Niagara Falls is located on the border between the United States and Canada, in the Great Lakes region, and the part in the United States belongs to New York State, so it is not far away. It is only about 500 kilometers away from New York and can be reached by train on the same day.
After arriving at the waterfall, everyone was still very shocked by the miraculous craftsmanship of nature.
Even though Li Yu had watched many short videos on the Internet before, it was still more magnificent to see it with his own eyes. Moreover, there was not much commercial atmosphere at this time, and not many people could come here, so the viewing experience was quite good.
This wonder of nature has nothing to do with humanities or history. It is entirely the greatness of the earth itself, so it can shock the mind more purely.
Sitting on the ship, they could watch more closely, while Eastman kept taking pictures with the camera in his hand.
Someone has photographed this waterfall before, but no one has ever done it with a compact camera at such a close range, so it will still be very attractive when it is published in National Geographic magazine in the future.
Not only did they take photos of the scenery, but everyone also stood on the bow of the boat to take photos, and then took group photos, including a group photo of four people, and some of them in pairs.
When it was Li Yu and Lu Bicheng's turn to take pictures, Eastman held the camera and said, "Sir, Madam, please come closer!"
Lu Bicheng blushed slightly and stood there motionless. Li Yu put his arm around her shoulders and said, "Make a pose!"
Lu Bicheng came close to his arms, her heart tightened, and she didn't hear Li Yu's words clearly, so she asked: "What did you say?"
Li Yu smiled and said, "It's like this."
Li Yu pinched it in front with two fingers.
Lu Bicheng followed suit.
Eastman said: "Very good!"
"Crack!"
"One more, let's compare this time, yeah!" Li Yu said.
He stretched out two fingers in front of him again.
Lu Bicheng also followed the instructions. She thought that this was how photos should be taken.
"Crack!"
After taking the photo, Lu Bicheng immediately took another step to the side, and then stroking her hair randomly.
Eastman said: "Mr. Academician, you are the most natural person I have ever seen taking photos. The posture you just performed was very good!"
Li Yule said: "Place it casually."
Well, the most vulgar and vulgar photo-taking poses in later generations are all trendy at this time.
When taking pictures, Li Yu kept paying attention to how Eastman played with the pocket camera in his hand. It was still a bit cumbersome. Anyway, it was definitely not as good as the later "point-and-shoot" cameras, let alone digital photography products such as mobile phones.
But for people today, it is already a super novel product.
Women, especially, prefer to take photos.
Lu Bicheng asked: "Can such a small box really take photos?"
"Of course." Li Yu said.
Lu Bicheng said: "It looks very interesting."
Li Yu understood the meaning of the words, so he said: "Let's buy a few units and we can take photos anytime and anywhere when we go back."
Li Yu then said to Eastman: "Sir, please send me some cameras and more film after you return to the company."
Eastman really wanted to sell the product to a famous person like Li Yu. After hearing his intention, he immediately said: "Mr. Li Yu, I can definitely give you ten units or more, and I can also give you a sufficient amount of film.
As long as you allow me to use your Star Wars series for product promotion. I think science fiction works are just in line with the positioning of my novel product. Of course, I will also pay you the promotion fee."
The Star Wars series is indeed popular, and many companies want to have products related to it. Li Yu thought for a while and said: "Okay."
Eastman said happily: "Great! My products will never damage your reputation."
In fact, Kodak has developed well in recent years and has branches in many big cities around the world.
There is no doubt that photography is a fundamental need of mankind.
Even in the era before Li Yu's time travel, when mobile phones were so developed, the focus was still on rolling images. In many conferences, just the photography part would take up even half of the time.
Kodak can be regarded as seizing the first opportunity to popularize photography and achieve take-off.
After taking the photos, they needed to be developed in a professional darkroom, so Bell took the boat to Buffalo, a city on the Great Lakes.
Buffalo and Detroit are far apart, and it is the second largest city in New York State. However, all the light is attracted by New York, so few people have heard of this city.
Most overseas Chinese in the United States like to call it Buffalo, because the city's name in English is "buffalo".
The names of many cities in the United States are actually quite strange. Many of them even completely overlap with the names of European cities. The naming is so random...
The reason Bell asked Li Yu to come was because he had an experimental base here, and Li Yu had promised to become the founder of the Aeronautical Experiment Association.
