Einstein (22 page)

Einstein informed the university at Prague that he would leave it at the end of the summer semester of 1912. But with his usual indifference to all official formalities, he did not send to the administrative authorities the documents that had to be filled out when one resigned from the service of the Austrian state. The Ministry of Education in Vienna did not receive the application that had to be forwarded in such cases. One can well imagine that the official in charge was unhappy at being unable to close Einstein’s record according to regulations. For many years the dossier for the “Einstein case” remained incomplete in a pigeonhole. Some years later, when Einstein went to Vienna for a lecture, a friend told him that the official in the ministry was still unhappy over the gap in the records. Einstein with his good nature did not want to make anybody unhappy. He visited the ministry, made his excuses to the official, and filled out the appropriate form. The pigeonhole lost its blemish.

Einstein’s sudden departure from Prague gave rise to many rumors. An editorial in the largest German newspaper of Prague asserted that because of his fame and genius Einstein was persecuted by his colleagues and compelled to leave the city. Others maintained that because of his Jewish origin he had been badly treated by the administrative authorities in Vienna and therefore did not want to remain in Prague any longer. Einstein was much astonished by all this talk, as his stay in Prague had been a very pleasant one, and he had been favorably impressed by the Austrian character. Since he did not like to create any unpleasantness for anyone, he wrote a letter to the head of the Austrian university administration in Vienna. Before taking over my position in Prague, I paid a visit to this man. He was a Pole and embraced me according to the Polish custom as if I were a close friend. In the course of the call he told me about Einstein’s letter and said with great enthusiasm: “I received a splendid letter from Mr. Einstein, such as one is not accustomed to receive from a professor of our universities. I recall this letter very often. It gave me a great deal of satisfaction, particularly
since so many attacks were directed against our government on account of Einstein.”

For me Einstein’s departure from Prague is bound up with a rather humorous story, which I wish to relate because it is linked with the checkered history of our time. Like every Austrian professor, Einstein had had to get a uniform. It resembled the uniform of a naval officer and consisted of a three-cornered hat trimmed with feathers, a coat and trousers ornamented with broad gold bands, a very warm overcoat of thick black cloth, and a sword. An Austrian professor was required to put on this uniform only when taking the oath of allegiance before assuming his duties or when he had an audience with the Emperor of Austria. Einstein had worn it only once, on the former occasion. Since the uniform was rather expensive and he had no use for it after his departure, I bought it for half the original price. But before Einstein gave me the uniform, his son, who was then perhaps eight years old, said to him: “Papa, before you give the uniform away, you must put it on and take me for a walk through the streets of Zurich.” Einstein promised to do so, saying: “I don’t mind; at most, people will think I am a Brazilian admiral.”

I too wore it only once, when taking the oath of allegiance, and I had it in my trunk for a long time. After six years the Austrian monarchy disappeared and the Czechoslovakian Republic was established at Prague. The oath of allegiance to the Emperor was replaced by that of allegiance to the Republic, and the professors had no uniform any more. The uniform remained only as a memory of Franz Joseph and Einstein. Soon after the Russian Revolution, when a large number of refugees, many of whom were officers, came to Prague, my wife said to me: “Why should such a good coat lie unused when so many are freezing? I know a former commander in chief of the Cossack army who cannot buy a warm winter coat. Einstein’s coat looks almost like the coat of a high-ranking cavalry officer. It will please the general and keep him warm.” We gave him the coat, but he was not interested in its distinguished past. The rest of the uniform, including the sword, remained in the German University. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939, the university became a bulwark of Nazism in the east and Einstein’s sword probably became booty of a Nazi soldier, a symbol of the final defeat of “international Jewish science” — until 1945, when the Red Army entered Prague.

In the fall of 1912 Einstein entered upon his duties as professor at the Polytechnic in Zurich. He was now the pride of the institution where he had once failed to pass the entrance examination, where he had studied and met his wife, and where on graduation he had been unable to obtain even a minor position.

As early as 1910, when Lampa was considering Einstein’s appointment to Prague and seeking an opinion of his qualifications from a scientist who was generally recognized as an authority, Max Planck, the leading theoretical physicist, had written to the faculty committee at Prague: “If Einstein’s theory should prove to be correct, as I expect it will, he will be considered the Copernicus of the twentieth century.” Einstein was already beginning to be surrounded by an aura of legend. His achievements were characterized as a turning-point in physics comparable to the revolution initiated by Copernicus.

In 1911, when a conference of a small number of world-famous physicists was to be convened in Brussels to discuss the crisis in modern physics, there was no question that an invitation would be extended to Einstein. The selection of the conferees was suggested by Walter Nernst, a leading investigator in the fields of physics and chemistry, and among others there were Sir Ernest Rutherford of England, Henri Poincaré and Paul Langevin of France, Max Planck and Walter Nernst of Germany, H. A. Lorentz of Holland, and Madame Curie of Poland, who was working in Paris. Einstein represented Austria, together with Friederich Hasenöhrl, the Viennese, whose name after his tragic death was to be linked in a peculiar manner with the fight against Einstein. This conference was Einstein’s first opportunity to meet these scientists whose ideas shaped the physical research of this period.

