Chapter 134: 133, From Security Gate To Radar, Tung Oil For Airplanes Restarted, Hiring Pilots
March 24, 1933
Two days had passed since Liu Shijie’s incident.
Over these two days, Fang Wen finally finished handling the company’s complicated affairs.
Once relaxed, he immediately began exploring his mechanical perception ability.
He had a premonition that if he could fuse his mechanical perception ability with the security gate, there would be unexpected changes.
After all, that was electromagnetic force, the foundation of future technology.
After finishing dinner, at nightfall, Fang Wen went out to the airport opposite the street.
Everyone at the airport knew him, and the night guard at the gate smiled and stepped aside: “General Manager Fang, inspecting work so late?”
“Mm. Nothing to do at night, just coming to take a look.” Fang Wen replied.
Entering the airport, he went straight to the boarding area.
It was originally exclusive to Taishan Airlines, but later China Airlines also leased this entrance for passenger boarding security checks.
Because it had a security gate used every day, most afraid of being stolen or damaged, the boarding area arranged two night duty personnel.
One from China Airlines and one from Taishan Airlines.
The two had moved over two armchairs, sitting at the entrance, chatting idly.
As soon as they saw Fang Wen arrive, the one from Taishan Airlines Security Team hurriedly stood up and saluted.
“Good day, General Manager.”
Startling the one from China Airlines beside him to quickly stand up as well.
Fang Wen nodded: “I’ll go inside to take a look, you two stay outside.”
Without hesitation, the two obeyed his words and stood properly at the boarding area entrance.
Fang Wen pushed open the door and entered the boarding lobby, where two security gates were placed in the middle of the lobby, with guardrails on both sides, and one could only pass through the security gates.
The original one had been scrapped due to the conductive coil melting, and these two were newly made.
He pulled down the power switch, and the two security gates activated, with the bulbs at the top lighting up.
Fang Wen inserted a metal fork into the security gate, and the bulb at the top flashed while emitting a buzzing sound.
This was the primitive security gate’s alarm reaction.
After checking that the equipment was operating normally, Fang Wen placed his hand on the insulating wall beside the security gate and activated mechanical perception.
Without a doubt, he fused with the security gate.
He felt as if he had transformed into a gate; that sensation was very strange.
How should he use it?
Fang Wen turned and said: “Zhao Shanhu, come in.”
Zhao Shanhu was the name of the Taishan security team member outside, a nephew brought by Fang Shouxin from his hometown.
Hearing the general manager actually know his name, Zhao Shanhu was immediately filled with a sense of being valued.
So the general manager still remembered his name!
With an excited smile on his face, he ran in.
“General Manager, why did you call me?”
“I want to test the security gate. Like this, hide something and walk through the security gate, and I’ll see if I can detect it.”
“Definitely can.” Zhao Shanhu suddenly shut up; whatever the general manager wanted to do, just do it, no need for extra words.
He took out a key and asked: “General Manager, is this okay?”
“Yes. Walk through and try.” Fang Wen nodded.
As Zhao Shanhu walked through, Fang Wen entered the mechanical perception state.
The moment he passed through the security gate, he saw it.
The moment Zhao Shanhu entered the security gate, he turned into a glowing figure.
Different brightnesses appeared on his body, even colors.
This seemed to be the different effects from electromagnetic wave radiation interacting with different materials on Zhao Shanhu’s body.
The brightest was the bunch of keys Zhao Shanhu had put in his pocket.
The glow of the clothes was very faint, muscle tissue had clear outlines, and bones’ brightness was second only to metal.
Internal organs were unclear, but there were some small dark spots, probably at the kidneys.
With just one observation, Fang Wen saw right through Zhao Shanhu.
He asked aloud.
“Do you often have back pain?”
Zhao Shanhu said in surprise: “General Manager, how did you know? When it hurts, it’s deadly.”
Those small dark spots were tiny; Fang Wen replied: “Drink more water every day, then persist in running.”
“Thank you, General Manager.” Zhao Shanhu took Fang Wen’s words as a good solution for treatment and decided to do it every day.
“Continue, this time with something else.” Fang Wen had Zhao Shanhu keep going; he needed enough practical experience to understand what benefits the security gate could bring him.
Over the next three consecutive days, Fang Wen went to the security gate every night to practice his new ability.
This ability could see through things and see many things without a light source.
