Chapter 579: Chapter 504: The First Magic Crisis, The Collapse of the Photoelectric Theory
“The world is a wave, a deduction on the propagation of light in a vacuum.” “Shocking, the latest interpretation of the light diffraction phenomenon, the wave theory is merely the foolish rant of a clown!” “The biggest oversight of the particle theory is this, optics is in grave danger!”…
In the Optical Magic Laboratory in Fire Oil City, Glenn slowly put down the newspaper template in his hand and couldn’t help but speak out. “Luo’er, seriously, things are already chaotic outside, are you sure it’s okay to send these out?”
“Of course, it’s no problem. Look, in just a month and a half, we’ve received more optical papers than we did in the previous year!” Luo’er replied with a smile, and then continued with a helpless expression on his face.
“And whether it’s Master Anthony or Master Jeffrey, I really can’t afford to offend them. Whatever they write, I just publish!”
Luo’er stated that he was merely responsible for creating eye-catching headlines and polishing the text a little bit!
Glenn was speechless, but had to admit that competition indeed was the greatest motivator for magical research.
Over the past few days, wizards who supported the particle and wave theories had undertaken meticulous studies on the various properties of light and had offered numerous conjectures.
Some conjectures were completely fantastical with no logic at all, but many theories were supported by experimental evidence, and these arguments, if confirmed, could earn one a Morning Star or even a Silver Moon Medal.
Seeing that Green fully understood his plight, Luo’er smiled and took the template from his hand, then handed it over to an assistant beside him to hurry the printing process.
Yesterday, they printed a whopping nine hundred thousand newspapers, distributed under the kingdom’s rule and to various newly occupied cities, and they were sold out within a few hours, which shows that they still were not printing fast enough!
“By the way, Glenn, I heard that last night, Master Sanchez, one of the founders of photoelectric theory, personally visited you, is that true?” Luo’er suddenly asked gossipingly, his hand already unconsciously picking up a pen, ready to record at any moment.
It was obvious to anyone that Master Sanchez must have been trying to win over Glenn, the renowned developer of focusing magic.
If agreed upon, it would definitely be a huge scoop!
Although Glenn was only a third-tier wizard, he had caused a sensation at the last academic symposium with the shocking plan to measure the speed of light using mirrors and had inadvertently developed focusing magic, earning the appreciation of the Star of Magic and the councilors, his potential influence was no less than that of a great wizard.
When Luo’er brought up the matter, Glenn couldn’t help but smile bitterly; in fact, it wasn’t just Sanchez, several wizards advocating the wave theory had also approached him and expounded the superiority of the wave theory to him, but he hadn’t responded to either side.
For one, he didn’t want to be caught up in this dispute, and secondly, both theories had optical phenomena they couldn’t explain.
For example, the wave theory explained the effects of light such as dispersion, diffraction, interference, and superposition quite well, but was weak in explaining the photoelectric effect and pinhole imaging.
As for those wizards who believed in the particle theory, their explosion theory of electric elements to explain diffraction phenomena, Glenn thought it utterly unreliable; it was just a theory concocted to explain phenomena, without solid experimental evidence.
Before figuring things out, Glenn thought it best not to casually choose sides to avoid a potential flop.
Luo’er, hoping for a big scoop, had to put away his pen and paper with disappointment and instead started to inquire about the progress in photographic technology.
This was an optical phenomenon discovered by Glenn a year ago, where placing a board with a small hole between the wall and the object forms an inverted real image of the object on the wall.
Glenn was quite sure he wasn’t the first to discover this phenomenon, but he definitely was the first wizard to utilize it!
Not far from Fire Oil City was an oil field, and while on shift there, he accidentally found a type of asphalt extremely sensitive to light.
This asphalt would harden under the exposure to light, and the degree of hardening varied with the intensity of the light. Using this property, combined with the principle of pinhole imaging, he successfully created the first generation of photic cameras.
The problem was that using this asphalt to make photosensitive plates was too troublesome, and the images produced were hard to reproduce, not conducive to widespread dissemination.
Thus, over the past year, Glenn had been trying to create photosensitive devices with different elements to improve the photic camera, and he had already upgraded to the third version where the problem of image reproduction had been initially solved.
The first massive use was in the propaganda war to dismantle the imperial subjects’ faith.
“About the improvements to the camera, I already have a plan. We can further increase the clarity of the photos through Developing Magic, and perhaps the Printing Magic developed by Councilor Lynn might also be used on image reproduction…”
Glenn talked enthusiastically about the latest achievements in optical photography, and when encouraged, even demonstrated his developed Developing Magic to Luo’er!
Luo’er was also extremely interested. After all, each advancement in photography technology meant a better sale for “Magic Daily.” Under Glenn’s direction, he soon stood on a photosensitive screen.
“Just !” Glenn extended his right hand, closed his eyes, and began sensing and generating electricity.