Chapter 112: The Explosives Factory

While Li Di was fiddling with his guncotton, the chemical group was designing and building a large compound in a location by the Wenlan River, far from any building clusters and residential areas.

The open ground within a 200-meter radius of the compound’s center was cleared of all vegetation. The ground was repeatedly compacted with a mixture of yellow earth, lime, and fine sand; even all the pebbles were picked out. The roads were paved with bricks. Two fences of barbed wire were erected around the perimeter, adorned with wooden boards painted with menacing black skulls and large fire warning signs.

This was the chemical group’s explosives factory. To implement fire and collision prevention, the construction group went to great lengths, using only cement and brick structures. The roofs used brick arches instead of wooden beams and pillars. The entire building used no iron, no wood, and not even stone, to prevent any sparks or combustion.

Based on the suggestions of several explosives enthusiasts, the floor of the production workshop was not paved with bricks but covered with a layer of river sand to absorb any acid, alkali, or chemicals that might be dropped.

The structure of the building was also very unique. The central production workshop not only had windows on the north and south sides for ventilation but also had doors on the east and west. Next to the doors was a trench as deep as a person, filled with fine sand. This was an escape trench. In the event of an uncontrollable chemical reaction, one could use it to escape—provided one’s reactions were fast enough and legs agile enough.

These two escape trenches brought a solemn atmosphere to the chemical group. Just as many in the mechanical group dreamed of making guns and cannons, few in the chemical field were not fascinated by explosives. Many had secretly made various types of explosives in the lab, but in this crude environment, how much confidence did they have? The bombastic explosives fanatics of the chemical group fell silent.

A group of people sat amidst the skull-adorned barbed wire, discussing the future direction of explosives.

“Do you all know what we’re about to do?” Ji Situi looked at the people before him.

“Make explosives, of course. We’ve been waiting for this day for months.”

“Everyone must be mentally prepared for death and disability!” Ji Situi said fiercely. “This isn’t a game of mixing black powder with some paste anymore.”

“You jinx!” Ji Situi was pelted with a pile of mud clods and scurried to the side.

Besides the members of the chemical group, people from the mechanical group and Li Di, who had suffered a bitter failure with guncotton, also attended this explosives meeting—he was not resigned to his guncotton failure.

“I just don’t get it, why can’t guncotton be made!” he said, extremely frustrated. He had originally thought it would be a piece of cake.

“Chemistry is a very delicate business, it’s not that simple,” Ji Situi said. “Your process has problems, and you’re also missing some basic equipment.”

“If we get the equipment together, guncotton is a small matter,” said Ye Yuming. He was a minor civil servant, but he had studied chemistry and had a good understanding of mining and blasting.

“Well, if we could build a larger centrifuge,” Ji Situi thought. Everyone knew this, but the problem was that apart from a small centrifuge in the laboratory, where would they get one?

Without a centrifuge, it was difficult to completely remove the free acid from the cotton fibers of the guncotton. In practical use, guncotton would become extremely unstable. The Austrian army suffered greatly from this in the 19th century.

“We still need help from the industrial department,” said Xu Yingjie. He was a person very obsessed with chemical products, particularly fond of preparing various chemical reagents, a typical hands-on experimental madman.

“That’s difficult,” Wang Luobin shook his head. “Our prime movers are not yet up to the task.”

“What about dynamite?” Li Yunxing suggested. He had also recently transferred from the military group to the artillery group.

They had nitric acid, making glycerin was not difficult, and the Fengcheng Maru’s cold storage could continuously provide ice for cooling. Manufacturing it should be relatively certain.

“I have a recipe,” Ye Yuming said enthusiastically. “I’ve made it myself in the lab—”

Everyone gasped. There really were daredevils in this world. Although dynamite was known for its simple manufacturing process, and was therefore often made and used by various terrorists and revolutionaries in the early 19th and 20th centuries, more martyrs died during the manufacturing process than were killed by the police.

