"The Committee's opinion is unequivocal that Mr. Faraday's salary, £100 a year, plus the provision of housing, coal and candles, must not be reduced. This is because Mr. Faraday has not only succeeded in completing the many and varied tasks assigned to him by the Society, but also the enthusiasm and talent he has shown in completing the tasks is even more impressive.

Ever since the discovery of the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction, he has been working in the laboratory like crazy. Anything unrelated to the experiment, he tried his best to refuse. We can't even remember the last time Mr. Faraday went to a friend's house for dinner, or even invited him to the theater, but he didn't go.

Although this may be a bit unkind to a friend, from the perspective of academic research, his experimental diaries are getting thicker and thicker, and "Experimental Research on Electricity" is published one after another. We believe that we cannot ask Mr. Faraday to do more in scientific research.

Therefore, the Academic Council was of the view that Mr. Faraday should not only not take a pay cut, but should have a raise. However, it is only regrettable that the Commission's recommendations have not been implemented due to the long-term poor financial situation of the Royal Society......"

Michael Faraday sat in the lecture hall of the Royal Society, listening quietly to the report of the committee on how to cut expenses.

Although he was told that he would not be able to get a raise, Faraday was not at all surprised, and as the director of the laboratory of the Royal Society, no one knew better than him how tight the budget for experiments really was.

Although the Royal Society regularly receives donations from all walks of life, and regularly holds scientific lectures to raise funds, this is still too little money for a list of experiments that cannot be seen at a glance.

The list of experiments not only contains his own theoretical conjectures that he wants to verify, but also many difficult questions sent by people from all walks of life.

Every morning when the Royal Society opened its doors, the streets of Elma were filled with businessmen who came to him for chemical analysis, engineers and technicians who asked him to help solve technical problems, amateur inventors who reported new inventions to him, and amateur scientists who came to him to discuss problems.

The tables in the lab are filled with drawings waiting to be reviewed and new products that he needs his help to analyze, and sometimes even a few ridiculous updates in the field of alchemy and perpetual motion machines.

Faraday had no choice but to tell the Royal Society's concierge that there would be no visitors three days a week, and that anyone who came would be in the way. If those visitors asked why, they would say that Mr. Faraday was on business and could not be interviewed.

And Faraday's so-called business trip is actually an experiment, but this experiment is the one he wants to do.

Yes, since the discovery of electromagnetic induction, Faraday's interest has become so much that he has forgotten that he is a chemist.

More than 20 years ago, when Faraday traveled to Europe with his mentor Sir Humphrey Davy, he witnessed an experiment done by the Italian scientist Mauricini, who placed a steel needle under a large convex lens, which was aimed at the sun and concentrated sunlight on the steel needle, which he wanted to magnetize.

Although the experiment ultimately failed, Faraday was deeply impressed by Moricini's idea that light and magnetism are related.

So, when he discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction, he came up with the idea of finding a universal connection between magnetism and light.

Since 1801, Thomas Young, an optical researcher of the Royal Society, confirmed that light is a wave by interference experiments, and French scholars Marius, Fresnel and Arago have successively proved that light is a transverse wave with experiments, making the "light wave theory" completely overwhelm the "light particle theory" proposed by Sir Isaac Newton at that time.

A wave is the propagation of vibrations. To have waves, there must be a substance that is capable of vibrating and that acts as a medium to propagate this vibration. Sound waves use air as the medium, and water waves use water as the medium, so what is the medium of light waves?

In order to explain the principle that the sun's light waves can travel through a vacuum to the earth, these optical researchers hypothesized that there is a so-called "ether" material in the vacuum, and that the light waves are propagated by the "ether".

Although most researchers accept the propagation of light through the 'ether', in Faraday's view, if the optical researchers assert, then the 'ether' of light must have no mass, no frictional resistance, and no influence on the motion of the planets, nor the motion of molecules and atoms.

In this way, the ether must be an extremely thin gas. However, light is a transverse wave, and gases and liquids cannot propagate transverse waves, only solids can propagate, so the ether must have the properties of a solid.

It is a paradox to say that ether is both an extremely thin gas and has the properties of a solid.

This thought made Faraday think that perhaps the propagation of light was not due to the ether.

Faraday believed that the so-called vacuum was the field. The field is filled with lines of power, magnetic fields, and gravitational forces, and these lines of force can't vibrate? Aren't they able to propagate waves? Why does the aether have to exist?

He was convinced that the fluctuations of light must have a universal connection with electromagnetism.

However, although Faraday's speculation is quite plausible.

Unfortunately, however, he has not been able to make a major breakthrough in the field of optical and magnetic experiments, and in the last year alone, he has suffered five major failures in this optical and magnetic experiment.

