Chapter 38: Traveling to the Middle Ages 038

Chapter 38: Traveling to the Middle Ages 038

Louisa quickly abandoned the method of making candles using 'fat + acid'.

It sounded great, and could even open up a new source of wealth for Brutus, comparable to sugar. However, upon actually trying it, she discovered there were too many issues!

"To think candles could be made this way... it seems even better than the highest quality beeswax candles, with no smoke at all, and the candlelight is bright and stable." Helena was amazed as she observed the newly made candles, which were crafted under her own hands.

She followed Louisa's instructions, who claimed to have read the method in an ancient alchemy article.

The process wasn't complicated. Generally, animal fat (mostly beef tallow, though others could be used) was boiled with quicklime. This was a general saponification reaction... a narrow saponification reaction specifically refers to the reaction between fat and potassium or sodium alkali, as only these two alkalis produce substances that can truly clean.

With quicklime, which reacts with water to form calcium hydroxide, the reaction with fat produces a paste similar to soft soap (mainly composed of calcium stearate).

Then sulfuric acid was added, which could separate stearic acid—removing the precipitated lime, leaving stearic acid and glycerol mixed with impurities.

This appeared unnecessary since the main components of fat are stearic acid and glycerol, bringing us back to square one. But actually, it's not. Previously, the two were mixed and couldn't be separated.

Moreover, if acid was used directly for separation without forming calcium stearate, it would be a standard acid-catalyzed hydrolysis reaction. The problem is, this reaction is reversible; on one side, fat hydrolyzes into stearic acid and glycerol, and on the other, stearic acid and glycerol recombine into fat.

Louisa was deeply impressed by this because in her previous life, she read a time-travel story. In the story, the male protagonist made soap in ancient times using lard and sodium alkali, then added hydrochloric acid to the waste liquid to obtain stearic acid, or 'wax' (which was the hydrolysis of incompletely saponified fat). He didn't stop there; he further processed the waste liquid, claiming that simple clarification, filtration, and distillation yielded pure glycerol.

This multi-purpose method was far superior to the usual time-travel protagonists who only made soap from fat... At the time, Louisa thought the male protagonist's operation was quite impressive, more hardcore and fresh than the usual time-travel stories, weary of the repetitive themes of soap and glass.

However, later Louisa read a small fun science book and learned how contemporary candles are made—not by direct acid hydrolysis, but by saponification first (so, in a sense, you could directly use soap to make candles).

Curious, she looked up some information and found out that acid hydrolysis of fat is reversible...

In short, after adding sulfuric acid to separate stearic acid, the mixture of stearic acid and glycerol mixed with impurities could be pressed. The glycerol mixed with impurities would be squeezed out, leaving stearic acid... Why do fat candles produce smoke and odor? It's because of the glycerol and impurities, so removing them makes pure stearic acid more suitable for candles.

"It's effective but impractical due to the high cost," Louisa shook her head.

"There's no way around it. If sulfuric acid is needed in large quantities, whether through burning sulfur or distilling green vitriol and blue vitriol, it can't be cheap," Helena also had no solution.

Perhaps the production method could be improved, transitioning from laboratory to workshop-scale production, and lowering some labor thresholds... but the high cost determined by raw materials is difficult to reduce in this era.

The reason why sulfuric acid production remains a continuously inherited craft is because it's used in the cementation process for purifying gold. Given the value of gold, the cost of sulfuric acid is naturally not an issue.

Candles are different. Although lighting is expensive at this time, the actual price per pound of beeswax candles is 6 pence. This price is high for the poor, but negligible for the nobility. The high cost of lighting stems from the quick consumption of candles.

How fast they burn depends on the candle's raw materials, shape, wick condition, whether the wick is trimmed, etc.

The paraffin candles commonly used in later times burn the slowest. Candles at this time are made from animal and plant materials, burning much faster than paraffin. Approximately eight candles can be made from a pound of beef tallow. If the wick isn't trimmed and allowed to burn freely, it could burn out in under thirty minutes.

