To make large glassware, the ancient technique of glassblowing has become anachronistic.
Large glassware is mainly die-cast, and the molten glass that undergoes such processing also contains a variety of additives in order to prevent the glass from cracking during the die-casting process.
Making glass is inherently a difficult technical task, and Rurik did not dare to expect Klavasen's technology, let alone his own theory. Nowadays, his biggest advantage over his craftsmen is his innate knowledge. With knowledge, all that remains is constant trial and error in order to achieve one's goals within the current technical level.
So Lilia worked hard to make as many as twenty glasses, and they became raw materials. The girl felt a little regretful. She had originally planned to make a batch of glassware and hand it over to her natal family. She is young but has a very good brain, and she knows that her creations can quickly bring considerable income to the people in her hometown.
Although it is a bit regretful, apart from these ready-made glassware, there are too few surplus raw materials, and it is a waste of time to mine and prepare raw materials.
Rurik was grateful for Lilia's sacrifice.
However, Lilia was more than sorry. If she could help her rather handsome future brother-in-law, she would be very happy.
It is said that Rurik was always committed to cleaning himself. Since soap became widely available, his self-cleaning became more frequent. How could a sixteen-year-old girl not like such a clean little boy? Besides, this child is already family.
In addition, Lilia also wants to witness new miracles.
Twenty cups melted into a viscous mass of molten glass, which became more plastic due to the addition of lead oxide. The huge clay crucible, which was originally used to burn bronze water, is now occupied by molten glass.
In order to process this, the blacksmith shop completely suspended the work of blacksmithing.
Clavarson personally supervised the melting of the glass. Seeing that the time was right, he shouted: "It's about to begin. Kawei, get ready!"
Immediately afterwards, Clavarson, wearing thick leather gloves, hooked the red crucible with a huge tongs. He carried this bucket of extremely hot stuff and hurried to the die-casting machinery.
The onlookers, Lilia, who was wearing a leather apron, were stunned. Rurik was also surprised, as were his two close friends Kanuf and Fisk who insisted on coming here to watch the fun.
Even Rurik has never seen such a scene. He has a theoretical basis in this area, and everything else can only be imagined.
What now? A large amount of molten glass was poured into the bronze mortar that Kawei had preheated.
Kawei, who had quick eyesight and quick hands, seized the time. When his father took away the almost empty crucible, he used all his strength to grab the huge lever with both arms and pressed it down with all his strength.
The solid oak levers of shipbuilding draw an arc through the space, and a set of wooden mechanical structures translates them into the vertical force of bronze punches.
Even though the bronze mortar has been preheated, the hot molten glass is still cooling rapidly. Kawei didn't waste much time. He pressed the steel rod with all his strength, and the punch was completely immersed in the glass liquid, so that many of the viscous glass liquid had overflowed and even fell to the ground. The next step was to wait.
Due to the principle of thermal expansion and contraction, Rurik did not wait long. The glass had cooled to the point where it had lost its bright red heat and had become completely transparent. Its heat was enough to quickly cook a piece of meat.
When it had cooled to the point where the craftsman wearing leather gloves could touch it, Kawei carefully lowered the heated bronze mortar. Thanks to the anti-adhesion toner applied in advance, the die-cast inside The glassware was taken out very easily.
To prevent it from cracking as it cools, the glassware is deliberately designed to have thick walls. It still needs some annealing to completely eliminate the stress that caused the cracking. Until then, Klavasen still has to process it further.
By melting twenty ordinary glasses, Rurik initially completed the first large glass vessel.
He needed two large containers, and Lilia had to continue making sacrifices.
However, these sacrifices are worth it.
Next to the stove, Klavasen locally heated a large glass vessel. The glass began to change shape again due to heat, and this time it was Klavasen who stretched the mouth of the bottle to create strange shapes according to Rurik's requirements.
It will be processed into a glass bottle, and its walls can theoretically be processed very thin. Rurik simply couldn't expect the Klavasen family to master the superb craftsmanship in an instant. The walls of the two large bottles were very thick, which also made it possible for the bottles to be stretched further.
