Chapter 308 Transoceanic Telegram
Zhang Xingjiu was born in 1879 and is 22 years old this year. In the original history, the youngest winner was William Lawrence Bragg, the winner of the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics. He and his father William Henry Bragg won the prize for their research on crystal structure using X-rays.
Until the year when Zhang Xingjiu traveled through time, no one had yet been able to break this record. However, with the advancement of human science and technology, it took a lot of time just to learn existing knowledge. In addition, with more and more scientists queuing up to receive the award, it became even more difficult to break Prague's record.
Now that Zhang Xingjiu has moved this record forward three years, it has become even more impossible to surpass. If he is lucky at the age of 25, he still has a chance to break it. But if he is 22 years old, he will have just graduated from college in the future. He will have to make breakthrough achievements during his undergraduate studies and surpass a large number of candidates waiting in line to finally win the award. This is almost impossible.
After the awards were presented, everyone took a luxurious carriage to a nearby hotel and entered the next part of the ceremony - the Nobel dinner. This year, there were only 130 guests attending the dinner, but later the number of guests increased, and many times it exceeded 1,300 people.
After the dinner, everyone went upstairs to rest. When they woke up in the morning, other winners and their families had already begun to prepare to return, but Zhang Xingjiu still had a very important job to do.
While the reporters from other countries were still there, the Wireless Telegraph Company quickly rented the hotel's largest conference hall and held a special press conference.
Svensson, who was in charge of publicity and promotion, stood on the stage with a rosy face and announced loudly to everyone, "Let us welcome Professor Zhang Xingjiu, the winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics, with warm applause! He is about to announce a great scientific breakthrough!"
"Wow!" The reporters were immediately excited. They didn't expect that they would have such an unexpected gain when they came to cover the Nobel Prize award ceremony.
Zhang Xingjiu walked up to the stage and spoke without further ado, "Gentlemen! As we all know, many scientists have claimed that wireless telegraphy cannot be transmitted over long distances due to the curvature of the earth. The distance between sending and receiving can only be limited to within 200 miles, and it cannot be used for large-scale commercial applications like wired telegraph!"
"And now, this problem has been solved by me. I have used newer technology to greatly improve the sending and receiving distance of wireless telegraphs. Now we can even use wireless telegraphs in Stockholm to communicate with the United States in real time across the ocean."
After briefly discussing the technical issues, Zhang Xingjiu announced passionately, "The experiment is now ready. Please let us witness the sending of the first transoceanic wireless telegram!"
"Boom!" The scene suddenly exploded. Even if these reporters didn't understand the technical issues very well, they could come to a simple conclusion that wired telegraph required laying telegraph lines, which was a considerable expense.
If telegraph lines across oceans were to use submarine cables, the cost would be even higher.
Wireless telegraph technology does not require telegraph lines. How much does it cost to set up the sending and receiving equipment? Compared with the wired telegraph network, it is completely not on the same order of magnitude. In this way, wireless telegraph companies can use less money to build a more extensive and dense telegraph network, which is a dimensionality reduction attack on wired telegraph.
"This is really big news! Professor Zhang, when will the experiment begin?" the reporters asked hurriedly.
"We can do it now. We have set up a transmitting and receiving device in the suburbs of Stockholm, and the same device in Newfoundland in America. Please join us to witness this great moment!"
The distance from Stockholm to the northeasternmost part of Newfoundland is about 4,000 kilometers, which is almost the limit of existing technology. This makes Zhang Xingjiu a little regretful. If another location is placed in New York, the publicity effect will definitely be better.
But it doesn't matter, today is just the beginning. Next, wireless telegraph companies around the world will cooperate and start a series of promotional activities. By then, there will be transoceanic telegraph transmission and reception demonstrations in major cities such as New York, Paris, London, and Berlin.
The wireless telegraph company had already prepared carriages. Everyone got on the carriages after leaving the hotel and headed for the suburbs. Zhang Xingjiu sat in the front carriage. When he arrived at the destination, he checked the erected antenna and the equipment below. "No problem, we can transmit!"
The operator immediately pressed the transmitter as planned, sending a radio wave into the sky in Morse code. The telegram reached the ionosphere in just a moment, and after several reflections, it was finally captured by the receiving device installed in Newfoundland.
"Got it!" the receiver on the other end shouted excitedly, and immediately decoded the telegram signal into letters. What finally appeared in front of everyone was an English word - hello!
"Great!" The representative of JP Morgan clenched his fists. He seemed to see a gold mine with astonishing content opening up in front of him.
"There's nothing surprising about this technology; he just came up with it first." Such a sour representative came from Edison's company.
Zhang Xingjiu knew how bright the future of this technology was, so when he was on a tour of academic exchanges in the United States, he not only reached cooperation with various universities, but also shared the profits with giants such as Morgan, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Mellon.
There is no other way. If you don't share the profits with them, you will get nothing. If you give it to them, Zhang Xingjiu can still get something. The Nobel Prize is the best proof. It is so frustrating that there is no strong motherland behind him.
Now these people have sent representatives to Newfoundland to witness this historic moment, and when they see that the experiment is successful, their faces flush with excitement.
"Gentlemen, what should we reply?" asked the operator.
"Good! This is a great invention! Let us express our appreciation and respect to Professor Zhang!" Morgan's representative naturally made the decision on behalf of others.
This was the first transoceanic wireless telegraph experiment, and no one wanted to make any mistakes, so the content sent was relatively simple, consisting of only one word!
Soon Stockholm also received the signal. When the reporters saw the word on the note, they immediately applauded. Even the most slow-witted reporters understood that since they could successfully transmit and receive a word, they would be able to transmit and receive an entire article soon.
This means that the road to commercialization of wireless telegraphy is now smooth, and this technology will surely bring about earth-shaking changes to the world.
Soon, the journalists' articles appeared in major newspapers around the world, and the first Nobel Prize and the first successful wireless telegraph transmission by mankind immediately became the focus of global public opinion.
(End of this chapter)
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