Chapter 168 Chemical Plant

After distributing the dividends, Wang An received about three or four thousand taels of silver.

As a result, Wangji Chemical Factory immediately plunged into the intensive preparation work.

For this matter, Wang Andu transferred Ergou from the coal warehouse to be responsible for the preparation of the chemical plant.

The first is the issue of production planning.

Soap was undoubtedly a groundbreaking product in the Ming Dynasty.

So in order to prevent the production formula and process from being stolen, Wang An divided the soap production process into several independent production processes.

First, there is the alkaline solution preparation workshop.

This is relatively simple. Soak and precipitate the free wood ash in clean water, wait for the alkaline substance to precipitate, and then filter out the impurities to obtain a clear alkaline solution.

The second step is to purchase enough animal fat and heat it to make fat oil. Simply put, it is similar to making fat at home.

The third step is to mix the oil with the alkaline solution and heat and stir, waiting for the saponification reaction to be completed.

This process may take several hours. When the saponification reaction is about to be completed and the mixture becomes viscous, salt is added to help complete the formation and solidify it.

The solidified substance is soap, and the remaining unsolidified liquid is glycerin.

The last step is to cut the solidified irregular soap into corresponding shapes, and the entire production process is completed.

In theory, the formula and process are extremely simple, so in order to prevent the entire process from being stolen, Wang An had to separate each production step and assign each step to a dedicated person. The persons in charge of each public welfare organization were not allowed to communicate with each other and disclose their respective work content.

So in Wang An's vision, he would find a separate place outside the chemical plant to produce wood ash, and then transport it back to the chemical plant in sacks to soak it into an alkaline solution.

This step looks a bit like taking off pants to fart, but this is exactly the effect Wang An wants, to be mysterious!

There is no need to say much about the effectiveness of soap. If Wang An directly told them that these sacks were filled with wood ash, people would not believe it.

He did it in such a mysterious way that even if people found out that these things in the sack were indeed wood ashes, they would definitely be suspicious and suspect that Wang An had added something they didn't know about into the wood ashes.

Of course, this trick can only scare away ordinary people.

Those who really want to imitate Wang An, even if they suspect that his wood ash is somewhat extraordinary, will definitely make a conclusion after trying it themselves.

However, this involves Wang An’s second confidentiality procedure.

That is to transform the entire warehouse into several separately isolated workshops, each of which specializes in one process. Finally, Ergou, whom Wang An trusts the most, will be responsible for the final step of the saponification reaction.

All workers involved in this process must be the most trustworthy and honest neighbors in Doujiafang.

As for the other crafts mentioned above, Wang An decided to select them from several nearby villages in different directions to reduce the possibility of them coming into contact and chatting with each other after get off work.

After successfully purchasing the site, renovating the workshop and purchasing utensils were not difficult and could basically be done with money. After all, soap production did not require specific instruments and could basically be done using traditional methods.

The biggest problem is actually the procurement of raw materials and the animal fat needed.

In this era, people can't even eat meat very often. In the eyes of ordinary people, fat meat is more expensive than clenbuterol, which makes the purchase price of animal fat not cheap. If it was just the high cost, Wang An could still accept it. The biggest problem is that even if Wang An has money, he can't buy animal fat in bulk.

The most commonly used edible meats in the Ming Dynasty were mainly poultry and pork.

There is some mutton, but don't even think about beef. That thing is a productive force and the government has ordered that it is prohibited from being slaughtered.

It is obviously impossible to make oil at home, as poultry meat is scarce and relatively expensive.

Using poultry for industrial production is not a question of whether one is willing to invest, but rather Wang An is extremely stupid.

So Wang An’s only choice was to purchase pig fat, that is, to buy pork.

However, although pork was the main edible meat in the Ming Dynasty, there were no slaughterhouses like those in later generations.

When people want to eat meat, they basically buy it from butchers. Most butchers buy live pigs from farmers in the countryside, slaughter and cut the pigs themselves, and then transport them to the city to sell.

This means that even if you buy fatty pork from butchers, the supply from a single butcher is limited.

However, if one were to take the trouble to hire a large number of people and purchase fat meat from butchers all over the city, one could meet the demand.

But this brings up new problems. First, each butcher has slightly different pricing, which will also lead to differences in purchase prices.

Anyone who has worked as an accountant knows how terrible the consequences will be if they purchase large quantities of raw materials at different prices.

If this was just torturing the accountant, it wouldn't be hard on Wang An anyway, so he could just pretend he didn't know and at most he could just pay the accountant more money.

However, hiring a large number of buyers to purchase fatty pork from all over Beijing will cause a crazy surge in labor costs, and this behavior will also bring some public opinion impact.

First of all, it will affect the meat supply for the people in the whole city, causing the price of raw pork to rise to a certain extent. By then, the people of Jincheng will curse Wang An to death.

Secondly, this will inevitably become a topic of conversation among the common people after dinner, such as how much raw pork Wangji Chemical Factory purchased today. This will inevitably attract the attention of some interested people, thus exposing the secrets of the chemical factory prematurely.

In the later period, as soap and glycerin become popular, they will inevitably attract the covetousness of some people.

Once these people want to imitate Wang An, or even find ways to guess the production process, they will inevitably compete fiercely with Wang An for production raw materials.

Not only will it lead to an uncontrollable increase in production costs, but it will also greatly weaken production capacity, and we may even be strangled by the raw materials.

Wang Anke didn't want to see this scene, so a bold and absurd idea immediately popped up in his mind.

That is, is it possible to open a pig farm and pig slaughterhouse by yourself, not only to obtain production raw materials at a lower and uniform price, but also to not be afraid of competition from friendly competitors even in the later stage.

Directly control the upstream and downstream of the entire industrial chain to maximize profits.

Thinking of this, Wang An couldn't help but get excited.

But just thinking about it made Wang An feel discouraged.

(End of this chapter)