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

Chapter 309 Potential New Patents

Liang Qichao and Li Yu's speeches at Columbia University were relatively successful, but Columbia University is currently considered a research university with more science and engineering and economics and management, and now the American people worship industrialization, so Li Yu's limelight is even greater.

Principal Seth Lowe knew that Li Yu had a designated laboratory in New York, so he should be in New York often, so he invited, "Academician Li Yu, can you agree to become an honorary professor of our school?"

Li Yudao: "I'm afraid my age is not suitable."

Seth Lowe didn't care, who told him that his academic achievements are so high now: "It doesn't hinder, there is nothing wrong with your ability."

Li Yu said, "I worry that I don't have much time."

Seth Low said: "Don't worry, sir, we won't give you too many teaching tasks, just some lectures at most."

Li Yu thought for a while and said, "In the future, I will be qualified to accept your invitation only if I am awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics again. For now, I will only be a visiting professor at most."

Visiting professors are generally temporary, and the contract must be renewed after one year expires.

Seth Lowe said with a smile: "Mr. Academician means to bet on the contract. In this case, the bet should be higher. If you can win the Nobel Prize, not only will the Columbia Conference give you the position of honorary professor, but you will also be able to recruit at least 10 students from your country."

It was probably Ding Long who gave him an idea, and Li Yu couldn't refuse immediately: "It's interesting, I accept."

In fact, the Nobel Prize can no longer escape Li Yu's grasp, and now it is the Nobel Prize selection committee that is struggling.They just nominated Li Yu for the Nobel Prize based on the law of entropy increase and the third law, and then Li Yu came up with an even more explosive X-ray diffraction experiment. I don't know how to choose it!

Liang Qichao was very happy when he saw Li Yu's popularity. He knew that his popularity was largely due to a sense of oriental mystery.

And Li Yu's popularity really convinced Europe and the United States scientifically.

After leaving Columbia, Li Yu then took him to Detroit to visit his factory.

Liang Qichao was very relieved to see the scene in full swing in the factory and the smiles on the faces of many Chinese workers.

It's nothing like Chinatown.

After all, five dollars a day is really not a low income, more than 1300 dollars a year, equivalent to nearly 700 taels of silver.

If converted according to purchasing power, it is almost equivalent to about 21 yuan in later generations.

In contrast to the domestic situation at this time, the annual income of ordinary farmers is only about 5-10 taels, which is 1500-3000 yuan in later generations, which is absolutely a world of difference.

Liang Qichao said to Li Yu: "I heard that capitalists have blood on their hands, but I don't think you are."

Li Yu said: "This sentence is also true to a certain extent. When Europe occupied and plundered the world, there were mountains of corpses and seas of blood. There used to be tens of millions of aborigines in the American continent, but now there are not many left."

Liang Qichao's eyes twitched: "Tens of millions?!"

Li Yu just nodded.

Liang Qichao sighed: "It seems that Europe and the United States are not perfect, and you can never see what is behind the mirror."

He turned around and asked again: "In the future, will you bring these industries back to China?"

Li Yu said: "Inevitably, the Ministry of Commerce has already issued me the land."

Liang Qichao had no choice but to say: "It is not easy to do business under the eyes of the court, so we must be careful."

Li Yu said, "Thank you brother Zhuo Ru for reminding me."

Liang Qichao stayed for a whole day, and took his leave the next day.

Of course, the route back to Japan has to take the train to San Francisco first, and then take the ship back to Japan along the Pacific Northern Line.

The voyage from California to Japan is very short, at most ten days.

As usual, he went to see Kang Youwei to say goodbye.

Kang Youwei was quite satisfied with Liang Qichao's performance recently: "Qichao, your article is sharp enough. Since your article was published in the newspaper, the fundraising situation has improved greatly. As a teacher, I even look forward to Europe."

Liang Qichao said: "The disciple will focus on handling various affairs in Japan in the future, and I am afraid that he will not be able to go to Europe to accompany him."

Without Liang Qichao's help, it would be difficult for Kang Youwei to get too many donations in Europe, but Japan is indeed more important, and Liang Qichao cannot do without Liang Qichao's presidency.

Kang Youwei could only come up with such a capable person, and the other party still had a grudge in his heart.

Think about it and say: "With a steady source of donations from the Americas, that should be enough for now."

Liang Qichao said: "In addition, my disciple once stopped by to see Li Yu's factory. I observed the Chinese laborers inside, and I was really happy to work for him. Li Yu himself even plans to return to China to build a factory in the future. I think..."

