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At the end are the scholars of Qintian Academy, dozens of people with a bachelor's degree or above, and many graduate students who came to join in the fun.

The guards of the imperial city walked at the front and back of the team, and when the official autumn outing team passed by, the wealthy people in the capital quickly followed.They are not eligible to enter the royal horse farm and hunting grounds, but they can play in Xuanwu Lake. Not only can they enjoy the beautiful autumn scenery, but they are also not far from the emperor.

Of course, a few scholars from the Painting and Calligraphy Hall of the Imperial Academy came here today to paint the emperor's autumn hunt.

Everyone went to play at the racecourse first, and the royal family sat alone. After watching a polo match, it was basically lunch time.

In addition to the normal meals, the maids and guards brought many wide-mouthed porcelain bottles, the mouths of which were still blocked by corks.

Zhao Han said with a smile: "This thing is called canned food. It was developed by the military food factory. The navy and sea merchants can take it on board. It can prevent scurvy. Come and taste it, everyone."

Everyone felt strange, but not surprised, because the emperor can always come up with new gadgets.

I saw that the guards first removed the sealing wax, then pulled out the cork, poured the food inside into the cauldron, and then put it into bowls and plates to share.

Fei Ruhe took a bite of spinach, but the taste was really not good, far inferior to fresh spinach.

Another bite of pork, still the same ghost.

But the emperor made a new gadget, and the ministers had to show face, and praised the canned food for its deliciousness.

General Fubo Gu Jianshan couldn't help laughing and said: "It's delicious. The canned food is specially for the navy to eat when they go out to sea. With this thing, no matter how far you sail, you won't get scurvy. And , It can also be packed in porcelain bottles, and after the voyage is over, the half-empty porcelain bottles will be sold on the spot, and the half-empty porcelain bottles will be re-boiled and canned for return.”

"Wonderful," Fei Ruhe said, "It's a pity that the porcelain bottle is too heavy to be suitable for marching on land. If it can be made in an iron box, a lot of canned food can be produced for the army's rations in the future."

Zhang Tieniu said: "Yes, yes, yes, he packed tens of thousands of catties of canned food on the march, and he didn't need to make pots and cook rice on the way. Biscuits like glutinous rice cakes are delicious to eat one or two pieces, but after a few more days, you will feel like vomiting .”

Yang Shuang, a master of Qintian Academy, said: "I have the honor to participate in the research and development of this can. Your Majesty originally intended to pack it in an iron box, but after trying many methods, it could not be completely sealed. The iron box is time. The longest ones will rot in less than a month, and most will deteriorate in less than ten days."

Zhao Han also had people experiment with glass jars, but they still had to use cork stoppers.Small glass can bottle caps actually contain high technology. At present, steam engines can also be made manually, but the cost is high and the efficiency is low, and it is far less practical than cork stoppers.

In the end, the cans are still made of porcelain bottles, sealed with corks, and then covered with a layer of wax for a second seal.

First, porcelain bottles are resistant to high temperatures, and they are not as easy to break as glass when cooking cans.

Second, the current role of canned food is to provide it to ocean-going ships.The ocean-going fleet must engage in trade, and porcelain is a must-have commodity.It is quite possible to make a kind of porcelain jar, eat the contents halfway, and sell the remaining porcelain jars when they land.

Porcelain needs to be packed layer by layer to prevent it from breaking at sea.

If you use glass bottles for canning, you have to pack them layer by layer, which takes up too much space in the cabin.Changing to a porcelain bottle that can be traded can save a lot of space, allowing the cargo compartment to hold goods and food at the same time.

It's like the crew ate the canned food and then sold the canned food to foreign elders.

Of course, if the voyage is too far away, half of the porcelain bottle is generally kept, the food is cooked into cans, and brought back when returning.

The American route is the most suitable, and there is no supply on the way, and vitamins can be supplemented by eating canned food.You can resupply in Hawaii on the way home, no canned food is needed, and selling all the porcelain bottles can maximize profits.

Zhao Han said with a smile: "I remember your surname is Yang. Since you have participated in the development of canned food, you can tell everyone the principle."

Yang Shuang stood up and said: "Through a microscope, many creatures that are invisible to the naked eye can be observed. We have observed the spoilage process of fruits, rice, broth, and vegetables. Maybe the microscope is not powerful enough, so we can only see many tiny dots." We suspect that the dots, also some kind of organism, are responsible for the spoilage of the food."

The generals are used to it. In the past two or three years, the emperor loves to bring Qintianyuan with him for autumn hunting, and he always makes some strange remarks.

Due to the limitation of the magnification of the microscope, although the Qintian Academy can observe bacteria, they can only see many small black spots.They regarded the bacteria and tardigrades as the same kind, thinking that they were all small bugs, and Zhao Han couldn't explain it forcibly, only saying that those black spots were so tiny that they might not be the same kind of creatures as tardigrades.

