Chapter 167: Arthur’s Electronic Theory
Chapter 166 Arthur’s Theory of Electronics
The sun set, the moon rose, and a breeze blew in the London sky.
A group of ladies and gentlemen in long dresses and a group of colonel-generals of the Royal Navy surrounded in front of this iron cage which was improved by Faraday for the second time after Arthur’s suggestion.
Of course, a cage was not worth making them curious, what made them curious was why the young master of the Carter family was locked up in this.
Elder flushed red, and although one could not see his agitation in the night, the newly installed gas lamps on the roadside still illuminated a hint of redness on his face.
“Arthur, Arthur!” Elder urged in a lowered voice, “Fuck, this isn’t what we talked about! Didn’t you say you were inside and I was outside?”
Arthur spun the hand-cranked generator, electricity arcing from the discharge lever, and the hairs on Elder’s body stood up in sweat at the sight.
“Are you sure it’s really not going to be a problem? This thing isn’t supposed to electrocute me?”
“It won’t.” Arthur calmly said, “At most, he will electrify you numb, you can just slow down for a while.”
“Ah?” Elder’s face turned green at the words, “Didn’t you say that this thing is theoretically absolutely safe?”
Arthur returned, “That’s right, it’s absolutely safe in theory. But you know, Elder, theory is theory and practice is practice. All I can tell you is that it didn’t go wrong in the last experiment. And even if something goes wrong, you don’t have to be too nervous, it’s no big deal. So even if you get electrocuted please hold back and never make a sound.”
Elder frowned, “Why can’t you make a sound? Are you trying to make me prove my fearless courage?”
Arthur calmly turned the generator, “No, it’s to prove that my experiment didn’t go wrong.”
“Arthur, you ……”
But Arthur didn’t intend to give Elder the chance to open his mouth and curse, he turned around, a more chesty smile had appeared on his face.
“Gentlemen and ladies, thank you for your willingness to come out into the courtyard against the evening chill to hear me introduce you to yet another important breakthrough in the current field of electromagnetism in Britannia – the phenomenon of electrostatic shielding.”
With that said, Arthur carried a kerosene lamp and displayed a rag in front of the guests, which he handed over to each of the gentlemen and ladies present to inspect.
“As you can see, this is a plain, never-used rag, produced in the tailor’s mills of Lancashire, and as tough and durable as any other Lancashire cotton product. But this rag, which would have lasted for years or even decades in the home, is a poor match for the current.”
Arthur retrieved the rag from the hands of the guests and hung it on a pre-prepared clothesline.
He turned the hand-cranked generator he carried on his back, and a sinuous tongue of electricity sprang out of the discharge lever in an instant, striking the surface of the rag.
With a bright flash of light, the current instantly pierced through the rag, leaving only a small dark hole in its surface, and as the current continued to flow, it wasn’t long before sparks were seen rising from the surface of the rag, followed by rising flames that engulfed the rag into the night’s nothingness.
The ladies and young ladies all covered their lips with their fans: “Oh dear! So, are you planning to use this to electrocute Mr. Carter in his cage?”
Arthur returned with some regret, “Actually, the hand-cranked generator’s current output is still on the low side. I was going to move the oversized volt-beating electric pile from the Royal Society, the one that’s almost the size of a room can output over 100,000 units of voltage.
If I can use it for a demonstration, I think I will be able to make you all realize the powerful destructive power of electric current more clearly.
But Mr. Faraday and I said that he would agree to lend me the voltaic pile, but if I broke it in the course of carrying it, then I would be responsible for fixing it. I thought about it for some time, but finally I had to give up the idea of borrowing the electric pile.”
A slightly surprised lady wearing white lace gloves, a strapless silver and white brocade dress, a coiled twisted braid, and a pale yellow shawl said.
“I …… I heard once upon a time that electrical researchers are crazy, and that the more accomplished they are in the field of electricity, the more dangerous they are, so it seems that this is not really a rumor.”
Arthur looked over at the lady’s coiffed twists and couldn’t help but joke, “Ma’am, your hairstyle is just as very dangerous, so perhaps you might consider studying electricity as well. Your impression of an electrical researcher is indeed quite correct though, it is a very dangerous field of study.
I know that all the ladies and gentlemen present here are somewhat involved in the field of science, so I’m sure you must be aware of the French researcher of electricity, Fr. Jean-Antoine Nollette, who was not only a member of the Royal Society, but also a member of the Royal Society of England. Not only was he a member of the Royal Society, he was also President of the French Royal Academy of Sciences and was the patron of the invention of the early capacitor Leyden jar.
Fr. Nolette made a set of large Layton bottles in order to figure out how fast electric current traveled.
