From mid-autumn to early winter, Chen Muwu taught several linear algebra classes in the eight-week autumn semester.
The direct consequence of this is not that more and more young people are interested in mathematics, but that the Chinese Studies Department of Cambridge University has received countless inquiries about what courses they will offer next semester.
Penguin Publishing House, whom they had not seen for a long time, even found Chen Muwu again and asked him if he could translate the "Mo Jing" into English and then hand it over to them for publication.
Ever since the last George Chen manuscript was handed over to the publishing house at the beginning of this year, he has started to mess it up.
During this period, people from Penguin Press went to the Royal Institution in London to rush for the manuscript several times, but Chen Muwu always said that he did not have time.
This is not an excuse, it is the truth.
Since the beginning of this year, Chen Muwu has basically not had much rest.
Although the speed of paper publication this year has suddenly slowed down, the results he has produced are not many at all.
Of course, there is another reason behind not continuing to write the George Chen series, and that is that Mr. Ye went on strike.
At the beginning, when Ye Gongchao agreed to write the George Chen series, he wanted to use the pen in his hand to take revenge on the drunk man who had a fight with him because he was drunk at Cambridge University, and to take revenge on him for all the suffering he had suffered. Revenge of racial discrimination.
So in the whole year of 1924, he finished three books of Chen George. Even the donkeys in the production team were not so diligent.
The reason why Ye Gongchao was able to write these three books in one year was partly because his good friend Chen Muwu came up with novel ideas one after another.
On the other hand, and the main reason is his own hard work.
Last summer, at the Paris Olympics, Chen Muwu fought hard on the field and won glory for his country, while Ye Gongchao wrote furiously at De Broglie's home.
Last winter, at the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Sweden, Chen Muwu spoke amazingly in Chinese in the auditorium, and Ye Gongchao wrote furiously in a hotel in Stockholm.
On the trains from Sweden to the Netherlands and the Netherlands to France...
Ye Gongchao was always writing hard.
After working hard for a whole year, either cooking or writing books, he wanted to take a break.
So Penguin Press urged Chen Muwu several times this year to write the manuscript, and Chen Muwu wrote several letters to Ye Gongchao.
But in every reply, Ye Gongchao hesitated and talked about him indifferently. He mentioned everything except George Chen.
There was no other way. Faced with the reminder letters that flew to the desk like snow flakes, Penguin Press could only make up a temporary excuse, "Mr. Chandler York has embarked on a global trip in order to find creative inspiration." ship. When the trip is over, I will present an absolutely wonderful new work.”
This is not a lame excuse, because in the era before airplanes, traveling around the world was really a waste of time.
Moreover, isn’t this the subject that comes to your doorstep?
Chen Muwu felt that if he met Ye Gongchao again next time, he would be able to write another "Tragedy on the Nile".
With the development in the past few years, Penguin Publishing House has gradually found a way to make money, and George Chen is no longer the only one.
Following the ideas provided by Chen Muwu, they created a magazine that integrated selected articles, and also recruited a mystery writer with good quality but little-known books, Agatha Christie.
The most special thing is that this summer, Sir Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes series, came to visit.
His arrival made everyone at Penguin Press overjoyed.
This god, whom no one could normally see or invite, not only came to the publishing house in person, but also sent a novel about Sherlock Holmes and George Chen teaming up to solve crimes and hunt down the murderer, and asked them to publish it by name.
However, the villain in the book is not Professor Moriarty who studies "Asteroid Dynamics", nor is it the German villain deliberately arranged in the George Chen series in order to please European readers, but the Red Sulian.
But what the hell?
As long as the author of this book is marked as Sir Conan Doyle, then there is absolutely no need to worry about selling it!
And it can also appease those book fans who are constantly urging for new works in the George Chen series. The George Chen written by Doyle is also George Chen!
Chen Muwu did not take up the task of translating the "Mo Jing" himself, but passed it on to Shi Ruwei so that they could earn some extra money while studying.
The only requirement from Penguin Publishing is that Chen Muwu’s name must be written in the translator column, so that sales will be guaranteed.
