American: Native Empire

Chapter 61:  Sulfuric Acid. 

As the use of soap increased in the empire, the development of glass also progressed without interruption.

“Wow.”

Kim Ki-woo looked around the glass bottle that the steward handed him.

It was incomparable to the murky glass he had seen when he first made glass.

Of course, there were still many shortcomings.

The thickness of the glass bottle varied in many places, making it look distorted here and there, and there was also a lot of impurities.

‘But this is probably the best they can do.’

If it was good enough to be presented to him, it meant that this glass bottle was the best product.

To improve further, either the glass artisans had to become more skilled, or the glass technology itself had to advance.

And with this level of glass production, he thought he could make experimental tools that could conduct proper chemical experiments.

As soon as he had this judgment, Kim Ki-woo immediately drew a design.

It contained detailed shapes and dimensions of the experimental tools needed for chemical experiments.

“Deliver this to the glass artisans.”

“I will do so.”

The design delivered to the steward soon headed to the glass factory.

“Sigh…”

“Hmm!”

The glass artisans who received the design all sighed.

The glass bottles inside the paper were relatively simple in shape, but some of them were quite large, which was why.

“It looks very difficult.”

“We have to do it anyway. Doesn’t His Majesty want it?”

“That’s true.”

But the artisans had no choice.

In the empire, whatever Kim Ki-woo wanted had to be made first before anything else.

From then on, the artisans mobilized all their abilities to start making the experimental tools that Kim Ki-woo wanted.

“This won’t do. It has to be more uniform.”

“It’s too small, isn’t it? How can we present such a shoddy product to His Majesty!”

Even though Kim Ki-woo did not urge them at all, the artisans worked overtime and made prototypes over and over again.

“Take it easy even if it takes more time.”

It was so serious that Kim Ki-woo gave such an order.

But thanks to the hard work of the artisans, the glass experimental tools were prepared faster than expected.

“Not bad.”

There were many things to point out if he wanted to, but Kim Ki-woo did not bother to do so.

As soon as the experimental tools were ready, Kim Ki-woo recruited researchers who would conduct chemical experiments with him.

“What? His Majesty is starting a new experiment?”

“This is not the time to be idle. I will definitely participate in His Majesty’s experiment this time!”

As soon as Kim Ki-woo declared that he would do a new chemical experiment, applicants flocked like bees.

There were so many more than he expected that he had trouble selecting the final candidates.

After all the researchers were recruited.

The first day of the experiment finally dawned.

“Are you all here?”

“Yes!”

The researchers who were selected answered energetically to Kim Ki-woo’s question.

Their expressions were very bright, and their eyes shone brightly alike.

They were very happy just by being chosen by Kim Ki-woo among many intellectuals.

They also had great expectations for the experiment that would take place in the future.

Kim Ki-woo received their expectations in one body and slowly began to speak.

“The substances made in this laboratory will greatly advance the empire.”

“Wow!”

“Sigh…”

The researchers were greatly encouraged by Kim Ki-woo’s assertion.

That was what they had been hoping for.

“But!”

However, Kim Ki-woo did not wait for them to continue to be happy.

As Kim Ki-woo shouted loudly, the researchers became silent at once.

“Many of the substances that will be made in the future will be very dangerous. If you make a mistake, you could get seriously injured or even lose your life.”

There were many substances that caused serious harm to humans.

Especially since the first goal of this laboratory was to produce strong acids, they could get severely wounded in a moment of carelessness.

“You are all scholars who are respected by the empire. I don’t want to lose you in an accident during the experiment. So you must never be careless at least when you are experimenting.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

“We will keep that in mind!”

After finishing some mental education like that.

The real experiment began.

***

Sulfuric acid is called the flower of chemical industry.

It was a very important substance in industry.

Sulfuric acid was the most produced compound after water in modern times.

It even indicated the size of a country’s industry by its sulfuric acid production.

Without sulfuric acid, modern society would not function properly.

Therefore, in order to develop industry, sulfuric acid had to be mass-produced first.

That’s why Kim Ki-woo challenged himself to mass-produce sulfuric acid.

‘Of course, I have to go through enough experiments before that.’

Mass production was a problem to think about after succeeding in production in the laboratory.

First, Kim Ki-woo collected a lot of sulfur.

Sulfur was very easy to obtain because it was a raw material for gunpowder.

Of course, sulfur alone was not enough to make sulfuric acid.

Kim Ki-woo prepared platinum for the production of sulfuric acid.

It was not difficult to obtain platinum.

‘Platinum was quite commonly used in Central and South America.’

There were traces of platinum being used in ancient Egypt.

However, after that, there was no trace of platinum being used in the Old Continent.

On the other hand, platinum products had been used in Central and South America for a long time, and they were still being used.

Thanks to that, he could relatively easily obtain the amount of platinum he wanted.

He put the prepared platinum in a glass container.

The size was as large as possible with the current technology, but it was not big enough to be satisfactory.

‘Well, this can’t be helped.’

Kim Ki-woo shook off the regret that remained in his chest.

After the preparations were done to some extent, Kim Ki-woo opened his mouth.

