Li Mengxi still underestimated his brother's observation ability. Li Mengxi thought that was the end of it. Xiao Bian couldn't think of any more methods for a while, so he let Xiao Bian play on his own.

Xiao Zhuan was playing with water on his own with undiminished interest and was having a great time.

Li Mengxi went to Guan Yu and briefly explained how to improve activated carbon.

"The reason why charcoal can absorb color is because it is loose and porous.

Therefore, if the charcoal absorbs color more strongly, the charcoal needs to have more holes.

Within a tree, branches, flowers, roots, leaves, seeds, fruits, etc. are all different, so they can be divided into charcoal, and each one can be tested.

Also, the trees belong to the genus of willow, poplar, mulberry and acacia, and their wood types are also different, so they can also be divided into different species for testing."

When Li Mengxi explained this, Guan Yu's doubts were cleared.

Li Mengxi now has a way to improve activated carbon. The method is to select the loosest and most porous wood and select the one that can best absorb pigments from among the many woods.

According to Li Mengxi's estimate, if the materials are chosen well, the decolorizing effect of charcoal can be several times greater.

The decolorization of charcoal is several times stronger, which means that the pulp can be whitened one degree.

Li Mengxi, who already had a draft in mind, thought about it, got up and walked outside, preparing to collect some wood for testing.

"Brother, where are you going?" Xiao Zhuan, who was playing in the water, saw that Li Mengxi was going out and quickly wanted to chase after him.

"Brother, stay inside. It's cold outside. Brother will be back soon."

Xiao Bian then stayed in the house obediently, while Li Mengxi went out alone.

Li Mengxi went directly to the carpenter's camp. The craftsmen in the carpenter's camp were doing carpentry work. When he came, the captain of the craftsman immediately greeted him.

Li Mengxi said to the captain of the craftsman, "The current job requires us to find all kinds of wood, and we can find as many types of wood as there are.

Then, cut all kinds of wood into cubes about the size of a fingernail, cut into two or two of each type, and then suffocate these pieces of wood into charcoal, can you do it?"

The captain of the craftsman understood that the work was not difficult, but the wood had to be cut into pieces as big as a fingernail, which was a little cumbersome.

The captain of the craftsman said, "It's not difficult. It can be done in a matter of seconds."

Li Mengxi also knew that this work was not too difficult, but he was worried that the craftsmen would not work carefully and mix up the wood, so he stayed in the craftsman camp and watched.

There was a lot of wood in the army, so the craftsman went to find the wood, and Li Mengxi went with him.

In a large pile of firewood, the craftsmen looked at it, and when they saw a suitable piece of wood, they pulled out the piece of wood and threw it on the ground.

Carpenters all have the ability to recognize wood. No matter how dirty or rotten a piece of wood is, you can be sure of it 80% of the time just by looking at it. If you are not sure, look closer, touch it, and buckle the bark.

Just look and you will be sure you won’t get it wrong.

A carpenter pulled out a long branch and threw it on the ground.

Li Mengxi walked over and asked, "What kind of tree is this?"

The carpenter lowered his head and glanced, "Willow."

After a while, the carpenters pulled out another tree, and Li Mengxi asked again, "What kind of tree is this?"

"Locust tree."

"What about this?"

"Poplar."

"this is?"

"Cornwood."

…

Li Mengxi didn't know wood, he couldn't recognize any wood.

The craftsman pulled out a piece of wood, and Li Mengxi curiously asked what kind of wood it was, but it didn't fall off at all.

Finally, the craftsman found a lot of wood, and Li Mengxi was surprised to find that there were so many types of common wood.

Willow trees, poplar trees, locust trees, elm trees, jujube trees, peach trees, apricot trees, pear trees, pomegranate trees, fir trees, chun trees, mulberry trees, neem trees, wolfberry trees...

There are as many as twenty or thirty species of trees.

Regarding so many trees, Li Mengxi curiously asked, "Which type of wood is the most loose and porous?"

The craftsman hesitated for a long time, not quite sure what Li Mengxi meant by loose and porous, "...willow tree? Or mulberry tree?" the craftsman said uncertainly.

Willow, as far as Li Mengxi knows, willow is very soft. Because willow is soft, it has low quality for the same volume. Because willow has low quality for the same volume, it is probably loose and porous...

Li Mengxi has already made a preliminary judgment. Among common wood species, perhaps willow is the most suitable for use as activated carbon.

The wood has been found, and all types of wood that can be found, including some shrubs and vines, have been found.

Then, the entire craftsman camp put down their work and began to cut the wood into nail-sized squares as requested by Li Mengxi.

The reason why Li Mengxi made such a request was that he was not sure whether the size and shape of the charcoal would affect the color absorption effect. In order to eliminate interference, he tried his best to process different wood materials into the same shape to reduce errors.

After that, the carpenters were busy for several hours, and according to Li Mengxi's requirements, they cut all kinds of wood into nail-sized pieces, two taels of each type of wood.

Next, it was time to turn the wood into charcoal, but just two taels of wood were probably not enough to be burned with charcoal. Li Mengxi was afraid that it would burn out as soon as he lit it, so he had this worry.

Then, I asked the craftsman, and the craftsman said, "If you put it at the back of the kiln, it will not burn cleanly."

