"Diligence, try this pen!"

When he took out the "pencil" from his pocket, Song Jiacheng looked cautious and even a little nervous, because this pen was completely different from the "no-sharpening pens" he had tried to make in the past.

Those designs that require no sharpening are extremely simple. In fact, they are just pencils that need to be sharpened. Even the prototype is just an ordinary pencil with the lead removed, and he just added a top cap, and in the subsequent improvement process

During the process, he continued to improve the top cap and ejector rod. In order to make the core supply more convenient, he finally changed the wooden pen body to a mixed structure of copper front and back wood, and finally changed it to phenolic plastic. It can be said that he racked his brains.

But in the end, those "no-sharpening pencils" can't change the shortcoming of "the core is not tight". Even with the change of materials, this problem becomes more serious. Ordinary pencils use glue to "hold the core" without sharpening.

In order to reuse the pen body, the glue is eliminated, which means that the pencil cannot "hold the core" and can easily cause the pen tip to break. This will not only not save the use cost, but will increase the use cost, which is obviously against their original wishes.

The research they conducted relied on the patent fee of less than a thousand yuan obtained by helping the pencil factory improve the production process in the early days, as well as a few hundred yuan of funding provided by the school. However, the money was almost spent, and there was no free pencil sharpening.

Song Jiacheng was troubled by the progress. Two months ago, after unexpectedly seeing the design patent of the mechanical pencil in the library, his eyes suddenly lit up.

The world's first automatic pencil was invented by John Isaac Hawkins in England in 1822. The automatic pencil was similar to the "no-sharpening pencil" he studied, except that the refill was replaceable and could be advanced.

However, in the following hundred years, there were as many as 160 patents related to mechanical pencils registered in various countries. Among them, the first spring-loaded mechanical pencil was patented in 1877, and a push-button mechanism was developed in 1895.

The most successful among those mechanical pencils is the one developed last year by Tokuji Hayakawa of Japan and Charles of the United States.

Their automatic pencil design is extremely successful. It can automatically feed lead and hold core. It can be said to be the most suitable "no-sharpening pencil". However, these two types of automatic pencils have a common "shortcoming". Both types of automatic pencils are

It is made of metal and is extremely precise in manufacturing. The price is naturally very expensive. Each pen costs up to two or three US dollars. This price is even more expensive than a steel pen. You must know that the company has launched a "popular pen". The price of each pen is only 0.5.

Yuan, for popular education, the cost of pencils, one of the homework consumables, must be kept low enough to be effective. The initial goal of the two people was to provide a "new pencil" that was cheap enough.

Unfortunately, those patent information were just patent descriptions obtained by the company's intelligence department through legal channels from the patent offices of various countries. Through those descriptions, at most, they could only understand the basic principles. It was not until three months ago, after acquiring a variety of automatic mechanical pencils, that Song Jiacheng started.

Your own design path.

However, his design idea is extremely simple, "eclectic and take advantage of each other's strengths". Of course, there is also a core, which is "cheap". While learning from other people's designs, the problem that has always troubled him is "cost". If

Using the same metal material, the cost cannot be reduced. In order to reduce the cost, he used every possible means when designing the pencil in his hand.

"The pulsating movement structure is the basic structural form commonly used in mechanical pencils. It is mainly composed of a pen barrel, a tip cover, a core tube, a chuck, a locking hoop, a spring, etc. When the core tube is subjected to pressing pressure, that is, the finger

When the pressure is applied, it overcomes the elastic force of the spring and moves downward, causing the chuck claws to open..."...

While introducing, Song Jiacheng took apart the black mechanical pencil that didn't look very conspicuous, and when he mentioned the card, he looked very proud.

“At the same time, the lead core relies on its own gravity to leave its original position in the core storage tube, and moves a certain length along the core-protecting tube wall under the control of the damping ring of the braking element. After the pressing pressure is released, the spring returns to its original position, and the lead core

The locked hoop and chuck are automatically locked and positioned to complete a pulsating core ejection process. If you go back and forth in this way, you can continuously pulsate core ejection."

When he briefly introduced this mechanical pencil, Song Jiacheng's face was full of pride. Finally, after completely disassembling the mechanical pencil, he showed several small parts to his friends.

"This ratchet can be said to be the core of the mechanical pencil. It consists of three small claws in a ring at the leading end. The flat claws control the lead to prevent it from sliding. When the button is pressed, the lead moves forward. When the button is pressed, the lead moves forward.

When the button is released, the lead core retracts, and the lead core is locked by the ratchet at the same time. At this time, the locking hoop is this..."

Showing one of the small rubber rings, Song Jiacheng smiled proudly, and then he said proudly.

"That's not the most important thing!"

Isn't this the most important?

Looking at this mechanical pencil, Android Qin was stunned.

"The most important thing is cost, look at this pen!"

Taking out another American-made mechanical pencil made of metal, Song Jiacheng asked.

"What do you think the price of this pencil should be reasonable?"

After holding it in his hand and observing it carefully for a while, An Deqin, who also studied mechanics, said.

"At least five dollars,"

"Three and a half dollars!"

Seeing that Android Qin was not surprised, Song Jiacheng said proudly.

"But this mechanical pencil of mine..."

Song Jiacheng proudly turned the assembled pencil in his hand and said very seriously.

"It only costs one yuan at most! If the process is further improved, it should be even lower!"

"A dollar? Less!"

