Apollo

Prepared by Peter Lichang Kuo

The old movie "Apollo 13" starring Tom Hanks is being released again, and the past was vividly remembered after watching it -- the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union actually led to an extremely poor family turning over on an unknown island. No one can predict anything on earth; but when a Sign comes, as long as a person works hard enough, he can always create a miracle.

* Stills of Tom Hanks as astronaut Lovell in the space capsule

After World War II, all countries in the European battlefields were rebuilding from the ruins, but America was living a happy time with plenty of food and clothing; parties would be held in various houses in turn every week to watch popular programs on TV. At that time, the popular program in the United States was "Space Dreams". In the movie, you can see astronaut Jim A. Lovell, Jr. (1928~) played by Tom Hanks, lively greeting guests in the house and discussing hot topics. After the guests left, the couple looked up at the stars in the yard and dreamed of flying into space. Soon later, Lovell actually led two crew members to break through the atmosphere on Apollo 13 and roam freely in outer space.

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the "Sputnik" satellite, which passed through the atmosphere and entered space ahead of the United States. On July 29, 1958, U.S. President Dwight David Eisenhower (1890~1969) issued an emergency signed the “National Aeronautics and Space Act”, established "NASA" (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), and built an aviation and space science research center. It started operation in October 1958. The United States' Global Positioning System (GPS) was also developed in 1958 and launched in 1964. Today, it is a high-precision, all-weather dual-use satellite system with global coverage of 98%.

* The logo of NASA

On May 25, 1961, subsequent President John F. Kennedy (1917~1963) announced his support for the Apollo Program during a special session of the House and Senate, he said: "...I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. ----" Sure enough, on July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. Then at 2:56 a.m. on July 21, the spacecraft successfully landed on the moon. Neil A. Armstrong (1930~2012) became the first person in history to set foot on another planet beyond the earth, and successfully returned to the earth a week later. When Armstrong set foot on the moon, he said: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." It shocked the global audiences watching the broadcast on television and became a famous saying.

* The logo of Apollo Program

The Apollo 13 rocket was the seventh manned mission of the “Apollo Program” and the third lunar landing attempt. It took off from the Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but was forced to abort Moon landing mission two days later due to an oxygen bottle failure in the service module. Nevertheless, the astronauts drove the spacecraft around the Moon until they returned safely to Earth on April 17. The “Apollo Program” ended at the end of 1972, although no manned spacecraft has left the Earth's orbit in more than 50 years; but satellites have gradually become closely related to people's lives due to the space race. So far (2024) everyone in the civilized world is inseparable from "Space Satellites". The most honorable thing is that the products I made by myself can participate in it.

* The author supplied fine parts to Apollo from 1966 to 1972

In 1962, when the United States was fully implementing the Apollo Program, when I was only 9 years old, I was lying in a pool of blood after being killed by a serious assassination. Suddenly a light shone into my heart, and my whole brain suddenly opened up, and I saw clearly the reason why my family so poverty: My father was a genius in craftsmanship, but he always said, "What! Mass production, isn't that an insult to my wisdom?" In addition, Chiang Kai-shek came to Taiwan to arrest those communist spies, and he was actually involved in a long lawsuit for rescuing a spy. Every time, when he received a summon, he would slump in the corner of wall and then yell: "Fuck X! I will be arrested to shot. Why shall I make any money! ---" My mother proudly she was an “illiteracy” (Qing-min Cow) and said that she was a boss’s wife after married, not here to do hard work; unexpectedly, "bad luck to marry the wrong guy." What the two have in common was that "neither is willing to learn Mandarin" and "has no motivation to make money." The family's livelihood only depended on cutting paper with my grandmother's little scissors. There were so many people eating, it was no wonder the family to be poor.

* The family only survived on my grandmother’s paper cuttings

After I stood up from a pool of blood, I followed my father closely during my spare time, watching carefully how he used the grinder, grinded out usable drills and files, and made objects on the drilling press. Since 1963, I have been able to install molds on the punch press alone and make some simple products. Furthermore, "the Biography of Edison" presented by my cousin brother Yang Shi-rong made me get to know Mr. Michael Faraday, and I also began to learn to apply the knowledge in the book to strengthen my craftsmanship. I made much efforts to hone my skills every moment, so that I could make things very skilfully and easily in a groove, and hoping that one day I would be able to make money to improve the situation.

To Tatung Company in Taipei, my father and I were defrauded of all our money, so we had to go to Tai-En Hospital to borrow money. That night, my cousin uncle introduced a machine "Television" to us. After returning to Tainan, my father suddenly became full of energy and took me to Yamuliao Market to find someone to initiate a "Mutual Fund" for NT$ 10,000 totally. He invented the automatic punching machine and the progressive deep-drawing dies to manufacture "Precision Eyelets". During that period, I watched my father make unique samples one after another from scratch. Unfortunately, no one came to buy them year after year. He sighed that "Oh, what a waste! How can we make a bunch of waste!" Moreover, he received a notice of defeat (loss of lawsuit); in November 1965, he pulled me drop out of school and got on the back of motorcycle which made by himself, and the father and son ran away from Tainan to Kaohsiung.

