In the laboratory of the Bakerland Company, Chen Qiang held a tennis string in his hand and kept pulling and pulling.

"Well, that's good, isn't it? I've tested it, and the tennis string I made was worse than the real gut in terms of toughness. Little Beckland said with great interest.

"I think we can change the name, like artificial sheep gut, what do you think?" Chen Qiang asked.

"Artificial sheep gut? It's a good idea, it sounds a lot more upscale, maybe it can be more expensive. Little Beckland nodded.

"It's a single-core, single-layer fiber structure, right?" Chen Qiang asked again.

"You're right, this is what you had in mind." Little Beckland replied.

The traditional tennis string is composed of sheep intestines, which are made of sheep intestine fibers as thin as a hair, which are chemically treated, washed, and glued, and then rolled into thicker strings, and then wound into a complete string by several thicker strings. Finally, apply a protective film to the surface.

As a tennis string, the sheep intestine constructed by this process has a "sucking" feeling, a pleasant sound, and a stable and fast rebound force at the moment of hitting the ball, so even in the future, many professional players will use the sheep intestine as a tennis line.

The artificial sheep intestine is made of plastic, and it is slightly inferior to the natural sheep intestine in terms of hitting feeling, but in terms of waterproofing and longevity, the artificial sheep intestine is much better. What's more, artificial sheep intestines are much cheaper than natural sheep intestines and can be produced on a large scale.

Chen Qiang fiddled with the artificial sheep intestines in his hand, and then asked, "Is there a tennis racket, let me try it?" ”

"It's been done a long time ago." Little Beckland asked someone to bring a tennis racket and handed it to Chen Qiang, this tennis racket uses artificial sheep intestines, and then the two came to the open space outside the laboratory and began to evaluate the effect of artificial sheep intestines as tennis rackets.

After a few beats, little Beckland couldn't help but ask, "How does it feel?" Is there a big difference compared to the previous racket? ”

Chen Qiang lowered his head and thought about it: "There is still a relatively obvious difference in the feeling of hitting the ball. ”

Little Beckland immediately took out a pen and a notebook, made it look like he wanted to record, and spoke at the same time; "When I was researching, I just imitated it according to the physical characteristics of sheep intestines, but I didn't consider the feeling in actual use, you can tell me what the differences are, I will record it, and see if I can improve it from the manufacturing process."

Chen Qiang thought for a moment and said some of his opinions from the perspective of tennis professionals, while Little Beckland recorded them one by one.

In the future, with the development of the material industry, the artificial sheep intestine is almost no different from the natural sheep intestine in terms of hitting the ball, perhaps only the professional players of the Grand Slam level can distinguish between the artificial sheep intestine and the natural sheep intestine, and the ordinary tennis player cannot distinguish it at all. And the technology of the forties was not yet to such an extent.

Then Chen Qiang asked: "Can this kind of natural sheep intestine be produced on a large scale?" ”

"Absolutely." Little Beckland continued: "Actually, this thing is not difficult to manufacture, there is a nylon core in the middle, and the outside is wrapped with a layer of polyethylene material, the process is very simple, if we don't apply for a patent, I'm afraid there are many companies that can imitate it." ”

"Then we'll have to apply for a patent." Chen Qiang said.

Little Beckland nodded, then continued: "But now the supply of raw materials is a problem, and I mean mainly nylon. ”

"Is there a shortage of nylon? I said that there have been a lot fewer people wearing nylon stockings on the street lately. Chen Qiang said with a smile.

"It's not a lack of supply, it's supply control. Nylon is now a controlled strategic good. Little Beckland began to explain.

Since the outbreak of the Pacific War, the United States has set up a special committee to manage strategic materials, such as steel, rubber, oil, and other strategic materials, all of which are under the control of this committee, and at the same time, the production of weapons, military trucks, aircraft engines, and other materials is also coordinated by this committee. Between 1939 and 1945, $187 billion of U.S. strategic goods were produced under the overall control of this committee.

