Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 301 Visiting the Factory
"Mr. Ferro..."

Brooklyn, inside the Messenger TV factory.

Wiping the stains on his hands, the worker in overalls asked Ferro Farnsworth nervously.

"Will Mr. Colin Luper really bring President Roosevelt?"

Although the news that President Roosevelt would send a letter to visit the TV factory has already spread throughout the factory, he still doesn't believe it. After all, this is Mr. President. Hoover never visited their working place when he was in office. Seen.

"of course."

Facing the worker's question, Ferro Farnsworth nodded.

In fact, not to mention the workers in the factory, even Ferro himself was a little unbelievable when he got the news at the beginning, and he reluctantly believed it until he confirmed it with Colin repeatedly.

The time for the factory tour is in the afternoon, but the workers of the Messenger TV factory have been looking forward to it since early in the morning.

Because of the upcoming presidential visit, the whole morning, the inside of the TV factory was immersed in a tense atmosphere. Both the workers and Ferro Farnsworth were not at work. Of course, in such a Under the influence of emotions, the production line of the entire factory was naturally not ideal that day, but everyone from top to bottom cared about this.

In this way, I spent the whole morning in an absent-minded working state.

"coming!"

With Louise Walton at the plant, everyone knew the president was coming.

During this period, President Wei An was not as impregnable as he was later.

In fact, the change of the entire Secret Service system was only after Kennedy was assassinated, and the Secret Service responsible for protecting the head of state set off a revolutionary change in security practices.

Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas, also became the biggest failure in the history of the US Secret Service.

After all, the president was shot in the skull in front of them.

Prior to this, although the president's security specifications were strict, there was still a certain degree of freedom.

Following Louise Walton, a small team of security personnel from the Secret Service came to the factory. Ten minutes later, Roosevelt, accompanied by Colin, also arrived at the Messenger TV factory in Brooklyn by car. .

After getting out of the car, the reporter of the "Courier World" who was waiting around the factory immediately took pictures. Relying on his status as a veteran of the Messenger newspaper, Little John followed Colin and witnessed the boss helping the president push the wheelchair. appearance.

Although, when he was in the Pulitzer Building, he was skeptical of Roosevelt's political views.

But that didn't stop him from being excited about seeing the president in person, especially at such close quarters.

Pushing Roosevelt's wheelchair, Colin led him to the Messenger TV factory.

"Mr President……"

Looking at Roosevelt who appeared in the factory, even though he had already been affirmed by Colin, the expression on Ferro Farnsworth's face still looked a little excited.

He tidied up his clothes nervously, and then stepped forward and said, "It's a great honor for you to come to the Messenger TV factory."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Ferro Farnsworth."

On the wheelchair, Roosevelt stretched out his palm with a smile: "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Seeing Roosevelt's outstretched palm, Filo hesitated for a moment, then quickly stretched out his hand to hold it.

At the same time, on the other side, the reporter of "Messenger Le Monde" immediately pressed the shutter and recorded this scene.

The visit to the TV factory was planned by Colin after Roosevelt's "fireside chat". Naturally, the purpose was to distinguish the former President Hoover's image of being far away from the people, and to establish a close-to-the-people attitude for him. Maintain people's trust in themselves.

The 'Fireside Chat' helped Roosevelt stabilize the worsening financial crisis, but it did not completely solve the problem.

Therefore, while Roosevelt is actively promoting the 'New Deal', he also needs to use his image of being close to the people to constantly call on the people to avoid the loss of credibility.

Withdrawing his palm, Roosevelt's eyes fell on the factory's assembly line.

Roosevelt obviously had some interest in the production of televisions. As a new product, Roosevelt didn't know much about televisions.

In fact, not only him, but the entire United States and even the world did not understand this product.

"So, is this a TV?"

Sliding the wheelchair with both hands, approaching the factory's assembly line, Roosevelt looked at the semi-finished machines on the line, and couldn't help asking the workers beside him.

"Yes... yes... Mr. President..."

Faced with the president's sudden question, the worker was obviously at a loss. He was excited for a while before stammering his reply.

"Don't be too nervous. In fact, we are all working hard for this country, just because of the different division of labor."

It has to be said that Roosevelt is obviously very experienced in winning people's hearts.

This may also have something to do with his own experience. After all, when a person loses his ability to act, he will naturally choose other ways to show his charm.

Under Roosevelt's friendly attitude, not only the workers of the Messenger TV factory, but even the reporters who were taking pictures were also infected by his kind attitude.

The entire TV viewing process was extremely smooth.

Following Roosevelt's wheelchair, the "Messenger of the World" took a lot of photos.

Soon, under the guidance of Colin, a group of people passed the assembly line of the factory and came to the R&D department of the TV.

When he came to his field of expertise, Ferro Farnsworth's original nervousness eased a little. He briefly introduced his invention in front of Roosevelt.

"A marvelous invention, Mr. Ferro."

Although, in the process, Roosevelt could not fully understand Ferro Farnsworth's many descriptions, but this did not prevent him from praising Ferro's invention.

"Sometimes, a good idea can often change the world."

Considering the current patent lawsuits between Colin and RCA, Roosevelt could not express his attitude too clearly, so as to avoid being criticized by the opposition party for interfering in the judiciary. However, Roosevelt’s visit to the Messenger TV factory is actually a position in itself. Express.

During this time, the "Messenger of the World" has been supporting Roosevelt's New Deal in the newspaper and promoting his policies.

