Courtyard Houses: The Great Masters of a Nation Hidden Within

The two of them ate and chatted until the plate was empty.

Gao Jianguo gathered the bowls and chopsticks into a pile: "You wash them."

"Why should I? I'm not washing."

"You only served one dish, and I even cleared the bowl. You think you can just freeload? Don't even think about it." Gao Jianguo said with a smile.

For Lou Xiao'e, this way of interacting was quite rare. She wasn't stubborn, and happily carried the bowl into the kitchen, washing the dishes while secretly competing with Gao Jianguo: "Once I figure out the recipe, it'll be your turn to wash the dishes next time!" She was so engrossed in thinking that she almost laughed out loud, completely unaware of what she was actually thinking about.

After tidying up, Lou Xiao'e should go back. She had been wandering around all morning, and it wasn't right for her to stay out all the time.

Gao Jianguo offered to see her off, but Lou Xiao'e waved her hand and refused.

She didn't want Gao Jianguo to see which way her front door faced.

The word "ingredients" is now weighing heavily on her mind, and she's trying to keep it a secret for as long as possible.

Gao Jianguo didn't insist on taking him there. It was broad daylight, around 1 p.m., and the streets were perfectly peaceful. How could an adult possibly get lost?

Lou Xiao'e stepped into the house. Her father was curled up in the living room reading a book. He glanced up at his daughter's face, which was full of undisguised joy, paused for half a second, shook his head, and then his eyes fell back on the book.

Lou Xiao'e put down what she was holding, limped into the kitchen.

Inside, the cook was tidying up the lunch stall. Lou Xiao'e leaned over, put a finger to her lips, shushed her, and asked in a low voice, "Liu Fang, can you do me a favor?"

-

After everyone left, Gao Jianguo, having nothing better to do, took out the online novel he hadn't finished reading and started flipping through it again, finding it quite addictive.

I don't know how long it took, but then the door was knocked on loudly.

Upon opening the door, I saw Liu Haizhong's second son, Liu Guangtian, a boy who was only a teenager, standing in the doorway.

We're all familiar with each other, but this person rarely visits.

Gao Jianguo stepped aside to let him into the house, casually asking, "Guangtian, did you need something?"

Liu Guangtian rubbed his hands, hesitant to speak: "Brother Jianguo, there's something I want to ask you."

Gao Jianguo looked at him and asked, "Tell me, what's going on?"

Liu Guangtian hesitated for a while before saying, "The school is having an event, and I'd like to borrow your bicycle for a day."

There was nothing wrong with lending out the car, but Gao Jianguo just felt something was off.

Normally, Liu Haizhong should come and talk to me about this in person; it's not like a teenager is going to come and talk to me about it.

In those days, a bicycle was not much different from a car later on. When it came to such a big purchase, the head of the household would speak up.

Gao Jianguo nodded: "I can lend you the car. Let me ask, where's your dad? Why doesn't he come and tell me?"

Liu Guangtian's face darkened immediately: "He won't do it."

People outside say that Liu Haizhong is biased and only cares about his eldest son. This time it seems that they are right. He won't even open his mouth to borrow a car for his second son.

Gao Jianguo wouldn't tolerate this kind of behavior: "Let me tell you straight, I'll definitely lend you the bike, but your parents have to ask first. If you, a young boy, ride it out and get hurt, your family will come after me, and I can't take that blame. Don't you think that makes sense?"

Liu Guangtian's head drooped: "I understand, Brother Jianguo, you're right."

Gao Jianguo patted him on the shoulder: "Then go back and tell your family to have Master Liu or your mother come over. As soon as they arrive, they'll take the car away immediately, okay?"

Liu Guangtian turned around and went back.

It's one thing for the father to disagree, but the mother also kept quiet and didn't say anything.

This family is really a headache.

Even after Gao Jianguo turned off the lights and lay down at night, the Liu family elders didn't show up at all.

-

On Monday morning, the research team met as usual.

Everyone reviewed their progress. The most crucial thermocouple material trial production and verification tests were two-thirds complete, and the comparative tests were about one-third done as well.

Liang Jianguo has finished the repeatability test design he assigned last week. Following Gao Jianguo's rules, he checked it himself first and is about to submit it to Gao Jianguo for review.

After Gao Jianguo finished reviewing the case, Lao Chen was finally put in charge of making the final decision.

Once the design was out of his hands, Liang Jianguo plunged back into the experiments.

The research team's proposals have always been reviewed in this way. Old Chen thinks this approach works quite well and is thinking of turning it into a formal rule so that the whole department can follow it, so that it won't be like before, where who reviews the results and how they are reviewed is all based on intuition, which is chaotic and the quality is unpredictable.

Back then in China, from the early days of the People's Republic until the 1960s and 70s, the management of scientific research and design was always like this—very rough. It only started to become smoother after the reform and opening up.

Seeing that there were no problems with the progress and the work was not stuck, Gao Jianguo told everyone to disperse and continue working.

He went back to his office, with two things pressing on his mind.

One task was to review Liang Jianguo's repeatability test design; the other was for him to take matters into his own hands and tinker with a secondary instrument for the thermocouple.

What is a secondary instrument?

Simply put, it's about converting the signals captured by sensors into numbers or pointers that the human eye can understand. This extra conversion step is called a secondary instrument.

The pointer meters and digital displays that show voltage and current on industrial control cabinets are all of this type.

The meter is just one type; there are many more.

When the sensor is not connected to the automatic control system, the simplest way to use it is to attach a suitable secondary meter to its back and read the value directly.

When we first started promoting this thermocouple, the best approach was to equip it with a secondary instrument so that frontline workers could get a general idea of ​​its workings with just a glance. It was inexpensive and quick to produce results.

What Gao Jianguo was preparing to make was a pointer-type secondary meter, similar to the pointer multimeters that were commonly used in the past.

Why not go straight for a digital display?

It wasn't that there weren't any digital tubes; back then, there were already glow-in-the-dark digital tubes, which looked quite cool when they lit up. Later, some retro-style electronic gadget enthusiasts would specifically look for these old relics to use.

The problem lies in the fact that the signal emitted by the thermocouple is thermoelectric potential, a purely analog quantity.

Converting analog signals into segment and digit selection signals for digital displays is incredibly difficult without digital circuitry.

These days, digital circuit components are not only expensive, but also extremely rare to find in China.

This is also why Gao Jianguo wanted to draw the secondary instruments himself; there wasn't even a handful of people in the technical department who understood automation.

Wudaokou Technical College opened an automation major. Gao Jianguo's class of 55 was the first batch of students to do so. Other universities started around the same time or even later.

In the words of later online articles, Gao Jianguo was among the first generation of leading figures in automation who came from formal academic backgrounds after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

So in this day and age, he was absolutely true to himself: making instruments is our livelihood.