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

Situ Meitang also came to California and took Li Yu to visit Hongmen.

San Francisco has always been a gathering place for Chinese people. Even in the 21st century, Chinese Americans account for one-fifth of San Francisco's population.

Hongmen boss Huang Sande received Li Yu ceremoniously. He praised: "Your Majesty is the pride of the Chinese people. His ability is amazing and shocked the world."

"Reputation is all external things," Li Yu said casually, and then asked, "What is the current situation of the Chinese in San Francisco?"

"We have generally recovered from the earthquake two years ago," Huang Sande said. "The San Francisco government's relief to Chinatown was not timely, and it did not even include Chinatown in the reconstruction list. When we asked why, they said that the U.S. government did not protect it. The obligation of the Chinese. Fortunately, we have continued to strive for self-improvement and reconstructed at our own expense. The San Francisco government saw this and finally had to allocate funds for reconstruction in order to collect taxes in the future."

The Chinese in San Francisco are still very united.

After the earthquake, many Americans simply burned their houses that did not collapse, because California law clearly stipulates that if a resident's house is damaged by the earthquake but does not collapse, the insurance company will not pay compensation.

Many of the houses after the earthquake became dilapidated and no one dared to live in them. In order to meet the compensation conditions, they had to burn them secretly.

Li Yu said: "I saw that life in Chinatown was still very difficult along the way."

Huang Sande said: "Now there is no work to build the railway, and the gold rush has subsided. It is indeed difficult for everyone to have no financial support. But we can survive after all."

Li Yu said: "Mr. Huang can set up a labor transportation company. In the future, when the products of my company in Beijing and Tianjin are shipped to the United States, I will hand over distribution, warehousing, and transportation to this company."

Huang Sande had long heard about Li Yu's ability at Situ Meitang, and said happily: "This kind of physical work is easy to do! The number of workers you can recruit is large, and it is much simpler than my husband's factories in Detroit and New York."

Li Yu naturally wanted to help his compatriots in San Francisco as much as possible. It was not easy for them. They had encountered various disasters and injustices, and they had to raise as much money as possible to support the revolution.

The year after the San Francisco earthquake, Mr. Zhongshan began to send telegrams to Hongmen to seek financial assistance. He almost never stopped until the early years of the Republic of China.Hongmen almost never refuses and raises a lot of money.

Huang Sande said: "Sir, why don't you join our Hongmen? I can arrange for you to become a Honggun as well."

Li Yu shook his head: "No, even if I don't join, I will still help Hongmen and many Chinese compatriots, and I have sworn sworn brother Situ, and I am one of Hongmen's own. Besides, I don't dare to keep pace with Mr. Zhongshan .”

Of course Li Yu doesn't want to get involved in politics. Hongmen will be reorganized in the future.

Huang Sande did not force him. In their eyes, Li Yu had a strong cultural atmosphere, and they respected him quite a bit.

Li Yu also does not need to make a direct donation to Hongmen. They have great energy, and letting them form a company to take over their own business in the future is already the most powerful help.

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Today’s California is small, and small means news travels fast.

It's difficult to communicate on a large scale, but just like if you did something bad, the whole village would know about it within two days.

After Berkeley invited Li Yu, Stanford will soon invite Li Yu and Lu Bicheng to come over for a grand occasion.

California is currently poorer than several eastern states, but its culture is relatively liberal. The University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University have admitted female students since their establishment, nearly half a century earlier than prestigious schools such as Harvard, Yale, and Oxford.

However, at present, these two universities are completely unable to compare with the universities in the east in terms of natural sciences.

Li Yu is already familiar with giving speeches. Considering that California is more proficient in astronomy - California has just built the powerful Mount Wilson Observatory, Li Yu talked about the relationship between astronomy and physics from the perspective of astronomy, which is the so-called celestial body. physics.

The content is not complicated. Astronomy, in its early days, was astrology, but when it became a real science, it actually started from physics.

What are the laws of universal gravitation, Kepler's three laws, etc.; later astronomy was closely related to physics.

After Li Yu finished speaking, the school invited Lu Bicheng, a mysterious oriental talented woman, to speak about oriental literature and art.

Lv Bicheng behaves elegantly in public, speaks English very well, and has a wider influence in literature and art. Lv Bicheng is also good at traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting, which made her even more popular than Li Yu after she came to power.

At Stanford University, Li Yu asked them for a film copy of the movie and a special movie projector.

