"Tian" brand chemical factories were established one after another
MSG is a delicious condiment whose main chemical component is sodium glutamate. The chemical name of glutamic acid is aminoglutaric acid, and its molecular formula is HOCC-CH2CH2CH (NH2)-(COOH)2. It was discovered by German chemist K.H.L. Rittauson in 1866 from gluten. , it is named glutami cacid. Gluten is a protein extracted from flour. In 1728, Italian professor of medicine and chemistry Beccaria (Jacopo Bartolomeo Beccaria, 1682-1766) first extracted gluten from wheat flour, which was called gluten. In fact, our country extracted gluten from flour much earlier than this professor. In 1637 (the 10th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty), Song Yingxing (1587-?) compiled and published the book "Tiangong Kaiwu" in the second volume of the "Paste" section. ” refers to the tiny particles of starch that are “washed” out of gluten by sizing the cloth. "Wash" means putting the flour in a cloth bag, immersing it in water and kneading it. The tiny particles of starch enter the water through the pores between the fibers of the bag, while the larger particles of protein remain in the bag, which is gluten. That said, MSG can be made from gluten extracted from flour.
In 1908, Kikunae Ikeda (1864-1936), a doctor of chemistry at Tokyo Imperial University, extracted 0.2 grams of sodium glutamate from 10 kilograms of kelp and found that it tasted delicious, so he used gluten as a raw material to create Factory produced in Japan, the trade name is "Ajinomoto" (Ajinomoto).
In the early 1920s, Japan's "Aji no Su" was dumped in large quantities on the southeast coast of my country and all over Shanghai. Advertisements for "Aji no Su" were everywhere and the rights and interests were overflowing. Wu Yunchu (1891-1953) thought that this thing is good and the market is booming. Why can't we make it ourselves? ! So I decided to make it myself.
Wu Yunchu, whose original name was Baoyuan, was born in a family of teachers in Jiading, Jiangsu Province. He entered school at the age of 10 and went to the Shanghai Guangfang Dialect Museum in 1906, hoping to work as a translator after graduation. Many wanted him to make a living, drop out of school and go home to work as an English teacher at Jiaqing No. 1 Primary School. Later, I learned that the Shanghai Ordnance Academy was recruiting work-study students, and those with excellent grades would receive scholarships, so I went to apply for the exam and enter the school to major in chemistry. Wu Yunchu studied hard at school and became a top student at the Ordnance Engineering School. After graduating in 1911, he first worked as an intern at the Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau for a year, and later returned to school as a teaching assistant and concurrently worked in a laboratory in Shanghai.
In 1913, Wu Yunchu worked as a chemist at Hanyang Iron Works in Hubei Province. In 1917, he was appointed as the director of the refractory brick factory of Hanyang Iron Works. He also served as the chief of the pharmaceutical (explosives) manufacturing section of Hanyang Arsenal and the Chichang Nitra-Alkali Company. The director of the factory holds three positions at the same time, which can be said to be a successful young man. In 1920, he returned to Shanghai and served as the director of Chichang Cowhide Glue Factory.
It was during this period that he began to develop monosodium glutamate. The research work was carried out in the pavilion room in Shanghai. The so-called pavilion room is a small room in a Shanghai lane house, located in the middle of the stairs at the back of the house. He just relied on a few simple chemical instruments such as an alcohol lamp, a reagent bottle and a few test tubes. Under very simple and difficult conditions, and after more than half a year of hard work, he finally figured out that the umami flavor of "Aji no Su" mainly comes from glutamine. The substance sodium acid.
In the spring of 1921, Wu Yunchu received 5,000 yuan from Zhang Yiyun, the owner of Shanghai Jufengyuan Hotel, and rented a Shikumen house. Wu Yunchu and his wife did it themselves, hiring seven or eight workers to assist in the operation, and started production. , with a daily output of only 16 pounds (1 pound = 0.453 kilograms), it is completely a workshop-style household industry.
Inheriting the popular trade names of saccharin and essence at that time, in order to promote sales, we gave the product a trade name that was similar to "Mi no Su" and was easy to pronounce and remember. The name " "MSG" is the essence of flavor. Since MSG is made of plant protein and is a vegetarian food, it is an excellent condiment for those who believe in Buddhism and eat vegetarian food. The Buddha is in heaven, and rare and delicious food can only be found in heaven, where the chef is the Heavenly Chef. So it was named "Tianchu MSG" and adopted the "Buddha's Hand" trademark.
