Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 550: Electrical Research Turns
Edison said that genius is 90% diligence plus 10% inspiration. If there is no inspiration, 99% diligence is useless.
However, when this sentence was translated into China, it became "Genius comes from 99% hard work and 1% inspiration", which completely deviates from Edison's original meaning.
As a famous scholar in the local medical field before traveling through time, Zhu Youdong had taught many interns. In his opinion, those students with talent in medicine often understood everything at once. Then it was comfortable for the teacher to teach and for the students to learn. And those without talent? If they don't work hard, they will be useless. And what about those who work hard? Without talent, no matter how hard they try, the things they produce are just so-so. It is extremely difficult to impress people.
In short, talent is very important. Everyone has talent, but the types of talent are different. Specifically speaking of Li Zicheng and his group of northern Shaanxi men, none of them had the talent to govern the country, nor did they have the talent to become a pure regular army commander.
However, they all have the talent to incite others to rebel, and even more the talent for guerrilla warfare. Especially Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, they are truly amazing and gifted. In this plane, the leaders of dozens of peasant uprising armies and their followers were beaten to death by Sun Chuanting, and only these two survived (although they were also beaten very badly by Sun Chuanting) and continued to grow stronger. Do you think their talents are amazing?
Now, after Zhu Youdong gave them military training and professional guerrilla warfare training, and provided them with a small amount of start-up supplies, they went to America, which might cause great trouble to Philip.
But that was all. Guerrilla warfare was indeed a magic weapon to defeat the strong with the weak, but to truly annihilate the enemy and achieve complete victory, large-scale mobile warfare and annihilation warfare were needed. At least for now, Zhu Youdong did not have the strength to send a large army to America and always ensure that its logistical supplies were sufficient.
Nothing happened that night. The next day, Zhu Youdong went to Fangshan Laboratory.
"Your Highness, I pay my respects to you."
"Gentlemen, please excuse me."
After a simple greeting between the emperor and his subjects, the scholars from Fangshan escorted Zhu Youdong into the main conference room. After the emperor and his subjects sat down, Zhu Youdong, who knew that this group of scholars liked to be straightforward, did not hesitate and asked directly, "How is the development of our submachine gun going?"
"Your Majesty." Fangshan's chief scientist Zhao Shizhen is now 71 years old, but he looks quite energetic. "I have already handed over three submachine gun samples with slightly different standards to the military for testing. The military has not responded yet. Once the military selects a model, we can start mass production."
"Very good! Thank you for your hard work, gentlemen."
"I dare not. The emperor originally said that it would take three years, but it took us almost four years to come up with the finished product. I am in vain."
"Hahaha, how can we say that science will take only a few years? I know that this kind of thing cannot be forced. Well, I have too many mundane things to do all day long, and I have completely become a mundane person. Therefore, in recognition of your contribution, I have nothing else to offer except some mundane things. Once this gun goes into mass production, my inner treasury will allocate 300,000 yuan for the entire Fangshan, of which 100,000 yuan will be specifically awarded to the gun laboratory!"
"We thank the Emperor."
As the atmosphere gradually became harmonious, Zhu Youdong immediately stated the main purpose of his visit: "Well, gentlemen, many years ago, when the steam engine was just successfully developed, I introduced the law of electromagnetic induction to you. I wonder how far the research on electricity has progressed now? How far is it from a practical generator?"
As soon as the emperor said this, everyone's eyes turned to Li Zhizao.
Speaking of which, of the three pillars of Chinese Catholicism at that time, Xu Guangqi was also entangled in worldly affairs in the Ministry of Industry, and Yang Tingyun was specifically responsible for the administrative affairs of Fangshan School and Laboratory, and had little time to devote to scientific research. Only Li Zhizao still maintained his original character. Although his official position was the third rank, he was actually a pure scientist. And at Fangshan, he was responsible for leading the research on electricity.
"Your Majesty, at that time, you instructed me to do the corresponding experiments according to your instructions, and confirmed the existence of electromagnetic induction. It also clarified the basic concept of using steam engines as power to generate electricity. However, although the electricity was generated, we had no idea how to store it, how to transport it, and how to use it. Over the years, some accidents have occurred due to improper protective measures in the experiments."
Humans have known about the existence of electricity for a long time. Electricity generated by friction was discovered and recorded by people in civilized countries around BC. However, the real theoretical basis of electricity was not until 1600, when Gilbert, the royal physician of Queen Elizabeth of England and a great scientist, published his famous book On Magnetism.
