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

Chapter 419 Natural
In the end, Li Yu donated 5000 taels to Fudan Public School, but it was still a small amount, because there was a bigger expenditure soon.

The Lu family really could not continue to bear the burden of the Song Dynasty Tower and planned to sell these 25 volumes of ancient books for the previously negotiated price of [-] silver dollars.

If you don't make a move, the Japanese cultural relic hunter Han Shimada might do something tricky. It would be a long night and dreamy, so it's better to buy it quickly.

At that time, it was agreed that Li Yu, Zhang Yuanji, and Li Shutong would take the money together, but the two of them did not have so much cash, so Li Yu took the big money and paid 20 silver dollars, Zhang Yuanji paid 3, and Li Shutong 2.

It just so happened that Li Yu bought Yu Garden at that time, so he asked Yang Sisheng to build a library.It will take half a year for these books to arrive in Shanghai, and the building will be repaired by then.

Li Yu did not continue to stay in Shanghai, but returned to the capital.

When arriving at Tanggu Port, Li Yu couldn't stand the slow transportation, so he found Tang Shaoyi.He had just become the new Minister of Railways, which was the beginning of the powerful transportation system in the early years of the Republic of China.

As soon as Li Yu mentioned his idea, Tang Shaoyi agreed, because Shanghai is too important to need to say more, and everyone knows the importance of the Jinpu line.

Tang Shaoyi said: "There are still some problems that need to be solved urgently. We just started planning for the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway last year. It may be difficult to raise funds at this time."

Li Yu gave him an idea: "As long as foreigners don't want the right of way, they can borrow money from foreigners' banks."

Tang Shaoyi thought: "Foreigners attach great importance to the right of way, and they are afraid that they will not agree if they only borrow money."

Li Yu said: "Then find a bank in two different countries to borrow money, or simply find a bank in the United States for a loan. Aren't they now clamoring for an open door every day, and they are not interested in colonization."

Tang Shaoyi said: "If it is really possible to only borrow money without losing the right of way, things will actually move forward. Marshal Yuan proposed it four years ago, but everyone is unwilling to let the right of way of this traffic artery be held in the hands of foreigners. So it’s been put on hold.”

Li Yu added: "When the railway rings, there are thousands of taels of gold. As long as the payment terms are good, I don't believe that all foreign banks will be able to bear not lending money."

Tang Shaoyi said: "But the amount of borrowing is fixed. After the construction of the railway actually starts, it will often exceed the budget."

Li Yu naturally understands this truth, so he said: "At that time, it will be a big deal to borrow foreign banks to continue to issue additional bonds. Large-scale infrastructure projects in any country and era will be inseparable from financial means."

Tang Shaoyi felt that it was indeed a good way. He also knew that France relied on financial means to pay off 50 billion francs in compensation in two years. According to the exchange rate at the time, this was a huge sum equivalent to more than 12 billion taels of silver, which was more than the sum of all the indemnities paid by the Qing government. And more.

Tang Shaoyi said: "I will write the memorial as soon as possible and present it to the court."

Li Yu really hoped that this railway would be completed soon!

-

After returning to the capital, Li Yu saw a lot of packages and letters at home. The packages were a batch of scientific magazines sent from Europe.

Li Yu opened it first and looked at it.The magazine is very comprehensive, and as soon as I opened one, I saw the name of Niels Bohr, but only his bachelor's thesis was published, which was called "Determination of the Surface Tension of Water".

At this time, those who majored in physics in European universities basically had to write experimental papers, and there were very few pure theoretical physics like Li Yu, Einstein, and Planck.

Of course, in order to keep their status, they also have to write some physics papers in the experimental direction, otherwise people will really think that you don't understand physics at all.

In addition, all five of Einstein's 1905 papers were included in the magazine, and the mass-energy formula appeared in the first issue of "Annals of Physics".

Li Yu opened another letter. Seeing that the cover was from the Royal Society, he thought the letter was written by Lord Kelvin or President Huggins, but unexpectedly it was from an academician of the society—Lockyer.

"Dear Academician Li Yu,

Allow me to introduce myself, Sir Norman, the founder and editor-in-chief of the journal Nature.Today I have obtained the consent of Lord Kelvin, and I can ask you for a manuscript to be published in "Nature".It is an honor for all scientific journals to receive your high-quality manuscript. I very much hope that Academician Li Yu will contribute. ..."

Sir Norman was Lord Lockyer.

That's right, "Natural" among the three major scientific journals was founded by him.

This old man is also an astronomer. He studied the solar spectrum very early, and then predicted the helium element found in the solar spectrum.

After helium was finally found on Earth, he was knighted.

For the name of "Natural", Li Yu also had to agree to Lockyer's request, so he began to think about what to write.

After thinking about it for a long time, I still write about isotopes in physics—at this time, it should be called the "isotope hypothesis" to be precise.

Atomic mass is the most basic element of elements, and each element will be measured for its atomic mass immediately after it is discovered. At this time, they are listed in Mendeleev's periodic table of elements.