Kang Youwei interrupted him: "What, you went to see Li Yu?"

Liang Qichao hurriedly said: "The disciple is just exploring the truth."

Kang Youwei frowned: "Master, I found that you are more and more self-assertive."

Liang Qichao said: "Only by knowing ourselves and the enemy can we contribute to our cause of improvement. Moreover, as he said, neither improvement nor revolution can be separated from industrial development."

"Industry?" Kang Youwei snorted, "It's all trivial! Don't you know the priority of things now?"

Liang Qichao said: "The disciple knows his mistakes, and he has the right to learn more."

Kang Youwei reprimanded: "I hope you will stand firm when you are in Japan."

"The disciple took it down."

Liang Qichao sighed inwardly, and did not refute too much.

The next day, he boarded a ship back to Yokohama, Japan.

Liang Qichao is a person who has been making progress. Even though he has changed his views many times, he is a bit like a "fence-sitter", but he is indeed making progress.

And some people, at the age of 41, their progressive mind is actually dead.

-

On the other hand, Li Yu continued to stay in Detroit and was not in a hurry to leave. After finally coming to the United States, he had to get more patents.

It just so happens that the conditions are right now, and Xie Yuxi has another unique advantage.

"You want to use a laboratory in a steel factory?" Xie Yuxi asked in surprise after hearing Li Yu's request.

Li Yu nodded: "If it doesn't work, just have a stove."

Xie Yuxi thought about it: "There are no laboratories in Detroit, but they are easy to find in Pittsburgh. Although grandpa sold the company, many small workshops are still doing daily business for us."

Pittsburgh is the base camp of Carnegie and the "Steel Capital" of the United States.

When Morgan bought Carnegie's steel company for $5 million, he handed him a check and said, "Congratulations, you have become the richest man in the world."

The 1900 million U.S. dollars around 5 is absolutely astronomical, and the annual financial expenditure of Laomei is about [-] million U.S. dollars.

One can imagine how rich Carnegie was.

In terms of the scale of liquidity, Carnegie is definitely among the top three in the United States, or second only to Rockefeller.

The reason why Morgan bought Carnegie Steel Company at all costs is because the American industry is too involuntary now.

Really super serious.

As I said before, the United States has built 27 kilometers of railways in half a century, which can be called the first generation of infrastructure madman.

However, in the 19th century, the management of the upper and lower levels of the old United States was very chaotic, and the official control of the lower levels was not at all possible.

Vicious competition is very serious.

The railway industry is one of the key supports of the United States, just like when new energy vehicles first appeared in later generations, a subsidy policy was adopted: according to the mileage of repairs, the more repairs, the more subsidies.

This has given many companies the opportunity to squeeze their wool. Some railways can go straight, but they are forcibly repaired into a snake-like movement.

Anyway, half a century later, the United States is covered with railways like instant noodles.

The prosperity of the railway naturally led to the growth of the upstream steel industry.

Even oversupply.

This belongs to the macroscopic level.

At the micro level, that is, for each specific railway company, internal management is also very chaotic.

At that time, the management and shareholders of many companies were separated, and the shareholders of the company did not participate in the operation, so there were many behaviors by the management that harmed the interests of shareholders.

The management would secretly form a new company to build a railway next to the existing railway to compete with the company they worked for.The purpose is to force shareholders to acquire the railway for personal gain.

There are so many things like this.

That's why Morgan wanted to come forward to change the status quo.

The way he changes the industry is finance.

Morgan's understanding of finance far exceeds this era, and "equity trust" is his earliest invention and application.

The real power of finance does not lie in having enough funds, but in the ability to connect funds.

Morgan concentrated the scattered stocks of small and medium-sized investors through equity trusts, and the Morgan Bank exercised power in a unified manner. At the same time, it placed people on the board of directors to firmly control the company, and then carried out rationalization reforms.

This set of combination boxing is the so-called "Morganization".

In this way Morgan set up a "trust," a kind of monopoly.A trust is different from another form of monopoly called a "syndicate". The trust itself is an enterprise, and the board of directors has the highest decision-making power.

Morgan's trusts unified freight rates, eliminated redundant construction, improved the level of management, and changed the state of disorderly competition.

Then Morgan set up the steel industry super trust in the same way.

Steel and railways are the absolute pillars of the United States at present, and Morgan himself controls 65% of the steel production in the United States!

That's why Morgan has such a high status in the United States.

Li Yu then took the big guys to take the train to Pittsburgh. Xie Yuxi easily found a steel factory laboratory for them.

Because of Li Yu's great reputation, Carnegie Mellon University was also invited.

