DOCUMENTS 415,
416
DECEMBER
1917
577
415.
To
Otto
Marx[1]
Zurich
[Berlin],
22 December 1912.
[1917][2]
Marx had
requested
Einstein’s
assistance
in
solving a
problem
with
an
airplane.
...
Sie haben mir durch das
prachtvolle
und
sinnreiche Geschenk eine
grosse
Freu-
de
gemacht.
Beim
Anschauen
des schönen Albums werde ich oft
Ihrer
...
und
meiner
Escapade
ins Reich
der
Praxis mit
Humor
gedenken
...[3]
Mit den besten Grüssen
und
Wünschen für die
Feiertage
Ihr
ergebener
A. Einstein.
PTr and facsimile
of
ALS
(Stargardt
dealer
catalogue
604
[1974?],
lot
221). [44 395].
The lot des-
cription
is the
source
of
the dateline and the editorial
comment;
the PTr is the
source
of the
first
paragraph
of
the
text;
the facsimile is the
source
of
the closure.
[1]Marx
(1886-1973)
was
Director of
the Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft m.b.H.
(LVG)
in
Johannis-
thal,
on
the outskirts
of
Berlin.
[2]Date
and
place are
corrected
on
the
assumption
that this
letter
was
written after Einstein had
per-
formed work for Marx’s aircraft
company
in 1917. This
letter
was presented
under the
incorrect
date
in Vol.
5
as
Doc. 426.
[3]Probably a
reference to Einstein’s work
on
the “cat’s
back”
airfoil,
which he described in
a
sim-
ilar
vein
many years
later
(see
Einstein
to
Paul
Ehrhardt,
7
September 1954;
see
also
Vol.
6,
Doc.
39).
Developed
in
May
1916
(see
Doc.
219),
the
design was
adopted by
the
LVG
and
tested
in
a
wind-
tunnel
as
well
as
in actual
(unsuccessful) flight.
The
results of
the windtunnel
tests,
which
were
performed
by
the Modellversuchsanstalt für
Aerodynamik
in
Göttingen
on
29 March
1917,
are
repro-
duced in
W.W.I
Aero,
Nr. 118
(February
1988),
p.
45. See also the notes
to Vol. 6,
Doc.
39,
for
more
details
on
the tests.
Einstein’s introduction
to
the aircraft
industry
may
have
come
in
response
to
an
advertisement
by
the
Deutsche
Versuchsanstalt für
Luftfahrt
in
Berlin-Adlershof,
which had solicited mathematicians
or
physicists
for
research in
aerodynamics
(see
Physikalische Zeitschrift
18 (1917),
p.
152).
One
source, however,
claims that it
was
the LVG that
placed
the advertisement
(see
Seelig
1960,
pp.
251-
252).
An undated curriculum vitae
may
have been
prepared by
Einstein
as part
of
his
application (see
entry
of
1917 in
Calendar).
416.
To
Gustav Mie
[Berlin,]
22.12.17.
Hoch
geehrter
Herr
Kollege!
Ich danke Ihnen herzlich
für
die
Sendung
Ihrer
sehr interessanten
Vorträge,
die
ich bereits mehrmals studiert
habe.[1]
Unsere noch verbleibenden
Meinungsdiffe-
renzen
sind relativ unbedeutend.
Der
Hauptunterschied
besteht
darin,
dass ich
nicht
an
die
"ebene
Grundgestalt“
des Weltkontinuums
glaube.
Bestände
sie,
so
wäre
Ihr
Vorschlag
der Koordinatenwahl durch
Orthogonalprojektion
auf
den
R4
in
dem
10
dimensionalen euklidischen Raum
sehr
vernünftig (vorausgesetzt
dass
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