Chen Muwu did not refuse the proposal because he was one of the major shareholders of the publishing house.
The more money a publishing house makes, the more money it distributes to its major shareholders.
Who would mind making less money?
…
Although the linear algebra course was extremely popular, in the middle of the semester, Chen Muwu had to take a few days off from the college.
Every time the Royal Society holds a plenary meeting, the number of teachers and professors at Cambridge University is at least 20 to 30% less than usual.
This time, the Cavendish Laboratory was the hardest hit area. Basically, several elderly professors and teachers, as well as Chen Muwu, had to leave.
Fortunately, there was Chadwick, who was not a monk, who could stay and take charge of the overall situation with Kapitsa.
Rutherford, the director of the laboratory, was very successful. After waiting for more than a year, the term of the previous president Sherrington had expired, and he finally succeeded to the position of president of the Royal Society.
Chen Muwu went to the Royal Society meeting this time partly to give support and support to his teacher.
But the most important purpose is to apply for funds from the Lord Kelvin Foundation to build the "Kelvin-Chern electrostatic generator".
He also finally understood the reason why Old Thomson said before that he would apply for this funding when he goes to the Royal Society meeting in London next time.
The new speaker of the Royal Society, which is in charge of Lord Kelvin's foundation, is both a good student of old Thomson and a good teacher of Chen Muwu.
Moreover, the expenditure project of this fund is still to build a particle accelerator for the Cavendish Laboratory, in order to better study the structure of the atomic nucleus and search for new particles and elements.
It was impossible for Rutherford to refuse this application, both emotionally and rationally.
"There are people in the court who are good at becoming officials." This sentence is very applicable to both Britain and China.
After this re-election meeting, the elder Bragg temporarily stepped down from the leadership of the Royal Society.
For the past five years he has been Vice-President of the Royal Society, responsible for all aspects of physics within the society.
The reason why it is said to be temporary is that ten years later, in 1935, the old and strong Bragg will be elected president of the Royal Society at the age of 73.
With his status, even if he has retired, he can still sit in the front rows of the venue.
But Old Prague still took advantage of the tea break between meetings to change seats with others and sit next to Chen Muwu.
"Dr. Chen, long time no see?"
"Sir, long time no see, what do you want from me?"
"It's nothing big. This is a plenary meeting of the Royal Society. Lawrence has also come to London from Manchester. Do you have time in the past few days to have a meal at home?"
Oh, little Prague is here too.
Then you should go meet him and build a good relationship with the future director of the Cavendish Laboratory.
What's more, Old Prague invited me so kindly today...
No, he is a drunkard and does not care about drinking!
It was a lie to let myself get to know Little Bragg, but it was true to meet Little Bragg's sister.
Moreover, if you want to meet little Bragg, wouldn't it be enough to meet him at the Royal Society? Why should you follow old Bragg home?
It seems that this old British gentleman is still thinking about becoming his father-in-law.
"Forget it, Sir, time is really tight these days. I have to go to the Chinese Embassy to do some things."
This is not a lie. Chen Muwu thought that the time he left London before was the last time he and Zhu Zhaoxin saw each other before they parted ways.
As a result, several months later, the Republic of China ambassador to Italy, who had been appointed for more than half a year, still failed to go to Rome to take office because there was no order from the country at all.
As long as the new minister who succeeded him to the UK did not take office for a day, he would not be promoted for a day.
Chen Muwu is still living in the embassy as usual these days. Every day at the dinner table, he always eats the Chinese food he is craving for while listening to Zhu Zhaoxin complaining to him endlessly about the idiots at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China. How unreliable.
"Sir, do you have anything else to do with me?"
Old Prague would never change his position to be next to Chen Muwu because of the big or small matter of introducing his daughter to him as a friend.
"Well, there is indeed one more thing. Are you interested in being a keynote speaker at the Royal Institution's Christmas Lecture this year?"
The Christmas lecture mentioned by Old Bragg is considered to be the annual repertoire of the Royal Institution. Its main purpose is to conduct one or several science popularization activities for young people who yearn for science during the Christmas holiday to stimulate their interest in studying. .
