Weimar, State of Thuringia-Franconia, United States of Europe
"Gentlemen, if there are no more questions of our host, we should be letting him get prepared for his service tonight." Marco Garb stood up. The private meeting in the RV parked near the revival site had gone as well as could be imagined. The gathered merchants and industrialists represented a lot of the private wealth in the State of Thuringia-Franconia. And they were satisfied that Fischer would support them in obtaining statehood for the occupied territories, and moving the Swedes aside so the USE could be run by Germans.
Garb and Fischer shook hands with the powerful men Garb had gathered to gain backing for Fischer. As the last important visitor stepped out of the RV, Fischer touched Marco's arm and asked him to remain behind for a moment.
"Herr Garb, I want to thank you for your support of our mission. There's another subject I've been praying over that I need to speak with you about." Fischer folded his hands together and then continued, "Herr Garb, may I have your permission to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage?"
Garb had been expecting this ever since he'd first met Fischer back in Grantville. "You have my enthusiastic support, my son. I can't think of anything that would make me happier than to have my beloved daughter under the protection of such a fine young man.
"Have you planned when you are going to ask her…" He grinned. "Or is this just a postscript to mollify her old man?"
"No, no, I haven't asked her yet. I don't know. Maybe the next time I get back to Grantville."
Marco stood, spreading his arms to welcome Fischer into a hug. "Son, I'll do you one better. I'll ask Constanzia to come and visit us in during the revival in Erfurt. With the military base there, I have a number of interests that I'll need to deal with. We may have you in the family sooner than you thought!"
"Herr Garb!"
Marco was still considering the implications of the betrothal of his daughter to this very powerful young leader, and wasn't paying attention as he walked away from the revival campsite, so he was somewhat startled to hear his name. "Oh, Herr von Lichstedt! I had forgotten you were going on this tour as well."
"I thought it would be a good opportunity to see the progress of the rail construction along this line. Then of course, I heard that you would be making some introductions to our friends." Georg Heinrich Vitzthum von Lichstedt, noble of the county of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, and elder of the Grantville Pentecostal Church, fell into step with Marco Garb. "And did the meeting go as planned?"
"Oh yes, you've judged the situation quite well, Herr von Lichstedt. I believe he will prove to be a very effective asset to our continuing interests."
Garb reached into his pouch and pulled out a small leather bag, heavy with coin, "In fact, here is a little gift I was asked to present to you for your wonderful services. We have many more rewards planned for you as well."
Erfurt, State of Thuringia-Franconia, United States of Europe
Constanzia seemed to be having a wonderful time as Fischer walked with her, seeing the sights of old Erfurt. Now, standing in the green little park filled with trees, swans, and grass next to the Kramerbrucke, between the River Gera's two main channels in the heart of the Innenstadt, he thought he'd found the perfect time and place.
Fischer took both of Constanzia's hands in his and turned her to face him, then dropped to one knee. The look in Constanzia's eyes changed from curiosity, to astonishment, to wonder, then finally to pure joy as she realized what was about to happen.
"Constanzia, my beloved," Fischer began, "You have become the salt in my life. Before you, I was a hollow man, unable to feel the joy around me. I can't imagine ever losing you again."
Tears swelled up in Constanzia's eyes, and began to flow down her cheeks and into the dimples formed by her broad smile as Fischer asked, "Constanzia, will you marry me?"
Constanzia dropped to her knees and embraced her fiancee in her arms as she kissed him. They both understood her reply, although they never quite found time for the words.
Marc Kronzburg took his seat to the side of the front row at the revival site. He had felt uneasy all day as he conducted his business for the Voice of America around Erfurt. It was nothing he could put a finger on. But, since the Jews had been banned here in 1458, he still felt that he was being watched, even though-technically-that ban had been lifted with the coming of the USE.
In fact, unless there were still some secret Jews undercover, he didn't know a single Jewish family that had tried to move here.
