DOC.
31 ON THE RELATIVITY
PROBLEM
621
Published
in
Scientia
15 (1914):
337-348.
Dated
by
Einstein's
departure
from
Zurich,
21
March
1914, published
1
May
1914.
Einstein finished
the
manuscript
for
the
present paper
before
writing
Einstein 1914e
(Doc.
25),
which
he
had
completed
ca.
20
January
1914
(see
Einstein
to
Heinrich
Zangger,
ca.
20 January 1914
[Vol. 5,
Doc. 507]). A
French translation
appeared
in
a
supplement
to the
same
volume,
Scientia
15
(1914),
pp.
139-150. A
ten-page manuscript
version of the
paper [70 194]
is
preserved
in
the
Schwadron
collection,
Einstein file
no.
38 at
Hebrew
University
and is
almost identical
to
the
published
text,
with
the
major exception
of
one
paragraph
that
is
omitted
in
the
published
version. This
paragraph
is
provided
in
the fol-
lowing
notes,
in which
significant
variations from
the
manuscript
are
also
recorded.
[1]See
Brillouin
1913 and
Abraham 1914a. Einstein commented
on
Abraham's criticism of
his
work
on
gravitation
in
a
contemporary
letter:
"Abraham
appreciates
it
the
most. It is true
that
he
rails
vigorously against
all
kinds of
relativity
in 'Scientia,'
but
he
does
it
intelligently"
("Das
meiste Verständnis hat
wohl
Abraham dafür. Er
schimpft
zwar
in
der 'Scienza'
kräftig
über alle
Relativität,
aber
mit
Verstand." Einstein
to
Michele
Besso,
after
1
January
1914[Vol.
5,
Doc. 499]).
Abraham
later
published a
pointed response to
Einstein's
paper
(see
Abraham
1914b).
Einstein's
controversy
with Abraham in Scientia
is
summarized
in
Cattani and De
Maria
1989,
pp.
166-171.
[2]In
the
manuscript
after
"begründet"
the
following passage
is
crossed
out:
"es
ist
von
dem
Verfasser dieser Zeilen in
den
letzten Jahren in
seinen
Umrissen entwickelt worden und."
[3]While
in late
fall of
1913
Einstein seemed
pleased
that
his
colleagues
were
gradually
gaining
some
understanding
of
his
work
on
gravitation
(see
Einstein
to
Elsa
Löwenthal,
after
22
November
1913
[Vol.
5,
Doc.
486]),
a
few
months later
he
alluded
to
being
criticized
by
prominent colleagues,
such
as
Max Laue
and
Max Planck.
See,
e.g.,
his
response
to
Gustav
Mie,
Einstein 1914e
(Doc.
25), as
well
as
Einstein
to
Michele
Besso,
after
1
January
1914(Vol.
5,
Doc. 499);
Einstein
to
Heinrich
Zangger,
ca.
20
January
1914
(Vol.
5,
Doc.
507);
and
Einstein
to
Elsa
Löwenthal,
February
1914
(Vol.
5,
Doc.
509).
[4]See Minkowski 1909.
[5]For
earlier
use
of the
comparison
between
the
theory
of
relativity
and
the
second
law
of
thermodynamics,
see
Einstein
et
al. 1911
(Vol.
3,
Doc.
18),
p.
VI. In his
response
Abraham
criticized
this
comparison
by
pointing
to the
wider
range
of
validity
of
the
principles
of ther-
modynamics
(see
Abraham
1914b,
p.
101).
[6]In his
rejoinder
to
Einstein's
paper,
Abraham insisted
that this
point
was
still
controversial
(see
Abraham
1914b,
p.
101).
For
a
historical discussion of
the
experimental
determination of
the transversal and
longitudinal
mass
of the
electron, to
which Einstein
is
referring
here,
see
Miller
1981,
§§12.4.4 and 12.4.5.
[7]In
the
manuscript
after
"hervorgetreten"
the
following paragraph
is
deleted: "Die
Rela-
tivitätstheorie hat eine
Aenderung
der Mechanik
mit sich
gebracht;
ist sie
auch
mit den
Erfah-
rungsthatsachen
auf dem Gebiete der Gravitation vereinbar?
Die
Bewegungen
der Himmels-
körper
sind derart
langsam,
dass
uns
die
Erfahrung
nur
über
die
Kräfte belehrt."
A
similar
line
of
thought, leading
to the
insight
that Newton's
theory is
in
effect
a
theory
for the
static
gravitational field,
is
found
in
Einstein 1913c
(Doc.
17),
p.
1250.
[8]The
manuscript
reads "das
wichtigste Ergebnis"
instead of "ein
Ergebnis."
[9]The manuscript
reads
"In
neuester
Zeit hat Eötvös
gezeigt"
instead of "Eötvös hat
gezeigt."
[10]See, e.g.,
Eötvös 1891. In
the
manuscript
the
figure
10-7
is
given,
the
same as
in Einstein
1914g
(Doc.
16)
and
Einstein 1914l
(Doc.
27).
Eötvös's
accuracy
was
1
:
2
X 107.
[11]See
Langevin
1913
and Einstein 1912h
(Doc.
8),
p.
1062,
fn.
1,
for Einstein's
reference
to
a
personal
communication
by
Langevin.
For Einstein's earlier consultation with
Wilhelm
Wien
on
the
possibility
of
testing
the
equality
of inertial
and
gravitational
mass
for radioactive
matter
(before learning
of Eötvös's
work),
see
Einstein
to
Wilhelm
Wien,
10 July
1912
(Vol.
5,
Doc. 413). See
also
Illy
1989 for
a
historical discussion.
[12]For
a
discussion of Abraham's
theory
of
gravitation,
see
the editorial note, "Einstein
on
Gravitation
and
Relativity:
The Static
Field,"
pp.
124-127.
[13]See
Mie
1913,
p.
63.
For Einstein's earlier criticism of
this
consequence
of Mie's
theory,
see
Einstein
et
al. 1913
(Doc. 18),
p.
1263.
For
a
later
account
of Mie's
theory,
see
Pauli
1921,
sec.
64.