American: Native Empire

Was it thanks to Kim Ki-woo’s hard work?

After the first broadcast, radio firmly took root in the empire’s society. 

At the same time, as expected, numerous stations and newspapers jumped into radio broadcasting.

Of course, there were considerable restrictions since radio-related laws had been enacted beforehand, but the challengers envisioned a bright future.

The radio broadcasts that sprouted up like mushrooms were mostly similar in format. 

It was because Kim Ki-woo had already created an excellent framework.

Music and news, radio drama, and finally talk show. 

And the ads that flowed in between were the source of income.

As a result, an untimely war for rights broke out.

“What? You still haven’t signed the contract even though I gave you so much time?”

“The price competition suddenly got fierce…”

“So, how much did they offer?”

“Well…”

These kinds of things were happening similarly in radio stations across the country.

They sensed that radio drama would be the killer content of radio. 

Therefore, they tried to buy the rights to famous novels or plays.

The problem was that there were too many stations that wanted to buy the rights.

The source of income for radio was advertising. 

And advertising depended on how many people listened to their radio broadcasts.

In other words, they had to improve the quality of their content, such as drama, to increase their ratings.

Thanks to that, a fierce competition broke out among the radio stations.

“We have to get this no matter what! So raise the price by two times. No, three times, and sign the contract for sure!”

Perhaps it was because the era of radio had just begun, but it was important to secure their position first.

The stations spared no expense to become major broadcasters, even if it meant bleeding money.

As a result, the rights to radio drama of famous novels were sold at ridiculously high prices. 

Only the authors and publishers who had these rights were happy.

That’s how the radio dramas produced in this way were aired one after another.

***

There were many scientists in the empire. 

This included great scientists like Karl Mayer, Golden Lake, and Warm Hat.

But these famous scientists were only a minority. 

Rather, there were more scientists who devoted their lives to research but did not leave any significant achievements.

Dry Towel was one of these cases.

He was seventy years old this year. 

He started his life as a scientist in his twenties, so he had been dedicated to research for almost half a century.

However, he was still close to unknown. 

He had participated in some famous researches, but most of his leading experiments did not show much results.

“Father. Please stop your research. Spend your old age comfortably while looking after your grandchildren.”

“That’s right. You’ve been getting sick more often lately.”

Dry Towel’s children and even grandchildren came to urge him to retire. 

But Dry Towel did not blink an eye.

“Arthur. I have no intention of retiring until I die.”

“Sigh…”

His stubbornness was unchanged as always. 

His children sighed in resignation.

They hoped for a change, but it was as expected. 

Dry Towel’s stubbornness was not broken this time either. 

In the end, his children and grandchildren left without any results.

Dry Towel sent them off calmly.

He didn’t refuse to retire because of pride. 

Of course, he had such feelings twenty or thirty years ago, but they faded away at some point.

Now he was just doing research because it was his routine.

Even a scientist like him who didn’t have much achievements had enough room in the empire.

So he plunged into his research again.

“Cathode rays…”

He was researching the properties of cathode rays recently.

Cathode rays were the flow of electrons observed in a vacuum tube when two metal electrodes, an anode and a cathode, were separated by a vacuum and had a potential difference.

Of course, electrons had not been accurately identified yet at this point.

It had been almost twenty years since cathode rays were discovered, but it was still a field that many scientists were researching. 

It was also where electrons were first discovered.

“If I did this much, there wouldn’t be any light leaking out, right?”

He wrapped the cathode ray tube with a thick black paper. 

As he expected, no light could leak out of it.

It was almost like testing an obvious phenomenon. 

He thought that nothing would happen when he blocked the light, as usual.

He was just curious and wanted to try it out.

But the result of the experiment was different from his expectation.

“What is this?”

He rubbed his eyes. 

But the phenomenon in front of him did not change.

As soon as he turned on the current to the cathode ray tube, a fairly bright light flashed on the screen coated with barium platinocyanide.

“Did I wrap the paper poorly?”

That was the first thing he thought of. 

He did not think that light could pass through the thick and black paper.

“No, it’s not…”

But when he looked around the cathode ray tube, he saw that the paper was properly and thoroughly wrapped.

“What is going on?”

He tilted his head. 

It was truly a baffling situation. 

Of course, as a believer in science, he thought that there must be a reason for this phenomenon.

***

He continued his experiments to figure out this mysterious light.

And after a while, he came to a conclusion.

“This is a new form of energy.”

It was not ordinary light since it could pass through the black paper. 

He had no choice but to think so.

After realizing this, he used various things instead of black paper. 