It was only when Li Yu arrived at the place that he realized that he was not "just interested in aviation" as he had said before, but had actually been studying aircraft for many years.
Bell has done a lot of research, but he himself does not fully understand the Wright brothers' experiments, and his research on aircraft is still at the stage of his own exploration.
Maybe because I didn’t succeed, I was a little more reserved last time.
Now, Bell seemed to have some success. He proudly showed Li Yu the aircraft he designed, "Mr. Academician, please take a look at another great invention of mine! I think its significance in the future will be no less than that of the telephone!"
But when Li Yu saw it, everyone was dumbfounded. What the hell is this!
It's hard to describe what Li Yu saw. To put it bluntly, it was like a box-shaped kite. It was composed of three to four thousand small tetrahedrons and weighed about 100 kilograms.
It definitely doesn't look like an airplane anyway.
Seeing Li Yu stunned on the spot, Bell thought that Li Yu was shocked by his great invention, and said with a smile: "Mr. Academician, are you very surprised? I have spent more than ten years working on it, and today is just the time to do it.
Let Mr. Eastman take the photos of the first flight."
Li Yu looked at it and asked, "Mr. Bell, why don't I see the engine?"
Bell said: "That's why I have to conduct a test flight on the lakeside, because its take-off needs to be towed by a fast motorboat."
No wonder Bell chose to conduct his experiment near a lake.
Li Yu said: "In other words, it is powerless?"
Bell said: "This is the way it is now, but if it can achieve a good flying attitude with the help of wind, I will continue to consider adding engines. But the engines I saw are too heavy and cannot be towed."
Li Yu said: "In this case, wouldn't it be better to fly a kite?"
Bell said: "I only need to fly the kite first, and with enough experimental data, I can consider the next step. You see, sailing ships in the early years were not all small canoes, and then there were large sailing ships, and then
Later steam engine ships. So it requires a process."
Li Yu covered his head and said for a long time, it was still a kite! And he was too optimistic.
Li Yu said awkwardly: "Without an engine, it would be too difficult to drive. It would be too difficult to control the wind direction in the air."
Bell is very confident: "For more than ten years, I have considered many situations. There have been some failures before, but this time I have improved the structural layout and should be successful."
Li Yu could only say: "We'll see."
Bell called over a few assistants: "Get ready to start! We are going to see Cygnet 1 successfully lift off today!"
The name Bell gave his aircraft is also quite interesting.
I saw a motorboat pulling Little Swan 1 to the water with a towing rope, making it look like a seaplane.
After Bell whistled the order to take off, the motorboat quickly set off.
Don't tell me, the little swan was really slowly dragged up to fly, but the flying posture was really not good, and the staff on the motorboat never dared to let go of the traction rope.
——Still like flying a kite.
After Little Swan 1 reached a height of 50 meters, it was still crooked, but the traction rope had been put out immediately.
But a discerning person will know at a glance that it will crash if you let go of the traction rope at this time.
But the rope had reached its limit, and Bell whistled frantically on the shore, asking them to let go of the traction rope and give it a try.
However, the people on the boat couldn't hear it at all. After a moment of hesitation, Cygnet 1 could no longer maintain its flying posture and spun around randomly and fell to the surface of the water.
Bell angrily threw the whistle to the ground, "Trash! Today's wind direction is so good that we can't fly!"
The entire "kite flying" process only took seven minutes, and Cygnet 1, which cost Bell more than ten years of hard work, was just gone.
Bell sat down on the ground in despair, muttering to himself: "It's over, it's all over! Why is this happening!"
Bell began researching aircraft around 1890 and spent more time than he did on telephones.
Li Yu consoled him: "Mr. Bell, failure is the mother of success. Don't be discouraged."
Bell was a relatively optimistic person and stood up with his hands on the ground: "What you are saying is that I will start the development of Cygnet 2 immediately!"
Li Yu almost fell over. Why does he like flying kites so much?!
Speaking of which, in fact, there are really many aircraft development routes at present, and it feels like a hundred flowers are blooming.
For example, the Frenchman Adel developed a flying machine that imitated a bat, but it was driven by a heavy steam engine. The French military was very interested in it, but this form could not fly high at all.
There is also the more famous ornithopter, which completely imitates the up and down flapping of the wings of birds. Until next year, many people are still conducting research in this direction, especially in the United Kingdom. The Engineering Society of Cambridge University has also participated, but according to
According to Cambridge's record, the ornithopter only flew 0.5 meters, and then showed a "trend" to fly forward. But that was all, and it could not be called flying at all.
