novelSusiti Chapter 147 Greek Fire and Soap
Chapter 147 Greek Fire and Soap
Chapter 147 Greek Fire and Soap (Part 3)
Zahir then walked in, carrying a freshly cast iron box component that was still warm.
He glanced at the iron pot, his scarred eyes narrowing slightly: "Your Highness, if you are hungry, there is a really good roast lamb restaurant in the port."
"It's not for eating." Leon finally put down the wooden stick, used a coarse cloth to hold up the pot, and poured the thick paste into a ceramic bowl lined with coarse cloth next to him. "I'm testing a new recipe."
He explained, "Aleppo soap is made with olive oil and laurel oil, which is expensive and takes nine months to mature. I wanted to try a cheaper and faster method."
Ya Ge leaned closer to the ceramic bowl and saw the pale yellow paste inside slowly solidifying: "What is this made of?"
"Animal fat, leftover scraps from the shipyard, practically free," Leon said, pointing to a wooden barrel beside him. "Alkali made from a mixture of lime and wood ash, and—" He pulled a small cloth bag from his pocket and poured out some dried purple flower buds. "Lavender, bought from the spice merchant at the port. It not only adds fragrance but also helps with preservation."
Zahir put down the metal box parts, walked closer, and sniffed it. "It smells better than fish oil. But this stuff—can it really clean hands?"
"That's how it works in theory." Lyon scraped a bit of the semi-solidified soap paste from the rim of the earthenware bowl with a wooden sliver and handed it to Zahir. "Animal fats and alkali react to produce soap, but I need to find the optimal ratio. If there's too much fat, the soap will be too soft. If there's too much alkali, it will burn your skin."
"Reaction?" Accord repeated blankly.
"It's just—a change in matter," Lyon simplified, "like winemaking, grapes turning into wine."
In the following days, strange things happened in the workshop.
On one side, craftsmen were busy working on Greek fire-making devices, while on the other side, Lyon was conducting soap experiments with two apprentices.
In the first experiment, the ratio of oil and alkali was unbalanced, resulting in a greasy soap that barely dissolved in water and left an oily film after washing hands.
After adjusting the proportions a second time, the soap started to lather, but it was loose and brittle, crumbling into crumbs when squeezed.
The third time, Lyon tried adding a small amount of salt to the reaction process, which came from the "salting out" method he had extracted from his vague memories.
The result was surprising: the mixture in the pot separated into layers, with a fine soap paste on top and murky wastewater at the bottom.
After the soap paste is scooped out and shaped, the resulting soap has a moderate hardness and produces abundant lather.
But there's another problem: the smell.
"The smell of animal fat is hard to get rid of completely." Leon frowned and sniffed the newly made bar of soap. "Even if you cover it with lavender, you can still smell it if you get close."
Zahir picked up a piece and smelled it: "It tastes much better than on the ship. The sailors won't care."
"But nobles and wealthy merchants will care," Lyon shook his head. "If it's to sell for a high price, it has to smell clean."
Just as he was pondering how to further eliminate the odor, Accord offered an unexpected suggestion.
"Perhaps—add some wine?" Jacob stroked his chin. "I've seen winemakers at the monastery deal with sour wine; they add something to mask the taste. Besides, wine itself has antibacterial properties; nuns use diluted wine when cleaning wounds."
Alcohol? Alcohol does have a cleaning effect and can remove odors.
Lyon immediately had his apprentice fetch a small barrel of wine. In the fourth batch of experiments, he distilled the wine over a low flame to reduce its alcohol content, cooled it, and then poured it into alkaline water.
The solidified soap has a soft, milky white color and a finer, harder texture than previous batches.
Most importantly, the fishy smell of animal fat has almost completely disappeared, replaced by a faint aroma of grapes and lavender.
Accord rubbed the new soap in warm water, and rich lather immediately appeared.
"This one is much better than the one in Aleppo!" he exclaimed in surprise. "It lathers up more, and my hands aren't dry after washing."
Zahir tried it too and praised, "If this stuff could be mass-produced cheaply, the sailors might be willing to use it more often; at least it's better than rubbing with sand and seawater. The most deadly thing on a ship is festering wounds."
Lyon picked up a finished piece and weighed it in his hand.
It's not perfect yet; the aging time is too short, the texture may not be stable enough, the cost of the wine needs to be calculated, and the process for large-scale production still needs to be explored.
Over the next two weeks, while the artisans continued working on the jets and projectiles, Lyon gradually perfected the soap formula.
By mid-February, three types of royal experimental soaps were piled up in a corner of the workshop: a basic cleansing soap with a lavender scent, a luxurious soap with a rose and cinnamon scent, and a medical soap containing trace amounts of sulfur, intended for use in military camps and hospitals.
Lyon said to Jacob, who was curiously examining the soap, "Uncle, when this batch of soap is ready for testing, take some to the royal palace and various monasteries. Just say—it's a new product from the royal workshop, made for purification before prayer."
Accord's eyes lit up: "Give it away for free, let them get used to it, and then—"
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"Then we can start selling," Leon laughed. "Starting with Jerusalem, then Acre, Tyre, and Tripoli. Prices will be tiered: a basic price for the common people and a luxury price for the aristocracy."
Zahir, who was wiping his scimitar, suddenly interjected, "Don't forget to look for Robert. Italian merchants will probably be ecstatic to see soap of this quality."
"I've already written to Robert and asked him to come over." Lyon nodded. "Now, let's take care of the Greek fire first."
He walked to the other side of the workshop, where the frame of the first full-size torsion projectile had already been erected.
Its frame was made of oak, and the torsion bundle was initially made of ordinary hemp rope, but as Zahir had predicted, its elasticity decreased significantly after five launches.
The craftsmen braided the hair collected by Yage into strands, soaked them in a mixture of fish glue and pine resin, dried them, and then tied them into bundles, which significantly improved the effect.
The design of the projectile was not easy and underwent three revisions.
The original release trigger was too bulky and required a hammer to release, resulting in a firing delay.
Zahir proposed using a spring-loaded bronze latch, which could be remotely triggered by a pull rope and would react quickly.
They then discovered that when the launcher throws the pottery jar, it easily applies a rotational force to the jar, causing instability in flight.
The craftsman added a pair of guide rails to the end of the projectile arm, which kept the pottery jar moving in a straight line before it left the container, immediately improving the accuracy.
Progress on the side-mounted jets has been much slower.
Casting a sealed iron box is a challenge, requiring the box to withstand the high temperatures of the internal flames while also being isolated from external seawater.
The blacksmith tried three different formulas for fire-retardant plaster coatings and finally found that clay mixed with a local mineral wool worked best.
The transmission system was even more complicated. The bronze connecting rods were prone to rusting and jamming in the salty sea environment, so the craftsmen decided to plate all moving parts with tin and design access ports that could be quickly disassembled.