Ye Yuming’s recipe was:

(1) Add *mL of distilled water to a *mL beaker. (2) Prepare a large amount of an ice-salt mixture and place it in a water bath. (3) Place the *mL beaker in the water bath, pour in *mL of concentrated nitric acid, and cool to below * degrees. (4) Slowly add *mL of concentrated sulfuric acid, mix well, and cool the mixture to * degrees. (5) Slowly add glycerin with a dropper, about one drop every * seconds, and pay close attention to the temperature, keeping it below * degrees. Stop when there is a clear layer of glycerin on the surface of the mixed acid (about *mL of glycerin added). (6) Stir slowly for about * minutes, always maintaining a low temperature of * degrees. (7) Pour the mixture into the beaker from step one. The nitroglycerin will precipitate to the bottom of the beaker. (8) Test the nitroglycerin with litmus paper until it is no longer acidic.

If sodium carbonate was available, it could be added to enhance the stability of the dynamite.

“I’m willing to try making a small amount,” Ye Yuming said confidently. “I’ve done it once or twice, so I’m relatively experienced. These things are not hard to get, the equipment is available, and if it’s feasible, we can manufacture it on a large scale.”

“You’ll be blown to kingdom come with that method,” Xu Yingjie shook his head repeatedly. “The glycerin used in the lab is analytical grade. The glycerin we can make now is only through saponification, which contains saturated fatty acid salts. They will react with the mixed acid first and release heat. Even with an ice-salt mixture, you might not be able to contain it in time. The end result will be—BOOM!”

“Ah, I didn’t think of that problem.”

Xu Yingjie said: “I believe the direction of chemical development, from high to low priority, should be: 1. Guncotton, a force multiplier for guns and cannons that other explosives cannot match. 2. Synthetic ammonia, which we can solve as soon as our synthetic ammonia plant is completed. 3. Picric acid, a powerful, shock-resistant explosive that can be fired with guncotton. ** is useless, only good for demolition charges and grenades, its power is not significantly better than picric acid, and its stability is too poor.”

“Synthetic ammonia is no problem, it can be done as soon as the factory is completed. Picric acid is too difficult,” Ji Situi flatly rejected. “The process of making it from phenol, maybe in 10 years, but the condition of 13 atmospheres of pressure alone is impossible.”

“You can extract phenol from coal tar, you don’t necessarily have to use benzene. Phenol is a product of coal coking.”

“The efficiency of that process is not very good. If we must make picric acid, our coal coking plant can produce phenol as soon as it starts production. If you don’t mind the low yield, it will be fine then, but the problem is the military group can’t wait now,” Ji Situi spread his hands helplessly.

“Then it’s only black powder,” Xu Yingjie said. “If someone isn’t afraid of dying, they can also try TNT.”

In the end, it seemed that both saltpeter and picric acid had to wait for the chemical plants to start production. For now, the only thing they were definitely, certainly, and positively able to make was black powder. They were confident they could produce fine-grained black powder of a quality far superior to that of this era, including both propellant and explosive powder. Even the supply of saltpeter was not too difficult. Even if they couldn’t get saltpeter from Guangzhou, they could obtain a certain amount using the niter-heap method. According to researched data, in 1959, a certain county built its own black powder factory for quarrying. Without relying on imported saltpeter, just by collecting local crude niter and using the niter-heap method, it could achieve an annual output of 50 tons of black powder explosive. If they controlled the county administration of Lingao, producing 20-30 tons of black powder a year was still achievable.

Lin Shenhe said: “The most important thing is still safety and stability. It’s not a problem to substitute with black powder for now, but we still lack percussion caps. Without percussion caps, the industrial department can only make smoothbore guns.”

To make percussion caps, they needed fulminate of mercury. Fulminate of mercury is a primary explosive. It was manageable for black powder shells and grenades, but the transmigrators’ Minie rifles absolutely required percussion caps.

