The great scientists who attended the conference came to Brussels from all over the world after a long journey.

On the morning of the first day of the conference, they began to discuss and study some boring theoretical and experimental knowledge.

So this morning, the conference organizers have set aside plenty of time for everyone to socialize with each other.

After all, people come from all over the world, and except for the occasional letter to a few close friends, they can basically only see each other's names in various periodicals and magazines.

The oldest on the scene was the president of the Solvay Conference, Hendrik Lorenz.

He was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1902 and is 70 years old this year, but he is still in good spirits and dressed very well.

Lorenz stood outside the gate of the venue, greeting every physicist who arrived.

He and Rutherford are old acquaintances, so after seeing an East Asian next to Rutherford, Lorenz naturally knew that this was Chen Muwu.

After shaking hands with Rutherford, Lorenz, who was on crutches, smiled and said to Chen Muwu on the side: "You must be Sir Rutherford's subordinate, a Chinese genius who has been in the limelight recently." ”

Chen Muwu hurriedly stretched out his hands: "Professor Lorenz, I am Chen Muwu, but the name of a Chinese genius really doesn't dare to be called that in front of you." It's just that I was lucky enough to stumble upon a few experimental phenomena. ”

Because there were still many physicists waiting to enter the venue, there were no polite words between him and Lorenz.

After following Rutherford into the venue, Chen Muwu found that his mentor had become a Taishan Beidou-level figure here.

The crowd was divided into two groups, one around Rutherford and the other around another highly respected Marie Curie.

Chen Muwu glanced at the venue like a curious baby, but he didn't see any acquaintances he had seen in textbooks.

German physicists such as Planck and Einstein did not appear, nor did Bohr.

He wanted to ask someone what was going on, but his teacher, Rutherford, was talking to physicists from all over the world, and Blackett and de Broglie were just like himself, newcomers to the conference.

After looking around, in the end, Chen Muwu could only inquire about this matter with Lang Zhiwan, who was relatively idle.

Lang Zhiwan obviously knew the reason, so he briefly told Chen Muwu how unpopular Germany was after the First World War, and even German physicists became fish in the pond because of the fire at the city gate.

"But what about Dr. Einstein? Didn't he renounce his German citizenship a long time ago? Chen Muwu asked puzzled.

"Although it is true that he was invited to the conference, Mr. Einstein still considered himself a German and that since other German scientists were not invited to the conference, he should not have come to the conference himself."

Although Einstein was boycotted by those German physicists because of his Jewish ancestry, when German physicists were boycotted by the whole world, he also behaved like Planck, resolutely choosing to stand with everyone.

"But," Langevin continued, "if you want to meet with Einstein, you can come with me to Germany when the meeting is over." I happened to be going to Berlin to visit my fellow physicists. ”

Hearing Lang Zhiwan's proposal, Chen Muwu didn't think about whether to agree to him or not.

After all, the summer semester is only a month away, but my graduation thesis has not yet been settled.

Moreover, I don't know if I need to apply for another visa to go to Germany, and I don't have time to do it.

Let's wait until today's meeting is over and ask the teacher Rutherford about the situation.

"Thank you, Professor Langevin, for your proposal, let me go back and think about it, and then give you an answer."

"It's okay, as long as you can send me a message before the meeting ends."

At this moment, someone came to greet Rutherford, he spoke an English accent similar to Chen Muwu, and when he heard it, he knew that it was an American, and it was a noble New York accent.

"Hello, Sir Rutherford, I'm Owen Langmuir, from General Electric in the United States."

Chen Muwu keenly captured such a message, General Electric, who opened his mouth to his lion, hated the roots of his teeth.

However, how can the Solvay meeting still have people from General Electric?

In fact, the laboratory departments of large technology companies are also a force to be reckoned with in physical chemistry experimental research.

Just as David was able to do electron diffraction experiments in AT&T's Bell Labs, it is not so surprising that there are a few scientists with deep scientific research skills in General Electric's laboratory.

Although Chen Muwu didn't know the Langmuir in front of him, he also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry as a General Electric engineer later.

Langmuir continued: "Sir, a few months ago we received a letter from the Cavendish laboratory asking about the price of a vacuum pump designed and manufactured by our laboratory some time ago. But after giving a reply, there was no follow-up. I don't know if you know such a thing? Or is the person who wrote the letter a liar who came out to cheat under the guise of Cavendish Labs? ”

After Langmuir's words, Chen Muwu was a little embarrassed.

