Chapter 333: Change of Thinking, Invention of Rubber

"There must be something wrong"

On the evening of November 24, the sixth year of Qingli, eight days after the ocean-going fleet returned, we were in the back garden of the imperial palace in Kaifeng Prefecture, the capital of the Song Dynasty.

Emperor Zhao Zhen of the Song Dynasty was looking frustratedly at the finished rubber product in the hands of his chamberlain.

He poured in the proportion of oil and carbon black and made hundreds of pieces of rubber in less than ten days.

After these rubbers are classified in different proportions, they are poured into molds to form rubber products, which are then used for various friction, tearing, dropping, cooking and other tests.

In the end, Zhao Zhen will select the most suitable proportion among hundreds of pieces of rubber and find the most durable, friction-resistant and suitable finished product.

But it is a pity that although he has been working very diligently on making it, the finished product has never met his requirements.

Some wear-resistance is up to standard, and it will soften quickly if exposed to steam and higher-temperature iron for a long time. Some are able to withstand high temperatures, but are not wear-resistant. They will quickly wear out after being rubbed on the ground a few times.

Although making a steam engine only requires high temperature resistance, Zhao Zhen wanted to directly solve the tire problem once and for all.

Let's imagine.

What was it like to have tens of thousands of soldiers from the Song Dynasty, riding bicycles and carrying spears behind them, chasing the soldiers from the Liao Kingdom who were riding horses in front of them? What was it like?

Zhao Zhen really wanted such a scene to appear, so he just kept trying to create perfect proportions of rubber.

But it seems that there are some barriers in front of us, and the experiment has not been able to find a breakthrough, which is very frustrating.

It was already early in the evening, and it was already dark.

The School of Chemistry was filled with candles.

Several chamberlains were on standby, and a variety of raw materials were placed in the room.

In the middle of the room stood a pot for boiling rubber.

There are still a lot of rubber products left in the pot.

That is to say, the fleet came back this time with several ships, estimated to be dozens of tons of rubber raw materials, otherwise it would not have been so troubled.

There was a pungent smell of rubber in the air, and there were various black rubber stains everywhere on the ground.

Zhao Zhen was sitting on the chair next to him. As far as he could see, the finished rubber products were scattered all over the floor. There were still some black rubber residues in more than ten long molds.

He watched for a moment, closed his eyes tiredly and sat on the chair to rest, rubbing his temples with his hands, wondering what went wrong.

Under normal circumstances, he would have gone to bed in the harem at this time.

However, in recent days, he often works until midnight, but he still has to go to the morning court two hours later.

For this reason, Zhao Zhen had already put off the morning work for a few days and asked all officials to report to the Zhiyuan.

But even so, it still couldn't be done.

It made Zhao Zhen’s head hurt.

"Officials, as the saying goes, haste makes waste, don't rush for quick success."

Wang Shouzhong on the side advised tactfully: "It's already late now, otherwise I'll die today..."

"no."

Zhao Zhen took a long breath, stood up again and said: "I said that the finished product must be produced within ten days, how can I break my promise?"

"only."

"Okay, let's get the materials over here. You go out first and I'll try it myself."

"yes"

Wang Shouzhong had no choice but to go to the warehouse to get some materials, and everyone left the room.

Zhao Zhen felt that the problem might lie with the chamberlain.

After all, the servants had not received education in mathematics, physics and chemistry. Although he was watching when they were putting things away, there was a problem that the proportions were not adjusted properly.

This time he decided to try it himself.

Still follow the previous process, first pour water and boil it, then put in rubber and petroleum. After the rubber is completely dissolved, pour in a certain proportion of black carbon.

After about half an hour, Zhao Zhen once again picked up the cooled rubber poured into the mold and tested it.

But the results are still unsatisfactory.

A layer of rubber was quickly worn away during the friction process. In the steam test, it softened quickly after being placed in a steamer.

The effect this time is not as good as before.

"What's going on? I've read all the historical novels, and there is no complete formula for the finished rubber product. I can only try to figure it out on my own, but after trying so many times, I just didn't succeed."

Zhao Zhen sat slumped on the chair next to him. He often went to the farmland to do biological experiments and also conducted physical experiments. His hands-on ability was not a problem.

But why has it never been successful?

This made Zhao Zhen doubt whether he really had the talent to study mathematics, physics and chemistry.

Could it be that something went wrong somewhere else?

never mind.

try again.

It was almost midnight.

Dark clouds blocked the moonlight, leaving the world in darkness.

Only the School of Chemistry was still full of candles, and the room was full of light.