Maybe it's just the ammonia smell. The long, tentacle shaped plaza on the southeastern corner of Erfurt called the Anger may have been a village green at some time as its name implied, but was better known as a wholesale market for blue dye made from woad, a flowering plant that was fermented in men's urine, dried on rooftops, and ground into a powder. Erfurt's woad business continued to be very good.
Looking around at the crowd filing in to take their places before the revival began made Marc even more anxious. Maybe it was just instinct. Ever since that episode at his cousins' bank, Marc was always aware of how to get out of any strange location he found himself in. Here, with the hill behind him rapidly filling with pilgrims hoping to be healed by Der Fischer and the stage in front of him backed up to a medieval stone wall, Marc was feeling very vulnerable as he waited for the service to begin.
For sure, he thought, this is not fun.
Fischer sat in his RV going over the final corrections to his sermon. He wondered how John Chalker could always know the perfect thing to lead him to at the right time. This up-time speech was just the latest instance. Fischer had no personal opinion of the St. Andrews Cross flag that the USE had adopted. However, he continually heard comments opposing it. They seemed to be grouped around two points of view.
First, some up-timers just didn't like having to fly a flag that looked like the old American rebel battle flag. They just hated the resemblance to the red background color and the stars on the cross itself. Then, there were the down-timers who resented the Swedish crown that was superimposed over the cross. They thought that the Swedes had been in their country too long. Just like any other people who had supposed allies in their land helping them, they felt the Swedes had outstayed their welcome. They wanted them out.
The last point of view tended to go along with other groups in the Germanies who didn't mind having the Swede for their emperor, but didn't understand why he was trying to force Saxony and Brandenburg into the USE against their will. It seemed to them that if other German principalities didn't want to join, that was their business. It wasn't like they were threatening to throw armies against the USE.
While the up-timers seemed uneasy about an emperor heading up their government as a matter of principle, Captain Gars had been a good ally and was generally respected by almost all of them. After all, the real power lay in the hands of the elected parliament that their man Mike was running with an iron fist.
Tonight, Fischer would address the issue of peace. This was also to be his first step in supporting his soon to be father-in-law and his friends. They could use this speech-it was coming to seem more of a speech than a sermon-being broadcast over the radio to set up an issue they could campaign around for the upcoming federal elections.
What Fischer didn't want to do was upset John Grover any further. He had reworked any remark that might have appeared to be critical of the emperor himself, rather than the political disagreement over whether the federal election should include or be followed by a reelection for the office of emperor itself. Surely, John will see that difference
Checking one last time on the handiwork of the two locals he had hired for this job, Terrell went back to his equipment and put on his headset. He had set up a three mike array to cover this revival. One hanging over the lip of the canvas dome in front of the choir, one by the band, and the last one hanging off a boom he had built so his crew could swing it around the front of the altar to keep it close to Reverend Fischer. The wire for this one was wrapped around a spool so Fischer could pull it out when he needed to, and his crew could roll it back up to get it out of the way if necessary.
"Got you four by four, Art. Over." Terrell released the switch on the relay in his broadcast booth set up on top of the wall overlooking the stage below him. Hitting it again, he added, " Art, I want to apologize again for being way out of line back in Grantville. I had no business to say what I said. Over. "
" Don't worry about it, Terrell. I had my say with Roy Copenhaver and Fischer, and we've got that behind us. I guess I overreacted too. Your church is nothing like the ones I used to go to. Let's just get this job done and move on. Over? Out!"
Colonel David Leslie was uncomfortable without his armor. I've been on the front too long, he thought. Big crowds don't automatically mean danger.
He heard his name called out down below. Scanning the crowd, he spotted a man waving his student's cap over his head and calling to get his attention. As he worked his way forward, he recognized the group.
Grinning, he propped his fists on his waist and commented, "Well, gentlemen, don't you look fine in your long robes and caps?"
