Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1310 What is being investigated? (4k)

Water hammer pumps cannot solve the problem of water shortages at the source.

However, for the mountains of Guizhou and other mountainous and hilly areas, a very important feature is that this thing does not need anything else. It can push the water up by relying on the gravitational potential energy of the water flowing downhill, and its structure is very simple.

Otherwise, Gao Zhendong wouldn't have been able to explain things so clearly with just a piece of paper.

It's important to understand that even in the 60s, let alone the 80s, electricity supply in towns and rural areas throughout Guizhou Province was still problematic. It's hard to say which mountainous region in the country was much better off than another.

Compared to areas with slightly better economies and more concentrated farmland, even having a single-cylinder diesel engine wouldn't be enough in the Qianshan area. Leaving aside whether they could get enough diesel, even if they did, the relatively scattered distribution of farmland meant they simply couldn't take care of it all.

So the water supply in the mountainous area was in a dilemma: water did flow downhill during the rainy season, but on the nearby mountain, perhaps only a few dozen meters higher than the water source, people had to carry water up little by little.

"With this, crops in some places can be saved; at least growing enough food won't be a problem. I've been to many rocky desertification areas, and the local people really have to plant corn even if there's only a handful of soil in a rocky hollow. But due to lack of water and fertilizer, even this small hope often results in poor growth. If the fertilizer shortage problem is alleviated and the water shortage problem can be solved, it will solve many practical problems in many places," the leader of Qianshan said with emotion.

Aside from achievements like hybrid rice, very few technologies can solve all the problems in a region at once. Solving or alleviating some problems is already a very welcome achievement. Therefore, the comrades in Guizhou know that this technology cannot solve all problems, but solving even a part of them is already a great achievement.

By taking a down-to-earth approach and solving problems little by little, things will eventually get better.

"Yes, I just did a rough calculation based on the principle of this thing. If we use a 6-point pipe or a slightly larger one as the water diversion pipe, we can pump more than 1 cubic meter of water from a water source with a head of 2 to 3 meters to a height of 40 meters in a day!"

This amount may not sound like a large sum, but it brought a smile to the faces of the leaders of Qianshan, who are well-versed in agriculture. One cubic meter a day is indeed not much, but crops in the water-scarce areas of Qianshan do not have particularly high water requirements, and crops do not need to be watered every day. Natural rainfall can solve a considerable portion of the problem.

This device, once it can pump water into a high water cellar, can solve the water supply problem when there is an urgent need for water but it is not raining, through gravity water supply. Agricultural timing and rainfall are not always in sync, so solving this problem is enough. Incidentally, it can also solve the problem of drinking water for people and livestock in some places.

Not much is needed; a few dozen cubic meters of water is enough to solve a big problem! In fact, since the beginning of the 21st century, mountainous areas in Guizhou and many other provinces have built rural small water cellars, which can only hold a few dozen cubic meters of water.

The pumping speed of this water hammer pump is basically sufficient to supply the water demand of a water cellar of this size!
"You need to organize people immediately to test this thing. After you get the real data, you need to report this equipment to the ministry and to the agricultural department!" The leader wasn't just thinking about Qianshan itself. In fact, it wasn't just Qianshan that could use this thing, because Qianshan still gets relatively more rainfall and the situation isn't that serious yet.

This is such a simple and easy-to-implement solution; even if it has its flaws, we must make sure that comrades across the country facing similar difficulties know about it. Having more options means solving more problems.

"Okay! We'll get right to it!" the comrade from the water conservancy system said with a smile.

Materials are easy to find. Let alone conducting experiments, even for widespread adoption, the Qianyang Steel Plant is nearby, and with the support of Sichuan Province, there are ways to manage the supply of Tianhua products. If needed, the required quantity can be supplied. After all, this substance has a special purpose; not all places need it, nor do all places have the resources to use it. Furthermore, steel production, thanks to the efforts of Gao Zhendong and the comrades of the 17th Ministry of Machine Building, has deviated somewhat from its original historical pattern. All things considered, the problem isn't too serious.

While the comrades in Qianshan were deploying the relevant work on water hammer pumps, in Beijing, at the editorial office of the journal *Laser*.