But its range was limited to within 2 meters of the security gate.
For this, Fang Wen sent a telegram to Shopkeeper Liu in Beiping, asking him to inquire with professors from Tsinghua University Physics Department if there was a way to expand the security gate’s range.
In Beiping, Shopkeeper Liu arrived at Tsinghua University.
Having come here multiple times, he was very familiar with Tsinghua University and went straight to the Physics Department office building.
There, he took out the note recording the telegram message, looked at it, and raised Fang Wen’s question.
“Hello, Professor. Our general manager asked me to ask if the security gate’s electromagnetic waves can have their range expanded.”
“Why expand it?” The professor said in surprise: “Once the electromagnetic field’s intensity increases, it will harm the human body. Your security gate is for people to pass through; a strong magnetic environment can expand the range but will also attract metal, which is very dangerous for passengers.”
Shopkeeper Liu didn’t understand; he just needed to send this reply back completely.
That afternoon, he came to the Physics Department again and raised a new question.
“The general manager asked me to ask, have you heard of something called radar?”
“What radar?” The professors in the Physics Department office became interested.
Everyone seemed to have never heard of such a thing.
Shopkeeper Liu looked at the note and read.
“If the security gate can obtain information on different objects passing through by emitting electromagnetic waves and receiving reflections, it can also extend to other application areas. For example, we emit electromagnetic waves, then manufacture a device specialized in receiving such electromagnetic waves, capturing the reflected signals after those electromagnetic waves encounter the target.”
One professor eagerly interrupted: “Electromagnetic wave reflection theory has existed for a long time; we developed the security gate based on this theory. But what use is the device you’re describing?”
Shopkeeper Liu shook his head: “I don’t know. I’ll go back and ask the general manager.”
“Your general manager isn’t in Beiping; we know you’re contacting him by radio station. Let’s go, we’ll go with you to hear what your general manager says.”
Several professors interested in Fang Wen’s words went together with Shopkeeper Liu to where he was staying.
There, Shopkeeper Liu sent a telegram to Shanghai.
After a while, the telegram reply came back.
He read it.
“Assuming continuous radio waves are emitted, these radio waves will be reflected back when they encounter objects during propagation. The reflected radio waves are captured by the radar’s receiving antenna, and through calculation and analysis, information such as the object’s position and speed is obtained.”
The professors paused and then began discussing.
“Hertz’s experiment confirmed that electromagnetic waves propagate at the speed of light. Cornu measured the speed of light using a rotating gear as c = 2.9999× 10^8 m/s.”
“If the speed is known, by measuring the time difference from emission to reception of the radio waves, combined with the radio wave propagation speed, the distance between the target and the radar can be calculated.”
“Then how to determine the target’s direction?”
They looked at Shopkeeper Liu; this question was sent to Shanghai via radio waves.
Outside Shanghai Airport.
Fang Wen was racking his brains recalling his future memory.
Thanks to the information explosion era, even ordinary people knew many basic theoretical knowledge.
For example, radar; Fang Wen had seen someone analyze it on a certain site.
How early radar determined target position was a key point of analysis.
Fang Wen vaguely remembered what that uploader said.
He organized these memory fragments into text and sent them to Beiping.
In the room of the inn in Beiping, Shopkeeper Liu had the professors eagerly waiting.
They realized that a groundbreaking electromagnetic application product was about to be born, and as experts in this field, they were excited.
Shopkeeper Liu put down the headphones and pen, picked up the paper, and read:
“The general manager provided three suggestions. The first suggestion is to use multiple receiving antennas; these antennas will receive the same echo at slightly different angles. Since the distance between different receiving antennas is known, combined with the time difference of the received signals, the target’s direction relative to the radar can be determined.”
“Wait, don’t say the other two yet, let’s discuss this.” One professor stopped Shopkeeper Liu.
They began discussing:
“This is about calculating mutual spatial positioning.”
“This method relies on the speed of electromagnetic wave propagation in space to calculate the precise distance between receiving antennas; the computation is heavy, and if there’s deviation in computation, the resulting phase coordinates will be wrong.”
“Yes, with our current computing conditions, it’s hard to get timely results. Shopkeeper Liu, tell us the other suggestions.”
Shopkeeper Liu continued reading:
“Suggestion 2: possibly use mechanical rotation, making the emitting and receiving antennas rotate around a central axis. When the antenna points at the target, the echo signal will be strongest. By recording the antenna’s rotation angle, the target’s direction can be determined.”