Just as Zhao Zhen was preparing for a new round of experiments, Wang Shouzhong suddenly knocked on the door outside, opened it a crack, and whispered inside: "Your Majesty, Concubine Miao and Concubine Zhang want to see you."

Concubine Miao was the former Master Attendant Miao. Last year she gave birth to the third son of the emperor Zhao Xi to Zhao Zhen and was promoted to the title of concubine.

Concubine Zhang was the former Zhang Cairen, who later became Empress Wencheng Zhang. In recent years, she also gave birth to two daughters for Zhao Zhen and was promoted to the rank of concubine.

At that time, Zhao Jun had just traveled through time, and Zhao Zhen was twenty-seven years old. At that time, his wives were relatively young, several of them were in their teens, and the youngest among them was Feng Xiurong, who was eleven years old.

Followed by twelve-year-old Zhang Cai and thirteen-year-old Concubine Miao. Now ten years later, they are both around the age of twenty-two or three, which is their most beautiful age.

Therefore, he was favored by Zhao Zhen.

It's just that Zhao Zhen was obsessed with the experiment and didn't want to play with the colors, so he casually said: "No."

"yes."

When Wang Shouzhong saw this, he went back outside the hospital to talk to the two noble concubines.

Unexpectedly, it took a while.

"Official family."

"Guan family, let's meet."

The voices of two soft women soon came from outside the door.

Although they were stopped outside the courtyard, how could the chambermaids and palace maids dare to stop them?

Soon they broke in.

Immediately afterwards, the door of the laboratory room where Zhao Zhen was located was pushed open, and Concubine Zhang's beautiful face peeked in.

Concubine Miao pushed Wang Shouzhong away, and the two of them forced their way into the room and rushed towards Zhao Zhen.

Wang Shouzhong had no choice but to retreat, and then the door was closed.

Since the third year of Jingyou's reign, Zhao Zhen has stopped accepting harems, so the number of concubines in the harem has basically been established.

Among them, Zhang Cai and Master Miao were very favored by Zhao Zhen because they were young and beautiful.

Except for Queen Cao, the two of them can be said to be lawless.

Wang Shouzhong couldn't afford to offend them.

"Guan Jia, do you really not want to see my concubine?"

"Yes, officials, it's been nine days, and I'm counting the days."

The two girls were wearing wide silk palace robes and long skirts. As soon as they walked in, they threw themselves into Zhao Zhen's arms.

Zhao Zhen felt the fragrance of their bodies and immediately forgot about the experiment. He said with a smile: "I want to see my beloved concubine."

Then he became a little discouraged and said: "Oh, it's a pity that I have been trying to make this rubber for a long time. You also know that this is a major event that benefits the country and the people."

Concubine Miao said with a smile: "The official family can't just rush for success when doing things. Maybe one day it can be done. Didn't the official family always want to do that black silk stocking? Guan family, take a look."

As she spoke, she lifted up the hem of her long skirt, revealing her slender thighs.

On those thighs, she actually wore a pair of black stockings with suspenders on them.

Concubine Zhang smiled slightly and also revealed her long legs, revealing a pair of white stockings.

Zhao Zhen's eyes almost stared down.

Ever since watching the film, he had been thinking about inventing the black and white silk stockings that fascinated him.

However, a simple nylon stocking has an extremely complicated process, involving chemical engineering, machinery and other engineering projects. It is by no means something that can be made easily.

So Zhao Zhen could only settle for the next best thing and use silk to make it.

But silk has no elasticity, and it is unrealistic to use pure handwork to achieve the tightness of later generations of machines. It can only be made by hand weaving, and the effect is not satisfactory.

In the end he just came up with some fishnet stockings.

These fishnet stockings soon became exclusive to the concubines in the harem, and many maids even secretly learned to make them to seduce the emperor.

The Northern Song Dynasty itself was not poisoned by the idea of ​​confining women in Neo-Confucianism. In addition, silk stockings were close-fitting clothing like bellybands, so they were not rejected by the harem and concubines.

Except for Queen Cao, most of the concubines would wear them when serving Zhao Zhen in order to please Zhao Zhen.

Only the style of stockings made Zhao Zhen disliked.

Unexpectedly, his two concubines secretly conducted research and development and actually produced two pairs of silk stockings.

Although it was a garter stocking, it was enough to make Zhao Zhen's blood surge and he almost had a nosebleed.

In just two or three seconds, Zhao Zhen couldn't hold himself any longer, his breathing became extremely rapid, and he touched it with trembling hands.

Feeling the silky smoothness, all rubber experiments are forgotten.

