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

Chapter 647: The most murderous individual in history
When returning to the United States from Europe, Li Yu happened to be lucky enough to board an airship. This should be the first transatlantic airship voyage in history - it was only a little earlier than two or three months earlier in history.

The airship departed from England, and together with the crew, there were thirty people.

The price was quite high. Li Yu received 200 pounds, which was enough to buy a luxury car.

There was an episode during the process. When flying in the air, the crew discovered a person who was not on the passenger list. Later they found out that he was an assembler and secretly hid on the airship. He then became the world's first airship to smuggle passengers. .

Although the airship was not as fast as a plane, it was faster than a ship. It arrived over New York in just four days.

I have to say that if you just want to enjoy life, riding on an airship is indeed quite interesting. Rich people seem to like a slow life, and it is a slow life that is unconventional and not available to others. Airships can greatly meet the needs of these people. Not many people can experience overlooking the city on the ground from a high altitude.

After the airship docked, reporters and many New York celebrities came to greet it. The New York Times the next day even praised it as a "feat of humanity" and probably paid advertising fees for the publicity. The cost of airships is so high that ticket prices and popularity must be maintained high.

Later, a group of top American entrepreneurs, including Ford, Henry Leland, Morgan Jr., Thomas Dupont, and Charles Kettering, held a banquet at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and invited Li Yu.

This group of people all made a lot of money during World War I. It felt more like a celebration party, and they took this opportunity to deepen their relationship with Li Yu.

Li Yu's reputation in the automotive industry is not well-known. After all, he is not in the vehicle business, and few people know about it. But these industry leaders all know how heavyweight Li Yu is, and the countless patents in his hands can choke the neck of any company at any time.

Thomas Dupont said: "A study of engine knocking."

Madhu, you are so shameless! )

(One more thing, the little devil himself felt that he had not made enough money! After the Japanese delegation leader Saionji Konobo returned to Japan, he apologized to the emperor: "Unfortunately, we were not able to realize all our wishes."

All of the above are the price of Japan's temporary pleasure at the Paris Peace Conference.

But the little devil has always been like this. He rarely seems to make long-term plans and always bets on the fate of the country, so he doesn't care.

Anyway, if you want to target the little devils now, the Americans are the best partners.

Li Yu said: "Can't we use ethanol to resist detonation?"

After chatting for a while, Thomas DuPont introduced Li Yu to a core technician from General Motors: "His name is Midgley. He is an important new researcher in our company. He is working with Kaitlin on a key engine project." "Technical Improvement Project."

Li Yu raised his glass and replied: "Win-win cooperation!"

Ford and others raised their glasses and said: "May our future cooperation continue to be smooth!"

Li Yu asked casually: "What engine improvement project?"

"The cost of ethanol is too high and the company wants to find a better way," Midgeli said.

At this time, if you want to punish the little devils, you must rely on the Americans, and the Americans are now very disgusted with the little devils.

Although the Japs seemed to have achieved their goals at the Paris Peace Conference and caused China's diplomatic efforts to fail, from a long-term perspective, the Japs' strong diplomacy was not a coup.

Thomas Dupont asked by the way: "Mr. Li Yu has many world-leading achievements in the field of automobile patents. Does he have any views on this important technology?"

Midgeli said: "Yes, Mr. Academician, this will greatly improve the car use experience."

At the same time, Japan's ambition to dominate East Asia has made Britain, France, the United States and other countries very wary. The British have begun to seriously consider future cooperation with the Japanese navy. Many Westerners insist that Japan is "yellow Prussia." By 1921, Warren Harding was elected president of the United States, and the U.S. government became even more anti-Japanese.

Because they have exposed their wolfish ambitions in front of the whole world. They can no longer be described as blatant. They are simply shameless.

DuPont now owns a large number of General Motors shares and has a strong say.

The potential cost is the outbreak of a very strong patriotic movement in China, which seriously hinders Japan's planned cannibalization of the Chinese economy.

"Improved detonation?" Li Yu asked.

Li Yu sighed: "I think ethanol is very good."

After speaking, Li Yu glanced at Mijili.

It was obvious that Mijili was still not satisfied with ethanol. He frowned slightly and disapproved of Li Yu's words.

