Courtyard Houses: The Great Masters of a Nation Hidden Within

That's how Lou Xiao'e and Gao Jianguo got to know each other.

Gao Jianguo had a decent impression of this celebrity in the compound, but he felt she was a bit pitiful. On the surface, she was loud and arrogant, but deep down she was easy to fool and believed whatever others said.

Gao Jianguo had a pretty good idea of ​​what she was doing here, but he wasn't sure if her family had instigated her or if she had sneaked over on her own. So he asked her directly, "You're not from our compound, what are you doing here? Visiting relatives?"

Lou Xiao'e is a straightforward person: "My mom wants to find me a boyfriend, so I secretly came to check it out."

Gao Jianguo feigned ignorance, saying, "Who is it? Maybe I recognize them. Have you seen them?"

Lou Xiao'e's reply left Gao Jianguo completely bewildered: "Didn't see her, and I'm too lazy to see her. Actually, I didn't come here for anyone; I just wanted to see what this courtyard looked like. Now that I've seen it, forget it."

Gao Jianguo was puzzled: "This is only the front yard. Your mother introduced that person to live in the front yard?" He couldn't very well say that Xu Damao was holed up in the back yard, and that he hadn't even looked at the back yard yet.

Lou Xiao'e shook her head: "No, I heard it's someone from the backyard. Let's not talk about that. You said you work at the steel rolling mill, what do you do there?"

Gao Jianguo gestured towards his bookshelf with his lip: "A technician from the factory, just assigned there."

Lou Xiao'e glanced at him up and down, estimated his age, and said, "You must work really late."

Gao Jianguo didn't hide anything: "That's right, I'm twenty-five. In the past few years, I was always fighting. After fighting the Japanese, I chased down the flag bearers. Later, I got into that school in Wudaokou, and I just finished graduating."

Lou Xiao'e had never heard such a legendary story before—one who could both wield a gun and read books. Her eyes lit up, and she grabbed Gao Jianguo's arm, shaking it back and forth: "You're so capable! Tell me about it, tell me about it!"

Gao Jianguo glanced at his watch: "That's fine, but it's almost lunchtime. Let's go out for hot pot, we can chat while we eat."

The two tidied themselves up and went out onto the street.

After dinner, Lou Xiao'e returned home, where her mother greeted her with, "You secretly ran off to Nanluoguxiang? How was it? Did you find it pleasing to the eye?"

Lou Xiao'e pulled off her scarf: "Mom, don't worry about my affairs. I know what I'm doing."

Her mother's face fell: "It's all for your own good."

Lou Xiao'e turned her face away: "Anyway, don't bother me with anything."

Mr. Lou glanced at his daughter's expression and understood what was going on. He then spoke to Mrs. Lou, "If the child doesn't want to, don't worry about it. Xiao'e is still young, why are you in such a hurry?"

Lou Xiao'e forced a smile at her father, then turned and strode upstairs.

The following Monday, Gao Jianguo's thermocouple group was going to start burning the electrodes.

Gao Jianguo first gathered everyone together for a meeting and went through all the tasks at hand.

On Liang Jianguo's end, the verification test plan has been completed, and the control test plan is underway. However, the priority is to conduct the verification test first, and the current progress is sufficient.

As for Yi Zhonghai's machining work, Gao Jianguo, Liang Jianguo, and Yi Zhonghai worked together and the first version of the machining plan was completed. Yi Zhonghai, along with Jia Dongxu, followed the drawings and used the temporary materials selected by Fang Xiufang to machine a portion of the kits. The rest were still being rushed and would be ready for testing.

Fang Xiufang and Liu Qiang's vacuum oven is ready, and all the ingredients on Gao Jianguo's list are ready. All that's left is to start cooking and testing it.

Gao Jianguo's method was to first imitate and then develop his own, but in his mind he planned to do it all at once. During the trial production process, he produced both the imitated K-type and his own N-type thermocouple electrodes at the same time.

Don't underestimate the difference of just one word. Adding that one word would have cured the problem of unstable electromotive force in the nickel-chromium-reduced-nickel-silicon thermocouples in the 300-500°C and 800°C temperature ranges. But then again, adding that one word wasn't a simple matter of saying it; if it were that easy, the n-type wouldn't have taken until the 1970s to emerge.

It's obvious that Gao Jianguo has the answer in his hand but is still dragging his feet; that's not the style of someone who gets things done. It's completely different from those everyday items that have no origin and are inconvenient to take out. He makes his own new gadgets, so there's no need to explain how they came about or why. As long as he can make them, that's a sure thing.

For the K-type and N-type electrode materials, Gao Jianguo prepared three sets each for positive and negative electrodes, for a total of twelve sets. During the experiment, the positive and negative electrodes from different manufacturers had to be paired up separately to test the best combination.

In the K-type, there is a positive electrode with a nickel-chromium ratio of 9:1 and a negative electrode with a nickel-silicon ratio of 97:3. When these two are combined, it becomes the perfect match for the K-type.

The same applies to the n-type side. There is a positive electrode with a ratio of 84.4:14.2:1.4 nickel-chromium-silicon, and a negative electrode with a ratio of 95.5:4.4 nickel-silicon, plus 0.1% trace element magnesium. These two together make up the main n-type electrode.

It doesn't use a bunch of messy options as a pretext, and the explanation is simple.

First, it's not worth it. Some things can be covered up with the word "genius." Even if the material was taken from later generations, can you really call it taking things from books for the benefit of everyone?

Secondly, Gao Jianguo needed to seize the time; he had to quickly and efficiently grasp the technical control. Otherwise, if he came up with anything good later, no one would let him touch it, and it would all be for nothing. Incidentally, he also took advantage of this trip to get the materials for the high-temperature protection tubes for the thermocouples, as well as some other things prepared for another matter.

There are several methods for manufacturing nickel-based alloys, including electric arc refining, vacuum refining, powder metallurgy refining, and molten salt electrolytic refining. Gao Jianguo pondered the available resources for a long time and finally chose the third method, which he modified slightly: vacuum powder metallurgy.

To put it simply, there are only a few paths.

The first step is to thoroughly mix the raw powder that meets the requirements according to the specified ratio.

Next, pour the mixed powder into a hot press, adjust the temperature and pressure, and press it into a block.

Then the billet is placed into a vacuum furnace. When the temperature is right, the raw powder in the billet adheres to each other and grows into the alloy block it should.

Finally, the fired blanks are processed through molding, hot rolling, and stretching to be shaped into the required size and shape.

When needed, quenching, annealing, and tempering can be added to enhance the heat treatment, making the product easier to process or more durable.

Judging from the timing, Gao Jianguo's approach is to assemble a set of positive and negative electrodes, test them immediately, and then throw them into the comparison pile after testing.

In this way, the test can be started without waiting for all the ingredients to be burned.

In contrast, once the first two sets of positive and negative electrode verifications are completed, we can start immediately. The overall progress is only a few steps slower than the verification, saving a lot of time.

This arrangement of tactics, which would later become basic project management skills, has earned the thumbs-up of several people in the team right now. They praise Team Leader Gao for his sharp mind and clear and logical approach to arranging things.

To be honest, no one in China had seriously considered this kind of work method in the 1950s. It wasn't until the 1960s, when Mr. Hua Luogeng began to push mathematics towards practical applications, that he devoted himself to studying the "overall planning method" and the "optimization method," explained them thoroughly in his own plain language, and promoted them with great enthusiasm. Only then did people gradually understand this, and their work became much more efficient.

With the solution, the proportioning sheet, and the work plan in hand, the team plunged headfirst into electrode preparation and experimentation.

Burn, electrodes!