I rented No. 16 Chong-Hsing Street behind the National Market in Kaohsiung City and built a small factory which material was “Bagasse board”, Soon later my father returned to Tainan, he was maliciously arrested and imprisoned. I started calling my small factory "Cheng Kuang Metal Works". From clips for plucking hair/ butcher knives to the hinges of repairing the World Ballroom's doors, I made a lot of miscellaneous products to earn money for my mother to use for keeping my family alive. The most gratifying thing was that my father, who had always been muddle while he was in prison, actually agreed me to give Kaohsiung up and move back to Tainan.

Although my father invented the entire process of making precision Eyelets, he relied solely on his genius and never refer to a book. Therefore, the progressive dies automatically punched out less than a hundred products before it was ruined. "Adjustment" became the biggest problem and it was impossible to do mass production. In the airtight space of bagasse boards, I learned the way of "the mind is calm and naturally cool", During my meditation, I figured out the "U-shaped Copying Method" to replace my father's manufacturing process, making it possible to smoothly punch up to one million pieces in a row. Later, I also studied with Lau-Chen of the copper factory to extend the length of the copper plates to increase production capacity.

When everything was ready, one day in November 1966, I was about to go out to find a purchase order, a huge figure filled the wooden door when I opened the door. It turned out that it was an American who took a translator with him. He ran all the way from the hardware store in Kaohsiung to the pork stall in the National Market and to the Fuxin Fragrance Shop on Cheng Kong Road in Tainan. He walked into the narrow Chong-an Street with great suspicion, he happened to meet me at the No. 45 (later reorganized into 69). If the "Wanlong Electric Toy Factory" had not closed down and I still went to work, I wouldn't have met this American. Therefore, the good luck was still required -- the silent guidance of the Most High.

Understanding the objects expressed in the Americans' drawings, I asked them to come the day after tomorrow get "sample", and I planned to make a physical object for them. They left with doubtful expressions on their faces, and I actually gave them samples of what I had made when they came back the day after tomorrow. American was ecstatic when he received the samples, like a child who got the toy he desired; After a month of back and forth, I actually got an order worth NT$ 100,000. It was completed in just five days, making a net profit of NT$ 90,000. When I went to the Yamuliao market to pay back the money, those aunts and uncles said that "Ah, you are going to be successful!"

* The author (13 years old) who made NT$ 90,000 and his products

The above few sentences can be used to describe a fate-changing transaction, but in fact, the process of that month was extremely difficult. If it were not for perseverance, it would be impossible to complete the said transaction. First of all, my mother cursed me every day, said that "You are not doing your job properly and want to do business with American delusionally." She mocked me: "If you don't wide-open your eyes, your testicles will be quickly removed!" Secondly, I only had one machine tool -- an old "Drilling Press" with no precision. So when I went to Mr. Stone, Li-Chen Company to buy steel and iron, I had to quickly go to find A-Yi to plane them to be plates with a planer. Then I went to find A-Chin to use a lathe to turn the required "pins" and bring them back for processing. I still had to find Jin Quancheng to make copper plates of the specified thickness. All the hardware--drills, files, bolts and nuts were on credit. All the mold making was done with bare hands, meanwhile I wrote a new chapter in the "Kuo Family's Turn Over".

* Lichang Kuo's handmade mold by a drill press for turn over from poverty

Later, in 1979, when Mr. Lane, the said American, invited me to dinner at Twin-tower in New York, he said, "I had been looking for suppliers in Taiwan for more than half a year, and I found a kid at last!" He said that he had contacted suppliers in the United States and Japan but had no answers. If he could not find a supplier in Taiwan, he would have to pack up and go home. Unexpectedly, he actually got the sample two days later, and I met all their stringent requirements one by one. In the end, he thought the most amazing thing was that I was able to make an English "Approval Sheet" for him, so that he could successfully obtain the order for "Apollo" and issue the order to me.

During the next two years from 1967 to 1968, I only made "Fine Eyelets" of various sizes and built the first house for the Kuo family at Lane 451, Park Road, Tainan City, which had been overturned by those evildoers for 37 years. After moving away from Chung-An Street in 1969, everyone happily moved into the house on Park Road. All kinds of debauchery behavior started to appear one after another, and I had to think hard about "the elimination of vacuum tubes" and the transformation of the industry. Fortunately, the Apollo Program was still in full swing. In July 1969, Neil Armstrong successfully landed on the moon, and NASA continued to push forward; however, "Apollo 13" was forced to abort the moon landing mission in April 1970 due to an oxygen bottle failure in the service module. It was not until the end of 1972 that the Apollo Program finally ended.

