Era: Craftsmen in the Siheyuan

Chapter 106 Gramophone

The wooden box is not big, but it is larger than the previous wooden box of the mineral radio. It is like a suitcase.

However, this wooden box is not well preserved. There are traces of being gnawed by mice and there are some cracks on it. I don’t know where the seller emptied it out from.

Xu Deyong pointed and said, "Comrade, can you show me this?"

After the staff greeted the customers at hand, they smiled and said, "This thing is a few years old. Someone brought it here for sale a few days ago. It's in bad condition and it's broken. Not many people have asked about it."

The things were placed on the counter and Xu Deyong opened it. It was a hand-cranked gramophone from the Republic of China period, and there was a rough-grained round record on the turntable.

Xu Deyong said: "Can I shake it?"

"Of course." The staff member said with a smile: "Don't look at him like this, the seller wants to ask for a high price."

Xu Deyong shook it twice and asked, "How much?"

"Ten dollars." the staff said.

Xu Deyong nodded and said: "The quality is so bad, it is indeed a bit expensive."

He shook it twice and found it was very loose. The spring inside was not tightened. He looked at the tone arm and cartridge. They should still be in good condition. Even though the needle was a little worn, it was not a big problem.

As for other issues, we need to take them apart to see the problems.

It's just that most people can't solve the problem of the clockwork inside. Xu Deyong himself is also troubled, but there are two old men in his courtyard who are "helpful"!
Others don't have a high chance of repairing it, but he has it, this record, the needle...

The staff naturally wanted to make a deal. Seeing Xu Deyong's hesitation, he said, "Comrade, if you have any concerns, why don't you just tell me?"

Xu Deyong said casually: "I am interested in buying it back and repairing it, but there is only one record, and the needle is worn..."

The staff said: "As long as you are willing to buy, these are not problems."

After that, he knelt down and searched again, and quickly found a pack of records sealed with paper and said: "These are old records that I collected before. If you want, I can pack them up and sell them to you. Here is another record that was torn from scraps." The needle came down..."

In the end, Xu Deyong spent 13 yuan and a half to buy these things, put the boxes on the tricycle, and rode home happily.

With new gadgets to play with, what else is there to do?
When I returned to the courtyard, it was almost time for dinner. I pushed the tricycle into the courtyard and walked home with my things in my arms.

The third aunt who was cooking saw him coming back from the window, and couldn't help but said to Yan Jiekuang who was standing aside: "Hey, what did Brother Yong come back with?"

Yan Jiekuang immediately opened the door and ran out to take a look. He only saw Xu Deyong's back. He rolled his eyes and said, "Let's see if Brother Deyong can get out this afternoon. If he doesn't, I'll go watch the excitement."

The third aunt said: "Take your sister with you."

Yan Jiekuang pouted and said, "I won't take her with me."

Yan Jiedi dropped the golden beans when she heard that she was wronged. Her parents were stingy, her three brothers were well-educated, and boys were generally favored over girls at this time. The little girl simply couldn't care less about her grandma than her uncle.

Hey, my life has become so transparent...

……

In the middle courtyard, Xiao Bangge was running around the yard with a paper pinwheel made of old newspapers. The paper pinwheel was spinning "whooshing", but the newspaper was too soft and the paper pinwheel occasionally turned poorly.

Qin Huairu and Auntie were sewing and mending in the sun, while chatting about one thing or another. Their double-lidded eyes glanced at the little stick from time to time.

Seeing Xu Deyong coming back with something in his arms, he couldn't help but said: "Deyong is back, what is this thing he is carrying?"

The aunt also cast a curious look.

Xu Deyong greeted them with a smile and said, "Hey, an old gramophone I bought from a commission store is broken. I'm thinking of buying it back for study."

"Gramophone?" The eldest mother's eyes lit up and she said, "It's the kind of machine that plays discs and can sing and act!"

"Yes, Auntie knows a lot." Xu Deyong said.

"You can fix this thing if it's broken?" the aunt asked in surprise.

Qin Huairu also looked over with a pair of watery eyes, with a touch of envy in her eyes, which seemed to be mixed with a little admiration.

The little stick had already run up to Xu Deyong, looking up curiously.

Xu Deyong touched Xiaobanggan's head and said vaguely: "It's hard to say now, I have to think about it. If you are busy, I will go back to the house and put things down."

After that, he went home.

This dumpling is so stuffed that I almost want to pierce it.

Xu Nanshi hadn't come back yet, so he put down his things, replaced the stove with a new briquette, and opened the door to let the fire start.

Then he moved the table towards the stove, found the tools, rubbed his hands and began to disassemble the hand-cranked gramophone.

Dumplings are what I want, and craftsmanship is what I want. You can’t have both. Those who give up dumplings to get skills...

For any machine with a spring barrel, such as phonographs and clocks, you cannot directly disassemble the movement splint. Instead, you must first loosen the spring.

If it is not loosened, the spring is still going strong. When the movement splint is disassembled, the spring suddenly loses its bonds and will cause the adjacent gears to fly away.

