From mid-autumn to early winter, during the eight-week fall semester, Chen Muwu taught several linear algebra lessons about selling dog meat on sheep's heads.

The immediate consequence of this is not that more and more young people are getting into mathematics, but that the Department of Sinology at Cambridge University is receiving countless inquiries about what classes they will be offering next semester.

Penguin Press, which had not been seen for a long time, even approached Chen Muwu again and asked him if he could translate the "Book of Ink" into English and then hand it over to them for publication and distribution.

Since the beginning of this year, when he handed over the last manuscript of George Chen's book to the publishing house, he has started to put it in a state of rottenness.

During this period, the people from Penguin Publishing also went to the Royal Research Institute in London to urge the manuscript several times, but Chen Muwu always said that he had no time.

It's not an excuse, it's true.

Since the beginning of this year, Chen Muwu has basically not rested.

Although the speed of publication of papers has slowed down this year, he has produced a lot of results.

Of course, there is another reason behind not continuing to write the George Chen series, that is, Ye Gongchao went on strike.

At the beginning, Ye Gongchao agreed to write the George Chen series, thinking that he would use the pen in his hand to take revenge on the drunk man who had a fight with him at Cambridge University because he was drunk, and to take revenge on the racial discrimination he had been suffering from.

So in the whole year of 1924, he finished writing three books of George Chen, and even the donkeys of the production team were not so diligent.

The reason why Ye Gongchao was able to write these three books in one year was because his good friend Chen Muwu put forward one novel idea after another.

On the other hand, and the main reason, it depends on his own hard work.

Last summer, at the Paris Olympics, Chen Muwu worked the field to win glory for the country, and Ye Gongchao worked hard at De Broglie's home.

Last winter, at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden, Chen Muwu spoke amazingly in the auditorium, and Ye Gongchao wrote hard in a hotel in Stockholm.

On the train from Sweden to the Netherlands and the Netherlands to France......

Ye Gongchao has always been working hard to write.

After a whole year of hard work, either cooking or writing, he wanted to take a break.

So this year, Penguin Press urged Chen Muwu to draft several times, and Chen Muwu wrote a few letters to Ye Gongchao.

But every time he replied to the letter, Ye Gongchao was hesitant, and he talked about him left and right, except for never mentioning George Chen, he mentioned everything.

In the face of the reminder letters that flew on the desk like snowflakes, Penguin could only make up an improvised excuse, "Mr. Chandler York has set off on a ship to travel the world in search of creative inspiration." At the end of the trip, we will present absolutely wonderful new works."

This excuse is not a clumsy excuse, because in the days when there were no planes, traveling around the world was a real waste of time.

Moreover, isn't this the theme of door-to-door delivery?

Chen Muwu felt that the next time he met Ye Gongchao, he would be able to write another book of "Tragedy on the Nile".

With the development of the past few years, Penguin Publishing has gradually found a way to make money, and it is no longer only George Chen.

They followed the ideas provided by Chen Muwu, ran a magazine that integrated selected articles, and also recruited a mystery writer with good quality but not much reputation, Agatha Christie.

The most special thing is that this summer, Sir Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes series, came to the door.

His arrival made the staff up and down Penguin Press ecstatic.

This time not only came to the publishing house in person, but also sent a novella about Sherlock Holmes and George Chen teaming up to solve the case and hunt down the murderer, and named them to publish.

However, the villain in the book is not Professor Moriarty, who studies "Asteroid Dynamics", nor is it the villain German, who is deliberately arranged by the George Chen series to please European readers, but the Red Sulian.

But whatever?

As long as the author of the book is marked with Sir Conan Doyle, it will definitely sell!

And by the way, it can calm down those fans who urge the new George Chen series to be released every day, George Chen written by Doyle, and George Chen!

Chen Muwu did not take the job of translating the "Book of Ink" himself, but pushed it to Shi Ruwei, so that they could earn some extra money in addition to their studies.

