Grantville Gazette Volume 25

by editor Paula Goodlett

Finn crouched slightly as well, and took a couple of steps to the left. The two men circled for a moment, then charged.

  * * *

  It was difficult for Dieter to tell what was happening. He saw the butcher knife glitter, and the hammer swing, almost too fast for the eye to follow.

  Finn stepped back, blood dripping from his left forearm. The Dutchman was laying on the grass, unmoving. Dieter moved cautiously next to Finn. "What did you do, Finn? Is he dead?"

  Finn lowered his hammer and looked down. His voice sounded distant, as if he were coming back from a far place. "No, I don't think so. When he came at me, I aimed at his elbow. I think I heard it crack. Then I threw a blow right into his knee. I decided not to kill him, just tapped him lightly on the back of the head. Not hardly a blow at all, really."

  Finn kicked the knife away into the tall grass. "I guess his head wasn't as hard as he thought it was."

  Dieter heard a disturbance at the back of the crowd. He turned and saw Roselynde come out of the office, letters in hand. She was shouting and waving them over her head. Her red hair streamed behind her like a bright flag.

  "Where are the inspectors? I have proof the Dutchman was stealing from the railroad company, and I have the name of his accomplice."

  As she shouted and ran, the crowd parted in front of her, and she found herself next to Dieter and Finn. "What happened here?"

  Finn's smile was like the sun after a cold March rainstorm. He seemed to come back to himself with Roselynde next to him. "Nothing at all. We were just dancing a little. And then he tripped and fell, right there."

  Roselynde put her hands on her hips. "And, pray tell me, how did you get that bloody wound on your arm? Is it a bug bite, perhaps?"

  Their conversation was cut short when the inspectors appeared with guards in tow. Ten men with six foot staffs followed their commander, who was armed with a shotgun.

  The men surrounded Finn and the Dutchman, and held their staves at the ready. Roz stepped next to Finn.

  "Here now. What is all this?" the head inspector asked. "We don't need a riot. What did you do to Herr Keese?"

  Finn put his right hand on his chest, and grinned a little. "Herr Inspector, I'm afraid that the captain can't speak to you right now. He's napping."

  The guard commander knelt and felt the Dutchman's throat. "He's alive all right. Where's your medic? I think he needs to look after this man."

  The inspector frowned up at Finn. "What's the meaning of this? Assault on a supervisor is not tolerated by the Grantville Central Railroad."

  Before Finn could answer, Roselynde stepped between him and the inspector. "My name is Roselynde, and I'm in charge of the kitchens. We've been having difficulty finding enough to feed these men. He's been selling the food to bandits." She gestured with her evidence. "I found these letters that prove it." She pointed. "And when he tried to kidnap me, why, Finn only stepped up to protect me. And that's the whole story."

  * * *

  The inspectors remained on the site for three days more, examining the books and all the papers in the office. Gijsbert Keese had been carted off to lockup by the guards, and Finn and the other men had been sent back to work. The fully-stocked supply train showed up bright and early Monday morning, and Roselynde was able to feed the crew as much food as they wanted.

  On the final day of his business, the head inspector summoned Finn into the captain's office. He was sitting behind the desk, shuffling papers when Finn tapped on the door frame. "Ah. Finn. Come in, come in."

  Finn was a little nervous. It was very possible that he would still be reprimanded for striking a superior.

  The inspector stood, and offered Finn his hand. "Have a seat. As we're planning to move on tomorrow, there are a couple of things that you and I have to talk about. This worksite is in need of a competent captain, and I'm ready to offer you the job."

  "Me? You want me as the captain?" Finn was having a little trouble following the discussion. There was a roaring in his ears, and the room seemed to tip dangerously to the side. He eased himself into the chair in front of the desk.

  The man sat down in the other chair. "Why, yes, we do. We've had reports from many of the men that you're a good leader and an honest man. That's exactly what we need. Your pay will increase accordingly, of course. You'll be expected to keep track of the records, as well."

  Still, Finn couldn't find his voice. It was all like a dream.

  The inspector looked at him, then continued. "You'll need an assistant, as well, I think. There's really a lot to do here. You can hire anyone you feel fit for the position. As a matter of fact, it's the first task you'll have as captain. So what do you say, O'Donnell? Can we depend on you?"

  Suddenly, everything was clear as glass. This would finally give him the opportunity and standing to marry Roselynde. "Yes, I'll do it. You can certainly depend on me."

