After wandering around London for more than a week, Chen Muwu finally returned to the David-Faraday laboratory at the Royal Institution.

The director of the laboratory, Old Prague, still maintains the same enthusiasm as when he and Chen Muwu first met.

Old Prague not only personally led Chen Muwu to the laboratory, but also solemnly told him that if there is any need, as long as it can be solved, Old Prague can help him solve it.

In old Prague, Chen Muwu saw the meaning of bowing down to everything.

But at the same time, Chen Muwu felt a little strange:

In Cavendish's laboratory, Rutherford, who almost regarded Chen Muwu as his own son, didn't say so much to him.

How did he get to David Faraday's laboratory, and the old Prague made him feel like a spring breeze more than his own teacher?

The first thing I did when I entered the lab, of course, was to check the experimental equipment.

Although the achievements of his predecessor Dewar in low-temperature physics are basically on par with Onnes of Leiden University in the Netherlands.

However, British research in low-temperature physics did not produce an industry-university-research consortium like Leiden University, and in the field of low-temperature physics, there were only Dewar and a few of his students.

Chen Muwu thought that even if David Faraday had a foundation in the study of low-temperature physics in his laboratory, he should still be unable to escape the need to buy some equipment and reagents from Leiden University.

But as soon as he checked the experimental equipment, Chen Muwu was dumbfounded.

It's not that the equipment in the laboratory can't be used, but compared to what he saw in the laboratory at Leiden University at the end of last year, it's really an underground and a sky.

After inquiring with the relevant personnel, Chen Muwu understood why the equipment here was a little old.

One is because Dewar did not win the Nobel Prize in Physics in low-temperature physics like Onnes, and he is not the only famous physicist in Britain.

So the British government didn't allocate much money to Dewar's Davy-Faraday laboratory, which was a March of Suffering from beginning to end.

Second, since the start of World War I, because of the increase in military spending, the laboratory can get even less funds.

In addition, Dewar's few students, like Moselle, were drafted and sent to the front by the British army, and many of them died in the European theater.

In this situation of financial and human resources, Dewar had to change course in the twilight of his academic career, saying goodbye to the money-burning research of low-temperature physics, and instead studying the surface tension of soap bubbles.

After the war, the Davy Faraday laboratory was largely in a state of nominal existence.

Old Prague took over the position of director after the death of the former director of the laboratory, Sir Dewar, and was somewhat imminent, basically wanting him to rebuild the laboratory that had been used by his ancestors.

A year ago, when Chen and the elder Prague first met at last year's Solvay Conference, he had not yet competed in the Cambridge-Oxford Games, had not won an Olympic gold medal, and had not yet met the Duke of York.

At that time, the old Prague said that he wanted to nominate Chen Muwu for the Nobel Prize, which should be that he really liked him.

But a year later, Chen Muwu won the gold medal, won the Nobel Prize, figured out quantum mechanics, and pointed out Einstein's mistakes, becoming the smartest person in the world in the mouth of the media.

His status has improved a lot compared to before.

But Chen Muwu felt that this should not be enough for old Prague to be so attentive to him.

After thinking about it for a long time, he couldn't find out what the reason was.

Now seeing the situation in David Faraday's laboratory, Chen Muwu finally figured out why old Prague was so enthusiastic about him.

I guess it was his teacher Rutherford who bragged to his predecessor who also lived in Oceania in the southern hemisphere.

After all, he produced a great student under his command, and he had a relationship with the royal family, which directly doubled the annual budget of the laboratory.

It's not cool to be cool, and to show off to others inadvertently, so that they can compliment them on the surface and envy them in their hearts, that's really cool.

Does old Prague probably wish he had done for the Cavendish lab and David Faraday lab?

Chen Muwu's idea was basically confirmed after he asked the old Prague to buy some new experimental equipment.

As soon as he heard that it would cost money, he saw a long-lost wry smile on Old Prague's face.

