Chapter 197: Manipulating Temperature

Alas, there was no other way. He had to trade this for it. Zhan Wuya felt a pang of regret. Although the premium Dahongying cigarettes were from last year, he had carefully preserved them, and their flavor hadn’t changed at all.

This was something that could get a lot done with just a single cigarette. Now, he had to give away a whole pack. Zhan Wuya’s heart ached.

He found Ma Qianzhu and, after a great deal of persuasion, countless words, a pack of cigarettes, and the added promise that Ma would be the first to try the ice machine once it was built, he finally obtained two bottles of refrigerant.

“Without F-12, I won’t be able to play with my airsoft guns anymore—”

“You can play with real steel—we’ll build a machine gun specially for you later…” Zhan Wuya spouted empty promises as he hid the two bottles of Freon-12 in his bag.

After a night of hard work, countless adjustments, disassemblies, and reassemblies of the equipment, a large, white block of ice finally appeared in the condenser! Zhan Wuya and Liang Xin were instantly energized—this thing actually worked!

Zhan Wuya rushed back to his office to find his thermos, packed the first block of ice inside, and sent it off to Director Ma. He even attached a piece of paper that read “Good News,” then headed off, mimicking the sound of gongs and drums with his mouth all the way.

Liang Xin called the canteen and asked them to bring over several insulated boxes. These locally made boxes were insulated with kapok and cotton, specifically used for transporting popsicles and fresh seafood from the Fengcheng.

In the end, the ice machine could produce about 2 kilograms of ice per hour. To be honest, the efficiency was a bit low. However, Liang Xin noted that their insulation was very poor; with improvements, the ice-making efficiency would be much better.

Everyone was pleased that the Industrial and Energy Committee had produced such a device. After all, transporting ice from Bopu was inconvenient. Now, with this machine, they could enjoy frozen foods anytime, anywhere. Someone immediately suggested installing one in the canteen first. Others proposed dismantling all their existing air conditioners to make more ice machines—since there were only a few air conditioners, and deciding who got to use them was a hassle, it was better to dismantle them and make ice for everyone to enjoy.

In fact, the call for producing refrigeration equipment had been growing louder recently, and not just for the ZIMINLOU. The communications center needed ice to cool its equipment, the explosives workshop needed it for cooling to ensure production safety, the canteen needed it to preserve food, and the Ministry of Health needed it to preserve corpses for dissection…

The transmigration group’s number of refrigerators was pitifully small—no one had thought much about them initially. The cold storage on the Fengcheng was a bit far from Bairen City, and the ship’s cold storage ran on its auxiliary engine, which burned precious diesel fuel. Ma Qianzhu had been hoping the Industrial and Energy Committee could come up with a more economical refrigeration solution than the ship’s cold storage.

The Industrial and Energy Committee had already held several meetings on this issue. They had long since found a relatively simple, feasible, and economical method to meet Ma Qianzhu’s request: the gas refrigerator mentioned by Liang Xin.

A gas refrigerator uses gas heat to boil a concentrated ammonia solution. The evaporated ammonia vapor is cooled, causing the water vapor within it to condense and liquefy. The ammonia gas then condenses into liquid ammonia. At the evaporator inlet, it mixes with hydrogen gas. Due to the difference in partial pressures, the ammonia rapidly diffuses from the liquid ammonia into the hydrogen, lowering the evaporator’s temperature and creating a cooling effect. Afterward, the ammonia gas is absorbed by a weak ammonia solution, becoming a concentrated solution again, while the remaining hydrogen returns to the evaporator. Thus, a gas refrigerator uses gas combustion for heating, causing ammonia, water, and hydrogen to circulate within its pipes to produce refrigeration. It can reach temperatures as low as -40°C and is highly efficient.

Ammonia solution was no longer a problem now that the 800-ton synthetic ammonia system was in preliminary operation. Hydrogen was a byproduct of the chlor-alkali process through electrolysis of salt.

