402 DOC. 39
THEORY
OF WATER
WAVES
Published
in
Die
Naturwissenschaften 4 (1916):
509-510. Published
25
August
1916.
[1]Einstein
lectured
on
the
topic
of this
paper at
the
meeting
of
2
June
1916
of the Deutsche
Physikalische
Gesellschaft
(see
Deutsche
Physikalische Gesellschaft. Verhandlungen 18
(1916): 297).
[2]The
airfoil
design
Einstein discusses here later became known
as
the "Katzenbuckelflä-
che"
("cat's
back airfoil." Paul Ehrhardt
to
Einstein, 26
August 1954,
which
is
reproduced
in
Interavia
10 (1955): 684). See
also Einstein's brief discussion of the airfoil
in
Einstein
to
Michele
Besso, 14
May
1916.
Sometime
in 1917
Einstein drew the attention of the Berlin air-
craft
firm LVG
(Luftverkehrsgesellschaft)
to
the
design,
and
tests
were
conducted
in
the
air.
They were
halted when results
proved unsatisfactory,
as
is
recounted
forty years
later
by
Paul
Ehrhardt,
the technical director of LVG's
experimental
section and the
test pilot
of the air-
plane:
"I
hung
in
the air after take-off like
a
'pregnant
duck' ..."
("wie
eine
'schwangere
Ente'
...
hing
ich nach dem Start
in
der Luft." Paul Ehrhardt
to
Einstein, 26
August 1954).
In
his
reply to
Ehrhardt of
7 September
1954
Einstein
wrote:
"I have
to
admit
that
I
have often
been ashamed of
my
folly
of those
days" ("Ich
muss
gestehen,
dass ich mich
meines
damaligen
Leichtsinns oft
geschämt habe").
In
1917
Einstein
was
also
advising
another aircraft
manufacturer,
Mercur
Flugzeugbau
G.m.b.H.
in
Berlin
(see
Mercur
Flugzeugbau
to
Einstein, 29
December
1917). In
a
history
of
the
German aircraft
industry
Einstein
is listed
as a
"scientific collaborator"
("Wissenschaftli-
cher
Mitarbeiter")
with this
firm in
June
1918 (see
Geschichte
1918,
p.
92).
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