Chapter 85 (2/2)

Man's limits can sometimes surprise its own kind.

The limits of Rolin, who wasn't human, coupled with the muddled Huang Xuan stunned the Americans in the room. They were extremely fast, especially since they were creating the diagram based on the actual thing. They managed to achieve this speed but not because of any mental skill that Rolin possessed. Instead, it was thanks to Huang Xuan's muscle endurance. Rolin had adjusted his speed according to Huang Xuan's stamina and lactic tolerance.

Ke Qi couldn't resist curling his own thick lips up into a smile. Huang Xuan was producing one drawing in less than ten minutes. Everyone around them watched in silence.

Even the workers operating the machine noticed Huang Xuan. They observed the vibrating T-square and the rapid movement of the pencil in his hand. All of these proved that the young Asian man in front of them possessed unthinkable skills.

Ke Qi took a second look at the drawing that Huang Xuan produced. It was flawless. This was unusual. Even experienced workers produced drawings that fell short of the actual thing. In order to draw a three-dimensional drawing, one had to ensure his line of sight was parallel to the subject. Then, he had to positively project what he saw onto the paper in front of him. This was slightly counter-intuitive. To ill.u.s.trate, an ellipsoid would appear to be a rectangle — this explained why it was common for problems to surface.

Huang Xuan squinted. Everyone thought that this Asian was unpredictable. However, what they couldn't know was that Huang Xuan was refres.h.i.+ng his mind by closing his eyes.

Thomas snapped out of his daze after a long while. He shouted, ”Focus, everybody! Move quickly!”

It was only then that the workers held back their curiosity and got back to work. Huang Xuan was left to work his arm.

Luo Qi stared at Huang Xuan in amazement. He patted his shoulder and remarked, ”You're not too bad, young man.”

”That's right,” Huang Xuan chuckled. The work his arms were doing remained unaffected. If

only they had televisions in that time.

Within half a day, Huang Xuan won the other workers over with Rolin's help. The story of him hitting Thomas with three punches reduced to two and spread throughout the workshop. Unfortunately, there weren't many famous Asians in that era. Otherwise, Huang Xuan would have borrowed their name.

The Rouge plant area was Henry Ford's biggest dream. When he was still healthy, it was his base camp. After he stepped down as president of the company, his son, Edsel Ford, took over. However, Henry continued to have a huge voice. Normally, Edsel still had to consult Henry when he made decisions.

Undeniably, Edsel Ford had the final say in the day-to-day operations within the company. Old Ford's health was deteriorating, and he was no longer capable of managing it.

Edsel was responsible for the design of the engine and other internal parts of the A-type car. History showed that the car model was successful. From a modern perspective, it was equivalent to a mix of Audi and Santana — it was cheap, convenient, and of good quality. Most of the industrial capitalists in the '30s had technical backgrounds. Similarly, most people in the computer industry in the '90s had technical backgrounds. Edsel himself was a capitalist who valued mechanical strength.

Huang Xuan continued drawing diagrams after lunch. He had already completed his task, and while no one was looking, he stealthily made a few sketches for his own benefit. One of them was of the Ford V8's engine which included technical indicators. One would normally require over a hundred pages to fully capture this; however, having a rough one-page sketch was sufficient for pure understanding.

His second sketch was a cla.s.sic car — the world's first front-wheel drive car, the Citroen Traction Avant. This car model was introduced in 1934. It was a front-wheel drive car with no cha.s.sis. With a torsion bar, it combined the single wheel suspension and hydraulic brake technologies into one. Then, it underwent ma.s.s production. Its greatest selling point was that it was reliable. It was especially useful for chasing and escaping; its obvious advantages in this area earned its name as ”the robber's car”.

To Huang Xuan, it didn't matter what people used the Traction Avant for. The important thing was that they liked it. Although it was said that this model followed from Ford's T-type car and that it was a new milestone in the history of cars, America's research into front-wheel drive cars had been stagnant. It was only in 1966, 30 years later, that Oldsmobile made Tunas and Cadillacs that had front-wheel drive. This had to do with the technology and manufacturing abilities at that time. However, it was possible that Americans would not like the idea of the front-wheel drive until they experienced it for themselves.