In the early days of the war, only strategic resources such as steel and rubber were controlled, but as the war progressed, more and more materials and industrial commodities were also included in the list of controlled goods, such as household appliances such as refrigerators, which were also included in the list of controlled commodities because they required more steel, and radios, which were also regulated because of their radio wave reception function.

In the forties, nylon was a high-quality material for making parachutes, and the strength of nylon fibers was twice as high as that of cotton and five times that of wool. As a result, under the control of the U.S. government, the nylon produced was limited to the U.S. Air Force to produce parachutes, which saved the lives of many U.S. pilots.

At that time, the air combat was different from the modern era, in the modern air combat, the missile was locked across the distance, once the plane was hit by the missile, it was basically an instant explosion, and the pilot had no chance to parachute to escape, and in the air combat during World War II, if the plane was shot down, as long as the pilot was not shot, there was a chance to parachute to escape, so a parachute is equivalent to the pilot's second life. Pilots are also much more expensive than ordinary soldiers, and the US military naturally has to spend a lot of energy to ensure the safety of pilots' lives. In order for more pilots to survive, nylon must be controlled, the US Air Force needs a stronger parachute, and as for those ladies who love beauty, say goodbye to nylon stockings for the time being!

It is worth mentioning that in addition to parachute ultraviolet, American pilots at that time also had another major life-saving weapon, that is, the so-called "life-saving belt". This life-saving belt will have gold rings, gold chains, expensive watches, and sometimes some US dollars directly, the purpose of putting these valuable things is to save the pilot's life after landing.

If an American pilot is shot down, he lands on land, and if he encounters ordinary people, these valuable things can allow ordinary people to give the pilot some help; And if you encounter the enemy, these valuable things can also bribe the enemy and let the enemy save the pilot's life. The U.S. Air Force will prepare a registration belt for those pilots who carry out missions, and even if the U.S. Air Force does not prepare for pilots, pilots will buy some gold rings and necklaces to wear on their bodies.

In the 21 st century, American pilots still have the habit of carrying valuable weapons with them when carrying out their missions, so if you are lucky enough to catch an American pilot, you must not be polite and search for valuable things on him first.

To get back to the point, the control of nylon still has a great impact on ordinary people, especially for those women who love beauty, and nylon stockings have become a supple commodity.

Little Beckland's newly developed artificial sheep gut is also made of nylon as the main material, after all, the toughness of nylon is very good and can withstand the force of tennis balls. However, the control of nylon has caused a bottleneck in the production of artificial sheep intestines.

Chen Qiang lowered his head and pondered for a long time, and suddenly thought of a solution, he asked: "Since nylon can be used to make sheep intestines, then there should be no problem with using it to make ropes, right?" ”

Little Beckland thought for a moment and replied, "Theoretically, the rope is nothing more than woven from multiple cotton threads, so if you use multiple nylon threads, it should be possible to weave a rope. ”

"Then let's try to make a couple of nylon ropes. Samples of nylon ropes were then sent to the procurement department of the US military. The U.S. military will definitely need ropes to camp on weekdays, and the field army will also need ropes to climb the heights, and if the ropes made of nylon become military supplies and are produced by us, the military will naturally allocate us nylon raw materials. When the time comes, we will separate a little bit of the material, and it will be enough to produce artificial sheep intestines. Chen Qiang said.

"Good idea, maybe you can make some money by producing ropes for the U.S. military. I'm going to experiment right away and see if I can make nylon ropes! "Little Beckland is obviously a man of action, and at this time, he no longer had the heart to deal with Chen Qiang, but rushed directly to the laboratory."

Looking at the back of little Beckland's departure, Chen Qiang shook his head helplessly.

Nylon production rope is certainly no problem, go to a treasure to search for "nylon rope", there will be a lot of options.

In the future, the application of nylon rope is also very extensive, and in the forties, although the material technology is not so developed, but compared with the rope of traditional materials, nylon rope still has many advantages, at least the wear resistance is better, I believe that the US military will definitely use it.

……

Leaving Little Beckland's lab, Chen Qiang returned home.

At this time, Esther was lying on the sofa reading the script, and when she saw Chen Qiang coming back, she immediately jumped up from the sofa.

