1855 United States Tycoon

Regarding the debt problem of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, it was resolved silently. Although the Japanese gritted their teeth with hatred, they were really not sure about preventing those damn arson rockets. Therefore, they can only grit their teeth and admit it honestly. But now Scrooge's attention is mainly not on this matter. Now, Scrooge's attention is almost entirely focused on the large laboratory.

In large laboratories, experiments are currently underway to synthesize ammonia, that is, to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen through industrial methods. This project has far-reaching impact on mankind. The first is agriculture. Nitrogen is very important for the growth of plants. Although nitrogen is the most abundant component in the atmosphere, the free nitrogen in elemental form cannot be used directly by plants. Therefore, if it can be directly used in the air through chemical methods, The nitrogen element becomes ammonia that can be absorbed by plants, which is almost revolutionary for agriculture.

In the time and space of Scrooge’s previous life, a certain big country could feed 20% of the world’s population with 7% of the world’s arable land, not only to feed, but also to guarantee eggs, poultry, meat, and aquatic products. 3. The per capita consumption of fruit far exceeds the advanced world level. What is it relying on? In addition to the hybrid rice of a certain meritorious archdruid, more importantly, it has the world's largest fertilizer output. This is the real guarantee for the high yield of the rabbit country's agriculture. By the way, some ignorant little rascals once asked the Ministry of Agriculture of Rabbit with a serious attitude: "Can you not use chemical fertilizers and use more farm manure so that we can all eat pure natural." So the agricultural rabbits spread their hands and said: " If this is done, um, it is estimated that a quarter of the country’s grain output will remain, and about half of the rabbits will starve to death."

In Scrooge’s original time and space, in the 1970s and 1980s, North Korea still had more than enough agricultural self-sufficiency. However, as Mao Xiong practiced the Heavenly Demon method of disintegrating shock, North Korea immediately had no use for it. Petroleum for the production of chemical fertilizers, and then, it is said that North Korea starved to death for millions of people during the continuous bumper harvest in the northeast of the rabbit country. Of course, if this quantity is compared with that of the White Elephant, it is not a big deal. The output per mu of field in the Rabbit Country can be close to or even more than one ton, and the natural conditions such as water and heat are even better than the White Elephant Country in the Rabbit Country. , The yield per mu is not even a quarter of the rabbit country. Relying on 40% more arable land than rabbits, it can grow three crops of water and heat a year, but the total output is only less than half of the rabbit country. Every year, 2 million white elephants die due to malnutrition. . Why is there such a big difference? The simplest data is that the fertilizer used per acre in the rabbit country is more than six times that of the white elephant country. It was the emergence of chemical fertilizers that allowed agriculture to feed so many people for the first time. The most important chemical fertilizer is nitrogen fertilizer, and the production of nitrogen fertilizer is inseparable from synthetic ammonia.

In addition to being a chemical fertilizer, synthetic ammonia has another function-the manufacture of explosives. With synthetic ammonia, you don’t have to worry about nitric acid, and you don’t have to worry about nitric acid. Naturally, you don’t have to worry about gunpowder and explosives. Before synthetic ammonia, gunpowder in all countries of the world could basically only come from naturally formed saltpeter mines. Of course, a little can be collected by accumulating feces, scraping corners, etc., but in the 19th century In the late stage, relying on this to support the consumption of war is as unreliable as saying that Ma Niangniang is a star idol generally worshipped by the Chinese people.

Nowadays, some of the world’s largest saltpeter mines are basically controlled by the British. Therefore, the United Kingdom is quite confident in overwhelming those guys on the European continent. One of the important reasons is that once the British get stuck Saltpeter mines, it won’t take long for Europeans to use gunpowder. Well, the Germans have the most serious problem. Therefore, the Germans are also very interested in synthetic ammonia. For this reason, they have seriously trained a group of experts with good level to come to Macdonald Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company to conduct joint research with the United States.

Hydrogen and nitrogen can synthesize ammonia through a chemical reaction, but this reaction is a reversible reaction. Scrooge knew that by increasing the pressure, the balance can be shifted to the side where ammonia is formed, and increasing the temperature will shift the reaction toward the side where the ammonia is decomposed into nitrogen and hydrogen. However, if the temperature is lowered, the reaction rate will decrease. Therefore, in order to increase the reaction rate, the temperature must be increased. Increasing the temperature will cause the reaction to move toward the end where it decomposes into nitrogen and hydrogen. Therefore, the pressure must continue to increase. Scrooge knew that in the case of using a catalyst, the pressure must be increased to more than 200 atmospheres and the temperature to 600 degrees Celsius in order to have a relatively good reaction rate. In this era, well, it is not easy to maintain such a high pressure.