Since the craftsmen said that only two taels of firewood could suffocate charcoal, Li Mengxi followed the craftsmen's advice and prepared to burn a kiln to make charcoal.

There was one last step before firing the kiln. Li Mengxi found many pottery bowls, used lime slurry to write the type of firewood on each pottery bowl, and then placed the corresponding wood blocks on the corresponding pottery bowl.

After all these preparations were completed, Li Mengxi and a large group of people began to get busy.

The kiln firing this time was different from the past. In the past, the kiln was fired to obtain charcoal for iron smelting. This time, the charcoal burning was only secondary. The main purpose was to obtain charcoal for the dozens of pottery bowls placed in the back kiln.

The craftsmen brought in firewood, filled the kiln, and were about to start lighting the fire, but Li Mengxi discovered another problem.

Li Mengxi still remembered the last time the kiln was fired. After the kiln was opened, the whole kiln was dark.

This shows that during the kiln firing process, charcoal will turn into ash and fly everywhere. Therefore, during the firing process, the components of different wood materials will be mixed together.

If the wood is mixed together, it would be impossible to test the discoloration effect.

The problem was so troublesome that Li Mengxi told the craftsmen about the problem. One craftsman came up with an idea and said that the pottery bowl could be made by placing a layer of soil on the lake.

Li Mengxi thought about it, the process required for charcoal smothering is only high temperature and high pressure, and does not require oxygen. A layer of soil seals the charcoal in the bowl. This method is feasible.

Li Mengxi thought again, it was too troublesome to burn charcoal on a large scale. A charcoal kiln as big as a house often required a large number of people and a large amount of firewood, and it took half a day to burn, which was extremely inconvenient.

Since it is said that if you put some wood in a pottery bowl and then seal it with a layer of mud, and put it in the kiln to suffocate it, it will become charcoal, then why not just take the bowl out and put the bowl on the fire to burn it?

As long as the seal is good, after the pottery bowl is heated, the inside will become hot and the air inside will expand, which will reach a high temperature and high pressure environment.

The key is to seal it. If the sealing is not good, the outside oxygen will enter, and the firewood inside will burn directly, and it will not become charcoal.

Everything else was fine. When he thought about sealing, Li Mengxi suddenly thought, "It's a pressure cooker! I just took out the pressure cooker a few days ago."

If the sealing effect of Taowanhu's layer of soil is not good, then directly use a pressure cooker to seal it, put a pot of charcoal inside, and then heat it. The heat transfer capacity of iron is extremely strong, and the charcoal in the pressure cooker can be suffocated in an hour.

, wouldn’t it be extremely convenient?

The purpose was to burn charcoal, but unexpectedly encountered the problem of charcoal pollution, and unexpectedly, a convenient and fast method of making charcoal was obtained.

This may be called misfortune, where blessings depend.

The method was so good and constructive that naturally, Li Mengxi rewarded the craftsman who suggested taking the Huangni Lake Bowl with the same reward of ten kilograms of grain, one kilogram first, and a military coupon for the other nine kilograms.

Li Mengxi firmly believed in the wisdom of workers. He believed that the wisdom of many people must be greater than the wisdom of one person. He valued the fruits of wisdom very much. No matter how small a suggestion was, as long as it was useful, he would always reward it.

The craftsman who got ten kilograms of grain was very surprised. He was so happy that he got the grain.

Other craftsmen who did not receive rewards must be regretting that they did not use their brains more.

Putting a layer of mud on the pottery bowl is such a simple method, it is not difficult to think of, but someone else said it and got ten kilograms of grain.

After that, comes the kiln firing process.

The process of burning the kiln was very boring. I lit the fire, burned it halfway, and then sealed the cave dwelling with mud. Once the cave dwelling was sealed, nothing could be seen.

When the hour was over and the charcoal in the kiln was burned, the craftsmen opened the kiln.

After the craftsmen first pulled out the outer layer of charcoal, someone went to the back half of the kiln and brought out the hot pottery bowl.

The pottery bowl can withstand the high temperature in the kiln. After being smoldering at high temperature, the bowl was not damaged at all, but it became black.

Under the gaze of everyone, Li Mengxi broke open the clay seal of the pottery bowl.

The mud seal was broken open, revealing black charcoal blocks inside.

Immediately, the craftsmen cheered in a low voice, "It's done, it's done!"

The thing was done, and the craftsmen were happy about it.

Li Mengxi pinched a small piece of charcoal from the bowl, brought it to his eyes and looked at it again and again. He squeezed it hard, and there was a crisp sound, and the charcoal was crushed.

The broken charcoal is also black in the middle, which means it was successful and burned thoroughly.

Li Mengxi picked up the pottery bowl and looked around the bowl. He gently wiped away the layer of black ash on the top of the bowl with his fingers, revealing the words written with lime mortar on the bottom. The font was vaguely the word "Cytonus".

This shows that the two ounces of black charcoal burned in this bowl are charcoal burned from paper mulberry wood.

This time, dozens of types of charcoal were burned at once, and there were dozens of bowls of charcoal, which could not be carried by one person. Li Mengxi looked up again and saw that the sky was getting dark and it was going to be dark soon. He entrusted the craftsmen to help carry the charcoal to the city lord's palace.
To be continued...