So trimming the wick is an important task. Families that frequently use candles will have servants dedicated to wick trimming.

However, even though trimming the wick can make candles last longer, it merely delays the inevitable. A wealthy family might use a hundred pounds of beeswax monthly (this is data for using only beeswax candles, but it's almost impossible; even the wealthiest families mix beeswax and fat candles).

The court's candle usage is even more astonishing! Because there are many banquets in the court, and once a banquet is held, at least the hall will be lit with many candles. Think of those huge chandeliers, and the ubiquitous wall lamps and candlesticks, the number of candles lit simultaneously is hard to estimate!

In short, at 6 pence per pound of beeswax candles, if the 'fat + acid' method increases costs beyond this, it's impractical.

Although such candles produce less smoke, are brighter, and last longer, if the price is too high, the business isn't viable—candles are mass-consumed items and can't be sold as luxury items.

"Yes, none of these options are inexpensive... well, actually other acids could work, hydrochloric acid, citric acid... but none are cheap," Louisa thought to herself, but ultimately gave up.

The most promising relatively cheap option was 'citric acid', but upon closer consideration, purifying citric acid from lemon juice necessitates slaked lime and calcium chloride. Slaked lime is easy, but calcium chloride requires hydrochloric acid.

And if not purified, using lemon juice directly... let's just say, the outcome would be unsatisfactory. Since the whole point was to get better 'wax', if lemon juice doesn't achieve the desired effect, what's the point of all this trouble?

At times like these, Louisa couldn't help but feel a bit discontented. Why wasn't there an easily accessible plant wax? Many plants produce wax, but only a few are valuable for production. China has the Chinese tallow tree, and Japan has the wild lacquer tree (which also exists in China, but perhaps due to the availability of tallow wax and insect wax, it hasn't been utilized much), and the New World has palm wax...

The West has nothing, so hard candles must rely solely on beeswax. As for fat candles, they aren't considered hard candles; they remain greasy and soft to the touch.

Speaking of which, in the Middle Ages, 'wax' was often synonymous with fat. At that time, tallow candles and sheep fat candles were different from later candles; they were literally made directly from fat. They were more akin to oil lamps, except that animal fats typically have a higher melting point than vegetable oils, making them appear solid.

"Compared to making these candles, beeswax candles no longer seem so luxurious," Helena concluded as she put away the chemistry experiment equipment, then couldn't help but add, "I've seen how beekeepers harvest honey and cut wax. Beeswax being so expensive is understandable. Every time they painstakingly raise a hive of bees, to harvest honey and beeswax, they must kill most of the bees."

"Then they must raise enough bees again."

Louisa, upon hearing Helena discuss beekeeping, blurted out, "Why kill the bees?"

In her past life, she had visited a classmate's hometown, and the classmate, wanting to make the trip worthwhile, took her to a beekeeper to buy honey directly. They claimed the honey there was renowned, and purchasing directly from the beekeeper guaranteed the highest quality. It was then that Louisa saw the beehives and learned how honey was harvested on the spot.

She didn't witness any bees being killed then... If harvesting honey required killing most of the bees in a hive each time, beekeepers couldn't sustain their business!

"Miss must not have observed how beekeepers operate," Helena wasn't surprised that Louisa didn't know this and quickly described it to her.

In short, the beehives of that era were nothing like those of later periods. Modern beehives are 'Langstroth hives,' known as 'movable frame hives,' patented by an American pastor named 'Langstroth' in the mid-19th century. Before that, such hives may have existed, but certainly not as early as the Middle Ages.

In the Middle Ages, 'beehives' were crafted from straw, shaped like an inverted cone. They lacked movable frames, meaning that each time honey or wax was harvested, the bees that couldn't be driven away had to be killed with sulfur.

