CHAPTER 35 - Diethyl Ether (p2)
Early August 1538, Royal Palace, Dharanikota.
"Now Gentlemen, and my lady. Witness the magic of chemistry. " The king said, as he pointed his hands to Guna, the assistant alchemist, who started the first step of the process.
The three ministers who had visited the facility, Montra, from trade, Selvappan, from infrastructure, and Hemadri from health, were eager to know what this results in. They were invited there by the king and were told that Ether was being made, but they did not know what its uses were.
Following the instructions given by Rudra, Guna started adding the alcohol to the round bottom flask. After that, Rudra poured the acid into the reaction vessel. A drop of it fell off on the wooden table and it started to fume.
"Vasekar, What is he doing? All of this seems dangerous. If he dies, we do not even have an heir. Another civil war will break out." Selvappan whispered to the king's assistant, but it was loud enough to be audible to the other two ministers.
"Do you want to tell him that, Mr. Selvappan? I think not. I like my job security just as much as you do." Vasekar answered and then ignored the baffled minister.
"SHHH!" Montra hissed at him for speaking out of turn.
"Now guys. We added two of the ingredients to the vessel. I don't have access to a proper burner, unfortunately, So I using this oil bath as a heater. For the formation of Ether, we just need to heat the solution to more than 140C, but less than 160C. Reaching above it will cause ethylene to form, and we don't want that now." The King continued explaining.
The trio did not know why was the king even bothering to explain it to them. It was not like they understood what was happening. Whatever it was, Rudra made it look easy.
"There, the heat is perfect now. Just entering the 140s. See the scale on the thermometer? It indicates the temperature. For reference, water boils at 100C on the scale. I used the boiling points of water, oil, and other things to calibrate the thermometer. " as the scale said, the reading on the meter was 142C. The liquid mixture was boiling, and fumes started to escape into the condenser.
"See those fumes, Those are fumes of ether, and they condense back into liquid after passing through the condenser, in this collection vessel. See that bucket of water? It is being pumped through that pipe around the condenser to cool the vapors." Guna sucked on the pipe, to pump the water initially, but the pressure difference takes care of that after the start.
After the fumes passed through the condenser, They turned back into liquid, and a steady drip of ether started gathering into the collection vessel. To compensate for the lost alcohol, Rudra started adding similar amounts of alcohol into the reaction vessel.
"See the liquid that is gathering there? That is what we are all here for. That, my citizen, is the ether." Rudra explained to them, as he carefully performed the experiment.
"So, is it d..done, Your Majesty? What does t…this 'Ether' do?" Hemadri asked, eager to know the supposed surgery drug.
"What? Not yet. I need to show you guys how to clean it with washing soda and salt solution, then Calcium Chloride. Then I need to explain to you how to store it, etc, etc. You are going to be here all day." Rudra said with a serious tone.
'All day with this?' the trio thought and dreaded it. The King explained it like simple stuff, but they only understood bits and pieces of it.
The king could observe the changes in their facial expression and he asked. "You all look bored. You are not bored are you?" The question seemed innocent, but they scrambled to correct him.
"NO! Absolutely not! I could watch this all day long!" Selvappan said, and the others also vigorously nodded.
Rudra kept a serious face and looked at each of them. Just when the tension in the air was getting dangerously high, They heard a burst of laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA…!" The king was laughing heartily, and there were light chuckles from the other people in the room. The trio just looked dumbfounded, as they did not understand what was happening.
"I made a wager with my guards and Vasekar here that, you guys will sit through the most boring lecture in the world if it was given by me. " The king explained in between laughter.
The three ministers gave a death glare to Vasekar, who was suddenly checking the cleanliness of the glass equipment and pretending the three were not there.
"It is alright to question stuff, even if I were the one in question. You are employed in Service to the Kingdom, my kingdom. Remember What I told you guys when the council was formed, You are to advise me on stuff. If you guys think I am doing something wasteful, you have the right to question it. " Rudra explained to them, after cooling down from the laughter.
"If you want us to question you, question you we shall. But please, complete the filtrations to this ether, that you said were required." Montra said to the King, in a chastising tone.
"Don't worry guys. Filtration does not take that long. As I said, it only removes the water from the condensate. Besides, I am not that stupid. I have the stuff from the older batch ready." The king informed them, as he took out a small corked bottle, made out of dark stained glass, from under the table.
"So, can you please tell us what does it do, your majesty?" Selvappan asked, and Hemadri mirrored his curiousness.
"Before that, I want to ask our dear doctor a question. I know I already asked you all of this when I visited your hospital the last time, But humor me for now." He asked the doctor, and after receiving an affirmation, " What process do you and your colleagues use in pre-surgery? Do you take any steps to reduce the pain of the patients?"
"Not u…usually, Your Majesty. But I know that some doctors use p…poppy seeds to dampen it. But they are mostly unavailable. For most s.s.surgeries, the patients have to bear the pain. In extreme c.c…cases, we have to knock them out with a s…sudden hit to the head, but it will cause problems." Hemadri explained the usual procedure.
"They are not grown here, Your Majesty. The Kingdom needs to import it if needed, and there is a huge demand in the Sultanates for it, as they smoke it there, and this causes supply problems here." Montra explained the situation of the said item.
"I'm sure that the concussions caused by that head trauma will become issues themselves. How would the Surgeries you do change, if there is a working Anesthetic? How would it be affected if there was a thing which effectively knocks out the patient, stops them from feeling pain, and the patient will wake up without any side effects after the effects of the Drug wears off?" The king inquired the doctor.
Hemadri did not answer for several moments and just stared at the King and the stained glass bottle containing Ether. After composing himself, he answered " If the drug does what you s…say it does, it would be revolutionary. We only do easy and r…relatively small surgeries with the available methods. But if such a thing exists, The growth in the field would be m.m…massive."
"May I once again present you, Ether! One small Dose of this thing can knock anybody out for hours. During this, they will not feel any pain, or even know what is happening to them, and around them!" Rudra bolsterous announced, holding up the glass bottle, full of the said Ether.
" If this is true, we need to test it. Imagine all the lives it could s.s…save. Are there any Side effects we should know about? How should it be used? There is so m.m…much information That is being left out. Please, Your M…Majesty. I need more information!" Hemadri said as he moved ahead to grab the bottle out of Rudra's hands. Suddenly, he was pulled back by a guard, the mute Giant Bashir, who prevented him from approaching the king.
"It's alright Bashir, stand down. All the information about this is detailed in the notebook I wrote, Hemadri. It is not that long, so take it back and read it. You will be the one in charge of animal testing and the human testing that comes after that." Rudra said as he gave Hemadri a notebook, he wrote.
The book contained information about Ether, and anesthetics in general, and the various use cases of it. It also informs the reader about how to use the drug, and the proper dosages required. Rudra wrote the book after he started building the required equipment, for the Ether Experiment.
"Please excuse m.m…me, Your Majesty. I need to leave to prepare for t.t…this. This will be very useful. I need to inform my s..staff about this. We will prepare for the initial verification and the trials if you do not mind." Hemadri said, and promptly left the room carrying the bottle of Ether, and the notebook on how to use it.