It may cause damage to the teeth of the gear, or it may injure people; if it hits the eyes, it will directly blind them.

Xu Deyong loaded the phonograph and moved the record tray clockwise with his hands until all the force in the spring was exhausted.

After relaxing, he removed the screws and took out the turntable. In fact, this thing was somewhat similar to a clock.

A clock has a dial, a gramophone has a turntable, a clock has a movement, and this also has a movement, which all require power to be wound...

The tone arm part of this old gramophone seems to be in good condition, but whether there is any problem will have to be turned around to determine.

The movement looks somewhat similar to the clock movement, but it is larger and has different structures and parts inside.

As soon as he "divided" the gramophone into pieces, Xu Nan came back.

She saw Xu Deyong placing parts everywhere on the table and asked, "What are you bringing back?"

Xu Deyong grinned and said, "The gramophone can keep singing."

Xu Nanshi's eyes lit up when he heard this and said, "Can you keep singing?"

She walked over and took a look and said suddenly, "Oh, it's a magnifying disc. It's not cheap. How much did you spend on it?"

Xu Deyong was already immune, so he opened his mouth and said: "This thing is broken. You can see that the box is cracked. It didn't cost a few yuan, but it will be worth it if I can repair it!"

Xu Nanshi said: "You may not be a good cultivator if you co-author it!"

Xu Deyong chuckled and said, "Let's feel our way here. That's all. Don't worry. I'm hungry."

Xu Nan left behind a sentence of "I'm not doing my job properly" and went off to cook.

She is now an old lady with a fortune of hundreds of dollars, and a few dollars... is not a lot.

But as the old saying goes, "It's better to buy worthless food than to buy food." It's better to buy something like this than to buy pastries and then lose them after eating.

No matter what the old lady thought, Xu Deyong put other things aside, "divided" the movement again, removed the transmission wheels and other things one by one, put the problematic ones aside, and then removed the upper and lower spring barrels. Take it apart again to reveal the clockwork inside.

This spring is much larger than the one in the clock, and it is harder and more elastic, but it has been broken into three sections.

Well, let’s leave this thing to the second uncle Liu Haizhong to repair it. Although his skills are worse than those of the first uncle Yi Zhonghai, repairing a clockwork is not a big problem.

He can take care of other things by himself.

Ever since he was "blackmailed" by him, the second uncle has kept a low profile, and he still doesn't know that his son betrayed him.

In the afternoon, I waited until he got off work and asked him to "keep in touch with each other"!
... After lunch, Xu Nan sat by the stove and watched Xu Deyong repair the gramophone. He took a nap for a while, woke up, and went to the neighborhood committee with the millet he was making.

In the courtyard, Yan Jiekuang and Liu Guangfu saw Xu Nan going out and Brother Deyong's tricycle was still parked in the courtyard. They took two sweet potatoes from the house and, under the pretext of roasting the potatoes on the stove, knocked on the door one by one and entered. Room.

Xu Deyong made three chapters: no moving, no making loud noises, and no disobeying him, otherwise you will all get lost.

Several melons immediately nodded their little heads.

Xu Deyong baked sweet potatoes for them and turned on the radio for them. Those who wanted to listen could take turns listening.

A few melon seeds suddenly stopped thinking about potatoes!

After a while, Xiaobangge also came in with his little head exposed. The small bench made by Xu Deyong had been divided up. His little eyes blinked and he lay on the edge of the table with his mouth pursed. He tilted his head and watched Xu Deyong clean the mechanism of the phonograph. Core, every small part is magical in his eyes.

Although Qin Huairu wanted to go in and have a look, she looked at Jia Zhang's narrowed bitch eyes and still didn't dare to go in.

In fact, it’s okay to go in. There are several children here. What else can Xu Deyong do?
After Xu Deyong made arrangements, he concentrated on doing his own thing. The shrapnel with the flying ball on the speed dial also had to be replaced. He went back to the grocery store to see if there was anything suitable.

After processing the movement, he also repaired the wooden box. He used sandpaper to polish the cracks and cracks in the wood, cut out a shallow V shape, applied glue, and filled it with sawdust. The same was true for the areas that had been gnawed by mice. operate.

After drying, sand it, then apply oil and color to restore the bright color of the wooden box...

Every step is a delicate job if you want to do it well.

During this period, he got up to move around, drank tea and rested for a while.

Several children were more comfortable than him, eating delicious roasted sweet potatoes, taking turns listening to the radio, and looking around in the warm room from time to time, but Xu Deyong had something to say first, so they didn't dare to touch it.

Brother Deyong is usually easy to talk to, but when it comes to fighting people, he is not ambiguous at all. This stupid Zhu has the most say!
I didn't see the child all afternoon, and the people in the courtyard didn't rush around looking for it. What stood out was a Buddhist...

……

When the sun set, the sound of "summoning" was heard in the courtyard, and Guawazi, who was hiding in Xu Deyong's house to watch the excitement, ran back home.

Hey, I have something to brag about for a while.

Xu Deyong packed up his things and came out to stretch out and relax.

