All the great scientists attending the meeting came to Brussels from all over the world after a long journey.
We cannot let them start discussing and studying some boring theoretical and experimental knowledge on the first morning of the meeting before they have rested and adjusted.
So this morning, the conference organizers have reserved enough time for everyone to socialize with each other.
After all, people come from all over the world. In addition to occasionally writing letters to a few close friends, they basically only see each other's names in various journals and magazines.
The oldest person present was the chairman of the Solvay Conference, Hendrik Lorenz.
He was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1902. He is seventy years old this year, but he is still energetic and well-dressed.
Lorenz stood outside the gate of the venue, greeting every arriving physicist.
He and Rutherford were old acquaintances, so after seeing an East Asian man next to Rutherford, Lorenz naturally knew that this was Chen Muwu.
After shaking hands with Rutherford, Lorenz, who was leaning on crutches, smiled and said to Chen Muwu on the side: "You must be Sir Rutherford's subordinate, the Chinese genius who has been in the limelight recently."
Chen Muwu quickly stretched out his hands: "Professor Lorenz, I am Chen Muwu, but I really don't dare to call him a Chinese genius in front of you. It may be that I am lucky, and I discovered several experimental phenomena by chance. .”
Because there were many physicists behind him waiting to enter the venue, there were not a few polite words between him and Lorenz.
After following Rutherford into the venue, Chen Muwu found that his mentor had become a Taishan Beidou-level figure here.
The people in the venue were divided into two groups, one group surrounded Rutherford, and the other group surrounded another highly respected Madame Curie.
Chen Muwu glanced around the venue like a curious baby, but he didn't see any familiar people he had seen in textbooks.
German physicists such as Planck and Einstein did not appear, and neither did Bohr.
He wanted to find someone to ask what was going on, but the teacher Rutherford beside him was talking to physicists from all over the world, and Blackett and De Broglie were just like him. It's the first time a new person is attending a meeting.
After searching around, Chen Muwu finally had no choice but to inquire about this matter with Langevin, who was relatively leisurely.
Langevin obviously knew the reason, so he briefly told Chen Muwu how unpopular Germany was in Europe after the First World War. Even German physicists became famous because of the fire at the city gate. The affected pond fish.
"But what about Dr. Einstein? Hasn't he already quit his German citizenship long ago?" Chen Muwu asked puzzledly.
"Although this is indeed the case and he was indeed invited to this conference, Mr. Einstein still thinks that he is a German. Since other German scientists are not invited to the conference, he himself should not come to this conference."
Einstein loved and hated Germany deeply. Although he was boycotted by German physicists because of his Jewish ancestry, when German physicists were boycotted by the whole world, he also behaved like Like Planck, he resolutely chose to stand with everyone.
"However," Langevin continued, "if you want to meet Einstein, you can go to Germany with me after the meeting. I also happen to be planning to go to Berlin to visit my physics colleagues there."
After hearing Langevin's proposal, Chen Muwu didn't know whether to agree to him.
After all, the summer semester is coming to an end in just one month, but my graduation thesis has not been finalized yet.
Moreover, I don’t know if I need to apply for another visa to go to Germany. It’s not too late yet.
Let's wait until today's meeting is over and ask teacher Rutherford about the situation.
"Thank you very much, Professor Langevin. Please allow me to go back and consider your suggestion before I give you a reply."
"It doesn't matter, as long as you can give me a message before the end of the meeting."
At this moment, another person came to say hello to Rutherford. He spoke with an English accent similar to that of Chen Muwu. From the first glance, he knew that the person coming was an American, and he also had a noble New York accent.
"Hello Sir Rutherford, my name is Owen Langmuir, from the General Electric Company in the United States."
Chen Muwu keenly captured this information. General Electric was so open to him that it made his teeth itch with hatred.
But why are there people from GE attending the Solvay meeting?
In fact, the experimental departments of major technology companies are now also a force that cannot be underestimated in physical and chemical experimental research.
Just like Davidson was able to conduct electron diffraction experiments in AT&T's Bell Laboratories, it is not so strange that there are several scientists with profound scientific research background in General Electric's laboratories.
Although Chen Muwu did not recognize the Langmuir in front of him, he later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry as a General Electric engineer.
Langmuir continued: "Sir, a few months ago, we received a letter from the Cavendish Laboratory. The letter inquired about a kind of chemical that was just designed and manufactured by our laboratory some time ago. The price of the vacuum pump. But after I gave the reply, there was no follow-up. I wonder if you know about such a thing? Or is it that the person who wrote the letter is a liar who came out to defraud under the banner of Cavendish Laboratory? of?"
