Chapter 139: The Dawn Of Led Lights
If we say that in the second half of 1962, America public because of the perfect resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the successful arrival of Mercury 2 at Venus, support for Kennedy reached a new high.
For China, their 1962 harvest was equally significant.
After more than half a year, the first Panda brand radio received widespread acclaim globally, successfully carving out a place in the Soviet Union camp thanks to its cost-performance ratio, excellent Circuit Design, and world-leading Transistor base Materials.
The full-year sales volume for 1962 broke through 100,000 units, with accumulated Order quantity approaching 300,000 units.
The Southwest Electrical Company, reassembled and merged at the Southwest Frontier, focused solely on intensive Production.
One by one, Panda radios were transported from here to Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa.
As Production capacity ramped up, first-tier cities like Yanjing and Shanghai also successively received quotas for Panda brand.
Originally, people only saw in the Newspaper that this Product was exported overseas and very popular, symbolizing a Technology breakthrough for China, but after Chinese Citizens saw it with their own eyes, heard it with their own ears, and felt its texture with their hands, they had a more intuitive sense of this Technology breakthrough.
A Product with a factory price of 20 US Dollar, after being exported to Hong Kong through some special channels, immediately soared to over 300 Hong Kong Dollar.
Hong Kong had been using Hong Kong Dollar since 1863, and from 1935 it was forcibly tied to the Pound Sterling through a fixed Exchange Rate; to put it bluntly, the fixed Exchange Rate was nominally Hong Kong Dollar but actually Pound Sterling.
The fixed Exchange Rate between Pound Sterling and Hong Kong Dollar was 1 to 16, and the Exchange Rate between Pound Sterling and US Dollar had not changed since the devaluation of the Pound Sterling in 1949 until 1967, remaining stable at 1 to 2.8, meaning 1 Hong Kong Dollar was approximately equal to 0.175 US Dollar.
The selling price of Panda brand radio in Hong Kong exceeded 50 US Dollar, and it was even in short supply.
For middle-class families, it took gritted teeth and a month’s Salary to buy one.
“Look, good stuff I got from New York. Much cheaper than buying at Sha Tau Kok in Hong Kong.” The First Mate hosted Section Chief Zhang, who was using the alias Chen Ruhai, in his Room for some Beer.
Sha Tau Kok is a village in the northern New Territories, one of the important locations for private transportation of daily necessities and small Electronic Products.
The First Mate greatly admired Section Chief Zhang, not only because he was efficient, but more because of his temperament.
In this era, on Hong Kong soil, it was rare to see Chinese people with this fearless quality, able to dialogue equally with foreigners.
Previously, their Company was Shun Chang Shipping under the Xu Family, and when working at Hong Kong Shipping, they had seen foreigners from Jardine Matheson trying to take over their ship.
Among the sailors, only Section Chief Zhang stood up to stop them; the other sailors mostly watched from the sidelines.
Although the ship was later lost and they returned to work at Shun Chang Shipping, this made the First Mate look at Section Chief Zhang even higher, feeling he was no ordinary man.
Section Chief Zhang recognized at a glance what this was; Hong Kong’s major Newspapers had reported it many times. At this time, Hong Kong Newspapers were roughly divided into three camps, with one camp vigorously promoting it as a China Technology breakthrough.
Promoting that China, after just over ten years since its founding, had produced a world-class Technology Product, an achievement never before seen in previous China.
The other side, England-side Newspapers, held a skeptical attitude, believing the Technology was likely imported, and China’s claim of independent Research and Development was exaggerated.
The last faction directly asserted it was Technology imported by China at a high price, saying not to trade grain for this face project.
The island, to win, chatted with Japan, hoping to import a Semiconductor radio Production line from Sony.
They even had a name ready: Golden Dragon brand, to be launched in the Hong Kong Market to compete with Panda.
The name Golden Dragon sounded superior to Panda; we can sell it openly, while you rely on private channels, giving a natural price advantage.