The costs of the conference, including the traveling expenses to Brussels and the living expenses there and in addition a remuneration
of a thousand francs to each conferee, was defrayed by a rich Belgian named E. Solvay. This man had been successful in the chemical industry, but his hobby was a physical theory of the outmoded mechanistic type. Although it led to many complications and not to the discovery of new laws, he was greatly interested in attracting the attention of physicists to his theory and in learning their opinions about it. The clever chemist Walter Nernst, who was in social contact with him, thought that this rich man’s hobby might be utilized for the benefit of science while at the same time fulfilling Solvay’s desire. He proposed that he call a conference of leading physicists to discuss the present difficulties in their science, to whom he could present his ideas on this occasion. The conference became known as the Solvay Congress. In the opening address Solvay presented a summary of his ideas, and the conferees then discussed the new developments in physics. Finally in the concluding address Solvay thanked the speakers for their interesting discussions, emphasizing how much pleasure he had derived from them. Nevertheless, all this had not shaken his faith in his own theory. All the speakers had avoided entering upon any criticism of his theory, to prevent any conscientious scruples arising between their feelings of gratitude and courtesy toward their host and their scientific convictions. Solvay was imbued with such sincere interest in the advancement of science that he subsequently convened similar conferences quite often, and at these meetings Einstein always played a leading role. A man like Nernst who has the interests of science at heart and is practical can utilize such opportunities for the benefit of progress in scientific research.

The world marveled at the great number of new and astonishing ideas and at the thoroughness with which these concepts were developed, presented, and arranged in a larger chain of ideas that Einstein had already produced in 1912 after less than ten years as a physicist. But Einstein himself thought only of the defects and the gaps in his creations. His new theory of gravitation, which he had made public in 1911 at Prague, dealt only with one very special case of the effects of gravity. Only the case where the force of gravity has the same direction and intensity throughout the entire space under consideration was completely clear, and the theory as developed so far was unable to furnish a complete solution to cases where the force of gravity had different directions at different points in space.

Up to this time Einstein had solved his problems with the
simplest mathematical aids and had looked upon every exaggeration in the use of “higher mathematics” with the suspicion that it was not due to any desire for clarity, but rather to dumbfound the reader. Now a new trend appeared in his work. It has been mentioned that while in Prague Einstein had already felt that the development of a still more general theory required more complicated mathematical methods than those he had at his command. He had discussed this matter with his colleague Pick, who had called his attention to the new mathematical theories of the Italians Ricci and Levi-Civita. In Zurich Einstein found among his colleagues his old friend Marcel Grossmann, and with him he now studied these new mathematical methods. In collaboration with him Einstein succeeded in preparing a preliminary sketch of a general theory of gravitation in which every case of the action of the force of gravity was contained. This work, published in 1913, still contained many defects, however, and they were not removed until the complete theory was finally published during the World War. We shall discuss it in detail later.

In the fall of 1913, at the Congress of German Scientists and Physicians in Vienna, Einstein was invited to present a summary of his new ideas on the theory of gravitation. Even then he was regarded as an unusual phenomenon among the physicists, and it was rumored that he had “thought up” a general theory of relativity which was “even more incomprehensible” than his special theory of 1905 and even further removed from the physics of the laboratory. In consequence a large audience crowded the room where he was to speak. Einstein, however, took the most obvious and easily understood ideas as his points of departure and tried step by step to awaken in his listeners a feeling that radical changes were necessary if only one tried to see clearly the defects and gaps in the previous theories.

His explanation was approximately as follows: At first, investigations of the nature of electricity were concerned only with electrical charges. The forces involved in the mutual attraction and repulsion of these charges were known, and it was also known that, like the Newtonian gravitational forces, they
decreased with the square of the distance between the charges. Later, electric currents were discovered, and it was found that they could be generated by moving magnets, as well as by moving electric charges. This led to the industrial application of electricity. Finally, electromagnetic waves were discovered and utilized in wireless telegraphy and radio. No one had imagined that all this would develop from the simple attraction of electrical charges. In the theory of gravitation we are still in this first period where we are acquainted only with the law of attraction between material bodies. We must create a theory of gravitation that will be as far removed from the simple Newtonian theory of attractions as the theory of radio waves is from the views of Benjamin Franklin.

In his lecture Einstein also mentioned that previous to his work a young Viennese physicist had already developed some of the mathematical ideas that he had used in his theory. He asked whether this man was in the audience, as he did not know him personally. And in fact a young man rose and Einstein asked him to remain standing so that the entire audience could see him. This man was Friedrich Kottler, later employed by the Eastman Kodak Company at Rochester, New York.

Einstein took this opportunity of his stay in Vienna to become personally acquainted with the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, who had had such a profound influence on the development of Einstein’s ideas. (Ch. II) At the University of Vienna Mach had lectured on the history and theory of the “inductive” sciences — that is, sciences such as physics and chemistry that advance from individual observations to general laws. For more than twelve years, however, Mach had suffered from a severe paralysis and had retired from his position. He lived in his apartment in a suburb of Vienna, and occupied himself only with his studies and receiving occasional visitors. On entering his room one saw a man with a gray, unkempt beard and a partly good-natured, partly cunning expression on his face, who looked like a Slavic peasant and said: “Please speak loudly to me. In addition to my other unpleasant characteristics I am also almost stone-deaf.” Mach was very much interested in meeting the originator of the new theory of relativity.

Even though Einstein greatly admired Mach’s ideas on the logical structure of physics, there were many things he could not accept. According to Einstein’s judgment Mach did not give enough credit to the creative mind of the scientist who imagines general laws beyond a mere economic description of facts.
Mach’s opinion, that the general laws of science are only a means by which individual facts can be remembered more easily, did not appear satisfactory to Einstein. To him the phrase “remembered more easily” could in this connection apparently mean only “remembered with less effort.” Mach’s
economy
seemed to be
economy
in a psychological sense.

Hence, after conversing awhile with Mach, Einstein raised the following question: “Let us suppose that by assuming the existence of atoms in a gas we were able to predict an observable property of this gas that could not be predicted on the basis of a non-atomistic theory. Would you then accept such a hypothesis even if the calculations of its consequence required very complicated computations, comprehensible only with great difficulty? I mean, of course, that from this hypothesis one could infer the interrelation of several observable properties that without it would remain unrelated. It is then ‘economical’ to assume the existence of atoms?”