Chapter 95 Can Chinese people be knighted?
In the days that followed, Li Qiwei finally returned to a peaceful working life.
More than a month has passed since the first Nobel Prize was awarded, and everyone’s enthusiasm and curiosity finally died down.
But for the scientific research community, especially the natural science community, the Nobel Prize is just the beginning. The future will be even more exciting and the competition will be more intense.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, some institutions and individuals are already considering holding similar awards.
They do not have as much courage as the Swedish government, which uses super high bonuses to select the top scientific achievements.
After all, there are only a handful of people in the world who can win the Nobel Prize.
Although most people's achievements are slightly worse, they still have excellence and need the incentive of bonuses.
The great success of the Nobel Prize has made many people see opportunities and possibilities.
The country can use this to increase the visibility of science, and merchant capitalists use it to promote their companies and products.
For example, Solvay sent a letter to Li Qiwei, saying that he was planning to establish a Solvay Science Prize.
Specially rewards scientists who have made outstanding achievements in the field of science.
The prize money and professional areas of awards have not been determined yet. I hope Li Qiwei can give some advice.
Li Qiwei had to accept that rich people just know how to play.
He agreed very much and promised to help Solvay publicize and increase the popularity of the award.
He felt deeply that the academic exchange in 1901 was immediately transformed into the style of later generations.
In a few years, after radio is completely popularized, exchanges between scholars will become more frequent, and I am afraid that there will be more conferences and awards by then.
On November 20, Li Qiwei continued to study alpha particle scattering experiments in the laboratory.
Through continuous learning and trying, he has completely mastered the assembly of experimental equipment.
He has now changed his mind. He originally planned to publish the special theory of relativity next year as the result of his doctoral graduation.
But considering the impact that special relativity brings to physics and the relative space-time view, I am afraid no one can accept it.
I probably won’t be able to pass the doctoral defense committee review by then.
Li Qiwei can already predict that his doctoral defense will definitely be attended by big names, and he will probably be severely criticized.
In real history, after Einstein published his special theory, Planck claimed that he was nonsense.
If you can’t graduate with a doctorate because of the shocking nature of the narrow phase, then it’s a big joke.
Therefore, Li Qiwei decided to make some well-founded results, rather than pure theory like narrow phase.
The alpha particle scattering experiment was his goal.
There are experimental data, theoretical models, and it is also your own doctoral topic, a perfect choice for doctoral graduation.
Therefore, he now conducts experiments very seriously, recording each experimental data in detail to prepare for publishing papers in the future.
In this process, Li Qiwei also regained the feeling of being a doctoral student in his previous life, instead of always acting like a prophet and losing a lot of the fun of scientific research.
Only when doing experiments would his mind calm down and stop thinking about those messy things.
Suddenly, someone told him that Professor Thomson asked him to go to the office.
Li Qiwei quickly put down his work, wondering what the other party wanted to do with him. He had just done so a few days ago.
When he arrived at the office, he found that besides Thomson, there was another person in the room, who turned out to be Lord Rayleigh.
This 59-year-old man is also a master of physics.
Lord Rayleigh, whose real name was Strutt, later inherited the baronetcy of his grandfather and father and became the third Baron Rayleigh.
But in the scientific community, everyone generally calls him Lord Rayleigh.
He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1904 for "the study of gas density and the discovery of argon."
He was the second director of the Cavendish Laboratory and Thomson's mentor.
In 1884, Lord Rayleigh left Cambridge and returned to his family's villa in Essex to continue experimental research and passed the position of laboratory director to Thomson.
Now, he serves as a professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution, taking a back seat to academics and focusing on educating students.
After all, I am old and do not have the energy to do experiments, and it is also very dangerous.
At the last quantum conference in London, this old man also participated, and he was the first to ask sharp questions in an attempt to stump Li Qiwei.
Now, Li Qiwei was very surprised to see each other here again.
"Hello, Lord Rayleigh, nice to see you again."
Lord Rayleigh smiled and said: "I hope you didn't blame me for making things difficult for you in the last quantum meeting."
At his signal, Li Qiwei found a seat and sat down, and said with a smile: "Sir, you are joking, I I have to thank you for forcing me to publish the principle of the photoelectric effect in advance!"
Both Lord Rayleigh and Thomson laughed.
"Thomson, you are indeed right. This student is not only talented in physics, but also very humorous, which is very in line with our British tastes."