"My dear, MGM sent me a new script, saying it was made for me, a water revue." Esther spoke.

"Oh, water musical? That's pretty rare. Chen Qiang replied with a smile.

After Hollywood movies entered the audio era, a large number of song and dance movies soon appeared, and they gradually became the mainstream of Hollywood movies at that time. In the thirties and forties, there were many excellent song and dance films, and in the early fifties, due to the maturity of special art color technology, song and dance movies ushered in the most prosperous era, the most representative of which is undoubtedly MGM's "Singin' in the Rain", many people should have heard the name of this movie even if they have not seen it.

In the late fifties, the decline of song and dance movies, and in the sixties, although there were excellent song and dance movies such as "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music", they still could not prevent the decline of song and dance movies, and in the seventies, with the development of film special effects, such as George Lucas, Spielberg and other foreign technology directors rose, song and dance movies were completely marginalized in Hollywood. On the contrary, it is India's Bollywood, singing and dancing without saying a word has become the standard configuration of movies.

The reason for the decline of song and dance films is that the production of song and dance films is relatively high, grand sets, and a large number of actors, all of which cost a lot of money, and on the other hand, the social and cultural background at that time is not suitable for song and dance films, and too many things happened in the United States in the seventies, such as the Vietnam War, Watergate, the oil crisis, the flood of liberalism, etc., all of which make song and dance movies seem so unsocial.

In the era when song and dance movies were popular, various types of song and dance movies also emerged in endlessly, and in the mid-forties and mid-fifties, water song and dance movies set off a boom. Because the set of water song and dance is more complex and there are more actors, the water song and dance movie costs more, and the scene is grander than ordinary movies.

Future audiences go into the cinema to spend money to watch movies, many of them are also going for special effects, as soon as they say how good the special effects of this movie are, the plot or anything is not important, many bad movies in order to attract the audience, they will also brag about how good their special effects are, and spend hundreds of millions of dollars for special effects, but when they walk into the cinema, they are all five-cent special effects.

Water song and dance movies are special effects blockbusters in the forties and fifties, which are very attractive to the audience, and film companies are also vying to shoot water song and dance movies, which makes water song and dance movies appear unprecedented prosperity.

Now Esther has received the script, which is a water song and dance movie.

Esther was originally a swimmer and also studied water dance, so it is not an exaggeration to say that this kind of movie is specially tailored for her.

Chen Qiang sensed that Esther was very interested in this script, so he asked, "What is this movie called?" ”

"The tentative name is -Ed." Esther replied.

“Mr-Co？ And Ed? What the hell is this name! Chen Qiang frowned.

ED is the abbreviation of male ** dysfunction, which is commonly known as "impotence", so Chen Qiang naturally understood the title of the movie as "Mr. CO is impotent".

"No, no, no, it's not Mr-Co, Ed. Rather, Mr,-Ed means co-educational. Esther explained.

"I see." Chen Qiang nodded, he felt that he had grown knowledge again, but that "Mr. Co-Ed", Chen Qiang still doesn't understand what it means.

So Chen Qiang asked: "What kind of story is this movie about?" ”

"The movie is about the famous composer Steve and swimming coach Caroline fell in love, but broke up because of the agent's obstruction, Caroline returned to the girls' school where she worked in a fit of anger, Steve used the school rules to enter the girls' school where Caroline worked in order to recover his girlfriend, and became the only boy in the girls' school, and there were a lot of ridiculous stories during the school, and in the end Steve still won the beauty." Esther opened her mouth to explain.

"A male composer goes to a girls' school to chase his girlfriend, why does this plot sound so familiar!" Chen Qiang thought of a classic Hollywood movie that he had watched that was very impressive.

So Chen Qiang said casually: "This plot is interesting, a man goes to a girls' school, so he doesn't need to wear a tutu and dance Swan Lake with the girls!" ”

"How did you guess there would be such a bridge?" Esther asked in surprise.

"Really?" Chen Qiang reached out and took the script, and then quickly read it.

Only halfway through the script, Chen Qiang was already convinced that the script in Esther's hand was the classic water song and dance movie he had watched - "Hibiscus Out of the Water".

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