The Graduate Student's Monumental Discovery
In truth, the volcano didn't bring only negative effects to France.
"The sulfur quality is exceptionally high."
Volcanic research, the ultimate compilation of minerals, had a profoundly positive impact on France's inorganic chemistry studies.
"What about the pumice research?"
Geology professor Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond used collected pumice samples to estimate the sulfur emissions and eruption scale of Grímsvötn volcano.
"We'll need to rent a fishing boat."
Moreover, the pumice research yielded immediately applicable results.
Research Note: Pumice Analysis
This pumice is an excellent pozzolan, a hydraulic mixture.
Ideal for concrete mixes in mainland levee construction—will produce highly waterproof concrete.
Plan to collect pumice by netting along the Icelandic coastline.
Requires recovery cargo ship.
Saint-Fond proposed using the pumice just like pozzolan—a waterproof, fire-resistant material that doesn't harden with water alone but reacts during concrete curing.
France's mainland was currently building levees to prepare for the impending volcanic winter, so any material with superior fire and water resistance was welcome.
"Sulfur, huh. Sulfur..."
Other researchers besides Saint-Fond produced brilliant results as well.
"I've roughly figured out the high-pressure steam engine structure. This could power carriages."
Research Note: Steam Power
Practicality of steam power confirmed.
Request permission for power tests using steam engines upon return to the homeland.
Mechanical engineering professor Claude Perrier linked existing colliery drainage pump structures to establish a theoretical foundation for steam power.
"Good thing Assistant Professor Scheele isn't here. The sulfur concentration is insanely high."
Chemistry master's student Berthollet synthesized various compounds. He confirmed new solutions formed by mixing existing compounds with high-purity sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid solutions.
Calcium fluoride, excellent for micro-glass etching; hydrofluoric acid, the culprit behind this disaster; "This... is it a sediment?"
But the most practical discovery among them was none other than ammonium sulfate.
"Not sediment—looks like a salt compound. Right. This'll make a great doctoral thesis."
He sent the synthesized Icelandic compounds via regular mail for analysis at the Academy.
"Doctoral thesis, huh. With these results, they'd have granted you the doctorate without one."
Lavoisier at the Paris Academy tested the compounds synthesized in Iceland.
"Fluorine acid and sulfur purity are outstanding. No wonder the English dropped 30,000 dead. No worries about complex compound supplies during volcanic activity. This too is His Majesty's grace—no, his power."
Lavoisier verified the purity of known compounds, then identified a new one.
"Neutral salt from sulfuric acid and volatile alkali? Scheele mustn't see this."
"Who mustn't see it?"
Academy chemistry assistant professor Scheele overheard Lavoisier's mutter and tasted the ammonium sulfate salt.
"Eating that again? I'll bet my Academy pension you die before fifty."
"Aren't you curious? Hmm. Salty and bitter. No good as a condiment."
A minor incident occurred, but the Academy's research continued regardless.
"One sulfur, two nitrogens, four oxygens, eight hydrogens. Complex stuff."
He confirmed it was a new substance and pondered its uses.
Pondering and pondering, he eventually forgot.
"Oh right! Neutral salt!"
When Lavoisier recalled ammonium sulfate, three weeks had already passed.
"Didn't see the white grains on experiment table 16? Left them on a bronze plate."
"Oh, that? You didn't touch it for two weeks, so I thought it was trash and threw it out. Probably last Sunday."
The servant had mistaken the long-abandoned ammonium sulfate for dust or spilled residue and cleaned it away.
"Disaster. No face to show Berthollet."
Lavoisier frantically searched for the ammonium sulfate, but it had long been discarded. No salt crystals remained in the trash heap.
Instead, there was only a lush field of weeds, thriving even in midwinter.
"Damn. Just weeds everywhere. In midwinter, no less... Huh?"
Through this chance discovery, Lavoisier repackaged the ammonium sulfate disposal as a 'fertilizer trial.'
Research Directive: Neutral Salt Fertilizer Trial
Test the fertilizer properties of the neutral salt—send as much as possible.
It was a face-saving report to dodge responsibility for negligence, but it turned out to be correct.
"You're really going to spread it?"
"Everyone knows volcanic ash has fertilizer properties. Who knew this was its essence? Spread it on the experimental vegetable patch for now."
