shadow of britain

Chapter 438 The Difference between France and Britain

The sun shines brightly in Paris in the spring, and the breeze gently ripples the sycamore leaves on the banks of the Seine.

In the lecture hall of the French Academy of Sciences, the lights are bright, the splendid decorations and the solemn marble statues complement each other, creating a strong and solemn atmosphere.

In the backstage of the lecture hall, Arthur, who was about to appear, was chatting with several important figures in the Academy of Sciences.

But the scene when the scientists met was not as happy as Arthur imagined. On the contrary, they were arguing with each other because of the letter Faraday brought.

The focus of the discussion is, is light a particle or a wave?

These guys chatted and talked, and they naturally got involved in the annual essay call for the French Academy of Sciences in 1819. All of them remembered that the title of the essay that year was "Determination of the Diffraction Effect of Light by Precise Experiments and Derivation of the Passage of Light near Objects" time movement”.

The reason why the French Academy of Sciences proposed this essay title was because the supporters of the particle theory in the Academy hoped to use social forces to write some papers that could use the particle theory to explain the phenomenon of light interference and diffraction, and use this to combat the wave theory. theory.

But what no one expected was that an unknown engineer, Augustin Jean Fresnel, took advantage of this competition and submitted a paper titled "On the Interaction of Polarized Light" to the competition organizing committee. .

In this paper, Fresnel revolutionized the idea that light is a transverse wave. Taking this as a starting point, he rigorously proved the diffraction problem of light, and also solved some other problems that had long troubled the wave theory.

But Alaguo, who is also a judge, suggested: "Isn't it simple to know whether this conclusion is correct? Let's just do an experiment to verify it."

To this end, the French Academy of Sciences immediately conducted an experiment, and the experimental results surprised everyone. Fresnel's theory was accurate, and a bright spot did appear in the center of the shadow.

In the 19th century, the main battlefield of the dispute between the two doctrines shifted from the Royal Society to France. The waves said that the ones standing here were Marius, Fresnel, etc., and the particles said that there were Laplace, Poisson, and Biot on the other side.

"This may cause this direction to stagnate for several years or decades, and Mr. Faraday will also be doing useless work for a long time because of the wrong direction. This will not only tarnish the reputation of the Academy of Sciences, but is unforgivable from a research perspective. !”

He even said to Fresnel face to face: "I read your theory and did some calculations. I found that your theory will lead to such an absurd conclusion: if an opaque piece of light is placed on the propagation path of the light beam, For a circular plate, due to the diffraction of light at the edge of the circular plate, a bright spot should appear in the center of the shadow behind the circular plate at a certain distance. How is this possible? "

Seeing the prosperous life in Poisson, his colleagues still couldn't help but want to make fun of him. Arago, the lifelong secretary of the French Academy of Sciences who is responsible for the daily affairs of the French Academy and the winner of the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1825, hurriedly came to smooth things over. .

Due to this important discovery, Fresnel won the essay competition and was elected as an academician of the French Academy of Sciences.

Poisson did not suffer any loss. He was called the discoverer of Poisson's bright spot, although he himself did not really want to get the honor of naming this bright spot.

But after receiving Fresnel's paper, Poisson, the chairman of the essay organizing committee, refused to believe it. He felt that Fresnel's paper was simply ridiculous.

"Gentlemen, we have been arguing about the particle theory and the wave theory for many years. The earliest dispute was between Newton and Hooke. Because of this issue, the Royal Society was in a state of uproar. These two great natural philosophers The researchers also made enemies.

"Mr. Arago, we don't disrespect your opinion, but research issues are no joke."

After the results of the experiment were announced, it was not known whether the supporters of the wave theory were trying to ridicule Poisson, or whether the French Academy of Sciences was planning to give Poisson a step down. In short, they humorously named this bright spot 'Poisson's light'. spot'.

Alaguo thought that he could get rid of this matter like mud, but what he never expected was that his words would stir up a thousand waves.

If Arago hadn't been surrounded at this time, he would have probably started chatting with Arthur about the latest research on British electromagnetism.

Arthur saw these gentle scientists surrounding Arago like lions one by one. While he lamented that it was not easy to be a lifelong secretary of the Academy of Sciences, he felt a little lucky at the same time.

Although it has been more than ten years since that paper was published, there is still no way to discuss whether light is a particle or a wave. Mr. Faraday's letter only politely asked us about the related properties of waves. Why are you so eager to express your position between the particle theory and the wave theory? "

After saying this, Poisson couldn't wait to declare that this essay solicitation was a unilateral victory for the particle theory.

Because as far as he knew, Arago had turned to electromagnetism as early as 1820 because he was inspired by Oersted.