Anyway, the Newspapers were abuzz about Panda brand radio, and Section Chief Zhang couldn’t not know: “Panda brand, I see the Newspapers all say it’s good stuff.”
Despite the fierce debate, no one denied that Panda brand radio was good stuff.
The First Mate nodded: “The only pity is that it’s a medium-wave radio, not a Shortwave radio, not suitable for long-distance listening At Sea; can only wait to return to Hong Kong and enjoy it slowly at home.”
Section Chief Zhang nodded: “I heard this thing is particularly expensive.”
He had grown accustomed to life outside, and his Connection to China was through thin lines and News reports about China.
As someone responsible not only for passing messages but also collecting overseas Academic Journals and finding ways to bring them back to Hong Kong, Section Chief Zhang felt a genuine Pride and Sense of Honor; Pride because of China’s Technological progress, and Sense of Honor because China’s Technological progress also had his Merit.
This route from New York across the Atlantic Ocean to Malta and Gibraltar for resupply, then through the Suez Canal, resupply at Colombo in the Indian Ocean, via Lion City, finally arriving in Hong Kong—a sea Shipping route often taking a month and a half—made the radio a very important recreational Tool.
Especially for Section Chief Zhang, who didn’t participate in onboard card games, aside from Work, he mostly listened to the radio: first for News, second to learn English Language.
“Yeah, don’t know when China can launch a Shortwave radio.” The First Mate added.
Large merchant ships are equipped with Radio Equipment for receiving stronger signals, but At Sea, medium-wave radio signals are poor and not very practical.
However, the First Mate still turned on the Panda station, tuned to China’s International channel, and Peking Opera sounds with some static came from the radio.
Section Chief Zhang’s thoughts drifted to his distant hometown.
“It will, I believe China’s Panda Radio will launch more models.” Section Chief Zhang’s tone was very affirmative.
His Suitcase was stuffed with Academic Information, placed in a hidden spot by the cooperating captain, waiting to be brought back to Hong Kong, then transported from New Territories to the Mainland.
Indeed, the main cooperator on this ship was a captain from Oriental Shipping Company who had retired due to age and been rehired by the Xu Family.
Oriental Shipping has another name in Hong Kong Shipping history: Ho Shipping.
From publication to reaching China Scientists’ hands after twists and turns, a Magazine takes at least two months.
“This shows our Work is very effective. In the past, we shipped medicine, Life necessities, industrial products, etc., to China, and China could only export food, textiles, and such handmade goods.
Now China can export competitive industrial products for the first time.
This indicates China’s Development has entered a virtuous Cycle phase.”
Every time involving transportation of Academic Journals, old man Ho personally supervised.
From Hong Kong to the Mainland, there are many suitable points for Transportation.
Whether cargo hubs like West Point Dock and Victoria Harbour, or loosely regulated wild docks like Tuen Mun and Lung Kwu Chau in New Territories, Ho Shipping’s ships could successfully deliver to the other side.
With John George Qu Runpu’s cooperation, the Academic Journals shipped from New York to Hong Kong saw significant improvements in Mass, timeliness, and Practicality.
After this batch of Journals arrived in the Southwest inland, China Scientists verified their ideas again through the Journals.
“Professor Xie, come, look at this Article.”
In China’s Area 51, Huang Kun hurriedly handed the still slightly damp Academic Journal to Xie Xide.
It was now February 1963; what Huang Kun handed to Xie Xide was the December 1, 1962 issue of Applied Physics Letters.
(Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 1, No. 5, December 1, 1962, titled “Coherent (Visible) Light Emission from Ga(As1-xPx) Junctions”)
“Professor Xie, see, you guessed right, the Lamp on the Raspberry Pi is a diode!” Huang Kun continued.
Indeed, this Academic Journal that crossed oceans recorded the first formal academic record of the LED Lamp.
Shockley completed the visible light LED experiment at General Electric in October 1962. He subsequently submitted this Achievement to an Academic Journal.
