Otaku Engineer in Great Tang Dynasty

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In an episode of the TV series "Palace", the heroine Luo Qingchuan remembered a passage from a teacher in a modern school in order to escape from the underground palace: "Sulfuric acid has existed since ancient times in my country, but it was not called sulfuric acid at that time, but green Alum is also not used in industrial production. It is usually used to treat typhoid, dysentery and other diseases. There are unofficial records that ancient thieves ignited green alum collected from pharmacies to make liquid and corrode the wealthy households. Walls enter the house to steal, which shows that sulfuric acid has been widely used more than a thousand years ago."

Although green alum can indeed be used to make sulfuric acid, the statement in the TV series is very problematic!

According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: green alum is a traditional Chinese medicine, which can treat typhoid, malaria and other diseases. But green alum cannot be burned, so it is definitely wrong to use the method of igniting green alum to prepare sulfuric acid.

In Datang's first "chemical laboratory", the second half of Wang Ji's words made Li Zexuan curious. He asked, "Some experiences in the early years? What experiences did Mr. Wang have in his early years?"

Wang Ji blushed, and said somewhat ashamedly, "I was a Taoist priest in my early years, and I also refined elixir..."

Li Zexuan's eyes widened, looking at Wang Ji like an alien, and said, "Mr. Wang, have you practiced elixir before?"

He only knew that Wang Ji had a good literary talent and was once a Taoist priest, but he never imagined that this old man was an alchemist, a tortoise, the academy really picked up a treasure... a ghost! genius!

Wang Ji was embarrassed, he hurriedly coughed twice, and said:

"Cough cough! That's all in the past, don't mention it again! Don't mention it again!"

Now that Wang Ji, who has studied "Chemistry", completely understands how ridiculous the alchemy practices at the time were, the elixir he brewed were just poisonous pills! If it wasn't for Li Zexuan to ask about it today, he would never be able to mention the matter of alchemy in the past. In his opinion, this matter should be regarded as a stain in his life!

Li Zexuan pursed his lips and smiled, and said, "Haha! Then don't mention it! Mr. Wang, please continue."

Wang Ji glanced at Li Zexuan resentfully before continuing:

"Back then, when the old man made alchemy once, he cast green alum into the furnace, and the furnace was corroded and a small piece was corroded! A few days ago, the old man suddenly remembered this incident, and combined with you to write The "Chemistry" textbook, I felt that the reason why the Dan furnace was corroded at the beginning was probably because the green alum was decomposed at high temperature, producing sulfuric acid!"

Hearing this, Li Zexuan's expression became complicated.

In his previous life, he saw a post on Tieba, saying: Why did Western alchemy develop into chemistry, while Eastern alchemy only left some ethereal elixir?

In fact, this conclusion is a bit too one-sided. The ancient Chinese alchemists were not useless. They invented gunpowder, invented sulfuric acid, and discovered redox, metal replacement, and acid-base neutralization reactions.

For example, Ge Hong, an alchemist in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, successfully summed up that "the burning of cinnabar will turn into mercury, and the accumulation will turn into cinnabar." This is the first time that humans have obtained the exact same substances as natural products through chemical means, which can be called a great creation;

From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, many alchemists' writings recorded that iron can be replaced by copper in a solution of bile vitriol (copper sulfate). This method is called bile water immersion copper method. It can obtain copper powder without high temperature smelting. It is easy to operate and has low cost. It is the earliest metal replacement reaction in the world;

In the Tang Dynasty, during the Kaiyuan period, Gu Gangzi, an alchemist, recorded in his book "Huangdi Jiuding Shendan Jing Jue", "refining stone gallbladder and extracting the essence", that is, retorting stone gallbladder (bile alum cuso4·5h2o) and obtained it. sulfuric acid.

This is the world's earliest well-documented case of sulfuric acid production!

In the West, alchemists originally made base metals such as copper, iron, and lead into precious gold and silver, with the aim of increasing wealth. In the Middle Ages of the West, alchemists believed that all metals were composed of mercury and sulfur, of which mercury was the source of all metals, sulfur was the common ingredient of all combustible substances, and gold and silver contained the purest mercury and sulfur.

Therefore, in their opinion, the difference between ordinary metals and precious gold and silver is mainly in the proportion and purity of mercury and sulfur contained in them. Using a kind of "philosopher's stone" Philosopher's Stone can change the properties of the metal and put the Base metals are converted to precious metals.

This "Philosopher's Stone" is revered by people as the wise man's stone. It is sacred and has magical and omnipotent properties. Countless alchemists have gone through thousands of mountains and rivers and tried their best to find the legendary wise man's stone.

In this way, alchemists have long been engaged in this kind of ineffective labor in the mineral kingdom, plant kingdom, and animal kingdom.

From the ancient Greek era to the Middle Ages, people spent more than a thousand years in alchemy experiments, and the dream of turning stone into gold has not come true, but a thousand years of chasing did not make them give up their dreams!

Therefore, from this point of view, the alchemy of the Middle Ages in the West represents a spirit of scientific inquiry. Perhaps this is why the alchemy of the West has been continuously developed and finally found its destination on the road of science. Alchemy in Arab countries, although developed earlier, only stayed in the primitive form of chemistry.

Looking at Western alchemy with dialectical thinking, it can be seen that Western alchemy has evolved from blindly chasing a stone into gold in the early days, to the exploration and knowledge of natural substances, with ups and downs in the middle. The painstaking exploration of early alchemists probably did not have chemistry in the modern sense.

Sixteenth-century English philosopher Francis Bacon once taught science about alchemy

A fair and reasonable evaluation of the contribution of the study was made. He says:

"The painstaking perseverance of the alchemists in their search for gold has enabled their descendants to obtain many useful inventions and useful experiments, and indirectly lead chemistry to the bright road!"

The ancient Western alchemists and the Eastern alchemists were, to a certain extent, a group of ancient chemistry super geniuses, but many alchemists, the goal of their life is to refine elixir, so that they have many useful inventions for a long time. Time has not been widely used, such as gunpowder!

And now Wang Ji has gradually evolved from a traditional alchemist to an alchemist who is constantly seeking knowledge! His life goal is no longer alchemy, but to seek knowledge in exploration!

(Many people may not believe it. The dean of physics - Newton, in addition to the dazzling titles of physicist, mathematician, and mechanics, he also has a lesser-known title, that is, alchemist)

"Shanchang, the old man has a question. When the sulfur is directly burned, why can't the sulfur dioxide produced by it continue to react with oxygen in the air to form sulfur trioxide?"

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