Therefore, Roosevelt naturally needed to respond.

What's more, the itinerary of visiting the factory itself is a mutually beneficial practice.

Colin needed Roosevelt to boost the popularity of the TV, and Roosevelt was using the media influence of the "Messenger of the World" to promote his own image.

"What is this, Mr. Ferro?"

During the visit to the laboratory, Roosevelt's eyes were quickly attracted by a strange-looking TV in the laboratory.

"This one……"

Facing Roosevelt's inquiry, Ferro Farnsworth glanced at Colin who was standing aside with some hesitation.

"This is the latest research result of the Messenger TV Factory, a TV that can play color pictures."

After taking Ferro's topic, Colin immediately opened his mouth to explain.

"Color, TV?"

At the same time, Roosevelt in the wheelchair also showed an unexpected expression at the right time.

"correct."

After nodding, Colin nodded to Ferro Farnsworth in the laboratory, and the latter suddenly started the prototype color TV in the laboratory.

"Friends, I want to tell you what we have done in the past few days, why we did this, and what we plan to do next..."

As the TV was turned on, but after a short signal beating sound, a colorful Superman logo flashed across the TV screen, and then the picture of Roosevelt sitting by the fire appeared in it.

Because it is only a prototype, the color picture of the entire TV is not very clear.

However, seeing himself appearing on the TV, Roosevelt couldn't help pushing the wheelchair closer.

Not only Roosevelt, but all the visitors in the laboratory were shocked by the scene in front of them.

You must know that at this time, even the color images in movies have not been completely popularized. A TV that can broadcast the world in color has enough impact on people to imagine.

"A marvelous invention, Mr. Ferro."

Watching fragments of his speeches and fireside chats on the color TV, Roosevelt looked to Philo Farnsworth aside.

"Actually, it's not my fault alone."

Facing Roosevelt's praise, Ferro shook his hand quickly and said: "Mr. Colin Luper also proposed many design ideas during this process, especially the provision of color picture tubes. If it weren't for Colin Luper With the help of Mr. Po, maybe I haven't been able to manufacture a color TV so smoothly."

Historically, it took about 20 years for the development from black and white TV to color TV.

It was not until H. Luo invented the three-gun shadow mask color picture tube, and Lorenki invented the single-gun color picture tube, that color TV really had a rough outline, and it took another ten years after that that color TV really came into being. be popularized.

That is to say, according to the normal historical development, the color TV needs to be invented after 30 years of countless people's efforts.

The existence of Ke Lin undoubtedly greatly reduced this process.

At present, the color prototype used by the Messenger TV factory is a three-gun three-beam color picture tube, also known as a shadow mask tube, which is an earlier developed picture tube. It consists of four parts: a fluorescent screen, a shadow mask, an electron gun and a glass shell.

The patent of the picture tube is in the hands of Ke Lin, which is independently owned by him.

This is why Ferro said that without Colin's help, the invention of color television would not have been possible.

Because the picture tube technology is completely provided by Ke Lin, a separate picture tube may not be a big deal, but once it is combined with his TV, it is the prototype of color TV.

In fact, Colin also had his own ideas about the patent of the picture tube.

In case, if he fails in the patent lawsuit with RCA, he will take out this patent and directly launch a newer generation of color TVs to crush the older generation of TV patents held by RCA.

By the way, be the father of color television.

Of course, this was just the backhand that Colin had prepared. The loss of the American Radio Corporation was already doomed, so Colin was not in a hurry to launch his own color TV set.

After all, in this era, it is still too difficult to fully promote color TV.

Not only limited by the complexity of the kinescope process, the design of multi-tube circuits, especially the manufacture of fluorescent screens, requires a lot of money and experiments to reproduce them in this era.

The color TV in the Messenger TV factory could be produced only when Colin cheated through the [Hot Sight] ability.

In other words, under normal circumstances, it is extremely difficult to produce color picture tubes.

Even if it is barely produced, it will lead to an increase in the cost of the entire TV. You must know that the price of a TV is not cheap in this period.

It is precisely because of this that Ke Lin did not industrialize the color TV, but only put a prototype in the laboratory.

After all, in the historical process of TV development, color TV is only an inevitable result, and black and white TV was the mainstream 30 or [-] years before the appearance of color TV.

Although he intends to promote the development of the TV industry, he has no idea of ​​directly pulling from black and white TVs to color TVs overnight.

Especially, in this period when even TV programs are not perfect and TV sets are not popularized.

Sometimes, it is not the best that is the most suitable. From the perspective of TV viewing experience, color TV is naturally much higher than black and white TV, but considering the cost of color video, even if Ke Lin wants to promote it, the radio station It is not necessarily able to bear the cost of producing color programs or TV dramas.

Therefore, the next best thing is to expand the TV market first, which is what Ke Lin needs to do now.

Only after the entire TV market matures can the upgrade from black and white to color TVs be successfully completed.

Because at that time, neither the radio station nor the audience could do without this new entertainment industry.

……

"... I can clearly see that when President Roosevelt saw clips of his speeches and fireside chats on the color TV, his expression seemed to be touched a little bit, and he sighed: 'The future will be television. In fact, as this great president said, the color television set invented by Mr. Colin Luper has become an indispensable existence in modern people's life. Perhaps at that time, President Roosevelt You have already seen this, and you will make such an exclamation.” ——Excerpted from the column report of "Messenger World"

Reporter: John Walker
(End of this chapter)