Midgley is a very terrifying person. He is the person who has caused the most deaths in history. It is estimated that hundreds of millions of people have died because of his inventions!
What is the concept of one person causing the death of hundreds of millions of people!
Moreover, he single-handedly caused a significant decline in human IQ!

Being able to do this is all thanks to his two major inventions: tetraethyl lead and Freon.

Many people have heard that Freon can create ozone holes and increase ultraviolet radiation, which can lead to the prevalence of skin cancer.

It seems that some people have gradually forgotten about tetraethyl lead.

This stuff is mainly used in gasoline to reduce engine knocking.

At this point in the development of the engine, it has begun to move towards high horsepower. The method is simple and crude, which is to make the stroke of the four-stroke that does the work compress more gasoline and mixed gas, thereby doing more work.

However, if there are too many gases, the compression will inevitably cause them to spontaneously ignite before being ignited by the spark plug. This is the so-called deflagration, which not only produces obvious noise, but also causes considerable harm to the engine.

You should know that gasoline is classified into No. 92, No. 95, and No. 98. The grade mainly depends on the octane number: the higher the octane number, the better the anti-knock effect.

Since the discovery of engine detonation, engineers have been working day and night to find additives to improve octane number.

Ethanol was the first to be discovered, but it needs to be added to 10% to have obvious effects, so Midgeli said the cost is too high.

Later, Midgeli found some other substances that could also resist detonation, but they smelled too fishy, ​​so he had to give up.

Around the end of 1921, after five years of research, Midgley finally found what he thought was the best anti-knock material: tetraethyl lead.

This stuff is cheap and tasteless, and adding just a little bit can have excellent anti-knock effects.

Later, Midgley joined several American oil and automobile giants to establish the Ethyl Company. He deliberately omitted the word "lead", and the public may think that "ethanol" and "ethyl" are close relatives.

Later, their leaded gasoline factory caused the death of several workers, and the media reported that Midgeli personally came out to clarify. He inhaled tetraethyl lead for one minute in front of the media and said, "I smell it every day and it won't cause any harm."

What a cruel person!
The media and the public believed his performance and no longer paid attention to leaded gasoline.

In fact, it took him more than a year to undo the damage to his body caused by this minute.

Lead is very low in the periodic table of chemical elements, number 82. As we all know, all heavy metals are basically highly toxic. Lead is very harmful to the human body and can cause damage to nerve cells. Nerve cells cannot be regenerated, and the damage caused is irreversible and very terrible.

Lead is directly emitted with the engine exhaust, and its diffusion ability is very strong. The food chain has an aggregation effect, and humans at the top of the food chain are the ultimate and biggest victims.

It wasn't until more than two decades later that geologist Claire Patterson began to expose the dangers of leaded gasoline.

This old man measured the precise age of the earth by measuring the decay of radioactive elements. That is, the uranium element eventually decayed into lead after multiple decays.

That is, by studying the lead content in the ore, you can know the age of the earth.

However, during the research process, he found that the lead content was always much higher than expected, and he soon realized that the lead in the air affected the experimental results. And the impact is very obvious, indicating that the lead content is extremely high.

Later studies estimated that at least 100 million people died from lead poisoning during the hundreds of years of leaded gasoline use.

Lao America himself has made statistics and found that half of the people, or about 1.7 million, were affected by leaded gasoline when they were young. The damage to their intelligence is self-evident.

——Well, no wonder the United States has been relying on siphoning talents from all over the world to maintain its technological hegemony...

After all, the United States is known as "a country on wheels." For quite some time, more than half of the world's cars are in the United States, so it is naturally the most affected.

How does that saying go? Blessings lie where misfortunes lie, and misfortunes lie where blessings rely.

It was not until 1986 that humans began to ban the sale of leaded gasoline. ——The United States banned it in 1996, we banned it in 2000, and the last country to ban the sale of leaded gasoline was Algeria in 2021.

After technological iteration, later generations no longer need tetraethyl lead to resist detonation. But there is actually no good substitute for Freon.

Therefore, in addition to the title of "the most murderous individual in history", Midgeli is also known as "the individual creature with the greatest impact on the atmosphere in the history of the earth."