In addition, the British also built a very strange-looking multi-wing aircraft. It was like stretching a tricycle in the middle, and then stacking many horizontal wings on top of each other. Three years later, the British man Phillips was still doing research in this area.
Even if the number of wings is increased to 50, it is really hard to imagine what it will look like.
Needless to say, it can't fly either.
There are also many other forms, such as "scaffolding type" (which really looks like scaffolding on a construction site), egg-shaped multi-wing aircraft, etc.
These projects continued until four or five years later.
Anyway, in the end, everyone concluded that the Wright brothers’ fixed wing was the simplest and most efficient, and all research directions were concentrated on the fixed wing.
Li Yu naturally knew that Bell's continued research would be a dead end, and he quickly said to him: "Mr. Bell, you asked me to be the founder. We should consider the follow-up research and development direction, right?"
Bell said: "It makes sense, you also understand mechanics. Also, don't forget that the founder has to invest money."
Li Yu smiled and said: "Of course, but you have to listen to me carefully."
Li Yu told Bell in detail about the Wright brothers' experiments last year, and roughly drew the concept of a fixed wing on paper, which was much more detailed than the previous newspaper report, especially with many more technical details.
Bell was shocked: "You can use a car's engine to carry people hundreds of meters away?!"
Li Yu said: "That's right, and it's only the first time to use it. If you make more improvements, the flying ability will definitely be better."
Bell looked at the picture drawn by Li Yu and thought for a long time: "I really want to see it with my own eyes."
Li Yu said: "Simple, we can go to North Carolina to find the Wright brothers directly."
In fact, Bell was still a little unconvinced and said: "I can't believe that there are people who know engineering in a Confederate state!"
During the American Civil War, North Carolina was in the Southern camp. In comparison, the American South was more conservative than the North.
Li Yu laughed and said: "There is an old saying in China that heroes do not ask where they come from."
Bell said: "I still like to chat with educated Chinese people like you. I can always say a few philosophical and concise sentences."
Bell was really fascinated by aircraft, and immediately decided to set off to see the Wright brothers' airplane.
Without Li Yu's obstruction, Bell would have continued his "kite experiment" on Cygnet 2.
Cygnet 2, which was born a few years later, had an even weirder shape, with densely packed small tetrahedrons forming a multi-layered wing and an engine.
However, during the test flight, Little Swan 2 was not as good as Little Swan 1, and it only floated slightly out of the water.
And this is already 8 years later.
It wasn't until others in Bell's Experimental Aeronautical Society made substantial progress on conventional aircraft layouts that Bell gave up on kite flying.
——
A few people need to return to New York to reorganize themselves first.
This issue of "National Geographic" is indeed very popular after it published a close-up photo of Niagara Falls.
Moreover, a photo of Li Yu and Lu Bicheng was used in it. "National Geographic" magazine also took advantage of the current popularity of the two male and female Star Wars authors.
Like later generations, people of every era like to gossip about the trivial life details of celebrities. When they saw the group photos taken by professional photographers like Eastman, they were all amazed:
"It turns out that Mr. Li Yu already has such a beautiful oriental lady."
"Don't tell me, Eastern women can be so beautiful, with an indescribable charm."
"Li Yu also looks very handsome! I remember there is a Chinese idiom, which is called "Wolf with talent and beauty."
"Wolf? You said that right?"
"Maybe I'm wrong, I only heard it once."
"I also heard that there is a famous Chinese book "A Dream of Red Mansions" that says women are made of water. You see, they are a man and a woman standing in front of a large waterfall. The soft water forms a magnificent waterfall. It has such an artistic sense of contrasting beauty.
Already."
They should also thank a photographer like Eastman for his expert composition.
Because of Li Yu's popularity, many people have begun to pay attention to some Chinese cultural content. Although many places are not accurate enough, there is no need to force it. After all, there are not many Chinese works translated at present - there are not many such translators at this time.
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In addition, there is another interesting thing: the photo poses used by Li Yu and Lu Bicheng have really begun to spread widely
It can also be regarded as unintentional planting of willows and willows.
Back on Fifth Avenue, Li Yu saw a package sent by Colgate, which contained a new patented toothpaste.
These things are quite useful.
If they can sell well, Li Yu can earn a lot of patent licensing royalties.