It was with his encouragement and help that Ampere perfected his research on electromagnetic action and derived the basic formulas of electrodynamics.

However, what made Arthur most curious about Arago was not Arago's academic achievements and his temperament of supporting his juniors, but that this gentleman could not only succeed Fourier as the lifelong secretary of the academy, but also serve as the director of the Paris Observatory. position.

"That's right. It can be seen from Mr. Faraday's letter that he currently wants to find out the connection between light and magnetism. If he misunderstood the nature of light from the beginning, wouldn't we have led him astray? ?”

What makes Arthur even more unbelievable is that this prosperous academic leader is actually a congressman who has both sides.

Since arriving in France, Arthur has discovered many phenomena that are completely different from those in Britain.

In Britain, scientists generally rarely participate in politics, and their original intention to engage in scientific research is either out of interest or because they want to apply scientific progress to improve production technology.

Because of this, most of the current mainstream scientific researchers in Britain are technicians and engineers, and their achievements in scientific application can be said to be unparalleled in the world. After obtaining scientific research results, most of these technicians and engineers will immediately put them into the industrial field to monetize them.

Typical examples are the spinning jenny invented by the weaver James Hargreaves, the steam engine improved by the instrument maker James Watt, the steam locomotive invented by the machinist George Stephenson, etc.

After making breakthroughs in applied technology, these gentlemen almost without exception got rid of their original social classes and became factory owners specializing in mechanical processing production.

In France, there are many stories of people who rose from the bottom and finally achieved class crossing. However, unlike Britain, researchers in France prefer theoretical research, and their goal after becoming famous is not to become a rich man. Businessman, but hopes to use his influence in the scientific community as a springboard to enter the political arena.

The tradition of scientists engaging in politics has continued in this land for many years, and the French Academy of Sciences’ evaluation criteria for outstanding scientists lies not only in their superb scientific research capabilities, but also in their flexible skills. When the French Academy of Sciences was founded in 1699, its founder and main sponsor was the then French King, the Sun King Louis XIV. Therefore, since then, almost all academicians of the French Academy of Sciences have not only developed new technologies for the government, but also Acts as a royal advisor to the French royal family.

Although this tradition caused the Academy of Sciences to be severely attacked by the National Assembly during the Revolution, famous academicians such as Lavoisier, Laplace, and Coulomb were ordered to be expelled from the Academy of Sciences.

Among them, Lavoisier, the leader of the French Academy of Sciences and lifelong secretary of the Academy, was identified as one of the representatives of the old forces because of his status as a bonded person and was guillotined.

For this reason, Lagrange, who was also working at the Academy of Sciences at the time, could only lament: "It only takes a blink of an eye to chop off his head, but a hundred years will not be enough to grow a brain like his."

But Lagrange lamented that after Lavoisier was executed, this group of researchers in the French Academy of Sciences who were good at both scientific research and politics quickly switched camps flexibly.

In particular, researchers with low-level backgrounds such as Laplace and Lagrange worked hard to manufacture guns and ammunition for the National Assembly during the Great Revolution to preserve their heads that would not grow for a hundred years.

In 1795, the Girondins and Jacobins fell successively, and the relatively moderate Thermidorian Directory came to power.

It was not until this moment that they suddenly realized what a luxury it was for France to have a group of scientists with brains that could not grow in a hundred years.

They restarted the French Academy of Sciences, which had been closed for several years, and brought back the expelled scientists so that they could continue their research work. Of course, the main direction was military science.

And in 1799, a cannon was fired in the streets of Paris, and the Demon King of Corsica made his debut.

With the support of Talleyrand, Fouche and others, Napoleon Bonaparte secretly returned to Paris from Egypt, successfully launched the Brumaire Coup, seized control of the Directory, and appointed himself the First Consul of the French Republic.

This is undoubtedly good news for the French Academy of Sciences, because when the Corsican First Consul was studying at the Artillery Academy, his teacher was Laplace, the great scholar of the Academy of Sciences.

Moreover, he himself has always attached great importance to the application of science in the military field. Even when he went to Egypt, in addition to 26000 soldiers, 2000 cannons and 400 ships, he also brought 175 scholars and hundreds of boxes of books and Research equipment.

这个庞大的学者顾问团涵盖了21名数学家、3名天文学家、17名民用工程师、13名博物学家和矿业工程师、13名地理学家、3名火药师等等。

And Napoleon took great care of them. In order to ensure the safety of this group of scientific researchers, Napoleon even issued a famous instruction during the march: "Let the donkeys and scholars walk in the middle of the team."

Therefore, when Napoleon first seized power, he immediately appointed his teacher Laplace as director of the French Bureau of Longitude, and later even made him Minister of the Interior for six months. In addition, in the year he seized power, he ordered the establishment of France's best university, the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris.

