There are no exploitable nitrate mines available for now, and the chemical system is still non-existent. In this situation, Aegor could only rely on the power of nature to provide the required nitrate. He had long heard of the commonly known traditional method of making nitrate, but unfortunately, as a technology unrelated to his profession and interests, and one that had long been eliminated, Aegor had never understood its detailed process.
Fortunately, he was generally clear on the principle.
The fluffy snowflakes that precipitate from the corners of privies, pigsties, cattle pens, and stables are natural nitrate, derived from the decomposition and nitrification of organic matter by bacteria. Replicating this process selectively and with emphasis within reaction pools, was that not the conceptual origin of the traditional method of making nitrate?
Everyone understands the logic, but to develop a traditional method of making nitrate suitable for the world of Ice and Fire through experiments from scratch, he lacked the time and energy to do it himself.
Trying to skip basic knowledge and make people in this world who lack even the concepts of chemical elements and microorganisms understand ideas like nitrates, ammonifying bacteria, and nitrifying bacteria was simply wishful thinking. However, a driver does not necessarily need to know how to build an engine. Aegor could completely skip the principles and, through vertical command, let the personnel of the Industrial Research Institute be his hands, performing the repetitive and monotonous trial-and-error work on his behalf.
In the guidance outline he personally wrote, Aegor compared making nitrate to brewing wine. Brewing wine requires yeast and grain, while making nitrate, the necessary bacteria contained in the soil dug from corners where fluffy snow-like substances precipitate are the nitrate yeast, and feces and urine are the raw materials playing the role of grain. Next, simply by conducting comparative experiments to find and summarize the production plan and reaction environment most suitable for the actual conditions of the Industrial Park, large-scale traditional nitrate production could be achieved in the world of Ice and Fire.
What Qyburn was doing in this semi-open workshop was precisely searching for the best process and environment for making nitrate.
---
"This is Zone 1, where the project started. Different raw materials are put into different nitrate fields here, various animal and human excretions, compared against each other." Unable to stand the smell in the experimental area, Melisandre had decided early on to return to Blackwall Keep to rest, while Qyburn led the visiting team through the gate, beginning to introduce the surroundings in detail. "This comparison is nearing its end, and we can conclude that both human and animal excretions can be used, with similar effects. Considering the stability and availability of raw materials, we prefer to use human excretions."
As soon as Qyburn finished speaking, Nina also explained from the side at the right time. "Leaving aside other things about King's Landing, there are enough people. Privies in the Industrial Park were built a long time ago, and we have also used a series of reward and punishment measures to help employees develop the habit of using them. As for King's Landing, we have already started communicating with Hand of the King Davos. Not much is needed. As long as we can get permission to build privies in Flea Bottom and the commoner districts and have the City Watch cooperate with us in guiding residents to use them, the raw materials will be more than sufficient."
"Very good." Aegor nodded. While saying it was good, a faint worry arose in his heart. Daenerys occupying Dragonstone and pressing toward King's Landing, the Seven Kingdoms were under daily curfew now. Building privies and causing trouble at this critical juncture, and making the City Watch not guard the city but cooperate in teaching residents how to use them, seemed like madness.
This was an obvious problem that everyone could think of, but no one brought it up to lower morale. Qyburn led everyone forward. "This is Zone 2, testing the suitable environment required for nitrate yeast to act on feces and urine. After a period of comparison, we have reached several conclusions. Firstly, making nitrate is more efficient under non-open-air conditions. Secondly, unlike brewing, the fermentation of feces and urine cannot occur in a sealed environment, there must be some ventilation. This is not difficult. The problem is that ventilation conflicts with heat preservation. After some testing, we have basically determined that a temperature that makes people feel comfortable also happens to maximize the effect of the nitrate yeast. However, the season has reached Winter, and temperatures have now dropped near freezing point. To maintain a suitable temperature, a relatively enclosed environment is needed, but an enclosed environment contradicts the need for ventilation. We are currently trying to find a balance between these two to achieve the optimal production environment."