Speaking of which, movable frame hives aren't hard to construct, but their impact on beekeeping was significant. Only then could beekeeping achieve relatively stable output, reducing costs and increasing efficiency...

After grasping all this, Louisa became somewhat excited. It appears there's potential in the candle industry, though initiating chemical production is out of the question. It's only feasible to engage in beekeeping and harvest beeswax—indeed, each era has its choices, just like her previous sugar-making, where modern sugar production wasn't viable, only 'traditional sugar-making' was possible.

Louisa swiftly sketched the design of the 'movable frame hive,' particularly noting the 8mm spacing between the movable frames. This was critical; the beekeeper uncle from her past life had informed her about it! It's said that if the spacing isn't precisely 8mm, bees will construct additional structures on the partitions themselves.

This would complicate the removal of the frames.

Constructing a movable frame hive isn't difficult, but where to find so many beekeepers? Louisa didn't want to trouble herself and directly assigned this task to a knight named Cornell—this was the second knight confidant Louisa had developed in the Brudo court, the first being Aran Knight.

Compared to Aran's low profile, Cornell was much more famous in the Brudo court. Aran was strong in arithmetic, but this obviously wasn't a skill that would make him famous in court or endear him to the ladies. Cornell was different; he had a talent for combat and always performed excellently in hunting. Moreover, whether it was poetry or the games popular in court, he was very adept.

Not to mention his handsome face, coupled with his attentive service to the noblewomen... It would be abnormal for him not to be popular!

Louisa's standard for subordinates was to be down-to-earth, and Aran was a typical example. For someone like Cornell, who seemed like a peacock, she subconsciously overlooked him due to stereotypes.

She actually knew she shouldn't 'judge a book by its cover,' but the court at that time was like that; everyone was striving to be a 'Cornell,' and if you didn't, you wouldn't stand out.

It's not surprising that capable people deliberately acted in that way to attract the attention and appreciation of the nobility.

Cornell was like that... Perhaps capable people always stand out, and even though Louisa had stereotypes, she gradually noticed him. Compared to Aran's path as a professional accountant, Cornell was more useful in practical matters, which was quite 'practical' and didn't match his external appearance.

"...We need to survey Brudo, even the surrounding flower sources, and map them out. I plan to promote beekeeping in Brudo, changing the past where beekeeping was just a sideline for monasteries or certain manors, where they kept bees and made honey when the manor was in bloom, and did nothing else, producing very little."

"In the future, professional beekeepers will have to follow the map to chase the flower sources! Ensuring there's always production."

Cornell cleverly said, "You mean, like herders rotating pastures, right?"

Seeing Louisa nod, Cornell cautiously offered his opinion: "But, Lady Louisa, as far as I know, after each harvest, many bees die. Beekeepers have to raise bees again... It's impossible to do as you say..."

Louisa smiled and took out the movable frame hive made by the carpenter, explaining how convenient it was to use this hive for beekeeping when harvesting honey. Cornell was clearly convinced, his only doubt being whether bees would be willing to live in such a hive... Beehives aren't designed arbitrarily, just as in nature, bees are particular about where they build their hives.

Some places they're willing to live in, others not.

But this small doubt wasn't a problem; whether bees are willing or not, a trial would tell.

Cornell quickly listed a work plan in his mind, including mapping the 'flower sources' as Louisa mentioned, finding willing beekeepers to cooperate, and training his own beekeepers.

The beekeepers in a cooperative agreement with Louisa would be provided with beehives and techniques for harvesting honey and beeswax. They simply needed to sign contracts and sell the beeswax to Louisa at market prices when the time came.

As for the beekeepers trained by Louisa herself, according to Louisa's plan, Louisa would provide the flower sources, beehives, and other necessary equipment, and the beekeepers would contribute a specified amount of beeswax in return, while keeping all the honey for themselves. Moreover, if there was any leftover beeswax, it would be sold to Louisa first, just like with the cooperative beekeepers.

