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

Chapter 298
Future generations will definitely not feel it when they see such a short gliding distance. Of course, not only future generations, but the few people who saw it at the scene were not excited enough.

Because it is really too short, just over 200 meters.

The only dancers were the two Wright brothers who had flown a circle or two in the sky.

The photographer they invited took the photos, and the Wright brothers were quite excited: "Maybe our success will become a sensational news!"

Unfortunately, at least a few years later, their inventions have not received much attention.

Cars have been developing by leaps and bounds for more than 20 years, and they are still not mainstream, let alone airplanes.

Li Yu is the only one who really understands the value of airplanes, but he can't help for the time being. When he was observing just now, he was just wondering if he could build a small airplane for fun in a few years.

Anyway, it was a dream that was basically impossible to realize in his previous life, but now it does have a good chance.

After all, the difficulty of early aircraft driving and later aircraft are completely two concepts, and the most important thing to consider is safety.

It is precisely because of safety issues that this matter must be pushed back a bit, and it will take at least ten years for the basic maturity of aircraft technology.

From some patent applications of Li Yu, it can be seen that Li Yu attaches great importance to safety and quality, because this is the most common way of thinking in later generations.

After more than a century of development and competition, the industrial design of later generations has shown enough humanistic care, and product managers have dug their heads to study ergonomics and user convenience.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the more consideration was still income, which was a bit like barbaric growth.

This is also a hidden advantage of Li Yu's future thinking.

Even if you don't understand design, the subtle influence of modern society on every modern person is beyond what people can imagine at this time.

After the test flight, Li Yu and the others came to the company and laboratory of the Wright Brothers.

—Wright Bicycle Company.

They don't get any financial assistance, and they can afford the expensive flight tests, relying on the money they earn from selling bicycles.

It is very similar to the stalk mentioned by Mazda in the automotive industry in the future: "If you have money, you can make rotary engines. If you don't have money, you can sell cars. If you earn money, you can continue to make rotary engines."

The Wright Brothers were similar, the bikes didn't sell anything, it was the hobby that really made them.

Li Yu looked around and soon knew that the Wright Brothers had initially solved the problem of lift and the power to drive the aircraft forward.

"I think you can continue to increase the power, which will also help to improve the lift." Li Yu said.

One sentence hit the point, and brother Wilbur said: "Mr. Li Yu, you really deserve to be a fellow of the Royal Society. We have had this idea many times, but now we can't find a better engine."

Li Yu nodded and said, "There is really no special engine for aircraft now. Although I can provide an engine with greater horsepower, the weight will inevitably increase, which will inevitably affect the weight layout of your aircraft design."

"These are problems that must be faced, and more horsepower is needed," said brother Orwell. "We are confident in increasing the distance and height of flight."

He certainly understands how much weight affects aircraft design, and even the two brothers have been strictly controlling weight in order to fly the aircraft.Now the take-off weight of an airplane is just that low, and a person who weighs more than one or two kilograms will have a lot of pressure.

Brother Wilbur Wright asked, "Is it possible to make an engine that is as powerful as it is light?"

Li Yu said: "There will be in the future, but the development of a new engine will take some time. After it is successful, I will still give you one for free."

Li Yu has studied fluid mechanics, which was a professional course back then, but he has not studied aerodynamics specifically, so he is powerless about the design details of the aircraft.

But he is better at engines.

Wilbur Wright said excitedly: "It's an honor, you are the first person I have seen who supports our flight test so much!"

Li Yu said with a smile: "It's just an engine. By the way, you still need to test how to balance the control of the plane after it takes off and land smoothly."

Orwell Wright said: "What Mr. mentioned is the key points, and our future experiments will focus on these."

However, relying on the two brothers alone, there will be no major breakthroughs in the development of aircraft, and it will take a while for all sectors of society to pay enough attention.

Just like automobiles, although they haven't defeated horse-drawn carriages and become the mainstream, they have already received a lot of attention. Almost all countries in Europe and the United States have companies conducting continuous research and development. It is a thriving sunrise industry.

In the early years of the aircraft, the treatment was much worse.

Even after the successful test flight, there were very few newspaper reports, because most newspapers once doubted its authenticity.

