V O L U M E 9 , D O C U M E N T S 1 8 3 b , 1 8 3 c 1 4 1
Vol. 9, 183b. From Hans Albert Einstein
[Zurich, 30 November
1919][1]
Dear Papa,
How are you? Well, I hope. How’s your
stomach?[2]
You’ve asked me so often
now about the little
plane.[3]
I never actually let it fly outside yet and I still don’t
have any proper wheels underneath the frame and so therefore it can’t pick up
speed. Furthermore, the propeller became faulty from various trials on the flat roof,
so I decided to make a new one, particularly because it seems to
me that it has too little thrust because the sides don’t slope
enough. If the rectangle shown here on the side is the side view
of the propeller with the propeller blade: could you write me
how large has to be to have the best success for about 1,000
rotations per minute? As landing wheels I have been using with
best success until now small train wheels on a knitting needle,
for which I specially made extra wooden rails to run it along.
Also, I recently had the mumps. I was very heavily swollen on both sides and
surely must have looked very funny; it just hurt very much and I couldn’t eat any-
thing, but now it’s over. Teddi didn’t get it, even though it’s very contagious. Maybe
he too will come to grief.
At
school[4]
various teachers changed, so e.g., in mathematics I now have our
headmaster
Amberg;[5]
it’s completely different with him than with the other teach-
ers. I can’t say why, but I like it a lot. In physics we have, instead of Stierlin, Mr.
Seiler, “the rope” as we call
him.[6]
It’s very funny in his class and you have to be
very careful that you don’t laugh out loud, because he pulls such funny faces while
he’s speaking and takes on such funny poses that often one of us vanishes under the
bench to laugh.
Many greetings from
Adn
Vol. 9, 183c. From Mileva Einstein-Maric;
Zurich, 30 November 1919
Dear Albert,
I haven’t been able to answer your
letter[1]
until today because I had too much
to do. I’m muddling along without a maid in the house and Albert was sick. 10 days
in bed, so it just became a little too much for
me.[2]
I can’t decide to go to Germany now; if you knew our circumstances better, you
would understand. I’m still too unhealthy and weak to live in an unfamiliar
place.[3]