A large number of researchers from the French Academy of Sciences were arranged to serve as teachers in this school. Napoleon personally set the criteria for training students for this university - to spread mathematics, physics, chemistry and other sciences and drawing techniques, especially for artillery. , engineers and soldiers, roads and bridges, shipbuilding, military and civil engineering, mining and geography and other technical public technical schools send students.

In the grand military parade held in 1804, students from the Ecole Polytechnique also participated in the review. What was even more unexpected was that Napoleon personally ordered that their passing order be placed after the honor guard of the three services and before all the army square formations. When they passed, Napoleon walked up to the queue and personally handed a banner embroidered with "For the Motherland, Science and Honor" to the first graduate of the school's class of 1804.

Such behavior naturally greatly inspired the students of the school and the researchers of the Academy of Sciences who taught at the school. Since then, 'Motherland, Science, Honor' has naturally become their school motto.

Napoleon's respect and emphasis on science naturally won the support and love of a large number of scientists. When the anti-French coalition troops came to the city in 1814, all the teachers and students of the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris took the initiative to ask Napoleon to fight, but Napoleon directly refused. The emperor bluntly said: :'I don't want to kill my old hen just to get the golden eggs! '

There is no doubt that Napoleon made a very correct decision this time, because among the teachers and students who took the initiative to fight, there were many familiar names, such as Gabriel Lame, Emile Clapeyron, Ogu Conde, Nicolas Cano, Andre Marie Ampere.

However, Napoleon's decision did not dampen the general support for him in the French scientific community. Even when Napoleon was exiled for the first time, sighs could be heard everywhere in the French Academy of Sciences. And when they learned that Napoleon had escaped from exile and had landed in France again, these scientists made no secret of their support and admiration for the emperor.

However, it was because of this support that when Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo and the Hundred Days Dynasty fell, many people in the French Academy of Sciences were expelled because of their support for Napoleon.

When Monge, who had served as Minister of the Navy and President of Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, died, the authorities did not even allow students to attend his funeral, so that they could only go to the cemetery in groups the day after the burial to mourn their teacher.

But no matter what, it can be seen from these deeds that French scientists are definitely much more involved in politics than those in Britain. Many of them have been elected members of parliament, and some have served as heads of various cabinet ministries. What is even more surprising is that most of them are also from civilian backgrounds.

Although many British scientists have served as members of Parliament, this is because they are nobles themselves, so they naturally occupy a seat in the House of Lords. As for those who come from civilian backgrounds, the biggest goal of most of them is to become a decent and wealthy person, and a small number of them do it because of love, but no one studies science to be elected as a member of parliament.

At least Arthur never heard Faraday say that he wanted to go into politics. On the contrary, Faraday seemed to hate being too involved in politics. He was also opposed to starting a war and did not want his research results to be used to kill people.

The cabinet had previously wanted to provide Faraday with an annuity. If Arthur had not urged him, Faraday would not have agreed. Moreover, King William IV wanted to honor Faraday at the coronation ceremony, but he decisively refused.

The gentleman's reply to the messenger sent by the cabinet at that time was just a simple smile and a humble tone: "I am very grateful to His Majesty the King for his favor, but I am proud to be a commoner and do not want to become a noble."

Arthur was thinking about these things when suddenly, a slight cough sounded in his ears.

Arthur turned his head and looked around. He was a French gentleman with crutches, white temples, glasses, and a bookish look: "How is Mr. Faraday doing recently? I heard that he has been working very hard lately, just like me. It was like that when I first met him.”

When Arthur heard the tone of the other person's words, he immediately realized that this gentleman who looked older than Faraday was probably a textbook character.

He took off his hat and saluted: "I also want to persuade Mr. Faraday to rest more, but you know, he has encountered a subject he likes, and he will never stop until he understands it. But God left We have so many mysteries that his gear has never stopped turning since he entered the field of natural philosophy."

When the other party heard this, he laughed heartily and said: "Actually, it's not that I don't agree with his way of working. I'm just pity why he suddenly switched to electromagnetism? Since the death of Sir Humphrey Davy, I I thought he would inherit the mantle of my mentor and fight with me in the field of chemical analysis, but I didn’t expect that he would suddenly take a turn and shake me to the point where I can’t recover now.”

When Arthur heard this, he thought for a moment, and he seemed to know who the other party was.

Arthur smiled and stretched out his hand and asked: "I often heard Mr. Faraday mention you in London. You two have very similar experiences. You both followed your mentor as an apprentice when you were young, and then slowly started your own research work. Faraday Sir, you are following Sir David, so similar experiences have led to a lot of sympathy between you. Am I right, Mr. Guy-Lussac?”

(End of this chapter)