Chapter 15 Chapter 1 Edison is fascinated by people from ancient Chinese towns...

We humans have countless memorable things.But who can say anything greater than the conquest of night?Imagine this: If we human beings can only live and move during the day, what will the night make our lives evolve? As a result, on October 21, 1931, something happened in the United States of America in the western hemisphere of the earth, which will be recorded forever in history.At 6 o'clock in the afternoon that day, all the lights in the United States suddenly went out, and even the torch that had never been extinguished in the hands of the Statue of Liberty towering over New York Bay also disappeared... After the darkness lasted for a minute, all the lights returned. Be bright and gorgeous.So people in the United States and the whole world knew from that moment the greatness of conquering the night and the giant who conquered the night——Edison.

We've all known the story of Edison's invention of the lamp since we were children. In the life of Edison, a great inventor, he invented many things. However, the only one that was warmly welcomed by people immediately was the electric light.Because the advantage of electric light is that people can see and touch it.Its appearance means that people have another round of the sun, and people's activities are no longer restricted by the night.As early as 1821, British scientists David and Faraday invented an electric lamp called an arc lamp.This lamp uses a charcoal rod as the filament.Although it can emit bright light, the light is dazzling, the power consumption is large, and the life is not long, so it is not practical. "The arc lamp is not practical. I must invent a kind of electric lamp with soft light, so that thousands of households can use it." The great inventor Edison secretly made up his mind.

Like other inventions, the invention of the light bulb has come a long way.Edison started by testing the material of the filament: he first used the traditional charcoal as the filament, but the filament broke as soon as the electricity was turned on; later he used metals such as ruthenium and chromium as the filament, and after the electricity was turned on, it was burned for a while; then he Also switch to platinum wire as the filament, the effect is still not ideal.In this way, Edison experimented with more than 1,600 materials.Tried and failed again and again, many experts agreed that the future of the electric light was bleak.Some famous British experts even ridiculed Edison's research as "meaningless".Some reporters also reported: Edison's ideal has come to naught.

In the face of countless failures and the cynicism of some people, Edison did not retreat in the slightest.He understands that every failure means one step closer to success.One day, Edison's old friend Mackenzie came to visit him.Looking at McKenzie's long beard flickering when he spoke, Edison's eyes suddenly lit up, and said: "I'm sorry, Mr. Mackenzie, I want to use your beard..." McKenzie was stunned for a moment, and then laughed heartily, Said: "I know you are thinking about your invention again! Okay, take it!" The old friend immediately cut off a lock of beard and handed it to Edison.

Edison happily selected a few rough beards, then carbonized them, and then put them in the light bulb... Unfortunately, the test results were not satisfactory. "Then try it with my hair, maybe it's okay." McKenzie encouraged him endlessly.Edison was deeply moved by the spirit of his old friend, but he understood that the nature of hair and beard is the same, so he did not adopt the old man's advice.Edison got up, ready to see the kind old man off.Subconsciously, he helped his old friend straighten the cotton jacket he was wearing.Suddenly, Edison exclaimed again: "Cotton thread! Why don't you try cotton thread?"

Upon hearing this, McKenzie unbuttoned his coat without hesitation, tore off a piece of cloth made of cotton thread, and handed it to Edison. "Thank you." Edison put the cotton thread handed over by his old friend in a U-shaped airtight crucible and treated it with high temperature.After entering the laboratory, Edison used tweezers to hold the carbonized cotton thread, preparing to install it in the light bulb.However, because the carbonized cotton thread was thin and brittle, and Edison was too nervous, the hands holding the tweezers trembled slightly, so the cotton thread was pinched off.Finally, after a lot of effort, Edison put a carbonized cotton thread into the light bulb...

As night fell, Edison's assistant took out the air in the bulb and installed the bulb on the lamp holder. Everything was ready, and everyone waited quietly for the result.When the power is turned on, the light bulb immediately emits a golden light, illuminating the entire laboratory... "Success!" Edison and his assistants cheered ecstatically. After 13 months of hard work, more than 1,600 kinds of materials were replaced, and more than 7,000 tests were performed, finally making a breakthrough in the invention of electric lamps.But how long will the light be on? 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours... The lamp was on for 45 hours before the filament was blown.This is the first electric lamp with practical value for mankind.

