Did Einstein's Wife "Discover" Relativity?
January 22, 2016
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January 22, 2016
ML said (January 24, 2016):
About your article "Did Einstein's Wife "Discover" Relativity?" :
I would like to call your attention to the book of Jean Hladik, "Comment le jeune et ambitieux Einstein s'est approprié la Relativité restreinte de Poincaré" ("How the young and ambitious Einstein stole Special Relativity of Poincaré"). Jean Hladik is professor or Physics, and teaches quantum mechanics and relativity at university (I am myself retired researcher in theoretical physics). In his book, Hladik studies the problem of anteriority of articles on the subject, from a scientific point of view, by examining the original articles of Poincaré, Lorentz and Einstein, and comparing contents and dates of publication.
In addition, he also cites opinions of other scientists, and historical non-scientific facts that complements the book of Bjernes.
The book can be downloaded at the address:
www.pdfarchive.info\pdf\H\Hl\Hladik_Jean_-_Comment_le_jeune_et_ambitieux_Einstein_s_est_approprie_la_Relativite_restreinte_de_Poincare.pdf
Unfortunately, despite its interest for historical reasons,it has not been translated into english, to my knowledge. This is comparable to the books of Soljenytsin, "Deux siècles ensemble", Vol1 "Juifs et Russes avant la révolution" and Vol2 "Juifs et Russes pendant la période soviétique" that have never been translated into English either (maybe opposition of the US jewish lobby, in both cases?). Soljenytsin's books in French are also available online in one pdf file:
www.pdfarchive.info\pdf\S\So\Soljenitsyne_Alexandre_-_Deux_siecles_ensemble.pdf
Best wishes and thank you very much for your work
Anonymous said (January 23, 2016):
Mr Bjerknes reveals another chapter in his life's work of rubbishing Einstein. However, another approach is that adopted by Roger Schlafly, author of "How Einstein Ruined Physics" which gives a comprehensive history
of Symmetry and Motion going back to earliest times and which achieves the objective of exposing Einstein by simply crediting the actual authors of the scientific discoveries which had preceded any alleged work of his by a considerable margin. In modern times, it is important to credit James Clerk Maxwell as the first of a succession of brilliant physicists and mathematicians whose work led to the formal statements of special and general relativity as they are now understood. Why Roger Schlafly takes issue with Einstein is not so much his plagiarism per se but the fact that he disguised it by pretending he had achieved his scientific 'breakthroughs' by pure thought unfettered by any prior work, thereby licensing other 'physicists' to emulate this approach to create versions of reality far removed from the potential for experimental validation and even further removed from simple credibility.
Schlafly's work is very much a history of science text, approachable by the lay reader. Roger Schlafly's blog is Dark Buzz
Dan said (January 23, 2016):
I have an interesting tip for Jon he may want to pursue. Einstein was taken under the wing of the Sulzberger family, who even put him up in a guest house and sponsored his immigration to America in 1933. I had the surreal fortune to have dinner with a Sulzberger many years ago who told anecdotes of Einstein living in a guest house at her parents summer retreat. I researched this further and discovered the Einstein was actually directly related to the New York Sulzbergers through Sophie Einstein* (1811-1878), the wife of the family patriarch in Baden, Germany, Mayer Sulzberger (1843-1923). Mayer's parents - Sophie Einstein-Sulzberger and Abraham Sulzberger immigrated to Philadelphia, USA in 1848 - (the year of the failed first German Marxist revolution). Mayer pursued law and became an American Judge, but he was also a lifelong editor of the 'The Occident and American Jewish Advocate', the first Jewish magazine in the United States. He also co-founded the Jewish Publication Society of America. As you know the Sulzberger family is known for acquiring the New York Times since 1935.
The General Theory of Relativity was genuinely exciting for physicists, mathematicians and engineers, but did it rate the Messianic cult of Einstein that persisted for seventy years? Even when I was a boy in the 1960's the name Einstein was synonymous with "genius". When he died, the press anxiously interviewed the doctor who dissected Einstein's brain. Newspapers from all over country wired Associated Press to obtain photos of Einstein's brain. Einstein was the most overrated 'science celebrity' of his time . Of course now they are as common as Viagra commercials: Michio Kaku, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan, and so on. The common denominator is MEDIA. Einstein's disproportionate fame was generated primarily by the papers and newsreels, and later, by the New York Times, TIME and all the magazines. On CBS he was God - or at least a scientific Moses.
In latter life Einstein served the media as what we now call call a 'poster boy'. His 'creds' were used to give the liberal pacifist stamp of approval to the new State of Israel.
Whether Einstein's Theory of Relativity was entirely his own or not, the theory itself has been instrumental in literally changing the paradigm of Western philosophy and religion. It was used as the mantle of scientific authority to back up 20th century relativism.
* see ARC MS25 - Mayer Sulzberger Collection paragraph 1.
You won't find the blood relation between the Sulzberger family and Albert Einstein in pop sources like Wikipedia.
BF said (January 23, 2016):
I read your article about Albert Einstein with interest. There is no question that Einstein was overrated as a scientist, if he was a scientist at all. When he was in high school, he failed his mathematics exams, which is strange for a genius. His wife, Mileva Maric, was a mathematician by training, and not a physicist as stated in the article. There is no question that she was the chief force behind all his scientific "research". There is nothing he could have done without her. What is grossly unfair about Einsteins "legend" is that Einstein got all the glory while his wife was almost entirely ignored, when it should have been the other way round.
Henry Makow received his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Toronto in 1982. He welcomes your comments at
BB said (January 30, 2016):
Hey.. Henry.. I read your article about Einstein and the theory that he might have plagiarize his way up the ladder of the scientific world... And I must say?.. I agree.. Totally!.. I became interested and started researching Einstein history.. When I came across an obscure article about his early childhood and his young adult years... Einstein was a lackey, a lazy good for nothing.. So much so.. That as a young man.. His father was so disgusted by his failure, that he begged a certain successful businessman to please give his son a job!.. And do you want to know what that job was?.. "A Patent Office! "...so Einstein began working at a Patent Office as a young man...
It was during that period when a brilliant young scientist entered the office to drop off one of his inventive ideas, Einstein dismissed the young man, telling him that, the office wasn't interested in ideas as that, and that they were looking for more interesting inventions... The young scientist feeling rejected, quietly left... But was even more determined to be a success in the science field.. That young scientist name was Nicolai Tesla... It was shortly after this encounter.. That Einstein became a genius... In fact.. Einstein's Theory of Relativity is very similar to Tesla's Theory of Dynamic Gravity....