In October 1959, I joined the "Sanmo" Institute on the day of my graduation from school, and it had been thirty-eight years since then. My major was the manufacturing and application of abrasives, and I was assigned to the first department of the unit—the only working department, the grinding laboratory. Looking back on those 38 years, there have been so many sweet and bitter memories.
Before 63 years ago, Sanmo had no office buildings, no dormitory, and no canteen. The office was borrowed from a few houses in the corner of the second floor of the second sand plant. At that time, the whole building housed dozens of people. We held meetings right around the corner of the second floor, sitting around a table tennis table. For accommodation, the male dormitory was borrowed from Building No. 10 of Ersha, where we lived with two sand workers. We ate in the two-sand canteen, which is now the bathing area. It can be said that the living and working conditions were quite basic back then.
The work of the grinding room was closely related to the use of abrasives, as well as grinding wheel factories, machinery factories, military factories, and light industry plants. This often required field visits and scientific experiments, meaning frequent business trips. Before the 1980s, the time spent traveling for work was almost equal to the time spent at the unit. In the 1970s, transportation was extremely limited. There were only a few trains going to Shanghai, and most of them didn’t even have seat or sleeper tickets. Sometimes I would buy a ticket, but when the train arrived, I couldn’t get on. Some people tried to squeeze through the doors, while others climbed into the open windows and stood in the aisles. I once experienced this. I would bring newspapers or plastic sheets and lie down on the next seat to make it more comfortable than standing. If I had a sleeper ticket to Zhengzhou or elsewhere, I had to queue up early to buy it from the pre-sale window at Erqi Road. That was the only pre-sale available in Zhengzhou at the time. On some trips, I couldn’t find a hostel. Many hotels had "full" signs, and sometimes I ended up sleeping in the station waiting room or at a nearby bathhouse after midnight. These were common experiences during business trips.
From 1966 to 1968, we conducted tests on the selection and use of diamond grinding wheels under Comrade Yan Wenhao’s leadership. I was one of the participants. The test took place in the cutting lab of the Wuhan Machine Tool Plant. We stayed in the single dormitory of the factory, and I lived in the westernmost room on a double bed near the door, facing the west wall. During that time, there was a big fire in Wuhan, and we endured two hot summers. There were no air conditioners or fans, so the factory provided bamboo chairs for us. In the evenings, we would move the chairs downstairs to cool off. When it got too hot, some people moved their chairs to the river to sleep. I did that too, returning to the dormitory only at dawn. Some nights, I took cold showers twice, just to feel less sweaty. I really experienced the intense heat of a Wuhan summer.
The production testing of the project was also carried out in the Harbin No. 1 Tool Factory and the Second Tool Factory. I went alone during the cold winter and stayed in a small hotel near the Second Tool Factory. The room had no heating—only a stove. There were no buses, so I walked about 20 minutes to the factory. The inside was warm, but outside was freezing. After returning, my legs developed arthritis, and even now, they still feel uncomfortable. The coldest day was when I was in Nanjing during winter. It was snowing heavily with strong winds. Lao Yan and I stayed in a small hotel. Although we had thin quilts, the room was poorly insulated, and snowflakes drifted in. We didn’t warm up that night and left the next day. Through this experience, Lao Yan taught me how to write project summaries and conduct independent experiments. He also found a girlfriend and eventually married her.
I also had to return to Zhengzhou to claim reimbursement for train tickets. In the mid-1970s, I was involved in a four-year research cooperation with the Grinding Research Institute in Shanghai Machine Tool Plant. The project was about controlled grinding. During the four years in Shanghai, I returned to Zhengzhou two or three times a year. Once, I bought a sleeper ticket back to Zhengzhou five days in advance, but two days later, the director of the “Shangji†research office asked me to attend an important meeting in Nanyang, Henan. At that time, there were only two flights per week from Shanghai to Zhengzhou. The fastest ticket available was one day after my sleeper ticket. The director suggested I could change the ticket for Master Lu, who could fly the next day. Since ID cards weren’t checked on planes back then, he offered to let Master Lu take the train with my ticket. I explained that I needed approval to fly, and I couldn’t go back for reimbursement. The director said it was easy—he would finish the meeting, then change the ticket back. I could still use the train ticket to claim reimbursement. So, the first time I flew was reimbursed with a train ticket.
During the Cultural Revolution, there are three moments I can never forget. First, when I joined a revolutionary rebel group and attended a mass meeting in the city, the truck borrowed by Sanmo was overcrowded. As we turned onto Bishagang, the speed was high, and the centrifugal force pulled open the baffle. Most people were thrown out, and I was standing at the side panel, at the bottom. I suffered injuries to my arms and legs, and it took several months to recover. Second, when I joined a task force and traveled to cities like Beijing, Shenyang, Dalian, Qingdao, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guilin, Guangzhou, Guiyang, Kunming, and Xi’an. Traveling by ship from Shanghai to Nanjing was smooth, but the sea voyage from Qingdao to Shanghai was rough. Waves made the ship sway violently, and many people vomited. I didn’t vomit, but I felt dizzy. Traveling to so many places was a rare opportunity, and I met many people along the way. Third, during the Cultural Revolution, several people in the grinding room were attacked by the Gang of Four. Three people were forced to commit suicide. One of them was a colleague I worked with in the small office below for years. He was from Shanghai, a great person, and his death remains a painful memory.
The grinding room is a highly educated and talented department. There are eight graduate students and two doctors. The graduates include Li Changze, Su Yuhua, Yan Wenhao, Wang Wenjing, Wu Yuying, Qi Zhi, Zhu Feng, and Feng Keming. The Ph.D.s are Li Changze and Zhu Feng. The department also has the most leaders, including six deputy general managers, chief teachers, and directors such as Qian Weigui, Li Changze, Yan Wenhao, Wang Wenjing, Qi Zhi, and Zhu Feng. Qian Weigui, the former director of the grinding department, served as deputy general manager, chief engineer, and director. Li Changze, the former director, was transferred to the province and then to his hometown in Sichuan. Among the three directors (Qian, Yan, Zhu), Zhu Feng has led the most changes. Many colleagues in the grinding room have obtained senior professional titles. I received support and training from everyone, from starting projects to completing tasks independently, from national-level to ministerial-level projects, and I’ve improved both technically and professionally. I've published numerous academic papers in five national journals. In 1993, I was awarded the title of Senior Engineer by the Ministry of Mechanical and Electronic Industry.
With the continuous development of science and technology, the grinding room projects and personnel have evolved. Most have transitioned to diamond rollers, composite blade cutters, small saw blades, and cubic boron nitride grinding wheels, expanding into many new areas.
Looking at the changes over the past ten years, the original dozens of cotton spinning mills, printing and dyeing factories, gear factories, and cable factories in the western suburbs have all gone bankrupt, leaving many workers unemployed. Under the leadership of the young team represented by Zhu Feng, “San Mo†has expanded its production base. Products are now sold abroad, and output value increased from over 10 million yuan to 200 million yuan in 2012—about twenty times higher. Thinking about these positive changes, as a retired worker who has contributed for over 50 years, I feel proud and happy to see the transformation from old to new, a thriving and dynamic scene.
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