Into Unscientific

Chapter 330 Enemies Are Extremely Jealous When They Meet (7.4K)

"I'm sorry! You traitor! You still have the face to appear here?!"

These angry words exploded like Didara's bomb, instantly quieting the noisy booth.

Together with Sissoko.

Xu Yun and the others turned their heads at the same time, looking at the place where the sound came from.

This moment.

At the booth about ten meters away from them, several people were divided into two camps with sharp attitudes, confronting each other with swords drawn.

Five on the right, three on the left.

The angry voice above came from one of the three people on the left, but after seeing their faces clearly, Xiaomai subconsciously shouted:

"Huh? Mr. Babbage and Ms. Ada?"

In fact, Xu Yun and others also discovered the other party's identity without Mai Mai's reminder:

At this time, the most emotional person on the left side who spoke out was.

Charles Babbage!

No wonder Xu Yun felt that the voice was familiar.

This little old man, whose name is exactly the same as the King of England in 2022, was being blocked by the earl of Lovelace and Ada at this moment, looking at someone with fiery eyes.

On the opposite side of him, that is, on the right side as everyone looked, stood six men of different ages.

Among them, at the forefront is a man older than Babbage.

This person is wearing a British gentleman's hat, leaning on a cane in his hand, and wearing a red plaid tie on his chest with personality.

It is clear.

He is the protagonist who was madly exported by Babbage.

However, Xu Yun's gaze only stayed on this person for half a second before he was attracted by another person behind him:

It was a middle-aged man with short blond hair. His appearance was not bad, but his eyes were a bit fierce.

And this is also the second time Xu Yun met with each other after the interview meeting of the Cambridge Apostles.

That's right.

This person was the one who insulted Xu Yun with wild words at the Apostle Club, and Aveline finally broke his head with a plate.

Harvey Clement!

Well, wait!

Clement?

After thinking of the other party's name.

A few guesses flashed through Xu Yun's mind, and he turned to Aveline and Lao Tang and said:

"Mr. Thomson, classmate Avelyn, let's go and have a look first."

"After all... After all, the Countess of Lovelace is not in good health, and it would be bad if there was an accident."

Avelyn and Lao Tang nodded at the same time.

This is the booth of Oxford University. The little old man who quarreled with Babbage was either a professor at Oxford or a partner. Xu Yun and the others would definitely suffer if they really got into trouble.

Therefore, using Ada as the entry point is the most suitable choice, at least to ensure that Oxford will not be overwhelmingly biased towards the other side.

No matter how brave they are, they dare not do anything to a countess—even if her husband is an abnormally promoted count.

Then, including Sissoko, a group of people walked quickly towards Babbage's location.

"Mr. Babbage."

After coming to Babbage's side.

Xu Yun, Lao Tang, and Mai Mai quickly blocked Babbage's sides first, while Avelyn held Ada's hand:

"Are you all right?"

The sudden appearance of the "reinforcement" made Babbage slightly astonished, but after seeing clearly that it was Xu Yun, his eyes lit up immediately, and he grabbed Xu Yun's arm:

"Student Luo Feng!"

Xu Yun patted his hand, nodded to Ada and Earl Lovelace, and then said to Babbage:

"Mr. Babbage, what happened?"

Hearing this, Babbage immediately tightened Xu Yun's hand, and looked aside angrily:

"Student Luo Feng, look at this! How shameless!"

Xu Yun followed the trend and looked.

Only at this moment.

On an open field about ten meters away from them, there is a huge piece of equipment.

The whole body of the equipment is made of copper, and the main part is four cylinders with a height of 1.5 meters and a diameter of about 40 centimeters.

These columns are composed of superimposed gears, which look somewhat similar to the Turkish barbecue of later generations.

There are several buttons on the side of the cylinder, and a small opening similar to the output port of a fax machine for outputting results.

In addition, Xu Yun also saw a steam engine, which was closely connected to the equipment and was obviously used to provide power.