In this book, Gilbert confirmed that the entire earth is a large magnetic field, that magnets are divided into two poles, and that there may be a certain relationship between the magnetic field and the generation of lightning in the sky... These cognitions laid the theoretical foundation for electricity to become a science.
In 1708, the Englishman Wall proposed a theory: lightning is generated by static electricity guided by the earth's magnetic field. In 1746, the Englishman Leyden invented the Leyden jar that can store static electricity based on Wall's theory - this is the prototype of the battery. In 1748, Franklin of the British American colonies also invented the lightning rod based on this.
In 1752, Franklin conducted a famous experiment of flying a kite at night when there was lightning, proving that lightning in the sky and static electricity generated by humans themselves are made of the same substance (this is an extremely dangerous experiment, so do not imitate it).
In 1799, Italian Volta proved the voltage series of various metals - that is, different metals conduct electricity, and the voltages they form are different. Electricity was thus divided into positive and negative electricity. Then he invented the famous voltaic battery based on the voltage difference between different metals. From then on, electricity could be truly manufactured, stored and used by humans.
With the voltaic cell as a foundation, the development of electrical theory entered the fast lane.
In 1820, Ampere's law was born, and electric current had a basic unit.
In 1826, Ohm's law was born, resistance had a unit, and the foundation for laying circuits was laid.
In 1831, the first telegraph was born in Russia. In the same year, Faraday discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction, which is the most important theoretical basis for the practical use of electricity.
In 1832, the first generator based on the theory of electromagnetic induction was born.
In 1834, the first electric motor was born in Russia.
In 1837, the five-pin telegraph machine was put into practical use, and the wired telegraph was born. In the same year, Morse code was born.
In 1851, the first submarine cable connecting England and France was put into use.
In 1860, the carbon filament light bulb was invented, and Edison continued to improve it, and the practicality of electric lights continued to improve. Scientists from various countries continued to make progress, and in 1932, the Japanese invented the double-helix tungsten filament light bulb - this is the longest-used and most widely used light bulb in the world.
In 1876, Bell obtained the patent for the telephone by applying for it two hours earlier than his colleague Gray. The telephone entered human life.
In 1882, the British invented the transformer.
In 1885, Westinghouse Electric Company of the United States improved the transformer, enabling it to be put into practical use.
In 1889, Westinghouse began to build the first large-scale power plant to serve the public, and officially generated and transmitted electricity in 1892. The complete power system had a basic prototype.
In 1891, the automatic switching system was invented.
In 1895, Marconi's wireless telegraph technology was put into practical use.
In 1896, Tesla's AC generator was put into operation...
Looking through the colorful history of electricity, we can admire the successive generations of outstanding people who have discovered and invented many great miracles and completely changed human life. We can also easily see that the development of electricity was very slow before Volta invented the battery in 1799, and it was the accumulation of theories. But since the invention of the battery, scientists have a stable and safe source of electricity, and the development of electricity has been rapid. In just a hundred years, breakthroughs have been made in theory, communication, lighting, power equipment, electric power and many other aspects!
The so-called electromagnetic induction theory, to put it simply, is to tie the two ends of a copper wire to the positive and negative poles of a magnet to form a closed loop. Then use a metal rod to move continuously between the positive and negative poles of the magnet. As the magnetic lines of force are continuously cut, the magnetic flux changes, and an induced current is formed.
Theoretically, as long as this circuit exists and the metal rod keeps moving and cutting the magnetic lines of force, an induced current can be generated continuously.
There is no doubt that the discovery of electromagnetic induction is the most important theory for humans to tame electricity and put it into practical use. With this theory, mechanical energy can be converted into electrical energy. However, without the support of magnetic and electrical theories, and without the support of batteries as power storage devices, it is a castle in the air to start directly from the electromagnetic induction theory.
However, before Zhu Youdong traveled through time, he had completely forgotten the history of the development of electricity. The only thing he could remember was the great discovery of electromagnetic induction. So when he thought of studying electricity, he directly threw out the theory of electromagnetic induction, but left Li Zhizao's research hanging in the air!
It’s no wonder that they haven’t produced any results in all these years.
However, he is a time traveler after all. Although he is not an expert in electricity, he has seen and used many electrical equipment in real life. Therefore, after listening carefully to Li Zhizao's introduction, he thought for a long time, and then said: "Mr. Li, I think that the electromagnetic induction theory I gave you a few years ago may be a bit ahead of its time. From your description just now, our current electrical research still lacks stable, safe, and storable electricity. Therefore, I think it is better for you to put aside the previous theory for the time being and devote yourself to the research and development of equipment that can store electricity. I will give this thing a name, let's call it a battery."
