A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 110
St. Petersburg, separated from Stockholm, Sweden, by the Baltic Sea, was one of the first scientific institutions to receive the news.

In the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Russian mathematician Markov finished reading Li Yu's article, and couldn't let it go for a long time: It's a masterpiece!
Russia is also a country that produces mathematicians. After Peter the Great established the Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he immediately recruited the mathematician Bernoulli, and Bernoulli soon introduced another mathematics god-Euler.

Many of Euler's early creative works were completed at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and he even found a wife in St. Petersburg. He is really a winner in life.

Euler directly drove the development of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and the development of the Academy of Sciences also made the originally very backward Russian science progress rapidly.

Later, Russia gave birth to a native mathematician such as Lobachevsky.

However, after the death of Lobachevsky and Chebyshev, Russian mathematics is currently in a gap period.

It is not to say that Markov is bad. This person has a bunch of models and theories named after him in the statistics of later generations, and he is a master of statistics and probability theory.It's just that they are not as dazzling as the above-mentioned ones, and they have not resounded in the mathematics circles all over the world.

Markov had heard of Li Yu's name a long time ago, but he really didn't expect his mathematical attainments to be so high, and he suddenly cherished his talent. If he was an official of the Academy of Sciences, he would even want to recruit Li Yu.

He quickly set off to St. Petersburg University and found his younger brother Lyapunov, both of whom were apprentices of the great mathematician Chebyshev.

"Have you seen "Fractal and Chaos" written by Li Yu in the Qing Dynasty recently?" Markov asked.

Lyapunov is now a professor of the Department of Mathematics at St. Petersburg University, and replied: "Of course I saw it! It is really wonderful! I am already planning to buy another batch and send it to the teachers and students of the University's Department of Mathematics to study together. What we need is this kind of Groundbreaking thought."

"Not only that," Markov said, "I read the news that the Swedish royal family invited Li Yu to present the award in Stockholm. We can take this opportunity to invite him along the way."

"By the way? Invitation?" Lyapunov asked three times in a row, "He's going to Sweden, you mean after he's awarded the award?"

"No!" Markov shook his finger. "We can definitely let him pass by us first, and then go to Stockholm through the Baltic Sea. I don't think he will refuse."

Lyapunov was completely confused: "Why did he come to St. Petersburg first? There is no reason. How could he not refuse?"

Markov smiled mysteriously: "You forgot one thing!"

Lyapunov continued to ask: "Stop teasing me, what mysterious thing do you have that can make Li Yu come to St. Petersburg first?"

Markov drew a long horizontal line with his finger: "Siberian Railway!"

"Almost forgot about it!" Lyapunov clapped his hands, "Ten years have passed since the start of construction, could it be opened to traffic?"

Markov shook his head and nodded again: "It hasn't officially opened to traffic yet, but the main line has basically been completed, but it's just thinking of St. Started running a few months ago."

"Great!" Lyapunov said, "No wonder you said that Li Yu couldn't refuse. The time to take this route is at most less than half of the sea route."

Markov is a member of the Academy of Sciences and often contacts engineers. The news about this is much faster than Lyapunov who is in the ivory tower.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is the highest railway line in the world, the famous first Eurasian Continental Bridge, which directly connects Moscow and Vladivostok.

Historically, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in 1891 and was not officially opened to traffic until 1904, but the finishing work lasted until 1916.

However, the Tsar understood the significance of the railway very well, and the strategy he adopted was to start the construction from the east first, that is, from Vladivostok to the west.Tsar Nicholas II, who was still crown prince at the time, even came to Vladivostok to preside over the foundation stone laying ceremony of the railway.

In the second year, it started repairing from west to east from Chelyabinsk, and proceeded in both directions to increase the completion speed as much as possible.

So although the entire Moscow-Vladivostok line is not connected, there is no problem at all from Vladivostok to Chelyabinsk.

Many people may not have heard of Chelyabinsk, but this city is very close to another famous big city in Russia - Yekaterinburg.

That's why Markov said that it is enough to change trains, and it is much easier to go to Moscow or St. Petersburg from Yekaterinburg.

