Yu Qiaqing, who had been silent until the end of the game, suddenly clapped his hands and applauded: "What a good machine!"
Li Shuhua introduced with a smile: "Our harvester has another advantage, that is, the main body is made of wood. It is easy to manufacture, low cost, suitable for large-scale promotion, and even farmers with moderate wealth can afford it."
Yi Peiji laughed and said: "This product is very good. I will urge the Ministry of Agriculture and Mines to quickly promote this machine to rural areas across the country."
Zhou Hexuan said: “We still need help and support from the Chamber of Commerce.”
"Yu will definitely try his best." Yu Qiaqing immediately expressed his position.
Yu Qiaqing's current identity is the vice president of the National Federation of Chambers of Commerce and the president of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce. Although he is not engaged in machinery manufacturing, he can help contact relevant businessmen across the country.
Among the business representatives, a middle-aged man suddenly said: "This kind of machine is of great help to farmers, and I am willing to introduce it to Shaxian County!"
The person speaking was none other than Huang Erkang, the vice president of the Shaxian County Chamber of Commerce. Like Yu Qiaqing, this man also came from a poor apprenticeship and relied on his own hard work to develop.
Huang Erkang started to get involved in the candy business last year, and this year he came to Shanghai to open a branch (the head office is in Fuzhou), and next year he even opened a branch in Tianjin. When Zhou Hexuan went to invite Yu Qiaqing, Huang Erkang stopped by to watch the fun.
Huang Erkang's business credo is to value the poor. Last year, a child came to his store to buy sugar, and he only bought one copper coin. The clerk thought the child bought too little, so he said there was no sugar for sale.
When Huang Erkang heard this, he immediately stopped the child and sold him the sugar. Afterwards, he said to the clerk: "It is a hot day and if you ask a child to buy sugar for one copper coin, you must be from a poor family and need it urgently. You don't want to do business for one copper coin?"
It’s small, it’s a lot of trouble, and it shows that you don’t know how to do business. You’d better find another job.”
So Huang Erkang fired the clerk and made a store rule: when someone comes into the store wearing straw sandals, the owner should personally bring tea and cigarettes to show his kindness; when anyone comes into the store wearing leather shoes, the apprentice should bring tea and cigarettes.
To be polite.
This is a kind person.
"I'll take care of the business in Ganzhou!"
"I can't make the decision elsewhere. I'm ordering 500 harvesters on behalf of Yiyang!"
"Anqing, we want Anqing too."
"..."
Businessmen made promises one after another. These people obviously saw the value of the harvester and did not want to miss this good business that can both make money and benefit the people.
However, there are also some profiteers who stare closely at the machine and want to find a carpenter to make a copycat product.
The main body of this thing has a wooden structure, which is very easy to imitate. It is also difficult to control the density of the separator. If it is too dense, the ears will get stuck, and if it is too sparse, the threshing will not be clean.
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "Don't worry, let's compete again."
Soon we found two more similar rice fields. This time, the long-term workers were already familiar with the machines, and the rice was harvested very quickly. However, the four long-term workers who used traditional methods, because they had been working continuously for an hour, their physical strength was slightly reduced, and the rice harvest was not as good as
Before.
Finally, through timing calculations, the ratio of harvesting efficiency using machines and traditional methods is 1:2.8, which means that one person can almost equal the productivity of three people.
Moreover, the biggest advantage of the machine is that it saves labor. The longer it works, the more effective it will be.
In the traditional harvesting method, farmers have to move their arms all the time. After working continuously for a day, both arms are sore when sleeping. Machine threshing is much easier.
In the afternoon of that day, Zhou Hexuan discussed the details of cooperation with businessmen.
The final result after mutual negotiation was that the businessman was responsible for production and sales, and 1% of the selling price of each machine was used as patent royalties. The patent period is five years, and no fees will be charged after the expiration date.
The patent fee of one percent is very low, but it was already rare in the Republic of China. Even so, it is estimated that some businessmen falsely reported sales quantities to avoid patent royalties.