Since 1969, the electronic and electrical industry had been in deep dilemma, but I still had the energy to help those who have helped me in trouble; In particular, Factory Director Zhuang of Yong-Fu Electric Company, came to Cheng Kuang of Park Road almost every day, and I helped them develop various new products for free; fortunately, my client Mr. Lane said: "We are still good luck to have orders from Apollo." For example, when NASA discovered that there would be electromagnetic interference between electronic components, we always made the solutions they needed within a day or two to solve the problem, and let high-end research institutions in the United States see "Taiwan's Capabilities." And then, my nickname "Dr. Blacksmith" spread from an American to the entire industry.

* There was still good luck to have Apollo's order in 1970

Taiwan’s industry may have the best will to survive in the world! Mr. Chen Yong-tian of Yong-Fu Electric Company had developed several failed products, but he still made much efforts to move forward despite the tough road; because when my father was imprisoned, he once bought NT$ hundreds of my products, so I helped him develop new products for free, and also assisted them to New York to resolve the issue of "broken electric fan" incident, and brought back a "Transistor Portable Recorder" sample -- this was the key to the successful transformation of Taiwan's industry since 1971. Soon, Mr. Chen's "Lucky" brand was selling well in the United States, and we started another wave of Taiwan's economic miracle in 1972, almost all the "Switches" used in them were my masterpieces, ranking top one in market share. As for whether there was "Apollo Program" or not, it would not affect our progress at all.

* Kuo's switch products with the top 1 market share in the 1970s

In 1970, I went to the home of my American friend Mr. Dieska in Kaohsiung and helped him move his audio appliance while sweating profusely. He asked me if I could make a "Quick-Disconnector", then those wires didn’t have to take the trouble of removing; After much research, we modified an RCA socket for "Audio" and "Video" -- called it an "AV Connector". With the addition of a switch and a terminal board, these three small components became our money-making tools. After being robbed in 1973, I was able to purchase land on my own to establish "Cheng Kuang Precision Industry Co., Ltd." in 1974—when I was 21 year-old, laying the foundation for the development of Taiwan's Precision Industry and helping Mr. Lane successfully listed on the NYSE, bridging the road between Taiwan and Silicon Valley.

* Creating Taiwan’s Precision Industry from scratch

When I went to America to develop "Satellite Receiver" in 1979, I taught my colleagues in the United States precision processing techniques. In 1982, I came to Taipei due to my property was robbed for the second time. I spread the knowledge, technology, experience, and application materials needed to run "Precision Industry" in Northern Taiwan. I wrote books and proclaim the benefits of social responsibility investment, and the "Rich Taiwan Plan" launched to achieve the glorious 1980s and 1990s. In addition to Taiwan's outstanding economic performance, Taiwan has also transformed politically from authoritarianism to an open society where the people are the head of the country.

* Symposium of "Rich Taiwan Plan"

The "Satellite Receiver" we brought to the earth had been commercially available since 1986, and "Space Satellites" have become closely related to people's lives. My wife Linda Din served as a Speaker at APEC 1998 and attained the bill of "Steering the E-Commerce", triggering a turbulent global e-commerce wave. We were by means of aerospace-grade technology to bring the world into a new era of "Contactless".

* APEC Invitation to be a Speaker in 1998

After the ".com" bubble in Silicon Valley, California, in 2000, many people invested in the production of "Portable Digital Assistant" (PDA), but all lost their money; Therefore, when I was invited to attend the APEC CEO Summit 2006 in Hanoi, I advocated that "Satellite Support for Mobile Communicators." Nowadays, the e-commerce systems (TES) have become a necessity of life, and everyone in the civilized world is inseparable from space satellites. A status where people use it daily but don’t know it.

* Advocating "Satellite Support" at APEC CEO Summit

In short, the "Apollo Program" accomplished the upgrade of vacuum tubes to the universal use of transistors, also contributed to the vigorous development of the semiconductor industry, and promoted the research of superconductors;　turned the vainly rocket landing on the moon, into the development of "Space Satellites" that were actually beneficial to people's livelihood. Computers have also been upgraded from Mini Computer in the laboratory to Personal Computer (PC).　It has evolved from a 286-type computer that crashed before finishing typing A4 paper, to a portable notebook computer　in high performance, and may even develop into a palm-type multi-functional AI computer in the future.　However, the excessive development of science and technology, should we also consider the social value of humanities?

Peter Lichang Kuo, the author created Taiwan's Precision Industry in his early years. He was a representative of the APEC CEO Summit and an expert in the third sector. He advocated "anti-corruption (AC)/cashless/e-commerce (E-Com)/ICT/IPR/IIA-TES / Micro-Business (MB)…and etc." to win the international bills and regulations.