60s: I have a store

Chapter 325

Zhou Yimin started measuring from the location of the reservoir, and he certainly didn't use a ruler, and he didn't have a ruler that long. If it were in later times, he would have used laser equipment to measure the distance accurately in one go.

At present, we can only use the most primitive method to measure. One step is about one meter. The number of meters is calculated by how many steps you take.

However, just in case, we will definitely reserve a little more. People are not machines, and we cannot guarantee that the size of each step is the same. We can only say that it is an approximate value.

If it’s not enough, you’ll have to buy it again, which will be troublesome.

Seeing Zhou Yimin taking measurements, the old branch secretary told the villagers not to disturb Zhou Yimin.

Zhou Yimin didn't think much about it. He just wanted to get a rough number and then make a little more preparation.

Fortunately, no one disturbed Zhou Yimin. If he was interrupted, he would probably be annoyed and forget how many times he counted, and would have to start over again.

After more than half an hour of measuring, I finally got an approximate length. I walked about two kilometers. Just in case, I bought two hundred more meters.

This way there will definitely be enough wires, and there should be some left over.

This already includes the electrical wires entering each home.

In order to conceal his tracks, Zhou Yimin pretended to ride the tricycle he got from the factory out of the village, walked around for a while, and then transported the electric wires back to the village when the time was right.

In this way, Zhou Yimin strolled outside for more than an hour, then took out the electric wires bought from the store, put them on the bed of the tricycle, and then took out a cardboard box.

The cardboard box was filled with light bulbs, a total of 100 bulbs, but the wattage was relatively low, only 15 watts. Together, these two items cost Zhou Yimin about two hundred yuan.

This light bulb is an improved one.

Previously, Zhang Yan and her colleagues adopted Zhou Yimin’s valuable suggestions and developed a similar light bulb, which the country has already started mass production.

Therefore, it would not be weird for Zhou Yimin to take it out now.

As we all know, incandescent lamps rely on the heat generated by tungsten filaments to produce light radiation, thereby obtaining bright light.

The operating temperature of the filament is often as high as 3000℃, and only tungsten filament can withstand such temperature. However, even the extremely high-temperature resistant tungsten filament will evaporate slightly and deposit onto the bulb glass, so bulbs that have been used for a long time will often turn black.

In order to allow the deposited tungsten atoms to spread over a larger surface and create a good heat dissipation effect, the shape of the incandescent bulb is almost like a pear, which looks pot-bellied. In order to solve the problem of tungsten filament oxidation and burning at high temperature, the interior of the bulb is a vacuum.

The filament seems to be only two or three centimeters long, but in fact it is a spiral tungsten wire, more than one meter long. It is just too thin, much thinner than a hair, and is difficult to detect with the naked eye.

Incandescent bulbs have threads at the end that can be screwed into the lamp holder.

The material of lamp holders in the early years was very special. It was a phenolic plastic called "Bakelite". This was the first type of plastic to be put into industrial production. It was hard and brittle, did not absorb water, was not conductive, was resistant to high temperatures, and had high strength.

It also has a very strange feature: frequent switching on and off of the light will shorten the life of the light bulb. Therefore, people in the past cherished the light bulb and tried to reduce the use time as much as possible, mostly switching the light on and off twice a day, morning and evening.

Zhou Yimin rode his tricycle back towards Zhoujiazhuang.

At this time, not even one-tenth of the work of installing the electric poles has been completed. It seems that it will not be completed within a day or two.

With the help of excavators or other machines, 50 telephone poles can be erected in less than a day.

Now the excavation is entirely done by manpower, so the progress is not fast. When the old branch secretary saw Zhou Yimin coming back on a tricycle, he knew that the wires had been retrieved, and he hurried to meet him.

The old Party Secretary said, "Yimin, are these the wires?"

In fact, the old branch secretary was a little nervous. On the one hand, he was worried that this thing would be difficult to make and Zhou Yimin would have to pay a high price. On the other hand, he was worried that this thing was expensive and they would feel the pain.

"Yes, this is the wire. Let's ask someone to come and move it!" Zhou Yimin nodded.

The development history of Chinese cables can be traced back to the early 20th century, and it has gone through a process from nothing to something, and from small to large.

In 1897, China's first underground power cable was put into use in Shanghai. It was a 2700-meter-long rubber-insulated lead-sheathed lighting cable made of imported products.

In 1939, the Central Electrical Equipment Factory was completed and put into production in Kunming, producing China's first domestically produced cable, marking the beginning of China's independent production of wires and cables.

Before 1949, China's wire and cable industry was relatively small, with only more than 2000 employees and about 500 production equipment, and the maximum annual copper consumption was only 6500 tons.

From this we can see that at this time electric wires were still very precious. Generally, power was supplied first to some confidential units, then to factories, and finally to residents.

In the old city, if you want to have electric wires in your home, you have to pay extra, and it's not cheap, so some people are reluctant to pay and still use coal lamps.

"Yimin, how much do these wires cost?" The old branch secretary asked the question he was most concerned about.

Although the village has made a lot of money, only those who have experienced poverty know that even if they have some money, they are reluctant to spend it and save it.

Zhou Yimin said casually: "It's not expensive. 2200 meters of wire and 100 light bulbs only cost 210 yuan in total."

It was originally two hundred yuan, but ten yuan was added as a symbolic addition.

If these things were sold, the price would definitely be higher than this, and it would not be difficult to double or triple it. There is no other way, the current production of wires is too low.

In fact, Zhou Yimin himself was not sure whether electrical wires were controlled materials at that time and whether they could be sold.

"210 yuan, that's not bad, not bad." The old secretary breathed a sigh of relief. He thought it would cost a lot of money and had been worried for a long time.

The team leader also speculated: "Old Party Secretary, these things are probably not that cheap. Yimin must have obtained them through special channels, right?"

Zhou Yimin waved his hand: "No way."

Although he denied it, the team leader and the old branch secretary could guess that it must have been obtained through special channels, maybe with the help of someone. Just like the hydroelectric generator before, they emptied their entire Zhoujiazhuang village, and they probably couldn't afford it, right?

"I'll go back and get the money for you," said the old branch secretary.

I don’t have that much money on me, so I have to go back and get some. Who in the countryside would carry that much money?

Any money that the village can take out now should be given to Zhou Yimin first.

After all, Zhou Yimin has already advanced a lot of funds for the village, so they have to be good people and not wait for others to urge them.

The village is doing well now. We have made a lot of money from selling vegetables. After a while, dividends will be distributed to the village. I estimate that every household will get a lot.

(End of this chapter)