Chapter 2857: Trial Operation (1)

Huang Yaomin picked up the phone. It was Hong Huangnan, claiming he had an urgent matter to discuss.

"Old Hong, aren't you supposed to be in Guangzhou? Why'd you come running back? Did you get the approval for the Guangzhou Carriage 4S Shop project?"

"Getting approval is child's play. The problem is they only hand over the approval without any funding. What do they think I am—the God of Fortune himself?"

"Hahaha, looks like you took quite a hit on that 4S shop in Lingao!"

You're simply too ambitious for your own good, Huang Yaomin thought to himself. Ever since the Lingao Vehicle Plant launched their rickshaws and they sold like hotcakes, Li Chiqi and others had established a chain of rickshaw maintenance and repair shops. Why hadn't Hong participated in that venture? It might look rustic, but it turned a steady profit!

"Isn't that the truth? I've been roasted by so many Senators over this mess. Seems I'm not exactly beloved in the Senate these days." Hong Huangnan grumbled for a while longer.

"Enough small talk. You didn't come all the way back to Lingao just to whine at me over the phone, did you?"

"Hehe, then I'll get straight to the point." Hong Huangnan gave a few dry laughs. He did have official business in Lingao, but the real reason he'd sought out Huang Yaomin was regarding the 82nd Shop and Wanzi Pavilion matters.

"...Take some product photos for me. I want to put together a product catalog..."

"Easy enough. What do you want to shoot? What about models?"

"I'll treat you to dinner tomorrow night, and we can hash out the details over the table." Senator Hong preferred not to discuss too much over the phone. "I'll send a car to pick you up."

By the time Huang Yaomin finished taking a set of photos for his maid, evening had already fallen. After returning home and finishing dinner, Senator Huang retreated to his study, switched on his computer, and posted a thread on the BBS: "Which era of old timeline lenses can the optical department replicate?"

At present, Lin Hanlong's optical factory still couldn't manufacture lenses. Although the wet plate cameras used in the photo studio were manufactured in this timeline, the lenses remained old stock brought over from the other side—just like the cameras currently employed by powerful departments and propaganda media.

The BBS had grown rather desolate these days, with barely a post every ten days or half a month. It persisted mainly because certain technology enthusiasts still needed it as a platform for asynchronous communication. Moreover, the posting and replying format had no time constraints, making it ideal for filling spare moments.

For this reason, after the IT department trimmed most of the resources originally allocated to the BBS, they still maintained a lightweight message board system that consumed minimal resources.

He didn't expect a quick reply. Most Senator technicians continued working after dinner and would only check in when they had a free moment.

Unexpectedly, within half an hour, Xu Qi from the chemical laboratory responded:

"I believe that as long as it doesn't involve special glass or multi-element lens designs, almost anything is achievable. After all, the mathematical calculations have already been developed—no need to reinvent that wheel. In practice, most designs will likely follow large and medium format lenses from World War II and earlier. The use of special glass and coating in modern designs remains a hurdle Lingao can't yet clear. Structures like Tessar and Double Gauss, which use few lens elements and are well-established, pose no significant manufacturing challenges. These relatively newer structures are actually easier to realize. However, they'll mostly need redesigning for a larger image field, but with software assistance, it shouldn't prove too troublesome."

"As for coating, the domestic coating machines available in this timeline are quite serviceable and reasonably priced. But obviously, no one brought high-purity materials for evaporation coating on the Holy Ship, and even if they had, it wouldn't help much without a continuous supply. As for climbing the tech tree to build coating machines from scratch—getting stuck on achieving and maintaining high vacuum is a problem that will leave us stumped for quite some time. Regarding coating design, there don't seem to be many brothers from optical machinery institutes among the 500 wretches. Although I sold quite a few products, I only tinkered with simple single-layer metal films myself. Truly trying to unlock the thin-film optics tech tree is another massive rabbit hole! By the way, I recall that early on, acid etching was used to form a corroded thin layer on glass surfaces for anti-reflection. This method should be achievable in Lingao, but I've never witnessed the actual results."

"Forget about coating—multi-element lenses are more than sufficient." At this point, Li Chiqi joined the discussion.

"Agreed. Without coating, eight air surfaces are the practical upper limit. Fortunately, there are plenty of usable structures under that constraint."

"Can manual lens structures be copied directly? No redesign needed?"

"Yes, as long as there's glass with matching serial numbers and the image circle distance matches, just produce it directly according to the design," Lin Hanlong chimed in with his opinion.

