shadow of britain

Chapter 166 Arthur's Electron Theory

The sun was setting, the moon was rising, and there was a slight breeze in the London sky.

A group of ladies and ladies in long skirts and a group of colonels and generals of the Royal Navy surrounded the iron cage that was improved by Farah for the second time after Arthur's suggestion, and their eyes were full of curiosity.

Of course, a cage is not worth their curiosity. What makes them curious is why the young master of the Carter family is locked in it.

Elder blushed. Although people couldn't see his agitation in the night, the newly installed gas lamps on the side of the road still showed a blush on his face.

"Arthur, Arthur!" Elder lowered his voice and urged, "Damn it, this is different from what we said! Didn't you say you were inside and I was outside?"

Arthur turned the hand-operated generator, and the electric arc flashed on the discharge rod, making Elder's hair stand on end.

"Are you sure there will be no problem? This thing will not electrocute me, will it?"

"No." Arthur said calmly, "He'll at most give you an electric shock, just wait for a while."

"Ah?" Elder's face turned green when he heard the words: "Didn't you say that this thing is absolutely safe in theory?"

Arthur replied: "Yes, it is absolutely safe in theory. But you know, Elder, theory is theory, and practice is reality. I can only tell you that it did not go wrong in the last experiment. Question, you don’t have to be too nervous, it’s not a big deal. Therefore, even if you are shocked, please bear with it and don’t make any noise.”

Elder frowned and said, "Why can't you make a sound? Do you want me to prove my fearless courage?"

Arthur turned the generator calmly: "No, it's to prove that there is nothing wrong with my experiment."

"Arthur, you..."

But Arthur didn't intend to give Elder a chance to swear. He turned around with a confident smile on his face.

"Gentlemen and ladies, thank you for your willingness to come to the courtyard against the cold wind at night, and listen to me introduce to you another important breakthrough in the field of electromagnetics in Britain - the phenomenon of electrostatic shielding."

Speaking of which, Arthur held a kerosene lamp and showed a rag in front of all the guests, and he handed the rag to every gentleman and lady present for inspection.

"As you can see, this is an unremarkable, never-used rag, from a Lancashire tailor, as strong and durable as any other Lancashire cotton product. However, This dishcloth, which can be used in households for years or even decades, is vulnerable to electric current."

Arthur retrieved the rag from the hands of the guests and hung it on the clothesline prepared in advance.

I saw him turning the hand-operated generator on his back, and a winding electric tongue shot out of the discharge rod in an instant, hitting the surface of the rag.

A bright light flashed, and the current instantly penetrated the rag, leaving only a small black hole on its surface. As the current continued to output, sparks rose on the surface of the rag before long, followed by the rising flames. And devoured the rag into the void of night.

The ladies and ladies all covered their lips with fans: "My God! So, are you planning to use this thing to shock Mr. Carter who is locked in a cage?"

Arthur replied with some regret: "In fact, the current output power of the hand generator is still too small. I originally planned to move the super-large voltaic pile from the Royal Society, which is almost the size of a room. The stack can output voltages in excess of one hundred thousand units.

If I can use it for demonstration, I will be able to make everyone realize the powerful destructive power of electric current more clearly.

But Mr. Faraday told me that he agreed to lend me the voltaic pile, but if I broke it in the process of carrying it, then I would be responsible for repairing it.I thought about it for a while, but finally I had to give up the idea of ​​borrowing a stack. "

A lady wearing white lace gloves, an off-the-shoulder silver-white brocade dress, braided hair, and a pale yellow shawl said in surprise.

"I... I've heard that electrical researchers are crazy. The more accomplished researchers in the electrical field, the more dangerous they are. It seems that this is not a rumor."

Arthur saw the lady's braided hair and couldn't help but joked: "Madam, your hairstyle is also very dangerous, maybe you can also consider studying electricity. But your impression of electricity researchers is indeed quite correct Yes, this is a very dangerous area of ​​research.

I know that all the gentlemen and ladies here have some experience in the field of science, so you must know the French electrical researcher Father Jean-Antoine Nolet, right?He is not only a member of the Royal Society, but also the president of the French Royal Academy of Sciences, and the patron of the invention of the early capacitor Leiden bottle.

In order to find out how fast the current is, Father Nolet specially made a set of large Leiden bottles.

