Chapter 712 Edison Living in the Shadows (Fourth Update, Please Subscribe)
After the movie ended, the lights in the cinema came on.
When the projection room was brightly lit, Edison was still sitting there. He looked back at the projection room, and in his mind he even had an idea to go there to find out what kind of machine could project such a realistic picture.
He was sure that there must be a very close connection between movie cameras and cameras, because he had seen some principles of movie cameras in some academic works before.
He even thought about improving the movie camera, but apart from those pictures and text materials, he knew nothing about movie cameras.
Now he had the opportunity to personally touch those movie cameras, but he knew very well that it was a place he could not enter.
“Perhaps only a country of inventors could have such novel and numerous inventions.”
While sighing like this, Edison was also feeling a little heavy-hearted, because the place he couldn't enter was not just the projection room during those few days. Compared to the reflection, he wanted to enter the Empire Central Laboratory more.
That is the real temple of inventors. I don’t know how many inventions were born there.
This was something Edison only learned after he came to the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the research institutes of various companies in the Ming Dynasty, there was also a mysterious "Imperial Central Laboratory". Even until now, not many people know where that laboratory is.
He is extremely mysterious.
Only a very few qualified people can enter that laboratory, but even they don't know where the laboratory is.
If it weren't for the fact that the "Imperial Central Laboratory" recruits some technicians to enter the laboratory for training every year, perhaps no one would believe that there is such a mysterious institution in the world.
Telephones, electric lights, cars, gasoline engines, airships, motorcycles, bicycles, movies, medicines...almost all inventions and innovations of the Ming Dynasty that can be found are inseparable from the shadow of the "Imperial Central Laboratory".
It can also be said that after learning about the existence of this institution, Edison's dream was naturally to join that laboratory, where the world's best inventors would work together and, more importantly, learn, as there was a lot of technological knowledge there that was ahead of other countries in the world.
Edison was convinced of this because many of the lab supervisors at the Ming Telegraph and Telephone Company where he was working were from the "Imperial Central Laboratory". They had mentioned more than once that they had gained a lot from studying there. They encouraged other young technicians to work harder and strive to enter the "Imperial Central Laboratory" for further study as soon as possible.
"Imperial Central Laboratory" is the dream place for all technicians, and of course it is also Edison's dream place.
However, for others there is a chance that dream may come true.
For Edison, a foreigner, this dream was just a dream.
After all, only people from the Ming Dynasty can enter that laboratory. As a foreigner, he must become a naturalized citizen before he has the opportunity.
Before this, he had only thought about the "Imperial Central Laboratory".
"Hey, naturalization..."
When leaving the cinema, Edison became a little melancholy, because as a foreigner, it was not easy for him to naturalize.
Not only did he have to pass the Chinese language proficiency test, but he also had to get his employer to certify that he was the talent needed by the Ming Dynasty, and his professional category had to be on the talent introduction form. Of course, this was not a problem. After all, he was a true inventor.
But Chinese... is really hard to learn!
And for Edison, he really didn't want to stay in this country, because this country had too many inventions. Even if we don't talk about the "Imperial Central Laboratory", just the invention efficiency of those corporate laboratories is not something that the inventors themselves can compare with.
This is also the secret of the rise of Ming Dynasty industry.
But for Edison, an inventor, such an environment was too competitive.
How could he possibly compete with those laboratories alone?
He even felt that he was living in the shadow of so many scientists to some extent. Just like the phonograph he saw in the exhibition hall half a month ago. Edison himself had a similar idea, but when his idea was not yet mature, he unexpectedly saw the phonograph in the Daming Industrial Exhibition Hall.
This was simply a copy of the ideas and inspirations in his mind. Even now he still remembered the astonished look on his face when he first saw the phonograph.
He was completely stunned, as if he saw someone take an object out of his mind alive.
Only Edison himself knew the feeling and taste. Besides the joy, he felt more despair. Why was he despairing? Because he found that his inspirations seemed to be insignificant here.
Because long before him, there were many more outstanding inventors who had similar inspirations, and they quickly turned their flashes of inspiration into real industrial products.
Such an environment was too depressing. Edison rested for two days before he recovered. If he had not been strong-willed, he would have collapsed.
This also meant that it was difficult for him to become a millionaire by relying on inventions in this land. Of course, the income from the laboratory was not bad, but what Edison wanted was not to work for others, but to be his own boss.
Even back in the United States, he had envisioned setting up a laboratory, recruiting the best minds to work for him and turning his inspiration into reality, just like the laboratories in the Ming Dynasty, where hundreds of the smartest people were working on one or several inventions.
There would be the latest experimental results in those laboratories at all times, just like the synchronous telegraph he brought. However, a new improved model had been launched in just over a month. Compared with its prototype, the new synchronous telegraph was more reliable and more efficient.
Those laboratories were certainly the experiments that Edison dreamed of, but they were not his laboratories.
So in Edison's view, such an environment was too bad for inventors like him. Those laboratories were simply stealing their jobs.
Such a "harsh environment" is certainly not the inventor's dream place, so Edison had already made up his mind that as long as the contract expired, he would leave Ming Dynasty and return to the United States to establish his own laboratory in the United States.
Then what?
Of course, they would hire a large number of the smartest talents to overwhelm American inventors.
There was no way out. Daming was too arrogant. Edison felt that he would definitely be buried here. He really couldn't afford to be arrogant.
Edison was in a heavy mood. When he walked to the street, the lights were already on. The bright street lights and the lights of the surrounding shops turned the whole city into a city that never sleeps. While walking on the streets of Yingtian, he still felt the city with an appreciative attitude.
Unlike walking on the streets of New York, where one needs to be careful to avoid horse manure on the ground and the air is filled with the smell of horse urine, the air in Yingtian is fresh. Even now, he still remembers what his wife said when he first arrived in Yingtian and got off the boat.
“The air here is sweet.”
This is because the streets here are not like those in New York, where there are horse-drawn carriages everywhere, horse feces and urine flowing all over the ground, and piles of garbage that no one cleans up. Anyone walking on the street can relieve themselves as long as they feel like urinating, so such streets are naturally full of stench.
In fact, this is also the most troublesome problem in cities around the world in this era - how to deal with horse manure on the streets. In the past few decades, countless smart minds have proposed various solutions, but to no avail.
However, with the invention of trams and the popularization of bicycles in the Ming Dynasty, coupled with the gradual promotion of automobiles, this seemingly unsolvable problem was solved. At least in big cities like Yingtian and Nanhua, such problems were far less serious than in European and American cities.
Breathing the slightly fragrant air, Edison couldn't help but envy the people of the Ming Dynasty and the environment in which they lived.
But despite this, he knew very well deep down in his heart that this was not a suitable place for him.
After all, the scientific research environment in the Ming Dynasty is really too competitive!
Besides, if you want to become a Ming Dynasty person, you need to go through many tests!
I have set up a book club: 335260551. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.
(End of this chapter)
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