Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1162 Epilogue XVIII: The academic world is also a filthy place

There are many kinds of dampers. Traditional analytical balances have dampers, some skyscrapers have dampers, and cars also have dampers.

But the basic principle is actually the same: the law of conservation of energy.

Moreover, Xie Yan had seen a laboratory balance.

He had a high school classmate who was also an undergraduate alumnus. The two were close friends, one studying civil engineering and the other studying chemistry.

The four major tiankengs of biochemical and environmental materials occupy half of the country.

One day, the two made an appointment to meet fellow students from the same city. They heard that there were a few women there, so maybe they would have a chance to escape the fate of being single.

Xie Yan waited and waited, and only after making a phone call did he find out that the chemist was in the laboratory.

He asked along the way and walked in with a swagger.

The chemistry guy was extremely surprised: "How did you get in?"

Xie Yan said: "Walked in."

The chemistry guy asked, "No one stopped you?"

Xie Yan looked innocent: "No."

The chemistry guy looked around and found that the teacher was gone.

Xie Yan pointed at the weathered semi-automatic electro-optical balance and said, "This thing is very precious. It is even covered with a glass cover."

"It's a piece of junk, given to undergraduates to practice on. The agate knife is already worn out. It was discarded by the graduate students and given to us undergraduates for recycling." The chemistry guy complained that the school does not treat undergraduates as human beings and that this antique is older than the students.

Xie Yan stood by and watched.

The chemistry guy explained the principle to Xie Yan while operating the balance.

After a while, the lab suddenly became quiet. The two turned around and saw the teacher standing behind them, while the other students were trying to hold back their laughter.

The structure of this thing is very complicated, but it can be said to be very simple once you understand it.

It is nothing more than adding some devices to improve the accuracy on the basis of an ordinary balance.

The air damper is also easy to make. It has a large cylinder at the bottom, a small cylinder at the top, and the middle is filled with air.

Those large and small tubes are made of aluminum alloy. Xie Yan couldn't find aluminum for the time being, so he could only replace it with other materials. The accuracy would definitely decrease, but it was enough for this era.

The optical reading device could be omitted, but Xie Yan still wanted to give it a try. Not to mention magnifying the scale twenty times, magnifying it three or five times should be no problem, right?
There is not much to say about the rest, three agate knives, an agate plate, a center of gravity hammer, and some debugging devices.

Xie Yan didn't know how to adjust the knob because he couldn't see the internal structure and had to rely on his own little brain to design it.

Including the optical reading device, which had to be designed by myself. The principle is simple, even a junior high school student can understand it, but it takes a lot of effort to make it.

The more you design, the more headaches you get.

The day before school started, Xie Yan found his mother and said, "Mom, I won't go to school for the time being. I'll research the agate balance first. Please help me contact a craftsman who can grind telescope lenses, a craftsman who knows micro-carving skills, and a jeweler with superb craftsmanship. Well, I also want to buy the best balance available now."

So, in ancient times, poor people didn’t want to be scientists, because it was very expensive to make a high-precision balance.

After listening to her son's various requests, Wang Yitong forced herself to swallow back the curse words.

Oh, forget it, my son hit his head.

Wang Yitong did not scold her son, nor did she look for various craftsmen. She decided to let her son recuperate at home for a few days.

Xie Yan didn't know his mother was just being perfunctory and happily continued to design various parts.

Several days passed and the craftsman still hadn't arrived. Xie Yan finally realized something was wrong: this old mother was fooling him!
……

"Liu Lang is still not in his right mind?" Xie Yiqun asked.

Wang Yitong said, "He has been drawing blueprints in his study. I have also seen those blueprints, and they do not seem to be drawn randomly. Could he really be studying the balance?"

Xie Yiqin said, "I'll go take a look."

Today is the ten-day holiday, and Xie Yiqin has a rare chance to relax.

He came to the children's study. Xie Yan was writing and drawing, Xie Wan was doing homework, and Xie Kan had gone out with his classmates.

"Are you still designing the scale?" Xie Yiqin asked.

Xie Yan sighed, "Alas, you don't believe me, and the craftsmen won't help me find one. I have to prove myself. I'm writing a paper for a physics journal."

"Weren't you researching a chemistry journal last time? Why are you writing a physics paper this time?" Xie Yiqun felt that his son was trying to do everything.

Xie Yan explained: "This physics paper is also related to the study of balance. I proposed a damping concept that can be applied to various machines. The current carriages are spring-damped. If we can find the right materials, we can actually add dampers to reduce shock. The same is true for trains."

"Is it true that it can reduce shock for carriages and trains?" Xie Yiqin was quite surprised.

Xie Yan said: "Of course it's true. If this paper of mine is published, it will prove that I am really doing research. Then you must help me hire craftsmen."

Xie Yiqin smiled and said, "If you can publish a paper in a physics journal, I will get you whatever you want."

"It's a deal." Xie Yan said.

Xie Yan wrote not just one paper, but three in a row, all about the components of balance scales.

Xie Yiqin stood by and watched, wanting to know what his son was writing.