The group had been cavalrymen under his command during the war. Now, having mustered out, they were pursuing their civilian goals.
"Yes, sir! We've enrolled here at the university. We have space, would you like to join us, Colonel?"
"I'd be honored, gentlemen." Leslie sat and took stock of the situation surrounding him. His former cavalrymen had picked a spot on the edge of the crowd, stage right as theater people referred to it, not quite in the front, but closer to it than the middle. Before him was the old curtain wall and a canvas quarter dome covering the stage. I audience continue to stream in. There were a number of small groups of students, dressed like his former troopers, but mostly the rest were old people and young women and children. What one would expect at a supposed religious meeting.
Then he spotted the group gathering a little higher up the side of Petersburg Hill, just opposite where he sat. Pilgrims they didn't seem to be, unless you counted the Crusaders of old. There was something about how they kept space open in their midst, as if they were expecting to have more join their ranks after sunset. They would bear watching.
Looking at the stage once more, he thought, It's not the ground I would have picked for my position. But, we're not at war any more. So they say.
Fischer smiled as the choir clapped and jumped to their hymn's big ending. This had been a wonderful stop on the way of the revival. There were still a few standing in line to be healed, and many more were preparing to come to the altar to accept their own personal Holy Spirit. The torches posted along the center aisle to mark it so it could be kept open were working very well. The music was as good as he'd ever heard it, and this dome of Slater's seemed to focus and magnify the sound on the stage and push it out to a much larger area.
Now, before the radio hour ended, was the time to speak about peace as he'd promised Herr Garb. Just this one last pilgrim looking to be healed, and he could begin.
"Sister, I still feel a little of the Power of the Holy Spirit within me. Would you come up and shed your burdens?"
As the older woman took the stage, Fischer reached out with his right hand to help her negotiate the stairs. As she turned to stand by Fischer, switching his microphone to his other hand, he wrapped his left arm around her shoulders and said, "Sister, what burden do you want to lay down tonight?"
As the crowd quieted down, she answered, "Pastor, the American doctor says I have the crab. Cancer, he calls it. All my family is dead and there's no one to take care of my child when I'm gone. Surely, the Lord wouldn't want it that way!"
Fischer made his best sympathetic face and squeezed her shoulders. He then asked his usual follow up question, "No, Sister. I don't believe that He would. What happened to your family?"
"It was the Swede, God damn his minions to hell!" Tears started to stream down from her eyes as if a damn had burst, and she continued to blurt out her story. "We were a good Lutheran family. When men from the Swedish army came to our village after Breitenfeld, waving their flag, my husband was the mayor, in charge of the village stores. He offered to furnish them all the supplies the village could spare, but they wanted them all. They killed him, then raped and killed and took everything."
Fischer knew he had a problem. As his mind raced with how to deal with it so John Grover wouldn't think he'd broken his word, he heard the shouting begin in the back of the crowd. It was already too late.
"Liar!"
"God save the emperor!"
"Kill this hate mongering devil!"
A large group of men started to rush the stage, some holding battle axes, some grabbing torches along the way. The rest of the congregation started to scream and most tried to get out of the way, but some decided to block the group's path to the altar and their leader. When they stood facing the advancing group of armed men, they raised their right arms over their heads to summon the power of the Holy Spirit to protect them.
The woman called out at the top of her lungs. "In Camburg, that was. In Camburg."
Leslie had expected something to happen from the time the woman had opened her mouth, but he hadn't expected this. He pulled his saber from it's sheath, and turned to his group of cavalrymen/students. "Are you ready for the fight, my laddies?"
Not so remarkably considering how recently they had been under arms, all the men reached under their gowns and pulled out knives or short swords or some kind of defensive armament. They jumped in behind him as he forced his way between the stage and the other group fighting their way through the mob to the preacher and the old woman standing there.
