"Toluene, toluene, my chairman," Qi Chuqin waved his arms exaggeratedly: "In the past, we relied entirely on coal coking to supply the pitiful little bit, but now we have the light oil from Well Silia No. 2, which can be directly heated and fractionated.
We can get toluene. But such good crude oil is not available. I have talked with the Planning Institute several times, and Wu De said that the oil is available but there is no shipping."
How to transport the oil from Silia back has become a problem for the Planning Institute. The Senate does not have oil tankers, and the method of oil transportation is still the ancient method: put it in wooden barrels and then transport it back by cargo ship. The unit of oil in the old time was "barrel"
In fact, it is the relic of this kind of wooden barrel transportation.
As you can imagine, the efficiency of this method of transportation is pitifully low, and the losses on the road are also huge. On the one hand, the oil in the oil pool cannot be transported, and on the other hand, there are no raw materials in the factory.
"It won't take a few months for the light oil to evaporate in the oil storage tank, leaving some asphalt to pave roads and coat roofs? It's like turning diamonds into glass. If the oil can arrive in time, we will be able to use it tomorrow
He led the Fubo Army to blow up the Forbidden City and kidnapped Zhu Youjian to Lingao to hold an exhibition." He said this with a heartbroken look on his face, suggesting that he was accusing Wu De of being a "traitor" and sabotaging production.
Wang Luobin suddenly remembered something and asked: "The Planning Institute has a plan to build an oil refinery in Silia to process oil products on site. What does your chemical industry department think about it?"
"Of course we support it with both hands." Qi Chuqin said, "The problem is that water from afar cannot quench the thirst of the nearer. Our Danzhou Chemical Industry has only begun to take shape after several years of construction, and we lack food and clothing. Then we go thousands of miles away.
Even if we have the equipment, workers and technicians to build a refinery, we can't solve it." Seeing Wang Luobin's expression, he immediately added, "Relatively speaking, transporting crude oil is relatively safe, given our current technical conditions.
, shipping chemicals, I’m afraid the risk factor is even greater.”
Chairman Wang turned around and said to a young naturalized citizen who looked like a secretary: "Make a note, we must prioritize the transportation of Silia Light Oil! Use controlled ships when necessary."
The so-called controlled ships are nothing more than modern ships anchored and maintained by the elders as treasures.
Qi Chuqin was so excited because he had received the latest composition report from the exploration team in the Silia Oil Field: the composition of the newly mined oil had undergone major changes.
Although Silia's crude oil is famous for its aromatic components, according to the analysis of the exploration team, most of the newly mined crude oil is in the kerosene range; benzene, that is, the light naphtha range, is very small. According to annual production
Calculating 50,000 tons of crude oil, the annual output of benzene may be less than 500 tons and toluene less than 2,000 tons. Compared with the output of coal chemical industry, the increase is limited. However, the proportion of gasoline is not low at all, which can be regarded as a boost to the engine industry of the Senate.
good news.
In this way, the aromatic light oil currently produced in Well No. 2, which is mainly in the light naphtha range, is extremely precious. Although the well is currently in the stage of high and stable production, the production of the oil well is quite mysterious and it is difficult to say
How long can Well No. 2 continue to produce high production?
Wouldn't it make him sad if the extracted oil was wasted? In particular, benzene and toluene are the main raw materials for the production of explosives, disinfectants and pesticides. Once there is a supply gap, the currently planned equipment schedule will inevitably be affected. This is also
The reason why he desperately requested to prioritize the shipment of crude oil from Well Siya No. 2.
"Although controlled ships have advantages in speed and transportation volume, the transshipment process requires two steps of loading and emptying barrels, which is labor-intensive and causes great losses in the process. Can the construction of oil tankers be put on the agenda?"
"Building oil tankers?" Wang Luobin hesitated. The shipbuilding industry of the Senate has made significant progress, but the largest ship so far is only a 3,000-ton iron-frame and wooden-hulled hybrid ship. The step of building oil tankers seems to be a bit too big.
"Your chemical industry department will submit a proposal to the Planning Institute on this matter, and I will come and take care of it," Wang Luobin said.
"I bet this is Chief Qi's 'firecrackers.'" Mai Ruibao thought, recalling the fireworks workshops he had seen in the countryside of Guangdong when he was a child, and finally he could understand what those machines were doing when he stepped into the specialized black powder branch factory.
——The belt-driven drum and ball mill grind saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur respectively. The most eye-catching thing is the wheel mill: two huge black iron wheels are suspended in the air and rotate, and barrels of saltpeter and sulfur carbon powder are poured.
In the material tray under the wheel, the rotating iron wheel rolled the powder mixed with a little water, grinded, kneaded, and gradually compacted it into a large piece of gunpowder cake - he estimated that it weighed hundreds of kilograms. How about this large lump of gunpowder?
Use it? If it is made into a fireworks display, it may not be able to blow up the entire yard. Mai Ruibao was making random guesses when he saw workers lifting it out of the material tray and placing it under a set of wooden mallet machines.
The connecting rod moves up and down to crush the huge medicine cake into small pieces, and then the workers pour it into several step-like machines. "Please note that this is the granulation process." The bronze pressure roller of the granulator made a rolling sound.