Then he summoned two hundred priests in the monastery and asked them to form a line of human wires about a mile long with chains in their hands.In the end, Father Nolet released the Leyden bottle. Surprisingly, the priests were shocked to the ground almost at the same time within the scope of the naked eye.

Since then, Father Nolet has understood that the speed of the electric current is more than two hundred priests per second, and the current speed is proportional to the consumption speed of the French priests, and the growth rate of the French priests is proportional to the experimental frequency of Father Nolet Inversely proportional.This is the well-known Law of Nolet and Priest Conservation in France. "

As soon as Arthur finished speaking, all the gentlemen and ladies present burst into laughter, and the atmosphere on the scene became much more harmonious.

Seeing everyone's enthusiasm, Arthur couldn't help adding a few more sentences: "Of course, Father Nolet's research results don't stop there. As a great electrical researcher, he has also done many interesting experiments.

For example, hang a young man from the ceiling with an insulating silk thread, and then charge his body, and then you will find that the surrounding objects such as paper and coins will be involuntarily attracted to him, and when someone approaches him, even Can cause electric sparks.

Or if a person with an electrified body cuts himself, the wound will not bleed normally, and the blood will just spurt out of the wound like an electric current. "

Arthur chatted with everyone more and more enthusiastically, but Elder in the cage only felt cold from head to toe all over his body.

He originally thought that being a scientific assistant would be a good job. He would not have to work hard to learn scientific knowledge, but he would also be able to show off at the banquet.

But now he finally understands that whether it is greed for beauty or disgust for science, sooner or later it will kill you.

After Arthur finished speaking, he picked up the discharge rod and walked in front of Elder, comforting him: "Don't worry, aren't you an insulator who claims to be scientific? If that's the case, Sir Isaac Newton's gravitational force can't do anything about it It doesn’t matter if you jump off the building or anything. Elder, it’s just a small electric current, so relax.”

"Arthur, you fucking..."

But before Elder finished the statement, Arthur had already started to speed up the hand generator.

Electric arcs flickered in the air, only crackling explosions were heard, and a series of currents hit the Faraday cage one after another like silver snakes.

Elder had just realized what was going on, and he was about to be afraid, but after a long pause, he realized that he didn't seem to be shocked at all.

Not only that, but a pleasant breeze blew in the cage, blowing his unpressed hat to the ground.

Elder touched the inner wall of the cage suspiciously, and after confirming that he was really fine, he became bolder instantly.

Elder picked up the hat on the ground and said with a relaxed smile: "Gentlemen and ladies, as you can see, I... er, Arthur, what is that phenomenon called? Huh? Static shielding ? Oh! Yes! Ladies and gentlemen, I'm blocked!"

As Elder said, he was indeed blocked, because all eyes were on Arthur.

Everyone shouted in amazement, and the ladies and ladies stared wide-eyed, completely wondering why Elder was not shocked.

And some guests who had a rift with Elder couldn't help showing a slight disappointment. With the previous foreshadowing, they thought that the goal of Arthur's verification today was to prove that the hand-operated generator is useful for Elder. How high the attrition rate will be.

The focus of the generals' attention is obviously still on combat.

General Kirkland was the first to ask: "Mr. Hastings, does this mean that the electric current can't cause any damage to the canned knights in the Middle Ages?"

General Smith pinched his chin and pondered: "It was clear that there was no wind just now, but why did Elder's hat blow to the ground? Elder, did you move around inside?"

As the hostess, Mrs. Codrington was all smiles. She was very satisfied with Arthur's display tonight: "Mr. Hastings, people say that you are the second in Britain after Mr. Faraday. Electromagnetics researcher. But in my opinion, you may not be as good as Michael Faraday in terms of research, but in terms of funny explanations and demonstrations, you are definitely number one. Next, do you want to tell us about this Profound principle?"

Arthur just smiled: "Actually, this is not something profound. Regarding the research on this 'Faraday cage', Mr. Faraday and I just inherited the results of his mentor, Sir Humphrey David."

At this time, Mrs. Cowper, who was just watching all this with wide eyes and curiosity, finally couldn't help it, because Faraday's mentor, Sir David, was not only an outstanding scientist, but also a former British socialite. As an important figure in London's upper-class social circle, Mrs. Puer had of course maintained a good friendship with him.

Taking this opportunity, Mrs. Cowper, who had been keeping quiet, asked, "Mr. Hastings, what does this cage have to do with Sir David? Could it be his posthumous work?"

