In an episode of the TV series "Palace", the heroine Luo Qingchuan recalled a passage from a teacher in a modern school in order to escape from the underground palace: "Sulfuric acid existed in ancient my country, but it was not called sulfuric acid at that time, but green. Alum will not be used in industrial production. It is usually used to treat typhoid fever, dysentery and other diseases. There are unofficial historical records that ancient thieves ignited the green alum collected from pharmacies and made it into a liquid, which corroded the furniture of wealthy families. The walls were broken into and stolen, which shows that sulfuric acid was widely used more than a thousand years ago."
Although green vitriol can indeed be used to make sulfuric acid, the statement in the TV series is very problematic!
According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", green vitriol is a traditional Chinese medicine that can treat typhoid fever, malaria and other diseases. But green vitriol cannot burn, so it is definitely wrong to prepare sulfuric acid by igniting green vitriol.
In the first "chemistry laboratory" in the Tang Dynasty, the second half of Wang Ji's words aroused curiosity in Li Zexuan's heart. He asked: "Some experiences in his early years? What experiences did Mr. Wang have in his early years?"
Wang Ji's face turned red and he said with some shame: "I was a Taoist priest in my early years and even made elixirs..."
Li Zexuan stared at Wang Ji with wide eyes, as if he were an alien, and said, "Mr. Wang, have you ever made elixirs before you were old?"
He only knew that Wang Ji was talented in literature and had once been a Taoist priest, but he never thought that the old man was an alchemist. The academy really found a treasure... a ghost! What a genius!
Wang Ji was so embarrassed that he coughed twice and said:
"Ahem! That's all in the past. Don't mention it again, Chief! Don't mention it again!"
Now that Wang Ji has studied "Chemistry", he finally understands how ridiculous his previous alchemy practices were. The elixirs he refined were nothing but poisonous pills! If Li Zexuan hadn't asked today, he would never have mentioned the alchemy incident back then. In his opinion, this incident should be regarded as a stain in his life!
Li Zexuan pursed his lips and smiled, and said: "Haha! Then let's not mention it! Mr. Wang, please continue."
Wang Ji glanced at Li Zexuan with a resentful look, and then continued:
"Back then, when I was refining alchemy, I threw green vitriol into the furnace. As a result, a small piece of the furnace was corroded! A few days ago, I suddenly remembered this matter unintentionally, and combined it with what you compiled by Shanzhang After reading the "Chemistry" textbook, I felt that the reason why the alchemy furnace was corroded in the first place was probably because the green vitriol was decomposed at high temperatures and sulfuric acid was produced!"
When Li Zexuan heard this, his expression became complicated.
In his previous life, he read a post on Tieba, saying: Why did Western alchemy develop into chemistry, while Eastern alchemy only left some ethereal elixirs?
In fact, this conclusion is a bit too one-sided. Ancient Chinese alchemists were not without merit. They invented gunpowder, invented sulfuric acid, and discovered redox, metal replacement, and acid-base neutralization reactions.
For example, Ge Hong, the alchemist of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, successfully concluded that "cinnabar is burned into mercury, and accumulated and transformed into cinnabar again." This is the first time that humans have obtained substances that are exactly the same as natural products through chemical means, which can be called a great creation;
From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, many alchemists' writings recorded that placing iron in a gall alum (copper sulfate) solution could displace copper. This method is called bile water immersion copper method. It can obtain copper powder without high-temperature smelting. It is easy to operate and has low cost. It is the earliest metal replacement reaction in the world;
During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the alchemist Gu Gangzi recorded in Volume 9 of his "Yellow Emperor Jiuding Shendan Jingjue" the "method of refining stone gallbladder to extract the essence", which is obtained by distilling stone gallbladder (gall alum CuSO4·5H2O) sulfuric acid.
This is the world’s earliest well-documented case of sulfuric acid production!
Western alchemists initially refined base metals such as copper, iron, and lead into precious gold and silver, with the purpose of increasing wealth. In the Middle Ages in the West, alchemists believed that all metals were composed of mercury and sulfur, with mercury being the origin of all metals, sulfur being a common component of all combustible substances, and gold and silver containing the purest mercury. and sulfur.
Therefore, in their view, the difference between ordinary metals and precious gold and silver mainly lies in the different proportions and purity of mercury and sulfur contained in them. Using a kind of "philosopher's stone" philosopher's stone can change the properties of metals and transform them into metals. Base metals are converted into precious metals.
This "Philosopher's Stone" is revered by people as the Stone of the Wise. It is sacred and possesses magical properties. Countless alchemists have traveled thousands of miles and tried their best to find the legendary Stone of the Wise.
As a result, alchemists have long been engaged in this kind of ineffective labor in the mineral world, the vegetable world, and the animal world.
From the ancient Greek times to the Middle Ages, people spent more than a thousand years conducting alchemical experiments. In the end, their dream of turning stone into gold did not come true. However, a thousand years of chasing did not make them give up their dream!
Therefore, from this perspective, alchemy in the Western Middle Ages represents a spirit of scientific inquiry. Perhaps this is why Western alchemy has continued to develop and finally found its destination on the road of science, while our country and Although alchemy in Arab countries developed earlier, it only remained in the primitive form of chemistry.
Looking at Western alchemy with dialectical thinking, it can be seen that Western alchemy developed from the early pursuit of turning stone into gold, to the later exploration and knowledge of natural substances, with ups and downs in the middle, and although it eventually died out, if there were no The early alchemists probably did not have chemistry in the modern sense due to their painstaking explorations.
The sixteenth-century British philosopher Francis Bacon once made a fair and reasonable evaluation of alchemy's contribution to science. He said:
"The alchemists' painstaking perseverance in searching for gold has enabled their descendants to obtain many useful inventions and beneficial experiments, and indirectly promoted chemistry on a bright road!"
The ancient Western alchemists and the Eastern alchemists were, to a certain extent, a group of ancient chemical super geniuses. However, many alchemists’ life goal was to refine elixirs, so many of their useful inventions were, for a long time, It has not been widely used in time, such as gunpowder!
And Wang Ji has now gradually evolved from a traditional alchemist to an alchemist who is constantly seeking knowledge! His goal in life is no longer to refine elixirs, but to seek knowledge through exploration!
(Many people may not believe it. Newton, the great figure in physics, in addition to the dazzling titles of physicist, mathematician, and mechanics, he also has a little-known title, that is, alchemist)
"Shan Chief, I have a question. When sulfur is burned directly, why can't the sulfur dioxide generated continue to react with oxygen in the air to form sulfur trioxide?"
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