The last time I saw such an expression was the fall before last, when Chen Muwu proposed to Rutherford that he wanted to buy a vacuum pump that cost $8,000.

Rutherford has never smiled bitterly since the British royal family put the funds into the Cavendish laboratory, and even his height is a few centimeters taller than before.

"Dr. Chen, can't these experimental equipment left behind by Sir Dewar be usable?"

Looking at the old Prague who pretended to be stupid, Chen Muwu really didn't want to answer his question.

If I can, will I still ask you for money to buy equipment?

Before he crossed over, when he was doing general experiments in college, he got a resistance box.

The antique resistance box nameplate was engraved with various Cyrillic letters that he couldn't read.

Chen Muwu only knows the two sets of letters on it, one is CCCP and the other is 1955.

The resistance box produced by Su Lian is no problem to use after more than 50 years, and it is completely sufficient for ordinary physics experiments with low precision.

However, the refrigeration and insulation equipment produced at the end of the nineteenth century was not very useful after thirty or forty years.

"Sir Prague, these pieces of equipment are a bit old, and I've double-checked them, and some of them are even older than me, and they really can't be used."

Seeing that pretending to be stupid didn't work, Old Prague complained to him again: "Dr. Chen, I also want to help you buy the corresponding experimental equipment, but in David Faraday's laboratory, there is really no money now."

"If you don't believe me, you can come with me to my lab and have a look. The X-ray source that I'm doing crystal diffraction now brought from University College London was brought by myself. ”

Chen Muwu is now in his heart, and he complains a little about his teacher Rutherford.

In order to save money, he refused his request to conduct a low-temperature physics experiment in the Cavendish laboratory, and instead introduced him to David Faraday's laboratory.

If you want to do your own planned experiments here, it seems like you'll have to pay out of pocket?

That can't be!

Ma Sanli once said, "Zeng Zi said: 'One sheep is also driven, and two sheep are also herded.'"

Since he had already let the Duke of York let the blood go once, Chen Muwu didn't mind letting the second prince let it go again.

The University of Cambridge is the property of their old Windsor family, as is the David Faraday Laboratory at the Royal Institution.

And compared to Cavendish Labs, the word "Royal" is still hung in front of the latter!

The royal laboratories have no money, isn't that just a slap in the face of the royal family!

Last summer, at a dinner at the British Embassy in France, the Duke of York, while paying for it, promised Chen Muwu in front of the Swedish crown prince that if he had any other problems at Cambridge University, he could write to the second prince.

But there is no reason to ask for money from someone empty-handed, so you still have to get out the plexiglass samples first, earn the money to build your own school, and then give old Prague a favor.

Anyway, at the beginning, Chen Muwu also wanted to engage in this plexiglass first.

Polymethyl methacrylate, as the name suggests, is the polymerization of large amounts of methyl methacrylate.

Therefore, getting the raw material methyl methacrylate is the key to making plexiglass.

Chen Muwu went to the market with fighting spirit, and even went to the laboratories of the University of London and the chemical factories in the suburbs, but there was no such thing.

At this point in time, not only is there no plexiglass, but even the raw materials have not yet appeared.

It seems that now I can only follow the teachings, do it myself, and have enough food and clothing.

Chen Muwu went into the data room of the Royal Society to check the information, intending to push up step by step to see what could be produced now.

This move of his made old Prague very puzzled.

As I said before, why didn't Dr. Chen buy the equipment for his low-temperature physics experiments, or bring funds to the laboratory, but still looked unhurried, and even didn't seem to plan to do experiments at all?

After meeting Chen Muwu in the laboratory one time, old Prague knocked on the side and asked him his own questions.

"Dr. Chen, aren't you coming to the David Faraday Laboratory to do some experimental research on low-temperature physics? How have recent experiments progressed? ”

"Sir Prague, because the experimental equipment still needs to be purchased from the Netherlands, and it will take a certain amount of time to raise this expensive expense, so I have temporarily changed the direction of my research, and plan to do some simple chemical experiments to pass the time."