After Langmuir said this, Chen Muwu was a little embarrassed.
Does this mean that enemies never get together? Why didn't you reply? Do you really don't know, or are you just pretending to be confused?
Rutherford took a deep breath from his pipe, and then exhaled the smoke in his mouth: "Do you know Chen Muwu?"
"The one who just discovered the Yellow Emperor Star some time ago?"
"That's right," Rutherford pointed to the student standing next to him, "That's him. He's the one who wrote to you asking to buy a vacuum pump."
Langmuir followed Rutherford's hand and saw Chen Muwu and Debroglie standing next to Chen Muwu.
Although he didn't know Chen Muwu, he recognized the big financier who came to buy a vacuum pump not long ago: "Monsieur de Broglie, I didn't expect you to be here."
Rutherford continued to tinker with the knife: "Yes, it was he who bought that extremely expensive vacuum pump for us and brought it to the Cavendish Laboratory so that Chen and Louis could complete what they had designed long ago. Experiment. With our Cavendish financial resources, we really cannot afford to buy a vacuum pump that costs up to eight thousand US dollars, which is more expensive than gold."
Langmuir obviously heard the sarcasm in Rutherford's words: "Sir, we really don't know that you want this vacuum pump for experimental purposes. If we knew, even if the company's board of directors did not agree, I think Mr. Edison I will definitely spend my own money to get one for free. After all, it will be an honor for us at GE to cooperate with Cavendish, the greatest physics laboratory in the world."
Chen Muwu rolled his eyes quietly, cursing secretly in his heart, why didn't he say such a thing earlier!
Now that de Broglie has paid the money, the experiment has been completed, and the paper has been published, what's the use of such meaningless hindsight!
"Forget it, forget it, this matter is in the past. Let's cooperate again next time we have a chance!" Rutherford smoothed things over.
Behind Langmuir, there were many people lining up to say hello to him, and he didn't want to waste any more time on this American.
Langmuir also stepped aside knowingly and smiled awkwardly at Chen Muwu: "I'm sorry, Mr. Chen, this is really a misunderstanding. Otherwise, after this meeting is over and I return to the United States, I will ask the company's How about my colleagues returning the money and counting this vacuum pump as being sponsored by General Electric?"
Before Chen Muwu could speak, the big financier de Broglie took the lead to make his attitude clear: "There is no need, Mr. Langmuir, now we have completed the experiment using this vacuum pump, and even the paper has been published in black and white in the journal. It’s too late to add a paragraph of thanks to your company at the end. What’s more, it’s only a few thousand dollars and it’s not a lot of money, so there’s no need to spend so much time.”
He also didn't give Langmuir a good attitude.
"Chen, Mr. Blackett, let's not stand here all the time. We should also go to other places in the venue to say hello to the teachers and seniors."
Chen Muwu had also long wanted to go around and have a look, so he followed suit.
Langmuir, who wanted to come up and say hello, had a hot face but a cold butt, no matter where he was with Rutherford or Chen Muwu and De Broglie, so he could only leave in anger.
In the venue, Chen Muwu met another old senior from Trinity College, William Henry Bragg, also known as Old Bragg. He could no longer remember how many Nobel Prizes in Physics he had seen. Winner.
It is different from using Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Tuesday, April and Saturday to joke about the wave-particle duality of light in front of reporters. Old Prague has already seen Chen Muwu and de Broglie in the latest issue of "Transactions of the Natural Sciences" published paper.
He was very interested in this experiment, not only because the paper used Bragg's law named after his surname, but also because this experiment was very similar to X-ray crystal diffraction. It was precisely because of this experiment that the old Bragg and himself Bragg Jr. won the Nobel Prize together with his son.
"Chen, when I heard you proposed that electrons also have wave properties, my first reaction was that this idea was so ridiculous. But I didn't expect that you could complete the experiment so quickly and get a Fast and great results.”
"Sir Bragg, it's all thanks to the Bragg's law you proposed that inspired me. I was able to think of using diffraction to prove the wave nature of electrons."
"Chen, don't exaggerate my role. That law has been around for so many years. Why has no one thought of doing experiments with electrons during this period?
"I have to say that your arrival has brought vitality back to the British physics community, which has almost become a stagnant water. It makes me feel like I have returned to the time when Lord Kelvin and my teacher Rayleigh III were still alive. At that time, it was full of vitality. The British physics community is still fresh in my memory.
"But now, if it weren't for your appearance, I think it won't take more than thirty years for us to be overtaken by the United States and severely left behind."
(End of chapter)