Marc Kronzburg couldn't figure out what to do. The crowd here at the front of the congregation had nowhere to flee. Neither did the choir or the rest of the people up on the stage. The stage was set up to enhance the sound reflection properties of the old curtain wall; Slater and his roadies hadn't considered giving them an escape route from a situation like this.
But with the crowd pushing, Marc had no other option than to go along with the force of the bodies around him and go up to the stage himself. Suddenly, he heard a particularly high-pitched scream and the panic of the crowd intensified. He looked back.
The armed gang reached the men trying to block their way. One of the attackers swung his battle axe and lopped off the head of one of the pilgrims. Marc could just spot it as it disappeared into the mob. The rest of the men who had tried to hold the aisle open turned and ran, joining the rest of the mob that had no place to go.
Constanzia backed up. When the melee first started, she had worried about how Dieter would make it out unharmed. Now, as she was pushed and shoved along with the mob surrounding her, she was worrying about her own safety. Especially since there was nowhere to go and she was now standing in the middle of the aisle directly between these armed madmen and their objective.
The mob on one side of her parted and she stood face to face with one of those insane men coming after her Dieter. She couldn't move, even though she saw him raise his sword and prepare to deal her a life-ending blow.
As he began his downswing, seemingly in slow motion, a saber appeared and intercepted it.
Someone-Mark Kronzburg, from Grantville-grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side.
"Pick on someone your own size, laddie!" Colonel David Leslie shouted as he blocked the fatal blow.
He ran his steel down along the sword of the other and flicked it out of his stunned opponent's hand. He then thrust its point right into the exposed belly of the assailant.
By this time, the rest of his men were engaging others of this fellow's compatriots. With their years of training working as a unit, they were making equally swift work of them as well. However, there weren't enough of his men to totally block his opposition's advance as they continued to press forward.
Terrell could not believe what he was seeing, all the blood and screaming and fighting all through the congregation below him. It was a testament to his military training that he remembered to order his crew to pull the microphones up and out of danger. He then grabbed several ropes they had used in setting up, and tied them to hard points along the top of the wall, before throwing them down for the band and choir members to scramble up to safety.
Seeing no other way to contribute to what was happening below, he switched his microphone on and began.
" This is an emergency! Send troops to the site of the Erfurt Revival encampment immediately! A group of armed men are attacking and killing people in the crowd.
"I repeat, emergency! They just chopped someone's head off down below."
He continued to call out his descriptions of the carnage below him, play by play, with tears streaming down his face. It was the first live combat reporting the down-timers had ever heard.
Fischer felt the arms tugging him away from the edge of the altar where he had stood transfixed at the violence forcing it's way toward him. The woman whose plea for help had started it all had long since abandoned her position at his side.
Funny. Usually, this would be a good time for the Other to show up to protect me. I wonder where he went?
Adding to the surrealism of the scene around him, it was Marc Kronzburg, the Jewish radio-advertising salesman, who was pulling his arm. Marc was also pulling on Constanzia.
"Herr Fischer," Marc screamed. "You must get to safety! There are ropes back here so you can climb."
"Marc! Thank you, my friend. You'd better take care of yourself. The Holy Spirit is watching over me on this day." Fischer looked back at the gang now making its way to the base of the altar.
He raised his right arm, bowed his head, and began to pray. He continued until he felt the blow to the side of his head.
It was the screams that woke him. Fischer regained consciousness, and saw the blood and the fire and fog around him, and steel grey skies above. Somewhere off in the distance, he heard the sounds of combat. A man stood before him, dressed in a white suit. It looked like the picture of that man in the book he had just read, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
The man looked down at Fischer and began to speak. "Dieter Fischer, a God who let us prove his existence would be an idol."
He pointed toward the fog. "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."
Fischer saw ten sailing ships appear out of the fog. As they reached the shore, soldiers stormed ashore followed by one man dressed like a king. This man grew larger and larger as the voice continued, "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast."
