In one of the episodes of the TV series "The Palace," the female lead, Luo Qingchuan, recalled a quote from a teacher in a modern school. "Sulfuric acid has been around since ancient times, but it wasn't called sulfuric acid back then. It was called green vitriol, and it wasn't used in industrial production. It was usually used to treat diseases like typhoid and dysentery. According to historical records, thieves in ancient times would burn the green vitriol collected from pharmacies and make it into a liquid. The liquid would corrode the walls of rich families and steal from them. Sulfuric acid had been widely used more than a thousand years ago."
Although green vitriol could be used to make sulfuric acid, there was something wrong with the description in the TV series!
According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", green vitriol was a traditional Chinese medicine that could treat diseases like typhoid and malaria. However, green vitriol couldn't be burned, so it was definitely wrong to use it to make sulfuric acid.
In the first "Chemistry Laboratory" in Tang Dynasty, the latter half of Wang Ji's sentence made Li Zexuan curious. He asked, "What happened in your early years? What did you do in your early years, Mr. Wang? "
Wang Ji blushed and said, "I used to be a Taoist priest in my early years, and I used to make elixirs …"
Li Zexuan widened his eyes and looked at Wang Ji as if he was looking at an alien. He asked, "Mr. Wang, you used to make elixirs?"
He only knew that Wang Ji was good at writing and used to be a Taoist priest, but he didn't expect this old man to be an alchemist. The academy had really picked up a treasure … a ghost! A ghost!
Wang Ji was embarrassed. He coughed and said,
"Ahem! That's all in the past, Yamachō, don't mention it again! Don't mention it again! "
Now that Wang Ji had studied "Chemistry," he finally understood how ridiculous his alchemy was. The elixirs he made were just poisonous pills! If it weren't for Li Zexuan asking about it today, he would definitely not have mentioned the matter of refining pills all those years ago. In his opinion, this matter should be considered a stain in his life!
Li Zexuan pursed his lips into a smile and said, "Haha! Then I won't mention it! Mr. Wang, please continue. "
Wang Ji glanced at Li Zexuan with "hidden bitterness" before he continued.
"Back then, when this old man was refining pills, I once threw green vitriol into the furnace. As a result, a small piece of the furnace was corroded! A few days ago, this old man suddenly thought of this matter. Combined with the Chemistry textbook that Yamachō wrote, I felt that the reason why the furnace was corroded was probably because the green vitriol was decomposed under high temperature, producing sulfuric acid! "
Li Zexuan had a complicated expression on his face.
In his previous life, he had read a post on Tieba saying, "Why did Western alchemy develop into chemistry, while Eastern alchemy only left behind some illusory elixirs?"
In fact, this conclusion was a little too one-sided. The alchemists of ancient China were not completely useless. They invented gunpowder, sulfuric acid, and discovered oxidation-reduction, metal displacement, and acid-base neutralization reactions.
For example, the Eastern Jin Dynasty's Alchemist Ge Hong successfully summed up the saying, "Cinnabar is burned into mercury, and when it accumulates, it becomes cinnabar." This was the first time that humans had used chemical methods to obtain a substance that was exactly the same as a natural product. It could be said to be a great creation.
From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, many alchemists recorded that copper could be replaced by iron in a sulfuric acid solution. This method was called the Copper Immersion Method. It did not require high temperature smelting to obtain copper powder. It was easy to operate, and the cost was lower. It was the world's earliest metal displacement reaction.
In the Tang Dynasty, during the Kaiyuan Era, the alchemist Gu Gangzi recorded in his "Yellow Emperor's Nine Cauldrons Divine Pill Scripture" the ninth volume of the "Refining Stone Gallbladder Essence Extraction Method". It was the dry distillation of stone gallbladder (CuSO4.5H2O) to obtain sulfuric acid.
This was the world's earliest documented sulfuric acid production case!
Western alchemists, on the other hand, originally refined copper, iron, lead and other base metals into precious gold and silver to increase their wealth. In the Middle Ages of the West, alchemists believed that all metals were composed of mercury and sulfur. Mercury was the origin of all metals, sulfur was the common component of all combustible substances, and gold and silver contained the purest mercury and sulfur.
Therefore, in their view, the difference between ordinary metals and precious gold and silver was mainly in the ratio and purity of mercury and sulfur. Using a kind of "philosopher's stone", the nature of the metal could be changed, and the base metals could be transformed into precious metals.
This kind of "philosopher's stone" was revered as the wise man's stone. It was sacred and had magical properties. Countless alchemists went through thousands of mountains and rivers, and tried their best to find the legendary wise man's stone.
In this way, alchemists had been engaged in this kind of useless labor in the mineral, plant, and animal world for a long time.
From the ancient Greek era to the Middle Ages, people spent more than a thousand years on alchemy experiments. In the end, the dream of refining stone into gold did not come true. However, a thousand years of pursuit did not make them give up their dream!
Therefore, from this point of view, the alchemy of the Western Middle Ages represented the spirit of scientific inquiry. Perhaps this was why the alchemy of the West, after continuous development, finally found its home on the path of science, while the alchemy of our country and the Arab countries, although developed earlier, remained in the primitive form of chemistry.
Looking at Western alchemy dialectically, it could be seen that Western alchemy, from the early days of blindly chasing stone into gold, developed to the later days of exploration and knowledge of natural substances, had ups and downs, and finally died out. However, without the early alchemists' painstaking exploration, it was likely that there would not be modern chemistry.
The sixteenth century English philosopher Francis Bacon once made a fair and reasonable evaluation of the contribution of alchemy to science. He said:
"The painstaking perseverance of alchemists in searching for gold has led their descendants to many useful inventions and beneficial experiments, and indirectly led chemistry to the bright road!"
To some extent, the ancient Western alchemists and Eastern alchemists were a group of ancient chemistry super geniuses. However, many alchemists' life goal was to refine elixirs, so many of their useful inventions were not widely used for a long time, such as gunpowder!
Now, Wang Ji had gradually evolved from a traditional alchemist to an alchemist who was constantly seeking knowledge! His life goal was no longer to refine elixirs, but to seek knowledge in exploration!
(Many people may not believe it, but the titan of physics — — Newton, in addition to the dazzling titles of physicist, mathematician, and dynamicist, he also had a little-known title, which was alchemist.)
"Yamachō, this old man has a question. When sulfur is directly burned, why can't sulfur dioxide continue to react with oxygen in the air to form sulfur trioxide?"
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