He is much scarier than the "angels and demons" scientists mentioned earlier - Hubble, who developed chemical warfare and ammonia synthesis, and Hoffman, who developed aspirin and heroin.

However, this old man always felt that his contribution to mankind was the greatest during his lifetime. Mainly because he died early, in 1944, before Claire Patterson began investigating lead pollution.

In his later years, Midgley also became the president of the American Chemical Society...

Li Yu thought of this and looked at Mijili in front of him, and couldn't help but take a breath. In a daze, he seemed to have a totem of Satan behind him.

"No, it really can't!" Li Yu couldn't help but murmured.

Midgley asked: "What's not working?"

Li Yu opened his mouth, then thought about it and said, "I don't understand fuel science."

Dupont laughed and said: "It's rare to find a field that an academician doesn't understand. In our eyes, you are like the god of science. You are involved in so many fields and have such high results."

Li Yu smiled bitterly: "There are many things I don't understand."

The U.S. oil giants and automobile giants were extremely powerful in the first half of the twentieth century, and there was nothing that could stop them from producing leaded gasoline. Later, Claire Patterson went to great lengths to make the public aware of the dangers of leaded petrol.

Capital is extremely scary. Their pursuit is to make money. If they can make more money for one more year, it will be one more year.

In 1963, Claire Patterson provided very strong evidence that the lead content had greatly exceeded the legal limit and was very harmful. But as mentioned above, it was not until 1986 that the sale of leaded gasoline began to be gradually banned. It goes without saying why.

As a time traveler, I am really speechless. The lessons humans have learned from history are truly something they will never remember!

Forget it, the one who was hurt the most was the beauty herself! Those people actually know the dangers of lead in their hearts, but they still want to make dirty money and suffer the consequences.

Ford asked: "Sir, he usually drives a car, but he doesn't want to explore how to resist knocking?"

Li Yu shrugged: "I don't need to drive such a high-horsepower car, and there is ethanol."

Little Morgan said: "Mr. Li Yu, although your achievements in the industrial world are also very outstanding. Both the radio company and LY Automobile Company have made a lot of money, but in terms of economics, you are still too...like an academic, too... Ruya. You should think more about profitability and costs, they are closely related.”

Li Yu repeated his point of view again and said: "I think there are ways to increase profits, not necessarily to reduce costs."

Little Morgan smiled and said: "That's why I think you are like an academic, but it is precisely for this reason that we appreciate you very much. Don't worry, with me here, at least in terms of finance, your company will not suffer any losses."

This was the purpose of letting him become a shareholder. Li Yu raised his glass and said, "Thank you, Mr. Morgan."

Little Morgan clinked glasses with him: "If your company makes money, I will make money, so it's my business."

Dupont asked again: "Sir, it seems that you haven't registered a patent for a long time?"

"Yes," Li Yu said, "I have prepared the materials and it should be passed soon."

Several people were all curious about how the things Li Yu came up with were quite influential, so they all asked: "What patent?"

Li Yu said: "Fluorescent lights."

Little Morgan was shocked: "Fluorescent lights?"

Li Yu said: "Compared with the incandescent lamps used today, fluorescent lamps have great advantages: they consume very little energy and have a very long life."

"It's so good?!" Dupont was a little surprised. "I remember that Mr. Edison did similar research back then, but it didn't work out."

Li Yu said: "I bypassed his patent."

"Oh my God!" Little Morgan suddenly became very interested. "If it is true as Mr. Academician said, the advantages of fluorescent lamps are so obvious, they can completely squeeze out the market of incandescent lamps on a large scale."

Li Yu said easily: "Yes, its market potential is huge."

"I invested in this project!" Morgan Jr. said immediately, "I can be responsible for the factory construction and early investment, and my husband owns 30% of the equity and is guaranteed to be the second largest shareholder. How about it?"

Li Yu knew that the early promotion of fluorescent lamps would inevitably be blocked by Edison's incandescent lamp company. With little Morgan stepping forward, he could save himself a lot of trouble, so he said: "I like the win-win model, but in the future East Asian market, I will do it Major shareholder.”

From Morgan's perspective, Europe and the United States are the largest markets, so of course he agreed to this: "No problem!"

Li Yu toasted to him again: "May the cooperation go smoothly!"