“Let’s start.”

“Yes!”

Immediately after the artisans’ spirited answer, the sulfuric acid production experiment began.

Squeak!

First, he burned the prepared sulfur and sent the smoke into a glass container.

That sulfur smoke was the starting point of this experiment, sulfur dioxide (SO2).

It was the result of sulfur reacting with oxygen in the air.

But what Kim Ki-woo wanted was not sulfur dioxide.

To make sulfuric acid, he had to react sulfur trioxide (SO3) with water, and to do that, he had to oxidize sulfur dioxide.

There were two ways to make sulfur trioxide: the nitric acid method and the contact method.

But the nitric acid method required nitric acid, and at this point, he needed concentrated sulfuric acid to make nitric acid.

Coincidentally, he could make concentrated sulfuric acid by using the contact method.

So he planned to make concentrated sulfuric acid first by using the contact method.

The contact method was simply a way of making sulfur trioxide by reacting oxygen and sulfur dioxide in the air.

‘But it takes too long to react with oxygen alone.’

The reaction rate was too slow if he just contacted sulfur dioxide and oxygen.

He needed a catalyst to solve this problem.

In modern times, vanadium pentoxide or copper-bismuth catalysts were used, but it was difficult to do so at this point.

So Kim Ki-woo prepared platinum.

Platinum was also a useful catalyst for contact process sulfuric acid production.

Of course, iron oxide could also be used as a catalyst, but iron was too reactive compared to platinum and not very good.

While he was thinking about this and that, soon enough, enough sulfur dioxide gas had accumulated in the glass container.

“This should be enough.”

As soon as Kim Ki-woo muttered that, the researchers immediately sealed the container.

The experiment proceeded at a rapid pace.

When they thought it had reacted enough in the sealed container, they carefully reacted the gas with water.

The solution made this way was sulfuric acid (H2SO4).

Of course, since he had to make concentrated sulfuric acid, he minimized the amount of water added.

Kim Ki-woo went back and forth in the laboratory and checked the experimental process from time to time.

“How is it?”

“It seems definitely heavier than water as Your Majesty said.”

Kim Ki-woo nodded at the researcher’s words.

It was very different from water just by looking at it.

When he tilted the glass container left and right, viscosity that did not appear in water showed in this solution.

Since it was a process of making concentrated sulfuric acid in the first place, it meant that concentrated sulfuric acid was produced if the solution was made.

And the solution also matched the properties of concentrated sulfuric acid that Kim Ki-woo knew, so it was almost certain.

‘But to be sure, I have to experiment.’

There was something that people misunderstood, but concentrated sulfuric acid and dilute sulfuric acid had very different properties.

Dilute sulfuric acid was a very powerful acid.

It was so acidic that acids with higher acidity than dilute sulfuric acid were called superacids.

But concentrated sulfuric acid was not an acid.

A strong acid had to be sufficiently ionized in solution, but concentrated sulfuric acid could not do that.

Of course, if he added concentrated sulfuric acid to water, it became an acid by ionizing in water.

But that did not mean that concentrated sulfuric acid was a safe substance.

Concentrated sulfuric acid sucked hydrogen and oxygen atoms from other molecules and turned them into water molecules.

In other words, if this solution showed such a tendency, it meant that it was clearly concentrated sulfuric acid.

Kim Ki-woo conducted an experiment to confirm this phenomenon.

“As I said, this solution is very dangerous. So be careful not to splash it on your skin, and never inhale the smoke that occurs during the experiment.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“We will be careful.”

After getting another promise from the researchers, he started the real experiment.

First, he put sugar in a cylindrical glass container.

Then he slowly poured the solution into it.

Then.

Swoosh!

A black pillar rose from where the sugar was and heat and smoke spewed out.

“Wow!”

“Oh my God…!”

It was an unbelievable phenomenon even with their own eyes.

The researchers’ faces turned pale with astonishment.

How did white sugar turn into a black pillar?

Kim Ki-woo clenched his fist as he saw their strong reactions.

‘It definitely worked.’

The pillar that was made now was nothing but a lump of carbon.

The hydrogen and oxygen atoms in sugar were all sucked into concentrated sulfuric acid and only carbon remained.

That is, it proved that this solution was concentrated sulfuric acid.

Kim Ki-woo waited until the carbonization of sugar was somewhat finished and opened his mouth again.

“Do you understand why I warned you so much? It was sugar now, but what if this solution touched your skin?”

“…”

The researchers were silent.

Gulp!

Kim Ki-woo heard some researchers swallowing their saliva clearly.

They each imagined that scene.

Kim Ki-woo pressed on with the momentum.

“Many more dangerous substances will be made in the future. So you should never let go of your tension at least when you are experimenting.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Their tone of voice was completely different from when he warned them with words only.

It was true that seeing is believing.

Seeing it once was better than hearing it a hundred times.

Kim Ki-woo put the researchers’ reactions behind him and thought briefly.

‘I buttoned up the first button well.’

He was able to make concentrated sulfuric acid.

Then it was time to move on to the next step.

< Sulfuric Acid. > The end