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

Paris has always been famous for its romance, and in the early [-]th century it attracted countless women.

What's more, there are still a large number of revolutionary groups here. After Qiu Jin traveled around Europe and the United States, he finally decided to study in Paris.

She is not too short of money. The key is that it takes a long time to learn French.

Before going to Japan, I was able to initially master Japanese in just a few months, but French was different. To meet the admission standards, I had to attend a language remedial class for at least a year.

After Li Yu knew her idea, he immediately expressed his approval with both hands, "Xia Qiu Jin, you have seen that the academic atmosphere in Europe and the United States is much stronger than that in Japan. In the future, allowing more students to study in Europe and the United States will have many benefits."

"What kind of heroine am I?" Qiu Jin wondered, "But in countries with republican systems like France and the United States, I feel more suitable for me. The most important thing is that there is revolutionary soil. It will be helpful to return to the country after studying in the future. "

Li Yu said: "Yes. The US Education Fund that has been established only supports students to study in the United States, but I can establish another education fund in my own name to support students to study in Europe every year. You can set up an outpost here."

Cai Yuanpei also agreed with the proposal: "Today, there are too few people who are willing to study in Europe. On the one hand, the cost is too high, and on the other hand, everyone is afraid. But those who are willing to come will find that this place is more suitable for academic studies than Japan." .”

Li Yu said: "If the heroine Qiu Jin stays, you can take care of her. At the same time, there should be no problem in building a preparatory school in one or two years."

Zhang Jingjiang said bitterly: "I still had some money before, but now..."

"I will solve the funding problem," Li Yu said. "Cultivating a group of talents will bring rewards far beyond the cost."

"Brother Shucai is becoming more and more admired by me. No wonder people like Mr. Taiyan, who have lofty ideals, will appreciate you," Cai Yuanpei said. "Europe is a place where Kang and Liang did not have too much influence. I remember when Liang Qichao was in Japan By establishing a Tsinghua school, we can also establish similar schools in Europe."

In the future, students studying in Europe will become a very powerful organization when they return home.

Cai Yuanpei was so enthusiastic about education that he put forward the details of various plans endlessly.

-

After leaving Zhang Jingjiang's antique porcelain shop, Li Yu received an invitation from the French Academy of Sciences to attend a lecture.

The speaker was Jean Perrin, and the content of the report was about the formula for the distribution of sol particles with height.

This report is worth it, because it was through this experiment that Jean Perrin measured Avogadro's constant very accurately, thus completely shattering the "energy theory" and bringing the final victory to atomic theory.

Moreover, as an academician of the French Academy of Sciences, Li Yu is obliged to participate if he is in France according to the charter.

What is more interesting is that the French Academy of Sciences also invited Boltzmann, a representative of atomic theory, and Mach and Ostwald, representatives of energy theory.

Several of them are heavyweights.

Ostwald will win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry next year, but in terms of popularity, Mach is higher than him.

Not to mention Boltzmann, a physics dean.

Li Yu met Boltzmann at the Academy of Sciences. The old man's mental state is now better, at least much better than Cantor who has been in a mental hospital for many years.

Li Yu shook hands with him cordially: "Professor Boltzmann, you look good."

"Oh! Really? That must be because yesterday's dinner was so sumptuous," Boltzmann said. "Although it's not that far from Vienna to Paris, I just got out of the train station and I couldn't wait to have a meal first. Very tender roast pork, cabbage and potatoes, and a couple of beers. - Forgive me, my memory for numbers is not great in other areas, but when it comes to the number of beers, I almost always get it wrong."

Li Yu smiled and said: "I heard that Viennese people are some of the most particular about dining in Europe, and that's true."

"You're right!" Boltzmann said proudly, "Every time I go out, I will definitely choose the best local restaurant to enjoy special food. Don't say that age has made me naive. In my case, it does. Something truly childlike.”

Being able to say such things proves that his spirit is indeed very good.

Li Yu said: "If a few Chinese restaurants open in Vienna, you will definitely regret not eating in them in the past 60 years."

Boltzmann said: "I will definitely regret it to death! I would rather be reborn!"