Eight air surfaces? Although Huang Yaomin wasn't an optics major, he understood that being able to produce multi-element lenses would suffice. He decided to search for more information and discovered a lengthy article titled "Structure, Performance, and Selection of Large Format Lenses." Examining the structural introductions of several large format camera lenses within, he found that the Dagor structure seemed most suitable for application in Lingao, so he copied these specific paragraphs:

Designed in 1892, the Dagor structure can be considered the dawn of modern optics... The Dagor lens employs a 6-element, 2-group structure. It is also a symmetrical orthoscopic lens, and can be viewed as a derivative of the Hypergon structure. Due to the use of cemented lens technology, a lens element that would otherwise be difficult to process can be divided into multiple parts, with the workload distributed across several lens elements. Therefore, this lens was the first design capable of mass popularization. Additionally, because lens groups cemented from multiple elements can utilize different glass properties for superior dispersion correction, the Dagor lens structure effectively occupies a middle ground between wide-angle and standard lens structures. The wide-angle characteristics inherited from Hypergon and the multi-element correction inherently create certain conflicts. Most finished Dagor lenses cover between 60-80 degrees, but because this design corrects several basic higher-order aberrations quite effectively, the aperture can be made larger than in previous lenses. The general limit is f/6.8, which is why the vast majority of lenses with this structure are rated at F6.8...

When the Dagor lens first appeared, coating technology did not yet exist. This structure also avoided the interface reflection effects caused by excessive air surfaces in its design, incorporating only four air surfaces. The light transmittance was considered remarkably high for its time.

He posted the text to the forum, hoping for good news from the optical department, then switched off his computer and went to sleep.

Who invented the first practical popular camera, the Flag brand wet plate camera, remains historically unverified. Today, we can only speculate based on the "Daguerreotype photography method" mentioned in someone's notes. However, there are abundant records regarding the advent of the Empire's first camera lens. Even today, when examining these materials, one cannot help but admire the scientific Senators of the Empire's optical industry. Their wisdom and achievements remain perhaps unsurpassable even now. The Tessar lens they designed themselves deserves particular recognition—what manner of brilliance was required to inspire such innovation, to design an optical lens with such extraordinary refinement? It earned the reputation of "Eagle Eye" in its time. Due to its simple structure and relatively low cost, it remains widely used to this day. It is no exaggeration to say that the appearance of the Tessar lens made the popularization of photography inevitable.

—History of Camera Development in the Senate

The following day, Senator Huang rose early. Today marked the beginning of a seven-day trial operation period. For this occasion, more than two hundred complimentary photography coupons and one thousand visitor passes had been distributed to potential consumer groups in Lingao through various channels. Coming or taking photos wasn't mandatory, of course—the main objective was to gauge roughly how many people in this demographic would respond.

Although not mandatory, considering human nature's fondness for spectacle, there would certainly be no shortage of visitors during the trial operation. Therefore, both visiting and photography were scheduled by number, with daily limits in place. Senator Huang remained apprehensive and had specifically requested the Lingao Police Bureau to dispatch a team of security officers to maintain order.

At this moment, he paced through the hall, watching the queue gradually forming outside. Today was the mid-month half-day off, and quite a crowd had gathered! Moreover, many had come as entire families, the elderly supported by the young and children carried in arms. It appeared most were indeed here simply to witness the novelty.

However, if a flood of photography customers descended on the first day, this newly established photo studio would likely be thrown into chaos. After all, wet plate photography involved numerous procedures and lengthy fixing times. He had tested it himself; the entire process took at least ten minutes for a single person. For multi-person shoots like family portraits, merely adjusting postures and guiding expressions consumed more than ten minutes. If everything proceeded smoothly, roughly twenty minutes were needed to complete such a session. With children involved, it took even longer.

Thus he had limited distribution to forty coupons on rest days and thirty on weekdays. Two camera positions would operate simultaneously. He would consider adding positions and personnel based on circumstances following the trial operation.

"It all depends on how today goes." Senator Huang surveyed the business hall he had meticulously designed and arranged. From the style of the floor tiles to the color of the walls, the potted greenery, the furniture styles... right through to the lighting scheme on the ceiling—he had selected everything himself. The result somewhat resembled a television station broadcasting hall. Wandering through it gave Huang Yaomin a comfortable sense of familiarity.

The photo studio staff were already at their stations, waiting solemnly. Huang Yaomin glanced around and noticed that Chen Shixin, usually the most energetic of the bunch, was absent. He couldn't help frowning. "Where's Chen Shixin?"

"Today is his scheduled rest day," Old Zhang responded quickly.

Old Zhang was the first photographer Huang Yaomin had personally trained. He was of the same generation as Chen Shixin's father and also a craftsman with a background in color painting. Thanks to his artistic training, he possessed a keen sensitivity to patterns and composition. He could be considered Huang Yaomin's most accomplished disciple.

Such a capable hand was actually off duty today! Huang Yaomin silently cursed himself for not thinking things through. Today was a public rest day, and the very first day of operations to boot—the crowds would certainly be at their peak. He should have asked Chen Shixin to swap shifts. Old Zhang was reliable, but the others were a bit...

Just as these thoughts ran through his mind, he happened to glance through the glass window and spotted Chen Shixin among the crowd of onlookers gathering outside. He was wearing a brand-new high-end linen "cadre suit," his hair combed sleek and gleaming, chatting and laughing with two young women!

(End of Chapter)