The Rise of the European Emperor

For example, the Russo-Japanese War, the Tsushima Sea Battle, the Russian Pacific Fleet was defeated by the Japanese fleet. If it is a liberal arts student historian, who is talking nonsense, saying that Russia is a ****, the officers and soldiers are not trained enough, and it is also related to the political system. …

However, they didn't notice a detail at all - the artillery and explosives used by the paralyzed navies of the two countries are different...

Japan used Shimase gunpowder (picric acid) stolen from France, with an explosive speed of 7350 m/s, which was applied as early as the Sino-Japanese War. The Russians used the B gunpowder imported from the French, which is the first generation of smokeless gunpowder. This kind of gunpowder is actually a propellant after processing, and it is a single-base propellant with a detonation speed of only about 2000 m/s. And Japan's Shimose gunpowder has a detonation speed of more than 3.6 times, and also has its own combustion and poisonous smoke effects... The same cannonball has a huge difference in explosive power, and the Russians are naturally defeated... Don't mention the caliber of naval guns with me , first ask the huge difference in the power of the gunpowder of the warhead...

In fact, the Russians were also unlucky, because in 1905, when the Battle of Tsushima broke out, it was the era of the development of gunpowder technology. Although TNT or something has also come out, the technologies such as application and mass production are not perfect. In addition, these technologies are still in the hands of developed Western European countries such as Britain, France and Germany, and have not yet spread to Russia.

Japan's Shimose gunpowder also took a different approach. The biggest problem with picric acid is that it is easy to react with metal shells and cause self-explosion. But the devil scientist Shimase Masaru has invented a very simple method - aren't you reacting with the metal shell? I brush the inner layer of the metal shell of the shell warhead with a layer of paraffin to isolate the contact between the picric acid and the metal shell, will it be all right? Then, the Japanese navy rose up...

If the power of naval guns at that time was only considered, the Japanese navy would have surpassed that of Britain and France at that time. However, because the scale is completely incomparable with others, and they even have to buy boats from others, they are not ranked yet.

However, after the appearance of Shimose Gunpowder, the first unlucky one was the Beiyang Fleet. The imported ironclad ships used by the Beiyang Fleet are not fake, but Nima's shells actually use black gunpowder, which is several times worse than the B gunpowder imported by the Russians from France. In the face of Shiase gunpowder, can it not be disabled...

Let's compare the explosion speed - the Japanese Shimose gunpowder explosion speed is 7350 m/s, the Russian B gunpowder is 2000 m/s, and the Beiyang Fleet black powder is 500 m/s...

In fact, the Russians are the worst. In a few years, they will be able to buy TNT technology that is no less powerful than Shimose Gunpowder from Britain and France...

So the Russians fought the wrong naval battle at the wrong time. Russian Maozi is not lacking in bravery, but the power of artillery shells is less than one-third of others... This battle cannot be fought...

As for "I Daqing", let alone. When smokeless gunpowder appeared, other countries could spend a lot of money to introduce technology for production.

But the pure liberal arts (Confucian) officials of the Qing Dynasty only knew the introduction of gun production technology, but did not know the improvement of gunpowder technology.

Even, after Germany installed the "1888 Committee Rifle" and Mauser's new smokeless powder rifle, they felt that the Mauser m1871 black powder propellant rifle originally installed in the German army could not be wasted, so they sold it to the Qing Dynasty. military. The Beiyang Army did not know that others were selling out garbage, and they bought it as a treasure - look, I have a large number of "Mauser Quick Guns" in Qing Dynasty, majestic...

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What is the difference between a black powder rifle and a smokeless powder rifle? First of all, the diameter is different. The caliber of Mauser 1871 is 11.15mm, and the bullet specification is 11.15mm*60mm. The new Mauser rifle using smokeless propellant has a 7.92*57mm bullet. Obviously, the two bullets are very different in size. Using 7.92 gauge bullets, you can carry a lot more... Moreover, not to mention that the black powder barrel needs to be cleaned frequently, and the smoke of the black powder blocks the sight of sight...

Moreover, what is even more amazing is that the flame temperature of the single-base smokeless propellant during deflagration is actually lower than that of the black powder. The temperature of the deflagration flame is only about 2500 degrees, which is about 300 degrees lower... And the consequence of this is that the use of single-base smokeless propellant, the barrel is not as hot as the use of black powder...

However, in terms of power, the power of single-base smokeless propellant is three times that of black powder...

