New Han Dynasty 1834

Chapter 83 Super Cross-Border Materials

Chapter 83 Super Cross-Border Materials

Outside the canteen in the west area of ​​the Great Han Museum, a burly young man was holding a rice bowl in one hand and pointing at the Europeans inside the door with the other, talking to the handyman at the door.

Daguerre, who was not far away, pressed the shutter of his camera and took a picture of the area outside the canteen, freezing the scene in time.

Daguerre took three photos in succession, and then he and his companions went into the canteen with their cameras and took two more photos of the canteen interior.

The photo shows Lussac, Faraday, Babbage, Morse and others having a meal.

Daguerre had used up the glass plates he had prepared, so everyone put away the camera and the plates, planning to develop the photos later that evening. They went to get dinner first.

During their time at the Great Han Academy of Sciences, Morse, Faraday, Irwin, and others often felt the differences between the Great Han and Britain and the United States.

However, the Francois, such as Lussac and Daguerre, had a strange sense of familiarity with many of the things they encountered in the Han Dynasty.

Lussac even felt that the state of Han society at this time was somewhat like France during the French Revolution, which was ruled by Napoleon's descendants after the success of the revolution.

The traditional aristocratic families vanished, and all commoners divided the land among themselves.

The entire society, from top to bottom, is dominated by ordinary people, and ordinary citizens can become generals and officials at any time.

Although there were nominal noble titles, they were merely honorary titles awarded to meritorious commoners, not feudal noble titles passed down from ancient times.

On the contrary, their own motherland, France, after the Bourbon Restoration, became somewhat like Britain, and France under the Orleans dynasty became even more like Britain.

The result of compromises and reconciliations among various factions was the absence of a sufficiently powerful monarch, making it impossible to concentrate the nation's power.

The current Franco-Orléans dynasty represents the era in Franco-Orléans history that most resembles Britain.

That evening, the photos that Daguerre and Talbot had taken at noon were developed.

The following afternoon, the two, along with their collaborating Han Dynasty craftsmen and a translator from the Court of State Ceremonial, took the latest batch of photographs taken in the past few days and followed Wang Lai into the palace to see Liu Yulong.

Liu Yulong examined the photos he had taken and felt that the photos were already very clear.

In particular, Daguerre's photographs taken with glass plates show the fine hairs and clothing textures of people up close, and allow one to discern the features and expressions of people slightly further away.

It's already indistinguishable from the old black-and-white photos I remember: "The camera's quality is already quite good. What problems are there now? When will it be able to go into mass production?"

Wang Lai immediately bowed and reported, "Your Majesty, the biggest problem with the camera right now is still the choice between paper tape and glass film."

"Paper tape is convenient to carry and store, and can be used to take a large number of photos continuously. However, the paper tape itself is too fragile and is easily damaged during the application of medicine and processing."

"Although the glass base itself is relatively sturdy and convenient for pre-production preparation and post-production processing, it is not convenient to carry and can only take a few photos at a time."

"Currently, the Gewu Institute has not found a film material that can combine the advantages of both."

"If we are to prepare for mass production of cameras, we need to choose between paper tape film and glass film, or produce both types of cameras simultaneously. Your Majesty, please make the decision."

Talbot of Britain used paper negatives, while Daguerre of France used glass negatives.

Because of their incompatible backgrounds, the two adopted two different technical approaches.

Upon hearing this, Liu Yulong suddenly realized that film rolls didn't exist yet: "If there were a material that was as lightweight as paper, easy to carry in large quantities, and relatively tough and transparent, that could be used as camera film, that would be wonderful!"

Wang Lai and the surrounding craftsmen echoed, "Your Majesty is absolutely right—"

But no one uttered the second half of the sentence: "Your Majesty's words are beautiful, but where in the world can such materials be found?"

Such a thing certainly exists; it's a plastic roll.

Liu Yulong put down the photo in his hand and looked up to recall what he knew about the situation.

What materials were used to make early film rolls in history?

Because it has become a style, it is still frequently mentioned even in the 21st century.

Some new movies and animated films deliberately strive for that kind of effect.

What was that word again?

Liu Yulong thought for a while, recalling many old documentaries and cartoons in his mind, and finally realized that the thing was called "celluloid"!

But what exactly is cel?

In the past, billiard balls were made of celluloid, and so were pool balls.

In 1863, a billiards company offered a reward for finding a material to replace ivory in the manufacture of billiard balls.

So engineers started researching it and created celluloid in 1869.

This stuff seems to be quite flammable; it's called nitrocellulose—made by adding camphor.

What exactly is nitrocellulose?

Nitrocellulose? That's just nitrocellulose—nitrocellulose! It's smokeless gunpowder!

Therefore, the main materials used in cameras, film, table tennis, and billiards were essentially the same as the smokeless propellant in gun cartridges.

If not enough camphor is added, the billiard balls may catch fire when they collide violently, just like a cannon suddenly firing.

Therefore, you should never throw old-fashioned billiard balls into the stove.

In the past, billiard balls were also very flammable. If a large pile of billiard balls were put together, it could explode if lit with fire.

A fire also occurred at a film reel warehouse in the United States.

Nitrocellulose is not difficult to manufacture; it was accidentally made in 1845.

Nitrocellulose can be obtained by foaming cotton with nitric acid. For mass production, short cotton fibers need to be nitrated with a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid.

As requested by Liu Yulong, the Gewu Institute produced nitrocellulose two years ago.

