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

Chapter 30

The recorded record is the master version, which needs to be shipped to the United States or Hong Kong to be made into a record for sale.

To be honest, Li Yu has never come into contact with such things as vinyl records. It’s just that a classmate who was a super music enthusiast once saw him buy Jay’s full set of vinyl records.

His classmate smelled it the first thing he did when he unpacked it, and couldn't stop praising "it smells so good"!
For people like Li Yu who only listen to music on their mobile phones, buying a membership is already the greatest respect for music.What's more, this is just a record, and you need to buy a record player, which is also expensive.

Therefore, it costs so much to listen to a vinyl record nowadays, not to mention the late Qing Dynasty, which is definitely exclusive to the upper class.

The craftsmanship at that time was also relatively primitive. Li Yu carefully studied the grooves recorded on the record, and felt that this thing was not difficult, and the problem was mainly in the precision of the craftsmanship.

The principle of the phonograph itself is not complicated, it is nothing more than recording sound waves with notches of different depths in the grooves of the records.Then, when playing, the stylus on the record will drive the coil to cut the magnetic induction line with the beating of the notch, and play the sound.

The recording accuracy at that time was not high anyway, so it was not difficult to manufacture. The key was how to extend the life of the record as much as possible, otherwise the stylus might scratch it after a few turns on the record.

Carlos, the manager of the record company, saw that Li Yu was not listening to music, but was holding the record to study the grooves, so he asked: "Mr. Pu Lande said that you know technology very well. I really can't believe it, because I have a decent factory here. I can’t recruit more workers, and even if someone saw the machine, they would smash it for me. What we need most now is a talent like you, how about it, are you interested in joining my company?”

Li Yu put the record on the phonograph, smiled and said, "I'm really sorry, manager, I have no such plan."

Of course, it is impossible for Li Yu to spend his energy on selling records. After all, gramophones are entertainment products.The prerequisite for entertainment products to be widely popular is that the people are rich, and only when they have spare money can they enjoy life.But the land of China now needs too much development, and this kind of pastime can only be enjoyed by a few rich people.

Li Yu put on the needle, and after a few seconds of idling, a symphony was played, which was a section of Mozart's "Symphony No. 39 in E-flat".

Jia Honglin and Yang Xiaolou were shocked when they heard the real gramophone sound, their doubts disappeared, and they finally understood what the result of this operation was.

Not long after seeing off the celebration class, Pu Lande came and called Li Yu away:
"Come on! Mrs. Smith from The Beijing-Tianjin Times has arrived, and Minister Sa Daoyi's wife will also be present today."

The two immediately came to Pu Lande's residence, and as soon as they entered the door, they met a tall slender woman who said in English, "This is Li Yu?"

"Mrs. Smith's vision is so accurate!" Pu Lande laughed, and then introduced to Li Yu, "The beautiful lady in front of me is the editor-in-chief of "The Beijing-Tianjin Times", Alice Smith."

As a woman, being an editor-in-chief in this era is not easy even for a British person, and she has some skills.What's more, Smith did not receive formal school education. Although Europe was more civilized at that time, most universities still refused to accept female students.The more well-known universities, the more so, such as Oxford and Cambridge, did not officially award women's degrees until around 1920.

What is even more incomprehensible is that at that time, many male students also rejected female students. The dean of a college wrote: "A very annoying complaint is that male students complain because our female students sit and show their legs in tight skirts." disturbed."

Li Yu couldn't figure it out at all, so could he complain?Shouldn't the complaint be that she doesn't show enough! ?
Thanks to Mrs. Smith's report, Li Yu was able to increase his popularity so quickly. He said respectfully, "Hi, ma'am, I'm Li Yu."

Mrs. Smith looked Li Yu up and down, and switched back to Chinese: "Sure enough, not only young, but also tall and mighty."

She speaks Chinese very fluently, so her choice of words is a bit strange. It's okay to say "a good-looking talent", but it turns out that "tall and mighty".

However, Li Yu is 1.8 meters long, which may be normal now, and he was indeed called a little giant in the late Qing Dynasty.

Pu Lande laughed loudly: "I told you that you won't come here in vain!"

Mrs. Smith probably has the common fault of the editor-in-chief. She held a cigarette between her right fingers, which was very fashionable at the time. She took a light puff: "It's not in vain."

Pu Lande's house is very big, the main hall has a circle of chairs arranged in an oval shape, and the scattered tea tables are filled with fruits and red wine, and the arrangement is very British.

Mrs. Smith took out a cigarette and handed it to Li Yu: "One?"

Li Yu refused, "I don't smoke."

"Oh? It's rare to see Chinese people who don't smoke."

In the impression of many foreigners at that time, Chinese people smoked opium.

Li Yu said lightly: "It seems that Mrs. Smith still needs to know more about China. Not everyone smokes."

"It is too difficult to understand China, I just want to understand you." Mrs. Smith said.

Nima!

Li Yu was taken aback, these words sounded like teasing me!However, he soon realized that Mrs. Smith's Chinese was not up to standard and her words were not accurate.

She said slowly: "I have been to Beiyang University in Tianjin several times. Although there are many students, most of them are studying politics and law, and there are quite few students in physics and mathematics. Why did you choose science, which is obviously more difficult?" road?"

She really saw it very accurately. At that time, the Qing court was preparing to establish a constitution. The most popular students were foreign students studying politics and law. Fan Xiren also got a law degree in Japan later.

In troubled times, there are indeed many passionate young people who really want to help the Qing Dynasty establish a constitution, hoping to change the situation.But they never imagined that the Manchu royal family never really thought about constitutionalism from the beginning to the end, and the matter was delayed again and again, until the gunshots in Wuchang...

But generally speaking, studying politics and law at that time was really easy to become an official, and it was the first choice of students!

But Li Yu is different!If he just wanted to be an official, with his knowledge, he could become a university principal, or even the principal of the Imperial University in just a few years.

But so what?

So Li Yu just replied casually: "Everyone has his own aspirations, I just like science."

——She couldn't refute this reason.

Mrs. Smith nodded, and continued: "As a Confucianist country, you are really special. But I still have a question. I have seen the experimental equipment in Beiyang University, which can be said to be extremely rare, and even has the principle of photography and imaging. Experimental equipment that should not be in a university. I wonder how you can write such a cutting-edge and high-quality paper on X-rays?"

Li Yu didn't expect Mrs. Smith to be quite familiar with this aspect. It is true that small hole imaging is a bit too simple for a university, but there were a few people who managed the university at that time who knew science.If you want Beiyang University to buy experimental equipment, at least you can persuade Yuan Shikai or Sheng Xuanhuai.

And Yuan Shikai, an old official in the officialdom, only has "pragmatism" in his eyes. Do experiments?Unless you make him a bomb first!
(End of this chapter)