  April 1636

  Farther down the line

  Dieter was sitting at the desk, shuffling paper. There was a knock, and the door opened. A very pompous man stepped into the office. "I'm Schmidt, the civil engineer for this project. Are you the captain?"

  Dieter stood, and shook the engineer's hand. "Have a seat, Herr Schmidt. The captain isn't available today. I'm his assistant. What can I do for you?"

  The heavy man settled carefully in the small chair, and looked disgruntled. "This is very disturbing. Where is Herr O'Donnell, the captain? I was told he was always on site."

  Dieter leaned back in his chair and smiled. "I'm afraid that this week I'm all you'll get. Don't worry, I know everything you need. But Captain O'Donnell and his wife aren't available. They took some time off to celebrate the birth of their first son."

  * * *

  NONFICTION:

  Industrial Alchemy, Part 2: Inorganic Chemical Bestiary

  Written by Iver P. Cooper

  Within a few weeks of the Ring of Fire (RoF), Greg Ferrara tells the "Emergency Committee" that "Sulfuric acid is about as basic for modern industry as steel." The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica (EB11) and the modern Encyclopedia Americana (EA) agree that sulfuric acid is the most important of all chemicals. But that, of course, doesn't mean that it is the only chemical that the up-timers need more of. If there are a dozen they want at the end of 1632, I guarantee that they will be begging for hundreds by the end of 1634.

  Elements, Ions and Compounds

  The non-metals, discussed in section I below, are carbon; the pnictogens ("pn" as in phosphorus and nitrogen), the chalcogens (oxygen, sulfur, selenium), the halogens (fluorine, chlorine, etc.), and the noble gases (helium, etc.). Hydrogen is sui generis, the proverbial "sore thumb" of the Periodic Table, but I will treat it as a non-metal.

  The non-metallic elements, by themselves, can form molecules (e.g., the two atom molecules of nitrogen, oxygen and chlorine), covalent compounds (e.g., carbon dioxide), and many important anions (e.g., chloride, carbonate, sulfate).Many anions are salts of acids having the form HX, and the X (the anion part) always contains at least one non-metal atom and sometimes is entirely composed of non-metallic elements. Many metal salts are of the form MX, where M is one or more atoms of the same metal, and X is one or more copies of the same anion, each one or more atoms.

  In section I, I will identify which non-metallic elements, and compounds and ions composed just of those elements, were known prior to the RoF, which weren't known to the down-timers but occur in nature, and which will first be synthesized after RoF. I will also discuss how these elements and compounds are made and used, and make suggestions as to when they may be first available in the 1632 universe.

  The metals and their salts are discussed in section II below, which is organized first by the column (1-16) of the periodic table which the metal falls into, and then by the metal itself.

  The metals are sometimes classified as

  —the group Ia (column 1) or alkali metals (notably lithium, sodium, potassium)

  —the group IIa (2) or alkaline earth metals (notably beryllium, mag
nesium, and calcium)

  —the transition metals (3-12) (notably iron, nickel, platinum, copper, silver, gold, zinc, mercury)

  —the inner transition metals (which I will be ignoring)

  —the "poor" (lower melting) metals (13-16) (notably aluminum, gallium, tin, lead and bismuth)

  There are also metalloids, intermediate in behavior between metals and nonmetals. These are boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony and tellurium. Note that I have chosen to discuss boron and silicon with the non-metals, and arsenic and antimony with the metals.

  I. Non-Metallic Elements and Compounds

  Table 2-1 looks at the non-metals from a modern OTL perspective:

  * Emsley.

  Hydrogen

  Hydrogen, discovered in 1766, is used in the manufacture of ammonia and methanol, and in hydrogenation of unsaturated organic compounds. It also had direct uses; in the early twentieth century, as a buoyancy gas, and in the late twentieth century, as a rocket fuel and welding gas (part of the oxyhydrogen torch).

  In Huff and Goodlett, "Butterflies in the Kremlin, Part 3: Boris, Natasha . . . But Where's Bullwinkle" (Grantville Gazette 10), set in September 1633, the Russians are experimenting with their third hot air balloon, but they are anxious to move on to hydrogen. By June-July 1634, according to their "Butterflies in the Kremlin, Part 6: The Polish Incident or the Wet Firecracker War" (Grantville Gazette 15), a hydrogen-filled dirigible is flitting about.