Chai, an engineer from the Northeast Institute of Optics, has arrived here.

"You mean you have a paper co-authored with Committee Member Gao that you need to publish?" The editor-in-chief was overjoyed.

Despite Chief Engineer Gao's remarkable achievements in lasers, his articles are not easily accessible, probably because he is too busy and because a significant portion of his work is not suitable for public publication.

So when Chai arrived at the editorial department, he received the highest level of reception, with the editor-in-chief personally making an appearance!

This situation is also why, decades later, mentors with a certain level of achievement are reluctant to sign their names on their students' papers.

—You pose no threat to my position in education, but you could potentially ruin my reputation in academia.

That signature is tantamount to an endorsement, a green light.

"Yes, yes, this is the paper. You can verify this with Committee Member Gao."

"Okay, I'll call and ask right away." This definitely needs to be verified; otherwise, it would be a laughing stock if it caused any negative impact on Committee Member Gao. Even though he's the editor-in-chief, you can't easily get through to Committee Member Gao.

Five minutes later, the editor-in-chief put down the phone with a beaming smile. It was all settled!

The call was actually quite short, only five minutes, mainly spent getting through.

"Comrade, please leave the paper with me, and we will process it immediately!" The editor-in-chief was also very polite to Chai Gong. A comrade who could cooperate with Committee Member Gao on a project and whose paper was personally signed by Committee Member Gao was definitely not simple. Even if he seemed simple for now, he would not be simple in the future.

"Alright, then I'll trouble you all," the woodcutter said with a smile.

What kind of trouble? You could bother me with this kind of "trouble" every day, I wouldn't mind. It's just a pity that's impossible, I'd be lucky if it happened even once in a while.

After seeing Chai Gong off, the editor-in-chief made a phone call and invited a deputy editor-in-chief over.

The deputy editor-in-chief entered the room and saw the smile on the editor-in-chief's face. His intuition told him that something good was definitely going to happen.

"Boss, what's the rush? It must be something good, look how happy you are!" The deputy editor-in-chief casually lit a cigarette on the editor-in-chief's desk and said with a smile. "Good news! Good news! Look what this is!" The editor-in-chief pushed the paper on the table to the deputy editor-in-chief.

"The paper... Oh my god, his? He doesn't publish papers very often." The deputy editor-in-chief, who was originally somewhat nonchalant, saw the corresponding author and first author of the paper and the cigarette he had just lit fell out of his mouth.

"Yes, so why do you think I'm happy?" The editor-in-chief laughed heartily.

The deputy editor-in-chief glanced at the paper and frowned: "It'll be hard to find reviewers for this article. It's a combination of theory and practice, and it's groundbreaking!"

Articles that combine theory and practice are inherently difficult to review. Those who work on the theory may not even have the conditions for the practical replication experiments, while those who work on the practice may not be proficient in the theory.

Groundbreaking works are even more difficult to handle, since no one has done them before. What to do? Physics-related works are a bit easier, but groundbreaking mathematical works can take one or two years to review, and the reviewers themselves have to spend a lot of time learning.

For Committee Member Gao's articles on lasers, finding reviewers is even more difficult.

"Review his groundbreaking manuscript? Are you kidding me?"

The editor-in-chief looked at him like he was an idiot: "Are you stupid? Not all articles need to be reviewed. Take it back, proofread for typos, and we don't need to worry about anything else."

The editor-in-chief had no doubts about the reliability and authenticity of the results. The high committee was joking about their academic reputation? That's the biggest joke ever.

Moreover, he combined theory with practice and produced a prototype, which is the biggest difference between Gao Zhendong's article and the original article in history. After all, Gao Zhendong was able to mobilize both research and production institutions at the same time.

For the journal's editorial department, what's the point of reviewing this? They've got nothing better to do, haven't they?

"Ah... I see, otherwise how could you be the editor-in-chief, hehehe." The deputy editor-in-chief showered him with compliments.

"By the way, this article is quite long. Should we withdraw some of the manuscripts we originally considered?" After showering the article with praise, the deputy editor-in-chief remembered a technical issue. For a journal article, this piece was indeed quite long. Journal space is limited, and the length of this article exceeded the normal range of page limits.