There is no way, the national situation is like this, I can only hold my nose and admit it.
Li Shuhua was very satisfied with this. He felt that even if he did not charge a penny in patent fees, it would be good for the country and the people.
Not only did the National Federation of Chambers of Commerce agree to cooperate, but the Ministry of Agriculture and Mineral Resources also agreed to help promote it. Yi Peiji even made a decision on the spot to reward the Peking University Scientific Research Department 500 yuan for their contribution to the agricultural exhibition of the Republic of China.
Li Shuhua and the accompanying students from the Peking University Research Department were very excited, and the reporters were equally excited.
Not only did "Ta Kung Pao" report this in detail, but even "Shenbao" and "Xinwen" did not hesitate to praise it.
"Shenbao" devoted an entire page to publishing this news:
"The famous scholar Zhou Hexuan is famous for his academic monographs, but he is still a Ming Dynasty. "Zhou's underwear" is now popular in China, and the underwear was improved by Mr. Zhou Hexuan...
Recently, the 'human harvester' designed and developed by Mr. Zhou and participated by the Peking University Scientific Research Department was tested in the rice fields of Jinshan. There were many on-site visitors, including Yi Peiji, Minister of Agriculture and Minerals, and Yu Qiaqing, President of Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce. …
Two competitions were arranged that day. At first, because the long-term workers were not familiar with the machines, the harvesting progress lagged behind. However, it only took two quarters of an hour for the machines to surpass the human power... The second competition ended with the machine's victory. According to scientific measurements, the machine's working efficiency is three times that of human power...
Westerners lead the world with science and technology. Modern inventions emerge one after another, and the steam engine ushered in the industrial age. But don’t our people have the spirit of invention? Not so. The four ancient Ming Dynasties all came from China and made great contributions to human society and scientific development. Contribution. Today's human-powered harvesters also prove this truth. Our people are smart and intelligent, and they are not half inferior to Westerners...
According to Mr. Zhou Hexuan, the human harvester invented this time is mainly used to harvest wheat and rice. Because there are many hills and rivers in southern China, it is not suitable for large machinery. Combined with China's special agricultural geographical environment and the lack of basic industry in China, The current situation is that the main body of Peking University's human harvester is made of wood, which is light, easy to use, and cheap and easy to make. This machine can be used in the mountains of the southwest, and is also suitable for water towns in the south of the Yangtze River. Traditional carpenters can also imitate it by themselves, which is really great in line with the national conditions. Ming creation."
Due to the competing reports in Shanghai newspapers, other newspapers also reprinted it, and the reputation of the human harvester quickly spread.
There is no point in just bragging. News photos coupled with test results will make the impression more intuitive for ordinary readers. The 1:3 production efficiency is proved by scientific data to be excellent and has strong persuasiveness.
Countless readers have praised it, but some have dismissed it.
These people believe that the human-powered harvesters of Zhou Hexuan and Bei Daming are just simplified versions of Western combine harvesters, and there is nothing praiseworthy about them. Their combine harvesters are convenient, fast, and high-end, but this crappy harvester from China is even better. Lifting and trampling by manpower still belongs to the category of traditional agricultural tools.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree, Zhou's harvester (also called Peking University harvester) spread rapidly.
Some traditional craftsmen even used their brains to use bamboo slices instead of iron buckles and hemp ropes instead of belts to create "purely natural" knockoffs. When the entire machine was disassembled, no iron tools, not even a single iron nail, could be seen on the whole body.
None, because they use a mortise and tenon structure.
By the mid-1900s, human-powered harvesters had blossomed all over rural China. Due to differences in regions and crops, various versions of imitations appeared. This machine was used until the 20th century, until it was replaced by new agricultural harvesters, which finally ended its popularity.
historical mission.
What’s funny is that because most of the imitations have an all-wooden structure, many people in later generations thought that this kind of machine was a traditional agricultural tool. One professor even wrote a paper and touted China’s traditional agricultural tools through human harvesters, thinking that they were
The ancestor of the modern combine harvester, thus making a big joke.8