Markov continued: "However, we can't make a decision on this matter. It must be approved by the top of the Winter Palace."

Now the capital of Russia is St. Petersburg, and the political center is the Winter Palace where the Tsar lives, not the Kremlin of later generations.

Lyapunov said: "Yes, according to what my brother said, at present the Siberian Railway mainly uses military trains and freight trains. Li Yu must be allowed to take the train with the government's permission."

Markov's thinking was very clear: "This matter should be passed on to the Winter Palace as soon as possible. I came to St. Petersburg University to find you. Another purpose is to get the two seniors to sign together. If they talk, I think the Winter Palace will agree."

"You mean..." Lyapunov quickly guessed.

Markov smiled and said, "That's right, of course it's Professor Mendeleev and Professor Pavlov! If you can invite the two of them to come forward, the senior management will definitely not refuse."

St. Petersburg University, Department of Chemistry.

Mendeleev has been director here since 1866.

"Professor Mendeleev, may I bother you?" Lyapunov entered the door respectfully.

Mendeleev was informal, with a big beard, and replied: "Professor Lyapunov, what's the matter?"

"We would like to jointly write a letter to the Winter Palace with you to get a train ticket."

"Train ticket? You also need to apply to the Winter Palace? You should apply to the school office for reimbursement?" Mendeleev asked.

"It's not like that. What we want is a train ticket for the Trans-Siberian Railway." Markov said.

"Oh? The Trans-Siberian Railway?" Mendeleev wondered again, "What exactly are you trying to do?"

"I don't know if you have seen the news. The Swedish royal family invited Li Yu, a scientist from the Qing Dynasty, to present a mathematics award. We thought that if we could let him take the Trans-Siberian Railway, we could save half of his time and invite him to the St. Petersburg for face-to-face advice," Markov explained.

Mendeleev put down the book in his hand, "So it's Li Yu!"

Lyapunov said: "Yes, Professor, he is almost the most popular scientist now."

Mendeleev smiled and said, "It's easy to talk about him! In any case, he is also the favorite of our old president. Of course, I can sign the joint letter."

Mendeleev was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1890.

They didn't expect Mendeleev to agree so simply, and excitedly said: "Great, thank you professor!"

Mendeleev said: "No thanks, you just need to leave me a copy of the recently popular "Fractal and Chaos". It is said that non-mathematicians can understand it. mathematics."

Markov laughed: "Your request is too simple!"

Mendeleev's failure to win the Nobel Prize in his life is almost the most shocking and regrettable thing in the history of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

He discovered the periodicity of chemical elements, made the world's first periodic table of elements, and predicted some undiscovered elements. His various contributions almost made him synonymous with "chemistry", and deserved a Nobel Prize .

According to the records of the Nobel Archives, the Nobel Prize Committee had planned to award the 1906 Chemistry Prize to the master, but one of the committee members eventually kicked Mendeleev off the list.

It is a pity that this great chemist died in 1907.

After Mendeleev was settled, the two went to the biological laboratory of St. Petersburg University to find Pavlov.

Pavlov's laboratory is probably the busiest place in the entire university, because there are too many dogs here!
Pavlov is an absolute dog lover. He not only talks to them, pets them, but also writes all kinds of admonitions, praises and encouragements in a special souvenir book after each experiment: "John! Don't be ashamed!" "My dear, act as before!" "I hope you, Mampus, will do the same!"

And just last year, Pavlov just established the world-famous conditioning theory.I really love dogs to the highest level, and I can get top physiological results from dogs.

Pavlov did not have any reason to refuse the request of Markov and Lyapunov. He said: "I have read Li Yu's excellent paper on the principle of entropy increase can be extended to the field of biology, which is very constructive. I can say with complete certainty that he is an excellent scientific worker, and it is an honor to sign the joint letter inviting him."

Great, all done!

Even Tsar Nicholas II was alarmed after receiving the letter signed by the two big men in the Winter Palace. It's not big, so I agreed casually.

(End of this chapter)