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

Chapter 357 Strange Aircraft

Niagara Falls is located on the border between the United States and Canada, in the Great Lakes region, and part of the United States belongs to New York State, so it is not far away. It is only about [-] kilometers away from New York, and it can be reached by train on the same day.

After coming to the waterfall, everyone was still very shocked by the uncanny craftsmanship of nature.

Even though Li Yu had watched many small videos on the Internet before, it was more magnificent to see it with his own eyes.Moreover, there is no commercial atmosphere at this time, and there are not many people who can come here, so the viewing experience is quite good.

This natural wonder has nothing to do with humanities or history, it is entirely the greatness of the earth itself, so it can shock people's hearts more purely.

Sitting on the ship, they can watch more closely, and Eastman keeps taking pictures with the camera in his hand.

Someone has photographed this waterfall before, but no one has taken such a close-up photo with a small camera, so it will still be very attractive after being published in National Geographic in the future.

Not only did they take pictures of the scenery, but everyone also stood on the bow of the boat to take pictures one by one, and then took group photos. There were group photos of four people, and some were taken in pairs.

When it was Li Yu and Lu Bicheng's turn to take pictures, Eastman held the camera and said, "Sir and Madam, please get closer!"

Lu Bicheng blushed slightly, and stood there motionless, Li Yu put his arms around her shoulders, "Pose!"

Lu Bicheng approached his arms, his heart tightened, he didn't hear Li Yu's words clearly, and asked, "What did you say?"

Li Yu said with a smile: "Compare your heart, just like this."

Li Yu squeezed two fingers in front of him.

Lu Bicheng followed suit.

Eastman said: "Very good!"

"Crack!"

"Here's another one, this time for a yeah!" Li Yu said.

He stretched out two more fingers in front of him.

Lu Bicheng did the same, she thought that's how it should be when taking pictures.

"Crack!"

After the filming, Lu Bicheng immediately took another step to the side, and stroked her hair carelessly.

Eastman said: "Mr. Academician, you are the most natural person I have ever seen taking pictures. The pose just now is very good!"

Li Yule said: "Put it anywhere."

Well, the most vulgar and rustic photoshoot poses in later generations are all trendy at this time.

When taking pictures, Li Yu has been paying attention to how Eastman handles the pocket camera in his hand. It is still a bit cumbersome. Anyway, it is definitely not comparable to the later "fool-style" cameras, let alone digital photography products such as mobile phones.

But for the current people, it is already a super novel product.

Especially women, prefer to take pictures.

Lu Bicheng asked: "Such a small box, can you really take pictures?"

"Of course." Li Yu said.

Lu Bicheng said, "It's interesting to watch."

Li Yu heard the meaning of the words, so he said, "Let's buy a few, and we can take photos anytime and anywhere when we go back."

Li Yu then said to Eastman: "Sir, please send me some cameras and more film when you return to the company."

Eastman really wanted to sell its products to a big celebrity like Li Yu, and immediately said after hearing his intention: "Mr. As long as you allow me to use your Star Wars series for product promotion. I think sci-fi works are just right for my novel product positioning. Of course, I will pay you for promotion.”

The Star Wars series is indeed popular, and many companies want to associate their products with it. Li Yu thought for a while and said, "Yes."

Eastman said happily: "Great! My products will never damage your reputation."

In fact, Kodak has developed well in the past few years, and has branches in many major cities around the world.

There is no doubt that photography is a rigid need of human beings.

Even in the era before Li Yu's time travel, when mobile phones were so developed, the focus was still on video recordings, and in many press conferences, the photography part took up even half of the time.

Kodak took the first opportunity to popularize photography and achieved take-off.

After taking the photos, it was necessary to go to a professional darkroom to develop the photos. By the way, Bell let the boat go to Buffalo, which is located on the Great Lakes.

Buffalo is far away from Detroit and is the second largest city in New York State, but the light is all attracted by New York, so few people have heard of this city.

Most overseas Chinese in the United States like to call it Buffalo, because the English name of the city is "Buffalo".

The names of many cities in the United States are actually quite strange, and many of them even completely overlap with the names of European cities.The name is so random...

Bell asked Li Yu to come here because he had an experimental base here, and Li Yu had earlier agreed to become the founder of the Aeronautical Experiment Association.