While the two were talking and laughing, Mach and Ostwald walked not far away and entered the gate of the French Academy of Sciences.

Li Yu said: "They may not be in the mood to drink a glass of French brandy today."

Boltzmann said: "That's a shame, but there's nothing we can do about it, right?"

"We'll see." Li Yu said easily.

The staff of the French Academy of Sciences had arranged a specific seat for an older scholar like Boltzmann and invited him to sit down.

And Li Yu met the great mathematician Poincaré, who has become the president of the French Academy of Sciences.At the same time, he also became an academician of the French Academy of Letters as a writer (prose).

Poincaré said: "Academician Li Yu, I have read your recent papers, and every one of them surprised me."

Li Yu said: "Thank you very much for the compliment, Dean."

"As for the conjecture mentioned when I last met with you, after several months of research, I found that it is very difficult to prove and seems to be beyond the scope of existing mathematical tools," Poincaré said. "You will never be like Mr. Fermat." , has been proved, but we have to say in the blank space that we have found the proof method, but the blank space is too small to write."

Li Yu smiled and said: "I don't have this kind of ability. For me, topology is an unfamiliar field."

"Then you are the absolute top person in the field of science fiction." A person came over and said.

Poincaré looked at him: "Raymond, you are here too."

Then Poincaré introduced him to Li Yu: "This is my younger brother, Raymond Poincaré, who is also an academician of the French Academy."

Li Yu shook hands with him: "It's a pleasure to meet you."

To be precise, Raymond was Poincaré's cousin.

This man later became the president of France, and he was a president with a very tough attitude towards Germany.

The Dreyfus case has profoundly demonstrated the current position of the entire French society: tough, tough, tough.

In the current French political scene, if you show even a slight hint of moderation, you will be abandoned by voters, while extreme politicians are frantically involving who is more extreme.

Anyway, France has entered a state of frenzy to declare war on Germany.

After that, Sarajevo was just an excuse. It was an open secret throughout Europe that Germany and France would eventually fight.

It's just that after the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck's methods were too ruthless, suppressing France in multiple fields including economy, diplomacy, military, and industry.Bismarck's purpose was to prevent France from turning around in 20 years.His methods did work. Germany's industrial output is now twice that of France, and its population is tens of millions more.

A large population means that more troops can be mobilized during wartime. If France wants to match Germany in terms of army numbers, it needs to mobilize at least [-]% of its young people of working age.This is unacceptable in any country.

However, France has not sat idle for so many years. Although its industrial strength is not as good as Germany's, they have a trump card: financial means.

For more than ten years, France has provided Russia with a large number of interest-free loans and even transferred its military production lines, helping Russia equip a two-million-strong army. At the same time, it provoked conflicts between Russia and Germany, forcing Germany to deploy millions of troops on the Eastern Front.

Raymond came to power just before World War I, and his term covered World War I. After he came to power, he carried out crazy military expansion and preparations for war, and changed the military service period from two years to three years.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is a typical signal to start a war.

Li Yu looked at the two brothers with the same surname Poincaré, and it was hard to imagine that they were so close by blood.

Raymond and the French politicians he represented sent an entire generation of French youth to their graves.

Even Poincaré himself called his younger brother "War Raymond".

Politics is what people care about most nowadays, but politicians may not leave their mark in history.

There are too many people who know Poincaré, and some of them still remember Raymond, and even had to add "cousin of the great mathematician Poincaré" in his introduction.

Unfortunately, the situation is unavoidable. Not many people in France dare to speak for the moderates now. If you don't pay attention, you will be caught.

Raymond said to Li Yu: "I have obtained the first edition of Star Wars Biography from Hachette Publishing House. It is simply wonderful. I would like to call you the most imaginative person in the world!"

"Don't take it seriously," Li Yu said, "Imagination is a talent shared by all people."

Li Yu entered the hall of the Academy of Sciences together with the Poincaré brothers. Many big names were present, including the Curies and Lippmann, who will win the Nobel Prize in Physics this year.

Madame Curie was not an academician of the French Academy of Sciences. As mentioned before, because Madame Curie was so famous, the French Academy of Sciences actually voted to pass a resolution prohibiting women from running for vacant positions at the French Academy of Sciences in the future!It was not until 1979 that the first woman was elected to the French Academy of Sciences.

