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

Chapter 700 The end of an era
Li Yu bought a new scientific magazine at the station, flipped through it and said, "Dirac's doctoral thesis has been published."

"Who is Dirac?" asked Schrödinger.

"A doctoral student at Cambridge," Li Yu said. "Looking at this paper, he should become another person after Professor Schrödinger and Dr. Heisenberg to propose a complete and self-consistent theory of quantum mechanics."

"again?"

Schrödinger immediately took the magazine and read it. "The name of the doctoral thesis is actually "Quantum Mechanics". This student is very arrogant."

"And it can be vaguely seen that Dirac wanted to integrate special relativity with quantum mechanics," said Li Yu.

"Oh?" Einstein couldn't help but look at the paper after hearing this comment. After a while, he said, "It's incredible! Another doctoral student! There are so many talented people in recent years."

Li Yu said: "Quantum mechanics itself is developing rapidly, and naturally there is a surge in talent. It can be said to be the first physical theory that is ahead of its practical significance."

It seems that many years later, Dirac himself said in a book called "The Direction of Physics":
"Quantum mechanics was a game, a fun game that anyone could play. Once someone solved one of those little problems, they could write a paper about it. In those days, it was easy for any second-rate physicist to do first-rate work. There had never been such a glorious time. Now, it's hard for a first-rate physicist to make a second-rate discovery."
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After arriving at the University of Berlin, they first went to Planck's large office. Although he had retired, he would continue to stay here as an honorary professor.

"Looking forward to your joining us, Professor Schrödinger," Planck said.

Schrodinger was terrified: "I'll do my best!"

"I am reading your paper," Planck said. "It is so wonderful to see the classical and familiar wave equation appear again in the quantum realm. I am even moved like a child listening to the answer to a riddle that has puzzled him for a long time."

"I'm afraid the answer to this mystery is still half-hidden," said Schrödinger.

"Yes, I read Li Yu's article, and I still couldn't get around the ghost of probability," Planck said.

Li Yu laughed and said, "It was you, Professor, who released the ghost."

"But it got out of my control a long time ago," Plank said.

Planck then took Schrödinger to meet several teachers from the Department of Physics at the University of Berlin.

The current University of Berlin has a strong faculty in physics. In addition to Planck and Einstein, there are also great names such as Nernst, Laue, and Meitner. They teach everything from classical mechanics to relativity, from thermodynamics to atomic physics. Only Einstein does not have a fixed teaching assignment.

Then there is a pre-interview lecture.

"Are you sure you want to wear this?" Plank asked.

"What's wrong with that?" Schrödinger said.

"Professors at the University of Berlin all wear formal attire such as suits when giving lectures," said Planck.

Schrödinger touched his jacket and said, "This is also very formal. I wore it like this at the University of Zurich."

"Well," Planck said, "you and Einstein are very similar in etiquette."

Schrödinger's lectures were of a very high standard, and he was probably ranked at least in the top three among the great physics masters of the early 20th century. The University of Berlin probably saw this in its selection of him as a professor of theoretical physics.

However, Schrödinger was indeed not particular about clothing. Not only in class, but even when attending very formal academic forums such as the Solvay Conference, he was quite casual. He was even criticized by Dirac, who attached great importance to etiquette - after all, Dirac was from Britain.

There is a famous example at the University of Berlin: Schrödinger did not show up for class on time, so the students launched a search to find him, and found that the security guard refused to let the slovenly "swindler" enter the campus. The students finally convinced the guard that he was indeed Professor Schrödinger and that the students were waiting for him to attend the class.

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After a brief interview, Schrödinger was about to leave for the United States to give a series of lectures, and Li Yu also returned on the way.

The Americans must have welcomed the visit of the European celebrities, and they arranged more than 30 performances for Schrödinger at once, visiting almost all the famous universities.

Schrodinger suddenly felt a little overwhelmed: "It seems that this money is not so easy to make!"

As his round of speeches ended, the American physics community almost reached a consensus: wave mechanics is the best version of quantum theory.

Heisenberg, Born and others would definitely be very dissatisfied if they knew about this...

Li Yu had already given several speeches at prestigious American universities, so he did not accompany them. Instead, he went directly to New York and found the Morgan family's White Star Shipping Company, bought a few old small ships, and paid them to ship them to Shanghai Port.

I first went to the west coast along the railway.

Before leaving, Li Yu attended an annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society held at Mount Wilson Observatory.

President Hai Er arranged a speech for Li Yu, mainly talking about white holes, dark matter and other topics that everyone is more interested in.

