D O C U M E N T 2 6 1 J U N E 1 9 2 4 3 9 9 261. From Satyendra Nath Bose[1] Physics Department, Dacca University, Ramna P. O. Dacca, India, Dated the 4th June 1924 Respected Sir: I have ventured to send you the accompanying article for your perusal and opinion.[2] I am anxious to know what you think of it. You will see that (I have tried to deduce the coefficient in Planck’s Law independent of the classical electrodynamics,)[3] only assuming that the ultimate elementary regions in the Phase-space has the content . I do not know sufficient German to translate the paper. If you think the paper worth publication I shall be grateful if you arrange for its publication in Zeitschrift für Physik. Though a complete stranger to you, I do not feel any hesitation in making such a request. Because we are all your pupils though profiting only by your teachings through your writings. I do not know whether you still remember that somebody from Calcutta asked your permission to translate your papers on Relativity in English. You acceded to the request.[4] The book has since been published.[5] I was the one who translated your paper on Gen- eralised Relativity.[6] Yours faithfully S. N. Bose ALS. [6 127]. [1]Bose (1894–1974) was reader at the University of Dhaka. [2]The manuscript of Bose 1924a. That manuscript may have been a (possibly revised) version of an earlier manuscript that had been rejected. According to Stachel 2002, p. 523, there are two con- flicting accounts of the prehistory of Bose’s first paper (Bose 1924a). Blanpied 1972, p. 1215, on the basis of an unauthorized report of his conversation with Bose on 25 March 1971, claims that Bose had submitted a paper on the subject to Philosophical Magazine in late 1923 and was informed six months later that it was rejected due to a referee’s negative report. Mehra 1975, p. 128, on the basis of recorded interviews with Bose on 30 August 1970, claims that Bose had conceived of both his papers (Bose 1924a and 1924b) after a visit in March 1924 in Dhaka by his friend Meghnad N. Saha, who had drawn his attention to the recent paper of Einstein and Ehrenfest 1923 (Doc. 129). Stachel 2002, p. 523, points out that a reference in Bose 1924b, p. 386, to an earlier paper is cited as “to appear in Phil. Mag.” (“erscheint im Phil. Mag.”), and that this reference would appear to be to an earlier version of Bose 1924a, thus corroborating the version of Blanpied 1972, whereas the account of Mehra 1975 may be accurate only for the second paper (Bose 1924b). 8πν2 c3 ------------ h3