Since the flower sources provided were all located within the various estates and forests owned by Count Balzac, this would save the beekeepers a lot of hassle. Moreover, it ensured that they always had flower sources, which turned out to be quite fair.

"Are you planning to set up a candle workshop, specializing exclusively in beeswax candles?" Helena asked knowingly. She had previously assisted Louisa in making candles, so she could easily figure out Louisa's intentions.

"Yes, with the current method, we can stably obtain a considerable amount of beeswax at a low price. In fact, it doesn't cost much, and part of it is even offset by the flower sources from the estates and forests... These were originally just lying idle, and now utilizing them is like gaining an extra income out of thin air."

What Louisa didn't mention was that she also knew a 'secret technique' for making candles, which would surely make her candles stand out—she planned to use three strands of cotton thread loosely twisted together to form the wick.

This was a very small yet highly effective design!

The reason why candles these days needed to have their wicks trimmed was that most wicks were tightly woven. This resulted in the candle wax being insufficiently absorbed, leading to the wick burning quickly and not carbonizing properly, which over time caused the wick to grow longer and longer. This increasingly long wick was the 'candle snuff,' and trimming it meant cutting it shorter.

If it became too long, the flame would also expand, melting more wax than needed and resulting in significant waste... This was why candles didn't last long if the wicks weren't trimmed.

Historically, it wasn't until 1820 that a Frenchman invented a wick made of three loosely braided cotton threads. Such a wick absorbed enough wax, allowing the wick to burn slowly and more completely.

Moreover, the three strands of thread would naturally separate as they burned, with the ends curling up to the hottest, most completely burning outer flame layer. This allowed the excess wick to burn off on its own, eliminating the need for manual trimming.

Candles with such wicks hardly needed trimming, and once introduced, they were sure to be very popular.

As for others imitating this technique, there was no need to worry. On one hand, others might not even realize that the lack of need for trimming was due to the improved wick, and more likely would attribute it to the high quality of the beeswax. On the other hand, even if they did know, the spread of this technology would take time, and technological diffusion in the Middle Ages was very slow.

If only Brundor and its surrounding areas learned about it, it wouldn't be a problem at all, as she wasn't aiming to monopolize the beeswax candle business. By then, it might even help improve the overall quality of beeswax candles in the region, allowing everyone to sell well everywhere.

After handing over the beekeeping matters to Cornell, Louisa temporarily set the matter aside and fell into a routine of idleness. It wasn't until preparations began for a trip to Provins that someone delivered a batch of cocoons. To be precise, they were cocoons made into silk floss.

This was another 'long long ago' story. Last year, Louisa had seen raw silk being traded at the Troyes fair and learned that some cities in Vason were already engaged in the silk industry.

The silk industry in Roland was thriving, with brocade and satin already being produced, which Louisa knew about, but she hadn't realized that this trend had also reached Vason.

However, the silk industry in Vason was still quite 'primitive,' as they couldn't even raise silkworms and reel silk themselves. They had to purchase processed raw silk from the Near East every year and then process it further... Since the Brundor market was an international trade center, some raw silk merchants would deliver raw silk to textile merchants here.

Louisa happened to encounter this and incidentally ordered a batch of 'silk floss' from a raw silk merchant—silk floss was made by boiling cocoons, cleaning them, cutting them open to remove the silkworms that hadn't had a chance to emerge, and then stretching many cocoons together using molds. During this process, small and large molds were continuously swapped until the cocoons were stretched into watermelon-sized silk floss.

Once these silk flosses were dried, they could be sent to Brundor... Well, mainly because without this processing, the cocoons couldn't be transported. Why was silk reeling so time-sensitive? It was precisely because if not processed in time, some silkworms would emerge from their cocoons.

As for directly providing raw silk to Louisa, that wouldn't work. Louisa wanted the cocoons not for weaving... She wanted to use silk quilts in her new room.