These are relatively common things, and Li Yu has talked about them several times in Europe. The scientific research atmosphere in the United States is more relaxed than in Europe, so I will just take this as a chat with you all.

After listening to this, Haier said, "You mean, if a person were to pass through a white hole, it would probably exceed the speed of light, so it is actually impossible for it to exist?"

"This is what the current theory can infer," Li Yu said. "Professor Michelson is here too. You must understand what this means."

Michelson said: "I have measured the speed of light all my life and I have never seen it change."

Li Yu said: "Even if superluminal speed exists, it cannot carry information."

Afterwards, Hale showed some observation results from the observatory, mainly measurements of the speeds of some stars in the Milky Way, which can be seen as evidence of the existence of dark matter.

Although they are not as good as Europe in theoretical physics, the Americans still have the money to build a larger telescope. I guess they also want to use this as a breakthrough in science.

Sometimes I think that the United States in the early 20th century and China a hundred years later have many similarities. In the early 20th century, the United States became the strongest industrial country. At the beginning, it lagged behind Europe in many aspects such as science and technology and culture, but a few decades later, it surpassed Europe driven by capital.

China seems to be following this path.

After Hale finished speaking, Hubble showed more redshift photos, which was also an area that Europeans did not pay much attention to.

After Hubble left the stage, Li Yu saw another young man come up. His name was Roy and the title of his speech was "About a More Accurate Interferometer."

Li Yu didn't know much about this field, he only knew it was about measuring the speed of light.

Michelson, who was sitting next to him, became more and more shocked as he listened.

After Roy finished speaking, President Haier said, "Now, please invite Mr. Michelson, the president of the Academy of Sciences, to the stage!"

Michelson stood up slowly, glanced at the speech in his hand, and finally placed it on the small table in front of him without taking it to the podium.

Coming to the stage, Michelson smiled faintly and said, "I have nothing more to say. I just hope that you, the younger generation, can go further on the road of science!" In everyone's surprised eyes, Michelson turned around and returned to his seat.

Li Yu asked in confusion: "Is the dean feeling unwell today?"

Michelson smiled bitterly and said, "The interferometer that young man just used is several times better than mine. It turns out that I am out of date and it is time to retire."

I had just seen Planck retire, and now I saw Michelson voluntarily abdicate. An era has really come to an end.

Li Yu said: "The dean has done enough."

"There's nothing I can do anymore." Michelson couldn't hide the sadness in his voice.

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There are now faster passenger ships from Los Angeles to Shanghai, but it still takes nearly ten days to arrive.

Two years ago, someone had completed a round-the-world flight, sponsored by the U.S. Army Air Force. They were extremely well prepared, with a total of four aircraft participating, and ultimately two of them completed the round-the-world flight. The entire process lasted 175 days, of which the flight time was more than 15 days.

It can be seen that long-distance flights are still difficult at this time, so civil aviation will have to wait for many years before opening intercontinental routes.

After arriving at Shanghai Port, Li Yu saw that the three ships for shipment had arrived ahead of schedule, and there were people on the dock visiting them curiously.

Li Yu stood on a high place and took a look, and then he found the person he was looking for - Lu Zuofu.

When the Chinese workers who were in charge of guarding the ship saw Li Yu, they immediately said to Lu Zuofu, "The ship belongs to Boss Li. He is coming."

Lu Zuofu turned around and said in surprise: "Grand Scholar Li!"

"Hello." Li Yu said.

Lu Zuofu hurriedly introduced himself: "I am Lu Zuofu from Minsheng Company."

"You seem to be very interested in these three ships?" Li Yu said.

"Yes, I came to Shanghai to buy a ship," Lu Zuofu said. "I thought it was a ship from an American shipping company, but I didn't expect it to be yours, sir."

"Is inland waterway shipping easy to do? I heard that the competition is very fierce now," said Li Yu.

"It is indeed intense, but it does not necessarily mean there is no possibility of success," said Lu Zuofu.

"There are several foreign shipping companies that I know of," said Li Yu.

"It is naturally disadvantageous to compete with them head-on, but this year we have achieved very good results by adopting the approach of 'avoiding the real and focusing on the fake, taking what others have abandoned'," Lu Zuofu said with some pride. "Since other companies are crowded in freight, we started with passenger transportation; and since everyone attaches importance to long-term operations, we do short-term operations. So in just one year, our equity has doubled to 10 yuan, and we have also distributed dividends to shareholders."

