Chapter 275 Scientists (2)

In Vienna, a rather gorgeously decorated temporary meeting room of the Austrian Royal Academy of Sciences was full of guests and friends. The monthly scientific seminar was being held here, and this was the 24th time that Avogadro borrowed the stage of this scientist to explain his research results.

He had been rejected in the previous 23 meetings. If it were an ordinary person, he would have left the meeting in anger because he could not bear the cold eyes and ridicule.

The person who denied his views was not an ordinary person, but the absolute authority in the European chemical world at that time, the British Dalton.

But this outspoken man from the Apennines did not retreat because of this, especially when he believed that the truth was in his hands.

Avogadro has never been a submissive person who dares to be angry but dare not speak out against authority.

Back then, when he was still a young boy, he dared to stand up and openly challenge the theory of Gauss, the "king of mathematics", and used his own method to argue that the other party was speechless.

At that time, Gauss had supreme authority in the mathematical world and was praised by all his peers as "the man closest to the truth".

This person did make an unparalleled contribution to the development of mathematics, but even such a person is not perfect and can make mistakes.

"Scientific laws exist only in mathematics, and chemistry does not belong to the category of exact sciences."

Many people wanted to refute Gauss's assertion, but they were afraid of humiliating themselves when facing the unprecedented genius.

At this time, Avogadro, a physics student who changed his career, boldly put forward a different view from Gauss. He believed that mathematics was the king of natural sciences, but without other natural sciences, mathematics would lose its true value.

Gauss was already successful at the time, while Avogadro was still a tax collector in the countryside of Turin a year ago. What's more, the latter majored in physics, and chemistry was just his side job. He was a typical physicist who didn't understand chemistry and was not a good tax collector.

Gauss's temper was not good, and he humiliated Avogadro on the spot.

"Chemistry is just a maid to mathematics." (The translation versions are different, but the meaning is similar.)

Avogadro did not get angry when facing the humiliation, but responded with an experiment.

He put two liters of hydrogen into one liter of oxygen in front of Gauss and burned it, resulting in two liters of water vapor.

"Please see, in chemistry, I can do 2+1 equals 2, can you do it in mathematics?"

Although Avogadro's reply was wonderful, he only earned himself the title of "daredevil".

After that, he accidentally offended Dalton and was continuously suppressed by the latter. He even lost his position as a professor at the University of Turin and could only rely on his family's support for a while.

In history, Avogadro never pursued fame and status in his life, but just quietly immersed himself in scientific research work, and proposed the molecular hypothesis in 1811, which should have made people's understanding of the structure of matter a big step forward.

Unfortunately, Avogadro's outstanding insights were not recognized by the chemical community for a long time. Instead, they were opposed by many scientists and were neglected for nearly half a century.

But now it is different. With the strong support and funding of Franz, a "materialist" who respects science and knowledge, this neglected scientific master has gained a precious opportunity to communicate and discuss with the best chemists in Central Europe.

This has greatly improved his own theory, and at the same time, it has also made those geniuses who looked down on others re-examine themselves.

This has greatly improved his own theory, and at the same time, it has also made those geniuses who once disdained Avogadro's theory re-examine this theory.

The chemical experts present at this time are:

Fuchs, a Bavarian, a mineralogist, and one of the founders of analytical chemistry.

Debelena, a self-taught genius, created an inflatable gas lighting lamp composed of a hydrogenation device, which greatly influenced the public lighting projects at that time and in later generations. He is also an expert in testing atomic weight. However, due to lack of money and power, he did not obtain the patent for the technology he invented, and his life was very difficult.

Fischer, a Bohemian, was recorded in the history of inorganic chemistry for his discovery of "Fischer's salt". He was also one of the pioneers of the Voltaic battery and established the method of poisoning detection.

(The Voltaic battery was an early battery with poor practicality.)

Gemerin (also known as Gmelin), a Hanoverian, was an expert in cyanide. He wrote many introductory books on chemistry and trained a group of famous chemists.

Michelich, a native of Oldenburg, was an expert in crystal chemistry. He synthesized "nitrobenzene" and made outstanding contributions in fuel, gunpowder, and sucrose fermentation.

Freeman Runge, a Hamburger, extracted phenol, nitrogen and other substances from coal tar and developed paper chromatography. He was also a pioneer in paper chromatography measurement technology and a big shot in dye chemistry.

Schoenbein, a Baden native, was a typical all-rounder who knew everything about astronomy and geography. His most important discoveries were auto-oxidation, induced reaction, collodion (nitrocellulose, Wuhu took off), electrochemistry and passivated iron. Although he devoted his life to curing diseases and saving lives, his inventions later became weapons of murder.

Wöhler, a student of Gmelin, is one of the greatest chemists in human history.

Liebig, the founder of agricultural chemistry, synthesized urea with Wöhler.

(The last two are giants. If I expand on them, one chapter will not be enough, so I won’t write about them.)

etc.

These people who have left a deep mark in the history of human chemistry are by no means mediocre. The reason why Avogadro's theory has always been disliked is not the pressure of authority, but the main reason is that natural science at that time could not distinguish between molecules and atoms.

At the same time, due to the phenomenon of dissociation of some molecules, it is difficult for Avogadro's hypothesis to give a convincing empirical explanation.

However, because a butterfly flapped its wings a few times, some minor obstacles were solved, so they naturally had no reason to continue to deny this theory.

At the same time, these people also knew that the establishment of this theory would bring earth-shaking changes to the entire chemical world.

After 30 years of hard work, Avogadro finally got what he wanted, but there was not much time left for him to celebrate. Because there were still people who planned to show and prove their new achievements.

In fact, Avogadro was very lucky at this time, because his achievements were recognized 20 years earlier, and he did not even live to wait for that day in history.

With Franz's help, new theories, new inventions, and new methods were proposed one after another. These exciting things will eventually change the whole world.

For the scientists of the Royal Society of Science, this kind of knowledge that is constantly iterating is also refreshing.

Of course, there are also monsters that give scientists headaches, such as the steam-powered computer developed by Babbage and Ada.

Previously, the two pushed the accuracy of the difference engine to seven decimal places, and simplified the use method to calculate the accuracy up to 21 places.

This saved many physicists and chemists from spending a lot of time and energy on repeated calculations.

In fact, thanks to the high-power hydraulic press made by the crazy people under Franz, the Austrian Empire has the ability to manufacture precision parts far beyond this era.

At this time, a 20-bit difference engine that takes three months and costs up to 20,000 pounds only takes one week and 3,000 florins in Vienna.

The latest 21-bit difference engine costs only 10,000 florins, and the incidence of defective products is low.

So Babbage and Ada became arrogant, in every sense of the word. As they often tasted students' works and even packed them back to the laboratory, their weight and confidence increased rapidly.

Babbage planned to study a new, unique analytical engine.

Thanks to the book friend Zhan6jiang and Zimu for the reward.

I will put the colonization aside for now and write a few episodes to let the protagonist and Austria recover.