1 Construction of China Optical Glass Research and Development Center

　　As the core of optical technology, the manufacturing technology of optical glass has always been kept secret in the world environment where the great powers compete. The series of optical glass products was established in the early 20th century by the famous German opticalist E. Abbe and chemist O. Schott. In the First World War, due to the German embargo, the United States was forced to solve the problem of manufacturing optical glass on its own. After the war, it wrote a book on optical glass manufacturing, but it was an internal work. After the Russian October Revolution, the Soviet Union established the National Institute of Optics. One of the first important achievements was the mastery of optical glass manufacturing technology. The predecessor of the Soviet glass industry Gacharov wrote a book on optical glass, which is also internal. Legend has it that in World War II, in order to block the supply of optical glass from Germany to its allied country-Japan, the United States sank a submarine carrying optical glass in the Pacific Ocean.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in order to strengthen the development of China’s military and civilian optical instruments, Mr. Wang Daheng felt that optical glass was being built in New China when the Chinese Academy of Sciences Instrument Pavilion (the predecessor of the Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, referred to as the Changchun Instrument Pavilion) was built in Changchun. He applied for a special fund of 400,000 yuan from the Northeast People’s Government at that time, and invited Mr. Gong Zutong to join the Changchun Instrument Museum to be responsible for the trial production of optical glass. Mr. Gong Zutong is very excited, accepts this job happily, and is actively engaged in research and development. From the spring of 1951, after proposing the task book for the design trial workshop, he immediately rushed to contact the architectural design and construction unit, started construction that year, and completed the construction of the plant. At that time, only Liu Songhao had just graduated from university and was assigned to assist Mr. Gong. In the autumn of 1952, a group of young people (including Wang Shizhuo, Chen Qingyun, Zhang Peihuan, Wo Xinneng, etc.) graduated from university ahead of schedule due to the needs of national construction, and were assigned to the Changchun Instrument Museum to work in the optical glass laboratory. In the same year, a chemical group, a raw material and ingredient group, a crucible group, a melting group, an inspection group, and an administrative group were established. Chen Qingyun and Zhang Peihuan are responsible for the chemical analysis group of raw materials and glass; Wang Shizhuo is responsible for the ingredients and procurement of glass raw materials; Woxinneng is responsible for the inspection group, which establishes the test of glass optical properties, as well as the inspection of bubbles, streaks and optical uniformity; a large crucible with a 300L volume It is a key material. Mr. Gong Zutong personally directed Mr. Gang Xueyi and other masters to do the crucible work. The administrative team was led by the "Red Little Ghost" Kang Yonghua. He joined the army at the age of 15 and has been working in the army in the past. Liu Songhao is a right-hand man and business secretary of Mr. Gong Zutong, assisting Mr. Gong to manage and lead the whole room. I served as the leader of the melting group. I also worked with two middle school students recruited from Shanghai: Ma Zhongtang and Sun Zhongming, as well as a group of masters who have experience in melting general glassware. We start with repairing gas stoves, designing oil sprayers, laying gas and oil pipelines, customizing special refractory materials, and building furnaces.

In the year of 1952, we built a melting workshop for optical glass from scratch. In the university, we never took courses on silicate and glass technology. Everything was "what to do, I grew up in the process of learning what to learn, and everyone was full of vigor and hesitation.

2 The birth of the first optical glass and the improvement of the production process

In July 1952, the crucible group produced a 300L large crucible. In mid-October, the large glass melting furnace began to cook. During this period, the crucible experienced several cracks during the baking process and suffered failure; sometimes the crucible was heated to 1400 ℃, and glass was added. When it melted, the raw meal broke again. Everyone is not afraid of the high temperature in front of the furnace. Take out the cracked crucible and remove the molten glass flowing into the furnace. This kind of scene is very touching, no one is afraid and evasive. Mr. Gong Zutong lives with us by the furnace day and night, and everyone puts their energy into the glass in the crucible in the furnace. On the Lunar New Year’s Eve in 1953, the optical K-8 glass of a large crucible of 300L was obtained for the first time. Then successfully melted two pots (see Figure 1). This is a happy New Year. Mr. Gong Zutong said: "The burden of my life has been freed from the burden of my life. This is the happiest day of my life. I will never forget this matter in this life." What's more gratifying is that from now on, China's first glass of optical glass was born. Included in the education model of the optical glass factory for cultivating the young generation.