However, Faraday was not discouraged, and not only was he not discouraged, but even shared his insight with the bright-headed young police officer from Scotland Yard, hoping that the young researcher of electricity, who had occasional flashes of light, would provide him with some inspiration.

Mr. Arthur Hastings, after hearing Faraday's idea, said nothing but smoked a cigarette. It's not that he doesn't want to give Faraday some inspiration, it's that he really doesn't know if there's a connection between light and magnetism.

Aether or something, although he has heard of it, his knowledge of Aether is limited to a five- to ten-minute popular science video.

Although Arthur didn't want to admit it, in the face of bloody facts, he still had to admit that being born two hundred years later doesn't mean how smart you are.

However, although he could not help Faraday with his experiments, Arthur was happy to be a generous patron of science. Moreover, he has indeed made initial achievements in sponsoring scientific researchers.

If it weren't for the closeness, how could Mr. Charles Wheatstone, the current leader in British acoustics, call him 'Asshole'?

Faraday finished listening to the report of the Academic Committee, suddenly raised his hand and said: "Dear Mr. Commissioner, if the current financial situation of the Royal Society is really difficult, I think it is possible to cut my salary by thirty percent, I just received a scientific pension generously from the Cabinet last year, and I don't care about this at hand." But the salaries of laboratory apprentices are not high, and it would be too much to cut them back. ”

When the academic committee heard this, they just smiled and motioned for Faraday to sit down.

"Michael, everybody knows your character. When the University of London was first founded, they offered you a high salary to be a professor of chemistry at them, but you refused. Because they're asking you to be a full-time professor, and you're more interested in experimentation.

Previously, the Royal Society's Optical Glass Improvement Committee suggested that you make the largest piece of optical glass and that you should be taught the manufacturing techniques so that your optical glass could be sold for considerable commercial benefit, but you refused. Because you don't feel that these technical aspects of work are helping to advance science as a whole.

Since the advent of the electromagnetic induction experiment, you have become more and more famous, and more and more people from the business community have come to you, and you have been paid more and more. If you take on these jobs, you can easily make a profit of £1,000 a year, but after you make a few orders, you decide to close them all. Because these things take away too much of your energy, so that you can't better delve into the depths.

Michael, you are a true natural philosopher who has given up money in order to explore the deepest inner nature of the natural world. You get the joy of experimentation, which is worth countless times more than money.

But you don't care about money, and the Royal Society doesn't have the power to make you rich, but we have to at least give you a basic level of decency, and that's the respect we have for you, Michael, you shouldn't refuse. ”

Faraday laughed and said, "I already feel the respect of everyone, I have been at the Royal Society for twenty years, and I feel this all the time. I have food and shelter here, and I still enjoy the respect of everyone, isn't this kind of life still decent? ”

"Of course decent, and I envy your decency very much. If there is one common denominator to find in the disagreed and divided British people, it must be that they all have a great respect for the name Michael Faraday. ”

As soon as Faraday finished speaking, he saw a gentleman in a top hat and tuxedo walk up to the lecture platform, and the smiling young man took off his hat and bowed slightly to Faraday: "It's been a long time since I've come to greet you, good afternoon, Mr. Faraday." ”

"Arthur?"

When Faraday saw this familiar face, he always felt like he was in a different world.

Maybe he had locked himself in the lab for too long, and for more than half a year, Faraday always felt that the last time he saw Arthur was yesterday.

Faraday smiled dumbly and said, "Arthur, have you recently submitted your application to join the Royal Society?" I didn't know you were my new colleague. ”

Arthur smiled and replied, "Of course I would like to be on the same side as you, but in my personal opinion, I am not qualified to join the Royal Society at this time in terms of my contribution to the academic community as a whole. Because a lot of people who are more prominent than me are lining up at the back. However, I am also grateful for your blessings, after all, I really hope that one day I will join the Royal Society. ”

Faraday quipped: "Then you will have to come to the laboratory in the future, I am not saying that the technical research you did with Mr. Wheatstone is not good, but if you want to join the Royal Society, we actually value the progress in the field of theory." ”

Arthur smiled and replied, "There will be a day, but we have to solve the problem at hand first, don't we?" ”

Faraday was stunned and said, "What kind of problem are you talking about?" Have you found a universal connection between light and magnetism? ”

Arthur shook his head lightly and said, "This kind of problem is too difficult for me, I'd better leave it to you to solve, as a not so smart person, I like to solve those simple and direct problems." ”

With that, Arthur pulled out a stack of stock certificates from his bosom and placed them on the committee's table.

