Chapter 499 - 240: Starting Life at Cambridge from Scratch (Part 2) (6.6K)_2

Currently, Thomson is one of the few "Angels" in the Cambridge Apostle Society and has completed the task of bringing in Wheat, indeed qualified to run for the Student Union President.

Moreover, given that in his past life, Thomson often appeared on various occasions after switching roles to Kelvin, it’s not hard to see that this renowned physicist does have a bit of an addiction to official status.

So, his participation in the presidential election is completely justifiable.

However, unlike the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Student Union President at Cambridge has two peculiar aspects.

First, the Student Union President at the University of Cambridge does not appear every term.

This is not difficult to understand, after all, leading all the student representatives from every college is not something that can easily happen every year.

According to the local timeline.

The last Student Union President at the University of Cambridge was Tennyson, nearly 20 years ago.

Secondly.

The University of Cambridge has a requirement for presidential candidates:

If they fail in the election, they must immediately leave the college with their records marked as unfinished studies.

This requirement has deterred many students who are interested in running for president.

"Unfinished studies," often mistaken by many as "indulgent studies," is actually pronounced "yi".

It is a term that denotes a status slightly above dropping out, but it’s not considered respectable.

Many companies in later generations refuse to employ individuals with such a background, not to mention the year 1850.

Therefore, for Thomson.

Running for Student Union President is indeed a gamble he cannot afford to lose.

If Xu Yun recalls correctly.

Thomson, in the local timeline, did not run for Student Union President at the University of Cambridge.

He pursued graduate studies while taking up a professorship in natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow, so Xu Yun had no historical reference or assistance to rely on.

After explaining these points.

Thomson left room 302, not waiting for Wheat to finish his bath.

It was evident.

Even for someone as poker-faced as Thomson, talking about running for Student Union President made him somewhat flustered.

After watching Thomson leave.

Xu Yun walked over to his own bed and began checking and sorting through his luggage.

Before entering the dungeon, he prepared about a dozen items, with core technologies covering various time periods.

The final items that actually traveled with him to the 1850 dungeon were reduced to just four small boxes:

First is the Steel Sword. (Previously, some readers criticized that model 304 was too rubbish, as even the best steel surpasses the level of productivity)

Secondly is the small box containing gold.

Before entering the dungeon, Xu Yun went offline to buy 240 grams of pure gold, much more than when he went to the Northern Song dungeon.

After deducting the part that was stolen in London, about just over 200 grams remain.

In 1717, Little Niu... or Old Niu set the price of gold at 3 Pounds, 17 shillings, and 10 pence per troy ounce.

From then onwards, the Pound was fixed to the price of gold,

This price continued until 1931 and was only interrupted between 1797-1819 and 1914-1925.

Those who have studied mathematics should know.

avoirdupois ounce = 28.3495 grams.

And 1 troy ounce equals 1.0971428 avoirdupois ounces, which equals 31.1034768 grams.

To put it simply, today’s 1 Pound contains approximately 7.32238 grams of pure gold.

In other words.

The gold currently on Xu Yun is roughly equivalent to 27 or 28 Pounds, approximately equal to eight months’ income for a common person.

The third item is a flashlight, nothing much to say.

As for the fourth...

It’s a small bottle with a height of four centimeters and a diameter of about 1.5 centimeters.

The bottle is printed with a few words:

Nitroglycerin.

In his past life, Xu Yun, due to years of typing, had some heart problems, feeling uncomfortable at times.

Coupled with the fact that several colleagues had successively passed away from heart-related issues, he kept nitroglycerin at hand long-term on doctors’ advice.

This time before traveling, Xu Yun thought that although it’s small, it might have miraculous effects, so he brought it along.

Nitroglycerin was invented in 1847 by the chemist Sobrello from the University of Turin, but initially, due to its unstable chemical nature, it was practically unusable.

This situation persisted until 1866, when the Swedish chemist Nobel resolved its stability problem.

As for its use in treating heart diseases, that came much later, around 1875.

So it’s quite evident.

This is another item that has appeared due to timeline alterations.

After all, Little Niu’s fascination with alchemy is well-known, and it’s not surprising that he may have discovered something during alchemical processes that led to or directly triggered the emergence of nitroglycerin.

In summary.

These four items are Xu Yun’s entire belongings in 1850, at most, plus a trench coat and Anta shoes.

Now, he still owes Aveline a debt of 140,000 Pounds, and in order to prevent that annoying thing called Halo from manifesting the debt as an Easter egg, Xu Yun must consider earning money to repay the debt.

"Steel Sword, flashlight, gold, and nitroglycerin..."

Xu Yun fiddled with the flashlight he brought, his expression somewhat grave.

The material of the Steel Sword is distinctly superior to the weaponry of this era, but now the mainstream weaponry, apart from the borders, are flintlock guns.

The flashlight is just an ordinary item, its only selling point being its significantly higher light intensity.

As for nitroglycerin...

It is actually not easy to dispose of in emergencies.

Because this era is truly a period of primitive accumulation, the levels and interests involved behind heart diseases are enough to drive many to risky measures.

Therefore, if special situations arise right now, the most Xu Yun could gather is about a hundred Pounds...