Rubber, thick paper, metal, wooden boards, and so on.

The result was quite surprising.

“Most of them are penetrated?”

It could even pass through a book that was nearly 1000 pages thick!

It was an energy that could not be easily explained physically.

Of course, there were some things that it could not penetrate. 

That was lead. 

That meant that it could pass through most of the objects except lead.

That also included human body.

“It passes through my body…”

He tried to pass this energy through his body directly and frowned slightly. 

He did not feel anything, but it somehow felt unpleasant.

“Wait? It passes through my body?”

At that moment, a thought crossed his mind.

It was the principle of photo development. 

He had done some research on photo development before, so he was quite knowledgeable about it.

“This is also… light?”

It definitely glowed brightly in the dark room, so it was surely light. 

Then, could he use this light to develop photos?

Then what kind of photos would this light create after passing through his body? 

He was very curious about that.

“It depends on the thickness and density of the object. And different parts of the human body have different densities.”

From skin to blood, organs, and bones.

They could not have the same density.

Then maybe, it could take photos of the inside of the human body depending on the difference in density?

“If that’s true…”

It seemed like an amazing discovery. 

He shivered as he thought about it.

Of course, he could not jump to conclusions. 

This peculiar light might not react with photosensitive materials like other lights.

“Let’s just try it.”

He did not hesitate and put his idea into action. 

He took a board that he had stored in the warehouse and placed it behind his back.

And he pressed the switch to activate the cathode ray. 

Then a strange light flashed from the cathode ray tube.

“What happened?”

He quickly checked the board. 

And then he opened his eyes wide.

“It’s really printed?”

It was clearly an image of the inside of the human body. 

The bones such as ribs and spine were distinct, and the organs and muscles were faintly visible.

“Heh…”

Dry Towel could not shake off the feeling of numbness for a while. 

He could not believe that he had succeeded in such a great experiment.

Was that why? 

A tear rolled down his eyes. 

It was a tear filled with resentment for all the hardships he had endured.

“I… did it.”

He lifted up the plate and clenched his fist.

How many sneers and worries from his family and friends had he gone through?

At this moment, he felt rewarded for his 50 years of effort.

***

Dry Towel immediately published his paper.

Among the many papers he had published over the years, none of them had attracted much attention, so his paper did not receive much attention at first.

But gradually, his paper surfaced.

“A new kind of ray?”

“A light that passes through not only objects but also bodies?”

“Using this ray to take pictures of the inside of the body?”

Scientists began to devour Dry Towel’s paper. 

At first, there were some scientists who expressed disbelief, but there was clear evidence of the pictures of the inside of the body, so his paper was soon recognized by the academic world.

Taking pictures of the inside of the body was something that had never been imagined before. 

That’s why the new kind of ray, X-ray, quickly became a hot topic in academia.

Especially in the medical field, the reaction was beyond imagination.

“My goodness! You can take pictures of the inside of the body!”

It was inevitable.

Until now, medicine had been constantly developing, but it was very difficult to identify any disease by just looking at a person’s appearance.

And it was not possible to cut into the body to find out what kind of disease it was.

But now, by simply exposing X-rays, one could easily find out the condition of the inside of the body.

This was nothing less than a revolution in medicine.

“You have done a great job. Thanks to you, many people will be saved from death in the future. As a doctor, I really appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Many doctors came to Dry Towel and thanked him. 

He felt awkward but very happy.

He felt for the first time in his life the intense interest and gratitude that made him feel elated.

He realized that he had achieved a great research result.

After that, X-rays became popular among doctors. 

As a result, many patients who would have died from misdiagnosis in the past were able to survive.

Of course, not all perceptions of X-rays were good.

“Ugh, disgusting… How can you see human bones so clearly?”

The peculiar and eerie appearance of X-rays caused fear in people.

But the biggest concern was not that.

“Doesn’t this mean you can see through walls and see what’s inside your house?”

The rumor that X-rays would invade personal privacy was the biggest obstacle.

But despite the bad rumors, X-rays were widely accepted because of their usefulness. 

Many people began to study new kinds of rays, including X-rays.

This influenced the discovery of radiation from uranium for the first time, and led to more active research on cathode rays.

This led to the discovery of electrons, and as a result, the particle nature of light became more prominent.

The discovery of the particle nature of light was later the starting point for the emergence of relativity theory. 

It also raised the awareness that light is both a wave and a particle while discussing the nature of X-rays.

In this way, X-rays were an important turning point not only in themselves but also in the development of science. 

And Dry Towel, who discovered them, rose from an obscure scientist for 50 years to one of the greatest scientists.