Chapter 1309 - Silver and Gelatin
Dr. Zhong took the document and studied it. The list included Category Two controlled material electrolytic silver—silver itself wasn't rare, but electrolytic silver was. The electrolysis industry for non-ferrous metals hadn't yet started; this stuff was being used up incrementally. But once the bottleneck in the power industry was resolved, electrolytic copper and electrolytic silver would no longer pose problems.
The items further down the list were more serious. These materials were all Category One controlled equipment and consumables—items that couldn't be domestically produced within five to ten years.
According to regulations, after he signed off on such specialized materials as a departmental leader, the Planning Commission would directly approve their release unless stocks had truly reached "red alert" levels. The responsibility this entailed was correspondingly significant. He read through it several times but didn't dare rashly ask "Are these things really essential?" On this specialty, Dr. Zhong's knowledge was basically at the level of a random naturalized citizen. Say too much and he'd inevitably reveal his ignorance. After some consideration, he decided to trust the professional—besides, this project was indeed very important. If successfully developed, it wouldn't just be a golden finger but 17th-century black technology.
"I approve." Dr. Zhong pulled out his personal seal and stamped each page in front of her. "Tomorrow I'll have my secretary deliver this to the Planning Commission—"
"If you don't think it's too pressing, I plan to take these documents to the Planning Commission personally tomorrow. My time is too tight; I can't wait for the official paperwork process. And some things I need to select myself to feel at ease."
"That works too." Zhong Lishi nodded. "However, your documents don't have complete procedural stamps. Here's what we'll do: I'll write you a note first. Take the note and documents together, and I'll send someone later to complete the paperwork."
"Thank you so much," Ge Xinxin said graciously.
Dr. Zhong took a notepad with Science and Technology Department letterhead from his briefcase, pulled out a Hero fountain pen, and dashed off a quick note with flourishes, ending with his signature and date.
Ge Xinxin accepted it, carefully blew on the ink, and smiled sweetly. "Thank you. You're really a good leader."
"You're welcome." Zhong Lishi rose to take his leave. "Once your project succeeds, how many people in the industrial sector will be grateful for your great benevolence?" he joked.
"I wouldn't dare claim that—it's all the result of everyone's collective effort," Ge Xinxin said as she carefully tucked the documents into her pocket. "I'm going back to do experiments. Take care."
Ge Xinxin returned to her laboratory. Her two naturalized "apprentice experimenters" were still sitting on a bench in the corridor outside, waiting for her. Both were girls—Ge Xinxin had selected only females as her experimental assistants to avoid daily work complications, all at least 1.60 meters tall. The laboratory equipment was manufactured according to transmigrators' average height, and shorter naturalized workers would find it quite strenuous to use.
She unlocked the door with her key. Her dedicated laboratory was numbered 4 and classified as a "Special Grade Laboratory," with most of its equipment coming from another timeline. Entry and exit were strictly controlled. Only transmigrator-supervised "apprentice experimenters" were permitted inside; all other naturalized citizens were forbidden.
Moreover, when no transmigrator was present, naturalized experimenters also couldn't remain inside. First, for safety—laboratory safety issues, even for 21st-century professionals, still frequently resulted in reckless operating errors, let alone natives of this timeline.
A naturalized worker capable of serving as an "assistant" was not quite one in a thousand, but certainly one in a hundred. Losing one to death or disability wasn't as easy to replace as losing a laborer at a construction site.
Second, if an accident occurred, laboratory equipment and chemicals would be damaged. Some of these materials were "more precious than gold"—and even with gold, there was nowhere to buy them. Just the commonly used 1/1000 analytical balance couldn't be manufactured by the Council's current industry.
Ge Xinxin entered the laboratory and inspected the cleaning work the naturalized experimenters had done: classifying waste liquids according to labels, washing instruments, tidying experiment benches. Only after confirming everything was in order did she glance at her watch.
"You may go off duty. Report to the laboratory at seven a.m. sharp tomorrow—you'll be working for Transmigrator Xu. I have business elsewhere."
It was now 11 p.m. Naturalized experimenters had no fixed work hours; everything followed the transmigrator's schedule. With a transmigrator like Ge Xinxin, one was basically left with only sleeping, eating, and bathroom time.
After dismissing the apprentices, Ge Xinxin sat for a moment in her chair. She was already very tired—she could have fallen asleep the moment she lay down—but she still needed to organize her thoughts on her project proposal.
Early the next morning, Ge Xinxin rose, slung an empty backpack over her shoulder, grabbed her usual handbag, and set off. She boarded the Ma'ao commuter train all the way to Bairren, then at the Bopu station ticket office showed her credentials and purchased a ticket to Gaoshanling Station.
