Chapter 496 - 409: Export Sharp Weapon

Chapter 496: Chapter 409: Export Sharp Weapon

Joseph furrowed his brows instantly. Although he hadn’t clearly seen what had happened, Alexandra had been walking properly and hadn’t turned toward the “extras”—why would she have stepped on that person’s foot?

It seemed that the only possibility was that the latter had deliberately stuck out their foot.

He frowned and shook his head, ignoring the noble lady who was stirring up trouble.

“Your Highness…”

Seeing that the Crown Prince had no intention of scolding the Russian girl, and unable to argue with a child of seven or eight years old—a prospect that likely would have been masochistic—the noble ladies puffed up with anger, stood up, supported Triss, and walked towards the exit of the theater, muttering quietly:

“We simply cannot perform on the same stage as such a rude woman!”

“We shall take Triss back to her room to rest.”

“I will tell everyone about her uncouth behavior…”

Alexandra watched the ladies make a show of leaving, aware that they were attempting to isolate her.

She blinked and quickly followed them:

“Respected ladies, are you throwing a tantrum because you wish to draw the attention of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince but have failed to do so?”

If an adult had uttered these words, it would have come across as sarcastic, but coming from a child, it seemed innocent and genuine.

“You! You’re talking nonsense!” a noble lady immediately denied, agitated.

“Oh? So you do not wish for the Crown Prince to notice you?”

“No, it’s not that…” The faces of the noblewomen turned purple, and they hastily turned and fled the theater.

Joseph, watching this spectacle, almost laughed out loud, thinking to himself that this little girl was quite amusing—merciless when she had the upper hand. Were all Russian women so sharp? Indeed, it seemed so; Russia was rather strong when Elizabeth and Catherine were Tsars, but became a mess under Peter III and Paul I.

Seeing the women leave, Alexandra couldn’t help but sigh, turned to Joseph, and, with an apologetic bow, said:

“Your Highness, I apologize. I should not have argued with them, interrupting your rehearsal.”

“It’s not your fault,” Joseph waved his hand, “You performed very well, and you were brave. I’ll find a way to deal with the missing actors.”

In fact, he didn’t need to do anything. There was already a long line of people wanting to perform with the Crown Prince, and the rehearsal resumed after half an hour.

…

On the outskirts of the north of Paris.

Antoine Industrial Development Zone.

Yes, thanks to the booming paper industry, there were increasingly more workshops and craftsmen in Antoine. So, Joseph simply designated this area as a new development zone.

Inside a factory spanning over ten thousand square meters in the southwest side of Antoine, Lavoisier looked at the mechanical furnace before him that was spewing white smoke and hugged his wife’s shoulders standing next to him, exclaiming sincerely:

“Dear, how did you manage to figure out this thing in just one month? You really are… the favorite child of the god of chemical experiments!”

Marianne smiled and said,

“Actually, I only set the specifications, had someone draw up the blueprints, and then handed them over to the ironworks in Saint-Etienne. It took them over 20 days to manufacture it, much of the time spent on testing and transportation. Their equipment and management are so much better than before.”

“I originally thought that we couldn’t finish the work here without my help.” Lavoisier looked at his wife indulgently, “I didn’t expect you to have resolved everything on your own.”

As he spoke, his gaze turned toward the massive equipment in the shed—the rotary kiln, centrifuge, evaporation pans, reaction vessels, and that most complex gas scrubber.

All of these had been overseen in their construction and testing by his wife. And she didn’t even know what chemistry was before marrying him.

She was absolutely a genius in the field of chemical experimentation. Well, of course, that couldn’t have happened without his excellent teaching.

After acquiring the Royal Alkali Process invented by His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, it took Lavoisier less than a week to complete the lab preparation—as long as the principle was correct, there was no difficulty with his experience.

But the tough part was mass production.

In the chemical industry, once the quantity of reactants is increased, the preparation process becomes completely different. For example, in a test tube, you just need to shake it to mix the reacting substances evenly, but when the quantity reaches 1 ton, just mixing can drive you insane.

How to ensure thorough reaction of such a large amount of material, how to purify it, and how to store it were all big problems. Without every link in the chain being right, it wasn’t possible to mass-produce.

This was especially true for alkali production. You should know that, according to the requirements of His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, to produce 1.66 tons of soda ash daily meant that the raw materials to be mixed were several times that weight.

The core of this reaction was the recycling of ammonia, so the equipment’s seal and the collection of gas had extremely strict requirements.

Particularly for the purification of ammonia. Ammonia is not only toxic and corrosive but also flammable, and to purify it in large quantities was very troublesome, almost driving the Lavoisier couple mad at the time.

In the end, it was His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, who provided a rough proposal—Joseph only remembered the mention of a gas scrubber and its basic principle from documentaries, but he couldn’t remember any of the specifics—then Marianne worked day and night for three and a half months and actually managed to design this thing!

It could be said that as long as the confidentiality of the gas scrubber was maintained, even if other soda ash preparation manuals were given to other countries, they wouldn’t be able to replicate it.

Lavoisier looked at the complete set of alkali-making equipment in front of him and turned to his wife to ask, “Dear, how is the trial production going?”

“The utilization rate of the raw materials is still a bit low. The Crown Prince said it could reach around 70%, but I can only achieve 50%.” Marianne spoke, her face lighting up with excitement, “However, the trial production the day before yesterday took only 6 hours to produce 700 kilograms of soda ash. And it’s very pure.”

Although Lavoisier was well-prepared, he was still secretly astonished to hear this figure—the current market price for soda ash is about 33 livres for 100 kilograms.

That means the day before yesterday, they made over 230 livres just by casually starting up the equipment.

And about soda ash, it’s always been in short supply; it’s easy to buy a few dozen kilograms, but for over 100 kilograms, you’d usually have to wait a long time.

Before he could say anything, Marianne had already smiled and began, “Dear, from now on, we won’t have to be frugal with soap anymore.”

Among the raw materials for soap production, the most expensive are fats and soda ash. With the ability to produce soda ash on a large scale, France could even monopolize the soap industry worldwide.

Though it may seem insignificant, if you add up the markets of the whole world, it would be worth over ten million livres!

Lavoisier nodded vigorously, “And glass, paper, dyes, they’ll all become much cheaper in the future.”

For France, this meant that the costs in these industries would be significantly reduced, thus becoming a powerful tool for exports.