To be precise, Mellon has not invested yet, so it can only be called Carnegie Institute of Technology.

The school was invested and constructed by Carnegie. The original purpose was to provide talents in the industrial and construction industries, which just matched Pittsburgh's status as an industrial city.

Li Yu deliberately released the news in advance, because he needed to find some people to help.

The college must sell the face of the Carnegie family and send a very good young man named Drummond.

The young man Drummond is of Scottish descent and Li Yu's little fanboy. Hearing that Li Yu needed help, he volunteered without saying a word.

Li Yu roughly stated his original intention of refining a kind of "magic steel".

The most surprised was Xie Yuxi: "You want to follow the old way of grandpa?"

Li Yu laughed and said, "It's just a small patent."

"You know smelting?" Konoe Zhaoyuki asked.

Li Yu scratched his head: "It should be said that he understands the formula. The specific smelting depends on the factory workers and our new boy."

There are all kinds of experimental materials in the steel factory, but what Li Yu needs is not only conventional iron and carbon, but some chromium is enough.None of these things are hard to come by.

As soon as you hear about chromium, you will know that what Li Yu wants to invent is stainless steel.

In fact, the process of stainless steel is very simple, you only need to add chromium when making steel.With such a powerful steel mill laboratory, it doesn't even take too many trials to succeed.

Later generations produced various complex other types of stainless steel, such as those mixed with nickel and titanium, but they are not used at present.

It is enough to produce ordinary stainless steel that is corrosion-resistant and bright.

What Li Yu knew was the general formula, and the specific smelting process was practiced by the factory workers and Drummond.

— is almost a daily routine for them.

After dozens of trials, a more suitable ratio was obtained.

Several students brought by Li Yu from China also observed and participated in the whole process.

In the end, Xie Yuxi looked at the shiny iron lump in front of her eyes and said, "This is it?"

Li Yu said: "It's almost there. Don't underestimate it. It is different from other steel materials. It is resistant to corrosion and will not rust, so I call it stainless steel."

"It's really so powerful?" Konoe Zhaoxue said, "Then can it be used in various outdoor or military applications?"

In fact, the initial establishment of the stainless steel project was that during World War I, Britain wanted to develop a corrosion-resistant steel for the manufacture of gun chambers.

But Li Yu didn't want to get involved in the military industry, and said, "Unfortunately, it can't be used in the military. Because although this new material is corrosion-resistant, it is not wear-resistant."

Konoe Zhaoyuki was slightly disappointed: "Then what can it do?"

Li Yu proudly said: "It is very useful! It can be used to make tableware, and it is also very useful in the construction industry."

"tableware?"

Everyone was surprised.

Li Yu called Drummond over: "Go and buy some knife and fork molds, as well as fruit knives, washbasins, etc."

Drummond bought in quickly, and with materials and tools, stamping was easy.

It didn't take long for them to create glorious knives and forks, spoons, washbasins, fruit knives, and more.

Li Yu and other Chinese don't use knives and forks, but Americans are so happy to see it. The market for this thing is bigger than zippers and expansion screws.

After the construction industry opens up the market in the future, there is no need to worry about sales.

Xie Yuxi smiled and said, "Are you going to go back to your old job in the future?"

Li Yu said: "You can produce it yourself, and of course you can sell the patent. Its value is much higher, and it must be valued properly."

Xie Yuxi said: "I suddenly feel that the laboratory in New York can no longer satisfy you."

Li Yu asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Because you span too many industries, it's almost impossible to guess." Xie Yuxi said.

Li Yu said, "Anyway, I'm asking you to apply for a patent again."

Xie Yuxi is used to it, and even the US Patent Office regards her as a regular visitor.

The Scottish boy Drummond eagerly said: "Mr. Li Yu, can I follow you and enter your company in the future? I not only know smelting, but also know many other industrial productions."

The young man seemed very sincere. What Li Yu needed was this kind of blank slate who had just graduated and was easier to cultivate.Moreover, it is too tiring to let Zou Zhou manage the production by himself, and he plans to let him take up a management position in the future, so he said, "Yes, but it is very hard work for a start-up company."

Drummond said happily: "I will be satisfied if I can follow you."

It seems that it is really easy to recruit people with one's own name.

Xie Yuxi and others can also see that this technology called "stainless steel" has a broad market, but Konoe Zhaoxue is quietly muttering.

During this period of getting along, it is obvious that Li Yu's academic ability is astonishing. He seems to be able to do many things, and there are countless knowledge hidden in his head.

Gotta find a way to dig it out!

(End of this chapter)