February** Dynamic Incentive Program
Do you know what "Chinese snow" is? What was the use of Chinese snow in ancient times?
Chinese snow – saltpeter
Saltpeter (mainly potassium nitrate) is the main raw material for the manufacture of gunpowder.
Gunpowder is one of the four great inventions in China, the invention of gunpowder ** in the ancient Chinese people long-term refining of the elixir of immortality as a result of the accident, the early Tang Dynasty medical scientist Sun Simiao recorded in the "Danjing Inner Sulfur Method" that in the process of making the pill, the sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal mixed and ignited, can be violently burned, which is the prototype of the original gunpowder.
In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, gunpowder had been used in the military. The Northern Song Dynasty established a gunpowder workshop, and successively manufactured gunpowder arrows, artillery, etc., which were mainly based on combustion performance.
During the Yuan Dynasty, gunpowder was first introduced to the Arab countries, and then to Greece and Europe and even the rest of the world. When the Arabs saw that saltpeter looked like snow and came from China, they named it "Barud", which means "Chinese snow". The Persians saw that it looked like table salt, so they named it "Chinese salt."
Chinese snow – saltpeter can be used to make ice
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, a large amount of saltpeter was mined from the production of gunpowder, and it was found that saltpeter would absorb a lot of heat when dissolved in water, which could cool the water and freeze. After discovering the effect of saltpeter, the ancients could also make ice in summer. In the past, it was stored by digging ice in winter, so it was a "luxury" that ordinary people could not enjoy.
The method of making saltpeter ice was once very popular in the Song Dynasty, and there were many merchants who specialized in making and selling ice, and made cold drinks, such as fragrant drinks, perilla drinks, Erchen drinks, mint drinks, osmanthus drinks, cardamom drinks, etcThese drinks are mostly made of flowers, leaves, spices and other medicinal materials, so they are also called "fragrant drinks". There is a brand of incense and drink in the "Qingming Riverside Map".