Because a lot of lead oxide is added, the glass bottle is actually a little black.
It was originally a huge wide mouth, but it was continuously tightened by Klavasen. In the end, it suddenly turned into a narrow mouth bottle.
In other words, the two bottles became something like "vases with big bellies and long necks."
With the bottleneck being deliberately bent, and with the completion of the annealing work, the most critical equipment of the still is completed.
Two bottles were placed on the ground. Klavasen's body was covered with sweat, and his old face was filled with the joy of success.
"Rurik, what should we do now? It seems like you are just going to pour wine into the bottle?"
"Yes."
"Where's the wine?" Klavason asked breathlessly.
"I have already discussed it with my father, and I have prepared a barrel of finely brewed ale."
"That's fine, I thought I needed to buy the wine myself. Then I just pour the wine into the bottle, and then what?"
The principles and techniques of distillation cannot be explained in a few words.
Rurik inspected the two bottles as usual. In addition to sighing at the skill of an old friend, he also secretly lamented that this guy might as well be a professional glassmaker. He was even more regretful. If Klavason had not lived in such an ancient and barbaric era, but had lived more than a thousand years later, such a talented person with strong practical ability would have been an extremely talented person in both theory and practice. Excellent national-level engineers.
National engineer?
Klavathon is indeed the engineer of the Ross tribe.
In this way, the distilling bottle and collecting bottle of the still are ready, and the "long neck" that is deliberately bent is the key to the condensation of alcohol vapor.
A special copper pipe was also made by Klavasen, which connected the two bottles, and the gaps between them were filled with leather or linen.
It was not until August 8th that Rurik was sure that the still he requested was ready.
Moreover, Rurik did not come by himself on this day. Otto, the leader of the Ross tribe, also happily took his wine barrel and ran to Klavasen to watch the spectacle.
Otto, he was completely moved by his son's dancing explanation. After all, he heard that there was some "unparalleled wine from Valhalla" that he could enjoy while still in the mortal world. Why not be moved?
Presumably this is another "God's wisdom" that the son has acquired.
The leader Otto came here, and Klavasen only respected him, but never had any fear of him.
Lilia was different. After all, she had seen the violent side of Chief Ross in her hometown, and she couldn't help but feel in awe.
But when she saw her father-in-law and husband chatting and laughing with the leader in a friendly manner, her nervousness faded away.
Otto put the wine barrel he was holding on the ground, pulled his son to his side as usual, and rubbed Rurik's little head.
However, what shocked the senior leader the most were the two large bottles connected by a copper pipe.
Otto! He had never thought that there could be such a huge, completely transparent container that was obviously artificially carved. In his excitement, he couldn't help but pinch his son's little face with his hands, so that Rurik's whole body was deformed.
"Rurik, this is your...your new baby? Made of pure crystal?"
"Dad... let go! My face is already..."
Otto hurriedly stopped his hand and immediately asked Klavasen, who was about to laugh out loud: "My friend, you made these according to my son's request? That should be the case."
"Of course." Klavason covered his heart with his right hand and bowed slightly, "Big Chief, this is a miracle brought by Rurik. I am just a craftsman."
"Oh, you're so humble."
"No." Klavason shook his head: "If it weren't for Rurik, how would we have seen such a huge transparent container that is as clean as water?"
Are business quarrels starting again? Rurik was a little unhappy: "Blacksmith, stop talking nonsense. The good wine is here, let's start quickly."
"Okay!" Klavasen approached Otto: "Rurik is determined to start, what about us next?"
"Let's begin!" As the leader, Otto impatiently issued the most critical order.
The reason why craft beer is craft beer is that it has a higher alcohol content. In order to achieve a higher alcohol content, in addition to continuous fermentation, local residents unexpectedly found a unique way. .
