When I returned to Zhang Fei's house under the afterglow of the setting sun, as soon as Li Mengxi came back, the servants gathered around and said that as ordered, when the wine was running low, the wine had been replaced with jars.

Moreover, the servants repeatedly promised that they did not steal any alcohol.

Li Mengxi doesn't care whether he steals wine or not.

I saw that people were still adding firewood to the fire, and water was still dripping from the wine outlet.

After such a long time, alcohol should not still be distilled. The water vapor should have flowed out after condensation. In other words, what is dripping now is distilled water.

Li Mengxi walked over, put his finger at the wine spout, took a drop of wine, then put it to his nose and smelled it.

Sure enough, there was only a very faint taste of alcohol, not alcohol.

After distillation, all that is left is water.

Li Mengxi asked the people to cease fire and poured the remaining water in the jar anywhere.

A servant came over and asked if he could give him the wine in the jar.

Li Mengxi raised his head and looked at this honest man who giggled and scratched his head with a bit of embarrassment.

Surprised.

The distillation residue left in a vat of distillation is not wine.

"The wine is gone, and the rest is not wine." Li Mengxi explained kindly.

Seeing the person's reluctance to leave, Li Mengxi scratched his head and said, "Okay, here you go. The rest of the food won't taste good unless it's watery."

Maybe the servants didn't understand the principle of distillation. When they saw seven or eight jars of wine poured into the vat, they thought that the jar would always be filled with wine. After setting it on fire for a long time, it still contained wine.

Li Mengxi promised that the wine in the vat would be given to the servants. The servants who helped with the work were very happy. If someone was busy, they went to bring a bucket over.

Then, Li Mengxi, the still, disassembled it with his own hands, and two servants worked together, with linen cloths in their hands, to lift the wine jar down.

Then, with a crash, eight jars of wine were filled, and after steaming, the jar was still 70% full. The servants poured the rest of the contents into the bucket.

Perhaps wine was considered a relatively precious thing, so the servants couldn't wait to pick up the bowls on the floor without washing them. They casually wiped the bottom of the bowls on their sleeves, then reached into the bucket to scoop out the wine.

Li Mengxi was standing by, watching curiously.

The first servant drank the wine. After drinking, he frowned, half a mouthful of wine remained in his mouth, and then looked at him strangely.

"How is it? This wine doesn't have much flavor, right?" Li Mengxi asked with a smile.

The servants tasted it before and after, and then they all said it was wrong. They said it smelled like alcohol, so if you drink it, it will make you sour.

Li Mengxi smiled and said nothing. It was impossible for him to tell these servants about the distillation technology.

Although these servants witnessed the entire distillation process, Li Mengxi felt that if the key points were not explained in detail, it would be impossible for these servants to understand the distillation technology just by looking at it.

Even if you copy the gourd, some smart guys have made pottery with the same shape. But go to the key condenser and look at the appearance. There are copper pendants on the outside of the condenser that look like decorations. If you imitate it and make a few copper

The pieces are mounted on the outside, but in this way, it is of no use at all. If the copper is not connected to the inside, how can it be condensed.

Therefore, Li Mengxi feels that distillation technology is still relatively safe.

The craftsman who made the still has never seen the distillation process, and the servant who has seen the distillation process does not know the internal structure of the still.

Technology cannot be integrated.

The servants got more than half a barrel of "wine". Although the wine was very sour and as light as water, it still had the smell of wine, so it was a pity to throw it away.

The servants gritted their teeth and drank two bowls, then continued to help Li Mengxi work.

The wine container was emptied and distilled again. Li Meng poured almost all the spirit in the jar into the pottery jar.

Then, in the same process, pour some water on the edge of the cylinder, take the bowl and buckle it, and the water will seal.

Then, continue to light the fire.

Because it is just a jar of strong liquor, the volume is not large, so it can be heated and distilled very quickly.

Under the pottery vat, the wood burned fiercely, and soon a small stream of wine flowed out from the wine outlet.

Li Mengxi took a water ladle and kept pouring cold water on the copper sheets outside the condenser. This was the process of cooling the condenser.

During this process, Li Mengxi frowned and discovered a problem.

It seems that the cooling efficiency of pouring the external copper sheets with water is too low.

If the copper sheet is soaked in water and kept cooling, then the cooling efficiency will be much higher.

However, if you look at this condenser, which is similar to an alchemy furnace, the heat-dissipating copper fins are like wings, up, down, left and right. If you want to soak them all in the water, you have to soak them all in the water.

In this way, the wine outlet will be immersed in water and will be filled with water.

Or use a wooden plug to block the wine outlet, put the entire jar-shaped condenser directly into cold water, wait for a while and then take it out of the water.

In this way, it is impossible to tell whether the wine is running fast or not, and it is impossible to judge whether the wine has run out.

In the end, the wine was almost steamed, so I continued to cook it. At the end, the water vapor came over again and mixed into the wine, and it steamed like a hammer.

The temporarily designed condenser in the shape of an alchemy furnace for external heat dissipation is really not feasible.

The water bath method is more than ten times more effective in cooling than the pouring method. If you build a new distiller later, you must use the water bath method, that is, the condensing structure must be immersed in water.

But how to soak it in water?

Li Mengxi thought of the water-cooling structure of the Maxim machine gun.

That is to say, instead of having an altar-shaped condensation structure, replace the current ceramic guide tube with a metal tube. The metal guide tube itself with good thermal conductivity acts as a condenser.

The heat dissipation structure, just like a water-cooled machine gun, has a water-filled structure outside the metal guide tube.

This structure can be opened up and down, so that water can be added from the top and water can be drained from the bottom to facilitate water changes.

Come to think of it, metal pipes seemed a bit difficult to process in ancient times.

Either it is cast, or the iron is smashed into pieces and bent into iron pipes.

This is still a single-layer iron pipe.

If it were a double-layer casing structure like Maxim's, Li Mengxi thought it would be extremely difficult.

And if so, the outer casing is still made of clay, which is a little more convenient.

Also, with this water-cooling structure, it is not necessary to wrap the entire guide tube. It only needs a water-cooling structure in a certain section to effectively dissipate heat.

Heat is transferred.

Another point that Li Mengxi thinks is a problem is that if the condensation structure is just a guide tube, then only the part of the alcohol vapor that comes into contact with the wall of the guide tube will liquefy. Does this mean that a lot of alcohol vapor will not be able to reach it in the future?

It liquefies and runs away along the conduit.

Then, coming out of the wine outlet, the unliquefied alcohol vapor disperses directly into the air.

This is still a problem, how to solve it.

Li Mengxi frowned.

Perhaps, you can use methods to increase the contact area, such as making the guide tube longer to fully condense the alcohol vapor.

Or, adding some horizontal and vertical fences in the guide tube can also increase the condensation contact surface.
Chapter completed!