The film footage Li Yu asked for is very famous. Everyone should have seen that set of images, which is a set of scenes of riding a horse and running.It’s something taught in the very first class of any film history course.

The emergence of film came from a bet made by Mr. Stanford.

Others bet on horse racing, but Mr. Stanford had a sudden idea that all four hooves of a horse would fly when it ran, so he made a bet with others, and the bet was as high as 2.5 US dollars.

The proof of this is as simple as taking a photo.But the photography technology at that time was not so good. The shutter time was too long, and it would take dozens of seconds to take a still photo. In this time, the horse would not know how far it could run.

Mr. Stanford found a legendary photographer, Muybridge, and asked him to complete the work.

Muybridge organized a team, spent six years and spent $5 ($1 was a huge deal at that time), and finally shortened the shutter time to 2000/[-] second, and then shot the famous short film " Running Horse".

It can be seen from the film that the posture of the horse in the air is completely different from the previous pictures. It is not that the two front feet are facing forward and the two hind feet are facing backward.

In fact, the horse's posture will show all four hooves in the air.

So Stanford won the bet.

This matter is very important to the film industry, and Li Yu is ready to introduce it into the country so that early filmmakers can see it.

Of course it wasn't for free, Li Yu spent $2000 to get it.

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When boarding the ferry back home, a person suddenly stopped Li Yu: "Master Emperor, I have seen you again after so many years!"

Li Yu turned his head and said, "Kong Xiangxi?"

Kong Xiangxi said happily: "The Imperial Master actually remembers me."

Li Yu asked: "Are you planning to graduate and return to China?"

"Yes." Kong Xiangxi said.

Li Yu asked again: "What are you going to do when you return to China? Now the court is in short supply of people who have studied abroad."

"Run a school." Kong Xiangxi replied.

This answer shocked Li Yu, "Running a school?"

Kong Xiangxi said: "I have bought a large number of primary and secondary school textbooks from the United States. When I return to Shanxi, I will set up a school in my hometown."

"Why do you have such an idea?" Li Yu asked curiously.

"After all, I am a disciple of Confucius. The knowledge of the sage master Confucius seems to have reached a bottleneck. Now scholars need to learn new learning. I don't want my Confucian disciple to be found guilty of not knowing the new learning." Kong Xiangxi said.

There is actually some truth in it, Li Yu said with a smile: "It's really unexpected."

"Is there anything unexpected?" Kong Xiangxi said, "I have also been influenced by you, master, over the years, and I have realized the importance of Western learning."

Well, Kong Xiangxi studied physical and chemical sciences and social sciences in the United States. After the two met, they corresponded many times. Li Yu answered some questions about physics and mathematics raised by Kong Xiangxi. He actually regarded Li Yu as his teacher because of this.Naturally, he wanted to take advantage of Li Yu's fame.

This guy really knows how to do things.

Li Yu could only encourage: "Running a school is a good thing."

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After the ship arrived at Tianjin Port, Tang Shaoyi brought people to greet Li Yu, and then took him with him to the Zhili Governor's Mansion.

Tang Shaoyi said: "There is a case now that involves Chinese people, foreigners from many countries, and a Belgian tram company. Even the courts in the Tianjin Concession can't do anything about it."

Li Yu wondered: "I'm not a law student, what do you want from me?"

Tang Shaoyi explained: "Because I can't provide evidence."

"I'm not Sherlock Holmes." Li Yu said.

"But you can really help with this matter. The chain of evidence involves some technical difficulties." Tang Shaoyi said.

"Technology?" Li Yu wondered.

Tang Shaoyi said: "You may know that a tram company was established in the Tianjin Concession a few years ago and was invested by Belgians. However, the planning at that time was somewhat hasty. The tram company's generator plant was built far away from the residential areas of the French Concession and the British Concession. The residential area is too close, and there are many Chinese businessmen nearby. Everyone is deeply affected by the noise and cannot rest, and the vibration is so severe that it can even shatter the glass and scratch people. So the British, French and Chinese People want to sue the Belgian tram company. But the tram company does not admit that the generator is so loud and refuses to compensate for the damage."

Li Yu generally understood: "Okay, let's go take a look."

During the Republic of China, the Tianjin Tram Company was always run by Belgians. This company made a lot of money and secretly did a lot of bad things.

The two quickly arrived at the office of the Governor-General of Zhili in Tianjin.

