Walking among Germany's brilliant scientific stars is like being in the vast galaxy. Looking at these portraits that originally belonged to the books, turned into vivid people, Joey always felt that he couldn't hold his heartbeat, this is a group of gods who belonged to the golden age of German science and technology from 1870 to 1930!

The crown prince first had a private exchange of views with the famous Professor Helmholtz, and then turned to visit Professor Mach. Joey saw this opportunity and hurried over to Professor Helmholtz, eagerly looking up at the white-haired old man with a beautiful white horned beard.

Joey never imagined to meet this leading figure in modern German science and technology in person, knowing that the research centers named after Helmholtz in Germany are all at the top of the field in energy, earth and environmental science, life science, energy science, optics, mathematics, thermodynamics, and electricity.

Professor Helmholtz was still immersed in the Crown Prince's impactful keynote speech just now, and after communicating with the Crown Prince in private, he was even more excited. In a very unusual voice, his close friend Professor Gustav Kirchhoff and his students were eagerly exchanging their feelings.

Just as Professor Helmholtz was about to finish speaking, he suddenly felt that someone was looking at him next to his lap, and when he looked down, he saw that it was a half-grown teenager looking up at him. The moment Professor Helmholtz saw Joey's eyes, he seemed to have the illusion of seeing a pair of stars twinkling.

"Oh, kid, whose child are you, and why are you here?" Helmholtz was still immersed in the excitement just now, and he didn't turn his mind to recognize Joey for a moment.

"Dear Mr. Helmholtz, I am Joachim Friedrich Ernst Waldemar, and you can call me Joey if you may. I'm your biggest fan. ”

"What do you mean, fans?" Professor Helmholtz was stunned again, but then recognized who the young man in front of him was, "Oh my God, I'm sorry, Your Royal Highness Prince Waldemar, I didn't recognize you. ”

"No, no, no, Mr. Professor, in any case, please call me Joey, the title of prince does not mean anything in the face of great science, I am just a humble beginner on the path of science, and I will really be very ashamed if you call me prince." Joey said sincerely.

"Hahaha!" Professor Helmholtz smiled heartily, looked at his friends and students, and nodded at Joey, "Okay Joey, welcome to the world of science." ”

"Thank you, Mr. Professor, for your willingness to lead me to the world of science." Joey bowed to Professor Helmholtz.

"Look, Googie, Joey is really a polite child." Professor Helmholtz looked at his old partner, Professor Kirchhoff, and said with a smile.

"Who's to say it isn't, humility and courtesy are one of the qualities that everyone who explores the world of science should have." Professor Kirchhoff looked at the young students around him and said softly.

"Joey, you've been listening to it for a long time, what do you think of your father's speech?" Professor Helmholtz asked Joey a little half-jokingly, but in fact the professor did not report anything, and the hope of hearing any opinion from Joey was just a small joke in the high excitement.

"My father laid out a vision for the future of German science, and the realization of this vision depends on the support of big names like you, Professor Helmholtz, and on the great contribution of your students in the future. I am also the one of my father's great visions... Admirer, I have tried to make a small scientific project of my own for my father's expectations for the development of German science, and I hope to take this opportunity today to ask you a few questions. Joey looked at Professor Helmholtz and said seriously.

Professor Helmholtz looked at Joey, then at his old partner, put away his smile, and said to Joey with the same seriousness, "Joey, please speak." ”

The Bible says that God's first word when he first created the heavens and the earth was to have light. It seems to me that the light God speaks of is the science of electricity and electromagnetism founded by Professor Maxwell. In 1875, the Gare du Nord power plant (the world's first thermal power plant) was officially put into operation, and at the Newcastle Chemical Society meeting in December last year, Mr. Swan of England had already exhibited the first commercially significant carbon filament incandescent lamp. As Professor Maxwell often said, the electric age of this world has arrived. ”

"Although Germany has a strong theoretical foundation in electricity and electromagnetism, in the application of electricity, Germany lagged behind Britain in the past, and may now lag behind the United States." Joey said.

"Electricity itself was created by the British, and it is normal to lag behind Britain, but you say that Germany is behind the United States, how is this possible." A young scholar retorted to Joey dissatisfied.

At the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Mr. Alexander Bell and his assistant Mr. Watson demonstrated corded telephones, and by now twenty-five cities in the United States have been connected to the telephone network. Mr. Bell's Bell telephone company must have been heard of by everyone, and Mr. Siemens' company is still in a lawsuit with Mr. Bell over the telephone patent, and the wired telephone network in Berlin has not yet become widespread. Joey retorted with data.

"It's not normal to be behind at all, Max, remember, in the world of science, there is always only first, and second means failure." Professor Helmholtz looked at one of his young students and said, "Joy is right in saying that although we have a master of electrical theory and circuit design like Professor Kirchhoff, we are still lagging behind the United Kingdom in the application and translation of electricity, and now it seems that the United States will surpass us." Joey, since you can raise this question, you must have a solution to it? ”

At this moment, Joey felt as if he had returned to the scene of the college thesis defense in his previous life.