This day was October 21, 1879, and was later designated as the day of the invention of the electric light. "45 hours is still too short, and its lifespan must be extended to hundreds of hours, or even thousands of hours." After success, Edison did not revel in the joy of victory, but put forward higher requirements for himself .On a hot summer day, Edison took the bamboo fan on the table and thought about the problem while fanning it. "Perhaps it would be better to carbonize the bamboo threads." The inventor wanted to try everything he saw.The test results show that the effect of using bamboo wire as the filament is very good, the filament is durable, and the bulb can be bright for 1200 hours.After further experiments, Edison found that carbonized Japanese bamboo filaments worked best as filaments.So he started mass producing electric lights.He installed the first batch of light bulbs produced on the "Garnett" research ship so that the research personnel could have more working time.Since then, electric lights began to enter the homes of ordinary people.Later, people have been using this kind of bulb with bamboo wire as the filament.Decades later, someone improved it again, that is, using tungsten wire as the filament, and filling the bulb with inert gas nitrogen or argon.In this way, the life of the bulb is extended a lot.It's the same light bulb we use today that turns darkness into day...

A famous poet once wrote the following lines: I could have tolerated the darkness / If I hadn't seen the sun... Edison invented the electric light, so that human beings have a new round of the sun, so that human beings no longer endure a world without light. The Industrial Revolution marked success and development with the scale of production and labor profits. From then on, the electric lighting industry was like a rising sun, illuminating every thoughtful businessman with ambitions to fight to the death. Clever Italians and Spaniards quickly occupied the pinnacle of the art of lighting manufacturing.The perfect combination of the ancestors' exquisite manual technology and the mechanized production brought about by the industrial revolution in the 18th century made Edison's America far behind the heroes of European lighting and the bright market they created.

At this moment, when Europe and the United States are fully enjoying the light, what kind of world is the East at the other end of the earth? In fact, thousands of years before Edison invented the incandescent lamp, the ancestors of the Orientals invented gunpowder. However, the agricultural way of life did not turn the flames of fire into industrialized permanent lights.Oil lamps have allowed this ancient and civilized nation to go through a long period of time in the half-light and half-dark world. Until the middle of the 20th century, half of the Chinese people were still groping for dawn in the dark with kerosene lamps...

