Hou Debang is one of the giants filmed in the second season of "Centennial Masters".
Hou Debang (1890-1974), a native of Minhou, Fujian. Famous scientist, chemist, pioneer of China's heavy chemical industry, one of the founders of modern chemical industry, and the authority of the world's alkali industry. He made three major contributions to chemical technology in his lifetime: first, he unveiled the secrets of solvay; second, he founded Chinese his own alkali production process - Hou's alkali method; third, he advocated the use of carbonization to obtain ammonium bicarbonate, which contributed to the development of small fertilizer industry. He actively disseminated and exchanged science and technology, cultivated many scientific and technological talents, and made outstanding contributions to the development of science and technology and the chemical industry. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hou Debang was elected as a member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (now an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), and successively served as vice minister of the Ministry of Chemical Industry and other important positions.
Soda ash is an important chemical raw material, and many industries need to use a large amount of alkali. Hou Debang is the founder of China's modern chemical industry, in the 1920s to participate in the construction of Asia's first soda ash plant ——— Yongli alkali plant, breaking the foreign blockade monopoly in alkali technology; in the 30s presided over the construction of Nanjing ammonium sulfate plant with the world's advanced level; in the 40s and 50s, he invented a new process for continuous production of soda ash and ammonium chloride, as well as a new process for making ammonium bicarbonate fertilizer, and realized industrial production in the 60s, which wrote a brilliant page for the development of China's chemical industry. In 1949, he attended the First National Political Consultative Conference, served as vice minister of the Ministry of Chemical Industry, vice chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, and was elected as a deputy to the First to Third National People's Congress.
China Post issued a stamp in honor of Mr. Hou Debang
Industry saves the country stepping into the door of "Yongli."
Hou Debang (1890~1974), a native of Minhou, Fujian. At the age of 13, he was admitted to the Fuzhou Yinghua College of the American Church. Although he received a Western-style education, he felt that the foreigners in Fuzhou did not pay attention to equality in the Chinese, and everywhere they flaunted their might and humiliated Chinese. Later, Hou Debang was expelled from the school for participating in activities against the PERSECUTION of overseas Chinese by the US government and transferred to a middle school run by the patriot Chen Baochen. He realized that China must strive to be strong, and gradually established the ideals of "saving the country through science" and "saving the country through industry." In 1907, Hou Debang was sent to shanghai to study at the Minwan Railway School, and after graduation, he worked as an intern on the British-funded Jinpu Railway. In 1911, he quit his job and was admitted to the Higher Education Department of Tsinghua University. During his studies, he once scored a good score of 100 points in 10 homework courses, which caused a sensation in Tsinghua Garden. After graduating from Tsinghua School in 1912, he went to the United States to study.
At the beginning of the 20th century, chemical industry was still a rising discipline in the world. Hou Debang developed a strong interest in chemical engineering, and successively studied chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University, and after eight years of hard study, he obtained a doctorate in tannery in 1921. His doctoral thesis "Iron Salt Tanning Leather" was specially serialized in full text by the Journal of the American Society of Tannery Chemists, and has become one of the classic documents still cited in the tannery industry.
When Hou Debang was about to return to China after completing his studies, he met Chen Tiaofu, a chemical expert who was visiting the United States, in New York. Chen Qiaofu valued Hou Debang's profound knowledge and down-to-earth work, and recommended him to work at Tanggu Yongli Alkali Plant, the first alkali plant in China that was under construction———. Although Hou Debang studied tanning, in order to revitalize the industry of the Chinese nation, he finally made up his mind to engage in alkali production, chose to return to China as the technician (that is, chief engineer) of The Yongli Alkali Factory, and began more than half a century of scientific salvation and industrial salvation of the country.
Break through the blockade and uncover the secret of the "Solvay Alkali Method"
To start a business, you first need the spirit of hard work. Hou Debang took off his suit and changed into overalls and rubber shoes, and took the lead in operating with the workers. Wherever there was a problem, he appeared wherever he went, often sweating profusely, winning the admiration and admiration of the workers and even foreign technicians.
At that time, the Solvay alkali method was prevalent, but foreign countries adopted strict confidentiality measures, and many people's explorations mostly ended in failure. After 5 years of arduous exploration, Hou Debang finally mastered the technical essentials of Solvay's alkali production method, which can produce 180 tons of soda ash per day. In 1926, the "Red Triangle" brand soda ash produced by the Yongli Alkali Factory won a gold medal for China at the Philadelphia World Exposition in the United States, and was known as "the symbol of China's modern industrial progress".
After Hou Debang explored the mystery of the alkali-making method, he did not take it for himself and make a fortune, but published it to the public, so that the world could share this scientific and technological achievement. To this end, he wrote all the techniques of the alkali method and his own practical experience into a monograph "Soda Ash Manufacturing", which was included in the American Chemical Society series in New York in 1933. This chemical masterpiece for the first time thoroughly disclosed the secret of Solvay's alkali production, and was recognized by the chemical industry in various countries in the world as an authoritative monograph on the alkali industry, and was translated into a variety of languages and published, which played an important role in the development of the world alkali industry. Wilson, a famous American chemist, called this book "a major contribution made by Chinese chemists to world civilization." Until 2004, the ideas in the book were cited in the Citation Index of Science (SCI).
