24
DOC.
3
INAUGURAL LECTURE
Lecture delivered
to
the
Prussian
Academy
of
Sciences
in
Berlin,
2
July
1914.
Published
in
Königlich Preußische
Akademie
der
Wissenschaften (Berlin).
Sitzungsberichte
(1914):
739-
742.
Published
9 July 1914. A
two-page manuscript
has been
preserved ([1
001]).
One
signif-
icant
departure
from the
manuscript is
noted.
[1]A
salaried member of
the
Prussian
Academy,
Einstein had
no
obligations to
teach
or
per-
form other
time-consuming
duties
(see
Prussian
Academy
of Sciences
to
Einstein, 22
Novem-
ber
1913
[Vol. 5,
Doc.
485]
for the
terms
of his
appointment).
[2]The
manuscript
has "braucht" instead of “benutzt.”
[3]Max
Planck
replied
to
Einstein’s lecture
(see
Planck
1914b)
in
his
capacity
as
one
of
the
permanent
secretaries of the Prussian
Academy.
He
expressed skepticism
about the need
to
generalize special relativity to
include accelerated motion and
pointed
out
that the
current
ver-
sion of
general relativity
was
not
a
true generalization
of
special relativity
because
of
its
restricted covariance
(see,
e.g.,
Einstein and Grossmann 1914b
[Doc. 2]).
At the
same
time,
he
emphasized
the
importance
of Einstein’s
theory.
See
also Einstein’s
comments
on
Planck’s
reply
in
Einstein
to
Max
Planck, 7
July
1914.
[4]Einstein’s efforts, in
collaboration with Michele
Besso,
to
use
his
theory
to
account
for
the anomalous motion
of
the
perihelion
of
Mercury,
had been without
success
(see Vol.
4,
Doc.
14,
for their
calculations).
Efforts
to measure
the
predicted gravitational
redshift of
spectral
lines
were
inconclusive
(see
the
correspondence
with
W. H.
Julius
in Vol. 5),
as were
attempts
to
determine the
predicted
effect of
gravitational light
deflection
(see
the
correspondence
with
Erwin Freundlich
in Vol.
5).
At the
same
time,
preparations
were
under
way
for
an
expedition
to
observe
a
solar
eclipse
and collect data with which
to test
the
occurrence
of
light
deflection
near
the
sun
(see
Einstein
to
Henrich
Zangger,
ca.
20
January
1914
[Vol. 5,
Doc.
507],
note
6).
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