Chapter 373: The replacement of old and new technologies
Li Yu decided to write some articles in response to the Daily Mail report, explaining that the situation was urgent and that it was for rescue purposes, and there were no imaginary side stories like those in the tabloids.
Although some people believed Li Yu's words, it was obviously not as widely circulated as the previous articles written by professional reporters from the Daily Mail. Who do you think they are professional journalists?
Konoe Akiyuki was happier after seeing Li Yu's statement: As long as nothing really happened, it would be fine.
She specifically found Li Yu and showed him the telegrams from Germany and Italy.
The Holy See of Italy urged Li Yu to come to the Holy See as soon as possible after meeting with Planck. As Li Yu's reputation continues to accumulate, the Holy See of Rome is now determined to recruit Li Yu as an academician of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Planck's letter contained similar content, and he was urged by the Holy See more times.
After reading the two telegrams, Li Yu said: "It seems that we can't stay in the UK forever, and we need to go to the European continent as soon as possible."
Konoe Akiyuki also looked forward to this opportunity to see the world, especially when she learned that she was going to St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, she was even more excited. Although she had no faith, due to the hundreds of years of hard work of missionaries, the Pope's reputation in East Asia
It's still pretty big, just think about the later Saint Seiya.
Konoe Akiyuki collected the telegram and asked about the story about Journey to the West: "I heard that the reason why they are all tragedies is because they were 500 years apart, so they happened to meet the wrong person. Everything seems to be right,
Actually, it’s not the right time.”
"Your brain works pretty fast." Li Yu said. Many people who watched movies in later generations didn't realize it. They just wondered why for some reason they fell in love with Bai Jingjing in the first part, and then became Zixia Fairy in the second part.
In fact, there are several 500-year time travels in the original film, but they are not explained clearly.
Li Yu asked again: "Did you hear it from Miss Bicheng?"
Konoe Akiyuki said: "Yes, we didn't expect you to be so good at telling stories."
Li Yu smiled and said, "I know quite a few stories like this. I'll tell them to you if I have the chance."
Konoe Aki thought for a while and then asked: "I remember you said before that in a few years, you will find the formula to freeze time. Is it really possible to do it by then?"
Li Yu spread his hands: "Actually, according to the Lorentz transformation, after considering time as a dimension, to a certain extent, you can go to the future."
Konoe Akiyuki was a little confused when she heard it, and felt it was a bit profound, so she just silently recorded it in her heart.
She still thought a lot, such as whether she could use this to achieve a military or political first-mover advantage, but the theory involved was too profound and she had no clue at the moment.
——
Xie Yuxi and Tesla also recently came over from the United States. Their goal is to represent Li Yu's Ly company to see if they can develop radio business in Europe.
But as soon as the two people disembarked with their equipment, they were stopped by British Customs.
"Routine inspection!"
Tesla pointed to his large suitcase and said: "There is radio equipment inside. You must be careful when looking at it."
However, these customs officers did not seem to know much about the latest equipment, because they were much smaller than the radio equipment models they had seen in the past.
The customs officers were full of suspicion. They looked at the wires, batteries and the dark black box in the box and couldn't make up their mind. Finally, they said: "We have to send it to a specialized agency for testing."
Tesla immediately said: "No!"
The customs officer asked: "Why not?"
Tesla said: "Because there is no more professional organization in the UK that understands this latest radio equipment."
The customs officer became angry when he heard this: "You are from the United States, right? When did the nouveau riche become so arrogant in the field of science and technology? Do you know where London is? It is the most scientific place in the world! Even us
If you don’t even understand it, that can only mean that it is a dangerous item, maybe a terrorist weapon.”
Tesla suddenly got a bad response, but it’s really hard for them to refute what they said.
Because there was indeed a terrorist attack a few years ago, French President Sadi Cannot was assassinated, and even Queen Victoria was assassinated.
These two incidents shocked everyone from all walks of life at the time, and many people are still frightened now.
Tesla said anxiously: "Who knows how long it will take for you to review them, they still have very important uses for us."