The track from Bairren to Gaoshanling had only recently been laid. Although anyone could ride, not everyone could buy tickets all the way to Gaoshanling Station—only transmigrators and naturalized citizens with special passes could purchase them.
Ge Xinxin arrived smoothly at the Planning Commission's controlled materials warehouse at Gaoshanling and soon received the various controlled materials she had requested.
"Ge Xinxin, what are you taking all this silver for? Electrolytic pure silver at that. Besides electrical people, nobody's interested in this stuff. And gelatin—are you making cold dishes or jelly?" At the Planning Commission's Materials Office, the on-duty staff member Sun Xiao stamped her request forms while asking curiously.
"Un secret qui rend une femme de femme," Ge Xinxin replied with a soft laugh, placing her right index finger to her lips. Then she slipped the stamped forms into a ring binder and put it in her handbag, turned and walked out of the office, leaving Sun Xiao staring at the doorway and muttering to himself: "Hm? Is that perfume? How come after two or three years there's still stock? Who exactly is this girl?"
Carrying her acquired gelatin and silver, Ge Xinxin returned to her laboratory. She first took out a set of 24# distillation equipment—despite great effort, the glass factory could only manufacture standard-opening instruments of 14# and above. Micro-scale and semi-micro-scale instruments remained "under development." But for today's work, 24# equipment would do.
She poured 500 milliliters of concentrated nitric acid into a 1000-milliliter round-bottom flask, added porcelain chips, then distilled it in an oil bath. Collecting the 115-125°C fraction yielded 68% concentrated nitric acid with most metal ions and other impurities removed. She added 100 grams of chopped pure silver to the receiving flask, switched to a reflux apparatus with water bath, then filled out an overnight reaction form and placed it in front of the apparatus. She took off her lab coat and hung it on a hook by the door.
She boarded the Ma'ao-Bairren commuter train to get dinner—tonight she planned to eat well at the Commercial House Restaurant and improve her quality of life, then drop by the cooperative to buy some daily necessities. Though the goods there still fell far short of her standards, at least many were passable.
At 8 p.m., Ge Xinxin returned to the laboratory, stopped the reflux, and transferred the solution to an ice bath to cool. She turned on the water pump. The tremendous noise characteristic of machinery made in this timeline made her frown. "Honestly, the machinery factory keeps saying they'll improve it but never does." She decanted the cooled reaction liquid and solid into a BĂĽchner funnel lined with filter paper, vacuum-filtered, rinsed five times with 95% ethanol, and dried. She collected the obtained powder in a brown wide-mouth bottle labeled "silver nitrate" and placed it open in a desiccator.
Next, she dissolved 10 grams of gelatin in 350 milliliters of hot water, added 32 grams of recrystallized Ma'ao-produced potassium bromide, stirred until uniform, and maintained the solution at 55°C. Separately, she dissolved 40 grams of silver nitrate in 400 milliliters of warm distilled water. Then she prepared 40 grams of gelatin without excess water.
With all solutions prepared, Ge Xinxin turned off the lights and drew the curtains—the 17th-century night had no light pollution, so with thick wool curtains drawn, it was a perfect darkroom. Switching on a flashlight covered with red paper, she began the next step. She slowly poured the silver nitrate solution into the potassium bromide-gelatin mixture while stirring constantly at 55°C for 10 minutes, then added the prepared gelatin and continued stirring while heating for half an hour. She placed the beaker in a light-proof box and covered it, then used the flashlight to find the light switch. She labeled the box, put it in a cabinet, then summoned the naturalized worker on night duty and had her process the waste liquid and wash the instruments according to protocol.
"It's already 10 o'clock. I might as well finish this tonight." Looking at her watch, Ge Xinxin sighed. She left the laboratory after checking in with the transmigrator on duty and returned to the dormitory building next door. This building had been specially constructed by the Office for transmigrators working at the Heavy Industry Central Laboratory. Everyone had an office with an attached bedroom—much better than 21st-century treatment, when she and all other chemistry practitioners had been accustomed to having nothing but a folding chair in their offices.
As one of the few female transmigrators in the laboratory, her bedroom had its own private bathroom. The room was decorated in a cozy feminine style, with none of the so-called "industrial" aesthetic. The bamboo flooring was covered with a small handmade pure wool Persian rug. On the wall hung a meticulous flower-and-bird painting purchased at one of the war spoils auctions. A table lamp converted from a vase stood on the solid-wood nightstand. The single solid-wood bed was made up with blue-printed cotton bedding on a white background—about the prettiest pure cotton bedding the Light Industry Ministry could produce. The IKEA-style solid-wood wardrobe manufactured by the wood products factory held her various clothes, with specially built shelves holding a dozen or so bags and handbags. Among them, several counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags from Lando's ship were carefully wrapped in paper and placed on the top shelf; the rest were locally produced goods from the Light Industry Ministry.
(End of Chapter)