1 3 6 D O C U M E N T 1 9 7 J U L Y 1 9 2 1
think that my detailed “biography of the
Sun”[6]
hits the mark at least approxi-
mately.
With greetings, yours,
W. Nernst.
196. To The Berlin Peace Demonstration
[before 30 July 1921]
[Not selected for translation.]
197. From Ludwik Silberstein
[Chicago,] 30 July 1921
Dear Professor Einstein,
I am sorry to have somewhat overhastily sent you on 18 July a copy of my note
intended for the Phil[osophical] Mag[azine] under the (presumptuous) title “Spe-
cial Relativity Overthrown (= Contradicted) by Double
Stars.”[1]
But at that time I
was not well enough informed about the problem.
Since then I examined it repeatedly by various different methods until, on 27
July, I finally found the most direct way (namely, letting each one of the two stars
move along its own closed orbit in an inertial system S and treating the envelope of
all the spherical waves without any Lorentz transformation, simply based upon the
independence of the propagation of light from the motion of its source) and thereby
proved that both stars exhibit no resultant aberration and are visible to the observer
at rest in S at an angular distance entirely independent of their orbital speed.
Such being the case, I immediately withdrew on 28 July my short note in the
Astrophysical Journal (which had fortunately only been printed as a correction
proof) and substituted the following instead:
“Relativity Theory of Aberration and Double Stars.‰
“. . . The difficulty is but an apparent one, though a good paradox. The solution
of this paradox, just worked out by the writer, leading to a perfect reconciliation of
the relativity theory with observed facts, will be published shortly in this journal.
L.
S.”[2]
Likewise, I wrote to the editors of the Phil. Mag. with the request that they send
the ms. (of which you possess a copy) back to me, because I had to modify it
entirely.