Zhang Yiyun felt that MSG was highly profitable and the market was promising, so he promptly negotiated with Wu Yunchu to increase capital and expand production. In August 1923, Tianchu MSG Factory was officially established, with capital expanded to 50,000 yuan, divided into 10 shares, among which Wu Yunchu 1 share. Unfortunately, Wu Yunchu was unable to come up with the money at the time. Zhang Yiyun agreed to spend 2,000 yuan as research fees for Wu Yunchu, and another 3,000 yuan as a reward for Zhang Yiyun’s son to learn from Wu Yunchu. The 5,000 yuan was used as shares. gold. At the same time, it was stipulated that Wu Yunchu would be given 1 jiao of the invention rights for every pound of MSG produced in the future. Wu Yunchu served as manager and technician. In the winter, 10 houses on Xinqiao Road were rented as rough-processing factories, and the former Sanbei Tobacco Company site on Caishi Road (today's Shunchang Road) was used as a refining factory and office. The output that year reached 3,000 kilograms, and it won the Invention Award from the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce of the Beiyang Government.
Tianchu MSG factory produces "Tianchu MSG" using wheat flour as raw material. Wheat flour contains 15% protein and 70% starch. Its protein contains more gliadin and glutenin, and these two proteins contain the most glutamic acid, so wheat flour is selected as the raw material. A kneading machine that uses electricity is used to separate the protein and starch contained in flour. Glutamic acid is obtained from protein and hydrolyzed with hydrochloric acid to hydrochloride glutamic acid. Crude glutamic acid can be obtained by neutralizing the crude hydrochloric acid glutamic acid with caustic soda. After dissolving it in boiling water, add activated carbon to remove the color and filter it at high temperature. After the filtrate is cooled, pure glutamic acid will crystallize and separate out. After reacting with table salt, it becomes sodium glutamate.
In the process of producing MSG, starch is the main by-product. Wu Yunchu founded a starch factory in 1926-1927.
"Tianchu MSG" competes fiercely with Japan's "Aji no Su". After the Communist Party of China led the Chinese people to oppose imperialism in the May 30th Movement in Shanghai in 1925, people across the country launched a wave of boycotts of Japanese goods. The sales of "Tianchu MSG" increased day by day, and it became famous among patriotic overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and became a popular product. A hot-selling product, the output increased from 3,000 kilograms in 1923 to 51,000 kilograms in 1928, more than quadrupling in five years. Due to the rapid growth of the domestic MSG business, production development still could not keep up with the market demand. At that time, there was a large amount of inventory of Japanese "Misinosum" in the hands of dealers, and there was no way to sell it. Tianchu MSG Factory sent people to buy it at a bargain price in the market and refit it separately. Tianchu MSG meets the urgent needs of the market.
In order to further protect the sales market of MSG, Tianchu MSG Factory applied for patents from the United Kingdom, the United States, France and other countries from 1926 to 1927, setting a precedent for my country's chemical products to obtain international patents, and participated in the Chicago International Exposition in the United States. And won the award, enjoying the honor of exemption from inspection at home and abroad, and then completed the entry health inspection procedures for food entering these countries. Wu Yunchu thus became the famous "MSG King" at home and abroad.
The main raw materials for MSG production are wheat flour and hydrochloric acid. The flour is supplied domestically, but the hydrochloric acid is completely imported from Japan. Wu Yunchu raised 200,000 yuan in October 1929 to establish Tianyuan Electrochemical Factory Co., Ltd. in Zhoujiaqiao, Changning Road, Shanghai. On November 10, 1930, Tianyuan Electrochemical Factory was built to electrolyze table salt and produce hydrochloric acid (5).
The name of the factory "Tianyuan" means Tianchu raw materials. Wu Yunchu thought of "Tai Chi divided into two parts" from the yin and yang poles of electrochemistry, so he took the Tai Chi diagram as the trademark. At that time, the daily production capacity was 2 tons of hydrochloric acid, 3 tons of bleaching powder, and 4 tons of liquid caustic soda.