The pieces of medicine cake are further crushed, ground, and sieved. According to the size of the mesh holes installed, finished products that meet different needs are spit out. I heard Qi Krylong introduce that the finished black medicine is divided into rifles according to particle size.
powder, fuse extension powder and mining blasting powder, as well as propellant powder pressed into special prism shapes for artillery. Mai Ruibao remembered the photos he saw from the newspaper database: Not to mention the rural workshops in Guangdong, even in Guangdong and Guangxi,
The official workshops of the imperial court in Fujian were nothing more than stone grinding abrasives, wooden mortars for pounding, and bamboo sieves for sifting medicines. They were completely different worlds from everything in front of you.
The black powder factory implements strict fire prevention measures, and even electric lights are installed in the outdoor corridors through glass windows to illuminate the interior. In order to take photos, Mai Ruibao had to keep going in and out of the workshop room, and it seemed that he accidentally touched something.
If a spark comes, it will cause a disaster that will level the entire factory. He can't help but think of Chief Qi's heroic words: "Capture Zhu Youjian alive and blow up the Forbidden City!"
"If we really want to blow up the Forbidden City, we don't like black powder at all," Qi Krylong's high-pitched voice said, "its status as gun propellant will soon be completely replaced by smokeless gunpowder."
Mai Ruibao had seen the word smokeless gunpowder in class and in the Lingao Times, but he knew very little about it. So when he watched workers in the workshop immersing the soft cotton balls that had been degreased into pottery filled with strong acid,
When making a reaction vessel, I was shocked - this gunpowder is made of cotton? Miss Sun even lost her composure and muttered to herself: "This... these many jibei, how many kilograms of yarn can be spun, how many feet of woven fabric can be weaved..."
However, Chairman Wang showed dissatisfaction as always: "Where can we use the 100 kilograms of smokeless medicines produced every day? I think the most important product in the factory is Balistai double base medicine, which is good. But there is still nearly one third
It's Schulz gunpowder. It burns too fast and can only be used for muskets. Is there any need to produce it? Is it used to kill birds for the senators?"
"The pump-action shotgun imitating Remington in Bopu Factory uses Schultz propellant, and the special reconnaissance team and Lingao Security Battalion are equipped with it." The person who answered the call was Ji Tuisi, who was supervising the production of nitrocellulose: "
This type of bulk smokeless medicine is advantageous in its simple process and can also be used to load grenades, which can save other explosives."
"The small amount of nitrocellulose we currently use to produce nitrocellulose is the waste cotton from the Lingao Textile Factory. We mainly use cotton linters, which are the fluff remaining on the surface of cotton seeds after ginning. They will not take away raw materials from the textile industry. However, consuming chemicals is not necessary.
There is less, especially the ethanol consumed by nitrocellulose water dispersion. The Planning Institute used the excuse of a shortage of food raw materials to reduce our ration every three days. Damn it, why didn’t they say this when the Ministry of Light Industry was selling alcohol? Just care
Make money and put the great cause of the Senate southward and northward!" Qi Chuqin angrily slashed his hand down.
Wang Luobin continued to smile and nod, noncommittal.
"To be honest, the production of nitrocellulose and smokeless medicine is very labor-intensive and very dangerous. I don't dare to let the workers work if they are not well trained. Production safety is a huge problem, and it cannot be solved by simply increasing the supply of raw materials,"
Ji Tuisi added: "Not to mention completely replacing black powder, even if it can ensure the full rollout of smokeless gunpowder in the army and navy, it will take at least two years. At present, we can solve the problem of special reconnaissance team training and veteran self-prepared weapons regeneration.
The smokeless medicine used in packaging is already the limit of what our factory can do."
"In 1638, the greatest achievement that specialization can achieve is not to eliminate black powder in propellant, but to eliminate it in cannonballs - to be precise, grenade charges!" Walking out of the gun and bullet assembly workshop, Mairuibao still felt the same.
Dizzy, the sun shines down from the cracks in the clouds, piercing people so hard that they can hardly open their eyes, and coats Commander Qi with a halo of light: "The grenades fired by the Fubo Army's artillery exploded into 20 pieces at most."
The shame of fragmentation has come to an end. The era of high-explosive bombs has arrived!"
The factory area under his feet is not far from Tehua, and can be reached directly by a small freight train, but there is a sign saying "Bopu Arsenal Second Branch". Mai Ruibao remembers that the gun and ammunition workshop he just walked through is divided into two parts:
One is still manufacturing and supplying paper-packed ammunition for the Army's original Minie rifles, Nanyang-style muskets and Hall rifles; the other is assembling metal fixed-loading ammunition for Type 1637 rifles, Type 1634 pistols, etc. Especially
In the latter, the bright brass cartridge case simply made his eyes unable to move. Even after reading the book, Mai Ruibao doubted whether the bullet case was plated with gold. He used cotton to make gunpowder and made it out of gold.
Guns and bullets, this is in line with the leader's style! In comparison, the artillery shell workshop seems not so eye-catching. There are wooden barrels placed in every corner of the workshop and between the machinery and equipment, and the lids of the barrels are densely covered with small holes.
Ruibao then asked Qi Krylong what kind of equipment these were. They looked inconspicuous and seemed to be a bit cumbersome and redundant.