The only thing Penguin Press requires, on the other hand, was that Chen Muwu's name must be written in the translator's column, so that sales would be guaranteed.

Chen Muwu did not refuse this offer, because he is one of the major shareholders of the publishing house.

The more money a publisher makes, the more money it gives to major shareholders.

Who would be afraid to make less money?

……

Although the course of linear algebra was extremely popular, in the middle of the semester, Chen Muwu had to ask the college for a few days off.

Every time the Royal Society convenes a plenary session, the number of teachers and professors at Cambridge University is at least two or three percent less than usual.

This time, the Cavendish laboratory was even hardest hit, and basically several elderly professors and teachers, as well as Chen Muwu, had to leave.

Fortunately, there is also a Chadwick who is not a monk, who can stay and preside over the overall situation with Kapitsa.

After more than a year of waiting, the term of the former president, Sherington, had expired, and he had finally succeeded him as president of the Royal Society.

Chen Muwu went to the Royal Society for a meeting this time, partly because of the support and platform for his teacher.

But the main purpose is to go to the Lord Kelvin Foundation to apply for the fund to build the "Kelvin-Chan electrostatic starter".

He finally understood the reason why the elder Tomson said that he would apply for this funding the next time he went to the Royal Society in London for a meeting.

The new speaker of the Royal Society, who is in charge of the Lord Kelvin Foundation, is not only a good student of Old Tom Sun, but also a good teacher of Chen Muwu.

And the project of this expenditure is to build a particle accelerator for the Cavendish laboratory, in order to better study the structure of the atomic nucleus and find new particles and elements.

It is reasonable for Rutherford to refuse this application.

"There are people in the court who are good officials", whether it is Britain or China, this sentence is very applicable.

After this change of meeting, the elder Prague temporarily retired from the leadership of the Royal Society.

For the past five years, he has been Vice-President of the Royal Society, where he oversees matters relating to physics.

And the reason why I say it is temporary, because ten years later, in 1935, the old Prague will be elected president of the Royal Society at the age of 73.

Even if he has retired, he can sit in the front rows of the venue.

But old Prague still took advantage of the tea break between meetings to change seats with others and sit next to Chen Muwu.

"Dr. Chen, long time no see?"

"Sir, long time no see, do you have anything to do with me?"

"It's not a big deal, it's not a plenary session of the Royal Society, and Lawrence has come to London from Manchester. Have you had time to have a meal together at home in the last few days? ”

Oh, and little Prague is here, too.

Then I should go and meet with him and get on good terms with the future director of the Cavendish laboratory.

What's more, Old Prague is so warmly invited today......

No, he's not a drunkard!

It's fake to let yourself know little Prague, but it's real to meet little Prague's sister.

And if you meet little Prague, can't you meet in this Royal Society, why do you want to follow old Prague home?

It seems that this old British gentleman is still thinking about being his father-in-law.

"Forget it, sir, the time is really tight these days, and I still have to go to the Chinese Legation to do some business."

This is not a lie, Chen Muwu thought that the time he left London before was the last time he and Zhu Zhaoxin saw each other.

As a result, several months later, the ambassador to Italy, who had been appointed for more than half a year, was still unable to go to Rome to take up his post, because there was no order from the country.

If the new minister to Britain who succeeded him does not take office for a day, he will not be promoted for a day.

Chen Muwu still lives in the legation as usual these days, and every day at the dinner table, he always pulls the Chinese dishes he has in his heart to his mouth while listening to Zhu Zhaoxin chattering to him about how unreliable the rice buckets in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are.

"Sir, what else do you want me to do?"

Old Prague would never change his position next to Chen Muwu because of the fact that introducing his daughter to talk to him about friends is not big or small.

"Well, there's one more thing. Are you interested in being a keynote speaker at this year's Christmas Lecture at the Royal Institute? ”

The Christmas lectures mentioned by the elder Prague are an annual repertoire of the Royal Institute, which focuses on one or several science popularization activities for young people who aspire to science during the Christmas holidays, so as to stimulate their interest in studying.