In 1934, Wu Yunchu founded Tiansheng Pottery Factory. This is a ceramic vessel made to contain hydrochloric acid and other products produced by Tianyuan Electrochemical Plant. Our country has a long history of producing ceramics, but chemical ceramics that can contain acid and alkali have always been a blank in modern China, and they still need to be imported from abroad. Wu Yunchu established my country's first acid-resistant pottery factory based on his experience in manufacturing silica bricks when he was the director of a refractory brick factory.
The name of the pottery factory "Tiansheng" means to provide containers for Tianyuan Electrochemical Factory, and also means Tianyuan's prosperity.
Wu Yunchu founded Tianli Nitrogen Company in the same year as Tiansheng Pottery Factory, and established Tianli Nitrogen Factory in the autumn of 1935 to synthesize ammonia using excess hydrogen and nitrogen produced by Tianyuan Electrochemical Plant. In order to prevent domestic national industries from competing with each other, Wu Yunchu and Fan Xudong (3), who was preparing to build the Yongli Ammonium Plant (3), agreed that the Yongli Ammonium Plant would mainly produce ammonium sulfate, while the Tianli Nitrogen Plant would be dedicated to the production of nitric acid.
The opening ceremony of the factory was very grand. Chiang Kai-shek wrote the inscription "Industry Saves the Nation" to express his congratulations. The Minister of Industry of the Nanjing National Government, the Mayor of Shanghai and other dignitaries and celebrities came to congratulate in person, which reflected the great importance that all walks of life attach to my country's first synthetic ammonia plant. In 1936, Tianli Nitrogen Factory shipped nitric acid. Due to its pure quality, the product sold well in the market.
In 1936, the four light and heavy chemical plants of Tianchu, Tianyuan, Tiansheng and Tianli were all completed and put into operation. They achieved good development and formed a self-contained and supporting "Tian" brand group, which made Wu Yunchu's The career has entered its heyday.
Just when Wu Yunchu's career was at its peak and developing rapidly, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident broke out in 1937 and Japanese imperialism invaded on a large scale. Wu Yunchu actively organized the relocation of factories. In 1938, Tianchu Port Factory was established in Hong Kong, and in 1940, Tianchu Port Factory was established. The original Chongqing Factory and Tianchuchuan Factory successively shipped products to the market. In 1943, Tianyuanxu Factory was set up in Yibin, Sichuan Province. In the same year, he went to Xinjiang and cooperated with the Xinjiang Provincial Government to prepare for the construction of Tianshan Chemical Industry Factory.
On September 17, 1945, Mao Zedong took the opportunity of the "Chongqing Negotiations" to meet with Wu Yunchu, Fan Xudong and other business leaders in Chongqing, calling on them to build our country into an independent, democratic, prosperous and powerful country. Make your own effort.
The country had just been liberated. In October 1950, Wu Yunchu hurriedly returned to his motherland from the United States. Premier Zhou Enlai happily said to him: "The MSG King is back, welcome." and hoped that he would continue to work hard for the chemical industry of New China. He has successively served as a member of the East China Military and Political Commission, a member of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, a member of the Central Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association, a deputy director of the Shanghai Branch of the China Democratic National Construction Association, a member of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and a deputy director of the Supervisory Committee of the Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce.
Chen Xinwen. Chemical giant Wu Yunchu. Dalian: China Chemical Industry Development Profile (internal printing), 2001.
Wu Yunchu died of diabetes endangering his heart in October 1953 at the age of 62. Before his death, he made a will and handed over all the property of the "Yunchu Foundation" to the state.
my country's national chemical industry started in the 1920s. By the 1930s, it had formed two pillars to support my country's national chemical industry. One was the Shanghai "Tian" chemical enterprise group founded by Wu Yunchu. , the second is Tianjin Yongli Chemical Group founded by Fan Xudong. The two are known as the "Southern Wu and North Fan". They are the pioneers of my country's national chemical industry and have made outstanding contributions to the founding and development of my country's national chemical industry. As for Wu Yunchu, one of the pillars, he started by developing and producing MSG.
Nowadays, monosodium glutamate has been produced by microbial fermentation using starch contained in various potatoes and corn as raw materials.