Lavoisier planted spring wheat in soil depleted to sand levels—mostly potato field soil.
The effect was dramatic.
"Straight use acidifies the soil. Must pair with lime for best results."
Wheat from ammonium sulfate alone grew sturdy despite slight root damage, while wheat from ammonium sulfate and slaked lime together had intact roots and robust yields.
"Guess I'll call him Doctor Berthollet from now on."
The birth of nitrogen fertilizer.
*
September 1785, Versailles Palace State Council chamber.
Inorganic fertilizer has been developed, they say.
"The discoverer who first synthesized this substance, Claude-Louis Berthollet, named it 'sulfate d'ammoniaque'—composed of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur."
Called sulfate of alkali, it was unmistakably nitrogen fertilizer to anyone who saw it.
"Ingredients?"
"Sulfuric acid and volatile alkali. Synthesized in Iceland, but no need to go there."
"Not those—the mass-production materials."
I don't know much about farming, but I know nitrogen fertilizers are still used today. This alone should end food worries for good.
"Searching now. Sulfuric acid via lead chamber process, but sourcing bulk volatile alkali is the challenge."
More limitations than expected.
"Put a bounty on the Academy. 0.1% share of net profits from sulfate of ammoniaque fertilizer sales for 30 years to whoever develops a better sulfuric acid method than lead chamber or mass-produces volatile alkali."
Skimp on R&D funding, and even good ideas fail. Better splash cash generously.
"Insufficient?"
"More than enough."
"Looks insufficient. Add one million francs on top of the 0.1% net profit share."
This should do it.
"Naturally, this sulfate of ammoniaque is a strategic material. Fertilizer monopolized by the crown; formula leaks punishable by death. Related research and formula access restricted to security clearance level 2 or higher scientists."
*
Louis XVI's Academy policies delivered minor shocks to the Academy and major ones to Europe.
"Good day. Royal Secretariat here. Security clearance levels will now be assigned to you all. Academy enrollment grants level 5; graduate students get level 4; regular professors level 3. Level 2 is limited to department heads or professors from other faculties handling state secrets. For example, Doctor Berthollet gets Academy level 3 and Chemistry Department level 2. Level 1 is for the director—ignore it."
The Academy had been designated a national critical facility.
"No change to your routines. Just soldiers on guard, occasional intelligence agents wandering, and a few escorts for high-level researchers."
As a national critical facility, the Academy was guarded by the military by day and National Intelligence Agency by night—effectively blocking foreign spies.
"Hello. We know each other, right? Saw you at the voting rights exam two years ago... Remember?"
'Thieves' who had infiltrated the Academy until now began getting rounded up by French National Intelligence.
Of course, it was disguised as natural withdrawals.
"Two master's students vanishing overnight. These young folks..."
As the French Academy became 'pure,' foreign nations subtly criticized France.
"Suppressing international students hinders all of Europe's progress!"
The criticism fell on deaf ears, naturally.
"If assigning homework is suppression, then primary school teachers oppress kids by teaching them to read."
On paper, they had withdrawn voluntarily.
But France hadn't turned the Academy into a completely closed institute. Routine research papers were published as usual; only studies like ammonium sulfate, directly tied to French interests, were controlled.
Level 3 clearance was practically unrestricted.
"Watt! France is right on our heels! We need steamships!"
"River ironclads. Definitely river ironclads!"
However, because of level 2+ clearance research, European nations had no choice but to misunderstand.
"We must steal it. No, that's gambling. Watt! I don't know what's missing, but we have no time left! Build a steam engine powerful enough to go upriver!"
European nations—mainly Britain—grew anxious over France's unknown 'technical secrets' and poured resources into their own tech.
Of course, France researched entirely different tech from what they imagined.
"Your Majesty. Assistant Professor Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, who joined the Iceland research team, succeeded in mass-synthesizing sulfate of ammoniaque fertilizer using Lorraine steel mill wastewater."
While European nations flailed at shadows in terror, France quietly produced entirely unanticipated results.
"France made a new fertilizer? Fine, as long as it's not steam engines."
Thus, European nations remained indifferent to France's true 'technical secret.'
Because fertilizer wasn't the 'dangerous technology' they'd feared.