A concept needs to be mentioned here - specific volume. That is, the amount of gas produced by the explosion of one kilogram of propellant (unit is liter L) - the black powder is 280L/kg, while the single-base smokeless propellant is 993 L/kg (this data is for the US military M6 single-base propellant). data, while the M6 ​​propellant is the propellant for the 155mm large-caliber howitzer).

Although the performance of the original French B gunpowder is worse than that of the later US military M6 propellant, it is not a problem that the specific volume is more than three times that of the black powder.

The process of the bullet or shell being pushed out of the barrel or barrel is actually the gas generated after the explosion of the gunpowder. The longer the barrel or barrel, the longer it takes to do work, and the greater the muzzle velocity of the warhead as it leaves the pipe. And after leaving the muzzle or muzzle, it depends on inertia. Because there is no gunpowder behind to push the warhead forward.

In the case of a certain length of the barrel or shell, it is obvious that the more gunpowder gas, the stronger the thrust, and the greater the initial velocity of the bullet. Therefore, the caliber of bullets using single-base smokeless propellant can be much smaller than that of bullets using black powder. Moreover, the ablation of the barrel is weaker than the use of black powder...

Modern firearms generally use more powerful double-base or even triple-base propellants. This is because the two-base and three-base propellants are more powerful and can make the bullets smaller and the caliber of the firearms smaller... In this way, the firearms are cleared, and the bullets can be carried more... For example, modern NATO The mainstream rifle caliber is 5.56mm, and Huaxia is 5.8mm... This is much smaller than the 7.92mm of the German army and the 8mm of the French army during World War I...

However, this also comes at a price. Although the caliber of modern rifles is small, the ablation power of double-base and triple-base gunpowder is stronger, and the ablation of the rifling is very serious. Therefore, the barrel of modern rifles needs to use special steel, or the inner wall of the barrel is chrome-plated to increase the life of the barrel. For example, the 56 and a half rifles, using 45-gauge carbon steel, have a barrel life of 10,000 rounds. After the inner wall is chrome-plated, the service life becomes more than 100,000 rounds...

Of course, that's what double-base and triple-base medicines require. And if we use a single-base propellant with very little ablation force, we use ordinary carbon steel... For example, when we make it in Hanyang, we use low-quality steel from Hanyang Iron Works, and it will fly just as well...

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As a military fan, Marin obviously knows the formula of the famous B gunpowder - 98% nitrocellulose, 2% paraffin... After dissolving in a 1:3 solution of ethanol and ether, it can be air-dried... Then rub it into strips, cut into granules...

Now, though, Marin has no paraffin in his hands. Moreover, paraffin wax is the lowest stabilizer, in fact, beeswax can also be used instead. Anyway, both are soluble in this 1:3 solution of ethanol and ether.

However, what Marin lacks now is not only paraffin, but also nitrocellulose as the main body... Because Marin doesn't have cotton now...

Fortunately, nitrocellulose is also called nitrocellulose. If there is no cotton, Marin will use linen instead... Anyway, it's all fiber, and the quality is almost inferior...

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After obtaining the nitrocellulose, Marin took beeswax and dissolved it in a 1:3 solution of ethanol and ether together with the nitrocellulose. Because of fear of insufficient stability, Marin directly increased the proportion of beeswax to 3%, lest the stability of gunpowder is not enough.

You know, single-base smokeless propellant, although called propellant, is more powerful than black powder. Its weakness is only compared with those dynamites of later generations. In terms of explosive power, single-base smokeless propellant is several times that of black powder... For the sake of safety, Marin increased the proportion of beeswax...

Next, it's air drying...

In fact, in later generations, there is a way to recover ether. It's like, what kind of vacuum distillation is used. However, after all, Marin is only a middle school-level chemistry expert, not a college student in chemical engineering. Therefore, it does not understand what vacuum low temperature distillation technology. Moreover, in the 19th century, it seems that the chemists at that time chose to let ether dissipate in the air during the drying process for safety... Although this is a waste of ether, it is better than safety...

When it was almost dry, Marin had the mushy single-machine propellant washed with water, and it was washed in multiple rounds...

This was seen in an article on the introduction of the propellant of World War I - it was mentioned above that the early B gunpowder had unstable performance due to the residual large amount of alcohol ether, and it was easy to spontaneously ignite and cause an explosion. At that time, France even sank a warship due to the self-destruction of the powder magazine...

At that time, the United States and France had a good relationship. After the Americans introduced the technology of B gunpowder, they found that as long as they pay attention to cleaning after the event and try to wash away those alcohol ether components, the safety of gunpowder will be greatly improved.