He then gathered two hundred priests from his monastery and had them form a human wire line about a mile long with chains in their hands. Finally, Fr. Nollette released the Layton bottles, and amazingly, the priests were electrocuted to the ground almost simultaneously and as far as the eye could see.
Since then, Fr. Nolette has understood that the current runs at a rate of more than two hundred priests per second, and that the rate of the current is directly proportional to the rate of depletion of the French priests, while the rate of growth of the French priests is inversely proportional to the frequency of Fr. Nolette’s experiments. This is the well-known French law of conservation of Nollette and priests.”
As soon as Arthur’s words were finished, all the ladies and gentlemen in the room laughed out loud, and the atmosphere became much more congenial.
Arthur saw that the crowd was excited, so he couldn’t help but add two more sentences, “Of course, Father Nollette’s research results are more than that. As a great researcher of electricity, he has also done many interesting experiments.
For example, hanging a young man from the ceiling with an insulated wire, and then charging into his body, after that, one would find that objects around him like paper and coins would be involuntarily attracted to him, and when someone got close to him, it would even cause an electric spark.
Or if a person whose body is electrified cuts himself, then the wound won’t bleed normally, blood will only jet out of the wound like an electric current.”
Arthur talked more and more enthusiastically with the crowd, but Elder in the cage just felt his whole body cool from head to toe.
He had thought that being a science assistant was a beautiful job, not only did he not have to learn science knowledge in a painstakingly blah way, but he could also make a splash at the banquet.
But now he finally realized that no matter whether you are greedy for beauty or averse to science, sooner or later, it will harm you one day.
After Arthur said this, he picked up the discharge rod and walked to Elder’s face, comforting him, ”Don’t worry, aren’t you the self-proclaimed insulator of science? If that’s true, Sir Isaac Newton’s gravity can’t even help you, jumping off a building or whatever is all fine. Elder, it’s just a little current, relax.” “Arthur, you fucking ……”
But before Elder could finish the declarative sentence, Arthur had already begun to accelerate the hand-cranked generator.
Electricity arced in the air, and only crackling bursts of explosions could be heard as a series of electric currents struck the Faraday Cage one after another like silver snakes.
Elder had just reacted to what was going on, and he was about to wince, but he froze for a few moments before realizing that he didn’t seem to feel the least bit of the electric shock.
Not only that, but a pleasant little breeze hung over the cage, blowing his un-pressed hat to the ground.
Elder touched the inside of the cage, and after making sure that there was really nothing wrong with him, his courage instantly increased.
Elder picked up the hat on the ground and smiled with an easy smile, “Gentlemen, ladies, as you can see, I …… Uh, Arthur, what is that phenomenon called? Hm? Static shielding? Whoops! Right! Gentlemen, ladies, I’m shielded!”
As Elder had said, he was indeed shielded, as all eyes were focused on Arthur.
The crowd cried out in amazement as the ladies and gentlemen stared in disbelief, having absolutely no idea why Elder hadn’t been electrocuted.
A certain few guests who had a grudge against Elder couldn’t help but show a slight hint of disappointment; with the previous buildup, they had thought that the goal of Arthur’s validation today would be to prove just how much of a drain rate the hand-cranked generator would produce on Elder.
And the focus of the generals’ attention was obviously still on the combat aspect.
General Cochran was the first to ask, “Mr. Hastings, does this mean that electric current produces no lethality for medieval canned knights?”
General Smith, on the other hand, clenched his chin and pondered, “It was obviously not windy just now, but why did Elder’s boy’s hat get blown to the ground? Elder, did your boy fiddle around in there?”
And Mrs. Codrington, as the hostess, was all smiles, she was very satisfied with Arthur’s display of results tonight: “Mr. Hastings, people say that you are the second researcher of electromagnetism in Britannia under Mr. Faraday. But in my opinion, you may be slightly inferior to Michael Faraday in terms of research, but in terms of funny explanations and demonstrations, you are definitely number one. Next, are you going to tell us the deep principles of this?”
Arthur just smiled, “Actually, this is not something esoteric, regarding the research of this ‘Faraday Cage’, Mr. Faraday and I merely inherited the results of his mentor, Sir Humphrey Davy.”
At this time, just wide-eyed curiously watching all this Mrs. Cowper finally couldn’t help it, because Faraday’s mentor Sir David is not only an outstanding scientist, but also a former British social celebrity, Mrs. Cowper, as an important personage of London’s upper class social circle, of course, once also maintained a good friendship with him.
Taking this opportunity, Mrs. Cowper, who had been keeping quiet, asked: “Mr. Hastings, may I ask what is the relationship between this cage and Sir David? Is it difficult to believe that it is his posthumous work?”