Having basically considered all the influencing factors he had mentioned, Aegor nodded. There was nothing they could do about the temperature, Winter had arrived. Currently, the only place in Westeros that could meet the natural temperature required for making nitrate was probably the southern coast of Dorne, but that far away was absolutely out of the question.
"We can consider setting up greenhouses connected to the ventilation outlets, preheating the incoming air artificially and controlling the fan speed. This would both ensure the temperature environment and provide fresh air. However, a temperature that makes people feel comfortable, that is too vague. Can you not control the temperature more precisely?"
No one answered, including the vice president who was leading the tour of the experimental area. Everyone completely misunderstood what Aegor was saying. Qyburn's phrase a temperature that makes people feel comfortable was already a considerably precise and rigorous description in this era. Ordinary people used words like cold, hot, neither cold nor hot, and so on, to express their feelings about temperature. It should be known that in Westeros, even a natural phenomenon like Winter is not officially considered to have arrived until the Citadel sends out white ravens to announce it.
After several seconds, Qyburn cautiously asked, "Then, Lord, how should we control the temperature more precisely?"
There were no thermometers in this world yet. Aegor slapped his forehead. Previously, he had not needed to know the temperature precisely in daily life, and the high temperatures of hundreds or thousands of degrees when smelting metals in Crown Town could not be measured by simple thermal expansion and contraction, so he only realized this today.
"Have the glassworks workshop try to make some thin tubes, with a hollow ball connected to one end, and fill them with some colored liquid. Do not use water, it will freeze. By using the principle that the liquid level in the thin tube rises and falls with the thermal expansion and contraction of air, you can measure temperature relatively accurately," Aegor said casually. "Mark scales on them, using the freezing and boiling points of water as the two extreme standard points, you can uniformly calibrate thermometers of different thicknesses and sizes. Hanging them in the nitrate production area will allow you to achieve the goal of controlling the precise temperature suitable for nitrate production."
He said it easily enough, but few around him could understand. Everyone looked at each other, all with blank faces. For them, who did not even know about thermal expansion and contraction, it was truly difficult to suddenly accept the design concept of a thermometer.
But Qyburn understood.
So it can be done like this.
The astonishment in the heart of this banished former Maester at this moment was something ordinary people could not possibly comprehend. He was the only one among the four directors, one president and three vice presidents, of the research institute who had never met Aegor face-to-face. He had always felt uncomfortable with the brainless atmosphere at the institute, which completely lacked a rational temperament, with everyone from top to bottom exalting the legendary Chief Logistics Officer, now the Night's Watch Commander, to a divine level. But at this moment, he suddenly understood why his colleagues had so mythologized this man in black before him.
If the guidance outline Aegor had written a few months ago, comparing making nitrate to brewing wine, had only made Qyburn slightly acknowledge the wisdom of his boss, then today's conversation made him fully realize that the rumors were true. But what shocked him the most was not that Aegor could come up with solutions to problems and propose a new invention in an instant, but the understated, matter-of-fact tone and expression he used before and after saying all that. What did this mean? It meant that this so-called thermal expansion and contraction and the temperature measuring device designed based on this principle were not something he came up with on a whim in a flash of inspiration, but were originally within his knowledge system, something he could retrieve instantly with a thought when needed.
How much profound knowledge and understanding of nature would this require?
Could this be advanced knowledge from that mysterious country across the Sunset Sea? Qyburn was itching with impatience. He wished he could drag Aegor back to a room right then and there, tie him up, lock him in a cage, and interrogate all the vast knowledge in his mind to solve the multitude of difficult problems that had long accumulated in his heart.
Of course, this was just a thought. The difference in status was there. Qyburn had gained professional dignity and a sense of accomplishment in the Night's Watch Industry Research Institute, realizing his self-worth, and these things were priceless. Wanting to continue working there, even if he had the ability, he would not actually mess around.