After a few seconds.

Wheat couldn't help shouting in a low voice:

"Isn't this the Difference Engine you designed, Mr. Babbage? Why did it appear here?"

Babbage nodded heavily, and his eyes once again locked on the little old man opposite, with a ferocious expression on his face as if after Harland scored a goal:

"You have to ask this Mr. Joseph Clement, this is a shameless betrayal!"

"Enough, Charles!"

Hear what Babbage said.

The little old man named Joseph Clement couldn't help but sneered, and slammed the floor heavily with his crutches:

"Charles, the matter between you and me has long been settled. This is the judgment made by the British Supreme Court, representing the will of the empire!"

"Some things can't be changed even if you say them ten thousand times!"

"Today you and my old friend met, I wanted to smile away the grievances, but I didn't expect Charles to be so stubborn"

"Fart your mother! It's obvious that you shamelessly cheated me of my trust!"

An unhealthy rosiness surged on Babbage's face again, and Xu Yun felt that his body was trembling constantly:

"At the beginning, I gave you all the funds and devoted myself to blueprint design, but what did you do?"

"Mediocre thief! Traitor! Evil thief! Rebel!"

Babbage's anger seems to have turned into substance, and it can be transformed into Super Saiyan II in Dragon Ball.

Xu Yun held Babbage's hand tightly to prevent him from getting violent, and at the same time he understood the cause and effect in his heart.

mentioned earlier.

The Difference Engine designed by Babbage and Ada was unsuccessful for two main reasons.

One is because the thinking is advanced, far exceeding the cognition of the times.

One step ahead is a genius, three steps ahead is a madman.

The second is because of a person's rebound.

This man is Babbage's most trusted engineer, and also the little old man standing in front of him.

Joseph Clement.

The grievances between Clement and Babbage occurred in 1824, when Babbage first proposed the concept of difference engine.

At that time, the British Treasury subsidized Babbage 1,500 pounds, allowing him to start building a full-scale difference engine.

Babbage's difference engine required high precision equipment, and the manufacturing process at that time was far from meeting Babbage's requirements.

So he hired Joseph Clement to assist, and asked Clement to make the tools that could produce the parts of the Difference Engine.

Joseph Clement was one of the top engineers at the time. Regardless of what happened later, Joseph Clement was indeed a very strong partner.

For example, he took an apprentice named Joseph Whitworth, who later became the inventor of the length measuring machine and the gear hobbing machine.

According to the division of functions of Babbage and Joseph Clement at that time, the steps of the production link are as follows:

Babbage first designed a module of the Difference Engine, and then designed and built the tools to produce the module.

This part of the funds passed through Clement's hands-he used the funds to equip thousands of pounds worth of mechanical tools, which were designed by Babbage and built with government investment.

But according to the law, the funds were upgraded to Clement's equipment, so the funds were Clement's property.

For example, A designs a schematic diagram of a gear, and B casts a mold for the gear, and then produces the gear.

The gear will naturally go back to A in the end, but the owner of the mold is B, that is, Joseph Clement.

So in 1834.

Clement finally bounced back:

He refused to work for Babbage any more, withholding the drawings and parts.

And countersued Babbage and the British government, and finally succeeded.

Joseph Clement's knife directly hit Babbage's vitals, almost turning Babbage into Makoto Ito.

Henceforth.

The British government gave up the investment in the difference engine, even if Faraday came forward, it would be difficult to coordinate.

In fact, this cannot be entirely blamed for the short-sightedness of the British government, after all, they gave Babbage a chance in the early days.

For the British government, the capital, they understand the contradictions among the entrepreneurial partners, but they cannot empathize with them—after all, the essence is to lose money.

Besides, from the perspective of the British government, who knows if the two are acting to defraud investment?

This kind of thing is not uncommon, whether it is 1850 or 2022.

all in all.

After this knife.

Babbage's vitality was severely injured, just like Cao Cao who defeated Chibi, he would never be able to complete the great cause of reunification in this life.

