D O C U M E N T 1 6 2 O C T O B E R 1 9 2 0 2 7 9
2. My husband feels like slaughtering the American golden calf and, by lecturing
there, earning the means to build himself a little house in Göttingen, according to
his wishes. So, if you still have occasion to recommend someone for lectures there,
please do name Max. He could go over in February, March, and April and thereby
also satisfy his desire to revisit Broadway (although I do not understand this love,
I do excuse it).
So, and now—without any further closing apotheosis—the two puppets,
Max and Hedi Born,
will duck out of sight, until you yourself think of the toy box again.
162. To Fritz Haber
Hechingen, [6 October
1920][1]
Dear Haber,
I would like to go to America but only next year, in the winter of 1921–22. This
year does not work because of a few obligations I’ve already taken on. There is the
difficulty that I have been asked twice unofficially already by Harvard Columbia
University as well (once about 8 years ago
already).[2]
It might be possible to
combine the two. Then I would also definitely have to go to
Spain.[3]
—Traveler in
relativity.—Among the women I would just take one along, either Else or Ilse. The
latter suits best because she is the healthiest and most skilled most
practical.[4]
The undertaking with the filament holds no prospects, in my opinion. If mole-
cules did not rotate, it probably would work.
If statistical equilibrium reigned with respect to rotation in a magnetic field, it
would work only if
were not all that small. The fraction of orientation would then be given by a number
of this order, which under favorable conditions ought to be able to be increased up
to 0.01. This would correspond to a paramagnetic orientation. Such, however, sets
molecular interaction as a precondition for its onset, which does not exist in the mo-
lecular rays coming under consideration here.
The true behavior of dipolar molecules upon entering into the field is adiabatic,
hence analogous to diamagnetism. The thing rotates more slowly against the field
in momenta of larger potential energies than in momenta of smaller ones, whereby
a negative time average results for the orientation from the outer field. That would
T
----------------------------------------------------------------------------strengthfieldmoment[magn.]