"No, are you out of your mind from being so happy today? Just add it! Keep the original ones as they are. Put Chief Engineer Gao's article first, and put the others in the order that comes later. Don't remove anyone's articles." The editor-in-chief said, quite angrily.

Committee Member Gao's articles are rare and hard to come by. If his articles were to push others out of the spotlight, it would be disrespectful to Committee Member Gao. There is no need to publish a separate supplement, but it is perfectly reasonable to temporarily add pages for him.

"Hey, right, right, look at my brain!" The deputy editor-in-chief grabbed the paper and ran off.
-
A few days later, Gao Zhendong saw Lou Xiao'e off to the Second People's Hospital of Beijing in high spirits. He had just started work when he received an unexpected phone call.

He was from the Institute of Water Resources Science and Technology, and also his old classmate, Xue Chongli.

"Old Gao, I didn't expect you to be so busy with work, yet you still care about our water conservancy technology," Xue Chongli said cheerfully on the phone.

Gao Zhendong was taken aback when he heard this. "No way! When have I ever cared about water conservancy technology? I haven't even touched it lately."

"This...no way, did you hear some rumors somewhere and then spread them distorted?"

"Being too modest is not right. Alright, our department leader should thank you. I'll hand the phone to him."

Gao Zhendong continued to wait, completely bewildered, for the receiver on the other end to be handed over.

"Hello, Committee Member Gao. I am the Dean of the Institute of Water Resources Science and Technology. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to collect, organize, and promote the practical technology of water hammer pumps for us." The Dean spoke very carefully. Water hammer pumps have been invented for a long time. If he were to say that Gao Zhendong invented it, he would offend people. Does Committee Member Gao need this achievement to cook?
However, the collection, organization, and promotion are quite objective. The water hammer pump is right there, but it was your keen eye, Committee Member Gao, that allowed you to select it from the vast pile of technologies, do the preliminary work, and find local comrades to promote it. The significance of this is no less than that of an invention.

Gao Zhendong then realized that it was all about those two jin of potato starch. It was such a trivial matter that he hadn't really taken it to heart, which was why he reacted that way when he heard Xue Chongli's words.

Actually, this isn't a huge deal for the water resources department. It's practical technology, neither particularly advanced nor obscure. However, the main difference lies in the status of the person involved: Committee Member Gao Zhendong. Therefore, the gratitude expressed by the director of the Water Resources Science and Technology Institute is only natural, especially considering that Gao Zhendong had previously given them a significant boost in the field of water resources information technology equipment.

"Ah, this is nothing, it's nothing. What, did the comrades from Qianshan not only promote it themselves, but also report it back to the committee?" Gao Zhendong was actually pleased to hear this. He might not have thought of that much himself, but the comrades from Qianshan had done a very thorough job.

"This is no small matter. It can solve real difficulties, and the most difficult kind of real difficulties at that. The comrades in Qianshan not only reported it back to our committee, but the agricultural sector also received it. Our researchers on both sides are preparing to conduct in-depth research on this gold mine you discovered, to produce a construction guide, and to design some supporting standard parts to make it more convenient for our comrades to use."

The dean originally wanted to say "this lump of gold," but it seemed that the word "lump" didn't quite sound right, so he changed his words to "Quick."

The follow-up actions he mentioned are what a country with a basically sound scientific research system should do: do things that benefit the people, no matter how small, and do them thoroughly, making supporting materials such as applicable conditions, construction methods, and applicable instructions that the people can understand. Also, make some of the parts that are difficult for ordinary people to process and manufacture into standard parts for production, so that the people can buy and use them.

“Yes, that would indeed be convenient for the public. Actually, the water hammer pump itself is not complicated. It can be made into a complete set, and the public can just take it back and connect the pipes at both ends.” Gao Zhendong casually offered his suggestion. This thing has an extremely simple and compact structure, and can be divided into several specifications. The whole set can be standardized, and the vulnerable parts can be made to be replaceable.

"Thank you for your suggestion. Alright, I won't keep you classmates catching up any longer. Committee Member Gao, thank you again for your help." The dean was very tactful; the message was conveyed, and the desired effect was achieved.

(End of this chapter)