The process for making fulminate of mercury was not complex: simply put, dissolve mercury in nitric acid, mix with alcohol, and the product of the final reaction is what you want.

Mercury was not easy to come by. The Guangzhou advance station had bought both mercury and cinnabar, and all in all, had only managed to get about ten kilograms of mercury, which had already emptied all the pharmacies in Guangzhou. The chemical group had also considered making fulminate of silver; at least silver was much more abundant than mercury, and silver was non-toxic, but fulminate of silver was more sensitive than fulminate of mercury. Fulminate of mercury was safer.

Making fulminate of mercury required high-purity alcohol. There was no technical difficulty in producing alcohol, but the tuber crops had not yet been harvested, and it was a bit wasteful to use rice to make alcohol. The trade department, through the merchant Lin Quan’an, bought a batch of the strongest liquor from Qiongshan County. The chemical group designed and built a wood and tin still for secondary distillation. The first distillation turned the liquor into crude alcohol, and a second distillation produced 96% pure alcohol. The remaining 3% or so of residue was fusel oil, which could be used as a raw material for penicillin, though it was still too early to talk about penicillin.

The trial production was handled by Xu Yingjie. This man, who loved to concoct all sorts of disgusting chemicals, had read his chemical manual countless times and reviewed the process flow copied from the database over and over again until he had completely memorized the entire procedure.

The manufacture of pyrotechnic products was the most dangerous part of the entire military-chemical system. Even in modern factories, danger often accompanied the producers, let alone these people who were preparing to use crude equipment and primitive methods.

Although fulminate of mercury itself was sensitive and very dangerous, reacting it in a humid environment was relatively safe. However, for the transmigrators playing with pyrotechnics for the first time, it would be bragging to say they weren’t afraid. For safety, everyone withdrew from the reaction laboratory, leaving him alone inside. The military group had originally wanted to kindly sponsor a bomb suit, but wearing that thing would make it difficult to work, so they had to give up.

Xu Yingjie first put * parts of pure mercury into a ceramic jar, then added * kilograms of nitric acid, and then heated it in a hot water bath to –°C. During the heating process, he had to shake it from time to time. The mercury slowly dissolved, and after about 40 minutes, Xu Yingjie had a jar of green mercury nitrate solution.

After the mercury nitrate was made, he took * kilograms of % pure alcohol, preheated to *–°C, and then added the mercury nitrate to the alcohol. The temperature control here was very important. Xu Yingjie kept a close eye on the thermometer display at all times.

As soon as the alcohol was poured in, the reaction began. The mercury nitrate solution started to boil. After all the alcohol was poured in, he shook it slightly. At this point, he saw that the thermometer had risen to *°C, indicating that the reaction was successful. When the temperature slowly reached *°C, white smoke filled the reaction vessel. Xu Yingjie knew that the production was basically successful. If no red smoke appeared, he could directly withdraw, rest, and wait for the reaction to complete. He looked at his watch and noted the start time of the reaction.

He checked the glass condenser above the jar to confirm that it was working properly. This device was used to collect the smoke from the reaction. The dense smoke produced during the reaction was not only toxic and flammable, but if it condensed in the reactor, it would affect the yield and quality of the fulminate of mercury.

The members of the chemical group all watched the compound gate from a distance. When they saw him come out, everyone applauded. Xu Yingjie cooperated by striking a few poses.

An hour and a half later, when they went back in, the reaction had completely stopped. A layer of gray, granular substance, somewhat like gray sand, had condensed at the bottom of the reactor.

Xu Yingjie carefully collected the wet fulminate of mercury, wrapped it in a cotton cloth, and then used a manual press to squeeze out the water, bringing the moisture content below 5%. Normally, fulminate of mercury would need to be dried in a special drying room with warm air for 10-15 hours to be considered complete. They didn’t have that condition now, so they could only let it air-dry.