Using this principle, it was possible to manufacture small, household-sized refrigerators. By 20th-century standards, gas refrigerator technology was very low-tech. But within the industrial system of Lingao in 1629, manufacturing a miniaturized gas refrigerator presented many practical problems that couldn’t be solved immediately, especially in terms of materials and craftsmanship. For example, manufacturing and processing the refractory ceramic for the burner nozzle and the zinc-alloy die-cast housing for the burner were not things they could accomplish overnight. Furthermore, the high-efficiency insulation material required for the refrigerator’s body was also something they lacked.

Since they couldn’t make anything too refined, the Industrial and Energy Committee decided to build a large-scale “gas refrigerator” to reduce the technical difficulty of manufacturing—if they couldn’t make small refractory ceramic burner nozzles, large cast-iron ones would certainly be no problem. In reality, they were preparing to build a gas-powered cold storage facility.

The location chosen for this cold storage was the canteen—it had an ample supply of both biogas and, now, coal gas, making its fuel situation abundant. As for insulation material, kapok or cotton alone wouldn’t be effective. Zhan Wuya decided to use the most common method of ice storage from ancient times—building the cold storage underground and using the soil for insulation. The major ice cellars in old Beijing were filled with ice cut during the twelfth lunar month. The storage conditions were simply earthen cellars, covered with straw mats and then piled with earth. When the cellars were opened the following summer, the amount of ice lost was negligible.

The Lingao Construction Company first excavated a rectangular, open-faced cellar at the base of a small hill on the agricultural estate. After compacting the ground and walls, they paved them with porous bricks. Then, they added insulation material to the inner walls.

The Industrial and Energy Committee had neither foam plastic nor asbestos. The only natural insulation materials available in large quantities locally were kapok and diatomaceous earth. To ensure effectiveness, the committee applied multiple alternating layers to the inner walls of the cold storage. All piping was made of brass. After the cold storage was installed, another layer of straw mats was laid on top, and finally, it was completely covered with a thick layer of earth, leaving only an access tunnel connected to the surface. The tunnel had inner and outer wooden doors fitted with thick insulation. The mechanics from the factory did their best to make them fit snugly against the door frames, adding several layers of leather belts as sealing material. The combustion chamber for the cold storage was located above ground and used coal gas from the agricultural estate’s supporting gasifier. Lingao was rainy, so a building was constructed over the entire underground facility for shelter, complete with drainage ditches on all sides.

After ignition, the cold storage ran continuously for 24 hours, proving it could reach a minimum temperature of -16°C and maintain it stably.

Everyone was quite satisfied with this. The theoretical -40°C had no special significance for the Transmigration Group. -16°C was already sufficient for long-term storage of all kinds of fresh food, making ice, and producing various cold drinks.

Thanks to the construction of a cold storage facility that could cheaply produce large quantities of ice, not only were dietary needs met, but it also served as a form of air conditioning to some extent. The traditional cooling method of placing large blocks of ice from the cold storage in a room to melt naturally quickly became popular in the dormitories and offices of the transmigrators. To prevent a mad rush for ice, the Planning Committee, after meticulous calculations, issued ice tickets. In addition to a daily personal quota of several kilograms for each transmigrator, different departments received varying quotas based on their needs.

The communication room of Lingao Telecom finally became cooler—not just for comfort, but also to ensure the proper functioning of the machinery. Since the beginning of summer, besides using enhanced ventilation for cooling, Lingao Telecom had been operating its equipment in shifts to prevent overheating from causing accidents.

The native workers toiling in high-temperature environments also enjoyed the coolness of ice. This treatment moved many workers—using ice in the summer was a luxury for the rich, and now even common folk like them could enjoy it. Although this bit of coolness couldn’t offset much of the heat in the vast workshops, as Xiao Zishan often said: “Sometimes, the common people just want the rulers to show a basic attitude.”

Due to the high demand for ice, the Industrial and Energy Committee soon organized the construction of a second and a third cold storage facility. With accumulated experience, the construction techniques became more refined, further reducing the energy consumption of the facilities and greatly decreasing the likelihood of breakdowns.