"Dear Professor Helmholtz, my idea is to make a breakthrough in Germany in the four fields of electricity application: power generation, transmission, distribution, and power transmission."

"First of all, to solve the problem of where the electricity comes from, since the French have already started thermal power generation, and the British and Americans are said to be actively seeking hydroelectric power, they are both using steam or water to drive the impeller to generate electricity. I don't think the German scientific community should be left behind in this area either. Even if you need to buy patents or products from the United Kingdom, or the Americans, or even the French, I would like to support your research in this area on behalf of the Crown Princess Victoria Foundation. ”

"Even if a certain achievement is not the first scientific discovery in Germany, I deeply hope that the German scientific community can make better improvements or improvements to this invention, which are all scientific discoveries, inventions and creations."

"The generator and the motor are following Professor Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction, and now the two Siemens gentlemen have found the principle of self-excitation of the DC generator, and proposed the scheme of parallel excitation and series excitation, but I think this is obviously far from enough for the whole motor development cause. The Crown Princess Victoria Foundation will encourage and fund further research into the core materials of motor armatures and the winding methods of armature windings. ”

"For example, if you stack steel sheets into a core and groove the windings on the core, you can see if this method is feasible." Joey's idea of the core winding comes from his understanding of the generator part of the gasoline generator set when he repaired it in his previous life.

"The second is how to deliver electricity over long distances. At the Vienna International Exposition in 1873, the Frenchman Fortene had demonstrated the long-distance transmission of electrical energy up to 2 kilometers with a gas engine and a Gramm's DC generator. There is also reliable information that in 1874 the Russians Pirotz had built an overhead direct current transmission line in St. Petersburg. But neither Mr. Siemens nor the German scientific community seem to have paid much attention to this area. ”

"But it doesn't matter, we can rely on external forces, when I was looking up the information of the Frenchman Fortine, it seems that there was a French physicist who gave him theoretical support, and I thought we could ask this Frenchman to impart his knowledge, but I really couldn't find his name," Joey said with some distress.

"I think the Frenchman you're talking about is Professor Marcel Deplet, who has been working on the subject of electricity delivery lately." An elder standing next to Professor Helmholtz spoke.

"Thank you so much, I beg your pardon for not asking for your name."

"Joey, this is Professor Rudolfo Julius Emanuel Clausius, the proposer of the second law of thermodynamics, a great leader in the field of thermodynamics." Professor Helmholtz introduced with a smile.

"It is a great honor to meet you, Professor Clausius." Joey humbly bowed to Professor Clausius, "Dear Professor Clausius, in the field of thermodynamics you are studying, is the steam engine also in your research area?" ”

"Yes, Your Highness the Prince."

"Please call me Joey, it will be my pleasure. Dear Professor Clausius, please allow me to fund your research in the field of steam engines, both power and power generation! Joey's eyes sparkled with stars, "I promise, it's going to be a very lucrative area!" ”

"Qian Jing?"

"Yes, Mr. Professor, Qian Jing!"

"Joey, please continue your topic first, and then lure our Professor Clausius into committing a crime." Professor Helmholtz made a rare quip.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, respected professors, and those who follow your respected professors, pioneers on the path of science." Joey bowed again and apologized to everyone, "Allow me to continue talking about the light. ”

"I just talked about the transmission line, and I want to extend the next thought, now in the world, the current discussion is the direct current transmission method advocated by the Americans, but Professor Faraday also discovered alternating current, can alternating current be applied to the transmission business?" Joey glanced around, looking at the people who were lost in thought because of his question, and there was an indescribable excitement in his heart.

Yes, Nikola Tesla was indeed a brilliant genius, but I don't believe that so much that the great gods of German science would be inferior to you alone? Even Thomas Edison, a man who lacked a theoretical foundation all his life, relied on exhaustive methods to constantly test all his inventions, and the only thing that can be praised is his perseverance beyond ordinary people. Now that Germany wants to have a theory of electricity, and there is never a shortage of people with strong character, I do not believe that under my guidance, there will be no great inventors in the field of electrical applications.

"Speaking of the United States, which is now vigorously developing electricity, I can't help but think of Mr. Bell and his phone call again. Nowadays, everyone is in contact through wired means, such as wired telephones and wired telegraphs. But according to Professor Maxwell's theory that electrical disturbances can produce electromagnetic waves, can we imagine that if there was some kind of circuit to emit electromagnetic waves, and then some kind of circuit to receive them, would this be a new way of communication? ”

"Ahh Oh my! A young man looked at Joey and cried out.

"I beg your pardon, Heinrich for his recklessness." Professor Helmholtz glanced at his student dotingly, "Heinrich has been studying the theory you said, and he has already experimented with the results of experiments, which can prove that Professor Maxwell's theory exists. ”

"May I ask your name?" Joey asked the young man.

"My name is Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, Your Royal Highness, your thoughts are absolutely phenomenal, they have opened a window for me, and I am looking forward to having the opportunity to discuss more issues with you." Hertz said excitedly.

"Oh my God, that's what I'm looking for!" Joey said in ecstasy! "Dear Mr. Hertz, please call me Joey, and besides, can I give you a hug, I'm glad that my cranky thoughts can help you a little."

