D O C . 2 0 6 D E C E M B E R 1 9 1 9 1 7 7 jor industry.[2] Unfortunately, nothing can come of that anymore now, and I have also abandoned all hope of taking up my professorship in Riga. One year ago I was called as full professor of physics to the polytechnic there. However, there is such a state of unrest and warlike disorder in Livonia that all of my inquiries have remained unanswered.[3] It is not impossible now that I will come under consider- ation in Stuttgart, after Pohl declines his call there, provided Regener likewise declines.[4] I would very much like to go to Stuttgart, which has been familiar to me since my schooldays. The collaboration with Pohl is working out very positive- ly here we are jointly lecturing on experimental physics, which is so well attended that the auditorium is full to the brim twice over. Pohl’s glistening new apparatus allows us to offer a genuinely modern experimental physics lecture. In the concep- tual organization of the subject too—we put the main emphasis on the greatest pos- sible intuitiveness—we both follow along the same lines. After having occupied myself with problems in the field of radiation[5] during the last years of the war as a result of my exemption [from the military] through Telefunken, I have now taken up problems in pure research again by continuing my work on the penetration of canal rays through matter.[6] In preliminary work I am studying the generation of very fast canal rays in high vacuum. In the event that it should be possible to obtain beams of truly uniform velocity with incandescent an- odes, I would analyze further the luminescence limit found by Wilsar for variable intensity and other problems as well, which could contribute toward clarification of the process of luminescence.[7] It would also be very nice if a way could be found by means of very fast canal rays to determine as a function of v also for positive nuclei. It would be a great pleasure for me to be able to address these questions at my own institute with sufficient resources. The large teaching load awaiting me in Stuttgart would not discourage me, as I very much like to teach. Since you looked after me so kindly at that time in Berlin, may I perhaps ask you now to write to Stuttgart on my behalf and, in particular, to Professor F. Emde (Electrotechnical Institute at the Polytechnic), who is influential in such appoint- ments?[8] Here at Göttingen everything is still rather unclear, since Debye apparently has not yet made up his mind he returned today from Zurich.[9] Since I lost almost my entire fortune in the war, the future gives me much to wor- ry about it certainly would be very nice if I could finally find a position that would make it feasible for me to devote myself entirely to science again on a permanent basis. My most cordial congratulations on the fine confirmation of your theory by the English expeditions.[10] With best wishes, yours very truly, H. Rausch von Traubenberg. e- m ---