There was information on the diagrams in P112 that was readily available. Huang Xuan quickly finished his sketches and hid them under a stack of paper. Most of the other workers were still hard at work. This gave him some time to catch a breather.

In the '30s, Ford's workers were not paid based on piece rates. However, Huang Xuan was far too fast and had completed far more work than his colleagues. Instead of making him do more work, Ke Qi thought it more reasonable to allow Huang Xuan to wander around the workshop.

At that time period, mechanical technology was approaching its peak. Precision machinery was also progressing significantly. Rouge was leading the way into pipeline operations. On the other hand, the experts and scholars were being praised for their progress on the real-time system. Although it was still in its budding stage, it greatly improved the productivity levels and reduced the costs.

Be that as it were, Huang Xuan was unable to see any hint of this in the workshop. He could only listen to Rolin's explanation and try to imagine this industrial base that spread over ten million acres. In about 100 years, this same area would be sufficient for China to build several industrial parks.

He was standing behind another worker, observing the way he used the machine. Suddenly, he heard shouting, ”Boss is here!” and everyone began to work faster.

Huang Xuan was good at acting. His present situation reminded him of being in the cla.s.sroom. Whenever someone shouted, ”The head teacher is here!” everyone would pretend to be studying hard, burying their heads in their books.

Edsel was neatly dressed. He had an air of sharpness and decisiveness, and his stride was confident; he looked like an important person in every way. Yet, Huang Xuan was fully aware that in a few years, Edsel would lose his life in an accident, and Ford would be thrown into a managerial crisis. That was a major reason why modern day Ford was lagging behind major corporate groups like GM. During the second world war, Ford incurred losses every day because of its managerial problems, and Roosevelt became concerned that Ford's operations would affect equipment production.

As usual, Edsel had a word with the supervisors first. Then, he made his round around the workshop, listening to the workers' explanations. He tried to remember the problems they raised to the best of his ability. He normally spent 20 minutes doing this before the company resumed its daily operations. It was largely similar to presidential campaigns.

This time, however, as he approached Huang Xuan, Huang Xuan picked out the diagram of the V8's engine from under the stack of papers. He laid it out on the table and said to Edsel, ”Mr. Ford, you might be interested in these.”

Luo Qi paled and stared in disbelief. He began to explain to the now curious Edsel, ”Uh, this is the apprentice that we recruited today. His diagrams are not bad.”

Ford smiled as he walked over. Initially, he wanted to exchange a few pleasantries. However, he forgot what he had wanted to say after taking a glance at the diagram.

The s.h.i.+ft from manufacturing the T-type car to the A-type car was a hasty one. Ford, which was incurring huge losses at the time, began looking into new models. By that time, they had a solid foundation on the V8. However, the model that Huang Xuan sketched was to be the final version of it. Even Edsel didn’t know that the final design of the V8's engine would look like that.

”You drew this?” The diagram looked simple; however, its content was valuable. Edsel, who had a substantial technical knowledge, immediately realized this with one look. His words carried a hint of astonishment.

”That's right. I drew it, and I'm confident that it'll work.”

”Where?” Edsel had completely forgotten about finis.h.i.+ng his round around the workshop.

Huang Xuan shook his head and said, ”I'm planning to sell it. Are you interested?”

”Oh?” Edsel was returning to his capitalist state. Huang Xuan retrieved a pencil and, under the guidance of Rolin, quickly sketched two more diagrams.

They were of the V8's external design.

Edsel hid his amazement at how quickly Huang Xuan managed to sketch the diagrams. The designs in front of him were capable of earning Ford a windfall. The designs seemed to have been made specially for the company. Of course, Ford had technically come up with them by themselves. He searched Huang Xuan's expression for a good minute, but he couldn't find a hint of fear. He asked, ”Can we talk? In private.”

”Of course.” That was exactly what Huang Xuan wanted.

Everything had gone smoothly thus far, but only because luck was on his side. Otherwise, Huang Xuan might have had to spend more time and money to meet Edsel Ford or any other important person. Given the limited time he had, he wouldn't have been able to do much then. These were also the limitations Rolin was referring to. Selling technology was undeniably profitable; however, there were costs involved that weren't purely monetary. It often took much longer than direct sale of goods. Had they been in the 21st century, they could have expected to easily spend two years trying. Huang Xuan was fighting hard every second that he was here.