EINSTEIN'S REVIEWS
FOR THE
BEIBLÄTTER
ZU
DEN
ANNALEN DER PHYSIK
Einstein
began
contributing
reviews to the
Beiblätter
zu
den Annalen
der
Physik
in
1905,
four
years
after the
publication
of
his first
paper
in
the
Annalen
der
Physik.
All but two
of
the
twenty-three
reviews Einstein wrote for the
Beiblätter
appeared
in volume
29,
pub-
lished in 1905. Volume 30
(1906)
contains
one
review,
as
does volume
31
(1907).[1]
The aim
of
the
Beiblätter
series,
founded
in
1877
by
the
longtime
editor of
the
Annalen,
Johann Christian
Poggendorff,
was
to review
"as
completely as
possible"
("mit
mög-
lichster
Vollständigkeit")
papers
from
journals
in
a variety
of
languages.[2]
During
the first
quarter-century
after
1877,
the number
of
reviews
published
in
the Beiblätter
increased
steadily.
The number
of
reviews for the
fifteen-year
period
from 1892
to 1906
is
almost
double that for the
fifteen-year period
from 1877
to 1891.[3]
When
Poggendorff initiated
the
supplementary
series,
only
fifteen
reviewers
were
needed;
in
1905,
Einstein
was one
of
eighty-two
reviewers.[4]
How Einstein
came
to be chosen
as a
reviewer
(or
if
he volunteered to
contribute)
is
uncertain.
If
the
procedures
followed in
Einstein's
case were
the
same as
those followed
in
1907,
the editor
of
the Beiblätter,
Walter
König,
invited Einstein to start
writing
reviews
in
a
particular category,
in
Einstein's
case
the
theory
of
heat
("Wärmelehre").[5] It
is
reasonable to
assume
that his
activity as a
reviewer
of
works
on
the
theory
of
heat
in
the
Beiblätter
resulted from his earlier contributions
on
the
same subject
to the Annalen.[6]
Einstein
presumably
received
a
list
of
journals,
and had to indicate which
ones were ac-
cessible to him. The decision about which
papers
to review
was
made
by
the editor.
If
a
paper
was
not accessible to
Einstein,
an offprint was
sent to him. At the end
of
the year
Einstein received
a
modest
payment
for his contributions.[7]
[1]
See Klein
and
Needell
1977,
which first
drew attention
to these
reviews.
[2]
"An
unsere
Leser," dated 20 December
1876,
appears
in the front
matter
of
the first vol-
ume
of
the
Beiblätter
(1877).
Poggendorff
aimed
at
reviewing
German, French,
English,
and Italian
papers,
as
well
as
"the
less accessi-
ble"
("weniger
verbreitete")
Swedish, Danish,
Dutch,
and Russian literature.
[3] Approximately
18,000
reviews for the first
period
and
over
30,000 for the second.
Compare
the
forewords
to
the
respective
cumulative
in-
dexes
in
Strobel 1893
(p. vi)
and Strobel
1909
(p. iv).
A further indication
of
this
expansion
was
the fate
of
the
"Literature
Survey"
("Li-
teratur-Uebersicht") which
appeared
at
the end
of
every
volume
of
the
Beiblätter
up
to 1904. In
1877,
the first
year
of
publication,
this
survey
consisted
of
two
pages; by
1900 it had
grown
to
138
pages;
and in
1903,
the last
year
in which
such
a
survey was attempted,
it
ran
to 178 pages
and had
to
be abandoned.
[4]
See vol. 29,
p. [703],
of
the
Beiblätter
(1905).
[5]
The
description
of
reviewing procedures
is
based
on a
letter from
König inviting
Paul
Ehrenfest
to
write reviews for the
Beiblätter
(see
Walter
König
to
Paul
Ehrenfest,
28 June
1907,
NeLR,
Ehrenfest Scientific
Correspondence
6-
295).
[6]
See
Einstein
1902b
(Doc. 3),
Einstein 1903
(Doc. 4),
Einstein 1904
(Doc. 5).
His first two
papers
also
employed
thermodynamical
argu-
ments
(see
Einstein 1901
[Doc. 1]),
Einstein
1902a
[Doc. 2]).
[7]
In
Ehrenfest's
case,
the
payment
was
30
Marks
per
"Druckbogen" (a
sheet
correspond-
ing
to sixteen
printed pages),
which
is
the
same
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