6
EINSTEIN'S MANUSCRIPT ON
SPECIAL RELATIVITY
"Pexider"
in
Einstein's
manuscript;
the distortion
suggests
that Einstein had
only
heard about De Sitter's results but had
not
actually
seen
the
paper (which
was
sub-
mitted
in
February
and
published
on
1
May
1913).[22]
Other evidence indicates that Einstein
probably
made revisions of
his text
as
late
as early
1914.
His lecture
course on
electricity
and
magnetism
at
the ETH
in winter
semester 1913/1914 included
a
discussion of relativistic
hydrodynamics.
Student
notes
based
on
Einstein's
course[23]
as
well
as
his
own
notes[24]
show
a
close
similarity
between
the treatment of
this
topic
in his
lectures and
in
section 4 of the
manuscript.
One
particular
passage, on
[p.
69]
of the
manuscript, suggests
that the
presentation
in
the lecture
course preceded
the
composition
of this
part
of the
manuscript.[25]
From
the location of
the
passage
in
Einstein's
course
it
can
be
concluded that Einstein
must
have dealt with the
topic
in
the
beginning
of the second half of the
semester,
that
is,
in
the
first
months of
1914.
IV
"The
war,
combined with
the
sudden withdrawal of
collaborators from the
project
with
its
consequences
for
supplementing papers already submitted,
seemed
at
times
to
jeopardize publication
of the last
volume."[26]
When Marx
wrote these lines
in
the
preface
of
the
sixth volume of
the handbook, he must also
have
thought
of
his
numer-
ous
and insistent but unsuccessful
attempts
to
obtain
a
revised
version of Einstein's
contribution.
In
the
beginning
of
1922
Marx asked Einstein
to
revise
his
manuscript
and also
to
add
a
short sketch
on
general
relativity.[27]
Einstein
declined,
stating
that
he
was
overburdened with
work, and
suggested
that Hermann
Weyl, Wolfgang Pauli,
Hans
Thirring,
Max
von
Laue,
or
August Kopff
be
asked
instead.[28] Marx,
however,
did
not
give
up.
He
agreed
not to
add
a
sketch
on
general relativity, considering
that
it
would
not
be
essential for
a
handbook
on
radiation
physics,
but
insisted that
it
would
be
confusing
to
publish
a
manuscript
entitled
"Special Relativity"
and dated before
[22]De
Sitter
1913.
Einstein
gave
a
colloquium
on
De Sitter's results
on
15 February
1914
(see
Eduard
Sidler's
notes
on
Einstein's
course on
electricity
and
magnetism
in winter
semester
1913/1914, SzZE Bibliothek, Hs.
1067:14
and
1067:15).
[23]Two
sets
of
notes
exist,
taken
by
Walter Dällenbach
and
Eduard
Sidler,
respectively (see
Appendix
A
for
an
overview of the
topics
discussed
in
the
course).
[24]See Doc.
19.
[25]Einstein
first wrote
the
equations
of
hydrodynamics
on [p. 69]
in
a
notation
resembling
that used
in
Doc.
19
but later deleted them and
rewrote
them
on
[p.
70]
in
a
notation
matching
that of the
previous parts
of the
manuscript.
The fact that
[p.
70]
is
written
on a
different kind
of
paper
than the
ones
preceding it, as was
established
by
Sotheby's expert
(see
note
18),
suggests
that it
was
added later
in
replacement
of
the
original
[p.
70].
[26]"Der
Krieg,
ferner
plötzliches
Zurückziehen
von
Mitarbeiterzusagen
mit ihren
Folgeer-
scheinungen
für die
Ergänzung
der bereits
eingesandten
Arbeiten schienen zeitweise das
Erscheinen des letzten Bandes
unmöglich
zu
machen."
(Marx
1925,
p.
VII).
[27]See
Erich Marx
to Einstein, 2
January
1922.
[28]See
Einstein
to
Erich
Marx, 4
January
1922.