A spear hit the giant, but instead of blood, out of the wound poured six other heads all the same as his first. Fischer saw the giant grab a woman who appeared in front of him and stake her to a crucifix. As her blood poured out over her dress, the giant picked the cross out of the ground and the woman disappeared leaving her dress hanging from the four corners of the cross. All this time the apparition continued to quote from what Fischer now recognized as the Book of Revelations, Chapter 13, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
Fischer was amazed at what he saw. He finally recognized the beast that was holding the bloody red flag with a St. Andrews cross in its claws, just in time to see it take the crown off of one of its heads and mount it in the center of the flag.
The Beast of Revelations was Gustavus II Adophus, the king of Sweden and emperor of the United States of Europe! He had died in the original timeline, but with the Ring of Fire, he had been given life again. His deadly wound was healed and now he stood poised to command the entire world.
Fischer looked back to see the apparition of Bonhoeffer fading away. As he lost consciousness again, the last words he gasped, "God damn the Swedes!"
Industrial Alchemy, Part 1: The New Philosopher's Stone
Written by Iver P. Cooper
In alchemical thought, the Philosopher's Stone is a fantastical artifact which is capable of transmuting base metals into gold. The new Philosopher's Stone is not an artifact, but knowledge-the teachings of twentieth century chemistry as transmitted by the up-timers and their books-and while it can't change one element into another, it can and will change how the down-timers think about the world they live in.
About three thousand up-timers were thrown into the seventeenth century by the Ring of Fire. Of those, perhaps a score have significant college training in chemistry, and of course there are many more who have recently taken a high school chemistry course.
That said, there are thousands of chemicals which we would like to make. The knowledgeable up-timers can't do it all themselves. It is essential that they train new chemists from the vast population of down-timers.
Some of those trainees will be youngsters, and others will be experienced alchemists. The down-time alchemists have a lot of practical knowledge which is still of value. They are familiar with the gross chemical and physical properties of many substances, although the purity of the substances in question is debatable. They have carried out some of the basic manipulations of the chemical laboratory, such as melting, dissolving, crystallizing, filtering and distilling chemicals.
The down-time alchemists are going to be getting a crash course in modern chemistry. Some of the alchemists will become wholesale converts to modern chemistry. Others will treat it more as the Aristotelians did the Copernican cosmology; as a convenient fiction.
Modern science, including chemistry, will also be seeping into the general curriculum. Perhaps some of the students will aspire to become chemists. (The man who is sometimes called the Father of Chemistry-Robert Boyle-was four years old when Grantville was hurled into 1631 Thuringia.)
Chemical Resources in Grantville
In Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, Corporal Calvin Morrison becomes the eponymous Lord Kalvan because he happens to know the recipe for gunpowder, a combustible mixture of charcoal, saltpeter and sulfur. This is proof that every time traveler should know some chemistry!
The time travelers of the 1632verse know quite a bit of chemistry, actually. There are six up-timers with a bachelor's degree in chemistry: Allan Dailey (b. 1964), Greg Ferrara (1970), Thomas "Tom Stoner" Stone (1950s)(also has M.A. Pharmacy and doctoral course work), Alexandra (Lilburn) Selluci (1943), Walter Miller (1927-1636), and Dominic Genucci (1977 graduate course work). It is a safe bet that they have kept their chemistry textbooks from college. Each probably also has an edition of the "CRC" and perhaps additional chemistry books.
Christie (Kemp) Penzey has a degree in geology. She teaches chemistry, and is the "technical adviser" for the Kubiak experiments on recreating baking powder (Offord, "The Doctor Gribbleflotz Chronicles, Part 1: Calling Dr. Phil", Grantville Gazette 10).
Nine more up-timers have degrees in pharmacy, and Jerry Trainer's degree is in chemical engineering.
Several more up-timers do not have a college degree, but are getting advanced training in chemistry: Amy Kubiak, Tonya Daoud, Tyler Beckworth, Sam Reed, Mark Dalton Higgins, Lewis Philip Bartolli, Mary Lou (Cantrell) Snell and Kerry Burdette Douglas are laboratory technicians.