It wasn't until Li Yu got to the place that he found out that he was not "just getting interested in aviation" as he said before, but had actually been studying aircraft for many years.

Bell has already done a lot of research, but he himself does not fully understand the experiments of the Wright brothers, and the research on aircraft is still in the stage of his own exploration.

It may be because I didn't succeed, so what I said last time was a little restrained.

But now, Bell seems to have some success. He proudly showed Li Yu the aircraft he designed, "Mr. Academician, please take a look at another great invention of mine! I think its significance in the future is no less than that of the telephone!"

But when Li Yu saw it, he was dumbfounded, what kind of shit is this!

It's hard to describe what Li Yu saw. If I had to say it, it was like a box-shaped kite.It consists of three or four thousand small tetrahedrons and weighs about 100 kilograms.

It certainly doesn't look like an airplane anyway.

Seeing Li Yu stunned in place, Bell thought that Li Yu was overwhelmed by his great invention, and said with a smile, "Mr. Academician, are you surprised? I have spent more than ten years on it, and today I can do it." Let Mr. Eastman take a photo of the first flight."

Li Yu took a closer look and asked, "Mr. Bell, why didn't I see the engine?"

Bell said: "That's why I'm going to do a test flight by the lake, because it needs to be towed by a fast motorboat to take off."

No wonder Bell chose to conduct the experiment by the lake.

Li Yu said, "That is to say, it has no power?"

Bell said: "It is what it is now, but if it can use the wind to achieve a good flying attitude, I will continue to consider adding engines. But the engines I have seen are too heavy to drag."

Li Yu said, "In that case, wouldn't it be better to fly a kite?"

Bell said: "I just need to fly the kite first, and with enough experimental data, I can consider the next step. You see, the early sailing boats were not all small canoes, then there were big sailing ships, and then to The later steam engine ship. So it needs a process.”

Li Yu covered his head and said for a long time, it was still a kite!And he was too optimistic.

Li Yu said embarrassingly: "Without an engine, it would be too difficult to drive. It is too difficult to control the wind direction in the air."

Bell is very confident: "For more than ten years, I have already considered many situations, and there are some failure records before, but this time I have perfected the structure and layout, and it should be successful."

Li Yu could only say, "We'll wait and see."

Bell greeted several assistants: "Get ready to start! We will see the successful launch of Little Swan 1 today!"

Bell's name for his aircraft is also quite interesting.

I saw a motorboat pulling Little Swan No. 1 to the surface of the water with a tow rope, which looked like a seaplane.

After Bell gave the order to take off with a whistle, the motorboat drove out quickly.

Needless to say, the little swan was really dragged and flew up slowly, but the flying posture was really not good, and the staff on the motorboat never dared to let go of the traction rope.

——still like flying a kite.

When Little Swan 1 reached a height of 50 meters, it was still crooked, but the traction rope had already been released immediately.

But a discerning person knew at a glance that if the traction rope was released at this time, it would crash.

But the rope had reached its limit, and Bell whistled wildly on the shore, trying to get them to let go of the leash.

But the people on the boat couldn't hear it at all. After hesitating, Little Swan No. 1 could no longer support the flying posture, turned around and fell to the water.

Bell threw the whistle to the ground angrily, "Waste! Today's wind direction is so good that we can't fly!"

The whole process of "flying a kite" took only 7 minutes, and the Little Swan 1, which cost Bell more than ten years of painstaking efforts, just disappeared.

Bell sat down on the ground dejectedly, muttering to himself: "It's over, it's over! Why is this happening!"

Bell, who had been working on flying machines since about 1890, spent literally more time than he did on the phone.

Li Yu comforted: "Mr. Bell, failure is the mother of success, don't be discouraged."

Bell was a relatively optimistic person, and stood up with his hands on the ground: "What I said is that I will start the research and development of Little Swan 2 immediately!"

Li Yu almost fell over. Why does he like flying kites so much? !

Speaking of it, in fact, there are really many aircraft development routes at present, which means that a hundred flowers are blooming.

For example, the French Adel made an aircraft that imitated bats, but it was driven by a cumbersome steam engine. The French military was very interested in it for a while, but this form could not fly high at all.

There is also the famous orthopter, which completely imitates the flapping of the wings of birds.Until next year, there are still many people conducting research in this direction, especially in the United Kingdom, where the Engineering Society of Cambridge University has also participated. However, according to Cambridge's records, the orthopter only flew up to 0.5 meters, and then showed signs of direction. The "trend" of the forward flight.But that's all, it can't be called flying at all.