　　 In 1953, after the successful trial production of optical glass, it entered the stage of consolidation and improvement. The first is to expand the varieties of optical glass. We all work under the direct guidance of Mr. Gong Zutong. At that time, one of the materials I got was brought back by sending people to the United States to study during the Anti-Japanese War. There are only a dozen (ordinary crown and flint) optical glass chemical compositions and melting procedures in this data. In addition, Mr. Gong introduced me to read. Sun Guanhan, a scientist in the United States, published an article on the calculation of the optical properties of glass in the Journal of American Ceramic Society. We first smelt the optical glass from boron crown to flint and barium crown in a small crucible in an electric furnace, and obtain a batch of data for correcting the optical constants of the glass in front of the furnace. Then, experiment in a big melting furnace to obtain the chemical composition and melting procedures of different types of optical glass. At this time, I realized that optical glass has many varieties and contains many chemical components. It is very important to know the relationship between the optical properties of the glass and the composition. For example, it is necessary to predict the optical properties of the finished glass in advance. After hiding from it, I want to calculate the physical properties of the glass after melting from the chemical composition of the glass.

In 1953, another group of college students who graduated early were assigned, especially three members from South China Institute of Technology (now South China University of Technology): Jiang Zhonghong, who was in the melting group with me; Zhong Prize student, under the guidance of Mr. Wang Daheng, responsible Optical glass annealing (transferred to Shanghai Xinhu Glass Factory in 1964, responsible for the successful development of 1.5m diameter glass ceramics, and settled in the United States in 1978); Qin Qizhuo was responsible for glass clay crucible manufacturing. Zhang Dongqi, a lecturer transferred from Tangshan Institute of Technology, strengthened the leadership of optical glass inspection and heat treatment.

From 1954 to 1956, there were two major technological reforms in the optical glass manufacturing process: one was in the process. And the glass bursts when it is cooled, and then selects high-quality glass blocks at room temperature), and develops the casting method (the optical glass and the 300L crucible weighing more than half a ton are taken out from the high temperature and cast into the preheated iron mold. Then they are sent to the precision annealing furnace together and gradually cooled down). As a result, the yield rate is greatly improved, and large-size optical glass blanks can be obtained.

　　 The second piece is that the optical glass has extremely high requirements on the optical uniformity of the glass, and the refractive index difference (△n) of the annealed optical glass blank should reach 10-6. Therefore, very different from other types of glass melting is that the molten glass must be stirred during the high-temperature melting process. At the beginning, we refer to the information brought from the United States and use a stirring rod made of finger-shaped high-temperature refractory materials. In 1956, he learned the advanced experience of the Soviet Union and used the spiral stirring paddle to improve the uniformity of the glass liquid. It took only one year from the trial production of spiral stirring paddles and mixers to practical use.

　　3 To build China's first optical glass production line in Kunming

　　 In the 1950s, the optical glass required for the production of military and civilian optical instruments in China was mainly procured from the international market, but due to the restrictions of the embargo at that time, only the most common optical glass could be purchased. For the urgent needs at the time and the training of talents in the future, the former National Fifth Ministry of Machinery (Ministry of Ordnance Industry) decided to build an optical glass production workshop in the country's largest optical weapons factory (Kunming 298 Factory), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Instrument Museum sent personnel to be responsible for the technology. At the beginning of 1956, Mr. Wang Daheng sent me to prepare for the construction and proposed to the Fifth Machinery Department to treat me as an "expert" and go by plane. Because it took more than a week to travel from Beijing to Kunming by train and long-distance bus. I went to Kunming in March 1956. At that time, I was less than 24 years old and was a fledgling young man. It was my first time flying by plane. I didn’t even have a watch. I bought a double-bell horseshoe alarm clock. I boarded a small Soviet-made twin-propeller plane with 20-30 seats. When I flew over the Qinling Mountains, it was very bumpy. After vomiting, I arrived in Kunming groggy.