The high school in Grantville is modeled on North Marion High School (Farmington, WV). It offers a surprisingly wide range of science courses. Grades 9 and 10 receive an integrated science course ("CATS") that is apparently a continuation of a program begun in Grade 7. Eleventh and twelfth graders can take Advanced Environmental Earth Science, Advanced Chemistry, Advanced Placement Chemistry, Advanced Placement Earth Science, Earth and Sky (a college level class), Microbiology and even Forensics ("topics include ballistics, fingerprinting, and the analysis of inorganic and organic compounds"). Lewis Bartolli's knowledge of forensic science (see my stories "Under the Tuscan Son," Grantville Gazette 9 and "Arsenic and Old Italians," Grantville Gazette 22) is based on more than just reading detective stories!
What we need most is information on descriptive inorganic chemistry, and this subject tends to get short shrift in modern general chemistry and inorganic chemistry courses. Fairmont State presently uses the fourth edition of Brady, Chemistry: The Study of Matter, and I think there is a good chance of finding the third edition (1988) in Grantville. As for more advanced texts, I am sure that there is at least a copy of Cotton and Wilkinson, Advanced Inorganic Chemistry (CW); I used the third edition at MIT. (A JCE review of the sixth edition called it "the most popular inorganic chemistry textbook ever published"). I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the high school has the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science amp; Technology (4th ed., 1977; 15 vols.).
As for equipment, as I said in my aluminum article (Gazette 8), the power plant has a "Metallurgist XR," which is a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrophotometer specifically designed for alloy analysis. (Boyes) And, even more surprisingly, the high school has a $300,000 atomic absorption spectrophotometer given to them in October 1997 by LaFarge Corp.
Prominent Alchemists
I referred to "industrial alchemy" rather "industrial chemistry" as a gentle reminder that for every up-time chemist, there are hundreds of down-time alchemists.
We can expect visits (and perhaps citizenship applications) from the prominent alchemists of early seventeenth century Europe.
Michael Sendivogius (1566-1636) did pioneering research on the composition of air, discovering that it was a mixture of substances, including one (now called oxygen) that supports life. His patrons are the Polish Vasas. Of course, they are more interested in his claim to be able to transmute mercury into gold.
Cornelius Drebbel (1572-1633) (died in OTL shortly after the RoF, but this could be butterflied) is perhaps best known for his submarine, but he invented a thermostat and the dye known as "color Kufflerianus."
Arthur Dee (1579-1651)(the physician to Michael I of Russia) wrote Fasciculus chemicus (1630), a compendium of alchemical bon mots.
Jan Baptist van Helmont (1580-1644) was an early contributor to the development of the law of conservation of mass. He appears as a character in Mackey, "Ounces of Prevention" (Grantville Gazette 5).
Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604-1670) was the first to produce hydrochloric acid and sodium sulfate. In OTL 1648 he developed a major method of manufacturing sulfuric acid. In NTL, he developed the potassium chlorate-based percussion caps for the French "Cardinal" rifles (1634: The Baltic War, Chapter 27).
Several other notable alchemists were born before the Ring of Fire, but were young enough when it occurred that they may be "butterflied" into a different line of work: Elias Ashmole (1617-1684), Robert Boyle (1627-1691)(the "Father of Modern Chemistry"), George Starkey (1628-1665) and Hennig Brand (1630-1670).
Commodity and Specialty Chemicals
A commodity chemical is one that is produced in great quantity, whereas a specialty chemical has a more limited market.
Judging from Posthumus' studies of commodity exchange prices in the Netherlands, the inorganic chemical commodities in 1630s Europe included the elements iron, tin, lead, gold, silver, copper, mercury and sulfur; the alloys steel, brass, and spelter (a zinc); the compounds common salt (sodium chloride), copperas (ferrous sulfate), potash (potassium carbonate), white potash (potassium chloride), soda (sodium carbonate), saltpeter (potassium nitrate), alum (potassium aluminum sulfate), and borax (sodium borate); and gunpowder (a mixture of sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal).