Doctors observe the germs with a microscope, and they can only see small black dots.Then, according to the macroscopic differences of these black spots, it is completely blind what kind of pests (germs) it is, and several kinds of germs are often confused.

The magnification of the microscope needs to be improved urgently!

As for how to improve, Zhao Han has no idea, maybe it will take another 200 years to develop.

Yang Shuang continued: "We call this kind of tiny microorganisms microorganisms. There are microorganisms everywhere in the air and clear water, and they can be killed by cooking and heating. Therefore, put the food into a porcelain bottle and stop it with a cork. , Boil on high fire to kill insects, and then spray wax to completely isolate the air, so that food can be preserved for a long time.”

"Good!" Zhao Han smiled and applauded.

The royal family, court ladies, guards, generals, civil servants, and scholars who were eating all applauded along with the emperor.Due to the large number of people at the scene, those who were far away did not know what they were talking about, but seeing that everyone was applauding, they also clapped wildly.

Zhao Han asked everyone to continue eating, and asked casually, "How is the rubber experiment going?"

Li Quan not only brought back rubber saplings and seeds, but also brought back some solidified natural rubber latex.

Huangfu Jun, who was in charge of researching rubber, was eating at the next table at this time, and hurriedly put down his fast food and stood up: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the latex that was transported from America to Nanjing has long since solidified, and I have never seen liquid latex. Therefore, we can only Conduct research on solid rubber. When the temperature is high, the rubber will become soft. When the temperature is low, the rubber will become hard. Repeatedly heating rubber at high temperature for many times, the rubber will completely age and even lose its elasticity. "

"That's all?" Zhao Han was a little dissatisfied.

Huangfu Jun said helplessly: "Your Majesty, I hope to study rubber that has not yet solidified, and we can only do cold and hot experiments on rubber that has solidified."

Zhao Han expressed his understanding and said: "The rubber trees in Luzon and Yecheng should be able to tap rubber in two or three years. Sign up yourself and build a research institute in Luzon to specialize in the preparation and use of rubber. Go there In Luzon, the salary remains the same, but there are additional allowances."

"Yes, I would like to go to Lu Song." Huangfu Jun actually didn't want to go, but he had to give Emperor Zhao face.He was the person in charge of the rubber project, and he had to go if he didn't go, otherwise he would disappoint the emperor.

Natural rubber has serious flaws, let's say wipe it on fabric to make a tarp.When the temperature drops suddenly, the elasticity of that layer of rubber becomes weaker, and even becomes brittle, hard and brittle.After being exposed to the sun, it will be severely aged, and it will not be usable if it is exposed to the sun a few times.

And it is not resistant to friction, so it cannot be made into a tire.

Scholars in charge of the rubber project have drawn up experimental plans.

The method is very rough, that is, mixing various items in latex and stirring, and then recording the results of each experiment.There are always one or two things that can react with latex. After a lot of trial and error, you can try out the right formula.

Zhao Han suddenly asked again: "Where's the electricity?"

A scholar named Peng Renhu stood up: "Your Majesty, we killed a little chick with electricity."

"Oh, tell me quickly." Zhao Han suddenly became interested.

Peng Renhu said: "In the past, tortoise and amber were used to generate electricity, which was expensive and inconvenient. Five years ago, the mayor of Magdeburg in Germany invented an electrostatic generator..."

"Wait," Zhao Han asked, "Mayor Ma Debao? What does he have to do with the Magdeburg Hemispheric Experiment?"

Peng Renhu was surprised and said: "Your Majesty manages a lot of things every day, but he also knows about the Magdeburg hemispheric experiment. This experiment was done by the mayor 11 years ago."

Qintian Academy has a fund dedicated to ordering European academic papers.

Businessmen from the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and other countries collected the latest academic papers in Europe. When they went to Coconut City for trade, they sold them to the governor at a high price, and the governor of Coconut City sent the papers to Nanjing.

Peng Renhu said: "The electrostatic generator is like this. Add sulfur to the glass bottle and continue to heat the glass bottle. After the sulfur melts, continue to add sulfur until the glass bottle is filled. And before the sulfur solidifies, insert a wooden handle .When the glass bottle has cooled, it is broken to obtain a sulfur ball with a wooden handle."

"One end of this ball is positive and the other end is negative. It is more suitable for experiments than tortoise and amber."

"However, the mayor's generator can only attract paper scraps and hair. We have improved it by making the sulfur ball into a larger cylinder, and then using a pedal machine to make the sulfur cylinder rotate at high speed. By rubbing the silk Generate static electricity. Sulfur cylinders can store static electricity, and the power of electricity is so powerful that it directly electrocuted a chick to death."

Can static electricity be so powerful?

