi and headed for Tianjin.
When he arrived at the Tianjin Fire Bureau, Li Yu saw a new sign hanging next to it: "Danfeng Match Company".
Needless to say, it must be the name of the new company founded by Zhang Xinwu and others.
In addition to many male workers, Zhang Xinwu also hired some female workers to make matchbox pastes.
In this era, there were too few factories that could recruit female workers, which to a certain extent solved the employment problem of many working people at the bottom.
The equipment in the factory is indeed relatively old, but the current matchmaking process uses machines in addition to the processes of rotating blades, cutting stems, rowing stems and unloading stems, and other processes such as sawing wood, drying stems, transporting stems, dipping oil, dipping medicine, etc.
Drying, gluing, cartoning, packaging and cartoning are all done manually.
Therefore, the production pressure of the equipment is not high, and the old equipment can be used.
Zhang Xinwu also built a special laboratory, complete with flasks and containers, but he didn't know how to use them yet.
Li Yu walked around in a circle, and then after asking, he understood that the match factory now uses the 70-year-old white phosphorus match production process that has been eliminated long ago in the West.
This kind of match is convenient to use. There is white phosphorus in the match head, and it can catch fire by just rubbing it. There is no need to strike a fire on the friction layer like the safety matches of later generations.
But the problem is that it is too sensitive to fire and can easily cause fires. Moreover, white phosphorus is not only highly toxic in itself, but also highly toxic during the production process.
Li Yu looked at the bottles in front of him and immediately understood their difficulties: "It is difficult for you to produce red phosphorus now."
Zhang Xinwu said sincerely: "Yes, not only that, we also have no way of knowing the ratio of match heads."
"The ratio is not a problem. It is nothing more than a ratio experiment of sulfur, potassium chlorate and manganese dioxide. This can be tried exhaustively." Li Yu touched the flask and said, "As long as the source is found, there is no need to worry about the waste of experiments later."
Potassium chlorate and sulfur are not difficult to find in Tianjin now. These two items are important raw materials for preparing gunpowder. Tianjin is also the base area of the Beiyang Army, so there is no shortage of these.
And there is nothing mysterious about potassium chlorate. There is an important experiment in high school chemistry that involves the production of oxygen with potassium chlorate.
Zhang Xinwu also knew about potassium chlorate and sulfur, but he really didn't know that the same element could have two different forms.
Whether in the laboratory or in industry, dangerous white phosphorus is prepared first, and then red phosphorus is prepared.
The method is not complicated, it is to heat, of course, by isolating the air for heating.
The laboratory was relatively simple, so Li Yu put on some clothes and started experiments with Zhang Xinwu and Luo Jianqiu.
Li Yu showed them how to heat, how to collect red phosphorus, etc.
After only four or five experiments, Li Yu became proficient in preparing red phosphorus from white phosphorus, and then taught it to Zhang Xinwu and Luo Jianqiu.
The red phosphorus can then be made into the friction layer on the side of the matchbox.
Although it seems very simple, it had stumped the two of them for a long time before, and the Swedes and Japanese did not tell them the method at all.
Anyway, this thing is not a patent. We can only blame the Qing Dynasty for being too backward. High school chemistry has become a bottleneck for industrial development.
Then Li Yu conducted experiments with them to develop match heads using potassium chlorate, sulfur and manganese dioxide. In fact, they controlled the fire temperature through experiments.
After all, Li Yu had received modern education and knew the experimental strategy of easing the transition from high temperature to low temperature, that is, from "excessive safety" to "normal safety". After dozens of experiments, the preliminary ratio was completed the next day.
These are not complex chemical problems. Although the accuracy of the preliminary proportioning is still not enough, the method is available, and Zhang Xinwu only needs to do more proportioning experiments in the future.
With these processes, white phosphorus can be completely eliminated, which means safe matches can be produced.
Zhang Xinwu carefully wrote down Li Yu's experimental steps in his notebook, and was very excited: "I didn't expect Mr. Li Yu to provide us with these precious secrets for free. There is really no way to repay him. When our factory is up and running, he will definitely give it to us."
You give me a reward."
Li Yu said with a smile: "It's a small effort, but it's nothing! If you can find ways to improve product quality, then lower the price, and successfully open the match market, that will be the greatest thank you to me."
Zhang Xinwu bowed his head to the end: "Sir, I really admire you for your righteousness!"