Lu Zuofu was a business genius. In the 1930s, Luo Jialun invited him to give a lecture on business administration at a university. At first, Lu Zuofu didn't want to go, and said to Luo Jialun: "I only have a primary school diploma. How dare I give a lecture in front of all the talented people in the university?"

Luo Jialun said: "With your achievements in business, there are only a handful of people in the country who dare to say that they are better than you!"

Then Lu Zuofu gave lectures at the university, and his book "Business Administration" was handed down.

Lu Zuofu had a difficult time founding Minsheng Company, as his starting point was almost zero.

Minsheng Company had a hard time raising funds at first. A year ago, they customized their first ship in Shanghai. It was a small ship of only 70 tons and cost 3.5 yuan, but they only raised 8000 yuan. Of this 8000 yuan, 5000 yuan was used to set up the Hechuan Power Plant, and the remaining 3000 yuan was only enough for the deposit. Finally, they scraped together enough capital to buy this small ship, which Lu Zuofu named "Minsheng".

It was with the help of this small boat that Lu Zuofu doubled his equity in just one year.

Li Yu said: "It's rare to find a company that can beat foreign companies!"

"This is just the beginning!" Lu Zuofu said confidently, "I've seen enough of ships flying the flags of Britain, the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Finland and other countries on the entire river! Moreover, their foreign ships even use foreign languages ​​for bills of lading and voyage books, which most people can't understand. This is not the Yangtze River, it's clearly a world of foreigners!"

It was not until Lu Zuofu's Minsheng Company that bills of lading and voyage books were changed to Chinese. Lu Zuofu also abolished the unreasonable regulations in the shipping industry that had long discriminated against Chinese seafarers. It was originally stipulated that only foreigners could serve as Class A crew members on ships, but Minsheng stipulated that no foreigners should be employed as Class A crew members, and all of them must be Chinese.

Li Yu was of course very optimistic about him. Lu Zuofu was a very capable and patriotic entrepreneur. The famous "Dunkirk Evacuation" of Chinese industry after the Anti-Japanese War was completed by Lu Zuofu.

After the Battle of Wuhan ended in 1938, the Nationalist government ordered the withdrawal to Sichuan and Chongqing. At that time, the only ships available for transportation in Yichang were the twenty-odd ships of the Minsheng Company.

Lu Zuofu personally directed this epic retreat. In just forty days, his Minsheng Company transported 150 million people, millions of tons of cargo, and more than a dozen factories to Sichuan, including many vital military factories and logistics factories, enabling Sichuan and Chongqing to become the rear base of the War of Resistance.

For heroes like this, we must help them whenever possible.

Li Yu said: "These three boats are for your Minsheng."

This understatement was too much for Lu Zuofu, "Give it to me?!"

Li Yu smiled and said, "Actually, I can't stand the foreigners' behavior, especially the Japanese companies in the Yangtze River and Central China. As long as we can get rid of them, I will give you three more ships."

Lu Zuofu hadn't reacted yet: "Li, Li Daxueshi, these are three boats! Even if they are old, they are worth hundreds of thousands of yuan!"

"Yeah, it's just a few hundred thousand." Li Yu said easily.

"It's only a few hundred thousand!" Lu Zuofu said in astonishment, "Master Li, are you kidding me?"

"Oh, I forgot something," Li Yu said. "I'll invest another 30,000 yuan, and you can help build a few granaries and schools in Chongqing and Chengdu, which will be under the jurisdiction of the Red Cross in the future. It's really heartbreaking that the land of abundance has been facing famine in recent years."

There was another major famine in Sichuan during the Republic of China period, which was extremely tragic, so this was a precautionary measure.

"This..." Lu Zuofu felt his scalp tingling, "Master Li, shouldn't you study business administration?"

"I have money and I am willful. I don't need to learn!" Li Yu said with a smile. After all, he is a time traveler. If he can't even make money, he might as well hit his head against the wall. This is the most basic skill for a time traveler.

Lu Zuofu was speechless: "Master Li is truly a saint! I will leave you half of the Minsheng shares!"

"That's not necessary," Li Yu waved his hand. "Just keep the Chinese workers we brought back on board to work on the ship. Many of them are veterans."

"This is too simple!" said Lu Zuofu.

During the Republic of China period, Minsheng Company was well-known for its emphasis on technical personnel.

"Also, you should join the Shanghai Industrial Association," Li Yu said again.

"I couldn't ask for more!" said Lu Zuofu.

Li Yu is the president of the Industrial Association. Who wouldn't want to have more contact with him? Lu Zuofu also wants to make Minsheng bigger and stronger as soon as possible.