The customs officer snorted: "Unless you want to offend the laws of the British Empire."
Xie Yuxi knew that they could not take the things away, so he stood up and said: "If it is for safety reasons, we can dismantle them on site."
Tesla understood it clearly, and quickly started to dismantle it. Soon a wireless telegraph machine was dismantled into parts.
Tesla showed them piece by piece, and the customs officers saw that there were indeed no explosives, so they had to let them go.
Xie Yuxi and Tesla wasted most of the day before leaving the customs building with a box of parts.
——
When they arrived at the Royal Society, Li Yuzheng was with Lord Kelvin. Lord Kelvin had heard about Tesla and said, "I hope your experiments on Long Island, New York, can cross the Atlantic for me to see."
Tesla was respectful to this old man: "Your Lordship, wireless power transmission must be the next great invention, and I think its status will surpass that of radio."
Lord Kelvin said: "It seems that you are not too upset about losing the patent for the invention of radio?"
Tesla said frankly: "I have no objection at all if I can't do it, but it's a thing of the past. Since I have more ambitious goals, I have calmed down a lot."
Lord Kelvin smiled and said: "I hope I can see it in my lifetime."
He looked at Xie Yuxi again: "Young people are good. There are so many young and beautiful girls around me."
Xie Yuxi said: "Your Lordship, I am a director of Li Yu Company and come from the Carnegie family."
Lord Kelvin suddenly understood: "No wonder Li Yu was able to open a company in the United States smoothly. Not only did Morgan invest in it, but Carnegie even stood behind him. But if you want to do business in the UK or Europe, I'm afraid you will encounter some resistance."
Li Yu asked: "What resistance do you mean?"
Lord Kelvin said: "Nowadays, European countries, especially the United Kingdom and Italy, are almost covered by Marconi's products. Even though I know that your products are more advanced, countries have already invested hundreds of thousands of pounds or more. At this time,
It’s really difficult to go back.”
Marconi's company also used some of Li Yu's patented technologies by paying patent royalties. Of course, the price was very high, and it was unable to obtain the latest results. As a result, their products not only had a generation gap with Li Yu's, but also had no price at all.
Advantages.
But the situation in Europe at this time was different from that in the United States.
The kings of various European countries now like to play "political balance", like walking a tightrope, and use science and technology as a balancing tool.
So they must support their own people.
For example, in radio, Britain and Italy bet on Marconi; Germany bet on Braun.
Although Marconi was Italian, he spent a long time in England and was almost half British.
At this time, Britain had invested a very large amount of money in Marconi's company.
Li Yu said: "I understand that it is hard to recover, but I hope our ability in ocean communications will attract attention."
Lord Kelvin took a puff of his cigar and said: "If you want to find a breakthrough, you must go to the British Post Office to find Dr. Price, the chief engineer. He is currently an authority in the British telecommunications industry."
Li Yu said: "You said that since the British official has invested a lot of money in Marconi, do we still have hope?"
Lord Kelvin said: "Go ahead and try it, I'm still a bit thin at the General Post Office."
There is nothing wrong with what Lord Kelvin said. Now almost all departments related to science and technology in the UK give him face.
When the group arrived at the post office building, it happened that Chief Engineer Price of the British Post Office was convening a meeting with representatives of the Far Eastern Telegraph Company and the British and American Telegraph Company.
Lord Kelvin has more say in this situation, because his knighthood was awarded for his contribution to the laying of the Atlantic submarine cable.
At that time Kelvin was a director and engineering consultant for the Atlantic Submarine Cable Company.
The two companies meeting here operate wired telegraph services, and the emergence of wireless telegraphy has posed a considerable threat to them.
Price had a headache at this time. The cable company and the wireless telegraph company were like flesh on the palms and backs of their hands.
Nowadays, cable companies are dissatisfied with wireless telegraph companies. If malicious competition arises, it will be really difficult for them to deal with it. After all, they have spent a lot of money to enter it.