With the completion of a specialized cold storage for fish catches and a supporting gasworks in Bopu, the cold storage on the Fengcheng was shut down by order of the Planning Committee. After this major power consumer was turned off, the operation of the Fengcheng’s auxiliary engine was reduced to the minimum power required to maintain the ship’s own systems, conserving fuel. The shutdown of this cold storage, which had been running for nearly a year, led to a sharp decline in the influence of the Navy Club within the Executive Committee. The Fengcheng was no longer a popular destination for certain committee members. This outcome was probably the most unexpected.

Of course, letting this cold storage lie idle would be a great waste. The Planning Committee gave the Industrial and Energy Committee another task: to research how to use coal gas to power the ship’s auxiliary generator, completely eliminating its reliance on stored diesel fuel.

“Theoretically, of course, it’s possible,” Zhan Wuya said with a smile. “In reality…”

“What, it’s not realistic?”

“It’s not that it’s unrealistic, but that it’s unnecessary,” Zhan Wuya said. “The ship clearly has a shore power connection.”

Modern ships can use shore power when in port, and the Fengcheng was no exception.

“To put it bluntly, as long as we expand the installed capacity of the Bopu power station, there’s no need for the Fengcheng’s auxiliary engine to continue generating power at all.”

Zhan Wuya continued, “Of course, using coal gas instead of diesel to fuel the auxiliary engine for power generation is theoretically possible, but laying the pipes would be a huge problem.”

The implication was that it was entirely unnecessary.

Xiao Zishan reminded him: the auxiliary engine was a massive generator set. Its power output alone was greater than that of all the steam-powered generators at the Bopu power station combined. The Planning Committee was unwilling to let such a large generator sit idle. It was possible that Bopu might even come to rely on the Fengcheng’s auxiliary engine for power.

“Hmm, that’s true. But I’ve never worked on a piece of equipment as big as a ship’s auxiliary engine. I’m not confident.”

“Anyway, this is something we can research slowly, so don’t rush,” Xiao Zishan comforted him. “You should focus on figuring out how to make a real gas refrigerator.”

Xiao Zishan felt that it wouldn’t be long before every transmigrator’s home could be equipped with a small gas refrigerator—provided that gas pipes could be safely laid to each household. Perhaps in the future, even the homes of the natives would be fitted with gas lamps.

As for the animal-powered ice machine that Zhan Wuya had painstakingly built, it was safely transported to Guangzhou. Soon after, Mo Xiao’an received a telegram: “Produce thermoses and wide-mouthed insulated buckets immediately.” Ice was being made, but there was nowhere to store it.

Mo Xiao’an sighed and got up to head to the glass factory. A thought suddenly occurred to him: thermos flasks could actually be a pretty good trade commodity!

Making thermos flasks was now a piece of cake for the glass factory. Especially since they had become quite proficient with mold-blowing techniques, they had overcome what was once considered the most difficult part, the shaping process. With molds, they no longer had to rely on the feel of the glassblower’s hands and could produce identical products by the hundreds and thousands.

The key component of a thermos is the vacuum flask, which is essentially a double-walled glass bottle with a vacuum in between. Its production involves joining a smaller bottle and a larger bottle.

First, a worker would dip a tool into molten glass, gather a small amount, and blow it into a bubble. After slight cooling, the bubble was repeatedly dipped into the molten glass and swung to enlarge it. It was then elongated and quickly placed into a mold. By rotating it and blowing air, the shape was formed. Once the mold was opened, a bottle blank was produced.

Next, the glassworker would repeat this process, but with a smaller mold. In a modern glass factory, compressed air is used for batch blowing inside molds. For now, they lacked compressed air and were still relying on manual labor.

Mo Xiao’an watched a young man named Huang Zhongshan skillfully blowing one bottle blank after another. His movements were so smooth they were like flowing water and moving clouds. Mo Xiao’an couldn’t help but nod in approval.

“He’s the fastest and best blower among the apprentices,” said Xiao Bailang, sitting on a wooden crate and wiping his sweat. He was now in charge of both the ceramics and glass factories, meaning he was constantly being baked no matter where he went.

“He’s got a talent for it, huh?”

“Unfortunately, talent alone can’t produce free-blown glassware.”

