Abstract
The 1920s, in introducing Einstein to the experience of being a celebrity, culminated at the end of the decade with his second trip to the United States instigated by, of all people, Robert Millikan, who was skeptical of Einstein’s particle model of light, even after he himself experimentally confirmed its predicted equation. Furthermore, after the eclipse experiment, Millikan put forward an alternative “plausible” explanation that he hoped would be true: that the bending of light was caused by refraction from solar gases that deflected the light rays. Nonetheless, he respected Einstein, and realized that he was a major physicist of the century.
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Notes
- 1.
The first was the 1921 fundraising tour for a Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
- 2.
Quoted in Crelinsten [28], p. 121.
- 3.
Technically his title was “Chairman.”
- 4.
Helen (Helena) Dukas was hired in 1928 (on a Friday the 13th, which turned-out to be her lucky day) as his secretary to help him with his growing correspondence and other matters of organizing his papers. She remained in this capacity after Einstein’s death. As a trustee of his estate (along with Otto Nathan) she essentially controlled the Einstein Archives until it was transferred to Jerusalem. She died in 1982. For a poignant essay on her see Holton [101].
- 5.
- 6.
Actually there are radical political undertones in many of his early films.
- 7.
Einstein [56] (February 5, 1931), p. 105.
- 8.
Einstein Papers, Vol. 5, Doc. 477, p. 356 ET, emphasis his.
- 9.
Einstein Papers, Vol. 5, Doc. 483.
- 10.
The Lick is another observatory, further north in the mountains along the California coast, on Mt. Hamilton, near San Jose.
- 11.
Einstein [40 & 43].
- 12.
Recent measurements, however, have cast doubts on the validity of Adams work: see Hetherington [92], and Wright, [216].
- 13.
Crelinsten [29].
- 14.
Hentschel [89].
- 15.
There seems to have been only one trip up the mountain to the observatory, as stipulated by Einstein’s physician, which according to The New York Times was on January 29, 1931.
References
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Topper, D.R. (2013). 1931: Einstein’s First Visit to Caltech. In: How Einstein Created Relativity out of Physics and Astronomy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 394. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4782-5_18
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