Only Li Yu narrated in his latest issue of "Science", and conducted popular science on the principles of aircraft lift and control, and then made a certain future outlook.

Thanks to his fame in the scientific world, readers finally have a little understanding, but more readers think that this is a "sci-fi sequelae". Who is Li Yu's Star Wars series has been circulated more, and once mentioned a The concept of a "spaceship".

When you look at airplanes, it is like looking at "Frankenstein" written by the famous female writer Mary Shelley, the mother of science fiction, decades ago.

Or the "robots" in Li Yu's Star Wars series.

Anyway, it is a "fantasy" that feels impossible to realize.

But Li Yu was not in a hurry, it was a normal reaction of the public.

-

When they returned to New York, Xie Yuxi had already applied for two automotive patents for seat belts and rearview mirrors.

Li Yu then telegraphed the status of the patent to Ford and Henry Leland in Detroit, as well as Maybach and Karl Benz in Germany.

Unexpectedly, several bigwigs in the automotive industry have shown considerable importance to rearview mirrors, but think that seat belts are dispensable.

Maybach even replied directly: "The rearview mirror technology is an unparalleled invention for improving the driver's vision!"

Karl Benz also sent a request to buy the right to use this patent.

Ford of Detroit is now developing the car, and immediately said it would add rearview mirrors to future production.

Anyway, they all think that the rearview mirror is of great benefit.

Li Yu has written several technology authorization contracts. In the future, major car companies will only need to pay corresponding patent royalties to use this technology.

The major car companies must be happy to adopt it, because Li Yu's design is already very perfect, and there is not much room for improvement.

Li Yu said with emotion that it is still fun to make money by technology, which can be said to be done once and for all.

No wonder later generations of Qualcomm can make a lot of money through 5G usage fees.

For example, for a mobile phone that costs around 4000 yuan, Qualcomm can earn nearly 100 yuan for the patent fee alone, not counting the chip and baseband costs.

This is the huge profit of mastering patents.

That's why Li Yu wants to take the route of Bosch and first become a core technology supplier in the upper reaches of the automotive industry.

As for seat belts, anyway, the speed of cars is not high nowadays, and Ford and others believe that there will be no major personal injury or death.

The only one who showed some interest was Porsche, a racing fanatic who had heard of a previous racer who saved his life by strapping himself in.

So Porsche sent a telegram request to buy some seat belts.

Li Yu knew that it would take some time to advance this technology, so he didn't ask Porsche for a penny, and made a few free mails to him.

As a product promotion fee.

It won't be long before the speed increases, and everyone knows how important seat belts are.

-

After crossing the ocean, the article published in the Journal of the Physical Society was finally seen by the European academic circle.

Originally, the European academic circles did not bother to read American scientific journals, but whoever said it was written by Li Yu had to read them.

As Lord Kelvin who proposed the two dark clouds, it is also the first time that someone said that "the constant speed of light is the basic principle, and there is no need to prove it".

Li Yu's story about Newton and Apple is not difficult to understand for people with physical education.

After all, no one really bothered to prove why Apple didn't fly into the sky.

It's all as it should be!
But even Lord Kelvin still felt that the problem of the constant speed of light violated Galileo's classic transformation. In most people's eyes, the speed of two people walking towards each other must be faster.

Crucially, this is also consistent with daily observations.

Contradictions, too contradictory!

Lord Kelvin said to the president of the Royal Society: "You know astronomy. He once mentioned that it takes 8 minutes for the sun's light to reach the earth. What do you think?"

President Huggins said: "Although I know it's not realistic, I would rather believe what Newton said, that there is action at a distance. In an instant, no, it doesn't take time to reach the earth, because it can avoid many problems."

Lord Kelvin said: "I'm afraid the problem is unavoidable. Light does have a speed, which is not an action at a distance. But once it is true, it is really chilling to think of his previous articles on extragalactic galaxies."

After all, Huggins specialized in astronomy, thought for a while and said, "You mean it takes tens of thousands of years for light to reach us?"

Lord Kelvin said: "Yeah, if that's the case, light is too slow, so I don't think it's going to be that fast."

President Huggins said: "From Michelson's data, the speed of light in a vacuum is a basically definite value."