At his words, Arthur simply smiled and lifted the kerosene lamp in his hand, “Sir David’s name is as familiar as thunder, so I’m sure all of you must be familiar with this invention of his as well.”
Colonel Elliot leaned down to take a look at the kerosene lamp covered with a layer of copper mesh, and suddenly tapped his head and asked, “This is the Davy lamp, isn’t it? There is a mine in my father’s territory, and the workers who dig there are equipped with lighting equipment like this.”
Arthur nodded slightly, “That’s right, this is exactly the Davy Lamp.In 1814, Britain’s coal mine shafts located in Newcastle, Cardiff and other places had several gas explosions triggered by the flames of the lamps, and thousands of miners were killed or injured as a result.
Upon learning the news, Sir David immediately turned his research toward improving the miner’s lamp. He studied for several months, and found that if the kerosene lamps covered with a layer of copper wire mesh, then even if the explosive gas invasion of kerosene lamps, but also the gas deflagration constraints within the copper wire mesh, rather than let the flame overflow triggered the explosion of the entire mine.
At that time, Sir David that this is because the copper wire mesh has good thermal conductivity, so it leads away from the heat generated by the burning flame of the oil lamp, so that the outside of the mine within the flammable gases can not come into contact with more than the temperature of its ignition point, thus inhibiting the probability of explosion in the mine.
But in the principle close to the Faraday cage after the introduction, I think the explanation for the Davy lamp I’m afraid we need to make some adjustments. Because if it really is the copper wire mesh absorbed heat, then with the lamp burning time increases, the copper wire mesh sooner or later will also be heated to the ignition temperature of combustible gases. Therefore, I am afraid that I don’t think it makes sense just to elaborate this problem from the macroscopic point of view of thermodynamics.”
As Arthur was saying this, suddenly, a lady standing beside Mrs. Codrington, who looked about her age and wore a black wide-brimmed hat, suddenly asked, “Could it be that what you are trying to say is Mr. John Dalton’s atomic theory?”
Arthur was a little surprised to hear this. Although he knew that the ladies of the Blue Stocking Society had always been enthusiastic about scientific research, he did not expect the scope of their understanding to be so broad.
He looked over at the lady and was about to ask, but suddenly remembered the rule that one should not ask a lady’s name of one’s own accord, and his half-open mouth became slightly stiff.
But Mrs. Codrington, as the hostess, soon discovered the difference, and smilingly came up to relieve Arthur, saying: “Mr. Hastings, I am to blame for forgetting to introduce you to the guests who are here to-day. Standing beside me is Mrs. Mary Somerville, a researcher in astrophysics and also in magnetism.
A few years ago she published a paper in the Journal of the Royal Society entitled “The Magnetizing Power of the More Refractive Rays of the Sun,” but for reasons of identity she has not yet given a scientific lecture at the Royal Society, and the presentation of that paper was made by her husband, Mr. William Somerville. Mr. Somerville.”
As soon as Arthur heard this name he knew at once who the other party was, for not long before Faraday, in order to thank him for his assistance in the study of electromagnetism, had given him a copy of the English translation of Laplace’s Celestial Mechanics, which was being intended for publication, and that translation of Celestial Mechanics had been made by the very same Mrs. Mary Somerville who was before him.
He took off his hat and nodded his head and saluted, “Madam, what a surprise to see you here.”
Mrs. Somerville just smiled, “Mr. Hastings, I have actually been eager to meet you. I wanted to tell you that I think Mr. George Avery’s criticism of you is simply unwarranted!
Whether it’s the concept of ‘lines of force’, which both you and Mr. Faraday agree on, or your Hastings force, it’s quite a remarkable creation.
The only reason I guessed that you intended to explain Faraday’s cage and Davy’s lamp from an atomistic point of view was because you were the proposer of the Hastings force, and I knew that you would surely figure out how these things were connected in the microcosm.
So what exactly are you discovering that is new, Mr. Dalton’s atomic theory that all matter in the world consists of atoms, are you planning to make any new additions to this theory?”
Arthur nodded, “Yes, through the Davy Lamp and the Faraday Cage, I have ventured a guess that not only is matter made up of atoms, but I have the honor of announcing to the world that all the atoms in this world are electrically charged. Davy’s lamp may not be as simple as we seem to think it is, and that’s more than just a superficial combustion reaction. Just a few days ago, when I went to borrow something from Mr. Faraday, I suggested the idea to him, and immediately afterwards the two of us simply went along with the experiment.”
Mrs. Somerville sniffed and seemed to think of something as she followed up with surprise, “Does that mean ……”
Arthur smiled, “In a relentless effort, Mr. Faraday and I managed to find a potential difference within a burning Davy lamp in a methane environment using an electrostatic meter.”
(End of chapter)