D O C U M E N T 8 5 J U L Y 1 9 2 0 2 1 5
conduct, etc., I have “good.” It would be nice if you were here, because then we
could do many more things together. Other children, e.g., the Zürchers, can do
many fine things with their
Papa![3]
On the 28th it’s my
birthday.[4]
I think there’s
something nice coming, because
Mama[5]
is always doing something secretly and
one room is always locked. I have a collection of cacti, which I tend every evening.
They are very fun because they all have different shapes. Richard and I sometimes
go to Prof. Heim’s and play there in the
garden.[6]
It’s fun there and there’s no lack
of fruit and berries. I’m reading “Götz von Berlichingen” by Goethe just
now.[7]
This spring I was allowed to go to the theater; they were playing “The Robbers” by
Schiller.[8]
Write me, too, sometime! Albert is in Geneva with Mrs.
Chavan.[9]
From what he writes, he’s enjoying himself a lot.
Many greetings from your
Teddy
85. To Michele Besso
[Berlin, before 26 July
1920][1]
Dear Michele,
He Guillaume
[2]
doggedly keeps writing the same rubbish, according to
Napoleon’s maxim that repetition is the most effective argument. Despite all the
effort I take, I cannot find any sense behind his words and am (for my part) certain
that there is none,
either.[3]
He seems not to be able to distinguish between things
and numbers in his considerations. Julius’s investigations certainly are interesting
and speak against the existence of the redshift; but they prove nothing at
all.[4]
Until
terrestrial light sources and both spectra have been analyzed properly with the spec-
trophotometer, accumulation of data is useless. One compares terrestrial lines with
those of the solar spectrum under the assumption that those lines that are the least
shifted against each other correspond, that is, under the precondition that no grav-
itational effects exist. With the immensely line-rich solar spectrum, this can lead to
lines being inappropriately identified, as Grebe and Bachem have lately
shown.[5]
It is also important to prefer lines that do not exhibit the solar center–solar limb ef-
fect. Grebe [and Bachem] find the effect confirmed well by the cyanogen band, when
they exclude asymmetric or distorted lines (photogrammatically
established).[6]
You
will see that, in the end, a splendid confirmation of the theory results; I never doubt-
ed it for a single second. Weyl’s theory cannot help
here.[7]
Either it yields the in-
dependence of measuring rods and clocks from their prehistories, then it’s useless;
or it yields nothing about this independence, then it is certainly false owing to the
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