Zhao Han has no relevant concepts at all, and he can't even remember the electromagnetic induction experiment. He just reminded: "You can use copper wire to make a circle and move back and forth between two repelling magnets. How to do it, I don't know, but I always feel that magnetism and electricity are connected."

Chapter 1025 [Copper cans]

Suddenly, a scholar who had worked in the Cannon Factory stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the cans can actually be made of tin-plated iron, and the seal can be coated with a layer of tin."

Tin-plated iron is tinplate.

In Europe, tinplate appeared in the 14th century. During the First World War, it was widely used to make military cans.However, China was unable to produce tinplate until the Anti-Japanese War, and even the name tinplate originated from the transliteration of Macau, because cans were imported from Macau in the early days.

China cannot produce tinplate because it has not mastered electroplating technology.

In Europe in the 14th century, of course, electroplating was impossible, and the traditional tin plating method was used.

As early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, China already knew how to plate tin.He even mastered the welding technology. The large bronze cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui were welded to each component.

"What's your name?" Zhao Han asked.

The scholar said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, my name is Jiang Liu. I was born in Jiangsu. I run an iron smelting workshop at home. I used to make a living by smelting Suzhou steel. I have been fascinated by it since I was a child, and I am very interested in iron and steel smelting. After graduating from Yangzhou University, I followed my tutor Together, they were seconded to Jiangxi Cannon Factory. Last year, they were promoted to be bachelors due to meritorious service, and this spring they were transferred to Nanjing Qintian Academy."

Zhao Han said, "Tell me how to use tinned iron to make cans."

Jiang Liu explained in detail: "Tin is very malleable at room temperature and is non-toxic, so people often make tin tableware. When Yang Minggong was relegated to Longchang Station and left Guiyang, he specially built a set of tin tableware. The bowl is fast. Moreover, after the iron is tinned, it can prevent rust..."

"Ha ha."

Before Jiang Liu finished speaking, he heard a sneer from the banquet.

Jiang Liu looked for the sound and saw that it was Yang Shuang who participated in the development of porcelain bottles and cans.

Zhao Han asked Yang Shuang, "What do you want to say?"

Yang Shuang stood up and cupped his hands: "Your Majesty, using tin-plated iron to make cans is such a simple matter, haven't we thought about it? First, tin plating requires mercury, which is poisonous, and even if it is heated to remove mercury, it will not be clean at all. If you don’t believe me, if you plate tin on silver, after removing the mercury, the silverware will still turn black, it’s because the mercury hasn’t been removed.” He turned around and asked Jiang Liu, “Do you want the frontline soldiers to eat poisonous cans?”

"No such intention." Jiang Liu quickly denied.

Yang Shuang continued: "Secondly, you said that you use tin to solder the cans. Since ancient times, the solder has been high in lead and low in tin. Do you know that lead is poisonous? It is recorded in "Compendium of Materia Medica": Songyang produces lead and has many residents. Making hufen...lead gas is poisonous, and workers must eat fat pork and dog meat, drink alcohol, and iron slurry to hate it. The poison is poisoned in the stomach, and they often die of illness. The young and old are fumigated by the poison, and most of them die of chlorosis and paralysis."

"In the development of canned food, the Qintian Institute and the Military Grain Factory have been working together for six years. Dozens of materials have been tested to make containers, and all aspects have been considered. You just want to overthrow everyone's efforts? Before you speak, go through it first." Over your head!"

Jiang Liu was speechless after being reprimanded, and said with a blushing face, "It's my fault, please don't blame your Majesty, and please also Haihan, my colleague who develops canned food."

"It's easy to say!" Yang Shuang sat down with his hands folded.

Zhao Han raised his hand and smiled, "Don't be afraid to say the wrong thing, just correct it."

But Jiang Liu has a stubborn temper: "Your Majesty, I am willing to participate in the development of cans and improve the traditional tinning method!"

"Okay, I'm sure." Zhao Han was very pleased.

The ambition is good, but there is almost no solution. If you want to tin-plate without adding mercury, or solder without lead, you must rely on electric energy.

Soldering can be improved by replacing the lead with something else, but it is not efficient to process.

Tin plating can't be improved, and mercury is a hurdle that can't be bypassed at all.

Jiang Liu has plunged into the dead end of improving the tin plating process. It is almost impossible to achieve results in this life. The road of scientific and technological progress is so cold and ruthless.

Everyone continued to eat, but Jiang Liu couldn't eat, thinking of ways to improve.

Although he has a stubborn temper, he is not dead-headed.

The method of mercury melting and tin plating has not been improved since the pre-Qin period, and it is very difficult to think about it.Then start with soldering first, find some material to replace lead, and use another tin alloy to solder the seal (pure tin can also be soldered, but it is not resistant to low temperature, and it will crack directly in winter in the north).