Nearly half a century later, the calendar flipped to the early 1980s.At this time, Americans and Europeans, as well as Japanese people in neighboring China, have already built artificial suns in the sky, while most of us Chinese are still spending money to buy a 14-inch black and white TV. China is too backward, decades or even hundreds of years behind others... Autumn 1982.Hongkong. Two mainland farmers in crumpled Chinese tunic suits were attracted by a variety of goods in a shopping mall. They watched and commented fascinatedly, and took out small notebooks from their pockets to record what they were doing. . "Light! Look how beautiful the lights are here!" "Hey, look at this lamp can still be hung on the wall!" In front of a light cabinet, the two lovingly pointed at those glass lamps.In fact, this kind of glass lamp is very low-grade, just a simple wall lamp, but in the eyes of these two farmers from mainland China, it is simply a "foreign lamp". "Ocean lamps" made these two mainland farmers who were a few years earlier than ordinary Chinese people feel itchy: If we can also make such lamps, we will definitely make a fortune! "How many lamps do you want to buy?" "purchase!" No one would have thought that the word "buy" would make a remote southern town in mainland China a famous "Chinese lighting capital" in the future, with an annual sales volume of more than 15 billion, and its products accounted for 60% of the Chinese lighting market. And become the king of the world lighting industry... The two mainland farmers are from the ancient town of Zhongshan, Guangdong.They are all from Haizhou Village, an ancient town. One "person in charge" who looks like a cadre is called Yuan Daguang, and the other is a shrewd one named Yuan Yuman.Yuan Daguang was indeed a cadre, but his biggest "official position" was the director of the brigade kiln factory.A year ago, at his instigation, Yuan Yuman and Hou Ruiyuan, Yuan Guangming, and Ou Weisong, four peasant brothers from another kiln factory in another village, who were engaged in supply and marketing, entered into a partnership to start a business together.Although I didn't make a lot of money in pouring steel and selling cement in a year, I also practiced some business skills.Originally, they who run supply and marketing are much smarter than the peasant brothers who grow vegetables in the fields. "This glass lamp is so beautiful. It looks good and bright on the wall. It must be sold!" Ou Weisong took the lamps brought from Hong Kong from Yuan Daguang and Yuan Yuman, looked left and right, his face flickered Looking at the golden light, it seems that tomorrow you can become a "10,000-yuan household"-at that time, "10,000-yuan household" was synonymous with the rich. "This light is not complicated, and the cost is not high. Isn't it just a bulb, a coil, and a piece of glass! We can make it!" Hou Ruiyuan and Yuan Guangming began to ponder the craftsmanship and were full of confidence. "That's what the factory manager thinks. There are too many people pouring steel and cement. If we can make a lamp product, maybe everyone in the ancient town will be jealous!" Yuan Yuman glanced at Yuan Daguang and signaled him Tell your friends what you think. The introverted Yuan Daguang said unhurriedly: "Let's put aside other businesses first. From tomorrow onwards, we will concentrate on finding materials and try to imitate this glass lamp first, and then we will try it in the market, okay?" Sell, and finally think about what to do next..." "Okay. I'll get the glass." "I'm going to get the coil." "I'll get the little screw..." Yuan Yuman and several other partners each received a task and went to look for materials separately. "Why are these little things so difficult to get?" "No, my leg was about to break, and I didn't even find an inch-long coil..." A few days later, Yuan Yuman and the others dragged their tired bodies and came back to report to Yuan Daguang with a sigh. In China in the early 1980s, a lot of waste was waiting to be built, and various raw materials were extremely scarce.At that time, the Chinese were still in the era of planned economy, and the means of production were allocated uniformly, and even buying eggs had to be bought in line by ticket. A few farmers in Haizhou Village, an ancient town, were burnt out by the newly ignited "dream of getting rich". "I'll go out and try again. There are several factories in Xiaolan Town..." Yuan Daguang said calmly, still with a calm expression. Xiaolan Town is another town next to the ancient town. In contrast, it is a place with a certain industrial scale. There is a lock factory here, which has led to some small factories for the production of accessories. Villages can do business, so it is natural for Yuan Daguang to choose this neighbor. When Yuan Daguang came to Xiaolan Town, he couldn't find a factory that could make lamp holders.Finally, only one factory said they could do it, but it must be a copper lamp holder. "How much is the estimated cost?" Yuan Daguang had to consider the cost of the lamp. "No matter what, it will cost about 10 yuan! You see, it is not easy for us to produce a ton of copper." What they said is true. Yuan Daguang weighed the copper block and felt that the lamp holder was made of copper, heavy and expensive.He just shook his head. "Later, I traveled all over Xiaolan, and finally found a private owner named Tang, who had a plastic making machine. The cost of plastic lamp holders is much cheaper than that of copper lamp holders, and they are light and beautiful." More than 20 years later, Today, when I met this once-prominent "father" of the ancient town's lighting industry in an inconspicuous lighting factory in Haizhou, he still recalled unhurriedly, "We didn't need anything when we first started. Screw accessories are very hard to find. Finally, I found a small factory that produces screws in Zhangcha Town, Foshan... Glass pieces are also hard to find. I finally found the goods, and I couldn’t find a place to grind the glass. Lighting glass cannot It’s too thin, but it can’t be too thick. There’s no other way, so I had to find a substitute. In the end, Yuan Yuman and the others said to use film, a kind of brown glass film…” Yuan Daguang wanted to show me the lamp they “invented” back then, but I can find it I haven't found anything close or similar for a long time.Now his lighting factory has hundreds of kinds of exquisite lighting that are sold all over the world, but the first-generation lamps in Guzhen can no longer be found. "The lamps at that time couldn't be compared with