I worked in Kunming 298 factory for 3 months. The first thing I did was that the engineering and technical staff of the factory and I designed the optical glass workshop, laid out the process flow and equipment, crucible preparation, and produced the first batch Optical glass formula, raw material supply, etc. This is equivalent to the summary of our optical glass development in the past 4 years. The second thing is that I cooperated with Kulechova, an aid expert invited from the Soviet Union at that time, to participate in the selection of the site of the Soviet-aided optical glass factory (the final selection was in Chengdu, which will be the Chengdu 208 Factory of the Ministry of Machine Tool 5). Lie Xiaowa is an optical glass craftsman. She doesn't know much about factory design and so on, but she brought a complete set of materials for manufacturing optical glass. I got a lot of useful information from it. The most important thing is to know With propeller-type stirring, the uniformity of the optical glass can be greatly improved. I forwarded the information to Changchun in time. After 3 months, when engineer Kulechova visited the Changchun Institute of Optics and Mechanics, she was very surprised to see that we had used the propeller-type mixing process.

　　 Three months later, because the Chinese Academy of Sciences wanted to send me to study in the Soviet Union, I returned to Changchun. Later, Liu Songhao and Jiang Zhonghong were responsible for the construction of Kunming Optical Glass Workshop. From 1956 to 1959, Changchun Optical Glass Development Base did a lot of promotion work, received personnel training from all over the country, and provided materials, and provided equipment drawings and glass formulas without reservation. Especially for Kunming 298 Factory and Shanghai Xinhu Optical Glass Factory, their engineering and technical personnel and masters came to Changchun to study in supporting facilities, and they will become the backbone of the production of optical glass in the future.

　　 Interlude: In the fall of 1956, I went to the Soviet Academy of Sciences for an internship after 2 months of surprise learning Russian. Before leaving, Mr. Wang Daheng and Gong Zutong repeatedly suggested to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Soviet experts participating in China's 12-year science and technology development plan that I hope I can study optical glass at the Soviet State Institute of Optics. Since the National Institute of Optics is a secret unit of the Soviet Union, foreigners are not allowed to enter work and study. I can only study at the Institute of Silicate Chemistry of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Please ask Professor Aben who has worked in the optical glass of the National Institute of Optics as my tutor. At that time, it was the period of Sino-Soviet friendship. In the summer of 1957, the Soviet side arranged for me to go for an internship in an optical glass factory. The Chinese Academy of Sciences went through the formalities of contacting the confidential department with the Soviet Academy of Sciences. This optical glass factory was built in the forest on the outskirts of Moscow. This small town has never been a foreigner in the future. I live in the home of the head of the security department of the factory. The engineer who came out to receive me the next day was the chief engineer of the plant's technical section, Kulechova (that is, the Soviet aid expert at the Kunming 298 plant). Both of us were very surprised to meet here. She enthusiastically accompanied me to tour the entire factory. Only then did I know that all technical work in this factory was directly controlled by the Soviet State Optical Research Institute. In the end, Kulechova accompanies me to the confidential information room. In this confidential room, I can view information and make notes, but I can't take it out, including my notebook. Fortunately, they allowed me to record in Chinese. In this way, I spent several days in this confidential information room. Finally, my notebook was sent to the secret room of the Institute of Silicate Chemistry of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. After negotiations, they amicably agreed that my notebook could be sent back to China through the Chinese Embassy in the Soviet Union. This played a major role in the research on optical glass of the Changchun Institute of Optics and Mechanics at that time.

　　 By the autumn of 1959, I had completed the defense of my associate doctoral dissertation. I requested another business investigation visit in the Soviet Union. I also asked the Chinese Embassy in the Soviet Union to go through confidential procedures with the Soviet Academy of Sciences. At the end of 1959, although I visited some universities and research institutes in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, I was no longer able to contact confidential units.

　　 At this time, China and the Soviet Union had already had political differences at the Bucharest meeting, although they seemed to be imperceptible from the outside. I returned to China from the Soviet Union at the beginning of 1960, and I went back to the optical materials department of the Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and continued my research and development of optical glass.