For nearly a month, Chen Muwu's daily activity was to repeat the process of "purify the liquid - put it into the container - observe the spectrum - record the data - take photos".
Occasionally, when it was cloudy and rainy and the experiment was put on hold, he had to seize this time to write the experimental paper. He was busy running around all day and had no time to spare.
The current busy state reminded Chen Muwu of the time when he was working in the laboratory as a graduate student, but this time, his boss was himself.
Ye Gongchao occasionally came to the Cavendish Laboratory to see him a few times, either reading a few lines of some English poems he had recently written, or telling Chen Muwu what new things had happened at home and abroad recently.
In the early morning of May 6, the northbound express train running on the Jinpu Railway, which was the blue steel train that Chen Muwu took when he went to lecture at Bei University, derailed near Lincheng, Xiandong Province. The reason for the derailment was due to a catastrophe. The bandits deliberately sabotaged the car and hijacked all the men, women, old and young in the car, including many foreigners, the most famous of which was probably Powell, the editor-in-chief of the Miller Review, and the only son of the American oil tycoon John Rockefeller. Lucy Aldridge, sister-in-law of John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Hearing this news, Chen Muwu was a little scared, because with the full strength of the Soviet Union government, the Trans-Siberian Railway has been fully connected. If he had chosen to come to Europe by train, it is very likely that he might also appear on this trip. On the Jinpu Line train.
…
Tuesday, May 22nd.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Stanley Baldwin, also an alumnus of Trinity College, Cambridge, became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
On the same day, the German mark continued to depreciate rapidly. Within one day, the exchange rate between the US dollar and the mark dropped from 1:50,000 to 1:57,000.
Also on the same day, the excited Kapitsa and the equally excited Blackett came to the laboratory to find Chen Muwu and told the latter that they had captured the first clear trajectory of recoil electrons in gamma ray scattering. photo.
"What a beautiful photo!"
Chen Muwu couldn't help but praise that he was finally free.
Finally, Chen Muwu no longer had to repeat the experiment over and over again in the dark room. Regarding the scattering of visible light, he had completed experiments on six liquids under illumination of three different frequencies. He had even done experiments on two substances in solid and He conducted comparative experiments in the three-phase state of liquid and gas, and took many spectral photos, which was enough for him to write a thesis.
In fact, Chen Muwu could have written a paper and published it after observing the scattering spectra in pure water and pure ethanol. However, he was afraid that his experiment went too smoothly and might arouse others' suspicion, so he had to drag it on like this. long time.
Chen Muwu asked Kapitsa and Blackett to take a few more clear photos of recoil neutrons for future use in writing their thesis.
And he spent another two days, taking the written paper on visible light scattering, to go to the office on the second floor of the Cavendish Laboratory to find his immediate boss, Rutherford.
Chen Muwu's third paper, although it is called a paper, is actually more like a record of experimental results.
It completely records the wavelength change phenomenon of light after being scattered by different liquids: the scattered light is symmetrically accompanied by a spectrum with frequency ν₀±Δν on both sides of each original incident spectral line (frequency ν₀). Line, the frequency difference Δν has nothing to do with the incident light frequency ν₀, and is determined by the properties of the scattering material. Each scattering material has its own specific frequency difference, some of which are consistent with the infrared absorption frequency of the medium.
He also pointed out that this frequency change is very weak, about one thousandth of the level of Rayleigh scattering.
Moreover, the scattered light is polarized. Current theories cannot explain where this polarized light comes from.
Rutherford was very happy after reading Chen Muwu's paper. He said loudly with a smile on his face: "Okay, okay! Young man, you have brought us another one in less than a month since you came to the laboratory." Big surprise!”
Chen Muwu, standing next to Rutherford, felt deafening.
Rutherford's voice was surprisingly loud. Because he often disturbed other people in the laboratory doing experiments, the researchers had to hang a "please talk in a low voice" sign on the ceiling of the laboratory. A subtle reminder to their immediate boss.
But judging from the current situation, this reminder sign is in name only and has no use at all.
"It's just a small job, director." Chen Muwu said modestly.
"Let's go," Rutherford stood up and patted Chen Muwu on the back, "Take me to see your experimental phenomena."
After that, the two walked out of Rutherford's office and came to the darkroom where the experimental equipment was placed.
When Rutherford saw two sharp bright lines in the eyepiece of the spectrometer, he couldn't help but marveled: "Beautiful spectral lines! Let me just say, in our laboratory, besides radioactivity, I would like to Saw some other novel things!" [1]
…
"Listen, the old crocodile is praising that Chinese genius again."
In the open laboratory on the side, Kapitsa, who heard Rutherford's loud voice, had an expression of envy on his face and complained to Blackett, who was in the same group as him.
Blackett still had a paralyzed expression on his face, but his tone was very exciting: "But Sir, you are right, Chen is indeed a genius. Without him, how could I publish my first article in the journal of the Royal Society soon?" A paper?”
Blackett was very grateful to Chen Muwu. He occasionally wondered whether he should invite Chen Muwu to his home in London during King George V's birthday holiday next month.
Kapitsa ignited his fighting spirit: "It seems that Chen's third paper is about to be published. We must work harder and not be left too behind by him."
"Yeah." Blackett nodded.
…
Chen Muwu later told Rutherford in the laboratory that he wanted Rutherford to be the corresponding author of his paper. This would make it easier for the editorial board of the Royal Society's "Proceedings of the Natural Sciences" to submit the manuscript.
But Rutherford told Chen Muwu that his worries were completely unnecessary, because as long as they saw the letter was sent from the Cavendish Laboratory, the editors would know that this place name was a guarantee of the quality of the paper.
Putting the paper into an envelope and putting it in the mailbox, Chen Muwu walked along the Cam River back to Mrs. Brown's room where he rented.
The weather is already very warm at the end of May, and rowers wearing Cambridge's unique light blue sportswear on the River Cam are training hard and actively preparing for the competition.
When the Spring Festival semester ends at the end of June or early July, they will go to the Thames River in London to have a battle of honor with the Oxford University rowing team.
*****
[1] Author's note: Rutherford did say this in history, but the praise was not for Raman scattering (because Raman did not do experiments in the Cavendish Laboratory), but for Edward Appleton and his student Myles Barnett discovered the ionosphere in the atmosphere through radio signals in 1924. For this achievement, the former won the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physics.
