For ordinary time travelers, can glass be made overnight? The answer is... quite difficult.
Emperor Taizu, who traveled through time in his true form and brought a reference book with him, didn't figure this out, not to mention Zhang Shou, who scored excellent in physics in the college entrance examination but was just average in chemistry. He only knew that glass was made from quartz sand, but he could barely remember the specific proportions. The raw materials for making glass seemed to be soda ash, quartz sand, limestone... He really didn't remember the proportions, because chemistry doesn't teach this!
Quartz sand and limestone are fine, but soda ash is very difficult to prepare these days, not to mention large-scale preparation, so Zhang Shou can only focus on pure natural soda produced in certain salt lakes. Otherwise, industrial preparation of soda ash, whether it is the Lublanc process or the Soxhlet process, requires sulfuric acid and ammonia water. Where can he use chemical reactions to produce these two things
What's more, although the former is said to be relatively easy, sulfuric acid is highly toxic and dangerous, and it also pollutes the environment. The latter... ammonia is not much more dangerous! In this era when the chemical industry is far from mature, he has not even completed the preliminary experimental preparation of highly transparent glass. If he rashly thinks about industrialization, it will cause big trouble!
He also knew that China had always had various products that were called colored glaze but were actually glass. However, they were not resistant to high temperatures and could only be used as small ornaments for the homes of dignitaries. Secondly, small pieces of glass were not transparent enough, let alone large pieces. In essence, the lead-barium glass fired in China from ancient times to the present was different from the mainstream soda-lime glass in the West.
Of course, as for the most popular high-borosilicate glass in later generations, which is both heat-resistant and lightweight, its melting temperature is impossible...
Although Zhang Shou wanted to make flat glass and reform the stuffiness and darkness of window paper in these days, one must eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time.
At this moment, Zhang Shou saw a bunch of people passing around the small piece of transparent glass with great excitement, and he couldn't help but sigh. Especially when he saw Yang Zhan, whose face was almost deformed with excitement, he couldn't help but wonder if this guy was only helping others but not himself.
But when Yang Zhan rushed over, grabbed him, and shouted something excitedly, he was suddenly speechless.
"Dr. Zhang, why didn't I meet you earlier! If I had met you earlier, I wouldn't have wasted the things my father left me, and I wouldn't have been considered a prodigal son who wasted the family fortune by my own servants! I have seen those colored glass lamps on the market, but their transparency cannot be compared with the best crystal. However, you can use sand to burn glass similar to the best crystal!"
"You can turn decay into magic like this, you must have been a master craftsman in your previous life!"
Zhang Shou almost choked to death—a master craftsman... He was also a master soldier! But he had just calmed down when he heard a voice that was even more admiring than Yang Zhan's: "Brother Zhang is really amazing. The things he mentioned were things I could never have thought of. Many of his suggestions were enlightening. Master Yang Qi, you are right. Brother Zhang must have been a master craftsman in his previous life!"
I really have a previous life, but if I knew I still have a next life, I would have learned science and engineering better back then!
Zhang Shou, who was in a dilemma, faced the countless voices echoing him. He said unhappily, "Okay, stop saying these flattering words. I'm getting goose bumps all over my body! These are not my achievements alone. They are the wisdom of countless wise men throughout the ages."