His Research achievement was published in Applied Physics Letters, detailing the red LED made from Gallium Arsenide Phosphide and its light-emitting Principle.
The Office fell quiet; about half an hour later, Xie Xide looked up at Huang Kun: “Professor Huang, yes, it should be a diode.
This Paper mentions coherent light emission in the visible range observed in gallium arsenide phosphide p-n junction.
By applying forward bias voltage to the Ga(As1-xPx) p-n junction, coherent visible light emission was successfully produced.”
Xie Xide’s tone carried a hint of excitement, as the Paper not only mentioned this phenomenon but also more Details on operations.
“Specifically, they adjusted the Proportion of phosphorus in the Material to shift the emission wavelength from the infrared region to the visible region; in his Paper, it’s mainly red Spectrum.
The author of this Paper believes this tuning capability is a unique advantage of Ga(As1-xPx) as an alloy Material, as it allows controlling the bandgap by changing composition, thereby altering the emission wavelength.
So the red Light and green Light we observed on the Raspberry Pi’s light-emitting device should be the effect of the emission wavelength shifting to green Light and red Light.”
From the first day they saw the Raspberry Pi, China Scientists had been researching it relentlessly.
The Panda brand Transistor Radio was just a negligible product.
It influenced the outside world, but that wasn’t their Goal.
What China Scientists wanted to achieve went far beyond this.
What’s the point of Products the outside world has? Wouldn’t unique China Products be more profitable?
Although China at this time didn’t emphasize Business and didn’t know how to commercialize for maximum Interest, they clearly understood the basics of Monopoly.
The Benefit of Panda brand radio was already showing; Electronic Products could exchange for far more goods than past exports of Agricultural products and textiles.
Replicating the Raspberry Pi was certainly their most important task, but in the process of replicating the Raspberry Pi, industrial products with economic Value were also one of their important Work items.
No one would refuse such Achievements.
And the most intuitively observed was the unusual light-emitting device above.
Because the most common Lamp now is the Incandescent Lamp, especially in China.
The light-emitting device emits monochromatic light when powered and has no obvious heat release, completely different from the Thermal Radiation of the Incandescent Lamp.
Whether Huang Kun, Xie Xide, or other Scientists in the Semiconductor group, they easily associated it with electroluminescence, a known phenomenon.
However, that the light-emitting device was Semiconductor Material emitting light had only been a Guess in the past.
They didn’t dare dismantle the light-emitting device alone for crystal Structure analysis and Element identification.
And this Paper that crossed oceans undoubtedly gave a Conclusion to their Guess.
After hearing this, Huang Kun added: “Yes, and the Paper mentions that evidence for this coherent light emission includes the narrow spectral line width of the light and a sudden increase in intensity, which should indicate some threshold Effect.
These are typical characteristics of laser action.
Their experiment was conducted under low-temperature conditions, while the Raspberry Pi light-emitting device’s emission is under normal conditions.
I Guess it’s because the America guy’s replication operations were limited by certain Technology, making continuous laser operation at room temperature impossible.”
As if remembering something, Huang Kun hurriedly said: “Wait, I’ll call Wu Xijiu; last month he told me that a related infrared light was also achieved through a pure Gallium Arsenide p-n junction.
Wait, I’ll get Xijiu over.”
About fifteen minutes later, the Office gathered the core forces of China’s Semiconductor group, with Wu Xijiu, Wang Shouwu, and others all assembled here.
After everyone first heard Huang Kun introduce the Paper on Semiconductor light emission from the Academic Journal he just received, Wu Xijiu raised his hand:
“Yes, last month I saw an Article in America’s Physical Review Letters titled ‘Coherent Light Emission from Gallium Arsenide Junctions’.”
The English title of the Paper Wu Xijiu mentioned was “Coherent Light Emission from GaAs Junctions”, published in Physical Review Letters on November 1, 1962.
Wu Xijiu continued:
“They mainly excited coherent infrared light emission by applying forward bias Electric current to the Gallium Arsenide p-n junction. Since the infrared wavelength is beyond human eye Perception range, I just mentioned it to Professor Huang; I didn’t connect it to the Raspberry Pi’s light-emitting device.
