The development of incendiary bombs was quickly put on the agenda.
In order to shorten the research and development time, Su Xin divided the research and development into two parts and conducted them simultaneously.
One part is a trial production of napalm, and Su Xin named it viscous gasoline... This name is really more vivid than napalm, after all, it is only viscous but not solidified.
Naphthenes are transferred directly from the oil field. This stuff was previously dumped as waste water because it was not known what its use was.
In fact, the Eighth Route Army's development and utilization rate of oil was very low. The oil fields only produced gasoline, diesel and kerosene. The former two were used for power generation and the latter for lighting. Other derivative products were basically not developed and they did not even know how to develop them.
In fact, many things are not used even after they are developed.
For example, asphalt... If you don't have enough to eat, you often go into the mountains to fight guerrillas. Of course, it is impossible and unnecessary to build an asphalt road.
More importantly, asphalt roads are more suitable for mechanized troops. The Eighth Route Army relies on two legs, or mule carts, donkey carts, and horse-drawn carriages. Wouldn't building an asphalt road be convenient for the Japanese?
So as soon as Wang Xuexin made a request, the oil field immediately sent naphthenic hydrocarbons, and said that they would have as much as they needed in the future.
Palmitic acid is produced at the Fifth Factory, and a small barrel can be produced in half a day.
To put it bluntly, this thing is a kind of grease, which is very common in nature. The tallow tree oil boiled from tallow seeds contains more than 60% palmitic acid, and palm oil contains 40%.
The fifth factory is produced by artificial synthesis and has higher purity.
After getting the raw materials together, mix palmitic acid and gasoline in a ratio of 1:1 and stir. After three to five minutes, it will become a translucent gel.
(Note: The ratio is between 1:20 and 1:1, depending on the viscosity required by the equipment)
Then add magnesium powder, aluminum powder, and naphthenic hydrocarbon and mix well.
Of course, you don't dare to add phosphorus at this time. This thing has a low ignition point. If you accidentally burn it if you add it in, it will cause a fire.
During the experiment, I first picked out some branches and ignited them. The burning was both smoke and flame, which was so pungent that people could not bear it. The branches were burned out in a short time.
Wu Jin was stunned for a moment and asked: "Is this considered a success?"
No one dares to confirm, because there is no instrument to measure what degree it is.
But this time Su Xin learned to be smart.
"Find a piece of iron sheet!" Su Xin said: "The melting point of iron is about 1,300 degrees. If the iron sheet can be burned, it proves that its temperature is high enough!"
When everyone thinks about it, it is true. This is the same as using silver coins to monitor the temperature of the stove.
Not long after, the hardware brought some discarded scraps, and still picked some from branches and put them on the iron sheet.
As soon as it was lit, the flames and smoke started to rise. After a few seconds, everyone looked at each other and saw that the iron sheet had burned to the bottom.
"Good guy!" Wu Jin clucked his tongue and said, "If this sticks to a person's body and burns, what's the point? All the bones will be burnt!"
Su Xin's face was a little pale. She looked at Wang Xuexin and wanted to say something, but she still didn't.
Wang Xuexin knew the meaning of Su Xin's expression.
When Hardware said this, she thought of how horrible and miserable it would be if it burned people's bodies, so she couldn't bear it.
But Wang Xuexin thinks this is no problem.
Have the Japanese ever been so merciful to the Chinese?
There shouldn't be any womanly kindness at this time, the napalm is just letting them pay off some of the debt they owe.
Another step is the design of the cannonball.
The difficulty with this is that the fuze needs to be modified a bit.
The Eighth Route Army's fuzes were all mounted on the front of the artillery shells. If they were not changed, it would mean that the explosives would also be mounted on the front and the napalm would be mounted on the rear.
This is obviously a problem, because when the shell is triggered, the explosive at the front explodes and sprays napalm backward. Doesn't that mean you hit yourself?
In particular, the range of the rocket launcher is only a few dozen meters, so you will kill yourself if you play like this.
So the fuze must be divided into two parts, and the front end is connected to the rear end with a wire. After triggering, electricity is applied to ignite the gunpowder at the rear. When it explodes... the napalm in the front will spray forward.
This aspect is solved by hardware. It is not a big problem, but it is more troublesome to produce the fuze.
While everyone is looking forward to the emergence of this new equipment, Wang Xuexin is already thinking about further issues.
"Director!" Wang Xuexin said to Zhang Wanhe while he was busy assembling: "I was thinking, we have this viscous gasoline, but we can't just use it on the rocket launcher!"
"What do you mean?" Zhang Wanhe turned around and asked while spinning the gunpowder column in his hand: "Aren't we just here to build bunkers? I think it's good to use it on a rocket launcher, no problem!"
"Factory director!" Wang Xuexin said: "What if we attack infantry a few hundred meters away?"
Zhang Wanhe was stunned for a moment, and then jumped up: "You mean... 50 small guns?"
"That's right, it's the 50 small cannon!" Wang Xuexin said: "Look, our rocket launcher needs to be launched with a gunpowder column, and it can only hit fifty meters. It can't hit accurately at a distance. The 50 small cannon can be used casually.
It can hit hundreds of meters. Let's put this thick gasoline inside and turn it into an incendiary bomb. That thing only needs propellant and does not need a solid gunpowder column..."
It goes without saying what the benefits of this are.
The Eighth Route Army's propellant also used black powder, which was much cheaper than solid gunpowder columns. It was cheap and could shoot farther, and its lethality was much greater than the original artillery shells...
The reason is that the shells of the 50 small artillery are not grooved inside like hand grenades, and the charge is black powder, so the shrapnel is small and the lethality is insufficient.
It's different with incendiary bombs. Once they explode, the sticky gasoline isn't thrown everywhere.
As long as it is thrown a little, its high temperature of more than a thousand degrees can scorch any piece of it, which will make the enemy lose its combat effectiveness on the spot.
What's more important is that after this thing is burned, a large amount of highly toxic substances will remain. These highly toxic substances enter the blood through the open wounds of the burn, causing blood poisoning in the wounded, which is extremely difficult to treat.
In this way, the entire 50 cannon is a lethality multiplier.
Zhang Wanhe excitedly patted Wang Xuexin on the shoulder and said, "Okay, Xiao Dongbei, you have created this thing, which will give all our artillery an extra type of ammunition!"
Su Xin was inspired after hearing this.
"All artillery?" Su Xin turned around: "What about our 'ghost cannons' and 'bazookas'?"
Zhang Wanhe and Wang Xuexin were stunned for a moment, then nodded repeatedly.
This is indeed possible.
The cost of napalm is very low. It is cost-effective just to replace the black powder in artillery shells, not to mention the increase in lethality.
What's more, the next time there is an attack on the Japanese airport, the effect of using incendiary bombs will definitely be better than grenades.