When he saw Lord Kelvin arriving, he felt like he had seen a savior and immediately invited him to the venue: "How lucky that Mr. Lord Kelvin can come to the venue in person! You are a hero of the cable company and it is better to negotiate with them."
Nearly fifty years have passed since Lord Kelvin served in the cable company. He did not know these juniors. Before the representatives of the two companies could complain, he spoke first: "I know what you want to say, but the progress of the times is like this.
Son. If we stop moving forward, we will be overtaken by others sooner or later, and we will no longer be the empire on which the sun never sets. I think you don’t need to say more, you will understand how many wrong things we have done in the world by relying on the advantages of the empire in the past. There is an undercurrent,
If we lose our current status, will you still expect others to be pitiful?"
Lord Kelvin came up and gave him a scolding. The representatives of the two companies looked at each other, unable to speak a single word of the organized language.
Kelvin pulled Li Yu over again and continued: "Just after you have made high profits for half a century by relying on that cable, this young man Li Yu and another equally young Mr. Marconi have already walked in
We have reached the frontier of communication. If you don’t use radio, how can you enable land and ships to communicate? Do you want ships to drag thousands of kilometers of telegraph lines?"
Representatives of the two companies said: "Your Majesty, don't you think this kind of invisible and intangible thing sounds very unreliable?"
Lord Kelvin said: "You are so ignorant of learning, no wonder you lag behind others. I also doubted radio back then. I remember seven or eight years ago, I said that I would trust a child and a horse more than radio. At that time, I didn't I even think that wireless telegraphy is not as reliable as a child riding a horse to deliver a message. But I, an old man, can correct my ideas, so why are you still so stubborn?"
The representative of the cable company said helplessly: "We can't just sit back and wait for death, right?"
Li Yu coughed slightly, and then said: "Actually, you don't have to be so pessimistic. Although the establishment of a commercial radio system is about to become a reality, submarine cables will still be an important tool for long-distance telegraphy in the long term."
When the representatives heard what Li Yu said, they felt a little relieved: "Mr. Academician, we know that you are knowledgeable and talented, but we still cannot completely dispel our concerns."
Cable companies have slandered wireless telegraphy many times in recent years. Just like the current war between direct current and alternating current, Edison's company also slandered alternating current.
Li Yu knew that they must know that they were indispensable, so he said: "Submarine cables have obvious advantages, because radio cannot compete with submarine cables in terms of confidentiality and reliability, so it cannot completely replace submarine cables."
These words were very helpful to Chief Engineer Price of the British Post Office. "Since Mr. Academician is so sure, I think you don't have to worry about completely losing the market."
Li Yu added more energy: "Don't worry, even if 100 years have passed, submarine cables will still be built. Just like the emergence of submarine cables did not make paper letters disappear."
As a time traveler, Li Yu certainly knows these things. They don't have to worry too much, just like Kodak or Nokia in later generations. Although they are no longer the industry leaders they once were, they still survive in some other fields.
The representatives of the two companies finally felt at ease and prepared to take Li Yu's words back to the company to continue discussions, so that they could at least survive by downsizing the company.
Pulis breathed a sigh of relief and thanked Li Yu and Lord Kelvin: "Thankfully you are here, otherwise they would all want to find someone secretly to destroy the radio transmission tower. Reconciling this kind of contradiction is simply more difficult than being a diplomat. "
Li Yu took advantage of the situation and put forward his request: "Chief Engineer Pulis, you must have heard about the advantages of our ly radio. We hope to have a place in the British market."
Pulis looked embarrassed: "Marconi has now concluded many contracts with the Ministry of Trade, and even our General Post Office has no right to interfere."
Lord Kelvin was surprised: "Department of Trade?"
Pulis said: "Yes. And Marconi has a close relationship with Congressman Lloyd George. It is really difficult for others to get involved."
Li Yu suddenly felt that it was very difficult. Lloyd George was very powerful in the British political arena. He later became the British Prime Minister and was one of the "three giants" who controlled the Paris Peace Conference. He signed what Foch called " Not peace, but a 20-year armistice" of the Treaty of Versailles.