Of course, that doesn't mean it's completely fine. Later, before the First World War, the French not only tightened the cleaning process, but also found a better stabilizer - diphenylamine. The stabilizing effect of diphenylamine is far more than that of paraffin, which can make B gunpowder very stable. Then, this new stand-alone propellant, with the addition of diphenylamine, was called "BM" gunpowder. And imported from the United States, it is called the M series. For example, the M6 ​​gunpowder still used in later generations is a later version of this gunpowder...

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After cleaning, Marin had the single-base smokeless powder air-dried, rubbed and cut into pellets. After that, another process was added - surface passivation...

According to the theory of later generations, the propellant of the long barrel weapon is better to burn slowly, so that the gas expansion will be slow (relatively) and persistent. In the barrel and barrel of the rifle, the gas generated by the propellant charge will take longer to do work.

Therefore, the gunpowder of later generations is often passivated on the surface of the particles...

How to passivate it? In later generations, some countries such as Huaxia used camphor. Camphor is soluble in alcohol and ether, but insoluble in water...Using this feature, camphor can be dissolved in alcohol first, and then sprayed on the surface of the granular gunpowder... For example, use a piece of gauze, place the granular gunpowder, and then put it on the surface of the powder. Spray camphor alcohol solution on the surface... After the alcohol dries, there will be a thin layer of camphor film on the surface of the gunpowder particles...

This layer of camphor film can make the gunpowder burn slowly at first...but when it burns inside, the burning speed will speed up...

It just so happens that when the gunpowder gas pushes the bullet towards the muzzle, when the bullet approaches the muzzle, it is also the time when the surface-passivated gunpowder particles burn most violently. Then, the bullet is pushed out of the barrel by the most powerful gunpowder gas thrust, and the initial velocity reaches the maximum...

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Camphor is an excellent passivating agent, but apparently Marin doesn't have...

But this thing, Marin will have in the future. why? Because the Taiwan Island he planned to occupy is a camphor kingdom... There are camphor trees everywhere. If you want camphor, it is not easy to die?

The stability of camphor is obviously very good. Nobel, the king of explosives, also produced a double-base smokeless propellant in 1887 - the same amount of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, plus 10% camphor... This kind of launch Medicine is more powerful, but France had already adopted B gunpowder at that time, and other people's production lines were ready. You Nobel jumped out and wanted to kill people's jobs? Therefore, Nobel was persecuted by France, the French factory was closed, and he was forced to exile in Italy...

However, now Marin has no camphor in his hands. How to passivate the surface of gunpowder particles?

Very simple, Marin still intends to use beeswax...

He soaked the beeswax in the alcohol, slowly dissolved it, and then sprayed the beeswax alcohol solution on the gunpowder particles. Finally, make the surface of the gunpowder particles have a layer of beeswax film... Of course, pay attention to the concentration, if the surface of the gunpowder particles is full of beeswax, it will not burn...

While spraying the beeswax alcohol solution, Marin also got some graphite, pressed it into a very fine powder, and mixed it with the beeswax alcohol solution and sprayed it on the surface of the smokeless gunpowder particles...

Graphite can prevent static electricity and is an important component of gunpowder in later generations. Although it is generally only a small proportion, even less than 1%, it is also very important...

Graphite is insoluble in organic solvents, but graphite powder can adhere to the surface of smokeless powder particles by the wetting characteristics of beeswax alcohol solution. And static electricity happens to be generated on the surface, and the graphite powder is on the surface, just to play a role...

Alcohol cannot dissolve nitrocellulose, although it can dissolve beeswax on the surface, but this is originally an alcohol solution of beeswax, which naturally forms a beeswax protective film after air-drying...

After washing and air-drying, Marin made the world's first single-base smokeless powder 377 years ahead of schedule... Moreover, because of the use of multiple rounds of cleaning, surface passivation technology, and the addition of graphite powder, this As soon as the single-base smokeless gunpowder came out, it was a mature version...

Its only disadvantage is that the production cost is too high-during the production process, the alcohol and ether were all dissipated in the air due to drying and could not be recovered...

You must know that Marin's alcohol is all extracted from grain wine, and ether is made by concentrated sulfuric acid and alcohol laboratory method... Now grain is so expensive, and concentrated sulfuric acid is also very rare... Therefore, this kind of single The cost of base smokeless gunpowder is a big drop...

Therefore, this kind of smokeless gunpowder is currently only a beta version and can only be used for internal testing. It has to wait until there is a way to bring the cost down before it can be used on a large scale. Otherwise, Marin would not be able to afford the cost of using smokeless powder on a large scale. However, in a small number of elite troops, Marin can still be applied on a small scale. For example, in some key battles, the use of more powerful smokeless gunpowder can change the situation of the battle...