According to traditional Nordic brewing techniques, oats or rye can generally brew ale with five degrees of alcohol. If you want to brew a higher alcohol content, there is an effective but demanding method.
Northern Europe is often very cold in winter. Even if it is adjacent to the Baltic Sea, the temperature can drop to minus 20 degrees at night in winter.
Some families who are addicted to winemaking accidentally put the wooden barrels for storing wine outdoors. As a result, when they were about to drink, they found an ice mass in the barrel.
This ice lump has no alcoholic taste at all. It is just like a piece of ice, separate from the snow that can be seen everywhere.
People drank the unfrozen portion and experienced a distinctly spicy taste.
Because the freezing point of alcohol is much lower than that of water, it became the earliest antifreeze that humans could come into contact with and use.
Even if it is only five-proof ale, its overall freezing point has been lowered a lot because of the presence of this alcohol. Even if it freezes, the water inside freezes first, resulting in the passive and continuous concentration of alcohol.
One way to make craft ale is to freeze it, thereby passively concentrating the alcohol, but the technical conditions for operating this method are really harsh.
Anyway, we are trying to get rid of the water in the wine. The freezing method is not as smooth as the distillation method.
In fact, it’s just that the effective distillation technology has not been spread to Northern Europe. Now times have changed!
The first still in Northern Europe built for distilling liquor was born and was about to be put into production. It was amazing when it first appeared, because the core body of this set of stills are still two large glass bottles!
Rurik even believed that these two glass bottles were the largest glassware in the human world in this time and space.
Otto himself poured the turbid and yellow ale through a funnel into the first glass bottle.
The actual volume of the so-called "large glass bottle" is not large, only about four liters. Just making such a glass bottle, does it cost Lilia the twenty glasses she worked so hard to make? The problem lies in the immature glass processing technology, and the walls of the bottle must be very thick. It had been annealed, and Rurik had no worries about it cracking.
The distillation process was still directed by Rurik himself.
On the gravel floor inside the blacksmith shop, a brand new small stove was suddenly built.
The stones built a platform, and the glass bottle containing the ale was placed on it, and the slow-burning charcoal was placed under the bottle.
Currently, the bottle filled with ale is open, and this is Rurik's intention.
This was the case with early distilling equipment, but no one used glass containers for distillation. In fact, it's not that they don't want to do it, it's just that they can't make a glass bottle with a volume of up to four liters using only traditional glass blowing techniques. Besides, the craft of glassblowing has been lost in Western Europe, and only Eastern Rome still retains it.
Distilling ordinary ale strives to produce high-purity alcohol. It is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, in which the control of temperature is the most critical.
If he had a reliable thermometer, Rurik felt that his work would be smoother.
Naihe doesn't have this magical device, but he still has his own advantage - knowledge.
"The evaporation temperature of methanol is low, only about 75°C? I touched this temperature a little with my hand. The evaporation temperature of ethanol is higher. The only thing I can determine now is the evaporation temperature of water..."
The toxicity of methanol is too strong, and the distillation cannot be done well. If there is too much methanol left and you drink it, you will burn too much, and you may not die. It can be said that fake wine is harmful to people.
Rurik had already thought of a trick, and he had already started trying it.
The burning charcoal began to heat the large bottle filled with ale. Through the basically transparent glass wall, everyone could clearly see the changes in the contents inside.
Initially, the bottles are simply heated.
Its narrow curved bottleneck is always open, and as the heating continues, the aroma of wine overflows in the blacksmith shop!
"Ah! I never thought of this. If I just smell this aroma, I am very happy." Otto sighed to himself. If the aroma of wine was not intoxicating, who else would be so happy to drink ale?
Rurik looked calm, and his big eyes continued to observe the situation at the mouth of the bottle and even the changes in the ale inside the bottle.
Until the wine in the bottle starts to bubble.
Klavasen has been looking at it with his hands behind his back for a long time. Didn’t he agree to distill it? It seems that this kid Rurik is still just making wine.
He couldn't help frowning and asked: "Is it time? Rurik, when can the other bottle be activated?"