After inspecting the silk floss and confirming it was fine, Louisa called her maids to help make the silk quilts—the process of making silk quilts was very simple, just stretching. At first, it might be a bit unfamiliar, and the stretching might not be even, but with care, one could quickly grasp the trick.

Louisa had four maids each take a corner of a platform, pulling evenly and steadily. Only when a flat silk floss was stretched into a transparent thin layer was it placed on the platform.

This was a simple but time-consuming task, as a silk quilt required layers upon layers of thin silk floss, and it was unclear how many layers were needed to complete one.

Helena also came to watch the excitement, and as soon as the silk quilt began to take shape, she immediately said, "Miss Louisa, are you making a quilt?"

At this time, the structure of quilts was not much different from later generations. They all consisted of a quilt cover stuffed with filling. The difference was that the wealthy used cotton, wool, duck feathers, and other materials that modern people would find acceptable. The poor, however, had much worse options, often stuffing their quilts with whatever they could find—rags, moss, straw...

So theoretically, as the daughter of a great noble at this time, Louisa could have used a decent quilt. However, this was only theoretical. From her perspective, even her own quilt, which others considered exquisite and comfortable bedding, felt heavy and rough to her.

Cotton quilts, which needed to be warm, were naturally heavy. Moreover, the quality of cotton batting in the West at this time was questionable, and the cotton quilts felt more dense than fluffy to Louisa, so even though they were heavy, they still didn't provide good warmth.

Yes, the West also had cotton batting techniques, which might have developed independently. They had long used bows to card wool, replacing part of the wool combing process. After cotton was introduced locally, the wool carding bows were basically used directly—it was said that some stakeholders even argued that these bows were exclusive to wool carders and should not be used for cotton. However, the authorities only cared about the final benefits, and since banning them offered no advantage, the matter was naturally dropped.

As for wool quilts, it goes without saying—later generations had wool blankets, but there was hardly any mention of using wool as quilt filling, simply because it wasn't suitable!

Feathers present another issue. Although the feathers used for noble bedding are chosen to be finer, they are still not fine enough and often come with small quills. Additionally, the fabric of the bedding at this time is not as tightly woven as it is in later eras (some even feature advanced craftsmanship!). As a result, it is inevitable that feathers will "escape" from the bedding.

Losing feathers is one thing, but the bigger issue is that they can prick the skin, much like the irritation caused by prickly heat—this is something Louisa experienced firsthand, so she remembers it vividly!

Compared to these issues, silk quilts are truly lightweight and warm. One silk quilt is worth more than a thick fur pelt! After all, the latter often has an unpleasant smell and is prone to harboring insects and dirt.

The silk merchant brought Louisa enough silk batting to make over a dozen silk quilts. These silk quilts were wrapped in natural linen and quilted with diamond patterns to prevent the batting from shifting, completing the quilt core. Then, a quilt cover was added, and the quilt was finished. This way, only the quilt cover needed washing, making it far more convenient.

This was considered quite innovative for the time, as most quilts either lacked a separate cover or had the cover sewn directly to the core, making cleaning and replacement quite troublesome.

"Store these away; they are for different seasons," Louisa instructed as she had everyone put away the finished silk quilts that were not immediately needed.

Over a dozen silk quilts might seem like a lot, but after sorting them by thickness and setting aside replacements, there weren’t many left. Louisa also planned to have the silk merchant bring more silk batting next year, as the additional quilts could make excellent gifts.

In fact, she gave one silk quilt to each of her trusted aides this time.

Madam Hugo particularly loved the silk quilts and said to Louisa with a smile, "Miss, you should hear what my dear husband said! He has always been against comfortable bedding, being the old-fashioned knight that he is. Not only does he dislike thick feather mattresses and quilted bedding, but he also thinks sleeping without his armor is too soft."

"But this time, he couldn't refuse the quilt you gifted him, describing it as if he were covered by a layer of clouds!"