Without Ye Shuhua in China, there would be no Beijing time, she is not only the "mother of Beijing time", but also the first female observatory director in China, but the early Ye Shuhua went to the Nanjing Observatory to seek employment and was rejected.

China without Ye Shuhua, there will be no Beijing time, she is not only the "mother of Beijing time", but also the first female observatory director in China, but the early Ye Shuhua went to the Nanjing Observatory to seek employment and was rejected, almost rubbing shoulders with the astronomical community.

In 1950, shortly after the founding of New China, Ye Shuhua, who graduated from the Department of Mathematics of Sun Yat-sen University, taught in Hong Kong, and she insisted on returning to the mainland to build a new China despite her father's objections.

That summer, she handed a cover letter to the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, only to be told: "We only recruit one man." Ye Shuhua's fiery temper immediately came up, and he wrote a letter to the Purple Mountain Observatory with a pen, saying 5 reasons in one breath to prove that he was the best candidate.

Unexpectedly, her move shocked Zhang Yuzhe, the director of the observatory at the time, and the 5 reasons in the letter also persuaded him to make an exception to hire Ye Shuhua, and she finally entered the Shanghai Xujiahui Observatory belonging to the Purple Mountain Observatory as she wished.

But later Ye Shuhua said, "After really entering the field of astronomical research, she once wanted to escape." It turned out that the astronomical research work she thought was not romantic, and it was even boring and arduous.

The Xujiahui Observatory was the only time service desk in the country at that time, and Ye Shuhua was responsible for the work of accurate timing here. Usually more than 20 stars are observed overnight. Then the stargazing data is converted into time and sent out by radio.

In the observation room stargazing, as soon as it gets dark, you have to open the roof to let the equipment dissipate heat. In the summer, mosquito bites are full of leg bags, and can only be wearing long-sleeved trousers to cope with it. In the winter, Ye Shuhua was so numb that her hands and feet were numb by the biting cold wind, otherwise her fingers would not be sensitive when operating the telescope, and she could only constantly rub her hands and feet to keep warming.

At that time, the Xujiahui Observatory was old, lacking in talent, backward technology, and the timing technology was at the last level in the world, and the standard time provided could not map and map accurate latitude and longitude, and without this data, it was even impossible to draw an accurate map of China.

At one point she wanted to give up such boring and hard work, but what happened afterwards ignited her great enthusiasm for the astronomical cause.

Once, Ye Shuhua sent the time measurement results to the International Time Bureau as usual, and not long after receiving a reply from the other party, the letter asked: "Why does your time measurement data fluctuate every half a month?" Ye Shuhua immediately responded to this problem to the superior leader, who said: "Xiaoye, we have been measuring time like this, and it is normal to have a little error." ”

Ye Shuhua never forgot the doubts in the letter, and after repeated consideration, she found that there were 15-day cycle correction values that were not added, and the technology at that time could not correct those values, so there would be fluctuations every half a month.

It is precisely because of the gap between us and the world's leading level that Ye Shuhua's enthusiasm for astronomical observation has been rekindled, and she is secretly determined to make China's time measurement technology level at the forefront of the world!

In 1955, at a surveying and mapping work conference, an expert said mercilessly: "Without your results being good, using your results has ruined our work." Listening to this, Ye Shuhua's heart was extremely unpleasant, although he was angry, but what the other party said was also the truth, she was speechless, she had to listen honestly, eager to find a seam on the spot to drill into.

In 1958, the 32-year-old Ye Shuhua led the Xujiahui Observatory to start preparing for the construction of the mainland's own world-time integrated system, after 7 years of painstaking searching and trial, they finally adopted a unique method to solve the technical problems that have been unable to overcome.

In 1965, the mainland finally had its own comprehensive universal time system, and "Beijing time" came into being!

Ye Shuhua later told reporters: "Many people may not imagine that time has almost no impact on daily life by a minute and a half. However, in cutting-edge fields such as national defense and surveying and mapping, without the support of precise timing technology, it will be like the blind and the deaf. Thinking that this is of such great value to the development of the country, I just want to devote myself to my work wholeheartedly. ”

Facts have proved that the accuracy of Beijing time has leapt to the second place in the world, second only to the "universal time" of the Paris Observatory, and the mainland's precision timing technology has finally reached the world's forefront level under Ye Shuhua's lifelong efforts. Therefore, she is also known as the mother of "Beijing time".

Success is not achieved overnight, successful people have the resilience not to give up, as Ye Shuhua's mantra: "To do something, there is only 40% certainty at the beginning, if you stop there, it will slowly become 20%, and finally become zero." But by actively striving, you can turn it into 60%, 70%, and finally get things done. ”