Lord Kelvin sighed: "So it is really confusing!"

The two studied for a long time, but they couldn't discuss why.

Michelson and Morley's experiments have been done many times in many universities and research institutions, and everyone has unanimously confirmed that there is no error.

Many people have expressed doubts, but they really don't know why.

Not only did Lord Kelvin feel unbelievable when he saw Li Yu's remarks at the moment, but the performance of all walks of life in Europe was similar.

Ma He said bluntly: "I have never seen such a lazy theory! I can't find the reason, but I say it can't be proved? I am really ashamed of Li Yu's title of various academicians."

Ostwald, a Mach supporter, said: "This is completely hindering the progress of science, because he wants us to accept the fact that there are dark clouds in the physical sky. It is a great insult to physics! It is like a detective who can't find it." When it comes to murderers, it’s like saying there is no murderer.”

These two are also old opponents.

However, their right to speak in academia is not light. Mach has already become famous, and Ostwald will win the Nobel Prize in a few years.

Fortunately, Li Yu also has supporters. Mr. Boltzmann and Ostwald were very at odds, and he immediately wrote back: "Please read the article carefully, Li Yu did not simply throw away Draw an absurd conclusion, but it should be regarded as a scientific introduction."

Ostawald has fought with Boltzmann for more than ten years for atomic theory. Although it cannot be compared with the god-level debates of Einstein and Bohr in later generations, it was also very famous in the second half of the nineteenth century. of.

Planck, another super big coffee, commented on the debate between the two: "These two rivals are equally witty and fluent in answering; they are both very talented."

Planck is really interesting. Both debates are witnesses, and it feels like witnessing two eras.

But the difference is that Ostwald's "Energy Theory" is really ineffective, and it will not take many years for everyone to know that the atomic theory is correct.So the debate between him and Boltzmann was lacklustre.

It has to be evenly matched to be interesting.

Although Einstein was defeated in the debate with Bohr, some ideas put forward by him and his camp can be said to have advanced the development of quantum mechanics on a large scale.

For example, the phrase "God doesn't play dice", and even "Schrödinger's cat" was proposed to refute Bohr.

Uh, yes, Schrödinger, as a master of quantum mechanics, stood on the side of Einstein against quantum mechanics in the peak debate...

Planck was a bystander in the two debates, and Boltzmann was because he was still soft-spoken; and when Einstein and Bohr debated, he had become a recognized authority, was the host, and wanted to be a judge .

Another reason is that Planck acted more cautiously. He was considered a late bloomer and didn't like being the vanguard to charge into battle.

But now, when Planck, who was at the University of Berlin, saw Li Yu’s article, he quickly wrote a telegram and sent it to New York:
"Young friend Li Yu, I was shocked to hear that you went to the United States for a 'tour' again. May I ask if you have done your business? Have you written a good prequel to Star Wars?"

Well, I'm going overseas again to urge the manuscript.

Sure enough, the boss's point of view is always unpredictable.

Li Yu couldn't laugh or cry when he saw the telegram, and immediately sent him a telegram: "Professor Planck, the prequel has been printed, and I believe it won't be long before Europe can see it."

Seeing Li Yu's reply, Plank was satisfied: "That's true!"

Because Einstein was in Switzerland, he saw the article of the American Physical Society later.

But after seeing only a few sentences, I knew it was related to my own research, so I quickly took the newspaper to the toilet and looked at it carefully.

The leader of the patent office saw Einstein sneaking out of the office out of the corner of his eye, but he was used to Einstein fishing at work, so he was not surprised.

Einstein has been studying Li Yu's last reply letter and his own article, and now seeing Li Yu's mention of "the constant speed of light is a basic axiom", he was immediately overjoyed.

"Yeah, why didn't I think of it! If you can't prove it, don't try to prove it, but use it as the basic hypothesis? If there is no problem with the theoretical proof, why don't you round up the theory!"

After thinking through this joint, Einstein's mind became clearer and clearer. Although he was in the toilet, he still couldn't feel the smell.

Even after hearing the sound of someone shitting, I thought of a Chinese idiom: "It's really like a toilet suddenly opened!"

(End of this chapter)