Changes in Demand
The arrival of Grantville will change the chemical marketplace. Some chemicals will be demanded because of their value as end-products, others, for use as starting materials or reagents.
The principal chemicals in the first decade after the RoF will not necessarily be those that are prominent nowadays. In particular, those inorganic chemicals whose principal utility is in making organic chemicals may be disdained until the necessary organic raw materials are isolated in reasonable quantities.
That said, it is worth using late-twentieth century compilations as a starting point. The top inorganic chemicals in the late-twentieth century are listed in Table 1-1. Most, if not all, of those compounds are going to be important in the first decade after RoF, too. (I am a bit uncertain about titanium dioxide, since titanium ores have never been mined by the down-timers.)
Inorganic Chemicals in Canon
The following inorganic chemicals are known to be in canon. The years given are those of their "canon appearance"; they may in fact have been made earlier (unless canon actually says "this is a first"). The chemicals marked with* were actually known to down-timers before RoF. Further details appear in later parts of this article.
1631-32: sulfuric acid*, nitric acid*, sodium bicarbonate,
1633: zinc sulfide* (sphalerite), natural cryolite (sodium aluminum fluoride), mercury fulminate, ammonia*, calcium hypochlorite, ammonium nitrate, [and by implication, chlorine, chlorosulfonic acid, hydrochloric acid*, calcium hydroxide]
1634: sodium hydroxide*, chromium ore (chromite), potassium chlorate, boric acid, borax*, hydrogen, graphite*
1635: calcium carbide
1636: synthetic cryolite, hydrogen fluoride
Infrastructure Problems
A twentieth-century chemist can buy, off the shelf, pure chemicals, borosilicate laboratory glassware, and accurate measuring equipment (thermometers, pH meters, analytical balances, etc.) The life of the "industrial alchemist" is going to be more difficult.
Mackey, "Ounces of Prevention" (Grantville Gazette 5) illustrates this by reference to the ring nitration step in chloramphenicol synthesis, which must be performed at near-freezing temperatures. Von Helmont complains he needs very pure sulfuric and nitric acids, and that the Essen Instrument Company has a six month backlog of orders for precision mercury thermometers.
There are further requirements for industrial-scale production. You need stainless steel, rather than glass, to handle large quantities of reactants, especially if they are being handled under high temperatures and pressures. (Flint, 1633, Chapter 26). Chromium is a key ingredient in stainless steel, and that is why Josh Modi goes to Paris in August 1633… to persuade Richelieu to permit an expedition to Maryland to mine chromite. (Modi's patron, De Geer, had apparently learned of that part of the terms of the then-secret Treaty of Ostend). Mackey, "The Essen Chronicles, Part Three: A Trip to Paris," Grantville Gazette 9.
The reactions which I expect will be the most difficult to duplicate early in the new time line are those which require special conditions (high or low pressure, unusual catalysts, or even high or low temperatures) or which are very finicky in their requirements for pure solvents and reagents. Unfortunately, modern industrial chemistry, especially organic chemistry, places great reliance on exotic catalysts.
Qualitative Analysis
Qualitative analysis answers the question, "Is it present?" There is a reasonable chance that at least one up-time chemist took a qualitative analysis course and has the textbook for it. If so, then it will be possible to determine the presence or absence of many common ions (electrically charged chemicals). Even without it, there is quite a bit of useful information in the encyclopedias, general chemistry textbooks, and the CRC.
Dry Analysis. In the flame test, the sample solution is dried on a wooden splint, or a platinum or nichrome wire, and waved through an "invisible" flame. The heat excites electrons in metal ions. The electrons eventually release energy, and for some ions, this happens in steps which correspond to one of the colors of visible light. For example, sodium is blue; boron is green, and calcium is red. Note that different ions can produce the same flame color, so this test is far from definitive.