This actually made Android Qin curious about the mechanical pencil in his hand.

Through the invention of the "universal pen", Android Qin understands that sometimes, in order to reduce costs, it is possible to "cut corners", of course, without affecting its usability, and took the pen from a friend.

Automatic pencil, he immediately understood where his friend had "cut corners".

The use of both pencils and pens was actually introduced to China due to Westerners opening schools in China. Since the beginning of more than ten years, due to the establishment of a large number of new schools, relatively cheap American pens have been gradually imported into China and set up in coastal cities.

Distribution. Subsequently, pens of various brands such as "Conkering", "Effession", "Pelikan", "Sheaffer" and "Parker" have poured in, but these pens are expensive. The cheapest

It also costs a few dollars, and after the company began to promote education, developing a "cheap" pen to meet the needs of the company and students became a matter of both interest and reality.

It is said that the "universal pen" was designed by the Prime Minister. Unlike pens from various countries, the "universal pen" does not use a glass ink-absorbing dropper or piston, but has a transparent rubber bag inside the pen barrel.

, there is a plastic suction tube in it, which is very convenient to use and is close to everyone's usage habits. It is easy to use and can be loaded with ink with just a few pinches.

The nib core support used was cast in one go from celluloid, thus avoiding the cumbersome and expensive manufacturing process of the hardwood support. The nib was changed from a gold nib to a stainless steel nib. Finally, celluloid plastic also replaced the metal pen shell. Finally,

Through this series of simplifications, the "popular fountain pen" became the "first pen of the Republic of China". It was not only widely used by company employees and students in China, but was even exported to Europe and the United States in large quantities. A famous fountain pen brand - "Hero" was even born from this

", and at this time, the shell of the mechanical pencil in his hand was made of celluloid...

"Use plastic in lieu of money, save man-hours and reduce costs!"

When he spit out these twelve words, Song Jiacheng's expression changed. Compared with pens, it is even more difficult to make automatic pencils because its parts are too "delicate" and too "fine", so... in this "

In the process of replacing metal with plastic, there are naturally more problems to be faced, especially those small parts.

"Okay, let's talk and sing again. The most important thing is..."

Holding a pencil in one hand and a refill in the other, Android Qin wanted to try out the use of this "automatic pencil". Under Song Jiacheng's guidance, he put the pencil core into the automatic pencil and connected the top a few times.

button.

"Da, da..."

After a few sounds, a millimeter of pencil core came out of the core sleeve of the pen tip. Android Qin, who felt extremely comfortable to use, quickly picked up a piece of paper and started writing. After casually writing a few words, he couldn't write.

After cleaning up, he started writing, and every stroke he wrote was extremely smooth. After one pen refill was used up, the refill was still not broken. There was no doubt that the refill was of high quality. No, if he remembered correctly,

The refill he took was a previous "failure", so this is... an automatic pencil!

Looking at the automatic pencil in his hand, he looked at his friend in surprise. At this moment, he understood that this had little to do with his refill. The most important thing was the automatic pencil in his hand. This kind of pencil was simply made for that "special"

"Prepared with fine, no-sharpening refills".

"Zi Yang... this..."

"What is this..."

Taking the pencil from his friend's hand proudly, Song Jiacheng took out a box of refills from his school uniform pocket. Just by looking at the number on the refill, Android Qin recognized that it was the most unsuccessful refill he had ever made.

.

"Even the No. 5 refill, which is the easiest to break, is very smooth to use..."

After installing the refill, Song Jiacheng began to write for a few times. Looking at the neat pencil characters appearing on the white paper, Andro Qin immediately realized that maybe... he had succeeded!

While this thought came up in his mind, another thought flashed in Andro Qin's mind.

"Zi Yang, this mechanical pencil looks good, but..."

He took the pencil and wrote a few more words, and the feeling in An Deqin's heart became stronger.

“But it’s a bit too expensive!”

"Why is it expensive? A mechanical pencil is at most the price of twenty ordinary pencils. How long can twenty pencils last? How many words can it write? But,"

Shaking the pencil lead in the small box in his hand, Song Jiacheng asked again.

"How long can this box of pencil refills last? How many words can it write? Is the pencil more expensive? Or is the refill more expensive? Such a box of refills can produce words equivalent to dozens of pencils, but what is the cost?

But it’s just the cost of a few pencils, this is called..."

After hesitating and thinking about it, Song Jiacheng said solemnly.

"This is called investing once and benefiting for life!"

While speaking, Song Jiacheng pointed to the pen pinned to the left pocket of his school uniform. This "Hero" brand pen was given to him by the school when he enrolled. The difference from the ones sold in the market is that the pen has the words "Dehua University" on it.

The words "civilian world" are undoubtedly a kind of pride.

"But, there are a few parents who are willing to..."

When the words came to his lips, Andro Qin took them back abruptly. Because both the government and the Prime Minister personally donate a large number of school supplies to students every year, and pencils are one of them. If averaged, this is

It even saves a lot of money!

"So, have you applied for a patent?"

Patents, for the Chinese people at this time, most of them know that the reason why the Prime Minister was able to found ** Company, and the reason why ** Company is what it is today, is closely related to patents. It was the Prime Minister who sold his personal patents.

Just received a huge sum of money, and this solid fact makes people understand the importance of patents while also understanding the importance of inventions. Moreover, the government also supports patented inventions and protects the use of patents. It is precisely because of this
To be continued...