D O C U M E N T 3 9 9 K Y O T O L E C T U R E 6 4 1 theory of relativity and the completion of the corresponding publication, some five or six weeks elapsed. But it would hardly be justified to to consider this as a birthday, since arguments and building blocks were prepared for years beforehand, without however having brought about the final decision” (“Zwischen der Konzeption der Idee der speziellen Relativitätstheorie und der Beendigung der betref- fenden Publikation sind fünf oder sechs Wochen vergangen. Es würde aber kaum berechtigt sein, die- ses als Geburtstag zu bezeichnen, nachdem doch vorher die Argumente und Bausteine jahrelang vorbereitet worden waren, allerdings ohne die endgiltige Entscheidung vorher zu bringen”). Wertheimer, too, recounts that Einstein “was intensely concerned with it for seven years from the moment, however, that he came to question the customary concept of time […], it took him only five weeks to write his paper on relativity—although at this time he was doing a full day’s work at the Patent Office” (Wertheimer 1945, p. 169). [8]Einstein 1907j (Vol. 2, Doc. 47). For the invitation to write this review article and for evidence of Einstein’s knowledge about pertinent contemporary scientific literature at the time, see Einstein’s exchange of letters with Johannes Stark on 25 September, 4 October, and 1 November 1907 (Vol. 5, Docs. 58, 60, and 63, respectively). [9]The original Kaizo publication misses a case particle here, without which the sentence could be mistranslated as “Riemann discussed something deeper than the foundations of geometry.” The miss- ing case particle was added in the 1923 reprint. [10]The original Kaizo publication makes the teacher the subject of the sentence by adding “ga,” rendering the meaning of the sentence as “the mathematics teacher taught Geiser geometry.” The 1923 reprint corrects this sentence by removing “ga.” [11]The original Kaizo publication reads more literally: “From this I was able to develop my ideas.” [12]Einstein departed Prague for Zurich on 25 July 1912 and registered his change of residence in Zurich on 10 August 1912 (see Vol. 5, p. 631, or Vol. 11, pp. 195–196). Marcel Grossmann was Pro- fessor of Mathematics at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule. For his biography, see Vol. 1, Biography, pp. 381–382, and for their collaboration, see Vol. 4, the editorial note, “Einstein on Grav- itation and Relativity: The Collaboration with Marcel Grossmann,” pp. 294–301. [13]Einstein and Grossmann 1913 (Vol. 4, Doc. 13). [14]For a historical account of Einstein’s discovery of the gravitational field equations of general relativity, see the first two volumes of Renn 2007.
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