Not surprisingly, Kelvin decided to get involved in the project, which he was already interested in, and even appointed him as GE's chief technology officer.

"CTO?" Kelvin had apparently heard of the position for the first time.

Of course, there was no such thing as a CTO in companies in those days, and in fact, it wasn't until the late twentieth century that the terms CEO, CTO, and the like began to emerge in the United States.

Ma Whistle nodded: "That's right, as you can tell from the name, the CTO is the highest person in charge of technology in the company." ”

Kelvin: "Sounds interesting...... But I don't think I've ever heard of this position at any other company. ”

"Of course, this could be my first initiative." Ma Whistle smiled, "I want GE to be the world's premier, genuinely high-tech company, and it should have a lot of trendy stuff." ”

"Okay, so how many subordinates do I have as the CTO of General Electric?" Kelvin asked.

"Zero...... I haven't recruited a lot of people, especially technicians. "But it doesn't matter for the time being, we just need to get the cable, and then rent a ship and throw the cable into the English Channel, and we can go down in history as the creator of the world's first cross-sea cable." ”

Kelvin smiled, "You've been in history forever. ”

"I think that outside of communication technology, our cable should have these characteristics, first of all, it must be resistant enough to seawater, so we need to cover it with multiple layers of guta glue...... And then it should be heavier, after all, we can't dive to the bottom of the sea to lay ......."

In the early days, the method of laying submarine cables was extremely rudimentary, and due to the serious lack of diving skills, people basically had to throw the cables into the water and let them sink to the bottom.

"Another point is that we have to mark the cables with 'communication cables, it is strictly forbidden to salvage and destroy', otherwise it will be bad if any fisherman fishes them out and sells the scrap." Ma Whistle added that this has indeed happened in history.

Kelvin: "Those fishermen may not be literate. ”

Ma Whistle: "Indeed, we have to send someone to inform the residents of the neighborhood...... In the future, we will promote the 'protection of cables' to become a social consensus and even local laws." ”

In the ensuing period, the two did some experiments, and finally finalized the design of the submarine cable, and made a prototype that the workers used as a reference for production.

Until the forty-kilometer cable is produced, they don't have to worry about it for the time being.

The northeast of the British mainland.

The capital of Scotland, Edinburgh.

The famous University of Edinburgh, located on the waterfront, is Scotland's highest institution and one of the seven classical universities, founded during the Renaissance and continues to this day.

In universities, high-spirited young students can be seen everywhere, and wise elders with gray hair can also be encountered from time to time.

Of course, there are exceptions, such as at this moment, in a remote and quiet corner of the University of Edinburgh, a good-looking teenager is immersed in writing. He looked like he might be the youngest person in the school, and it stands to reason that he should be in middle school at his age.

After a while, a middle-aged man walked over with a smile on his face: "James, are you writing poetry?" Or are you delving into optics? ”

"No, Mr. Forbes, I'm writing." The boy hesitated.

"To whom?"

"Mr. Whistle...... It was the Indian scientist who gave a lecture at Cambridge University not long ago, and I remember that you were also present at that lecture. ”

"Yes." Mr. Forbes asked, "Why did you write to him?" ”

The young man Gu was a little shy, and subconsciously covered up the content of the letter: "I heard that many people have written to him, and this Indian scientist has also written some replies...... I was very interested in what he said about the second law of thermodynamics, but I was a little confused, so I wanted to write to him and ask him, maybe he would reply. ”

Teacher Forbes nodded: "But you better not get your hopes up, I know several teachers who have also written to him, but so far I have not received a reply." The Indian scientist was a great celebrity, and His Majesty the King had personally received him, and I think he must have been very busy. ”

"I know." The boy known as James said, "But no one seems to be able to answer my doubts." ”

"Can you tell me about it?" Mr. Forbes asked.

The boy muttered, "Hmm...... I envision a scenario where suppose there is a magical tiny creature that lives in the middle of a sealed space, and there is a switch that allows a single particle to pass through, and when the fast-moving particle comes near the switch, the creature turns on the switch to let it pass, and vice versa, so that the hot particles and the cold particles are concentrated on one side of the space...... Of course, I know this shouldn't be possible, but I wonder why. Existing theories seem difficult to explain. ”

……

London a few days later.

As usual, the Whistle received a number of letters, most of them academically related and from the UK mainland, but also some from Europe. The increasing number of letters from Europe is a clear indication that his influence is spreading outward.

Of course, there are also a lot of non-academic letters, such as asking him to get out of the British Empire or something.

For these letters, Ma Whistle asked his subordinates to sift through them, throw away those letters that were irrelevant or offensive, and then take some time out of his own time to sort out the rest of the letters like a Chinese teacher correcting an essay.

Kelvin sometimes came to help, and now he sat down next to the horse, crossed his legs, and looked through the letters in his hand.

Compared with the horse whistle, he reads the letters much more leisurely, and even if it is some improper letters, he will read them out of curiosity or a lively mentality.

"Ma Whistle, I think this letter is quite interesting, you can take a look at it." Kelvin finished reading the letter in his hand, looked at the letter, and then handed it to the whistle, "It looks like it was written by a university student, the University of Edinburgh." ”

Ma Whistle was unimpressed at first, after all, he had received so many letters over the years, let alone such a student admirer.

However, not long after receiving the letter, he was immediately attracted by the hypothesis described in it, and his eyebrows immediately lifted.

"It's interesting, isn't it that a magical creature breaks the second law of thermodynamics by arranging the distribution of particles in random thermal motion...... I can see that this student is very whimsy. Kelvin noticed his expression and smiled, "Your expression seems a bit exaggerated, though. ”

"My gut tells me that this seemingly naïve assumption is not that simple. ”

Before he could finish speaking, he moved his gaze to the place where the letter was signed, and unexpectedly saw a name:

James Clark Maxwell.

——————

ps：

I wish you all a happy Spring Festival and a happy family.

Also, that's a bit of a shame...... Due to the long hiatus, and the fact that the exact time in the book has been somewhat blurred, I have forgotten what month the protagonist is in 1848-.-......