348 Everything Is Ready (2/2)
”… I think Lucien Evans' contribution to the field of thermal radiation research well deserves Ice & Snow Medal. Although his assumption that energy comes in potions has not been verified, it can still be regarded as an explanation. His formula and constant are so accurate that they can for sure improve the researches in thermal radiation… Of course, I have to admit that I like how they call every potion of energy - quantum.
”Your friend, Derrick Douglas”
After reading the letter, Hellen pondered for a while and then picked up the quill,
”… As far as I know, Lucien's explanation has not been accepted by the public, or, I should say, barely anyone would agree with the explanation. Right now many will not agree on granting Lucien Evans Ice & Snow Medal, or the reputation of the award would be severely damaged. Also, because Evans was Fernando's student, we should be even more cautious… In ten years, if no new explanations can be found, and when Evans' formulation and constant are widely applied, at that time, it wouldn't be too controversial to give him the honor…”
...
In the meeting room of Atom Institution.
”… So, from the previous experiments, I found that cathode ray can only march a few centimeters in air, and that's why we ignored its existence before.” Lazar's face was glowing with excitement when sharing his findings with the other members. Behind him was the piece of glass reflecting green light.
Under Lucien's instruction, in this month, Lazar, Rock, Jerome and the apprentices had all devoted themselves to the study full of passion. Every single one of the sorcerers had finished at least seven papers, and the apprentices also did four. As four Lucien himself, he had developed ten papers. The papers were about the absorption of the ray, its penetrating property, and the change of the shadow positions in the strong magnetic field and electric field.
Their conclusion was that cathode ray was probably a negatively charged particle stream. And they had figured out the design of an isolation device for casting pure rays to determine the charge mass ratio through the ray's trajectory in the electromagnetic field. So they could tell what kind of particle they were.
Since the cathode ray could penetrate the foil, Rock and Jerome also put forward their opinion that it might not be some kind of particle stream, but they currently still had no idea what it should be. The measurements of the velocity of the cathode ray shattered their initial thought that the ray was a kind of electromagnetic wave, as it was proved that the speed of the ray was much less than that of light.
When Lazar finished, Rock also shared his work, ”…No persistent deflection of the cathode ray has been found in the strong electromagnetic field, and thus we might be wrong in saying that it is charged. As for the previous experimental results, they are probably misunderstood by us because of the complex gas environment within the magic circle…”
Both Jerome and Lazar agreed.
Although the apprentices were capable of doing the specific researches and developing the experiment reports, when the arcanists were talking about serious arcana knowledge, they were still having a difficult time understanding their words.
”I think there might be some other interference factors… I need some time to redesign the experiment.” Lucien expressed his opinion.
The pressure from the thin air would make it impossible for small particles to deflect, which would require the vacuum environment. And so far, Lucien was well aware that none of the congress's magic circles could do this. As cathode rays were in fact streams of electrons, they were still some distance away from the discovery of electrons and seeing the internal structure of an atom.
The belief that an atom was an indivisible unit would remain unshakable for a while in the world of arcana.
The grand gate of the world of microcosm was looming, but it had not been pushed open yet!
Lazar, Rock and the rest of the arcanists were all happy hearing that Lucien was going to handle the challenging, theoretical task himself. They would rather focus on conducting the specific cathode ray experiments because these experiments could bring them the real arcana credits. They did not want to waste their time on such a vague topic that they could not find a direction at all!
After submitting the paper announcing the discovery of cathode ray, Lucien got thirty arcana credits and each of the arcanists got five. The apprentices were not yet qualified to put their names on the paper.
Although the reward was already very decent to most of the junior-rank arcanists, what the institution members got was even more than that. On average, each of their paper had brought them four arcana credits. Among them, Lazar was the most outstanding one—in the past month, Lazar had got thirty credits in total with the papers he published, which made him only ten credits away from becoming a level three arcanist. Rock and Jerome were also level two arcanists now.
And they would also be expecting more citation credits later. They loved their experiments so much!
The apprentices also had thirteen to fourteen credits now. Although they had not found the time to get the badge, or they would have already become real arcanist.
Most arcanists would drop their chin at how fast the institution members made the progress.
...
In a monastery in Rentato, Holm.
A bishop was introducing the foundation of divinity modified and improved by the popes to the several pastors in training.
”The Lord first created different atoms, and they are the tiniest units in the world that cannot be further be divided. The Lord then created all the things with the atoms…”
...
Today's discussion of cathode ray was over. Jerome started to share the progress they had made in their ultralow temperature experiment.
Jerome looked quite cheerful, ”Lucien, we've found that at minus 185 Degrees Celsius, the property of charcoal changes dramatically and it becomes very easy for it to absorb air.”
”Excellent.” nodded Lucien. Although there were other ways of creating a vacuum environment, using charcoal was the best way for sure.
And their next step would be redesigning the magic circle to measure the charge mass ratio of cathode ray!