Thomson echoed: " Bruce is a very open-minded Qing man with no narrow prejudices in his heart.”
Lord Rayleigh nodded, then looked at Ridgway and asked: "Bruce, I'm here specifically for you today. Can you guess what it is?"
Ridgway scratched his head, he really couldn't think of anything. , this great man who is both a noble and a physicist came to see him for some important arrangements.
It’s impossible to come here to congratulate yourself on winning the Nobel Prize in Physics.
No matter how awesome the Nobel Prize is, it probably doesn’t have much appeal in the eyes of this big shot.
So, he replied honestly: "My lord, forgive my stupidity, I couldn't guess."
Thomson next to him interjected: "Bruce, it's a great thing. You are so lucky."
This made Li Qiwei even more confused. What other good things could there be? Did he want to be rated? Professor?
Lord Rayleigh looked at his confused look and smiled slightly, "Bruce, I came here today to discuss with you the matter of knighting you."
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Qiwei He almost shouted in excitement, his face full of disbelief.
“Knighted? Lord, are you kidding me? I am Chinese, can I also be knighted?”
No wonder Li Qiwei was surprised. In this era, had any Chinese been knighted in Britain?
It is not a Chinese who has become a British citizen, but a pure Chinese nationality.
In later generations, Li Qiwei knew that there were some big names in the industry who were knighted by the British even though they were not British nationals.
But it's 1901 now, and his history is very poor. I really don't know if there are any similar cases.
Seeing his surprised look, Lord Riley couldn't help but laugh, "Bruce, I finally see your childish side. I thought you could always be calm."
Li Qiwei didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The news about you is really frightening and his heart cannot bear it.
If he can get a knighthood in England, then the Li family will be afraid of damn revenge.
Given the courage of the old witch Cixi, she would not dare to blatantly attack the family property of a British knight.
When the British protested, Cixi would be frightened and run away again.
Of course, there must be small tricks in private, but as long as it is not absolutely violent, Li Qiwei is not afraid.
His father, Li Tingzhao, was not a good person either. He was a fierce man who had experienced strong winds and waves.
At this time, Lord Rayleigh explained: "Why Thomson said you are lucky is because you caught up with a good time."
"The British King Edward VII who just succeeded this year In this world, he wants to be a hero and restore the glory of the royal family in the constitutional monarchy system. "So, he wants to ennoble a group of talented people in various fields to show the majesty and love of the royal family." Realm, Lord Kelvin and I would like to nominate you to see if it will be approved."
"Of course, you can only be awarded the lowest knighthood."
"Don't even think about baron. It's impossible to become baron."
After listening to Lord Rayleigh, Li Qiwei After explaining, he was breathing rapidly, but he didn't expect that Lord Kelvin was also supporting him.
I blushed when I thought about a year ago when I bet with the other party in public at the meeting.
However, he has no regrets. He is young and not arrogant. If he does not speak up for his country, he will be looked down upon by the big guys.
As for the knighthood Lord Rayleigh mentioned, Ridgway knew a little bit about it.
British knighthood originated in the mid-14th century. In ancient times, it was only for political and military merits.
But now it has expanded to other fields such as science, literature, art and so on, and evolved into an honor system.
For example, the famous Newton was knighted and called Lord Cow.
To put it bluntly, knighthood admires bravery, justice and noble personalities who have made outstanding contributions.
It is impossible to give you fiefdom, financial benefits, etc. like before.
However, any British person would dream of being knighted, even the lowest level.
That is the glory engraved in the bones!
The British aristocratic knighthood system is extremely complex.
In addition to the royal family, which is a separate system, the British nobility is divided into two types: hereditary nobility and lifelong nobility.
Hereditary nobles are the five familiar titles of duke, marquis, uncle, son and male, ranked in order from high to low.
The title can be passed down from father to son, from generation to generation, and will not be downgraded.
Lifelong nobility is the title of baronet, but it cannot be hereditary.
A baron is not necessarily a lifelong noble. For example, Baron Rayleigh is hereditary; but a lifelong noble must be a baron.
As for Lord, it is not a specific title, but generally refers to several of the above titles.
The above two kinds of noble status are absolutely impossible for foreigners to obtain if they are not British nationals.
Under the aristocratic system, there are two other titles: baron and knight.
But note that they belong to the common people, not the nobles.