  In contrast, in September 1635, Marlon Pridmore is flying a hot air blimp in the Grantville area. Kevin and Karen Evans, "Sailing Upwind" (Grantville Gazette 13). Of course, the USE has planes, and therefore less incentive to experiment with dirigibles.

  The simplest method of obtaining hydrogen gas is by reacting a metal with a source of hydrogen. Thus, zinc or iron will react with dilute sulfuric acid, and sodium even with cold water. It is also possible to obtain hydrogen by electrolysis of water (which also yields oxygen).

  Given the ready availability of zinc or iron, and sulfuric acid, there is no reason someone couldn't have made hydrogen as early as 1631 (Paracelsus supposedly made it in the sixteenth century). And in Grantville, with cheap electricity, the electrolysis route is feasible. Indeed, Tasha Kubiak gives Dr. Phil instructions for "bubbling off hydrogen and oxygen" in July 1631 (Offord, "Dr. Phil's Amazing Lightning Crystal," Grantville Gazette 6).

  The problem isn't generating the hydrogen, it's hanging onto it once you have it. Clearly, by 1634, the Russians are doing both, in dirigible-sized quantities.

  The classical concept of an acid is as a substance which, in water, dissociates to produce one or more hydrogen cations, and an anion characteristic of the acid. These acids will have formulae like HX (e.g., hydrochloric acid or nitric acid), H2X (e.g., sulfuric acid), or even H3X (orthophosphoric acid). The hydrogen cations behave much like the alkali metal cations. The first three strong acids known to the alchemists—hydrochloric, nitric and sulfuric acids—were all used in assaying, hence the term "acid test." (Salzberg 87).

  Hydrogen forms ionic or interstitial hydrides with metals, and covalent hydrides with non-metals. The ionic hydrides are made by passing hydrogen gas over the warmed metal. (CW184 says to use temperatures of 300-700°C, 725°C for lithium). Hydrides of interest include sodium, potassium, lithium, calcium, strontium, palladium and titanium hydride, and lithium aluminum hydride. (EB11, EA). They are used variously as sources of hydrogen (they will decompose water), reducing agents, and fuels. Lithium aluminum hydride (preparation, see CW273) and sodium borohydride are among the most popular reducing agents in organic chemistry.

  After 1634, the availability of the metal hydrides will be limited by the availability of the metal of interest.

  Group 17 Non-Metals (Halogens)

  The halogens of interest are fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine. They combine with hydrogen to form acids of the form HX, where X is halogen. The halides are salts in which the anion is a halogen atom: fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine. There are also related oxyanions including hypochlorites, chlorites, chlorates, perchlorates, bromates, perbromates, iodates and periodates.

  Some of the metal halides (e.g., sodium chloride) can be extracted from natural sources, others are made by the reaction of 1) the metal with the halogen directly, or 2) the metal, or its oxide, hydroxide or carbonate, with the appropriate acid. For example, you can treat lithium carbonate with hydrochloric acid to make lithium chloride.

  Fluorine

  The principal natural source of fluorine is fluorspar (calcium fluoride). Fluorine is also found in cryolite (sodium aluminum fluoride) and fluorapatite (calcium fluorophosphate).

  Hydrogen fluoride (known as hydrofluoric acid when dissolved in water) can be made by reacting fluorspar (calcium fluoride) with concentrated sulfuric acid at elevated temperature (first carried out by Scheele in 1771) (EB11/Fluorine). HF is extremely nasty stuff. Unfortunately it's critical to the production of many different fluorinated compounds, inorganic and organic. It's also used to etch glass and clean metals.

  Since canon says that HF and synthetic cryolite are available in early 1636, see Offord, "Doctor Phil's Family" (Grantville Gazette 15), it is likely that fluorspar was being mined at least as early as 1635, and sodium and potassium fluoride, and perhaps aluminum fluoride, were probably being made in small quantities by late 1636.

  The most straightforward way of making fluorine itself is probably by electrolysis of anhydrous HF containing dissolved potassium fluoride (EB11). The addition of the potassium fluoride is necessary since HF itself is non-conductive. (CW460).

  I don't think it likely that there will be any fluorine gas production before 1640. Fluorine is not only a gas, it's a gas that can cause stainless steel to burn! In the old time line, elemental fluorine was not produced commercially until World War II (when it was needed for the manufacture of uranium hexafluoride).

