D O C U M E N T S 2 4 9 , 2 5 0 D E C E M B E R 1 9 2 0 3 4 5
me have not all been accepted, he says I will be satisfied for the present with what
has been done.
There are in America a large number of serious men thinking well of Germany.
There are, however, a large number of men who appear in that light; but in reality
are not inclined that way, and the masses a[re] fickle and are easily swayed.
Will you be kind enough to write to me about your plans in regard to a visit to
this country, and if I can do anything—as I enjoy the confidence of a great many of
those who are today what one might call the leading men of science and progress
in thought,—I shall be only too glad to put my services to your disposal.
Professor Ehren[haft] to whom I am sending a copy of this letter, wrote to me
that you will be their guest in Vienna in
January,[7]
and it is possible he may give
you this letter personally and discuss with you some phases of it.
With kind personal regards, I remain, Yours very truly,
Carl Beck
249. To Wilhelm Blaschke
Berlin, 29 December 1920
Dear Colleague,
An opinion on Laue is
obviated.[1]
Among the others under consideration, the
achievements of Epstein seem to me to tower far above all the others. Lenz,
Schrödinger, Thirring, and Flamm are all qualified theoreticians, each of whom is
worthy of
recommendation.[2]
Among these I would prefer Lenz and Schrödinger,
without being able to say which of these two I place above the other. Finally, I
would not want to neglect pointing out Fritz
Reiche,[3]
who is an excellent theore-
tician and teacher, even if his accomplishments as regards originality perhaps rank
behind those of Schrödinger and Lenz.
With best wishes for the New Year, yours,
250. To Edouard Guillaume
[29 December 1920]
Dear Guillaume,
Now I think I see what you are doing. You are observing a spherical wave. Ob-
served from K1, the world points taken at a time u1 are characterized by a time u1
= const. Observed from K2, these world points lie on a surface that is characterized
by the equation