"Chemistry experiments? If I'm not mistaken, whether it's atoms or relativity, you've never been outside of physics, right? Why Dr. Chen, are you still interested in chemistry? ”

"Sir, I also recently got the inspiration by chance in the lab. Every day when I commute to work, I see two sages with the name of the laboratory, Sir Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday.

"It is true that Faraday was a great experimental physicist, but his teacher, Sir David, was a great chemist.

"It may be that Sir David gave me guidance invisibly made me suddenly want to do some chemistry experiments in this laboratory."

may be the sequelae of the ghost club, so that Chen Muwu and David, a great chemist who has been dead for almost a hundred years, have a "psychic exchange".

Isn't it normal for him to do chemistry experiments in a laboratory named after a chemist?

After this episode, Chen Muwu continued to repeat the previous process, every day at two o'clock in the Legation-Royal Society reference room, and occasionally went to David Faraday's laboratory to order something.

He finally found a way to prepare methacrylic acid from acrylic acid from an organic chemistry document published in 1865.

So the most basic material he can buy now is methacrylic.

By esterifying methacrylic acid and methanol, methyl methacrylate, a polymer monomer of plexiglass, can be obtained.

But Chen Muwu didn't play according to the routine, he planned to start with the preparation of methacrylic acid.

The purpose is to hide people's eyes and ears from others to know which materials are synthesized from plexiglass.

If you buy directly from a chemical plant, or if you make custom methacrylic acid, an organic that is not very common now, it is easy for someone else to crack the raw material of plexiglass.

Even if several other reagents were purchased at the same time to release the smoke grenades, it would only be a matter of time before they were cracked.

However, starting with more basic raw materials is different, Chen Muwu can buy acetone, sodium hydroxide, hydrocyanic acid, concentrated sulfuric acid and methanol, which are now very common.

Even if someone else paid for these materials, whether it was someone else in David-Faraday's experiment, or if they found the label of the drug in the trash, it would be difficult for them to guess what Chen Muwu was going to do and what was synthesized.

The only thing that got into trouble was hydrocyanic acid.

Unlike thallium, cyanide has long been known to be highly toxic.

As a fellow of the Royal Society, Chen Muwu first wanted to buy hydrocyanic acid in large quantities, but was refused.

He could only ask the old Prague to come forward and be vouched for by the director of the laboratory, so that he finally bought this experimental material.

The confused old Prague was even more curious, whether Chen Muwu was going to do a chemical experiment or to make money and kill himself?

Following the steps of the paper decades ago, Chen Muwu first hydrogenated acetone and hydrocyanic acid in an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide to produce the intermediate product acetone cyananol.

Then the acetone cyanohydrin and concentrated sulfuric acid are amidated to produce methacrylamide sulfate.

After the hydrolysis of amide salts, methacrylic acid can be obtained, and methacrylic acid can be esterified with methanol to obtain the final monomer, methyl methacrylate.

It is a colorless and transparent liquid, but has a spicy, pungent smell similar to garlic.

The steps of chemical preparation of monomers have been thoroughly completed up to now.

What was next in front of Chen Muwu was only one thing.

It is how to polymerize these volatile monomers to produce the world's first plexiglass.

Fortunately, the polymerization method of methyl methacrylate is relatively simple, and bulk polymerization can use initiators and catalysts to accelerate the polymerization reaction, or it can add nothing and vigorously produce miracles.

Chen Muwu chose the latter method, he found two flat molds and let the methyl methacrylate be sandwiched in them to heat evenly.

After nearly three months of countless failures and starting all over again, Chen Muwu finally made the world's first piece of what can be called plexiglass in the Davy Faraday laboratory.

He admired the fruits of his labor like a work of art, but completely forgot his original intention of fleeing Cambridge to London under the banner of studying low-temperature physics.

He was just trying to escape Einstein's entanglement!

(End of chapter)