The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1208: Chapter 137: Ohm at the Summit_2

However, it’s not entirely their fault for overthinking; similar situations have been common in the European scientific community. Although disputes in the natural philosophy world don’t reach the brink of life and death like politics, there’s still plenty of underhanded dealings.

Not to mention, didn’t Faraday face accusations of academic fraud and plagiarism in his early years?

No one could understand better than him how Ohm must be feeling right now.

The researchers at the Royal Society were all indignant, which was exactly the effect Arthur wanted to see.

Why did he present Ohm’s paper to the Royal Society instead of the French Academy of Sciences or the Berlin Academy of Sciences?

Precisely because there are more experimental physicists of humble origin here.

In Paris and Berlin, although they also study electromagnetism, they focus more on theoretical research, and most come from middle or upper class backgrounds, so it’s genuinely hard to make them empathize with Ohm’s story.

Moreover, when hosting delegations from various Academies, one must carefully categorize them. If you’re not aware of their grudges and resentments, you can easily end up offending one while trying to please another.

Speaking of Faraday himself, although Faraday’s character is beyond reproach, the fact that his mentor Sir Humphry Davy offended many people during a visit to Paris at Napoleon’s invitation still causes some people in the French Academy to criticize Faraday’s achievements today.

When Davy visited Paris, he was warmly welcomed by the Parisian scientific community. One morning, Ampere brought two French chemists to visit Davy, and they casually brought along a purple-black crystal as a gift. This was a substance accidentally obtained by French chemist Courtois while extracting seaweed two years prior.

Although Courtois, Gay-Lussac, and others studied it for two years, they couldn’t figure out what the substance was.

Davy, having obtained such a treasure, immediately started researching this mysterious substance with his apprentice Faraday. Within a few days, Davy figured out that the purple gas emerging from the mysterious purple crystal was indeed its vapor. It exhibited the properties of chlorine, not because it contained chlorine, but because it was itself an element and belonged to the same category as chlorine.

Subsequently, Davy employed electrolysis, ultimately determining that it was not a compound but a simple substance. Not one minute did Davy delay after reaching this conclusion.

Because, as a seasoned veteran of natural philosophy, Davy knew he had to announce his discovery first; sometimes a minute’s delay could forever cost you the chance to become an immortal figure.

Davy immediately wrote a letter to Cuvier at the Paris Academy of Sciences, declaring his findings.

That same afternoon, the letter was read at the Paris Academy of Sciences.

Subsequently, Davy wrote a detailed report on his experiment results and sent it back to the Royal Society. The report was dated December 10, 1813, which was the day before he finally confirmed using electrolysis that iodine was a simple substance. To claim this honor, Davy cunningly backdated the report by one day.

It wasn’t long before the news spread throughout Paris that Sir Davy had discovered a new element, iodine.

This naturally infuriated his French colleagues.

Because iodine was extracted by the French, who had conducted long-term research on it, the honor of discovering iodine rightfully belonged to France.

Among those most outraged was Gay-Lussac, the great French chemist who had done extensive work and was on the verge of success, only to suddenly hear that iodine had already been discovered—and the discoverer was none other than their guest, Sir Davy.

For this, Gay-Lussac angrily cursed: ”This man only did one percent of the work, yet demands to enjoy one hundred percent of the honor!”

Because of Davy’s mess, Faraday was resented by the French for a long time. If not for Davy later doing some unsavory things out of jealousy towards his student Faraday, it’s likely that Gay-Lussac and others would have continued to view Faraday as Davy’s accomplice.

Aside from the rivalry between the French Academy and the Royal Society, the battles between the Berlin Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society in certain fields were equally intense.

The animosity between the Germans and the British, if traced back, is actually quite understandable. It mainly revolves around the first president of the Berlin Academy, Leibniz, and the third president of the Royal Society, Sir Isaac Newton.

Just competing for the discovery rights to calculus had them at each other’s throats for decades, and in this protracted battle, the French resolutely sided with their German allies to oppose the dominant Brits.

However, this doesn’t imply that the relationship between the French and German scientific communities was particularly good.

In the chemical debate of ’phlogiston theory’ versus ’oxygen theory,’ Germany’s Stahl and France’s Lavoisier faced off fiercely. In this battle, the Germans initially held the advantage, but France later seized the initiative, while Britain, after wavering, finally stood with France.

After hearing the controversy among his peers, Faraday did not express his opinion but closed his book and stood up, asking William Weber beside him: ”Mr. Weber, may I ask where Mr. Ohm is at the moment?”