Many years ago, the scientific community reached a consensus: set the atomic weight of the hydrogen atom as 1, and the subsequent atoms are integer multiples of the hydrogen atom.

But as early as half a century ago, Berzelius, a Swedish chemist, discovered that the atomic weight of chlorine was measured to be about 35.5, which is not an integral multiple of hydrogen atoms.

This is a very perplexing question in chemistry.

And after the discovery of radioactivity a few years ago, the problem has become even more troubling.Because scientists discovered that there are 82 atoms of different atomic weights between the No. 92 element lead and the No. 40 element uranium.

But they are definitely not 40 different kinds of atoms, because many atoms with different atomic weights have the same number of electrons.

What is even more difficult is that they cannot be separated chemically.

This is the current era background.

But for Li Yu, this question is very simple. Everyone who has studied high school chemistry must understand that the atomic weight is not an integer because of the existence of isotopes (strictly speaking, the hydrogen atom is not 1, but 1.01).

比如氯元素Cl，就是因为它有两种同位素Cl-35和Cl-37。其中Cl-35占75%，Cl-37占25%，因而整体上表现出来的原子量就是35.5。

But at this time, the neutron had not been discovered, so Li Yu could not write too aggressively, after all, the nuclear model had not yet been published.

So Li Yu handled it more tactfully, but the key point was written out:
For example, if there are the same number of electrons, they must belong to the same element chemically, so their chemical properties are the same, and naturally they cannot be separated by chemical methods.

Then Li Yu mentioned the existence of isotopes.However, since it is proposed as a hypothesis, there is no need to explain why in too much detail.

Finally, Li Yu predicted that the nucleus can still be subdivided (otherwise the isotope cannot be explained reasonably).

This kind of article logically belongs to the two major disciplines of physics and chemistry.

But elements, or atoms, are essentially related to the field of atomic nuclei, and should be more biased towards physics.

After all, theoretically, all chemical phenomena can be solved by using the Schrödinger equation in physics to describe the relative motion between extranuclear electrons and atomic nuclei.

But there is a gap between them—chaotic, unsolvable differential equations, so chemistry and physics are still only two disciplines.

Li Yu couldn't bring up the difficult problems that could not be solved in 100 years.

But just solving why these strange atoms with different atomic weights cannot be separated by chemical methods, as well as the isotope hypothesis and the prediction that the nucleus can be further subdivided, these three points are enough for "Nature".

Li Yu made cuts and cuts, and the paper took a day to write, and it was not long in general, because the characteristic of "Nature" has always been that it likes relatively short papers.

Li Yu wrote this kind of paper very easily and freehand, but after reading Planck's letter, his head got bigger:

"...

"A month ago, I gave a lecture at the Prussian Academy of Sciences on the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Objects" jointly written by Mr. Einstein and you. Although I repeatedly emphasized its importance, it did not attract enough attention. Many Some people questioned that the theory was too limited, and at the same time, the physical thought adopted was too radical, and the conclusion was completely different from that of Newton and Galileo.

"It's almost unacceptable.

"Of course, I know that the scientific research environment in Prussia tends to be more conservative, so I am going to translate this paper into English and French to see how scientists in other countries treat it."

The letter written here is still a relatively normal scientific discussion.

Li Yu is not surprised. The physics community must take a long enough time to digest such unprecedented theories as relativity and quantum mechanics.

And because Einstein's papers use a lot of mathematical content, physicists don't seem to be as fluent as mathematicians, and even have to study Minkowski and Lorentz's mathematical content.

And the mathematics of these two big guys is not that simple, so even if physicists accept the special theory of relativity, it will take a while to understand it.

I have to say that the relationship between the two top figures in modern physics, Planck, the founder of quantum mechanics, and Einstein, the founder of the theory of relativity, is really good.

Quantum theory was first publicly used by Einstein and vigorously promoted. Although Einstein and Bohr later had a fierce quarrel over whether God would roll dice or not, it must be admitted that Einstein’s understanding of Planck’s quantum theory The use is No.1, and it is very firm.He just didn't expect the future development of quantum mechanics to be so terrifying.

And if it weren't for Planck being the reviewer of Einstein's paper, it is estimated that his paper would not be published.

Even if it is not as serious as when Cauchy shelved the papers of Galois and Abel, two genius mathematics teenagers, causing them to die young, it will greatly delay the birth of the theory of relativity.

After writing here, Planck's writing skills changed:
"Li, it's been so long, why haven't I seen the sequel of the Star Wars series? I have worked so hard to help you buy so many experimental equipment, don't stop writing here, because I can see that Star Wars There is still a lot of room for excavation.”

Li Yu couldn't laugh or cry, he had no chance to be lazy at all.

In fact, what Li Yu didn’t know was that both the Collins Publishing House in the United States and the Hachette Publishing House in France had already received countless letters from readers, but they didn’t know Li Yu’s address like Planck did. .

(End of this chapter)