As for the shell of the can, it can be temporarily not tinned, and the wrought iron can can be stamped directly with a steam engine.It doesn't matter if the outside is rusty, just scrub the inside before canning, and it doesn't matter if there is a rusty smell when eating canned food.

Yang Shuang felt that he had spoken too loudly before, so he quickly took the bowl, moved to sit beside Jiang Liu, and said in a low voice, "Wrought iron is not easy to solder."

"Ah?" Jiang Liu was taken aback.

Yang Shuang said: "Soldering on wrought iron and steel is very easy to crack. We tried it, and it really doesn't work, unless the can shell is made of copper. Copper is very expensive!"

Jiang Liu said: "Although copper is expensive, you can take it back after eating the cans. Take the former expedition to Mobei as an example. If you carry a lot of cans, the frontline soldiers can eat vegetables and fresh meat."

"Eating cured meat can also lead to war," Yang Shuang laughed. "As for vegetables, fighting on land is not afraid of scurvy. There are plenty of things that can be substituted. For certain leaves and grass, boiled water can prevent scurvy."

Jiang Liu said, "But the sea needs it."

Yang Shuang said: "The ships in the west can supply supplies along the way. The ones who really need canned food are the fleet in the Americas, with a total of more than ten ships. It is the most convenient and cost-effective to make porcelain canned food for them. Canned food can be eaten. Porcelain bottles can be sold, and it can save space in the cabin. You specially bought a steam engine to make copper canned food for more than a dozen ships in the district? It’s a good deal at a loss.”

"No, no," Jiang Liu shook his head and said, "There will be more and more ships going to America in the future, and there will be a great demand for copper cans. Moreover, it may not only go to America, but also go south. Land. Also, if you are in a shipwreck and you don’t know where you are going, it’s good to have some copper cans on board.”

Yang Shuang said: "Let's wait until there are more sea ships going to America. Otherwise, if we make copper cans now, I'm afraid we won't be able to sell a few cans at all, and we won't even be able to earn back the money for purchasing steam engines. Although the military grain factory is owned by the imperial court, But you can't pay too much, or you'll be ruined in front of the warlords. Porcelain bottles and cans are easy to get, just ask the porcelain factory to burn some wide-mouthed porcelain bottles. "

Jiang Liu was silent, he had never considered this practical issue.

After returning to Qintianyuan, Jiang Liu was temporarily transferred to the military grain factory, and he proposed a plan for copper canned food to the factory supervisor.The factory supervisor asked him to continue the research. As for whether to carry out the research, he had to ask the Ministry of War for instructions. After all, steam engines were very expensive.

Jiang Liu felt that the application might not be passed, and the more he thought about it, the more depressed he became, so he resigned and went home.

He thinks that the copper cans are a good idea. Anyway, his family has money, so he just asks his father to give him money to set up his own factory.

After that, everything went very smoothly.

Since lead-tin alloys cannot be used, copper-tin alloys are used for welding, but the cost becomes higher.Soldering flux has long been available, but it is not as advanced as later generations, but the main material has always been rosin, and bronzes unearthed in the pre-Qin period also used rosin as flux.

By the way, pre-Qin bronzes, including those used to hold food, also had a large amount of lead remaining during soldering, but the ancient nobles didn't know that it was poisonous.

He knocked out the copper can shell by himself, threw the cooked vegetables into the copper shell, and then welded and sealed it himself.

Then cook it in boiling water, the first time it was boiled and fried, the moisture in the vegetables vaporized and expanded, and the welding joints were washed away.In canning terms, this is too little headspace and too much stuff inside.

After repeated experiments many times, Jiang Liu was finally able to control the space of the top gap.

But how to open the can?

The soldering was too damn strong. Jiang Liu pried the first can for a long time, and finally smashed it open with a hammer, and the vegetables inside were scattered all over the floor.

Jiang Liu was sitting in her yard, looking at the vegetables on the ground, feeling a little complicated.

This matter is really not easy to deal with, otherwise those people in Qintianyuan would have already figured it out, so how could it be his turn?

The method of tin plating with copper-tin alloy is obviously not feasible.

For the next whole year, Jiang Liu tried various soldering materials.Even when I go to bed at night, I lie on the bed and look through ancient books, trying to find some inspiration from them.

Finally let him find it, and it is a common material-Japanese lead (zinc)!

The earliest records about Japanese lead were recorded in the Five Dynasties period, but the purity of zinc produced at that time was not high.

Until the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the method of calamine smelting zinc was born.The zinc block unearthed from Guangdong in later generations has the words "13 years of Wanli" and its purity is as high as 98%.

It took another half a year, and Jiang Liu was busy preparing the tin-zinc alloy. His soldering formula should not only ensure the welding is firm, but also ensure that it can be opened easily.