28
DOC.
4
COMMENTS ON HARZER’S PAPER
Published in Astronomische Nachrichten
199
(1914):
cols.
7-10. Dated
Berlin-Dahlem,
18
July 1914, published
11
August
1914.
[1]Harzer
1914a. In this
paper
Paul Harzer
(1857-1932),
Professor of
Astronomy at
the
University
of
Kiel and Director of its
observatory,
discusses
an
experiment performed at
the
University
of Jena
by
Franz Harress
in
the
years
1909-1910 and
published
in Harress’s disser-
tation of
1912 (Harress 1912).
Harress had done
a
Fizeau-like
experiment,
with the difference
that the medium
was a
rotating polygon
of linked
glass
prisms
instead of
running water.
In
his
paper,
Harzer
pointed
out
a
mistake
in
Harress’s work and recalculated the
experimental
data.
His conclusion
is
summarized
by
Einstein
in
the last
paragraph
of the
present paper.
After Harress’s death
in
the First World
War,
it
was
not
until
1920
that Otto
Knopf
(1856-
1945),
whose Assistent Harress had
been,
published
the latter’s results
(see Knopf 1920).
Knopf’s paper
was
accompanied by
a
paper
in
which Max
von
Laue
gave
a
full theoretical
treatment
of
the
experiment
(Laue 1920).
[2]See
also Einstein
1914m (Doc. 6),
Einstein’s
response to
Harzer’s
reply
to
the
present
paper.