Chapter 58: What Is Most Important in the Twentieth Century?

An enterprise's products must be forward-looking!

While founding the Leap Radio Laboratory, Li Yi'an did not put all his thoughts into Hedy Lamarr's frequency-hopping technology.

That technology was simply too advanced, a matter of purely exploratory research. As for the military's high demand for radio transceivers, he didn't even consider it and instantly dismissed the thought, because that market was long monopolized by giants like Motorola.

Let alone a foreigner like Li Yi'an wanting to intervene, even domestic American enterprises wishing to enter this industry had to face the suppression of monopolistic giants; conflicts of capital were always naked and brutal.

When Truman intervened in the submachine gun contract, he never once considered letting the "Avenger submachine gun" replace the M3 submachine gun. To a certain extent, it was for self-preservation, and on the other hand, it was to avoid harming internal interest groups.

Therefore, a newcomer with a yellow face opening a new company shouldn't even dream of taking a bite out of the lucrative pie of U.S. military orders.

Thus, when choosing his company's product, Li Yi'an chose the television!

Compared to the radio, the television was the true future!

After the war, televisions, which were once considered toys for the rich, could be produced on a large scale. Even if they sold for $100 or $200, those veterans who had just crawled out of muddy trenches still hauled them into their homes, eventually making their way into thousands of households and becoming an essential household appliance.

"Right now, it's just a luxury toy..."

Muttering to himself, he turned on the television. After warming up for nearly half a minute, the television finally displayed an image. Although the picture wasn't very clear, this seemingly inconspicuous small screen was destined to change the world.

After turning off the television, he picked up the circuit diagram on the table, observed it carefully for a while, and then Li Yi'an directly took his tools and dismantled the television.

Vacuum tubes were connected to various colored wires on the circuit board. Just as he finished dismantling the circuit board, a prompt popped up from the system.

[Dismantled television, Radio Experience +2, Lv1, 2/100]

I got experience just by taking apart a television?

Li Yi'an couldn't help feeling a bit pleased. This radio skill seemed easier to grind than other skills.

With experience rising so quickly, Li Yi'an became even more motivated. He picked up the soldering iron and quickly dismantled the entire television set completely.

"Since it's taken apart, let's reassemble it."

As a high-end product, the television's solder joints were precise. Soon, Li Yi'an very easily reassembled it.

[Assembled television, Radio Experience +8, Lv1, 10/100]

After the assembly was complete, Li Yi'an had already gained a thorough understanding of the television's structure. Finally, he cast his gaze toward the cathode-ray tube. Consisting of three parts—the electron gun, deflection yoke, and fluorescent screen—the cathode-ray tube was the core of television technology. Other things like circuit boards and vacuum tubes could hardly be considered black technology.

For this era, the true black technology was the cathode-ray tube. During the era of television development, many Eastern countries, including Soviet Russia, could not produce qualified cathode-ray tubes. Soviet televisions were even nicknamed bombs, causing tens of thousands of explosions or fires every year.

"If I want to catch the post-war wave of televisions, the key is still mastering cathode-ray tube technology."

Post-war television manufacturing was a major trend; the Japanese electronics industry achieved temporary glory entirely thanks to televisions. But what was the key to this trend?

It was the cathode-ray tube!

Without mastering the design and manufacturing technology of cathode-ray tubes, it was certainly a dead end.

A moment later, a smiling Li Yi'an dismissed the system prompt.

[Cathode-ray tube discovered. Cathode-ray tube manufacturing and design learned.]

However, after gaining a simple understanding of the knowledge regarding cathode-ray tube manufacturing and design, Li Yi'an's brow furrowed tightly. Even though that knowledge surprisingly included color cathode-ray tube technology, he couldn't smile.

The technologies involved were simply too complex, especially the manufacturing techniques.

"No wonder that as human society develops, inventors become fewer and fewer. A tiny cathode-ray tube involves so many technologies: the cathode-ray tube, glass bulb, phosphor powder, shadow mask..."

After just a brief calculation, Li Yi'an felt that investing in television manufacturing at the present moment was quite unrealistic. Let alone the extreme complexity of cathode-ray tube manufacturing technology, even if they were produced, market demand wouldn't keep up.

"Fine, let's accumulate technology first."

As for trends, being too early never works out, and being too late doesn't either. Knowing the future direction of development very well, Li Yi'an was clear about what he should do.

Powering on the television once more, watching the vacuum tube at the back of the cathode-ray tube light up like a bulb, and observing the glow emitted by the vacuum tube, Li Yi'an's lips curved upward slightly as he muttered to himself.

"Actually, the true trend is you!"

What was the true trend?

Not televisions, nor other electronic products, but semiconductors!

Whether it was televisions or other electronic products, none could do without semiconductors. One could even say that semiconductors directly determined the future of the world.

And right now, semiconductors—meaning transistors—had not yet been invented.

Well, he needed to poach some talent first.

What was most important in the twentieth century? Talent, of course!

Trying to find talent all by himself was clearly not very feasible. Li Yi'an directly and decisively chose a headhunting firm.

However, instead of hiring a headhunting firm to find talent for him, he decided to directly establish a headhunting firm of his own.

Why establish his own headhunting firm?

Actually, Li Yi'an's idea was very simple—to scour the world for talent, not just in the United States.

As a newly established enterprise, what was most important if it wanted to achieve breakthroughs in technology?

It needed talent and technology. Only thus could it grow rapidly.

Normally, trying to acquire talent and building a network would be extremely difficult, but now it was World War II!

This was the best opportunity.

At the end of World War II, the United States, as a victorious nation, not only frantically scoured the defeated nations for "hardware" such as machinery and weapons, but also spared no effort or hardship to poach "software" like advanced technology from the defeated nations, especially elite talent who had mastered advanced technology. They even established the "Alsos Mission" to secure scientific and technological elites from the defeated nations. They arrived secretly in Germany and, through great effort, captured many of Germany's renowned scientific and technological experts one by one.

In the end, those German scientists played extremely important roles in various industries. It was precisely because the United States employed Wernher von Braun, that German rocket expert, that they successfully sent three astronauts to the moon.

"Although I can't reach the level of the United States, as long as I seize the post-war opportunity and drink a bit of the broth, it will be enough for my company to grow into a behemoth."