When the aunt saw him coming out, she asked, "Deyong, you've been at home all afternoon, so what... has the gramophone been repaired?"

Xu Deyong smiled and said: "Auntie, how can it be so easy to repair things? Especially these precious things are more difficult to repair. You think too highly of me."

The eldest mother smiled and said: "That's the same reason. I don't want to wait for you to fix it. I don't want to hear any surprises."

Qin Huairu couldn't help but ask: "Is it not possible to repair it?"

At this time, Yi Zhonghai and the others came back from get off work.

Jia Dongxu heard this and said, "Huai Ru, what can't be repaired?"

Qin Huairu's eyes turned and said: "It's a broken old gramophone that Deyong bought from a commission store."

Xiaobanggan also said: "Dad, uncle is awesome, take it apart..."

Yi Zhonghai narrowed his eyes and said, "Gramophone? Deyong, you know a lot of things!"

Xu Deyong said with a smile: "I'm not as good as the elder, you are the master. I just disassemble and disassemble. Didn't I ask you for help last time for specific repairs?"

Liu Haizhong glanced at her expressionlessly before walking towards the backyard.

Xu Deyong said quickly: "Second uncle, please wait a moment. You can't trouble the first uncle all the time. Please help me fix something this time."

After that, regardless of whether Liu Haizhong responded or not, he turned around and went back to the house to get the clockwork box.

The corners of Liu Haizhong's mouth twitched, but he still stopped.

Yi Zhonghai couldn't help but glance at him in surprise, Hey, since when did Old Liu become so easy to talk to?

Xu Deyong took out the clockwork box and told Liu Haizhong, then handed it to him with a smile and said, "Sorry to trouble you, Second Master."

"Yes!" Liu Haizhong adjusted the music, nodded slowly and said, "I'll give it a try."

Hearing this, Xu Deyong took out a pack of Pegasus cigarettes from his pocket and handed it to him: "The second uncle is also the boss of the factory. I can't let your work go in vain."

Liu Haizhong's face brightened slightly when he saw this. He pushed it twice before accepting it and said, "Don't be so polite next time. We are all neighbors in the same hospital. I will bring it back to you after get off work tomorrow."

As for the specific meaning, the two of them laughed it off as they tacitly understood each other, and Liu Haizhong returned home with the clockwork box.

When Yi Zhonghai returned home, his aunt couldn't help but ask: "Old Yi, can you fix that thing?"

"Nonsense, of course I can repair it, and it's better than Old Liu's repair," Yi Zhonghai said.

The eldest mother said: "Then why doesn't Deyong find you to practice in a courtyard? Is it because of what happened before that I still have some opinions against you?"

Yi Zhonghai said angrily: "I'm not the roundworm in his stomach, how could I know?"

The aunt said: "I think that pack of cigarettes is not cheap..."

Yi Zhonghai said: "Okay, what about the two or three cents? Go ahead and cook and stop meddling in other people's affairs."

The eldest mother muttered: "You still talk about me..."

……

In the evening, Xu Deyong did not go to the tavern to drink. If he drank every day, he would not be a drunkard.

Although the boss lady is nice, you can’t be greedy!
He processed every detail of the gramophone again at home to achieve excellence.

The next day, February 230, [-], the first batch of [-] simplified characters was published by the People's Daily. More and more simplified characters were commonly used in writing. Although it caused dissatisfaction among some old scholars who were accustomed to writing traditional characters, Simplifying Chinese characters is the general trend.

The simplified characters of this period were called "One Simplification". In fact, in the 70s, the country also carried out "Second Simplification" on this basis.

Compared with the first simplified Chinese characters, which were also written in regular script and took into account the smoothness and beauty of Chinese character writing, the second simplified characters were left with simple writing, leaving behind the original structure and lacking the style of regular script and running script.

Some characters have had their tedious radicals removed, and some even have only one stroke left as a representative.

For example: simplify "street" to "亍".

The two simple characters only stayed on the stage of history for nine years before being abolished.

Many changes in history have evolved quietly and quietly!
Most people know only what they are allowed to know, and the saddest ones are those who think they know it all...

Xu Deyong had no idea whether it was sad or not. When he arrived at the goods station, he worked hard and felt that he could sleep peacefully after making enough money a day.

Finally, the bright green body of the cart caught people's attention, and he took a cart full of groceries purchased by the cargo owner. He went to Zuojiazhuang and carried them back and forth. He was there at noon and made a profit of one dollar and a half.

In the afternoon, I went to the entrustment store to pay for the watch. After deducting the 7% handling fee, I got another ninety-three yuan, which was the money I paid for the gramophone.

What else was there to do, I bought some thin shrapnel and tung oil, and then returned home...

Liu Haizhong returned the repaired barrel to him after get off work, and Xu Deyong couldn't wait to install it.

When Xu Nanshi returned home, she looked a little nervously as her grandson pretended to be ready.

The critical moment came. Xu Deyong shook the handle and released the brake. The tray began to rotate. Then he gently placed the tone arm with the needle replaced...

……

(End of this chapter)