DOCUMENT
354
JUNE
1917 471
Ausser
diesen
Möglichkeiten
zur
Prüfung
der
allgemeinen
Relativitätstheorie
liegen
noch weitere
wichtige
theoretische
Angriffspunkte
vor,
so
bei den
kugelför-
migen
Sternhaufen,
der Milchstrasse
etc, wo
auch die Astronomie
wichtige
Beihül-
fe
zur Prüfung
der
neuen
physikalischen
Theorien
zu
liefern
berufen ist.
Ihr
ergebener
E.
Finlay
Freundlich
ALS.
[11
137].
[1]Freundlich had
presumably
been asked
by
Einstein to submit
plans
for
research
within the
framework of
a
revived
Kaiser
Wilhelm Institute
of
Physics,
the
plans
for which had been resuscitated
five months
earlier
with
the
cautious announcement that
funding
was now
available
(see
Adolf
v.
Harnack, Präsident,
Kaiser Wilhelm
Society,
to
Mitglieder
des
Senats, 18
January
1917,
GyBSa,
I HA,
Rep.
76
Vc,
Sekt.
2,
Tit.
23,
Litt.
A,
Nr.
116,
p.
33
(M)).
In
mid-May,
advice
on
its foundation
was
solicited from
a
number
of
experts
(see
minutes
of
the
meeting
of
the
Senate, 11
May
1917,
copy
in
GyBP,
I
Abt.,
Rep.
1A,
Nr.
61,
pp.
6-7).
To
an acquaintance a
month
earlier,
Freundlich had also mentioned
a more
ambitious
personal
plan:
the
possibility
that he
might
be made the head
of
an observatory
(see
Hentschel
1997,
p. 55).
[2]Walther
Zurhellen
(1880-1916)
had been
Observator
at the
Royal
Prussian
Observatory
in
Neu-
babelsberg.
For
more on
the
preparations
for the
expedition, see
Einstein
to
Erwin
Freundlich, 7
December
1913 and
ca.
20
January
1914
(Vol.
5,
Docs. 492 and
506);
for
an
account
of
its
unsuccess-
ful outcome,
see
Doc. 34,
note 4.
[3]Four
years earlier,
Freundlich had
already
considered
using
diurnal
observations
for
investigat-
ing gravitational
light
deflection
(see
Einstein
to Erwin Freundlich, before
26
August
1913
[Vol.
5,
Doc.
472]).
[4]See
Lindemann
and
Lindemann 1917. Frederick
Alexander
Lindemann (1886-1957),
earlier
a
post-graduate
student
of
Walther Nemst,
was
working
at the Royal Aircraft
Establishment
in
Eng-
land.
[5]For
Jacobus Cornelius
Kapteyn’s
method
of
determining
stellar
parallaxes,
see,
e.g., Kapteyn
1898. More than three
years
earlier,
Freundlich had
already suggested measuring
the deflection
of
light by
Jupiter (see
Doc.
2).
[6]Frederick Slocum
(1873-1944)
was
Professor
of
Astronomy
and
Director of
the Van Vleck
Observatory
at
Wesleyan University,
Middletown,
Ohio.
[7]Edwin Brant Foster (1866-1935)
was
Director
of
the Yerkes
Observatory
of
the
University
of
Chicago at
Williams
Bay,
Wisconsin.
[8]Otto
Toepfer
&
Sohn,
Werkstatt für wissenschaftliche
Instrumente,
Mammonstraße
3
in Pots-
dam
(see Adreßbuch
Potsdam
1912).
[9]Freundlich
1914a.
[10]See
Freundlich 1916a. See also Doc.
186,
note
6,
for
more
on
the
problematic
character of
Freundlich’s
results.
[11]This
method had been
suggested by
Einstein
more
than
two
years
earlier
(see
Doc.
53).
[12]A registering
microphotometer had been
invented
by
Peter Paul Koch in
1913.
Koch
(1879-
1945) was
Extraordinary
Professor of
Experimental Physics
at
the
University
of
Hamburg.
354.
From
Max
von
Laue
Würzburg.
18.
6.
17.
Lieber
Einstein!
Mit
vielem Bedauern habe ich
gestern
in
Frankfurt
gehört,
daß
Dir
der
Arzt
nur
einen
so
kurzen Aufenthalt in Frankfurt
gestatten
will.[1]
Wachsmuth und ich haben
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