In the borax bead test, a bead of borax, held on a platinum wire, is dipped in the sample, and then heated in the lower, reduction zone of the flame, and allowed to cool. You then heat it in the upper, oxidation zone, and let it cool. You observe its colors, hot and cold, and oxidized and reduced. The combination is indicative of which metal is present.
The sample may also be placed on a piece of charcoal, and a blowpipe used to control the flame.
Wet Analysis. The principal qualitative analysis methods exploit differences in reactivity and solubility. The method described in EB11/Chemistry) divides the metals into six groups; further reactions are needed to identify a particular ion within a group.
See also the EB11 entries for the tests specific to individual elements. Maria Vorst alludes to the cobalt nitrate test for aluminum in Cooper, "Stretching Out, Part 3: Maria's Mission" (Grantville Gazette 14), and Lewis Bartolli to the turmeric test for boric acid in Cooper, "Under the Tuscan Son" (Grantville Gazette 9).
Quantitative Analysis
Quantitative analysis answers the question "how much?" As might be expected, these techniques are more exacting than those of qualitative analysis.
Gravimetric analysis involves converting all of the chemical of interest (and only that chemical) to a precipitate and then weighing it.
Volumetric analysis requires adding, drop by drop ("titration"), a known volume of a standard solution of an analytical reagent that reacts with (and only with), the chemical of interest, until a "signal" evidences that all of the target chemical has reacted. The "signal" can be a color change achieved by an "indicator" chemical, or a change in the electrical characteristics of the solution.
The concentration of a compound in pure solution can be determined by measuring the degree to which it rotates the plane of polarization of linearly polarized light of a particular wavelength passing through the solution. You need to know the specific rotation of the compound (how much it rotates the plane over a unit path length) and the path length through the solution.
Spectroscopic analysis involves causing the chemical to emit or absorb light of various wavelengths (visible, infrared or ultraviolet) and measuring the emission or absorption.
Polarography requires measuring the change in the current through an electrochemical cell (see Electrochemistry) containing the solution of interest, as the voltage is varied.
Natural Sources of Inorganic Chemicals
Why synthesize a compound if you can isolate it from nature? Many useful compounds occur as minerals in rocks. Minerals are mostly ionic compounds (made of positively and negatively charged ions), and are often classified on the basis of the component anion. The most common classes of minerals are, in descending order of abundance: silicates carbonates/nitrates/borates sulfates/chromates halides oxides/hydroxides sulfides phosphates/arsenates/vanadates/antimonates/molybdates/tungstates native elements organic minerals.
("Minerals," Wikipedia).
Oxides and hydroxides can be found pretty much anywhere, in rocks which would have been exposed to weathering. Silicates are also widely distributed. Sulfides are usually found in volcanic regions, in so-called hydrothermal deposits. Halides, carbonates, sulfates, nitrates and borates are more likely to be in desert regions, as they are formed in water and precipitated as the water evaporates. Phosphates are derived from the skeletons of marine life, and thus are found in former seabeds.
Other important sources of inorganic compounds are seawater, subterranean brines, natural gas (the main source of helium), air and plants.
Chemical Reactions 101
There are only so many chemicals which can be found in nature; the rest must be synthesized. The ideal process is the one-step reaction. However, it may be desirable to take a more circuitous path in order to use a more available, cheaper or less dangerous starting material, or to produce a byproduct which is easier to dispose of or even salable in its own right. Other considerations are minimizing the need for special equipment (e.g., high pressure reactors), reducing energy requirements, and increasing production rate.
A reaction may seem good on its face but be impractical because the reactants are too expensive to obtain. For example, aluminum will react with iron oxide to produce aluminum oxide and pure iron, but the cost of the aluminum is greater than the value of the iron. (Kotz