Therefore, non-British nationals who have made outstanding contributions have a certain chance of receiving these two titles.
The title of Baron is lower than the title of Baron, but higher than most knighthoods.
The wife of a baron can get the title of "lady" and the honorific title of "lady".
The knighthood can be subdivided into two types: one is to obtain the knighthood medal of knight level, and the other is to obtain the lower level knighthood.
For the first type of knighthood, according to the level of the knighthood, it can be divided into:
Order of the Garter, Order of the Thistle, Order of the Bath, and Order of Merit. , Order of St. Michael and St. George, Order of Victoria. (from high to low)
The above medals have strict requirements and are extremely rare.
In real history, Edward VII's successor, George V, added the Order of the British Empire in 1917, ranking last as a supplement.
The Order of the British Empire consists of 5 levels: Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE), Commander of the Order of the Knights (KBE, DBE for women), Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), OBE, and OBE Medal of Honor (MBE).
Among them, only recipients of GBE and KBE can be crowned with the title of knight, which means adding "Sir" before their name.
The latter three are not considered knighthoods, they are just knighthood medals.
As for the second kind of inferior knighthood, it is the oldest knighthood in Britain.
But it is not a kind of knighthood. It is the lower level of knighthood, roughly the same level as KBE, so it can also be called a knight.
Mr. Shao, the famous founder of TVB in later generations, is a knight of the lower rank.
To sum up, the fifth-degree male title of Duke, Duke and Bozi is called the corresponding title or Lord; while the title of baron and knight is called knight.
The above is the British noble title system. Of course, there must be more details, as well as historical factors and other changes.
However, that is not what Li Qiwei can know.
Lord Kelvin and Lord Rayleigh nominated Ridgway for a knighthood.
Once he can pass the canonization, he can be respected as "Sir" by others, even though it is the lowest rank of knight.
For a moment, Li Qiwei felt hot and his eyes changed when he looked at Lord Rayleigh.
However, he still asked worriedly, "Lord, are you sure there is no problem with my identity?"
Hearing this, Lord Rayleigh thought for a while and said, "In view of your Achievements in the field of physics, and in the name of a student at the University of Cambridge.”
"Both Lord Kelvin and I believe that a knighthood, the lowest level, should not be a big problem."
"King Edward VII may want to show the importance of the British Empire to the world by granting you a knighthood. Tolerance and style."
"Of course, if you are willing to become a British citizen now, I think it is not impossible to become a baron."
Li Qiwei smiled awkwardly, that is absolutely impossible.
To be honest, he didn't regard the British title as anything special.
Based on his future achievements, the UK may not be qualified to be canonized.
But now, he urgently needs such a tiger skin to put on his body, so that the Manchu and Qing Dynasties will not dare to act rashly, and he can better implement the Spark Plan.
Then, he asked: "Lord, do I need to do anything?"
Lord Rayleigh suddenly felt a little embarrassed, and finally said: "Bruce, you know, although the seal Being a knight is a matter of honor, but it also requires relationship management. "
"If you can spend 10,000 pounds to operate it, I think it can improve your success rate."
Li Qiwei is very easy to accept this. It has been the same in the East and the West throughout the ages.
The aloof Edward VII never even met Ridgway before signing his name and conferring a knighthood.
All kinds of tedious work here require the people below to work hard to do it. Of course, some benefits must be given to others.
Lord Rayleigh added: "The canonization ceremony is expected to be held in Buckingham Palace in January next year."
"By then, high-level nobles will also be canonized."< br>
"You can choose to go to the scene, or you can refuse to go. A knighthood has little impact."
Li Qiwei was speechless, and his ranking was too low.
Before 1926, the lower-level knights did not have their own medals, only medals.
But this is normal. Unlike in later generations, the canonization of a KBE may be very grand, with the Queen personally awarding medals to the recipients on the spot.
In this period, the British Empire colonized everywhere and went to war with the indigenous people and other countries.
Every once in a while, many people achieve enough military exploits to become a knight, and can directly reach the title of baron and become a noble in one step.
In comparison, Ridgway's lower rank of knighthood seems inconspicuous.
Finally, he couldn't help but ask: "Lord, why do you go to such lengths to help me?"
Lord Rayleigh thought for a while and said: "I am thinking about Thomson in the future. Prepare for the knighthood and familiarize yourself with the process in advance."
After that, the hearty laughter of the three people sounded in the room.
(End of this chapter)