However, nitrocellulose is very unstable and will decompose and spontaneously combust when the temperature exceeds 40 degrees Celsius.

Various auxiliary materials are needed to stabilize it.

If you add a large amount of camphor, reaching about 30%, and let it completely melt before solidifying, it will form a relatively stable solid.

But then it wouldn't be able to be used as smokeless gunpowder; it would become the first synthetic plastic, celluloid.

Camphor is also a traditional Chinese medicine. The Compendium of Materia Medica describes a method for its extraction, which involves boiling and distilling camphor bark.

Camphor trees are widely distributed in southern China and Southeast Asia, especially in Taiwan, where there are many thousand-year-old camphor trees and Taiwan was historically a major exporter of camphor.

Camphor trees do not appear to exist in other parts of the world.

Therefore, in the future, rubber rolls, table tennis, and billiard balls will become new specialties of the Han Dynasty and products that can be exported continuously.

This special product, film rolls, can be sold to Europe and America at luxury goods prices.

Camphor as a raw material should be prohibited from being exported.

As Liu Yulong looked up in thought, everyone around him fell silent.

In particular, Grand Secretaries like Wang Lai knew that the Emperor was thinking things through in this state, and that he might have a good idea.

After figuring out what was going on, Liu Yulong picked up a pen and wrote down two recipes, handing them to Wang Lai: "Try these two things, and keep the contents a secret from everyone."

Wang Lai took the note with both hands and glanced at it. There were two simple paragraphs written on it.

First section: 70% nitrocellulose, gelled with alcohol ether, 30% camphor, and a small amount of graphite.

The film is melted, cast, and rolled into thin sheets for use in the trial production of camera films.

In the second stage, 95% of the nitrocellulose is gelled with alcohol ether, and 3 parts of camphor are added.

Soak it in a 5% oxalic acid solution, leaving one part of oxalic acid residue, then coat it with graphite powder, leaving one part of graphite powder residue.

Used for gun propellants, to test stability and combustion effects.

After reading these two simple paragraphs, Wang Lai couldn't help but twitch his beard.

Nitrocellulose, a dangerous substance, is understandable as a propellant in guns and cannons, but how could it be used to make camera film?

Are camera film and gun propellant the same thing?

Does adding camphor to this medicine have any special effects?

However, Wang Lai immediately remembered that the material used to solve the problem of bubbles generated after the converter blower was also a traditional medicinal herb called "Tu Zi".

In addition, the emperor's ideas have been very useful over the past two years, and have almost never gone wrong.

Wang Lai didn't have much to say, she just wanted to try it out as soon as possible.

The interpreter at the scene, hearing that Liu Yulong wanted to keep it a secret from everyone, did not translate Liu Yulong's last two sentences.

Historical development and technological progress have never been linear.

Many things appeared late in history, not necessarily because their production and processing technologies were extremely difficult.

It could be that there is no demand, or it could be that the right path has not been found.

Materials science, in particular, is full of metaphysics and a black box; sometimes a single idea can solve a problem that has taken decades to solve.

At the same time, the same thing may have different names in different industries.

Modern people's minds also contain a lot of information from different sources.

Different ways of saying the same thing, if not explicitly put together, people may not realize that the two are related.

Just like nitrocellulose, celluloid, glue rolls, billiard balls, nitrocellulose, and smokeless gunpowder, these seemingly random names all share the same main ingredient.

Liu Yulong had never realized before that camphor, an auxiliary material in celluloid, was the deactivating agent in early smokeless gunpowder.

Liu Yulong had always known that modern smokeless gunpowder slowing down relies mainly on diphenylamine.

However, the production of diphenylamine is too difficult. It requires the purification of nitrogen or hydrogen and the addition of aluminum chloride. Historically, it was not until the 2000s that mass production could be barely achieved.

Liu Yulong instructed the Gewu Academy to study the relevant materials gradually, but did not set any specific goals.

According to Liu Yulong's understanding, smokeless gunpowder passivated with diphenylamine can be stored stably for ten years, while passivated with camphor may only be stored stably for one or two years.

If the storage time for gunpowder is too short, it can only be produced in small quantities and used quickly.

After the meeting, Van Lai let Talbot and Daguerre continue testing the camera, while he arranged for two craftsmen to prepare camphor nitrocellulose.

The two main materials are mixed, dissolved and gelled with ethanol and ether, and a small amount of graphite is added to increase fluidity. After heating and melting, it becomes a flowable liquid.

First, it is cast into a thin sheet and then rolled to obtain a transparent plastic sheet, which is the world's first synthetic plastic.

The entire processing from start to finish is not difficult at all.

Because Liu Yulong requested secrecy, Wang Lai personally supervised the two craftsmen's operation, producing a small batch by hand in the workshop, which was then sent to Daguerre and Talbot for testing.

When Daguerre and Talbot, along with their fellow burly craftsmen, received the thin, flexible plastic sheet, they were all stunned: "My God, this is simply the perfect film material—"

"Supple and lightweight, it really is what His Majesty described!"

"What is this? Who made it? I've never seen it before?"

Wang Lai replied with a straight face, suppressing their curiosity: "This material is a finished product of a classified project, so don't ask too many questions."

"Each of you do your own job and try to see if this stuff is suitable for making negatives."

"If it's suitable, let's use this type of film for everything; it's perfect for mass production."

Everyone readily agreed and immediately went to process the negatives and take test photos. The final result was "perfect".

After all, camphor nitrocellulose was the best film material until safer cellulose acetate materials matured.