Shadow of great britain

"Has anything changed in London lately?"

"Well...London is still the same London, not much has changed. However, there has been a lot of news from the Royal Society."

"Is there any news from the Royal Society?" Arthur lit his pipe and asked, "Could it be that Mr. Faraday did not award the Copley Medal?"

"Of course not," Tennyson said with a smile. "Mr. Faraday was elected unanimously."

Arthur joked: "Alfred, this is not called news. If Mr. Faraday loses the election, it will be called news. You may not know what Mr. Faraday's "On the Law of Electromagnetic Induction" means to the scientific community. This is like the Duke of Wellington's Battle of Waterloo. So, after he took out that paper, it was only a matter of time before Mr. Faraday won the Copley Medal, the Royal Society's highest honor. Fortunately, the Royal Society's Academic Committee did not It’s disappointing that they finally got this multiple choice question right.”

As soon as Arthur finished speaking, Alexandre Dumas opened the curtains and pointed at a strange machine connected to insulated copper wires and asked: "Is this thing a new invention? The wires connected to it are too long. , starting from the second floor of the editorial office and leading all the way to the west end of Fleet Street, where are you planning to connect to?"

"Ah! You're talking about that thing!"

Tennyson stood up after hearing this and explained: "Actually, I don't know what this thing is for. When Wheatstone came to the editorial office to set up this machine, he just told me that he planned to use it to measure the propagation speed of electric current. But because The speed of the current was too fast, so he could only stretch the wire longer and longer. As far as I know, he placed the other end of the machine in a small house four kilometers away."

When Arthur heard this, he couldn't help complaining: "Can't he conduct this experiment at the Royal Society? The experimental locations are located in two such distant places. How does he plan to calculate the propagation time?"

Tennyson smiled and replied: "I asked him this question at first. But Mr. Wheatstone told me that he had also set up such a facility in the Royal Society. But because the laboratory of the Royal Society is relatively narrow, He was worried that stacking wires together would cause electromagnetic induction, which would lead to errors in experiments. Therefore, he spent his own money to set up a new instrument under outdoor conditions. As for the issue of statistical propagation time, before each experiment started, he They will come and check their watches with me in advance, and we will agree on a power-on time. When the time comes, I will be here to help him power on."

Alexandre Dumas looked at the endless wire through the window. The fat Frenchman, who occasionally cared about the latest scientific progress, couldn't help but ask: "But, do I remember that the current is not instantaneous? There is electricity here, There was an immediate reaction there.”

Tennyson nodded and said: "In fact, Mr. Wheatstone's final measurement results are basically consistent with the concept that the current speed is instantaneous. I originally advised him to give up, but Mr. Wheatstone has not given up. Recently I I heard that he seemed to be thinking about using a brand new method to measure the current speed."

"A brand new method?" Alexandre Dumas asked curiously: "How does he plan to do it?"

Tennyson shook his head and said: "He introduced it to me, but I didn't understand it very well. Anyway, it should be related to the rotating mirror and the duration of the electric spark."

Dumas was extremely curious about the experimental methods, but Arthur's focus was entirely on the machine.

He pointed at the instrument and said: "Since our Mr. Wheatstone has decided that this thing is useless, let him send someone to dismantle it another day. Building such a thing will really affect the outside world of the editorial department." The wall looks beautiful.”

When Tennyson heard this, he quickly stopped him and said, "This thing can't be dismantled."

"Why?"

Tennyson stepped forward and pointed to the instrument panel with two small magnetic needles on it, and said to Arthur: "What do you think this is?"

Arthur leaned down and observed carefully, and then he discovered that the diamond-shaped dashboard in front of him had been carefully punched with 26 small holes, and each small hole was thoughtfully marked with 26 letters from A to Z.

Seeing this thing, even though Arthur had never used it, it did not affect his guess of the real function of this instrument.

Arthur's brows jumped: "Cable telegram?"

Alexandre Dumas also exclaimed: "Mr. Wheatstone has mentioned this thing to me before. I didn't expect that I actually asked him to get it out?"

Tennyson smiled shyly: "During this period, I use this machine to chat with Mr. Wheatstone to relieve my boredom. Although the translation work is more troublesome. But for people like me and Mr. Wheatstone, there is nothing Invent something comparable to this machine that allows you to chat without having to meet in person.”

Arthur held his chin and stared at this simple telegraph machine for a long time. He suddenly asked: "Can I use this thing to talk to Charles now?"

Tennyson raised his head and took a look at the sky outside the window: "It should be fine. Normally at this time, Mr. Wheatstone has already started working in his private laboratory."

Arthur nodded slightly: "Okay, send a message to him for me, saying that you seem to have discovered a new method of measuring the speed of current, and ask him to come to Fleet Street immediately."

When Tennyson heard this, he couldn't help showing a hint of embarrassment: "But Arthur... isn't that a lie?"

"It's okay." Arthur leaned back on the velvet chair in front of the editor-in-chief's desk, put his hands on the back of his head and said, "When he comes, you can say that this message was sent by me."

"But..." Tennyson took out a thin pamphlet from the drawer: "You don't know our code book. If the message is really from you, he will definitely see through it at a glance."

"And the code book?"

Alexandre Dumas took the notebook and flipped through two pages at random. The densely packed characters on it made his head spin. He asked: "No one can use this machine except you and Mr. Wheatstone. Do you need it?" Are you doing this kind of encrypted call?”

