The Second Revolution of Printing Technology (III)

From technical solutions to the formation of system prototypes is not easy, Wang chose them to abandon all holidays, and struggled for 5 years. The State Development Planning Commission and the Department of Electronics arranged the necessary research funding for this project. The Peking University President Zhou Peiyuan organized all aspects of the school to create the necessary conditions for them. Shandong Weifang Computer Company and Hangzhou Communications Equipment Factory worked together. In the summer of 1980, Wang Xuan printed the first sample book with the prototype developed successfully--the sword of Wu Hao. A leading comrade read the instructions and said, "This is a gratifying achievement. The transition from the era of fire and lead to the age of computers and lasers." Comrade Deng Xiaoping stated that he "ought to increase support." This set of principle prototype system was named "Huaguang I type".
The success of Wang Xuan shows that China has outstanding scientific and technological talents and they have wisdom and intelligence. The software technology of Chinese character information processing is our advantage. At this stage, China’s overall economic strength is still not strong, and it is unrealistic to fully surpass the world’s advanced level. However, we have our own advantages and we can use this strength to concentrate our strengths to win surprises and achieve leapfrog development. Breakthrough in Chinese laser photocopying technology is a pioneering work, an example.
Perseverance from the two generations working together to promote the practicality of scientific research results Although the principle prototype is encouraging, there is still a long way to go from practical application. After confirming the development of automatic photocopying as a breakthrough in the advancement of printing technology, the coordination team led by Comrade Fan Muhan conducted multiple investigations and listened to various opinions in order to improve. Some of them have doubts about whether Wang Xuan can use this set of principle prototypes for practical purposes. At that time, many scientific research achievements were for "gifts", "rewards for awards," and "titles for evaluations." They were later put aside and were left unfinished; especially in institutions of higher learning, there were no precedents for the commercialization and industrialization of scientific research achievements. Some people worried that Wang chose them. Is it also true.
Comrade Fan Muhan went to Peking University to inspect the situation of the laser photocopying lab and talked to Wang Xuan, an associate professor. Wang Xuan stated that their goal is to make the Chinese printing industry get rid of the typeface and implement laser photocopying. What is currently needed most is for the state to support them to continue research and development, to do a good job in practical trials, and then use laser photocopying to reconstruct the national printing industry.
Comrade Fan Muhan said to me after returning from Peking University that the king’s election is different from some intellectuals. He has a strategic vision and should support them. After full demonstration, the Chinese character laser photocopying system was formally included in the national "6th Five-Year" and "Seventh Five-Year" special plans for the printing technology equipment, and was later identified as one of the 12 national major technical equipment projects. It focused on making breakthroughs. At the beginning of 1984, the State Economic and Trade Commission arranged for an intermediate trial of the computer Chinese character laser photocopying system at the Xinhua News Agency to test a newspaper published by the Xinhua News Agency. The first newspaper was "Forward Newspaper", which was an internal organ of the Xinhua News Agency and was issued for 10 days. The first issue was "Xinhua News Release" which was a daily 64-page issue. The king’s election was overworked and his body was weak. His wife, Professor Chen Yan, was also the main collaborator and head of the system software. At that time, the patient had just finished surgery. For the sake of their common cause, they dragged their bodies and insisted on fighting at the test site. Comrade Fan Muhan personally coordinated at the scene at every important moment of the trial. In the experiment, there were many problems and failures in the system software and hardware, especially the laser imagesetter, which were basically solved under the joint efforts of everyone. After 3 months of continuous operation, a total of 88 press releases of "Press Releases" and 12 copies of "Forward Newspaper" were issued, totalling about 10 million words. Although there are many problems in operation, the overall technical indicators of the system have reached the predetermined requirements and are relatively stable. In May 1985, the State Economic Commission conducted a national-level assessment and acceptance of the system. This is the “Huaguang Type II”.
This is a leap from a prototype of principle to a prototype of practicality, which has increased everyone’s confidence. The success of Xinhua News Agency's pilot project just explained that the system was "available." If we want to say "practical," we must also be able to publish newspapers that are published daily. This is because the daily newspaper has the strongest timeliness and the most stringent technical requirements. If laser photocopying can arrange daily newspapers, the layout of other books and magazines should be no problem.
Forcing Yangshan’s “Economic Daily” to be the first user to use a laser imagesetter, the State Economic Commission decided to select a national newspaper for the laser photocopying pilot. At this time, “Economic Daily” stood up and volunteered to request the first use of a laser imagesetter.
The predecessor of the Economic Daily was "Ta Kung Pao", which was suspended during the Cultural Revolution. In 1984, it was renamed as "Economic Daily" approved by the central government. It was relocated to the former site of the original Wangfujing site of the People's Daily. At that time, the factory area was only 6,000 square meters, and all were a set of lead. Leading old craftsmanship. Under the situation of reform and opening up, the tasks undertaken by the Economic Daily have become increasingly arduous and the existing printing capacity has not been adapted to the needs of the development of the situation. If we continue to use the old technology, the scale of low-level expansion is not only costly, but also leads lead casting every day, smoky, polluting the environment, and has a great impact on the health of the surrounding residents. After weighing various options, the "Economic Daily" decided to take the huge risk of using the "Huaguang" laser photocopying system to conduct pilot projects. It could also be said that at that time they were "forced to get on."
In order to support the "Economic Daily" pilot, the State Economic Commission added the "Economic Daily" technological transformation project to the national "Seventh Five-Year Plan" and gave priority to guaranteeing the funds. Fan Muhan and Wang Xuan organized major technical personnel such as Peking University, Shandong Weifang Computer Company, and Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Hangzhou Communications Equipment Factory to go to the “Economic Daily” to work in class to solve problems on site. Daily publishing time is actually only two or three hours a day, because news published by the Xinhua News Agency is generally one o'clock in the morning. In order to allow people to read the newspapers before work, they usually print at 4 o'clock in the morning, so they are reserved for typesetting. The time is short, this is the most severe test of the system. After doing all sorts of preparations, the trials began on May 22, 1987. At this time, all the potential problems of the system software and hardware were exposed. Some serial and leak lines, some blank spaces, there were All the periods of the layout were lost, and there were delays of 2 or 3 hours in a few days. The readers gave opinions and some of them were very sharp. (To be continued)