210
DOCS.
289,
290 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER
1911
chromosphere
lines would have
exactly
the
magnitude
demanded
by
your
theory.[7]
In
a
letter of
11 August 1910, Adams[8]
wrote
to
me:
"The
bright
lines
of
the
Chromosphere
are
measured relative
to
the dark
lines
of
the
spectrum
of
the
adjacent
limb.
These
bright
lines,
as
Mr.
Hale[9]
and
I
have
shown,
and
as
additional
measures on some one
thousand
lines have confirmed,
are
not
displaced
to
any
appreciable degree
with
reference
to
the
absorption
lines
at
the sun's
limb.
Therefore
they
must be
displaced
by
the
same
amounts from
the
wave-lengths
of the
corresponding
lines at
the
center
of
the
sun as are
the
lines at
the
limb."
Less
favorable,
however,
and
perhaps incompatible
with
an
explanation
based
on
the
influence
of
gravitation,
seems
to
me
the fact
that
the observed
displacements
do not
increase
uniformly
with the
wavelength,
but,
instead,
fluctuate
quite irregularly
between
0.010 and 0.020
Ä.[10]
As for the
refraction of
light rays by
the
gravitational field,
are
you
not
afraid that
this
effect,
should
it
prove possible
to
observe deflections
at
total solar
eclipse,
will
nevertheless
be difficult
to
distinguish
from
the
bendings
of
rays
in the
density
gradients
of
the solar
gases?[11]
Otherwise,
your
starting
hypothesis seems
to
me so convincing
that
I
ask
myself
in
wonderment,
by
what
expedient
will
you
thereafter
succeed in
finding
the
reason
why
the
influence
of
gravitation
that
you
first
expected
does not
come
to
the fore
so
clearly.
290. From
Mileva
Einstein-Maric
[Prague,
4
October
1911]
Dear
Babu,
I
was
delighted
with
your
letter,
a
few
things were missing, though,
but
hopefully they
may
still come?
It
must have
been
very interesting
in
Karlsruhe;[1]
I
would have loved
only
too
well
to
have listened
a
little,
and
to
have
seen
all
those
fine
people.
Is the Marx
family[2]
large,
did
you
do
your duty
a
little bit?
It's been
an
eternity
since
we
have
seen
each
other,[3]
will
you
still
recognize
me? Should I
really
come
to
Zurich? The weather
here
is
wonderful.
Splendid
fall
weather, wonderful,
do
we
still
want
to
try
to
do
something?
Assuming
I
come,
where should
I
write
to
inform
you
about
my
arrival,
for
you
will
pick
me
up,
I hope.
For
today,
many
tender
feelings
from
your
old
D[oxerl]