In 1956, ** spearheaded a very special initiative: cremation of the body after death. However, this resolution did not come to fruition in the end, because *** decided to build a crystal coffin to preserve ***'s body due to many factors.
Previously, when he learned the news that *** was on the verge of dying, ***, who was receiving foreign guests, immediately rushed to Zhongnanhai to visit. But he ended up being a step too late and didn't get to see *** for the last time.
Although he was extremely sad and angry in his heart, he didn't dare to slack off at the moment, because there was something more important to deal with, that is, the aftermath of ***. To this end, ** and other ** leaders went to Zhongnanhai Room 202 for urgent consultations, and the core issue was to discuss how to place ***'s body.
The period was divided into two factions. One faction said that the cremation should be carried out in accordance with the wishes of ***;On the other hand, the other group advocates preservation to express infinite sorrow and nostalgia for the great leader. However, in the end, ** and others still chose the latter way immediately, that is: permanent preservation.
Under special instructions, Dr. Xu Jing, then the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and other experts hurriedly arrived in Zhongnanhai. After that, Xu Jing and others carefully examined the basic situation of ***'s body and obtained accurate data. Through the inspection, the experts also quickly developed a reliable anti-corrosion program.
At that time, in order to seize the critical time point, they recorded data around *** without sleep, and finally successfully embalmed the body of *** through technical and pharmaceutical means. But at this time, a more difficult problem has emerged: how to let the masses see the remains of ***?In this regard, many people first thought of precious materials such as golden silk nanmu, but this proposal was quickly rejected.
Just when everyone was at a loss, a voice suddenly came out: Can we consider the crystal coffin?There is a precedent for this, the remains of Lenin and Stalin were preserved in this way, and they have always been in good condition. Although my country had never made this kind of coffin at that time, and I had no experience at all, I still made up my mind.
Soon after, the Beijing Glass Factory received the important task of building the crystal coffin. In order to ensure the completion of the crystal coffin on schedule, the factory quickly began to divide the work rules, and handed over the optical and cold processing tasks to the 608 factory, and the material selection and production work were handled by the 603 and 605 factories. While all parties are in full swing to make crystal coffins, they also temporarily designed plexiglass coffins to store the remains, so that the masses can mourn and pay respects first.
In fact, for the design of the crystal coffin, the staff of Beijing Glass Factory and other enterprises had no clue at first, and the key was the lack of technology and experience. You know, the Soviet Union was the inventor of the crystal coffin, but it was impossible to get the technology from them at that time. On the other hand, in the specific requirements for creating a crystal coffin, it is stated that it must not only have a solemn design appearance, but also have special materials that resist natural disasters such as **, and ensure that it can be used before the first anniversary of his death.
At that time, the staff was eager to gain experience in designing crystal coffins from elsewhere, but they were unsuccessful. Since this road does not work, then you can only rely on yourself, fortunately, through technical exploration, research, the staff finally designed a crystal coffin, and there are as many as five, but there are also some problems with these samples.
For example, in terms of material selection, the staff first used K9 glass, which looks like crystal, for the design, but it exploded. Although the problem was solved in the future, when the leader came to inspect, he saw that there was a glass refraction problem, and the experts also tried to deal with this problem by changing the angle, but found that this could not ensure a reliable ** effect, so the first two crystal coffin samples were eliminated.
And at this time, ** has new instructions, hoping to use this to improve ***'s body. In this way, the experts specially added the effect of optical beauty, forming a third crystal coffin, but it is not really a crystal material, but optical glass. Therefore, according to the original idea, the next step was to find high-quality crystals.
At that time, this important task was entrusted to Donghai County, Jiangsu, because the local area has the title of "Crystal Armor World". Knowing that in order to preserve the remains, the local community in Donghai responded quickly, and after many days of fighting, Donghai County has mined a total of 352 tons of high-quality crystal, which was later transferred to Factory 605.
According to the division of tasks, Factory 605 needed to use the above-mentioned crystal raw materials to create quartz glass plates with a thickness of 30 mm, which was an almost impossible task at that time. For this glass plate, the workers gave up their small homes for everyone, braved the challenge of high temperatures, and devoted themselves to front-line tasks such as firing and welding day and night, and then carried out technical inspections again and again.
The effort paid off, and they ended up with a length of 2 meters, a weight of 95 kilograms and a purity of 999999% quartz glass plate. After having glass plates, glass factories in Shanghai and other places also successfully designed the structure of both sides of the crystal coffin, and the 608 factory also polished and polished it.
In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, scientific and technological workers have also developed a special adhesive through thousands of experiments to ensure that there will be no traces on the appearance of the crystal coffin. In August 1977, this set of crystal coffins that have been painstakingly designed successfully passed the simulation verification of level 8**. On September 9 of that year, the body placed in the crystal coffin was successfully stored in the memorial hall.