Aegor was completely unaware that his casual remark had stirred up huge waves in the listeners' hearts. He had already gotten used to the situation where a casual pointer could make the world's technology tree grow a little taller. The Night's Watch Industry was his personal property. He could not hoard knowledge or play tricks here. And it was precisely these visits and guidance sessions, done with this mindset, that had earned him a high reputation among the technical staff within the Industry. The large group of people around him, besides the management who had to accompany him, included many who were just waiting for the golden ideas that would pop out of his mouth.
Seeing everyone's bewildered faces, he shrugged. "Never mind, I will go back and draw a schematic diagram for you. Let us skip this topic. Next zone?"
He was the boss. When he said next zone, it was the next zone. Everyone temporarily cast their doubts aside and swarmed toward the final section.
"After the nitrate fields have finished fermenting, it is the final step." Qyburn suppressed his eagerness and led everyone here. "We are testing how long fermentation takes to convert all the raw materials. The current conclusion is about a month, which should be further shortened. The fermented nitrate soil is collected, steeped in boiling water, left to settle, and the upper liquid is taken out. The clear liquid obtained after filtering several times is then allowed to precipitate after adding wood ash as Lord suggested. Finally, the water basically only contains the nitrate we need and useless salts." The vice president narrated unhurriedly. "But if we evaporate it directly at this point, there are too many useless salts in the resulting substance. We are currently looking for methods to extract the nitrate separately or remove the impurities."
"Different substances have different solubilities in water, and the solubility of the same substance also changes significantly at different temperatures. By making good use of this, you might find a way." Aegor had basically given his chemistry knowledge back to the teacher, but he could not forget these general points even if he wanted to. "On this point, you can discuss and research with the assistants from the Alchemists' Guild who are still in King's Landing. They often have to dissolve this and extract that when making wildfire, so they might be able to provide some help."
What Aegor mentioned was just the common recrystallization process in the real world. The pyromancers in this world had actually even mastered some of its essence, but these operations were internal secrets of the Alchemists' Guild to them. Only Aegor could probably explain its principle so concisely, clearly, and directly to the core in a single sentence. For Qyburn, who had started dabbling in chemistry halfway through, this was another unheard-of new gain. He silently noted down the concept of solubility, felt a sudden enlightenment, and vaguely thought of a solution.
"Why is no one here?" Aegor noticed something wrong at this point. In this final process area for boiling nitrate, pots, bowls, and basins of all sizes were piled together. The place that should have been bustling with workers making fires and working enthusiastically was deserted, with no workers present. "Has nitrate started being produced? How much stock does the Industrial Park have now?"
"This is the nitrate production experimental area," Nina quickly explained. "But in your last letter to us, you instructed that the White Walkers' attack is imminent and the Gift urgently needs nitrate supply. You told us to prioritize collecting ready-made nitrate in our operations, and continuous nitrate production could be slowed down."
Aegor had indeed written such a letter. "Hmm... but slowing down does not mean stopping, does it?"
"It is not that we stopped, but the nitrate production process is not yet perfected. Each time we improve the plan, it takes at least ten days or more to see results. We cannot have large numbers of workers waiting here. The personnel boiling the nitrate are all in another boiling area not far away, working day and night."
"Boiling area? You have not even completely sorted out the fermentation step yet, so where do you get so much nitrate to boil? And you even set up a separate area specifically for it, working day and night?"
Nina pointed to Qyburn. "This brings us to the research institute's unexpected discovery. Lord, you told us in your guidance outline that the soil dug from corners where nitrate grows can serve as nitrate yeast for making nitrate. But Vice President Qyburn, in his idle time while waiting for the fermentation results, tried it casually and found that there is no need for the complex series of intermediate processes like adding feces and urine, fermentation, and reaction. The soil dug from these corners can itself yield nitrate."
(To be continued.)
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