today's. That is, a piece of glass was installed in front of the light bulb, and a few patterns were painted on the glass later. It was very beautiful. Young people can install a lamp in their new house when they get married. Two lamps like this are considered fashionable..." Lao Yuan's words made us all laugh.Yes, in just ten or twenty years, how much China has changed!Not to mention that there were no colorful and wonderful lighting samples at that time, even the word "fashion" was rarely used in the writings of our cultural people. The first lamp of Yuan Daguang, which can also be said to be a lamp made by the folks in Guzhen as the "Lighting Capital of China", was officially produced at the end of 1982.Although the lamp is very simple, not to mention beautiful, it has changed the farming destiny of Yuan Daguang and the people of Guzhen "facing the loess and back to the sky"! The nationwide lighting industry in Guzhen started from then on.Its significance cannot be viewed in the current commodity sense, it is a history, a historical beginning of Chinese farmers wanting to embark on a road to wealth, and a historical product of the formation of the "Light City" that later amazed the world! Forgetting the historical achievements of Yuan Daguang and other pioneers is a kind of separation from the reality of the great achievements of the ancient town "Light Capital". How hard it is to start a business.After Yuan Daguang and the others made their lamps, because they couldn't find a decent package, they had to store them in their own simple thatched shed. In the following year, Yuan Daguang and his colleagues finally found a kind of packaging, so the five of them made their first big move in starting a business—a joint venture to build a factory.For 10,000 yuan per person, a thatched hut was built on the side of the West River that leads from the ancient town to Jiangmen, with an area of ​​about 100 square meters. "I didn't use the factory name at that time, so I tried to do it first." Yuan Daguang said. Initially selling lamps is much more difficult than making lamps.No manpower is the worst thing.Yuan Daguang, Yuan Yuman and other 5 people were divided into 5 groups according to the region and ran away on the ground in Guangdong... The far ones took a few more boxes and checked them with the car; "At that time, we sold cash and collected money, and most of them were sold to public department stores. Although there was little trouble, the sales were relatively stable." Lao Yuan said. The thatched hut by the river has been in operation for less than half a year. Because of the booming business, Yuan Daguang and the others moved for the second time. This time they rented a row of cement houses with an area of ​​about 600 square meters in Haizhou Food Station as a lighting factory. More than 30 migrant workers.Haizhou, the birthplace of the "Lamp City" in the ancient town, has officially established a famous lighting factory - "Yuhua Lighting Appliance Factory". "At that time, some local farmers were puzzled by the name of our factory. They said that lamps are just lamps. How can we call them lighting? In fact, we also applied the 'lighting' that is commonly used in the Hong Kong lighting industry. Even the five people who set up our factory are not Really understand the difference between lamps and lighting." Yuan Daguang said jokingly. Yuan Daguang and his "five people" lamp factory made a fortune!Another year later, when "Yuhua Lighting Appliance Factory" achieved sales of hundreds of thousands of yuan, the eyes of the farmers in Haizhou Village turned red: It turns out that making lights can make a fortune! "Let's do it! We can do what Yuan Daguang and the others are capable of!" "We can't let their family make a fortune. If they have money, let's make it together!" The Haizhou people, who are known for their business, set their sights on "Yuhua", and the next day "Hongtai" came out, and then "Lida", "Huaguang" and other "lighting" factories sprung up like mushrooms after rain. In less than two years, Haizhou Street, which is several miles long, has become a sea of ​​lamps, with lamp sellers, lighting stores, and lamp factories everywhere... Especially in the evening, the street lights are in full bloom, clearly visible for several miles, and at the same time It made the hearts of the surrounding people itchy. "People in Haizhou make lamp fortunes, why don't we take action? Let's make lamps!" First, the neighboring villages of Haizhou, then the neighboring villages of Haizhou neighboring villages, and then the ancient towns extending several miles away from Haizhou, so "China "Dengdu" has opened up the epic "capital" myth since then. ... What kind of magic hand turned it on. Miraculous surge of countless ichthyosaurs. No wind can blow it out. The lightning that rolled to the ground solidified steadily. One thousand lamps, ten thousand lamps, one hundred thousand lamps. The lamp is like a bottle like an umbrella like a pillar. Like pebbles in the Milky Way washed away by time. The petals of the sunflower and the seeds of the guava. All injected 24 hours. The sun crushed and reassembled. On the breast of the earth hung new shining necklaces. This is the lights of thousands of houses in the ancient town. Carnival of light in the villager's palace. A feast of craftsmanship and science in poetry, painting, sculpture. Who is the host and who is the guest. All in a bright light. There is only one life and only one dream. I dreamed of tens of thousands of lights. Hundreds of thousands of lights. Light up all the dark nights of Long Live Qianqiu. This dream is so old. And so young. This is a poem written by the famous poet Shao Yanxiang to the ancient town "Dengdu". She is like a romantic and realistic painting. Even if someone has no chance to visit the ancient town, reading this poem can still feel the picturesque light of the "Dengdu". with poetry... More than 3,000 registered lighting companies; annual sales of more than 15 billion yuan; more than 80,000 employees... Gathered in this southern town of tens of square kilometers, weaving and blooming the world's brightest, most gorgeous, most dazzling, The most exquisite light of lamps and the movement of poetry, this is where the style and charm of the "Light Capital of China" - Guzhen Town lies! It is as small as the palm of your hand; it is as big as the world; It is January in front of the window; it is as light as the sun. It is the sun brother in the sky, and it is another new sun on the earth. This is our ancient town of "Light Capital" in China.