Chapter 20: Lighters and Zippers???? The next morning, Stern rushed to Chen Xiaoqi's side with dark circles under his eyes. It seemed he hadn't slept well that night! Hmm, it wasn't strange when you thought about it. A twenty-something Jewish man who dreamed of making a fortune had low resistance to money. Since receiving the mediocre inheritance from his father, he was anxious every day. He didn't have any other assets besides this factory, no funds or better projects. This left him at a loss, and as an expert in dyeing, it was a business that required significant investment. The US market wasn't as good as China's, where you could start with little money. Even if he sold all the equipment from the factory, he couldn't afford decent machines to produce anything.

  Before coming to the United States, Chen Xiaoqi carefully planned his general development path for the future. The starting business is the most critical, which is an important pass for him to grab the first pot of gold. In his envisioned business empire, the dominant positions are still chemicals, steel, automobiles, shipbuilding, and electronics. This seems to be no different from everything in later generations, but there is a biggest problem here - research investment.

  In the 20th century, a large number of technologies that would have a profound impact on future generations had not yet been invented, which gave him a great opportunity. However, those technologies required massive funding to support their initial R&D, and at that time, no company had its own research laboratory. Most relied on universities or purely official academic researchers, with investments in astronomical figures, far beyond what could be solved with just millions of units. Chen Xiaoqi was not a god, and those major inventions he knew but didn't understand required large numbers of professional talent and facilities to conduct years of basic research. Therefore, the top priority was to establish an R&D institution that would continuously make inventions, rapidly materialize them, and then invest in invention research, seeking to achieve his ideal scale in the shortest possible time through this rolling development - he didn't have much time!

  In the familiar late industrial era, the chemical industry is undoubtedly the largest sector, especially petrochemicals. Currently, it's still in its infancy, with massive amounts of petroleum only undergoing simple thermal cracking to produce gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel, as well as a small amount of organic raw materials. High molecular synthesis is currently a blank slate, but in the future, this will be a goldmine. Without mentioning anything else, if he can develop hydrogenation cracking and catalytic cracking, he'll become incredibly wealthy overnight, with patent usage fees alone being an astronomical figure. However, that's not something that can be achieved just by talking about it.

  Then there's high molecular chemical engineering, synthesizing nylon, synthetic rubber, polyethylene and so on. All of these are huge industries that require massive investment. Just to achieve this in the lab stage requires tens of millions of dollars in investment, and actually achieving industrialized production would require even more investment. Of course, the returns would also be incredibly rich. If he were just trying to make money, he could easily join any large corporation, such as the Rockefeller or DuPont families, and become wealthy for life. But it's clear that his goals are not here, so when he wants to surpass these things, he inevitably has to touch on the interests of these giant corporations. How to avoid being swallowed up or hurt is also something that requires careful consideration.

  The steel industry at that time had not yet developed to the level of "developed", although the annual steel output was calculated in tens of millions of tons, but the technical content was actually not high. Compared with the alloy technology that was later refined to every corner, various smelting technologies, continuous casting and rolling technologies, desulfurization and denitrification technologies, purification technologies, electric arc furnaces, etc., there were countless opportunities. However, there was a giant in front of them - US Steel. And behind US Steel was the powerful Morgan financial group.

  The automotive industry doesn't even need to be mentioned, whether it's Ford's assembly line or General Motors' high-end cars. In this era of America, the automotive industry has already taken off on the fast lane. Some small bugs that try to get in will only get crushed, and not taking a detour is not an option. However, this hurdle cannot be avoided either, just thinking about it gives me a headache!

  Shipbuilding is also a big deal. In this era, the British and Germans still dominate the shipbuilding industry, and even the United States does not have the core technology of shipbuilding. Little Japan also buys technology when building ships, and the core technologies including armor plating, engines, boilers, hull design, etc. are still in the hands of Europeans. This road is still very long!

  The electronics industry doesn't even need to be mentioned, in the era when only vacuum tubes existed, radios were made of stone, and TVs were just theoretical models. It wasn't until semiconductors appeared that the industry could develop explosively. For now, let's just put it aside and watch. The funding needed for basic research is not enough with Chen Xiaoqi's $100,000, so his main energy is still focused on consumer industrial products based on existing industrial foundations. It seems like there are also many opportunities in this area. With the booming development of the US economy, industries worth billions are waiting to be developed.