Tennyson shook his head and said: "We did not create the code book for confidentiality, but for more convenient and efficient communication. Although there are 26 letters on this telegraph machine, it would be too troublesome to communicate one letter after another. So I and I Mr. Wheatstone devised a cipher that allowed for the abbreviation of calls."

At this point, Tennyson pointed to a line of words in the codebook and said: "For example, here, you see, AD refers to your name, Alexandre Dumas. CW refers to Mr. Wheatstone's name, Charles Wheatstone. ."

Arthur asked while pouring tea: "So, I am AH?"

Alexandre Dumas, who was staring at the code book and studying it, heard this and suddenly couldn't help but smile.

The fat French man said: "That's half right. Because AH has two meanings in this code book."

"Really?" Arthur took a sip from the tea cup: "What is the other item?"

Alexandre Dumas turned the code book around and responded loudly to Arthur: "Ass Hole."

When the red devil heard this, he couldn't help laughing. He put his arm around Arthur's shoulders and said, "My dear Arthur, why do you bother to ask such a question?"

Arthur put down the tea cup and said: "It seems that Charles is really guilty. Maybe he should also submit an article for "The British". There are not many scientists who can use puns so smoothly."

Tennyson said in embarrassment: "Arthur, Mr. Wheatstone probably has no intention of targeting you. This is just a coincidence."

"Whatever." Arthur said nonchalantly: "As long as he can help me set up a telegraph machine at Scotland Yard to each major police station, Ass Hole will be Ass Hole."

When Tennyson heard this, he could only pray secretly for Wheatstone in his heart, hoping that Arthur could at least give some money during the process of setting up the telegraph machine.

In order to avoid embarrassment, he took the initiative to change the topic.

"By the way, during this period, the editorial department has some other news, some of which are about you."

"About me?" Arthur suddenly remembered what Irving told him about Edgar Allan Poe: "Is it possible that some young man who wants to write a detective novel came to him?"

Tennyson smiled and replied: "You really guessed it right. One of your supporters wants to get an autograph from you. It would be great if there is a chance to meet you. But that’s it.”

Alexandre Dumas couldn't help frowning when he heard this: "What's the origin of this man? Why do you have to meet him when you just want an autograph? Who does he think he is? We are literary creators, not acrobats in the circus." "

Seeing that Dumas was dissatisfied, Tennyson hurriedly explained: "If any disrespectful person made such a request, of course I would kick him out. But... Arthur's supporter has a somewhat special situation, and he is Mrs. Shelley requested it for her when she came to deliver the manuscript, so it was really hard for me to say no.”

Arthur instantly captured the key words, and he groaned: "Mrs. Shelley? Well... that's really not easy to refuse."

Alexandre Dumas also captured the key words, and immediately fell into deep thought: "Her? Well... it is indeed ungentlemanly to refuse a lady."

Tennyson added: "I heard Mrs. Shelley say before that since we recommended her "Frankenstein" to the theater for adaptation into a stage play, there have been many more people approaching her to adapt novel scripts recently than before. Coupled with the help of the editorial department, the compilation and publication of Shelley’s posthumous works became much smoother.

Therefore, she can now better focus her life on socializing. Not long ago, after a long absence from the Bluestocking Club, she rejoined their reading salon. If you are going to attend a Blue Stocking Club event one day, you can send someone to say hello to her in advance, and she will bring your little fan with her. "

"So... who is it?" Alexandre Dumas winked and pressed on Tennyson's shoulder: "Alfred, do you even want to hide it from me?"

Tennyson couldn't laugh or cry about this: "Alexander, it's not that I didn't tell you, but I don't know what the situation is. Mrs. Shelley just told me that the young lady's health is not very good, and it is difficult to even go out. If Otherwise, she would definitely not make such a rude request for Arthur to see her."

Arthur heard that Mrs. Shelley mentioned this, and knew that this matter probably could not be declined.

He nodded and said: "In that case, I will let someone inform her the next time I participate in the Blue Stocking Club event. Next time Mrs. Shelley comes to submit a manuscript, please help me tell her. In addition, try to communicate with her as much as possible To be clear, due to recent busy schedules and the impact of cholera, my next participation in Blue Stocking Society activities may not be until the start of the social season next year."

Tennyson solved a commission and nodded with relief: "No problem, this is human nature. I believe Mrs. Shelley will understand."

Speaking of this, Arthur suddenly turned to ask about another thing.

"By the way, has Mr. Bernie Harrison been in the newsroom lately?"

"Harrison?" Alexandre Dumas raised his eyebrows and asked, "Why did he come to the editorial office?"

Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Tennyson said: "Recently, Mr. Harrison did come to the editorial office and said he wanted to see you. If I remember correctly, just a few days ago, the Liverpool shooting incident It happened not long ago. As soon as he arrived at the editorial office, he kept vomiting his bitterness to me, and said some scary words such as "I really didn't kill anyone" and "None of this has anything to do with me."

However, I really didn’t know what he was talking about. When he saw that I couldn’t figure out the situation, he told me that it was you who asked him to come to the editorial office of "The British" after he figured it out. I asked him to calm down, but he couldn't calm down. The two of us chatted like this for a long time. In the end, he realized that I really didn't seem to know anything. So he told me to inform him as soon as you come back, and he will take the initiative to come to you to clarify everything. "