To date, almost all of the glass factory’s slightly more complex products were either mold-blown or mold-pressed. The workers had not yet mastered the technique of creating various products using only a blowpipe, shears, and tongs—because the transmigrators themselves didn’t know how.

“We need to get our hands on a few European glassblowers!”

“Where in Asia are you going to find European glassblowers?” Mo Xiao’an said. “The Europeans who come to Asia are basically the dregs of society.”

Xiao Bailang didn’t respond, his attention focused on the operations throughout the workshop, checking to see if everything was in order. The weather had been hot lately, and with Ji Situi away for a long time to work on the trial production at the coal chemical plant, labor discipline at the glass factory had become a bit lax. As soon as Xiao Bailang arrived, he immediately set about restoring order.

Xiao Bailang didn’t bother with political indoctrination. He directly sent a few slackers to the labor reform team. They were only released later through Wu De’s intervention. Nevertheless, production efficiency in the factory had improved significantly. Now, a single glance from him was enough to silence the entire workshop.

“You can’t keep doing things this way,” Mo Xiao’an couldn’t help but remind him. “Relying only on pressure won’t win their hearts.”

“I know, I know, carrot and stick,” Xiao Bailang replied dismissively.

“Alright, I’ll have the food factory send some kvass over for your people.”

“Chief, the gas station says they can start supplying gas…”

“Fine. Have them send it over,” Xiao Bailang put on his sunglasses and walked over to the newly installed gas nozzles, a row of gleaming brass fixtures. He waved his hand. “Let’s begin.”

Several workers turned the valves, and red flames immediately shot out from the burner heads. Xiao Bailang put on his thick protective gloves and carefully adjusted the flames until they burned blue.

“Prepare for joining!”

Huang Zhongshan quickly brought over the large and small glass bottle blanks that had just been blown, using tongs to retrieve them from the annealing kiln. Xiao Bailang first heated the bottom of the large bottle and the neck of the small bottle with the gas flame, then neatly cut them off with a blade. He then nested the small bottle inside the large one, inserting three small pieces of cork between them.

Properly, asbestos particles should have been used, but the Industrial and Energy Committee could only use a substitute for now. The cork served to maintain an equal gap between the inner and outer bottles, preventing them from shifting. It also strengthened the structure of the flask. Once the flask was made, the only connection point between the inner and outer bottles was at the mouth, which was prone to breaking when filled with water. The addition of the cork pieces created three extra points of support.

Next, he heated the nested bottles over the gas flame until the glass was semi-molten. The critical step was approaching. With a serious expression, Xiao Bailang took his tongs and grasped the semi-molten glass, carefully pulling the opening at the bottom closed. This process seemed simple but required considerable manual skill. Not only did the bottom need to be sealed smoothly and tightly, but a thin glass tube also had to be left behind. Modern thermos companies used automatic bottom-sealing machines to accomplish this.

Xiao Bailang tried several times without success, his face flushed red from the heat of the gas flame. He put down the tongs, took a few breaths, and had others give it a try. After several attempts, they finally managed to seal the bottom as required.

Next came the silvering process. The inner walls of a thermos flask are coated with silver nitrate. The silvering agent was injected between the walls through the small glass tube left at the bottom. With a basic supply of the “three acids and two bases,” this was no big deal. After the residual liquid was poured out, a bright layer of silver was left on the walls of the glass flask, shining like a mirror.

The workers let out a collective gasp of amazement. They had, in fact, already witnessed the transmigrators’ “secret technique” when they made mirrors. In the crowd, some greedy eyes watched the residual liquid being poured out from the flask.

After silvering, the workers rinsed it with distilled water and dried it. Xiao Bailang took the finished bottle, first heating the small glass tube at the bottom with the gas flame to draw it out and make it thinner. Then, he inserted a suction tube. This simple vacuum pump, designed and built by Zhong Lishi, was a very basic suction-type model, barely capable of achieving a rough vacuum.

While the pump was drawing out the air, the outer bottle was heated again with the gas flame to promote gas expansion and speed up the evacuation process. Of course, this crude pump couldn’t measure the vacuum level. Xiao Bailang had previously resorted to the most primitive method: repeated trial and error until he found the optimal pumping time.