Chapter 2831 Firecracker Powder

"Dehumidifying buckets. They contain calcium chloride supplied by the alkali plant—it absorbs moisture from the air." Qi Kelong explained, "Once ammonium nitrate absorbs moisture, it cakes up and becomes incredibly troublesome, so we have to keep the workshop humidity under tight control. Look over there—"

The conveyor belt was lined with shell casings shipped from Maniao. Though these were the latest model 75mm breech-loading shells, the black iron forms had been turned and polished until they gleamed with dark reflections—though nowhere near as attractive as the brilliant golden display on the cartridge assembly line. Moreover, to save costs, the Senators had switched the driving bands from copper to lead alloy, leaving them looking gray and dull. Following Qi Kelong's pointing finger, Ruibao watched female workers fitting funnel-like devices onto the openings at the shell tops before conveying them to a machine. A threaded metal rod descended through the funnel deep into the shell body. When the motor hummed to life, the threaded rod spun rapidly. Curious, Ruibao moved closer and observed spiral tubes on the machine continuously discharging pale yellow powder granules into the funnel mouth. They accumulated briefly at the funnel's lip before quickly sinking into the shell casing with the rotation of the threaded rod, vanishing inside.

"Is this gunpowder?" Mai Ruibao stared at the yellowish-white granules that looked like crumbs. He could not mentally connect this rice-flour-like substance with gunpowder or explosives.

"It's 80/20 Amatol." Seeing Mai Ruibao's confusion, Qi Kelong elaborated: "A mixture of ammonium nitrate and TNT, with ammonium nitrate making up 80% by mass—an explosive near zero oxygen balance. As for explosive power, compared to it, black powder is—" Qi Kelong blinked mischievously—"just a ground rat."

Before she finished speaking, the auger whirred again, rotating in the opposite direction and gradually withdrawing upward from the shell body. The spiral tube's delivery outlet stopped discharging explosive granules. "Comrade Reporter, this is an auger filling machine. While automating the filling process, it compacts the explosive, increasing charge density and thus the shell's explosive force." The filled shells were conveyed into a blast-resistant room. Through the glass, Ruibao watched workers operate on the shell heads with cutting tools, then brush some liquid onto them. "The powder surface at the opening needs to be scraped flat and a hole drilled to accommodate the booster charge tube. Once everything's complete, the powder surface must be brushed with asphalt varnish to seal out moisture—because ammonium nitrate absorbs moisture far too easily."

Sun Shangxiang suddenly addressed Qi Kelong: "Comrade, have you always worked here?" Mai Ruibao realized with a start that this was Miss Sun's first time interviewing a naturalized-citizen worker since they had disembarked from the urban rail. "May I ask—do you love this job?"

"How could I not love it? Teacher Qi taught me all his knowledge and led me onto the path of researching chemical engineering. How could I not love everything Teacher Qi taught me, love work where I can apply this knowledge?" Qi Kelong's small face flushed red again. "Comrade Reporter, if you understood explosives, you'd know they're very interesting, even cute." She raised her hand to point at the conveyor belt emerging from the blast-resistant room, carrying shells that disappeared at the workshop's far end. "Once they pass quality inspection and have their fuses installed, it's like children you've raised finally coming of age—you can look forward to them spreading their wings one day."

Miss Sun knitted her brows. Her pen touched the notebook but did not write a single character—clearly she was completely unable to comprehend Qi Kelong's answer. The interview had stalled. To ease this awkward silence, Mai Ruibao had to change the subject: "This automated shell filling is efficient and fast. But can new explosive production keep pace? Will we have to go back to using black powder?"

"Teacher Qi said Specialty Chemical's production capacity is currently just scratching the surface. Even at current chemical product output, a year's worth of 80/20 Amatol could fill at least 10,000 75mm shells. Once Danzhou's chemical industry is fully operational, over 200,000 75mm shells could be filled annually. In fact, we won't need that many—half the shells are shrapnel, which only use black powder." Warming to the topic, Qi Kelong led Mai Ruibao and Sun Shangxiang into an adjacent workshop. "Come see this side—the filling process is even simpler."

The conveyor belt in this workshop carried wooden insert racks with shiny small steel cylinders neatly arranged in the slots. From Qi Kelong, Ruibao learned these were high-explosive shell bodies for the Type 34 autocannon, with filling funnels inserted in their top openings. Gradually, his amazement grew: workers pushed over flatbed carts, opened "thermal water buckets" mounted on top, scooped out a yellow "oil," portioned it into several carrying buckets, then poured it into the funnels one by one. He looked closer and saw the bucket interior was painted with measurement markings for workers to dispense precisely. The "yellow oil" remaining at the bucket bottom still gave off some heat, like melted soap. Nearby, Chairman Wang asked Senator Qi with keen interest: "What explosive is being poured in?"

"Torpex 70/30. Thirty percent RDX."