Zhao Zhen quickly laughed playfully, grinning almost to the back of his head, and moved his hands up dishonestly, wrapping his arms around the waists of the two concubines, and said: "The two concubines are interested. It's late at night, come with me." Go to the palace and rest."

After saying that, he hugged and kissed them, opened the door of the laboratory, and under the gaze of a group of nonsense eunuchs, left the Chemistry School, laughing and joking all the way to the palace.

Because he was afraid that the buildings in the palace would be poisonous, Zhao Zhen's palace is now on the west side of the back garden.

They quickly returned to the palace.

Another two or three quarters of an hour passed, less than half an hour.

In the palace, after some indescribable love applause, Zhao Zhen was sweating profusely, holding the two young concubines on his left and right who were fully satisfied, and panting.

To be honest, as an old pervert, Zhao Zhen's kidneys at this period in history were probably broken long ago and he was unable to give birth to a son.

Fortunately, Zhao Jun's appearance taught him to exercise restraint and often take kidney-tonifying medicine.

In addition, it helped him cultivate his hobbies and distracted him from national affairs and mathematical, physical and chemical research, so that Zhao Zhen would not only think about colors all day long, so his waist is still healthy now.

But the essence of Lao Sepi is still there. After the happiness, the air is filled with a charming fragrance.

Zhao Zhen enjoyed the remaining warmth, his hands dishonestly touching the thighs of the two concubines, with a satisfied expression on his face.

"I have always wanted to make this black and white silk silk, but the Weaver Girl in the palace couldn't make it so dense."

Zhao Zhen asked curiously: "Where did the two beloved concubines find the Weaver Girl? Are they even more powerful than the Weaver Girl in the palace?"

Concubine Miao and Concubine Zhang looked at each other, then covered their mouths and said with a smile: "Guan family, this is not made by the Weaver Girl. We use a shuttle to pull it out first, and then weave it on a round drum similar to our legs. of."

"Shuttle and roller?"

"yes."

Concubine Zhang also said: "I used to see that the officials only wanted to weave by hand, but the weaving was not very tight. Then I thought, since the loom can weave the silk that is so easy to weave, why can't we weave it tightly?" Come to weave silk?”

"Loom? But I have used it before."

"The loom made by ordinary looms is indeed too rough like the ones made by the officials in the past, so I and Sister Miao just used the loom method, and the threads were wound on the drum one by one in order."

"It turns out to be like this, it turns out to be like this."

In an instant, a casual word cleared up Zhao Zhen's doubts.

He seemed to be enlightened and murmured to himself.

This process is actually similar to the principle of stockings factories in later generations. Eight silk threads are wrapped around a cylinder and then weaved upward along the veins.

The only difference is that one is produced by hand and the other is produced by machine.

And if placed on rubber.

yes.

The rubber process itself must be very complicated, and it is not just as simple as dissolving and then adding carbon black.

Dasun didn't know much about this kind of thing, so he could only do it in a limited space.

Boil the rubber raw material in water, pour in petroleum to dissolve it, and then add carbon black.

But is the rubber of later generations really that simple?

The answer is obviously not.

If that's the case, why does he still stick to these steps?

Just like stir-fry.

If you only put oil and eggs, you can only cook a few omelettes.

But if you add oil, eggs, rice, chopped green onions, soy sauce, and salt, it will be one-pot egg fried rice.

Since the friction is not enough, add something to increase friction, such as sand and stone powder.

Since the elasticity is not enough, put something with more elasticity, such as resin.

You can even add some glutinous rice, sawdust, glue, paraffin, etc. to experiment.

Thinking of this, Zhao Zhen couldn't help but suddenly realized, and said happily: "My two beloved concubines really helped me a lot and made me suddenly enlightened."

As he spoke, he kissed each other, and then planned to stand up and said, "I still have to go to the Chemistry College."

"Guan family, no, finally take a rest."

"Now that the officials have an idea, let's discuss it tomorrow. Take a rest today to avoid exhaustion."

The two young concubines were at the age when they were dissatisfied with their desires, so naturally they were unwilling to let Zhao Zhen go.

Zhao Zhen originally wanted to go, but his legs felt weak and he couldn't walk, so he had to lie back and continued to hug the two concubines and said: "Okay, okay, let's talk about it tomorrow."

After saying that, they rested for about half an hour, and then began the unspeakable kissing and hugging again.

"It's done, I'm finally done."

Two days later, in the early morning of the Imperial Palace Chemical Institute, with an excited shout, rubber of relatively good quality was finally released.