DISSERTATION
ON MOLECULAR
DIMENSIONS
173
Of
all
these
methods,
the
one
in his dissertation
is
most
closely
related to his
earlier
studies
of
physical phenomena
in
liquids.[26]
III
Einstein's
efforts to obtain
a
doctoral
degree
illuminate
some
of
the institutional
con-
straints
on
the
development
of his
work
on
the
problem
of
molecular dimensions.
Ein-
stein's
choice
of
a
theoretical
topic
for
a
dissertation at the
University
of
Zurich
was
quite
unusual,
both because it
was
theoretical and because
a
dissertation theme
was
customarily
assigned by
the
supervising
professor.[27]
By
1900,
theoretical
physics was slowly begin-
ning
to achieve
recognition as an independent discipline
in
German-speaking
countries,
but it
was
not
yet
established at either the ETH
or
the
University
of
Zurich. A
beginning
had been made at the ETH
soon
after its
founding,
with the
appointment
of
the German
mathematical
physicist,
Rudolf
Clausius.[28]
His
departure a
decade later
may
have
been
hastened
by
lack
of
official
sympathy
for
a
too-theoretical
approach
to the
training
of
engineers
and
secondary-school
teachers,
the
primary
task
of
the
school.[29]
Clausius's
successor-after
the
position
had been vacant for
a
number
of
years-was
H.
F.
Weber,
who
occupied
the chair for Mathematical and Technical
Physics
from 1875
until
his death in 1912.
During
the last two decades
of
the nineteenth
century,
he did
original
research,
mainly
in
experimental physics
and
electrotechnology,
including
work
on a
number
of
topics
that
were important
for
Einstein's
later
research,[30]
such
as
black-
body
radiation,
the anomalous
low-temperature
behavior
of
specific heats,
and the
theory
of
diffusion;
but his
primary
interests
were never
those
of
a
theoretical
physicist.[31]
The
situation
of
theoretical
physics
at the
University
of
Zurich
at
the
turn
of
the
century
was
hardly
better. Four other
major
Swiss universities either had
two
full
professorships
in
physics or one
full and
one
nontenured
position,
while Zurich had
only one physics
chair,
held
by
the
experimentalist
Alfred
Kleiner.[32]
tion
of
molecular dimensions
are
presented in
Einstein
1905i
(Doc.
14)
and Einstein
1905k
(Doc. 16).
For
a
discussion
of Einstein's
various
methods,
see
Pais
1982,
pp.
94-95.
[26]
For
a
discussion
of
these
studies,
see
Vol.
1,
the editorial
note,
"Einstein
on
Molecular
Forces,"
pp.
264-266, and the editorial
note in
this volume,
"Einstein
on
the Nature
of
Molec-
ular Forces,"
pp.
3-8.
[27]
See the
reports
on
dissertations in
physics
submitted between
1901
and 1905
to
the Univer-
sity
of
Zurich
(Promotionsgutachten,
SzZSa, U
110
e
7, 8,
and
9).
[28]
For
an
account
of
the
beginning
of
theoret-
ical
physics
at
the
ETH,
see
Jungnickel
and
McCormmach
1986a,
pp.
186-193;
the first four
of
these
pages
discuss
the Clausius
appointment.
[29] According
to the
ETH's
founding
statute,
the
"task of
the
polytechnic
school consists of
...
educating engineers theoretically
and
as
far
as possible
practically" ("Die
Aufgabe
der
polytechnischen
Schule besteht darin: Techniker
...
theoretisch und
so
weit tunlich
praktisch
auszubilden"). Mathematics and the natural sci-
ences are assigned
the role
of
"auxiliary
sciences"
("Hilfswissenschaften"). See Bun-
desgesez
1854,
article
2.
For the
preference
for
practical training by
ETH
students,
see
Jung-
nickel
and
McCormmach
1986a,
p.
193.
[30]
For additional information about
Weber's
activities at the
ETH,
see
Vol.
1,
the editorial
note,
"Einstein
as a
Student
of
Physics,
and His
Notes
on
H. F.
Weber's
Course,"
pp.
60-62.
[31]
See Vol.
1, Biographies, pp.
387-388,
and Weiss 1912.
[32]
The
four universities
were
Basel, Fri–
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