One professor clapped: “This method is brilliant.”
Another professor looked at Shopkeeper Liu: “There’s a third one, continue, Shopkeeper Liu.”
“Suggestion 3: use an array of multiple fixed directional antennas. Each antenna can receive echoes from different directions. By comparing the signal strengths received by different antennas, the target’s direction can be determined.”
After the professors’ discussion, of the three suggestions, the first was infeasible, the second was simplest, and the third had higher precision than the second.
They asked what these three devices were called.
Shopkeeper Liu looked at the paper and replied: “The first is phase difference measurement, the second is mechanical rotation positioning, the third is antenna array positioning. Wait a moment, I need to send a telegram back to see what the general manager says.”
Fang Wen received Shopkeeper Liu’s reply telegram.
Looking at the telegram content, he couldn’t help but admire the professors’ professionalism.
The second was indeed the simplest, as the earliest radar used this positioning method.
But from what he knew currently, Europe hadn’t invented radar yet, so let China invent the radar equipment first.
He had an urgent demand for radar.
Since electromagnetic wave detection could be obtained through the security gate.
Then with radar installed on an airplane, wouldn’t he have a thousand-mile eye?
This was a means to preempt the enemy, extremely important on the ever-changing battlefield.
For this, no matter how difficult, he had to invest in research and development.
For this, he replied to Shopkeeper Liu, requiring him to establish a new cooperative research and development project with Tsinghua Physics Department, specifically to develop continuous wave emitting and receiving devices for radar.
It would be best if it could be invented before World War II breaks out.
If not, there would be corresponding research foundation, and then find ways to get radar information and equipment from there, still able to manufacture China’s own radar equipment.
The security gate and radar matters were major discoveries, but not practical in the short term; they belonged to war technology reserves.
Fang Wen had Shopkeeper Liu invest 10,000 silver dollars in the cooperative research and development project team, paid in four installments.
First payment at the early stage of research: 3,000 silver dollars for equipment procurement and personnel remuneration.
Second payment upon successful development of radar continuous wave emitting device: 1,000 silver dollars as reward.
Third payment upon successful development of radar wave receiving device: 1,000 silver dollars as reward.
Fourth payment upon successful radar ranging and positioning tests: 5,000 silver dollars as reward.
The high rewards and exploration of technology were enough to support those professors in their research work.
After handling this, Fang Wen welcomed this year’s tung oil for airplanes project.
Early April.
Fang Wen was extremely busy.
Shopkeeper Liu was still in Beiping; Fang Shouxin and Shunzi had arrived in Western Hunan, completed land acquisition, were recruiting local laborers for land leveling and house construction; Sun Debiao volunteered to stay to train those Gan Army and assist airport construction.
With them absent, Fang Wen had plenty to do: after finishing company affairs, he had to organize the tung oil for airplanes project.
Fortunately, Kuang Mingzhu’s family from her maiden home played a big role at this time, helping greatly in all aspects.
For this, Fang Wen simply handed over the company’s current management entirely to his wife.
He himself went to handle the airplanes for tung oil project.
With no subordinates available now, he had the young people from the security team help.
Immediately, he took the security team to arrange the transaction venue.
Once the transaction venue was set up, Fang Wen had Neil come over; after all, Neil was the protagonist in the transaction, and Taishan Airlines’ airplane leasing would happen after the two parties’ transaction.
Neil arrived early, wearing a neat suit, and brought a middle-aged man.
He introduced to Fang Wen: “This is Andrea Strong. Retired from the US Army Aviation Corps, also our Boeing Company’s test pilot and international salesperson.”
The pilot he wanted had finally arrived; Fang Wen had Neil go to the transaction venue to get busy, while he talked with Andrea.
“I have a P-26B currently at the British naval base in Kolkata, South Asia. If you can fly it back safely, I can pay you 3,000 US dollars remuneration.”
Andrea Strong didn’t lose his reason due to this generous remuneration and asked: “How do I get there? Will they agree to let me fly the airplane away? What route to take flying the airplane back? Who handles landing at airports along the way?”
These were the problems Andrea would encounter; others might not understand as well as him, but Fang Wen had flown from Asia to Europe, all by himself figuring it out; he knew how to do it and had arranged it well.