In Xu Yun's later generations, there is a general opinion in related industries:

The reason why Babbage was unable to produce the Difference Engine was largely due to Joseph Clement's reverse jump.

This jump directly led to Babbage having to spend a lot of time to attract investment, and rarely able to really work.

Otherwise, based on the design plan left by Babbage, the Analytical Engine may still be a bit difficult, but the possibility of the Difference Engine coming out is very high.

Now look at this posture

Joseph Clement should have found Oxford University with the drawings and equipment, and designed such a difference engine using Babbage's principle?

That's why Babbage was furious when he saw this device.

In a sense.

This should be regarded as a tauren act.

Then Xu Yun glanced at Harvey Clement behind Joseph Clement—that is, the middle-aged man he saw at the dinner party of the Apostles Society, the second president of the Apostles Society.

Judging from the name, age and position.

Harvey Clement was either the son of Joseph Clement, or a nephew or something.

At the same time, a member of the Apostolic Society of Cambridge University will appear at the Oxford booth, which clearly shows one thing:

Harvey Clement had fully embraced the Whig Party.

This moment.

Harvey Clement was staring at Xu Yun with an angry target, obviously thinking of the punch at the Apostles Club dinner.

Hisokho Hooker and Aveline, Harvey Clement and Xu Yun, Joseph Clement and Babbage.

Six people and two camps, this can form a 3V3 of Twisted Forest.

Seeing that there are more and more melon-eating parties around, Sissoko, who is in charge of booth management, gradually felt the pressure.

In addition, the confidence of Riemann and Kirchhoff had been hit twice before, and the mentality of this descendant of Hook could not help but become a little impatient at this time.

He frowned and glanced at Babbage, ignored the little old man, and asked Avelyn directly:

"Aveline, are you here to visit the exhibition or to mess things up? Can Cambridge University fail to show even basic respect?"

Avelyn gave him a cold look:

"Sissoko, don't try to give us a label. Since you are the person in charge of the exhibition at Oxford University today, you must know what happened at the time. When it really happened, you thought Oxford was right?"

After finishing speaking, she ignored Sissoko, turned around and said to Babbage and Ada:

"Mr. Babbage, Mrs. Ada, I understand your feelings very well. As a Cambridge student, I am not afraid of confronting those people from Oxford."

"But after all, this is an exposition organized by His Majesty Albert, representing the image of the royal family and even the entire empire, so you see."

At this time, although Babbage's chest was still heaving, but the whole person was much calmer than before. Hearing this, he took a deep breath and said:

"I see, thank you, Aveline."

Then he turned his head, stared at Joseph Clement for a few seconds, and suddenly said:

"Clement, since you moved this equipment to the exhibition site, you shouldn't refuse outsiders to visit, right?"

Joseph Clement was taken aback when he heard the words, his pupils shrank slightly after he came back to his senses, and he nodded heavily:

"Of course, anyone can visit this device as long as it does not interfere with the exhibition."

After finishing speaking, Joseph Clement glanced at Babbage secretly, and felt relieved when he found that he had made no further moves, and turned to look around:

"Gentlemen and ladies, my name is Joseph Clement."

"There was a little accident just now for some reason, but it doesn't matter."

"Using today's occasion, I would like to introduce to you a machine that is destined to change the world—the computer!"

After Joseph Clement finished speaking.

Babbage's cold snort of disdain came from Xu Yun's ear, but he didn't express anything else.

Then Joseph Clement walked to the side of the machine, motioned for Harvey Clement to step forward, and continued:

"Let me introduce, this is my son, Harvey Clement, and he will assist me in demonstrating the functions of this machine for everyone."

"But before that, I want to ask you a question, how much does one plus one equal?"

A Tuo, who had been placed in the crowd by Oxford University in advance, raised his hand:

"2!"

Joseph Clement nodded and gave a thumbs up:

"Thanks to this gentleman for his cooperation, the answer is absolutely correct."

