In 1870, the physicist Professor Conte was invited to teach at the University of Strasbourg, and his student Roentgen also went with him as his assistant.
One weekend, Professor Conte took Roentgen to do experiments in the laboratory. When the experiment was halfway through, Professor Conte left. Roentgen wanted to finish the experiment on his own, but at the time the laboratory had a rule that in order to maintain the accuracy of the experimental instrument, no one except the professor himself was allowed to turn the experimental instrument. Roentgen thought for a while and thought that this time the situation was special, even if he violated the rules, it was reasonable, so he finished the experiment alone.
Professor Conte came back, and when he saw Roentgen flipping the experimental equipment, he became furious, severely criticized Roentgen, and Roentgen slammed the door and left. What Roentgen did not expect was that when he just returned to the lounge, Professor Conte pushed the door in and said: “I just thought about it carefully. Although your behavior violated the laboratory’s regulations, you did it to ensure the completion of the experiment. There is no fundamental error. So, I apologize to you for my impulse just now!” Hearing such sincere words from the teacher, Roentgen also apologized to the teacher, and both the teacher and the student settled their suspicions.
A few years later, Roentgen was appointed as the president of the University of Strasbourg. Academically, he, like Professor Conte, also had a particularly high requirement for the accuracy of the experiment. During an experiment, the balance adjusted by his assistant showed a slight deviation. Roentgen was furious and scolded the assistant. After the experiment, another assistant discovered that the assistant’s deviation when debugging the balance was caused by a piece of rust stuck on the balance. After Roentgen learned of this, he took the initiative to find the assistant and sincerely apologized to him. Afterwards, Roentgen said: “Mr. Conte treated me like this back then, so I will treat my students like this today!”
The apologies of the two masters showed us a high level of life.
