Chapter 244 The Birth of the Glass Mirror

"His Royal Highness, it seems that agriculture is still the foundation of the country. Cotton, rapeseed, hemp, etc., are the next steps to promote the cultivation of fiefdoms."

Xiao Ming had a headache for cotton, and Pang Yukun took the opportunity to say that he felt that Xiao Ming paid too much attention to the handicraft industry during this time, but ignored the fundamentals of agriculture.

"You are right, but there is still insufficient food, so it may be difficult for people to grow these things. After all, they have to bear the risk of not being able to sell them at that time. Well, let the production corps do part of the planting first and wait for the production of food. Stabilize and continue to promote.”

Xiao Ming said.

Pang Yukun nodded. During this time, he and Xiao Ming have been planning the agriculture and industry of the six states, which are all included in the plan.

"Also, Your Highness, what is this new item?"

At the last banquet, Xiao Ming threw another bait, but because of the meticulous work, everyone ignored it, and now Pang Yukun mentioned it again.

"Mirror." Thinking of this new product, Xiao Ming laughed.

Da Yuguo is still using bronze mirrors. This kind of mirror is very blurry, and it is impossible to see the specific details of the face.

The modern mirror is a glass mirror, and the mirror is coated with aluminum behind the mirror, so that the mirror can clearly reflect the person.

However, it is impossible for Xiao Ming to extract aluminum now, because the extraction of aluminum requires electrolysis, and the traditional silver mirror reaction requires nitric acid, ammonia water, glucose, etc. He also has no way to produce mirrors by electroless silver plating.

After all, some industrial products simply cannot be produced without electricity.

After thinking about it, he thought that under the current conditions, he could only use glass, tin foil, and mercury to obtain a mirror.

"Mirrors? Bronze mirrors? There are so many in the Great Yu Kingdom. I don't think there is anything novel about it." Pang Yukun said.

Xiao Ming shook his head and said, "This time this king is going to produce glass mirrors. I will show it to you in two days."

Li Kaiyuan looked excited. After waiting for so long, he finally had new products. He could already imagine that the merchants would block the chamber of commerce again.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help smirking.

Seeing his wretched face, Xiao Ming reminded: "The task now is to purchase cotton. If the sailing of this king's fleet is delayed, let me see how I will deal with you!"

Li Kaiyuan shuddered, "Yes, Your Highness, I will do it now, but Your Highness, this mirror should be hurry up." After speaking, he laughed slyly again.

"This king is going to Bowen College to talk to Lu Tong about the silver mirror." As he said, Xiao Ming stood up.

After all, Xiao Ming and Li Kaiyuan left the Governor's Mansion together, one of them went to the Chamber of Commerce and the other went to Bowen College.

When Pang Yukun mentioned new products a few days ago, Xiao Ming told Lu Tong about preparing the mirror and asked him to prepare tin, mercury and other materials.

Although Xiao Ming did not find any local deposits of tin, tin is a very common metal in the Great Yu Kingdom, and the alloy of copper and tin is bronze. This bronze ware appeared in ancient times.

The same is true for mercury. In ancient times, mercury was still a medicinal material, and it was not difficult to obtain mercury. The preparation of mercury was also very simple. It was to heat cinnabar to obtain mercury and sulfur.

And cinnabar is something that can often be seen in Taoist alchemy pill recipes, which shows how common it is.

When he arrived at Bowen College, Xiao Ming went directly to the chemistry laboratory. At this time, Lu Tong was waiting for Xiao Ming.

"Your Highness."

Seeing Xiao Ming coming, Lu Tong led a group of students to bow to Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming nodded and asked, "How is it? Are the materials ready?"

"It's all right," Lu Tong said.

Then he took Xiao Ming to see the mercury and tin in the glass container, and there was a pile of glass on the table in front.

Since the preparation of sulfuric acid, the students of the entire School of Chemistry have been producing granular gunpowder. Now, among the three acids and two alkalis, sulfuric acid, caustic soda, and soda ash have been prepared, but nitric acid and hydrochloric acid have not been tried.

However, in the chemistry textbook Xiao Ming gave them, there was already a method on how to prepare nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. During this time, Lu Tong was preparing to try it with the students of the chemistry college.

Among them, nitric acid is prepared by decomposing saltpeter at high temperature and high heat to obtain nitrogen dioxide into water, and hydrochloric acid is prepared by using concentrated sulfuric acid and table salt. Of course, this is only the chemical reaction formula they have learned from chemistry textbooks, and specific operations are required. Just do it.

But looking at Xiao Ming's appearance, it seems that he just wants to give them the chemical knowledge, and let them study the rest by themselves.

After checking the materials, Xiao Ming said, "Let's start, I said, you do it."

Lu Tong nodded, now Xiao Ming has a faint meaning of letting go of his hands and letting them try everything by themselves.

In fact, Xiao Ming also knows what Lu Tong and others are thinking now, but there is no way. Knowledge is not stored in his head, but used for practice. During this time, Xiao Ming has handed over all chemical element symbols to Lu Tong. .

They are also clear about the periodic table of chemistry. His textbooks can be said to be much more carefully written than the junior high school chemistry textbooks, and some simple chemical reaction formulas above are all available.

For the rest, he can only rely on Lu Tong and others to realize the chemical experiments in the chemistry textbooks, so as to apply them in the chemical industry, otherwise what is the use of learning knowledge? Moreover, with the current level of science and technology in Dayu Kingdom, junior high school chemistry knowledge is more than enough, and advanced chemistry will involve electrolysis and the like.

Without electricity, learning is useless.

Taking a piece of glass, Lu Tong put a piece of tin foil on the back of the glass. Because the melting point of tin is very low, only over 200 degrees, melting the tin foil is very simple, just heat it a little.

After wrapping the tinfoil, Lu Tong took out the mercury and poured the mercury on the tinfoil, smearing it evenly.

At this time, the mercury and the tin foil reacted chemically and turned into a silver-white liquid. This is the tin amalgam. According to historical records, the solution produced by this mercury and tin existed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and although the mercury was poisonous , but amalgam alloys are non-toxic.

This silvery-white liquid adheres tightly to one side of the glass and will not fall off easily.

The steps of producing the mirror were completed one by one, Xiao Ming and Lu Tong quietly waited for the moment when the miracle appeared.

After half an hour, when the metal solution was completely dry, Xiao Ming picked up the mirror and saw himself clearly in the mirror.

A young, a little handsome face, "Hey, it's been a year, I can see my face clearly for the first time."

Xiao Ming sighed with emotion.

At this time, the mirror in his hand was not much different from the modern mirror, but it was a little dim. After all, the tin amalgam was not as shiny as silver.

But even so, this mirror is probably a shocking work.