Using the pressure vessel technology from Germany, chemists from United States and Germany started their research. The research is divided into several project teams to distinguish and advance. One project team is responsible for the manufacturing experiment of pressure vessels, and the other is responsible for researching how to industrially manufacture raw gas-pure nitrogen and hydrogen. Scrooge even personally participated in the second group's research.

How to make hydrogen? Well, those who have studied junior high school chemistry will tell you immediately, put some metallic zinc in the hydrochloric acid. Yes, in the school's chemistry laboratory, hydrogen is produced in this way. However, the cost of producing hydrogen in this way is very high. It is nothing more than playing in the laboratory. If you really rely on it to synthesize ammonia, it is estimated that you will lose money and lose money.

"There are two ways I can think of to produce hydrogen. One is direct electrolysis of water. Well, this is the easiest technologically. And we now have the ability to generate large-scale electricity. Through this method, we can get very pure However, considering the current electricity price, the cost of this is not cheap. And our goal is to finally produce cheap urea for farmers to use. If the price is too high, farmers will not be able to use it. Is meaningless. So I think we should choose a more technically responsible method, but the cost can be lower. Well, we can blow water vapor on top of the hot coke, so that we can get almost equal volume of carbon monoxide and It's a mixed gas of hydrogen." Scrooge said, "The next question is how to get rid of the carbon monoxide in it."

"We can pressurize the mixed gas. In this way, the carbon monoxide will be liquefied first, and then we will export the liquefied carbon monoxide, and then fill the cans. The remaining gas is hydrogen." A United States engineer named Hardy suggested Say, "And the by-product gas can be used for other purposes. For example, it can be used as a fuel."

"Or add some steam and let them react to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide." Another German chemist named Harrell made such a suggestion.

Of the two schemes, Hardy’s scheme is simpler in terms of technology. At room temperature, to liquefy carbon monoxide, only 35 atmospheres are enough, which is more than 500 atmospheres required for ammonia synthesis in the future. In terms of pressure, this is really not that difficult. In the second scheme, hydrogen and carbon dioxide will be produced. Among its final products, the amount of hydrogen is exactly twice that of the first scheme. As for Impurities, carbon dioxide is much easier to remove than carbon monoxide. So Scrooge finally decided to adopt the second plan for research.

Although writing the equations of these chemical reactions is very simple, it does not take two minutes. However, it is not so easy to make it a reality. However, these specific technology issues are not something that Scrooge has time to manage. He still has a lot of things and cannot be spent on such technology issues. Moreover, making money is to enjoy Life. Although Scrooge didn't like pleasure like Morgan, he was definitely not Rockefeller's guy. He had no other hobbies except counting money. Besides, Scrooge still has an old friend to greet him.

This old friend is Joshua Rothschild. Back then, he was the representative of the famous Rothschild family in America, but after the outbreak of the Civil War, the Rothschild family judged that the United States would eventually split, and fell because of the split, and eventually became like Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. The "normal America country" looks like. Coupled with the business opportunities brought about by a series of changes in Europe and the impact of the economic crisis of 1857 in the United States, the Rothschild family voluntarily withdrew from the United States. However, the facts soon slapped the Rothschild family in the face, and the United States finally defeated the danger of division, and even under the interference of Scrooge, there was a burst of economic prosperity. In this situation, the Rothschild family also began to plan to return to the United States, fortunately, to get a share of the development of United States.

After Joshua came to United States, he first contacted his old friends. Now his old friends are now arrogant. Well, Scrooge is already the richest man in United States, and JP Morgan has also grown into a wealthy man not to be underestimated. Now he can no longer use the wand of capital to control these two guys. On the contrary, the Rothschild family returns to United States. In many things, you need to look at the faces of these two guys.

Joshua first contacted Morgan. He told Morgan that he was very interested in some railways and a coal mine owned by Morgan, and hoped to buy these properties at a suitable price.

Morgan was quite uncomfortable with the attempt by the Rothschild family of European capital to enter the United States. So although Joshua offered the price very sincerely, Morgan still said that he needs to take good care of it. consider.

In fact, Morgan’s so-called careful consideration is just to delay for a while, so as to agree with Scrooge. Well, without Scrooge's cooperation, relying on him alone, it would still be a bit difficult to fight against the big capitals in Europe. So, the front foot sent away Joshua Rothschild, and the back foot Morgan called Scrooge. Well, shortly after the invention of the speaker, MacDonald launched the telephone service and established the New York Telephone Company. Morgan and Scrooge are the first users.

Thank you for reading this story at mtlarchive.com. Your support enables us to keep the site running!