"hold on."
"How long will it take?" Otto asked impatiently.
Rurik looked at the people around him. Because they had no idea about distilled liquor, they could only be spectators. He saw the heated bottle again. The bottom of the bottle had been blackened by charcoal fire. Looking at the wine inside, there were really more and more bubbles.
The aroma of wine was already overflowing in the room at this moment. When he put his nose close to the curved but open mouth of the bottle, all he smelled was the intoxicating aroma.
The wall of the bottle is already covered with breath, and there is also a deliberately curved bottle mouth, which is deliberately bent into a very small chamber for storing liquid. Rurik took a closer look and saw that there seemed to be some liquid stored in the chamber.
He put his index finger into the mouth of the bottle, and a continuous stream of enthusiasm surged out. It must be said that the gas was extremely hot and humid. It seemed that as long as he held his finger for a while, a large number of water droplets would adhere to his fingertips. It's just that the heat is really strong, and if you leave your fingers on for a little longer, you'll get terrible burns.
His fingertips touched the chamber, and his fingers hurriedly scratched the inside of the bottleneck.
Then, take your fingers out and suck them with your mouth.
The moment his tongue touched his finger, his whole expression changed completely.
"Rurik, are you like this?!" Otto keenly noticed the change in his son's expression, and his whole body became tense.
"Is there something abnormal again?" Klavason also asked.
Rurik didn't speak for a moment. He changed another finger and continued to poke into the neck of the bottle, scratching the moist "breath" and then licking it with the tip of his tongue.
After trying it twice in a row, he felt that the spicy feeling in his mouth was not an illusion.
It's wine! Moreover, it is a wine that is obviously spicy.
And that narrow chamber, the little thing stored in it is simply a high degree of wine!
Unexpectedly, the first experiment based on the theory you had was successful? !
More than that! Rurik felt that he had allowed the bottle to continue to pour out the alcohol smell. The bad methanol in the ale had probably evaporated long ago, and even his actions were full. Since the ale with a huge water content had more and more bubbles, the entire bottle of ale Getting closer and closer to the boiling point, the alcohol you need is actually evaporating quickly.
Because of his hesitation, some precious alcohol has filled the entire room. Everyone praised the aroma of the wine, which was far more powerful than before, and even attracted Kawei's mother, who was sewing leather in the living room, to come out and act as a spectator.
Rurik stamped his feet vigorously and ordered loudly: "Now, let's cover the stopper. The rest of the time is to wait for the copper pipe to condense! There is still charcoal, and continue to burn the bottle."
After Rurik finished speaking, he personally inserted the cork with the copper tube into the twisted mouth of the bottle.
In this way, the heated bottle was sealed. In order to ensure the sealing, Rurik also stuffed a piece of soft leather. After this operation, the increasingly hot alcohol vapor was mixed with some water vapor. The mixed steam entered the copper tube with excellent heat dissipation and began to condense rapidly.
The excellent heat dissipation and heat absorption properties of copper tubes also make it an important component of air conditioners. It may not be the best condenser tube, but it is undoubtedly the most cost-effective. People will increasingly need it a thousand years later in order to use condensate to save their lives in the hot summer.
The condensation process of the mixed vapor of alcohol and water in the copper tube is almost instantaneous. No, when the distillation bottle assembly was completed in Rurik's hands, after a while, the outlet of the copper tube was already ticking crystal "water drops" ".
Is it really a drop of water?
of course not. Rurik had already felt the magical spicy sensation just now. It seemed that it was not the fragility of his body that made him less tolerant to stimuli such as spicy sensations.
The source of spiciness is alcohol, and its spiciness gives Rurik the same feeling he once had.
To put it figuratively, it’s like taking a sip of 72° Jiutou wine, which is more powerful than Erguotou!
Perhaps, he should collect the vaporous wine and light a fire. As long as it can burn, that is real success.
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Chapter 223 Methanol dissipates and the aroma of wine overflows