"As you can see, one plus one is a very simple math problem, so we know the answer is 2 by mental calculation."

"But what if it's more complicated?"

"For example, the empire collected 22,737,124.76 pounds in taxes from India in January this year, and 37,215,073.11 pounds in February, so how much is the sum of the two months?"

"What about a quarter, half a year, or a year?"

"And what about the other colonies?"

Joseph Clement spread his hands and said:

"This kind of complicated problem requires the use of pen calculations, but if the numbers are getting bigger and the names are getting more and more, there may be problems with pen calculations."

Someone at the scene nodded.

Due to the limited number of people in the opening ceremony, there are basically no poor people who can visit the expo on the first day, and they are either rich or expensive.

These upper-middle classes have access to many situations involving complex numbers, and naturally know how terrible the error rate in the UK is in this regard.

In fact, the direct reason why Babbage thought of the inspiration of the difference engine was the large amount of wrong data he saw in books.

Seeing that the atmosphere was almost ready, Joseph Clement's voice suddenly raised a bit:

"And today, I want to announce something to everyone!"

"The computer we showed can perfectly replace manpower and perform complex calculations!"

"Harvey, come and give them the whole job!"

Harvey Clements on the side nodded.

I saw him walking into the audience with two whiteboards, and randomly selected two people:

"Gentlemen, would you please write down a random set of twelve digits on paper?"

The two spectators obeyed obediently.

after that.

Harvey Clement returned to Joseph Clement with two whiteboards and gave them to his father.

The two whispered a few words, and Harvey Clement walked to the back of the machine and started the steam engine.

gurgling——

The boiler on the other side began to smoke slowly, and the turntable also made a slow sound.

A few minutes passed.

Confirm that the power is almost ready.

Harvey Clement entered the numbers on the console.

Joseph Clement held up the whiteboard and announced the two numbers to everyone:

"331283947654, 593882931202."

A small hammer on the device clicked each time Harvey Clement entered a number.

The turntable with the pointer will rotate the number of times corresponding to the number, making a clicking sound.

People these days have never seen this kind of machine, so when Harvey Clement operated it, everyone held their breath for fear of disturbing him.

Even Babbage and Ada—after all, this was the first time they had seen a physical demonstration of the Difference Engine.

They had a grudge against Clement and his son, but the Difference Engine was innocent, and it could even be said to be the fruit of their hard work.

for a while.

Needle drop can be heard at the scene.

after awhile.

Da da da--

A small strip of paper resembling a dot timer tape emerged from the left end of the instrument bit by bit.

Harvey Clement took it off, took a few glances and showed it to the public:

"The answer is 925166878856."

Someone at the scene had already calculated the answer with calculus paper, so after verifying that the two numbers were exactly the same, there was a huge applause and cheers at the scene.

Again.

The audience at the scene is either rich or expensive, some people may be bad enough to ooze pus, but they are by no means stupid.

The calculation time of a computer is longer than that of a written calculation, but this is just a twelve-digit addition.

If the number of words continues to increase, the time difference between the two will shrink.

At the same time, the error rate of the former remains unchanged, but the latter will increase sharply.

And amidst the praise of everyone, a somewhat naive voice suddenly sounded in Joseph Clement's ear:

"Mr. Clement, can this device of yours calculate multiplication and division?"

Since there were many congratulatory people around, Joseph Clement could not avert his eyes for a while, so he replied subconsciously:

"Multiplication and division? Of course, our device can calculate any multiplication and division within seven digits."

The voice asked again:

"Seven digits? Isn't twenty?"

Joseph Clement shook his head quickly:

"Multiplication and division with twenty digits? Of course it won't work."

"With all due respect, this is beyond the scope of my ability and the ability of Oxford University. It is absolutely impossible to do."

Joseph Clement's words were resolute, leaving no room for retreat.

After a few seconds.

He heard a new reply with the same tone as before, but obviously full of disappointment:

"Ah, what kind of food is this?"