But after getting in the car, Li Yu obviously realized that something was wrong. He had overestimated himself!
The simplest point: How do you start this car?
Lord Kelvin sat next to him and directed Joelson: "Hurry up, crank up the car!"
"Shake it up?" Li Yu was stunned.
Joelson ran to the front of the car, grabbed a handle on the front of the car, and turned it around like a hand-cranked tractor for a few times before the car's engine started to run.
Li Yu finally understood why President Huggins wanted a driver. This action was indeed too strenuous and ungentlemanly for him!
It’s not appropriate for you to ask a person wearing a suit and tie to hand-operate a tractor!
Furthermore, cars at this time were very easy to break, and they often had to get under the car to repair them, which was even less gentlemanly.
Carriage drivers at that time often laughed at cars because they were easy to get stuck.
As for driving it, it’s not that difficult. This car is equipped with the earliest two-speed manual transmission developed by Peugeot. Yes, it only has two speeds. So it’s easy! Speaking of driving it, Huggins will do this
Anyone over seventy years old can drive it. Because no matter how skilled you are, the frustration of shifting gears is huge.
Cars really became difficult to drive when Ford developed an automatic transmission a few years later. Although it was also a two-speed, the operating logic suddenly became much more complicated. Even a modern veteran driver would probably have to practice it for several days.
After a few laps around the yard, Li Yu was able to master the initial control. Lord Kelvin grabbed his hat and said, "Let's go!"
This Daimler car was open-top, and almost all cars nowadays are also open-top. The four of them drove toward the Greenwich Observatory in the southeast, driven by the London wind carrying light haze and soot.
"How?" President Huggins said, "Such a breathtaking speed!"
Huang Kaijia was really excited. If he hadn't been in front of two academic seniors, he would have sang loudly.
However, Li Yu still looked calm: Suffocating? It is really suffocating! At a speed of 18 kilometers per hour, is it really not as good as an electric car in the 21st century?
But this is indeed his first time driving a Mercedes-Benz. After living for more than twenty years, he has taken hundreds of millions of dollars in planes and subways, and hundreds of thousands of buses, but this is his first time in a Mercedes-Benz.
Although to be precise, this car can’t be called a Mercedes-Benz yet, it’s almost there!
Seeing that Li Yu was silent, President Huggins thought he was concentrating on driving, so he asked again. Li Yu came back to his senses, pretending to be excited and said: "It's really fast, lightning and thunder!"
Then he turned around and continued driving the car calmly and calmly.
The UK also had steam buses at the beginning, but they were big and cumbersome, slow to start and slow to brake, and often couldn't even stop when going downhill. The most critical factor was that the furnace pressure was too high, which often caused explosions. During the twenty years of use,
Tens of thousands of explosions occurred, so it was quickly abandoned.
Nowadays, many roads in the UK are made of granite and are uneven, and the suspension of cars is far less powerful than that of later generations, so it is still quite bumpy, but it is better than horse-drawn carriages.
Driving on the streets of London in the early 20th century was definitely a very popular thing. There used to be a notorious "red flag law" in the UK, which meant that a person in front of the car was required to hold a red flag to open the road. It was really popular at that time, but
It was indeed too ridiculous, so the bill was canceled in 1896.
But even though there were no red flags waving, many people still stopped to watch them, and even some ladies on the carriage waved to them.
Huang Kaijia touched this and that, wishing he could shoot one too.
Not long after, the four of them arrived at the Royal Greenwich Gardens, where the Observatory is located.
The terrain here is higher, and Li Yu could see at a glance the pier to the north where they docked when they first arrived in London - Canary Wharf. It can be regarded as one of the busier piers in the world, but in later generations it has become London's CBD and skyscraper.
Subsequently, London's three tallest buildings were built here, including Citibank and HSBC Centre.
President Huggins led a few people into the observatory. Li Yu saw the Prime Meridian not far ahead, which is the famous 0° longitude. Many people who go to London to play will run to the Prime Meridian and kick their feet.
On one side, it feels like stepping on the east and west hemispheres.
Several people walked in and directly found Christie, the then director of the Royal Observatory.
Christie was quite surprised when he learned the purpose of their visit: "Sir Sir, are you going to re-measure the red shift of Alpha Canis Major?"
President Huggins nodded: "That's right."
"But, you have obviously got the results, why do you want to take another test?" Christie asked puzzled.
President Huggins said: "Because I received a strong question, and also received a strong temptation of three boxes of fine Cuban cigars."
Lord Kelvin smiled and said: "You may not win."
Director Christie asked again: "Who would question you?"
"It's him." Huggins pointed at Li Yu behind him.
"Is he?" Director Christie asked back, looking at the yellow-skinned and black-haired Li Yu in front of him with suspicion, "Japanese?"
Li Yu was wearing a Liuhe hat at this time, and his braids could not be seen from the front.
"No," President Huggins said, "he comes from the Qing Dynasty and is Chinese."
"Chinese?" Christie was even more puzzled, "How could that be!"
President Huggins said: "Remember the previous paper on X-rays and the laws of thermodynamics? He was the author."
"You, you are Yu Li?!" Christie also read Li Yu's name backwards.
Li Yu bowed slightly: "It's true."
Christie was surprised: "Oh my God! You actually came to England! I've read the paper you wrote, it's so exciting! What, do you still know about astronomy?"
"I just know a little bit about it," Li Yu said modestly.
Lord Kelvin said: "Don't listen to what the Chinese say. What they say is one or two. I think it is at least one or twelve!"
Christie suddenly became interested, "It's rare for someone to question President Huggins, so I really want to test it. The equipment was just updated at the station some time ago, and it happens to be studying binary star systems, focusing on the constellation Canis Major.
Alpha star."
At that time, the astronomical community already knew that Sirius was a binary star system. In addition to the extremely bright Sirius, there was also a white dwarf star that was very massive but small in size and did not emit light.
After Christie became director of the station, he paid special attention to binary star systems. However, at that time, there was no theory that could explain why a celestial body with a volume only as large as the Earth has a mass as large as the sun.
He led a few people to the telescope. It was an extremely huge telescope with an aperture of 28 inches. With a half-prism beam splitter, this thing looked like a big monster in a science fiction movie. Ordinary people standing in it
It's like a little baby in front of you.
Observation, spectroscopy, spectral analysis, and calculation, with the combined efforts of several people, finally got the result at night: it is indeed a blue shift!