After a warm hug, in the expectant eyes of everyone, Joey continued his speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to continue to talk about power distribution. The other day, I happened to read a biography of the German Heinrich Daniel Rumkoff, in which the Renkov lamp was mentioned, the induction coil was used to change the voltage, and the method of isolation between the primary and secondary coils of the induction coil was described in detail, and the insulation was strengthened by painting the copper wire. ”

"If we can use this method to change the voltage for transmission and distribution, is it possible?" Also based on the understanding of the transformer coil in Joey's gasoline generator in his previous life, this is also the first bomb that Joey threw about power distribution.

"I'm thinking about another question, electricity is a dangerous energy. In the process of electricity transmission and distribution, do we need a kind of "automatic switch", this is a metaphor, my vision of it is to let it play the role of automatic adjustment, safety protection, and conversion circuit in the circuit. For example, Professor Joseph Henry's former invention, the relay? Like William Robert Grove's..."

"AC transformer? Right, Joey. Professor Kirchhoff looked at Joy and said quietly.

"Dear Mr. Professor Kirchhoff, yes." Joey had just heard Professor Helmholtz introduce the German master of electricity. Professor Kirchhoff nodded, motioning for Joey to continue.

Professor Grove's AC transformer has a flaw, according to the results of Professor Maxwell's mathematical equations, this kind of transformer with independent unilateral coil and open iron core cannot control the secondary voltage alone. We may need a different structure that is diametrically opposed. Joey threw out the second bomb of the power distribution.

"Finally, there is power transmission, which is also the area that I am most distressed about, forgive my straightforwardness, this field is currently our ability to zero. Frankly, based on my assumption above, we need a wire specifically for power delivery, as well as enamelled wire for electric motors, and a communication wire for telephones. But as far as I know, we are completely blank on this front. Similarly, the Crown Princess Victoria Fund is willing to support scientists in these fields, and it is hoped that Germany will make a difference in these areas. ”

Joey looked up at the silent appearance of this top circle of German electricity and thermodynamics, and suddenly a new idea popped up, Joey said a little timidly, "I'm sorry, I actually have a little idea I want to continue." ”

Professor Helmholtz motioned to Joey to continue, with a blank face.

"And this little idea has something to do with Professor Kirchhoff." Joy bowed to Professor Kirchhoff.

"This is just the beginning when electricity gets from power plants to every factory and every home. Think about it, the next thing you can do is to get rid of the bulky steam equipment, and the factory will be cleaner without the soot that drives the steam equipment. By switching to new, more efficient electromechanical equipment, we can use motor-driven cranes to make heavy lifting easier; We can use the motor to drive the tool and make a more efficient lathe; We can also put the welding machine into practical use to weld a larger area of steel plates; With electricity, electrolytic aluminum, and electrolytic copper will have the most basic energy guarantee, and even coal can be abandoned to smelt alloy steel; Electricity also allows workers to use electric tools, reducing their heavy workload, making work no longer a labor but a joy. ”

"Alloy steel, Your Royal Highness the Prince, you mentioned the application of electricity in the field of alloys, and I have been engaged in research in the field of alloys, and your point of view is very interesting." A middle-aged man chimed in.

"This is a German descendant from the United States, Professor Josiah Willard Gibbs, and his specialty is in the field of metal alloys." Professor Helmholtz explains.

"Dear Mr. Professor Gibbs, would you like to accept the sponsorship of the Princess Victoria Foundation to continue your exploration in the field of alloys?" Joey asked eagerly.

"Joey, you finish your thoughts first, and then talk about funding at the end." Professor Helmholtz touched Joey's head, trying to get him back on the right path.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Helmholtz, and Mr. Gibbs, I'll continue." Joey cleared his throat and continued.

"Not only in the factory, but also when every household has electricity, the night is no longer dark, and the light will dispel the night. Germany will be a land of light that sleeps forever. Not only that, but people can also use more new appliances, such as motor-powered washing machines, to free women's hands; Air conditioners driven by compressors bring coolness to people's lives; Through the telephone, people who love each other from afar can hear each other's heartbeats; Even with electric cars in the city, there is no more disgusting horse manure on the road! ”

Of course, Joey also endured and didn't say it, those electrical appliances that are beyond this era, but with electricity, are those appliances that do not belong to this era still far away?

"When the problem of electricity is solved, this world of electricity will need a large number of electrical (electrical) equipment to occupy it. I firmly believe that the circuit design of all electrical (electrical) appliances will follow the two laws of KVL and KCL of Professor Kirchhoff. It is hoped that Professor Kirchhoff will continue to train outstanding talents in circuit design for Germany. ”

"Distinguished Professors and Pioneers, believe me, I am not telling you a prophecy, we are indeed about to enter an Empire of Light and Electricity!"

Professor Helmholtz looked around at his friends and students, and made eye contact. Professor Helmholtz bent down and held Joey's hand tightly, and said, "Joey, on behalf of all colleagues in the German electromagnetism community, I would like to welcome you to the world of electricity and magnetism, you are now one of us!" ”