"Specialty Chemical can already produce RDX?"

"The pharmaceutical factory has been supplying hexamethylenetetramine for a long time. Nitrating hexamine to make RDX isn't complicated—it just consumes too much nitric acid. Not as economical as TNT. Right now we're making Torpex mainly for booster charges. The Navy requires autocannons to destroy fire ships as quickly as possible—so they benefit too." Qi Chuqin was in full flow when a female shriek interrupted him. Everyone's gaze focused on Sun Shangxiang—while walking, she had lifted her leg and bumped a bucket on a cart, yelping in pain from the burn. "Hey, hey, little girl, watch out—that's connected to a steam pipe." Only then did Mai Ruibao notice iron pipes with valves standing beside the conveyor, connected to fittings on the "thermal water buckets"—the bucket's double walls were filled with high-temperature steam. "That's how the Torpex mixture stays in its molten state."

Sun Shangxiang refused Mai Ruibao's offer to help her rest somewhere, limping along behind the Senators. Only Chairman Wang's comment could be heard: "This process is excellent—low dependence on specialized equipment, easy to scale up for mass production."

"The Chairman is perceptive. Cast filling is simply efficient." Qi Chuqin maintained his passionate lecturing tone. "I can easily modify the Amatol formula, raising TNT content to 40% or 50% to create very castable explosives. Army mountain and field artillery shells as well as Navy shells could all switch to cast filling—production efficiency could multiply several times over. In short, we need more TNT. Please have the Planning Commission allocate more nitric acid and sulfuric acid quotas so Specialty Chemical's TNT continuous production line can run at full capacity."

"Director, I have a question." Sun Shangxiang suddenly spoke up. "Why do all these, um, explosives that our Great Song produces have such strange names? TNT, hexamine, RDX—where do these names come from?"

"Well, they're basically English abbreviations of these products' chemical molecular formulas..."

"Since they're all made by our Great Song, why use English abbreviations?"

Sun Shangxiang's soul-piercing question instantly crashed Qi Chuqin's system.

He had taught chemical compound naming principles—such as why it was called trinitrotoluene. But where its trade name came from—no one had ever asked. Up to now, not even his most capable and closest disciples had raised this question.

Seeing Qi Chuqin rendered speechless, Wang Luobin immediately improvised: "About this question—English has advantages in abbreviations. Easy to write, easy to remember. For someone who doesn't understand chemistry, is TNT easier to remember, or trinitrotoluene? So in Australia, many industries use English for abbreviations."

Qi Chuqin hastily agreed: "Chairman Wang is absolutely right." He thought to himself: Wang Luobin truly deserves to be Senate Chairman—his ability to spin nonsense on the spot is top-notch!

Sun Shangxiang opened her mouth. Apparently, the explanation had not fully convinced her. But ultimately, she did not press further.

"Before coming here, I specifically consulted with Comrade Wu De. The Logistics Bureau's ordnance factories' first-phase military production target is 100,000 rounds of new rifle ammunition and 10,000 new explosive shells annually. Today's on-site visit has moved me greatly. You comrades have been dispatched to a remote backwater, pioneering from nothing. In less than three years, you've built such a remarkable enterprise and reached the established targets. I'm truly in awe, and I regret being away from the production front for too long." At the lunch table, Chairman Wang spoke eloquently. "Some comrades in the Center do worry that investing too many resources in military equipment will cause waste and affect other economic sectors' development. Some cite the example that Japan fired only 43,000 shells to win the First Sino-Japanese War. Ming has no Beiyang Army, no Northern Fleet—why does the Senate need so many shells and cartridges? I say that reasoning is flawed. The Japanese Army deployed six divisions, accumulating a deployment of 170,000 troops—not counting the Combined Fleet. Can the Fubo Army reach even a fraction of that number? When manpower is insufficient, we must consider expanding our advantage in shells and explosives."

"I can tell you all clearly: according to reliable intelligence, military threat from the Ming court is imminent. The Manchus also very likely will enter the pass following historical inertia. The struggle facing the Senate is complex and arduous. But seeing your achievements today, I am fully confident we can achieve comprehensive victory at a smaller cost..."

Mai Ruibao and the other naturalized-citizen escorts sat at another table. Chairman Wang's words he understood only vaguely, but the word "Manchu" made his whole body shiver—he almost could not hold his chopsticks. He recalled how earlier in the ammunition factory, as they had toured through to the quality inspection room, Qi Kelong had pointed at a 75mm shell sawn in half lengthwise, indicating the explosive distribution in the cross-section, lecturing endlessly about shell filling knowledge while complaining that the malleable cast iron shell body walls were too thick, taking up too much charge space and limiting shell power: "Teacher Qi teaches that high-strength forged steel shells can greatly reduce wall thickness. Same caliber shells could have one to two times more charge, and fragmentation would also greatly increase—"

(End of Chapter)