DOC. 29 ERNST
MACH
145
he
published partly by
himself,
partly together
with students.
Among
his
experimental
investigations
in
physics,
those of the acoustic
waves
generated by
bullets
are
best
known. While the basic idea
was
not new,
the
investigations
revealed
an
extraordi-
nary experimental
talent. He
succeeded
in
photographing
the
density
distribution of
air
around
a supersonic
bullet,
and thus he shed
new light
upon
a group
of acoustic
•»
processes
about which
nothing was
known before him.
Everyone
who likes the
subjects
of
physics
will
enjoy
his
popular
lecture about
it.
All
of
Mach's
philosophical
studies
sprang
from his desire
to
find
a point
of view
from which the various branches
of
science,
to which he dedicated his
lifelong
labor,
can
be
seen as an integrated
endeavor. He
comprehended
all science
as a striving
for
order
among
individual
elementary experiences
which he called "sensations"
(Empfindungen).
This choice
of
word is
probably
the
reason why
those who
are
less
familiar with his works often mistook the sober and careful thinker for
a philosophi-
cal idealist and
solipsist.
[7]
When
reading
Mach's
works,
one really
feels the
cozy
ease
the author
must
have
felt when he
effortlessly
wrote his concise and
striking
sentences. But
not
only
the
enjoyment
of
good style
and
mere
intellectual
joy
make the
reading
of
his books
so
attractive;
it is also the
kind,
the humanitarian and
hopeful
attitude that
gleams
between the lines when he talks about human
things
in
general.
These sentiments and
convictions also made him immune to another disease
of
our time,
from which few
are
spared
today-national
fanaticism. In his
popular essay
"On
phenomena
of
Flying
Projectiles"
he could not
refrain,
in the last
paragraph,
from
expressing
his
hope
of
an understanding
among
nations.
(Received
March
14, 1916)
[8]