【Haichuan. Pioneers of the Chemical Industry】07 Shen Kuo – The first person recorded in historical documents to process petrochemical products
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The earliest record of the name \"petroleum\" is attributed, both in China and around the world, to Shen Kuo. In his work \"Mengxi Bitan\", he provided detailed accounts of the discovery and extraction of petroleum. It was in the third year of Yuanfeng during the Northern Song Dynasty (1080), when Shen Kuo, who was over 50 years old, was sent by the imperial court to Shaanxi to serve as the governor of Xi’an. While serving as governor in Xi’an, Shen Kuo continued to travel around and discovered that oil was produced in the region; in his work \"Mengxi Bitan\", he described the state of oil and the processes involved in its extraction. He wrote as follows: In the areas of Fuzhou and Yanzhou, there exists a mysterious black substance that the local people call petroleum; the \"lipid water\" mentioned in ancient texts regarding Gounu County refers to petroleum. Oil comes from underground, mixed with rocks and spring water, and occasionally seeps to the surface. When the local people saw this, they used items to collect the oil and stored it in clay pots. This oil can be ignited, but it produces a lot of black smoke; anything it touches turns black. Shen Kuo discovered that these fumes could also be utilized, so he used the coal smoke from them to make ink. To his surprise, the results were excellent – even regular pine ink was not as good as this ink. As a result, he ordered his subordinates to produce large quantities of this ink, giving it the name “Yanchuan Stone Liquid”. According to historical records from that period, Shen Kuo was the first person to process oil and use it.
In his work \"Mengxi Bitan,\" Shen Kuo not only recorded the process of discovering petroleum but also wrote a prophecy: \"This substance will surely become widely used in the world in the future; I was the first to use it.\" ”Shen Kuo predicted that oil, as a liquid, would eventually become an essential part of people’s lives and spread throughout the world. Subsequent developments confirmed Shen Kuo’s prediction. The area in Yanzhou where he discovered oil is now China’s famous Changqing Oil Field, which has an annual production of 20 million tons – accounting for about one-tenth of the country’s total oil output – and serves as an important energy source for China. As the world’s most important energy source, oil is used to produce products such as gasoline, diesel, and asphalt, all of which are essential in modern society and cannot do without them even for a minute.
On July 1, 1979, the Zijin Mountain Observatory named asteroid No. 2027, discovered on November 9, 1964, “Shen Kuo Star”. In his work \"Mengxi Bitan\", Shen Kuo officially named petroleum based on its characteristic of forming in the sand and stones along waterways, mixing with spring water, and emerging therefrom. After describing the properties and occurrence of oil in Fuxian and Yan’an areas in northern Shaanxi, he went on to put forward the scientific assertion that \"...oil is abundant; it exists in great quantities beneath the earth, unlike pine wood which runs out from time to time,\" and predicted that \"this substance will surely become widely used throughout the world in the future.\" When serving as the governor of Yanzhou, Shen Kuo investigated the oil deposits in the Luyan area and their uses. Taking advantage of the fact that oil does not burn completely and produces carbon black, he pioneered a process for manufacturing ink using petroleum-based carbon black instead of pine wood carbon black, and thus \"Yanchuan Petroleum Ink\" became widely used in the world. During the Northern Song Dynasty, China established the world’s earliest oil refining facility – the “Menghuo Youzuo” – and began producing roughly processed petroleum products known as “Menghuo You”. At that time, the “Menghuo Youzuo” was one of the 10 workshops under the Central Armory Bureau located in the capital Kaifeng; Shen Kuo once served as the supervisor of this Central Armory Bureau. At that time, this armaments factory was very large, with tens of thousands of people working there in production. Shen Kuo was not only an outstanding petroleum geologist but also a distinguished expert in petroleum refining; it can be said that Shen Kuo was the foremost expert in the field of petroleum science in the world.
It’s still amazing; it’s just that our development has been a bit slow!
You’ve brought out the ancestors themselves (I didn’t dare use the word “unearth”) – impressive.
During his investigations in northern Shaanxi, Shen Kuo discovered that the local people used a brown-colored liquid for cooking over fires, as well as for lighting lamps and keeping warm. The locals called this liquid “shi qi” or “shi zhi”. Shen Kuo gave this liquid a new name: “petroleum” (…For petroleum is abundant; it exists in large quantities underground and will never run out, unlike pine wood, which eventually runs out). This name has been used to this day.
At the same time, the statement \"...oil, being abundant in the earth, will never run out, unlike pine trees which can be depleted over time\" reflects an environmental consciousness: trees should not be cut down casually unless it is necessary, especially ancient forests, which must not be destroyed!
Shen Kuo was also the earliest to describe the chemical process of copper smelting. In Volume 25, Section 2 of \"Dream Pool Essays,\" he writes the following: In Lianshan County of Xinzhou, there is a bitter spring from which water flows to form a stream. If its water is collected and boiled, it turns into blue vitriol. Cooking blue vitriol yields copper ； If gallium sulfate is boiled in an iron pot, it will also turn into copper over time. Water can transform into copper; the changes in things are indeed unpredictable. This is the earliest record in our country regarding the smelting of copper with gall. Explained in modern plain language: In Lianshan County, Jiangxi Province, there are several streams whose water is not clear but appears greenish-blue in color and has a bitter taste. The local villagers call this water \"gall water,\" and \"gall water\" refers to a solution of copper sulfite. The villagers fry the “gall” in an iron pot, thereby producing “danfan”. ““Danfan” is copper sulfite; when copper sulfite is heated in an iron pot, it reacts chemically with the iron, resulting in the precipitation of copper.
This should count as well; it gives our series a more structured appearance. Who is the ninth one?
The first person to name petroleum was also really remarkable