They confirmed the existence of coherent light mainly through the significant narrowing of the emission spectrum line width and the directionality of the emission light.
Additionally, they clearly observed the threshold Effect: when the injected current exceeded a critical value, the light emission intensity increased significantly.”
After hearing this, Huang Kun summarized: “Xijiu, find that Paper you read; combine the two Papers into one for Research.
Shouwu, you handle the experiment replication; maximum three days, we must complete the experiment replication within three days.
America’s progress around the Light Emitting Diode is very fast.
In just one month, from observing infrared coherent light emission in pure Gallium Arsenide p-n junction, it expanded to the visible range.
We must accelerate our progress too.”
After Huang Kun finished, Wu Xijiu added: “But compared to the red LED mentioned in this Paper, the Raspberry Pi’s light-emitting device can also emit green Light.
Might it use other compounds?
Since the light-emitting device on the Raspberry Pi is just for indicator light, I think we should send a Report to Dean Qian to see if we can remove the Raspberry Pi’s light-emitting device for further Analysis.”
After hearing this, Huang Kun shook his head: “That it’s for indicator light is our Guess; actually, no one knows its real Purpose.
Send the Report first.”
For China, any latest Discovery related to the Raspberry Pi required a Report.
Officials and Scientists responsible for this, no matter how busy, would immediately make time to review their Report.
That evening in a secret Meeting Room, the two in charge of administration and Science discussed the matter.
“Old Qian, you guessed right; this Raspberry Pi is probably from General Electric.”
The Report handed up by Huang Kun and others required every Detail to be clearly written.
Including what the diode is, its Effect, Connection to the Raspberry Pi, background of the Paper’s author, etc.
Among them, Shockley from General Electric immediately caught their attention.
China’s Information was not closed off, never had been.
In this Traditional media era, China had countless ways to obtain the world’s latest News.
Reports on the Relationship between Lin Ran, General Electric, Morgan, and Rockefeller often appeared in major media Newspapers.
Especially in America conspiracy theory Newspapers, Lin Ran was portrayed as a nail planted by Rockefeller and Morgan in Washington to achieve their unspeakable Purpose.
“Similar to our previous Guess, America likely obtained more than one Raspberry Pi.
They had enough Raspberry Pi quantity that White Horse could get one, so it wouldn’t be discovered after giving it to us.”
China had worried for Lin Ran for a long time, always fearing that America would discover he had smuggled a Raspberry Pi back to China domestic.
Especially in the past half year, this Worry intensified.
Because during the Cuban Missile Crisis, China wasn’t idle; they shot down a U-2 high-altitude Reconnaissance aircraft.
After obtaining the U-2 high-altitude Reconnaissance aircraft and comparing with the Blueprint in the Raspberry Pi, they naturally knew Lin Ran hadn’t lied; it indeed contained U-2 Blueprint.
China’s replication of U-2 had begun.
The internally named Dawn series Reconnaissance aircraft was being replicated by the predecessor of Chengfei, Factory 132.
Source source Blueprints, Parameters, and Models were transported from Panzhihua to Shudu.
Factory 132 had taken on the task of replicating the Soviet Union MiG-17II Prototype since 1962; now it added replicating U-2.
MiG-17II was the future J-5, and the U-2 replication was internally named Dawn-1.
China was very worried about how much Kung Fu Lin Ran had spent obtaining this Information.
The more effort, the higher the Risk of exposure; this is an unchanging truth.
Only in the December America Newspaper they obtained, celebrating NASA’s successful Venus leap mission, with Kennedy on the front-page Headline and Lin Ran on the second page, did China’s Worry ease slightly.
Lin Ran’s Value was too high.
They feared his exposure.
“Yes, America likely disassembled the Raspberry Pi.
That’s why their Technology progress in Semiconductors is so fast.” Dean Qian began self-convincing.