In addition, the British also made a very strange looking multiplane.It's like elongating the middle of a tricycle, and then stacking many horizontal wings layer by layer.Three years later, the British Phillips is still doing research in this area, and even increased the number of wings to 50. It is really hard to imagine what it would be like.

Needless to say, it can't fly either.

There are also many other forms, such as "scaffolding" (it really looks like scaffolding on a construction site), egg-shaped multiplanes, and so on.

These projects lasted until four or five years later.

Anyway, in the end, everyone concluded that the fixed wing of the Wright Brothers was the most concise and efficient, and all research directions were concentrated on the fixed wing.

Naturally, Li Yu knew that it would be a dead end for Bell to continue his research, so he quickly said to him: "Mr. Bell, didn't you recruit me to be the founder, we should think about the direction of follow-up research and development, shouldn't we?"

Bell said: "Makes sense, you also understand mechanics. Also, don't forget that founders have to invest money."

Li Yu smiled and said, "Of course, but you have to listen to me carefully."

Li Yu gave Bell a detailed account of the Wright Brothers' experiment last year, and roughly drew the concept of the fixed wing on paper, which was much more detailed than the previous newspaper reports, especially with many more technical details.

Bell was shocked: "Using the car's engine, can it still carry people a few hundred meters away?!"

Li Yu said: "That's right, and it's only the first time to use it. If more improvements are made, the flying ability will definitely be better."

Bell looked at the picture drawn by Li Yu and pondered for a while: "I really want to see it with my own eyes."

Li Yu said, "It's simple, we can go to North Carolina and go directly to the Wright Brothers."

In fact, Bell was still a little unconvinced, and said, "I can't think of a Confederate state with people who know engineering!"

During the American Civil War, North Carolina was on the southern side.In comparison, the American South is more conservative than the North.

Li Yu said with a smile: "There is an old saying in China that a hero does not ask where he came from."

Bell said: "I still like to chat with educated Chinese like you, who can say a few short and concise sentences at any time."

Bell was really obsessed with flying machines, and immediately decided to set off to see the Wright brothers' plane.

If Li Yu hadn't stopped him, Bell would have continued his "kite experiment" on Little Swan 2.

Cygnet No. 2, which was born a few years later, has an even weirder shape, with densely packed small tetrahedrons forming a multi-layered wing and also equipped with an engine.

However, during the test flight, Cygnet No. 2 was not as good as No. 1, and it only floated slightly out of the water.

And this is 8 years later.

Bell didn't abandon the kite trip until someone else in Bell's Aeronautical Experiment Society made substantial progress on a conventional aircraft layout.

-

Several people need to return to New York to rectify first.

This issue of National Geographic really went viral after it published close-up photos of Niagara Falls.

Moreover, a group photo of Li Yu and Lu Bicheng was used in it. "National Geographic" magazine also took a look at the popularity of the two male and female authors of Star Wars.

Like later generations, people in every era like to gossip about the life trivia of celebrities.When they saw the group photos taken by professional photographers like Eastman, they were all amazed:

"It turns out that Mr. Li Yu already has such a beautiful Oriental lady."

"Don't tell me, oriental women can be so beautiful, with an indescribable charm."

"Li Yu is also very handsome! I remember there is a Chinese idiom called "wolf-talented-woman-looking."

"Wolf? Are you right?"

"Maybe I'm wrong, I only heard it once."

"I also heard that there is a famous Chinese book "Dream of Red Mansions" that women are made of water. You see, they stand in front of a big waterfall, a man and a woman. The soft water forms a magnificent waterfall, which is too artistically opposite. gone."

They should also thank photographers like Eastman for their professional composition.

Because of Li Yu's popularity, many people began to pay attention to some Chinese cultural content.Although many places are not accurate enough, there is no need to force it. After all, there are not many Chinese works translated at present-there are not many such translators at this time.

In addition, there is another interesting thing: the photo poses used by Li Yu and Lu Bicheng really began to spread widely

It can be considered unintentional.

Back on Fifth Avenue, Li Yu saw the package sent by Colgate, which contained a new patented toothpaste.

These things are very useful.

If they can be sold well, Li Yu can just earn a lot of patent licensing fees.

(End of this chapter)