At this moment, Wang Yitong walked into the room quickly, holding a letter in her hand: "It's from Kaifeng Imperial College."

Xie Yan was confused. Didn't he send his last paper to Luoyang?
In fact, the young chemist in Luoyang was writing letters to his friends frantically to discuss Molecular Theory and had completely forgotten to send a rejection letter to Xie Yan. The letter in front of him was from Zhu Shirong.

In the next period of time, Xie Yan estimated that he would receive many letters from chemists.

After Xie Yan opened the letter and finished reading it, he handed it to his father: "It's from the vice president of the Chemistry College of Kaifeng Imperial College, discussing the details of molecular theory with me, and inviting me to Kaifeng Imperial College for face-to-face exchanges."

Xie Yiqin hurriedly read the letter and was dumbfounded before he finished reading it.

Seeing her husband stunned, Wang Yitong snatched the letter away and was overjoyed after reading it: "My son is actually a chemistry prodigy!"

Hearing this, Xie Wan dropped her homework and ran over to ask, "What's wrong with Sixth Brother?"

"Your sixth brother is very knowledgeable and was invited by the vice-president of the Imperial College." Wang Yitong was delighted.

Although Xie Wan didn't know how big a deal this was, she still thought her brother was amazing. She jumped up and down and said, "I'm going to tell my teacher and classmates about this. They're definitely going to be so jealous of me!"

Xie Yiqin finally calmed down and asked, "Can your damper really reduce the shock of carriages and trains?"

Xie Yan said: "We need to find the right materials."

"Then hurry up and finish writing it. I will apply for a patent for you. We can't let anyone get there first!" Xie Yiqun said.

Xie Yan had to explain: "Damping is a physical phenomenon, and I'm afraid it can't be patented. It will take a lot of effort to figure out how to make a damper. And different dampers have completely different structures."

"Then apply for a patent for the damper you use on the scale," said Xie Yiqun.

Xie Yan smiled and said, "Even if the patent is applied for, the air damper of the balance will not make much money. How many people can use this kind of damping balance in the whole Ming Dynasty? They can make it themselves. As long as they don't sell it for money, they won't infringe the patent."

Xie Yiqin stopped talking, as if he had lost 100,000 strings of cash.

He read Zhu Shirong's letter again and finally said, "Whatever craftsman you need and whatever materials you need, I will send someone to get them right away!"

……

Before Xie Yan had finished making the damping balance, his paper on damping had already been sent to Luoyang.

Nie Qi is the second review editor of a physics journal. He was doing nothing that day. After all, there are only so many physicists in the country, and he does not receive important papers every day.

"Sir Nie, there is a good article." The first-edition editor Sun Sanyi walked over quickly.

Nie Qi took the paper and read the title: "Damping? This name is very strange."

Sun Sanyi said: "It is very useful."

Nie Qi read it carefully and said, "Get two springs!"

Sun Sanyi immediately went out to call for help and found two springs and several hanging weights from the laboratory.

This experiment is simple and can be completed in just a few minutes.

Of course, to obtain more accurate data, more detailed experiments are needed.

Nie Qi sighed: "Such a common physical phenomenon, yet no one has discovered it in hundreds of years."

"The more common it is, the more it is ignored," said Sun Sanyi. "The author of the paper proposed that dampers can be used in carriages, trains, and large ships. Especially for trains and ships, if anyone can make a damper, the Royal Society will probably award a gold medal. At least a baron, or even a viscount, will be awarded."

Nie Qi shook his head: "The principle is very simple, but it is difficult to make something out of it. This paper will be published in the next issue, and I will write a letter to the Ministry of Industry myself."

"Chairman Geng..." Sun Sanyi reminded.

Nie Qi said: "The papers we received have nothing to do with him."

Sun Sanyi stopped talking, he didn't want to get involved in this struggle.

Nie Qi asked, "It seems that the author of this paper is not our member?"

Sun Sanyi said: "He did not mark the membership information on the envelope, so he is probably a private scholar who has not yet joined the association."

Nie Qi sent Sun Sanyi away and wrote back to Xie Yan personally.

The general content was to ask Xie Yan to prepare his resume, including more specific identity information, research results, etc.

Just based on his discovery of the damping phenomenon, Xie Yan was qualified to be a full member of the Royal Society of Physics.

Moreover, once someone invents vehicle-mounted and ship-mounted dampers, the value of Xie Yan's paper will continue to increase.

By then, Xie Yan will at least be a baron!
Of course, Nie Qi also had his own selfish motives. He reviewed the papers, recruited the members, and reported to the Ministry of Industry.

"Dong dong dong..."

There was a knock on the door.

Nie Qi looked at Sun Sanyi standing at the door: "Why are you back again?"

Sun Sanyi said: "Can we add a damper to the balance?"

"What is used to apply damping?" Nie Qi asked back.

Sun Sanyi said: "Air."

Nie Qi was startled, and slapped his thigh vigorously, saying, "Great!"

Sun Sanyi smiled.

Nie Qi said, "We will do this together, and you must not tell anyone. By the way, let's keep the paper on hold until we have the damping balance ready."

(End of this chapter)