Basically, it is equivalent to the type of lecture "Let's Talk", but it is nearly a hundred years earlier.
The holding of such popular science lectures was first proposed by Faraday, who was in charge of the Royal Institution at the time.
The first lecture was held on Christmas Day in 1825.
In other words, now, the Christmas Lecture has gone through a hundred years.
On Christmas Day 1925, the lecture that was to be given in the auditorium of the Royal Institution would usher in a new century of Christmas lectures.
Chen Muwu had no idea that Old Prague would give such a memorable lecture to himself.
It's just that Xiao Chen has other arrangements for Christmas. Although he doesn't want to have dinner with Old Prague's daughter, he wants to take advantage of the Christmas holiday to have dinner with Madame Curie's daughter.
On the one hand, he wants to make a name for himself, on the other hand, he loves his children. Now Chen Muwu has a difficult choice.
In the end, he chose the former.
"If love lasts for a long time, how can we stay together day and night?" Even if we can't spend Christmas and New Year's Day together, it's probably okay, right?
"Sir, thank you for thinking so highly of me. What is the content of this lecture?"
"It's totally up to you, just make it a little simpler and not so profound."
"What about the time of the lecture? Is it on Christmas Eve?"
Old Bragg smiled: "Dr. Chen, times have changed, and entertainment methods have become more abundant. On such an important day as Christmas Eve, instead of listening to a less-than-pleasant speech, why don't you choose to gather around the fire with your family? Next, where are you listening to the Christmas carols playing on the gramophone?
"This year's speech will be on the last Sunday before Christmas, which is December 20."
Double happiness.
This day was chosen very well. Not only could Chen Muwu complete his speech, but he could also go to Paris, France, in a leisurely manner after the speech, without having to rush.
The famous attractions in Paris are so easy to miss.
In some places, people are reluctant to lose their mustaches, but who knows when, "fire will burst into Venus for nine days, and the Twelve Official Streets will be filled with smoke."
"Sir, thank you again for entrusting such an important lecture to me. I will definitely live up to your trust."
"I also want to hand over Mond's laboratory to you, do you think that's okay?"
"Uh, let's talk about this..."
Old Thomson's proposal was approved by Rutherford, and eventually the Lord Kelvin Foundation, affiliated with the Royal Society, allocated a full two thousand pounds to Chen Muwu to develop the "Kelvin generator" project.
Including the previous funding of 2,500 pounds from the Cavendish Laboratory and the 1,500 pounds from Trinity College, the total is 6,000 pounds, almost one-third of the laboratory's annual funding.
After so many years in the UK, he, Chen Muwu, finally became richer.
However, some people want to make him even richer.
This person is not a villain, nor is he Chen Muwu's mortal enemy, but his new student, Cockcroft.
While Chen Muwu was lecturing at Cambridge University, Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft had been working hard on the design of electrostatic generators.
Although there are only two people in their team, the division of labor is very clear: Zhao Zhongyao, who is good at theory, is responsible for calculations and design drawings.
Cockcroft, an engineer by training, was responsible for pointing out the engineering unreasonableness of Zhao's design and estimating the cost of manufacturing the generator.
In the end, the two of them came up with a design that had almost no flaws and fully met all Chen Muwu's requirements:
A spherical metal electrode with a diameter of eighty centimeters is installed on the top of a two-meter-high insulating glass bracket.
The power supply device that provides charge only requires a DC power supply of several hundred volts.
Only the ribbon that acts as a charge conduction medium needs to be customized separately, which is the most expensive expense in the entire electrostatic generator.
Zhao Zhongyao's calculations for such an electrostatic generator are that it can provide a high voltage of 1.5 million volts.
The quotation given by Cockcroft shocked Chen Muwu, who returned to Cambridge University with a huge sum of money, and even once wondered whether he was experiencing auditory hallucinations in his ears.
"Twenty pounds, sir. I promise we can build such a machine for only twenty pounds."
(End of chapter)
