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

Chapter 59 Drive!
"Oh?! Spit, spit, spit!"

Lord Kelvin bit off the butt of the cigar this time, and a bunch of tobacco leaves scattered in his mouth.

I really didn't expect that a young man from the backward and corrupt Qing Dynasty would point out that he had made a mistake in his professional field on the first day he met the president of the Royal Society of the Imperial Society.

Is it a bit of an international joke?
Huang Kaijia was also dumbfounded, Li Yu must not be crazy, he even questioned their boss in the Royal Society!If you make a mistake, how can you explain to Zai Zhen, he is now representing the Qing Dynasty Mission, is there a mistake!
Chairman Huggins obviously couldn't accept it: "Mr. Li Yu, redshift and blueshift are very obvious phenomena. How can the measurement be wrong?"

Redshift and blueshift are spectroscopic terms. In short, redshift means that the celestial body is moving away from us; on the contrary, blueshift means that it is coming towards us.Chairman Huggins discovered that there is a spectral redshift in Sirius, so he said that it is moving away from the earth.

Li Yu smiled and said, "President Huggins, if I'm not completely sure, I wouldn't dare to say that, but we can definitely do another measurement."

Lord Kelvin loves to watch the excitement, he laughed and said, "Great! President Huggins, I'm on the side of the young people this time, how about it, do you want to make a bet?"

If it was an ordinary person, President Huggins might really be angry, but as a junior, Li Yu came from the far east, so there was no need for him to travel all the way across Eurasia to play tricks on him.Moreover, his previous papers were obviously subversive and innovative, and even recognized by a group of big names in the scientific community, so I was really not sure.

But astronomy is his specialty anyway, President Huggins said: "Okay, I'll make this bet! Bet on what?"

Lord Kelvin looked at the cigar with the butt bitten off in his hand, and said, "If Li Yu wins, you will give me ten boxes of high-quality Cuban cigars. If you win, I will give you three boxes."

Huggins said: "My lord, have you not been right in your counting, why have I only won three boxes?"

Lord Kelvin explained: "That's not easy, because you have already done the measurement and have the data in hand, the chances of winning are too great."

"Okay, three boxes is three boxes." President Huggins turned to Li Yu and asked, "What do you want to win?"

Lord Kelvin interjected: "Young man, don't worry, I lose; you just have to figure out what you want if you win. By the way, do you smoke cigars?"

Li Yu shook his head, "I don't smoke."

Lord Kelvin seemed to realize something, "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked you this question."

Many aspiring Chinese abroad at that time were ashamed to mention opium or even any tobacco leaf.

Knowing that Lord Kelvin didn't mean it, Li Yu smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, but I really have a lottery. If I win, I hope I can borrow President Huggins' observatory."

"observatory?"

Chairman Huggins' observatory is privately owned, and it is true that no one is using it now, so there is no problem in lending it to Li Yu.

"Okay, I promise you."

Lord Kelvin slapped his thigh: "It's a deal! It just so happens that the Royal Observatory in Greenwich is not far away. Let's go see tonight to find out!"

President Huggins said with a smile: "My lord is really good at picking places!"

"That must be, what if you cheat if you go to your observatory!" Lord Kelvin lit another cigar and continued to say to Li Yu, "Since you are also a scientific talent, we have a mysterious thing for you to see Look!"

"Mysterious thing?" Li Yu asked.

Lord Kelvin stood up, "Come together!"

The four stopped in the backyard of the Royal Society. Lord Kelvin pointed to the front and said, "This is the latest land transportation vehicle in Europe, the car! We will drive it to Greenwich in a while."

Li Yu's heart was calm, but Huang Kaijia saw this thing that looked like a carriage for the first time, and his jaw was about to drop: "This thing can drive? Is it too small? I didn't see a steam engine or a chimney either." what!"

Li Yu sized up the car. Although it was very primitive, it already had some features of a modern car, such as water cooling cycle, steel pipe frame, leaf spring suspension, rear-wheel drive, and front-wheel steering.

Li Yu has a double bachelor's degree in mechanical design and physics, and has a very solid theoretical foundation for machinery.These designs are not difficult for him, after all, this car is really too simple, but what surprised him most is the English words on the side car nameplate: "Daimler AG".

In Li Yu's era, this line of English words was translated in China as follows: Mercedes-Benz Group!

Yes, the transliteration is exactly Daimler.

President Huggins said proudly: "It took me half a year's salary to buy this car. I personally selected and purchased the chassis, radiator, engine, and the latest car at the Daimler factory in Coventry. Michelin tyres. Oh yes, they tried to convince me to go with the two-seater at first, and I didn’t listen to them, and now the four-seater was the right choice!"

No wonder it is said that cars are luxury goods among luxury goods at the beginning. At this time, cars are not industrial products at all, they can be called handmade products!

Buyers are rich and powerful people like President Huggins. They will personally select every spare part in the factory, and they can even choose different appearance lines, and a dedicated technician will be responsible for the vehicle design.

If someone went to a car factory in the 21st century to make such a request, he would probably be regarded as a psychopath, unless he could spend more than a dozen or even billions to build a dedicated production platform.

Since it is a single-piece production, almost every car in that year is different, and all of them are hand-crafted with a little bit of precision to meet the various needs of different customers.

From the invention of the first car by Karl Benz in 1886 to last year, that is, 1901, although there were already 12 car factories in Germany, the birthplace of cars, the annual output of cars was only 884.

Therefore, buying a car these days is almost equivalent to buying a Rolls-Royce in the 21st century, and it is the most expensive Phantom, which is really too rare!

This Daimler car has four seats, and there are exactly four of them. There was originally a full-time driver, but obviously there is no room for him.

"Shouldn't you squeeze?" said Lord Kelvin, but on second thought, being squeezed together really affected the gentleman's demeanor.

"If it's really not possible, I don't have to go." Huang Kaijia was more sensible and said proactively.

"Need not!"

The three looked at Li Yu who was talking, and only heard him continue: "Let me try, I can drive a car!"

I'm not lying, I just got my driver's license during the summer vacation, okay?

Moreover, the speed of cars at the beginning of the 20th century could not exceed [-] kilometers per hour. For him, it was like driving an electric car, or it was simply "what's daddy's daddy's name" played by children in the children's playground!

(End of this chapter)