But after all, her fame is here, and Pierre Curie must bring her here.

After Dean Poincaré gave a brief opening speech, Jean Perrin stepped onto the podium to give an academic report.

Everyone, including Boltzmann, had basically guessed the result, but they still had to go to the scene to hear Jean Perrin's personal statement.

What surprised Li Yu was that Jean Perrin even mentioned Einstein's name in the report, but it did not cause any shock to the people present.

Jean Perrin finally announced in a low voice: "So, although I am not the first to propose it, I still want to say that atoms do exist."

Suddenly there was warm applause from the audience.

Li Yu thought to himself, it's so interesting. Before he died, Whitebeard shouted loudly: "One Piece is real!"

Today can still be called the "Age of Discovery" of science.

——It's just that Li Yu doesn't like the word "big voyage" very much. He always feels that there are banditry and bloody connotations in it.

Mach and Ostwald looked very unhappy, especially Mach. Energy was said to be his lifelong persistence, and now it was overturned. Of course he was unhappy.

Others did not feel this way, and asked Jean Perrin various questions, and many people were already eager to go back and arrange experiments.

After the meeting, Boltzmann excitedly said to Mach: "Although the truth arrived a little late, I have finally seen this day."

Mach said expressionlessly: "I will not give in casually."

In fact, Mach made great contributions to the history of science and philosophy. Li Yu came over and said, "Professor Mach, scientific progress is sometimes based on overthrowing predecessors, but that does not mean that the contributions of predecessors are meaningless. Newton once said that he achieved what he has achieved today by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Mach said: "Although atomic theory is convincing enough, there are still many problems. For example, the British discovered the existence of electrons. If Maxwell's electromagnetic theory is used, many unexplainable phenomena will occur."

This is all the content of quantum mechanics. Li Yu said: "It is because of this that physics can usher in a new life."

Maher sighed: "Maybe I am indeed old."

The theory of energy cannot be said to be completely wrong in a sense, just like the Plaut hypothesis about metaparticles, but science needs a development process.

After the great development of the theory of relativity, energy can also be matter.Even atoms, most of their mass is the binding energy reflected by the strong force.

Even later generations of string theory reiterated that energy may be the source of everything, but these theories were still hypotheses even before Li Yu traveled through time.

Lippmann knew how to adjust the atmosphere and said to several people: "I invited the Lumiere brothers to take a color photo for you. This is very rare!"

A few months ago, color photography in the modern sense was born, but it was very expensive.

Of course, everyone is willing to try new technologies, let alone a technology that is about to win a Nobel Prize.

The Lumiere brothers are mainly engaged in filmmaking, and the two brothers also developed a mobile movie machine. They are honored as the "Fathers of Cinema". The world's first film "The Train Arrival" was produced by the Lumiere Brothers. Shoot.

——Of course, Americans definitely think that the father of film is Edison; while Germans think that the father of film is the brothers Max and Emil.

But it is fair to say that in the world, the French Lumiere brothers should be regarded as the earliest inventors of cinema.

The Lumiere brothers' movie projector absorbed all the advantages of Edison's movie projector and other similar inventions at the time, and made it more perfect in performance.

They participated in the production of Lippmann's color film and also wanted to use it in the movie. However, this matter involved many technical problems and would take more than 20 years to solve.

The two brothers' photography skills are absolutely passable, and they are even more willing to serve the French Academy of Sciences.However, due to the limitation of photosensitive plate technology, the actual shooting was very troublesome. The big guy had to remain motionless there, and it took several minutes of exposure before the shooting was completed.

The effect is still somewhat unsatisfactory. After all, there are too many people, and it is difficult to guarantee that no one will make some small movements that will affect the shooting effect.

After the photo was taken, Li Yu immediately asked the Lumière brothers to take another photo of him and Lu Bicheng. The Lumière brothers happily said:

"Yes, but you two have to sign a set of the complete Star Wars collection for us first."

"It also needs a seal! China's seal."

Li Yu smiled and said, "I accept it."