  Chen Xiaoqi first handed Stern a stack of design drawings, including the first product - Zippos lighter. He also asked Stern to buy the patent rights for zippers. Of course, Stern didn't have to pay a single cent, Chen Xiaoqi's $100,000 was still quite substantial, and US dollars were very valuable at that time, with a Ford T-model car costing only $300. With an exchange rate of 1:40, $100,000 could be exchanged for nearly $40,000, which was a huge sum of money.

  Zippo lighters, of course, are a must-have for anyone who has traveled through time. Not only is the entry threshold low, but also the investment is small and the effect is quick. In the early 20th century, it was especially suitable, after all, who doesn't need such a thing? It's both stylish and practical. Americans, who had just gained huge benefits from World War I, were worried about how to spend their dollars. Otherwise, how can we explain that in just nine years, American households owned as many as 20 million cars?! Refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, and other things also entered their homes early on.

  The manufacturing process of Zippo lighters is not very complicated, but if you delve into it, it has a high level of technical sophistication. In later times, it can be said that every structure of the entire lighter has been carefully calculated and carved, involving more than 100 materials and processing links. At this time, asking Chen Xiaoqi to completely replicate it would be impossible, not only in terms of materials but also surface treatment technology and carving techniques, which are not currently available. He can at most press out various patterns and designs on copper plates, and for the time being, he hasn't even considered finding so many workers to do the carving, let alone mechanical carving, which is unthinkable before the invention of CNC machines and lasers.

  At that time, many materials used by Zippo were not commonly seen in later generations, such as flint, long velvet for the inner tank, and cotton core which was not made of glass fiber. The rounded corners, chrome plating and stainless steel stamping of later generations were all difficult problems to be solved one by one at present, but most mechanical processing could be done in Stern's agricultural machinery factory, only a small amount of machine equipment needed to be added to meet the requirements.

  Stainless steel deep drawing is not feasible at present, so Chen Xiaoqi still uses the traditional copper shell. However, he established his first research project on deep drawing technology and deep drawing steel materials, as this will play a significant role in future projects. Surface engraving techniques are also temporarily unfeasible, as it's hard to find (and afford) many skilled engravers, and the cheapest manual engravers are still in China.

  To sum up, a series of improvement plans had been prepared by Chen Xiaqi since his time in China. After all, there was no such thing as technical blockade and export restrictions at that time. Materials and processing technologies that could not be purchased in China might not necessarily be available in the United States either. This crude lighter produced under these circumstances may look ugly compared to later products, but users like Stern and production workers still regarded it as a genius invention.

  The patent for the zipper was soon to have a response. What Chen Xiaoxi didn't know was that during World War I, the US military first equipped soldiers with zippered clothing, and pilots' clothes were made with zippers, which greatly encouraged the zipper manufacturer. Although their current production volume is still not large, with only a few hundred sold per day, he was unwilling to sell this patent. In the end, Chen Xiaoxi spent $10,000 to buy out the patent rights. Stern complained that the money was spent too much, while Chen Xiaoxi was happy and said it was really cheap! He knew that in later generations, Yiwu's zipper manufacturers alone could produce enough zippers in a year to circle the Earth four times!

  After purchasing the zipper patent, Chen Xiaoqi quickly launched the next product - jeans. Jeans with zippers were a historic innovation, and Chen Xiaoqi also intuitively established the standard for jeans that would take decades to perfect.

  In people's impression, classic jeans should be like this: indigo blue, pure cotton twill fabric, tight buttocks, mid-low waist short pants design, slightly smaller pant legs, button fly, rivets, watch pocket, and nail label decorations. However, the earliest jeans were not as imagined. The ancestor of jeans - Levi's Company, its 501 jeans can be said to be a classic work of jeans, but that was already in 1955.

  In addition, Chen Xiaoqi also designed the jeans to be very tight-fitting, with two different designs for the pant legs, and even bell-bottoms were created. He couldn't be sure if people would like them at that time, so he just went ahead and made all of them, letting the market test them!

