DOC.
630
OCTOBER
1918 663
Concerning
the
paper by
Dr.
Bär,
which should be
appearing
soon
in
the
Annalen in
a
somewhat
more
complete
text, I had
the
opportunity
of
studying
closely
the
experimental
arrangement
in
Zurich[8]
and have
come
of
the
view
that
it
is
far from
precise
enough
to have
a say
in
such
questions, owing
to
a
deficiency
in
their
optics,
and
a
deficiency
in
the
voltmeter
readings
(:the
voltmeter and
the
particles
are
handled
by
the
same observer,
which
seems
completely unacceptable
because,
for
an
objective
judgment,
the
observer
must
attend
exclusively
to
the
particle
while
another
observer must
operate
the
voltmeter:)[9] If
my
assessment
is
correct,
then the
intellectual
author
of
this
paper,
Professor
Edgar
Meyer,
who
incidentally already
conceded in this
paper, among
other
things, my
and
Konstantinowsky’s principles
with
regard
to
the
narrowing
down,[10]
seems
to
have
adopted
my
view because he intends to have
the
experiments
taken
up
again
with
one
adapted
to
my arrangement,
which
might
perhaps
be
facilitated
a
bit
in
that
Dr. Bär has asked
me
to
arrange
an
opportunity
for him
initially
to
study
the
matter
closely
in Vienna. Another
result of
the
discussion in Zurich
was
that the
published
series of
measurements
claimed
by
Dr.
Bär
also do not
speak nearly as consistently
and
flawlessly
for such
a
simple
integer
view
as might
appear
at first
reading.
The
remaining unpublished
records have been
promised
to
me.
A
transition
to
the
appropriate
optics
will
clarify
the
whole
situation
there
as
well.
You recall
that
in
1914 I
indicated
the
proportions
for
the
charges
that
are even
simpler
than
all
of
Bär’s series
of
measurements;[11]
I
remember
the
series
+2
:
+3
:
+2
:
+1
:
-2
:
-3
:
-2
:
-1
:
-2
:
-1,
and
yet
they
are meaningless,
because the
jumps
from
one
particle
to
the
next
are
varied
and
because
a more
accurate
narrowing
down
requires
more
complicated
considerations.
In
Zurich
I
spent
some
very stimulating
hours
together
with Mr.
Besso,
from
whom
I
received
a
lengthy
postal
card
on
physics
today
as
well.
If
I may
write
an
honest word
about
all these
affairs,
in
the
electron
problem
of
today
almost the
most
interesting aspect
for
me
is
repeatedly seeing
how
people
so
easily prove
what
they
wish
to
see
fulfilled.
The
most
important
principle
for
the
experimental physicist
is
objectivity, though,
otherwise all his
effort
is
worthless.
Accept my very
cordial
regards, yours truly,
Ehrenhaft.