It's basically the equivalent of a lecture of the type of "Let's Talk", but it is more than 100 years before it.

The holding of such lectures of a popular nature was first proposed by Faraday, who presided over the Royal Institute at that time.

The first lecture was held on Christmas Day in 1825.

In other words, the Christmas lecture has been around for a hundred years.

On Christmas Day 1925, the lecture to be given in the auditorium of the Royal Institute would open the next 100 years for the Christmas Lecture.

Chen Muwu couldn't have imagined that Old Prague would give such a commemorative lecture to himself.

It's just that Xiao Chen has other arrangements for Christmas, although he doesn't want to eat with the daughter of old Prague, he wants to take advantage of the Christmas holiday to eat with Marie Curie's daughter.

On the one hand, he is famous, and on the other hand, he is a child and daughter, Chen Muwu is a little difficult to choose now.

In the end, he chose the former.

"If the two love for a long time, how can they be in the morning and twilight", even if they can't spend Christmas together and New Year's Day together, it's probably okay, right?

"Sir, thank you for thinking so highly of me, what is the content of this lecture?"

"It's entirely up to you, just a little simpler, not so esoteric."

"What about the timing of the lecture? Was it on Christmas Eve? ”

Old Prague smiled: "Dr. Chen, times are different, and there are more ways to entertain, and on such an important day as Christmas Eve, why not choose to gather around the fire with your family and listen to Christmas carols played on the gramophone instead of listening to a less pleasing speech?"

"This year, the presentation will be on the last Sunday before Christmas, which is December 20."

Double happiness is coming.

This day was well chosen, Chen Muwu was not only able to complete his speech, but also to go to Paris, France without a hurry after the speech, and did not have to be in such a hurry.

Those famous attractions in this place of Paris, really take a look at it less,

In some places, the mustache is reluctant to be less, but I don't know when, it will "burst into Venus for nine days, and the smoke on the twelve official streets".

"Sir, thank you again for entrusting such an important lecture to me, and I will certainly live up to my trust."

"I still want to hand over the Mondstadt Lab to you, do you think it's okay?"

"Uh, this, let's talk about it......"

The elder Thomson's proposal, Rutherford's approval, and finally the Lord Kelvin Foundation, which was affiliated under the Royal Society, allocated a full 2,000 pounds to Chen Muwu for the project of developing the "Kelvin Engine".

Combined with the 2,500 pounds previously given by the Cavendish laboratory and the 1,500 pounds given by Trinity College, the total is 6,000 pounds, which is almost one-third of the annual budget of the laboratory.

After coming to the UK for so many years, he Chen Muwu finally got a big face.

It's just that some people want him to be too wide.

This person is not a villain, nor is he Chen Muwu's nemesis, but his newly recruited student, Cowcroft.

While Chen Muwu was lecturing at Cambridge University, Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft had been working the design of electrostatic starters.

Although there were only two people in their group, the division of labor was clear: Zhao Zhongyao, who was good at theory, was in charge of calculations and design drawings.

Cockcroft, an engineer by training, was responsible for pointing out the irrationality of Zhao's design in engineering and estimating the cost of manufacturing the motor.

In the end, the two of them came up with a version of the design drawings with almost no defects and completely met all of Chen Muwu's requirements:

A spherical metal electrode with a diameter of 80 centimeters is mounted on top of a two-meter-high insulated glass holder.

The power supply that provides the charge only requires a DC power supply of several hundred volts.

It's just that the ribbon that acts as the charge conduction medium needs to be customized separately, which is the most expensive expense in the entire electrostatic starting motor.

Zhao Zhongyao's calculation of such an electrostatic generator is that it can provide 1.5 million volts of high voltage.

And the offer given by Cockcroft made Chen Muwu, who returned to Cambridge University with a huge amount of money, drop his jaw, and even wondered if his ears were having auditory hallucinations.

"Twenty pounds, sir. I promise that for twenty pounds we can build such a machine. ”

(End of chapter)