  Just the Zippo lighter alone kept Stern busy for a long time, and after determining various parts and structures, he had to rush to register patents. Fortunately, there was an office in Chicago that could handle all the procedures directly, and some agencies could also register patents separately in European countries, which made him not too busy to be overwhelmed.

  But Chen Xiaoqi's speed was too fast, the people under his hands couldn't even be mobilized, so he had to hire more people to work. With Chen Xiaoqi's 10% stake as encouragement, he had unlimited motivation. Chen Xiaoqi directly revitalized those poor assets and small factories that were about to go bankrupt, and gave out wealth far beyond his expectations, it would be strange if he wasn't excited.

  The agricultural machinery factory was thoroughly dismantled, and Chen Xiaoqi divided the ordinary workers into different segments of the production process for making lighters, where they worked together with newly recruited workers to form a small-scale assembly line. In the key parts processing section, Chen Xiaoqi himself also participated in solving one problem after another.

  Two technical workers with a certain level of skill were singled out by Chen Xiaoqi to form an agricultural machinery research room, with the main goal being to develop 12-horsepower, 25-horsepower, 50-horsepower, and 100-horsepower diesel tractors and crawler tractors. Previously, this small factory also produced some gasoline-powered farm vehicles, but neither their performance nor appearance was satisfactory, and Chen Xiaoqi knew that diesel engines were the way to go.

  It's impossible to rely on these two people, but this won't stump them. In Chicago, there are many masters of agricultural machinery, and after 20 years of development, the machinery is now very complete, lacking only more powerful vehicles and more efficient structures. The foundation design, research, manufacturing personnel are not lacking. As long as you're willing to spend money, you can naturally recruit a large number of technical workers, and Chen Xiaoqi has already designed the research direction and basic shape, so there's no need for others to worry about it. In the future, 12-horsepower tractors will be able to pull ten tons of stones on simple highways at high speeds, Chen Xiaoqi has seen this scene too many times. The crawler-type tractor is also the basis for bulldozers and excavators, and even tanks, a practical and reasonable chassis can do many things!

  A few months later, everything was on the right track. The Zippo lighter factory finally began producing finished products, and the cowboy suit factory was even faster to set up and start producing finished products. Chen Xiaoqi designed the initial advertising campaign, then packed his bags and went alone to the University of Illinois in Champaign.

  The first batch of Zippo produced 1,500 units. After a three-day local newspaper advertisement campaign, on a drizzly morning, 50 Harley-Davidson motorcycles set off from the city center to Chicago's streets, each rider holding a burning lighter in their hand. The flame continued to burn without extinguishing in the misty rain, cold wind, and rapid advance. This scene appeared on the front page of various newspapers the next day, showcasing the unique structure and high reliability of this lighter. Those who could afford to buy newspapers were also the first customers of this batch of lighters, almost sweeping away every single one from a specialty store in Chicago, causing a temporary shortage in factory supplies.

  After that, Zippo lighters swept across the United States with unstoppable momentum, and stories about lighters emerged one after another. For example, someone was trapped in a snowy wilderness, and under the helpless situation of being surrounded by nothingness, a Zippo lighter and a can of special fuel allowed him to successfully wait for rescue without any other means of sheltering from the wind. There was also someone who, fortunately, had a lighter in his breast pocket that blocked a left-handed bullet heading towards his heart during a duel, thus saving a life. Soon, a lighter with an embedded bullet accompanied this story and spread across America.

  A 2-dollar lighter seems a bit expensive, but it's really practical! People need it! Within a year, the lighter factory expanded three times and didn't stop. Chen Xiaoqi made a fortune with his first move.

  The development of cowboy pants was also smooth, and at that time, there was no standard specification for cowboy pants. What Chen Xiaoqi gave out became the standard. His advertisement was very eye-catching. On a building located in the center of transportation hub, he set up a 20-meter-high giant billboard with only the lower half of a woman wearing cowboy pants and exposing a section of her slender waist on the back. The plump buttocks and round thighs under the outline of the cowboy pants were so stunning that they didn't need any language to promote this brand of cowboy pants, which immediately gained recognition from everyone - beautiful is good, is needed. Soon, the specialty store in the city became a distribution center, and this "Billy" cowboy pants quickly became the first brand in Illinois with millions of industrial workers.