At present, Yuan Shikai has been promoted openly and covertly, and his military power has been relieved by Cixi. However, the people in Beiyang belong to Yuan Shikai, and the actual control is still in his hands.

The new governor-general of Zhili and minister of Beiyang was Yang Shixiang, a loyal subordinate of Yuan Shikai.Yang Shixiang's younger brother Yang Shiqi was also Yuan Shikai's absolute confidant.

In the government office, Yang Shixiang, representatives of the Belgian Tram Company, representatives of the British, French, and representatives from the Tianjin Chamber of Commerce in China gathered together.

Tang Shaoyi came in and said, "I have brought a knowledgeable person. There is no one in Tianjin who knows more than him!"

Li Yu is very famous among foreigners, and everyone knows him.

Yang Shixiang said happily: "That's great! Emperor Master, come and comment."

Li Yu has already thought of a countermeasure: "Everyone, it is actually very simple to judge this matter. In physics, the essence of sound is a wave, so as long as the intensity of the sound wave is recorded and reflected in black and white, it is the most powerful evidence. .”

Yang Shixiang didn't understand how to record the intensity of sound waves, but the British and French nodded frequently after hearing this.

Yang Shixiang reacted quickly and said immediately: "Okay! I will appoint Li Yu as an investigator to investigate the noise matter. Do you have any objections?"

The British, French and representatives of the Tianjin Chamber of Commerce all agreed.

The Belgian representative of the tram company was a little hesitant, but seeing that everyone agreed and that it was a scientific method, he had no choice but to agree.

After Li Yu left the Zhili Governor's Office, he went directly to Beiyang University Hall, where there is a physics laboratory.

I happened to meet Mei Yiqi.

Mei Yiqi saw Li Yu first and shouted: "Sir!"

Li Yu stopped and asked, "How did you get to Beiyang University?"

Mei Yiqi said: "I have finished studying the courses at Nankai Middle School, and the teacher said that I can come to Beiyang University to find some higher-standard books to read."

"Just in time," Li Yu said, "come and help me."

When the two came to the laboratory, Mei Yiqi asked curiously: "What are we going to do?"

Li Yu said: "A device that can record the intensity of vibrations."

Mei Yiqi later went to the United States to study in electrical engineering. He was very interested in what Li Yu said, so he asked, "What should we do?"

Li Yu said: "Build a recording instrument that can record vibrations near the generator plant in real time."

If the two of them work together, the progress will be much faster.

The instrument itself is uncomplicated, even a little crude, but its function is fine. It contains a slowly rotating paper strip with a pen resting gently on it.As the generator vibrates, the pen can keep leaving traces on the paper tape.

Then from these recorded traces, the amplitude of the vibration can be calculated.

After several rounds of testing, the instrument proved usable.

Mei Yiqi said excitedly: "I heard that there is an instrument that can record earthquakes. The one you made is even more sensitive than the earthquake recorder."

Li Yu smiled and said: "The fluctuations of earthquakes are much more complicated."

Two days later, under the joint witness of Tang Shaoyi, representatives of the tram company, representatives of Britain and France, and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, Li Yu and Mei Yiqi completed the vibration measurement on site.

Li Yu then calculated on the paper for a while and said: "Obviously, the vibration was very violent."

Everyone was completely convinced now, and the invisible things directly became tangible.

The British representative proudly said to the tram company representative: "Let's go, let's continue in court!"

The tram company must have lost the case.

Soon, this matter was published in Tianjin's "Ta Kung Pao", and a very prominent front-page headline was "The magical power of science! The unsolvable case, the emperor's master solved it easily!"

In the past, Li Yu's achievements seemed elusive to ordinary people. Currently, few Chinese people understand such high-end mathematical sciences, but they can understand such small things in life.

In the past, Li Yu's influence in the country was only concentrated among higher-level intellectuals, but now he has become a hero in the hearts of ordinary people.

Just like in later generations, once something has widespread traffic, many things that the public doesn't know much about will also be understood.

Just like chips, lithography machines, and CMOS. How many people know these words?But the media says every day that ordinary people can now even tell that a process of a few nanometers is good.

Under the influence of Li Yu, at least the general public at this time knew that sound was a wave and could be calculated and measured very accurately through physics and mathematics.

Although it is relatively simple, it is a start at least. More people are bound to be interested in mathematical sciences and embark on the path of science and engineering.