  Chlorine

  A dilute form of hydrochloric acid (HCl) is already made by down-timers and used as part of aqua regia (the mixture of HCl and HNO3 used to dissolve gold). Concentrated HCl was obtained by Glauber (1648). The first commercial production was by the LeBlanc process (1790), in which sodium chloride is treated with concentrated sulfuric acid, yielding sodium bisulfate (or sulfate) and HCl. (LeBlanc's purpose was to make sodium carbonate.) The brute force method is to combine hydrogen and chlorine and it is used when you must have ultrapure material.

  In OTL, chlorine was discovered in 1774. In the nineteenth century, chlorine was produced by oxidizing HCl with a strong oxidizing agent (air, manganese dioxide, potassium dichromate, etc.) A more modern method is electrolysis of sodium chloride solutions, yielding chlorine, sodium hydroxide, and hydrogen. (EA, EB11).

  There are several canonical clues that chlorine is available by 1633. When the Grantville delegation to England left in June 1633, they carried DDT with them, and the chlorine atoms of the DDT were almost certainly introduced by reacting an intermediate with chlorine gas. By winter 1633-34, the Essen Chemical Company is producing small quantities of sulfanilamide (apparently in preference to Grantville's preferred antibiotic, chloramphenicol) as well as calcium hypochlorite. See Mackey, "Ounces of Prevention" (Grantville Gazette 5). By 1634, the French have made potassium chlorate (first synthesized 1786 OTL), possibly by reacting chlorine with potassium hydroxide. (cp. EB11/Chlorates).

  Also, Dr. Phil makes bleach (Ethereal Essence of Common Salt) in 1633, by electrolysis of a sodium chloride solution. (Offord, "Dr. Phil's Amazing Lightning Crystal," Grantville Gazette 6) Chlorine is produced at the anode and hydrogen and hydroxide at the cathode. The chlorine then reacts with the hydroxide to produce some hypochlorite. If a membrane (such as asbestos) were placed between the anode and cathode, to block the movement of the chlorine, then you can produce chlorine gas.

  Some chlorides are available from natural sources. The best known chloride is certainly sodium chloride (common salt), which is produced by mining rock salt, or evaporating brine from wells or seawate
r. Potassium chloride can be obtained from the ores sylvite (at Stassfurt, Germany) and sylvinite, or from seawater. It is also a byproduct of manufacturing nitric acid from potassium nitrate and hydrochloric acid.

  The other metal chlorides can be obtained by reacting the metal, or its hydroxide, oxide or carbonate, with HCl. An alternative, brute force method is to heat the metal in a stream of chlorine gas. (EB11).

  The alkali metal chlorides in general are also useful as sources of their metals; the latter can be produced in elemental form by electrolysis of the corresponding molten metal chloride.

  The oxyanions of chlorine are hypochlorite, chlorite, chlorate and perchlorate. The hypochlorites are made by combining chlorine with a cold solution of a strong base; if you want the chlorate, use a hot solution. In both cases, you also produce a chloride.

  There are a number of important covalent compounds that contain chlorine. These include sulfur dichloride, thionyl chloride (SOCl2), phosphorus trichloride and phosphorus pentachloride. The latter three are standard chlorinating agents in organic chemistry. (M&B 601). EB11 says to synthesize sulfur dichloride by "distilling sulfur in a chlorine gas," phosphorus trichloride by reacting heated red phosphorus with chlorine, and phosphorus pentachloride by further reaction of the trichloride with chlorine. All three should be feasible in 1634.

  The availability of thionyl chloride is more uncertain; neither EB11 nor EA clearly state how to make it. However, CW453 describes a route from phosphorus pentachloride and sulfur dioxide. So perhaps we will be making it by 1635.

  Bromine

  Bromine was originally isolated from seawater (1826), in which it occurs as bromides in concentrations of just 65 ppm (EA). In 1911, the principal commercial source was the salt deposits at Stassfurt, Germany; the salt is a mixture of potassium, sodium, and magnesium bromide (EB11). The commercial "periodic" process required chlorine gas (which oxidizes the bromide ion), either manganese dioxide or potassium chlorate, and sulfuric acid. EA describes procedures (requiring chlorine gas, and either sodium carbonate or sulfur dioxide) for recovering bromine from seawater bromide. Since bromine is a liquid, it is actually easier to handle than chlorine (although bear in mind that its name comes from the Greek word for "stench").