"Ladies and gentlemen, have you heard about the recent appointment of Mr. Isambard Brunel as Chief Engineer of Parliament to begin construction of the Great Western Railway? Actually, I didn't happen to buy a little stock of their company. Here are ten Brunel Road & Bridge Certificates shares, which should have been sold at £1,600 on the London Stock Exchange by now. You can choose to sell it, or you can take it for dividends. ”

The commissioners looked at each other, then turned their gaze back to Arthur, "What do you mean?" ”

Arthur took off his white gloves and replied with a smile: "I heard that the Royal Society accepts private sponsorship for scientific lectures at the Society, so I intend to sponsor a lecture on electromagnetism and electrochemistry. When I was still in poverty, I learned about various scientific advances through various lectures of the Royal Society, and now that I have the ability, I naturally want to support the Royal Society to continue to hold lectures for the benefit of the public. I wonder if you, gentlemen, will be able to accept my presumptuous request? ”

Hearing this, the academic committee members stood up one after another, and the chairman of the committee directly shook Arthur's hand, and the smile on his face was almost overflowing: "Sir, we have no reason to refuse you at all, and if you agree, the Hastings Lecture can be held from tomorrow." Alas, I'm ashamed to say that we called you here today, originally to ask you to help carry this year's Copley Medal to Paris, which was enough to trouble you, but I didn't expect that before the words of thanks were spoken, you broke the bank again. ”

The Chairman of the Committee then made a suggestion to the members: "I propose that Sir Arthur Hastings should be granted membership of the Royal Society at once, and there should be no objection to that. ”

The members applauded: "Of course not, the granting of membership to Sir Hastings is well deserved." ”

The chairman of the committee turned his head with a smile, he had expected Arthur to accept the honor as a matter of course, as many bigwigs had done.

But unexpectedly, Arthur raised his hand and stopped: "Sir, membership of the Royal Society is of course a high honor, but I don't want to enter in this form, and the current time is not right. ”

The chairman of the academic committee is also a human being, and before the other members can react, he immediately understands what the other party means.

The chairman asked softly, "You mean Fleet Street?" ”

Arthur nodded and quipped, "The reporters' noses are like magnetic induction, and they run much faster than the current." ”

When the chairman heard this, he immediately said: "In that case, when you come back from Hanover, we will talk about membership." ”

As soon as the chairman finished speaking, Faraday became interested again.

But it is clear that his focus is not on journalists, but on Arthur's trip to Paris.

Faraday asked, "So, is the Royal Society going to commission Arthur to bring this year's Copley Medal to Paris to Mr. Simon-Denis Poisson of the French Academy of Sciences?" ”

The chairman nodded: "Yes, we feel that Mr. Poisson's "Study on the General Equations of Equilibrium and Motion of Elastic Solids and Fluids" is definitely worthy of the Copley Medal, which can be said to have opened a new world of viscous fluid research. ”

Faraday groaned slightly when he heard this: "If I remember correctly, Mr. Poisson should be working at the French Academy of Sciences under the French Society, right?" ”

The chairman nodded, "Yes, Michael, do you have anything to look for him?" ”

Faraday smiled and shook his head, "I don't have anything to ask for Mr. Poisson, but I have a few experimental reports that I would like to show to Mr. André-Marie Ampère, who also works at the French Academy of Sciences, in the hope that this will provide a little inspiration for his research, and at the same time hope that he can give some advice on my research or something." By the way, you can also visit Mr. Augustin Louis Cauchy, who has made great achievements in fluid mechanics and mathematics, and I have some questions about the propagation of waves on the surface of liquids......"

As soon as he said this, Faraday seemed to suddenly remember something, and he hurriedly spoke: "Arthur, when are you leaving?" I'll go back and write now, and if you have anything to do, you can go and get to work on you, and I'll send someone to deliver it to your house before evening. ”

After that, Faraday ran out of the lecture hall in a panic, and the personable gentleman image on weekdays didn't know where he had thrown it.

Seeing this, the chairman of the committee had to stand there and apologize to the gold owner on behalf of Faraday: "Sir, I'm very sorry, but you also know that Michael is such a person. ”

When Arthur heard this, he just stood there on crutches: "I don't blame Mr. Faraday, after all, I didn't know him for the first day, I know his character." But...... If I had known that you wanted me to meet Poisson, Ampère, and Cauchy, I probably wouldn't have come to the Royal Society today. ”

The committee members were stunned for a while and said, "Why? ”

Arthur struck the match, took a silent puff of cigarette and said, "I don't know, anyway, every time I see these names together, there's nothing good about it." Of course, I don't say this to disrespect these gentlemen, who are quite accomplished researchers of natural philosophy. But I often dreamed that I was taking an exam and these gentlemen were standing next to me and pulling money out of my pocket. Now that I think about it, it turns out that my act of sponsoring scientific research is quite traditional. ”

(End of chapter)