Richard didn't know what happened in the jewelry store, but after getting the ruby, he had gathered all the raw materials for making cobalt blue. The only thing left was to make the cobalt blue and then make real cobalt blue glass. So, Richard and Glo went to the last place they wanted to go today - the glass factory in the Jade Kingdom.
This place is not accessible to ordinary people, not even Gro can enter or exit casually.
This is mainly because glass, especially high-quality glass, is an absolute luxury in the current world similar to the Middle Ages. Large-area glass mirrors are more expensive than gold, and small pieces of stained glass used to decorate stained windows in churches are also valuable. Even broken glass pieces are not available to ordinary people. They are often mounted on gorgeous evening gowns by some aristocratic young women and worn to dinner parties. In their opinion, broken glass pieces are more sparkling and more representative of status than any gemstone rings or pearl necklaces.
To put it simply, glass is almost never touched by civilians. It is completely exclusive to nobles and has huge benefits. For this reason, a country often firmly grasps the glass manufacturing factory, places it in remote places, and sends heavy troops to guard it. The craftsmen are not allowed to leave the glass manufacturing factory for life to prevent leakage of the process.
In fact, this is also a true portrayal in the history of modern earth.
In modern earth history, around the twelfth century, Venice was the world's glass manufacturing center at that time. In order to monopolize glass making technology, all glass artists were directly enclosed on an island called Murano for several centuries. .
In the current world of the Emerald Kingdom, it has not been exaggerated to this extent, but Gro also used his status as a prince and went through a lot of troubles before finally gaining the qualifications to bring people in.
After several identity checks, Grotto took Richard into the glass factory of the Jade Kingdom.
In the huge wooden shed, there are square pools everywhere, stoves are everywhere, and the heat is soaring. A large number of workers and craftsmen are constantly coming and going, climbing up and down on the shelves, shouting constantly.
"Shaq, go to furnace No. 1 and see if the fire is put out!"
"Babes, go to furnace four and check the fuel."
"Nusi, there is something wrong with pool No. 15. Go and ask Master Monhachi to come and take a look..."
The director of the glass factory, Vickis, who was in his forties, had brown hair and high cheekbones, led Richard and Gro through the wooden shed with a respectful attitude. After all, it was one thing that the glass factory was tightly guarded, but as the director of the factory, he was still just a humble citizen in front of Gro. If he dared to be disrespectful, Gro would dare to throw him into the pool and make glass.
With Vickis's attitude, he was naturally unfavorable. Richard would soon go to a temporarily suspended furnace and use some means to make cobalt blue pigment from cobalt ore, rubies and phosphoric acid.
Then the cobalt blue was given to Vickers, who put it into the unformed glass according to a certain proportion, and finally produced cobalt blue glass that met the requirements.
Vickers quickly went to do it, and after a while he brought the product.
"This... Mr. Richard." Vickis handed a palm-sized glass sample to Richard's hand and said, "This was just made according to your instructions. See... if you are satisfied with it."
Richard took the piece of glass and glanced at it briefly. He saw that the piece of glass was sea blue, which basically met the requirements of cobalt blue glass, but...
Richard tilted the glass slightly to change the incident angle of the light. He saw another light green color coming out of the glass, and his brows suddenly furrowed.
This is...a sign of impurities in the glass.
Richard thought.
This shouldn't be something Vickis did on purpose. The other party didn't have the courage or motivation. It was purely a matter of process. In the current world, which is similar to the Middle Ages, glass technology has not reached the level of the modern earth. The more traditional technology is used, that is, silica rich in silica (SiO2, quartz, the main component of sand) is used as the raw material. to make glass.
The melting point of silica is 2000 degrees Celsius. It is difficult for ordinary furnaces to meet the requirements. In order to reduce the difficulty of production, sodium carbonate (Na2CO3, soda) and potassium carbonate (Potash, K2CO3, potash) are added to reduce the melting point of silica to 1000 degrees Celsius. about. However, sodium carbonate will dissolve the glass in water, so an appropriate amount of calcium oxide (CaO) is usually added to make the glass insoluble in water.
In this process, many raw materials and minerals cannot achieve 100% purity and will be mixed with some impurities. As the most common mineral element, iron is easily mixed into them. Finally, after a series of reactions, ferrous ions are generated, giving the glass the light green color of ferrous ions.
This is an unavoidable phenomenon. Unless the entire process is improved, and unless all raw materials and minerals are made 100% pure, this problem cannot be solved from the source.
Generally speaking, this does not have much impact. In fact, on modern earth, many low-cost glasses appear light green. In order to prevent the damage to the beer from ultraviolet radiation, the bottles used to store beer are specially added with iron elements to make them dark green.
But the cobalt blue glass that Richard wants to make now is for flame color experiments. The role of cobalt blue glass is to eliminate possible color effects to ensure that the true flame color is observed, so it should eliminate color difference as much as possible.
In this case…
Richard frowned deeply and thought for a moment. He turned his hand and found a small glass bottle in his hand. It contained half a bottle of gray-white metal powder, which was manganese powder.
Since the problem cannot be solved from the source, it can only be solved from the last link. A small amount of manganese can change the light green color caused by ferrous ions in the glass through a reaction, but the concentration must be controlled. If it is too much, the light green color will disappear and then lavender color will appear in the glass.
Handing the manganese powder in the glass bottle to Vickis, Richard said: "Go and make the blue glass piece I want again. While making it, sprinkle this powder into it again. The concentration is..."
After speaking for a while, Richard looked at the slightly stunned Vickis and asked, "Do you understand?"
"Well, I understand, I understand, but... what's the use of it, Mr. Richard?" Vickis said slightly confused.
"You don't have to worry about it, just do it." Richard said.
"Uh, okay." Vickis glanced at Gro who looked a little bored next to him, took the manganese powder given by Richard and went to find someone to operate it again.
After a while, Vickers came back with the newly made cobalt blue glass. His face looked very calm, but his hands were trembling, and he could not hide the excitement in his heart.