Upon hearing this, Arthur just smiled and mentioned the kerosene lamp at hand: "Sir David's name is well known, so I think everyone must be familiar with his invention."

Colonel Elliot bent down and looked at the kerosene lamp covered with a layer of copper mesh, and suddenly slapped his head and asked, "Is this Davy's lamp? There is a mine in my father's territory, and the mines are mined there." This is the lighting equipment that the workers are equipped with."

Arthur nodded slightly: "That's right, this is the Davy lamp. In 1814, several coal mines in Newcastle, Cardiff and other places in Britain had gas explosions caused by the flames of miner's lamps, causing thousands of miners to be injured or injured.

After Sir David heard the news, he immediately turned his research direction to the improvement of miner's lamp.After studying for several months, he found that if the outside of the kerosene lamp is covered with a layer of copper wire mesh, then even if explosive gas invades the kerosene lamp, the deflagration of the gas can be confined within the copper wire mesh instead of burning. As for letting the flames overflow to cause an explosion in the entire mine.

At that time, Sir David believed that it was due to the good thermal conductivity of the copper wire mesh, so it guided away the heat generated by the flame of the oil lamp, so that the flammable gas in the external mine could not come into contact with the temperature exceeding its ignition point, thus suppressing the fire. The probability of a mine explosion occurring.

But after the advent of the Faraday cage with a similar principle, I think the interpretation of the Davy lamp may need to be adjusted.Because if it is really the copper wire mesh that absorbs the heat, then as the burning time of the lamp increases, the copper wire mesh will be heated to the ignition temperature of the combustible gas sooner or later.Therefore, I think it is unreasonable to explain this issue only from the macroscopic perspective of thermodynamics. "

When Arthur said this, suddenly, a lady who looked like her age and wearing a black wide-brimmed hat standing next to Mrs. Codrington suddenly asked: "Are you talking about John? Mr. Dalton's atomic theory?"

Arthur was a little surprised when he heard this.Although he knew that the ladies of the Blue Sox Club had always been keen on scientific research, he didn't expect their knowledge to be so broad.

He looked at the lady, and was about to ask, but suddenly remembered the rule that one should not take the initiative to ask a lady's name, and his half-open mouth became slightly stiff.

But as the hostess, Mrs. Codrington quickly noticed his strangeness, and she came up to Arthur with a smile and said, "Mr. Ladies and gentlemen, standing next to me is Mrs. Mary Somerville, a researcher in astrophysics who also works in magnetism.

A few years ago, she also published a paper titled "Magnetization Power of More Refractive Sun Rays" in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, but due to her status, she has not given a scientific lecture at the Royal Society , the presentation of that paper was done by her husband, Mr. William Somerville. "

As soon as Arthur heard the name, he knew who the other party was, because not long ago, Faraday gave him an English translation of Laplace's "Celestial Mechanics" that he was planning to publish in order to thank him for his assistance in research on electromagnetism. The translator of Celestial Mechanics is Mrs. Mary Somerville in front of me.

He took off his hat, nodded and saluted, "Ma'am, I really didn't expect to see you here."

Mrs. Somerville just smiled: "Mr. Hastings, I have always wanted to see you. I want to tell you that I think Mr. George Airy's criticism of you is simply unreasonable!
Whether it's the 'line of force' concept that you and Mr. Faraday agree on, or your Hastings force, it's quite a feat.

The reason why I guessed that you intend to explain Faraday cage and Davy lamp from the perspective of atom theory is because you are the proposer of Hastings force, and I know you will definitely find out the connection of these things in the microscopic world.

So, what new things have you discovered? Mr. Dalton's atomic theory believes that all matter in the world is composed of atoms. Are you planning to make any new additions to this theory? "

Arthur nodded: "Yes, through the Davy lamp and the Faraday cage, I boldly conjectured that matter is not only composed of atoms, but I am honored to announce to the world that all atoms in this world are charged. Davy lamp Maybe it is not as simple as it seems to us, it is not just a superficial combustion reaction. Just a few days ago, when I went to Mr. Faraday to borrow something, I proposed this idea to him, and then the two of us Let’s just do an experiment.”

Mrs. Somerville seemed to think of something when she heard the words, and she asked in surprise: "Could it be..."

Arthur smiled and said: "With unremitting efforts, Mr. Faraday and I successfully found the potential difference in the Davy lamp burning in the methane environment using an electrometer."

(End of this chapter)