Is this not a bitter rivalry? Why didn't you reply, do you really not know, or are you pretending to be confused?

Rutherford took a deep puff of his pipe, and then exhaled the smoke in his mouth deeply: "Do you know Chen Muwu? ”

"It's the one who just discovered the Yellow Emperor Star some time ago?"

"That's right," Rutherford said, gesturing to the student standing beside him, "and he's the one who wrote to you asking for a vacuum pump." ”

Langmuir followed Rutherford's fingers, and then saw Chen Muwu, and De Broglie, who was standing beside Chen Muwu.

Although he didn't know Chen Muwu, he recognized the big financier who came to buy a vacuum pump not long ago: "Your Excellency De Broglie, I didn't expect you to be here." ”

Rutherford continued to mend the knife: "That's right, he bought the incomparably expensive vacuum pump for us and brought it to the Cavendish laboratory, so that Chen and Louis could complete the experiment that had been designed a long time ago. With our Cavendish financial resources alone, we really can't afford to buy such a vacuum pump that costs as much as $8,000, which is more expensive than gold. ”

Langmuir obviously heard the sarcasm in Rutherford's words: "Sir, we really don't know that you want this vacuum pump for experiments, and if we do, even if the board of directors of the company does not agree, I think Mr. Edison will definitely give one free of charge out of his own pocket." After all, it would be a great honor for us at GE to work with Cavendish as the world's greatest physics laboratory. ”

Chen Muwu quietly rolled his eyes, and secretly slandered in his heart, why didn't he say such a thing earlier!

Now that the money has been paid, the experiment has been completed, and the paper has been published, what is the use of such a meaningless afterthought!

"Forget it, this matter is in the past, and when we have the next opportunity, we will work together!" Rutherford played a round.

Behind Langmuir, there were many people in line who wanted to greet him, and he didn't want to waste any more time on the American.

Langmuir also retreated to the side with amusement, and smiled at Chen Muwu awkwardly: "I'm sorry, Mr. Chen, this is really a misunderstanding, otherwise, when this meeting is over and after returning to the United States, I will ask my colleagues in the company to return the money, this vacuum pump is considered to be sponsored by General Electric, how about it?" ”

Before Chen Muwu could speak, the big financier De Broglie took the lead in making his attitude clear: "There is no need, Mr. Langmuir, now that we have completed the experiment with this vacuum pump, even the paper has been published in the journal in black and white, and it is too late to add a paragraph of thanks to your company at the end." What's more, it's just a few thousand dollars, and it's not a lot of money, so you don't have to spend so much money. ”

He also didn't give Langmuir a good attitude.

"Chen, Mr. Blackett, let's not stand here all the time, but also go to other places in the venue to say hello to all the teachers and seniors."

Chen Muwu also wanted to go around for a long time, so he was as good as a stream.

Langmuir, who wanted to come up to say hello, whether it was Rutherford, or Chen Muwu and Debroire, had a hot face and a cold ass, so he could only leave in a huff.

In the venue, Chen Muwu met an old senior of Trinity College, William Henry Prague, commonly known as Old Prague, he couldn't remember how many Nobel Prize winners in physics he had ever met.

Unlike before, when he used Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Tuesdays, Fours, and Sixths to ridicule the wave-particle duality of light, Prague Sr. had already seen the paper published by Chen Muwu and de Broglie in the latest issue of the Bulletin of the Natural Science Society.

He was interested in this experiment, not only because it used Bragg's law, which bears his name, but also because it was similar to X-ray crystal diffraction, and it was for this experiment that Prague Sr. won the Nobel Prize with his son Prague Jr.

"Chen, when I first heard you suggest that electrons also fluctuate, my first reaction was that this idea was ridiculous. But I didn't expect you to be able to do the experiment so quickly, and you got a fast and good result. ”

"Sir Bragg, it is thanks to your Bragg's law that inspired me that I came up with the idea of using diffraction to prove the wave nature of electrons."

"Chen, don't exaggerate my role, that law has been around for so many years, why hasn't anyone thought of using electrons for experiments during this time?

"I have to say that your arrival has re-energized the British physics community, which is about to become a backwater, and makes me feel as if I have returned to the time when Lord Kelvin and my teacher Rayleigh III were still alive, and I still remember the vibrant British physics community at that time.

"But now, if it weren't for your appearance, I don't think it would take 30 years for us to be overtaken by the United States and be left behind."

(End of chapter)