Groping forward to create the "Hou's alkali method"
In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in full swing, and the Japanese army threatened "factory safety" three times and put forward the requirements of "cooperative" management. Hou Debang and his colleagues were awe-struck by their righteousness, insisting on "preferring to mourn rather than paying tribute" and refusing to "cooperate"; at the same time, they actively responded to the front line of the War of Resistance and supported the front, and used factory facilities to convert ammonium nitrate explosives and other materials. The Wynn alkali plant was bombed by Japanese aircraft and forced to move to Sichuan.
The fatal disadvantage of Solvay's alkali production method was that the utilization rate of table salt was not high, and about 30% of the salt was wasted, and the price of salt in the mainland was expensive at that time. Hou Debang decided to take a new path. He experimented while groping, constantly designing and improving the program, leading the technicians to conduct more than 500 experiments, analyzing more than 2,000 samples, and finally achieved success. This new method was named "combined alkali production method", that is, the later "Hou's alkali production method", which could increase the utilization rate of salt to 96%, and the waste that polluted the environment was converted into fertilizer ——— ammonium chloride, creating a new era in the world alkali industry. Hou de Bang was named an honorary member of the Royal Chemical Society and the American Chemical Engineering Society.
Since the mid-1950s, the construction of new China has urgently needed fertilizers, focusing on the key issue of the selection of ammonia processing varieties. Hou Debang proposed the use of carbonization method to synthesize ammonia process to produce ammonium bicarbonate fertilizer, after years of exploration and practice, this new process has passed the technical and economic barriers. After that, it was rapidly promoted throughout the country and made indelible contributions to the development of China's agriculture.
Hou Debang always remembered that he was a Chinese, and in the face of flowers and applause, he said calmly: "All my inventions belong to the motherland!" "He fought all his life for the cause of China's chemical industry, and worked hard until the last breath of his life."
Article source | Tsinghua University
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The large-scale cultural project "Centennial Masters" is China's first large-scale series of biographical documentaries focusing on the masters and masters who made outstanding contributions to Chinese civilization in the 20th century, and is jointly produced by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the Central Radio and Television Corporation, the China Academy of Arts, the Central New Film Group, the China Literature and Art Foundation, and the Centennial Masters (Beijing) Cultural Communication Co., Ltd.
"Centennial Masters" is the "Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture Inheritance and Development Project" of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, the General Office of the State Council and the Central Propaganda Department, which has been selected for two consecutive years as the "Record China" communication project of the Propaganda Department (Information Office of the State Council), the key topic planning project of the "14th Five-Year Plan" documentary of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the key documentary celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party, the "Recording the New Era" documentary boutique project and the key documentary project (2018), and the major theme main line publicity and key topic selection project of CCTV. It is also funded by the National Arts Fund, the China Literature and Art Foundation, the China Art and Culture Foundation, the Beijing Municipal Government Cultural Innovation and Development Fund, the Beijing Culture and Art Fund, the Beijing Radio and Television Network Audiovisual Development Fund, and the Beijing Xicheng District Cultural and Art Creation Support Special Fund. It has won 9 documentary awards.
From 2013 to 2017, the filming of 43 masters in the first season of "100 Years of Masters" has been completed, which is divided into art, calligraphy, Peking Opera, drama, music and literature. The filming of 57 masters in the second season of "Centennial Masters" has been launched in 2018, adding science and technology, education, traditional Chinese studies, architecture, traditional Chinese medicine, opera and film, which are scheduled to be completed in 2021, when the "100 Years, 100 People, 100 Episodes" documentary, "100 Masters Special Exhibition" and "100 Books Publishing" will be used as a gift for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.
The completed documentary "100 Years of Masters" has been broadcast on CCTV (one set, three sets, four sets, nine sets, ten sets, fifteen sets, discovery channels, international channels), China Education Television, provincial satellite television, overseas television stations and other 134 TV stations at home and abroad, which have been widely praised and have repeatedly set a new high in the ratings of similar documentaries. "100 Years of Masters (International Edition)" is broadcast worldwide in 8 languages.
CCTV Market Research Co., Ltd. (CTR) in July 2020 According to the statistical results of CSM National Measuring Instrument, "Centennial Masters" reached a total of 10.2 billion people.
The series of books "100 Years of Masters" has been distributed to nearly 1,000 colleges and universities across the country for three consecutive years by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the Ministry of Finance as a "High Art entering the campus" study book.
"Centennial Masters" has become one of the most high-end phenomenon-level brands in the field of culture, and with its unique advantages, it has built an important platform for disseminating China's excellent traditional culture, interpreting and displaying cultural self-confidence, and practicing the core values of socialism.