Decision of the
examining
commission:
Unfit
A
.
Secretary
of the
examining
commission:
District Command Zurich.
[...]
92.
TO
WILHELM
OSTWALD
Zurich, 19
March 1901
Esteemed Herr Professor!
Because
your
work
on
general
chemistry inspired
me
to write the
enclosed article,
I
am
taking the
liberty
of sending
you
a
copy
of it.
On this occasion permit
me
also to
inquire
whether
you
might have
use
for
a
mathematical
physicist
familiar with absolute measurements. If I
permit myself
to make such
an
inquiry,
it is
only
because I
am
without
means,
and
only
a
position
of this kind would offer
me
the
possibility
of additional education.
Respectfully
yours
Albert Einstein
Via
Bigli
21
Milan
Italy
93.
TO
MILEVA MARIC
Milan.
Saturday.
[23
March
1901]
My
dear Doxerl!
I got
a
sign
of life from
you
so
soon,
already
on
the first
day.
This is
an
ugly
story
with
Riecke;
I have
more
or
less
given
up
the
position
for lost. I
can
hardly
believe that Weber would let such
a
good opportunity
pass
without doing
some
mischief.
Following
your
advice, love, I wrote to Weber
so
that he should
at
least know that
what he does he cannot do behind
my
back. I
wrote to
him that I know
that
my
appointment
now
depends
on
his
report
alone. I
am
pretty
curious what Ostwald is
going
to write.
An
original idea
occurred
to
me
on
the
trip.
It
seems
to
me
that
it is not out of the
question
that the latent kinetic
energy
of heat
in solids and
liquids
can
be conceived of
as
the
energy
of electrical
resonators.
In that
case
the
specific
heat and the
absorption
spectrum
would have to be
interrelated.
The law of Dulong
&
Petit would be
valid for
those
substances whose smallest parts show
a
certain
total
resonance
in the
electro-optical
sense.
In
fact, all substances that
satisfy
the law of
Dulong
&
Petit
are
almost
totally
opaque
& seem
to
display almost the
same
spectrum when heated. On the other hand, the
organic substances, which,
as we
have
seen,
display relatively
small
specific
heats,
are
all
transparent
&
show continuous
absorption
spectra, while, for example,
Hg agrees
quite well with Dulong
-
Petit's law and is completely
opaque.
I
almost believe that the
following
law
holds: Dul[ong]'s law is satisfied by
opaque
substances
only. Transparent
ones
have
always
a
smaller kinetic
energy.
Unfortunately,
gases
can
probably
not be used for
solving
this puzzle
159
Previous Page Next Page