Beschreibung:

ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879-1955) Autograph manuscript of his first scientific essay, 'Über die Untersuchung des Aetherzustandes im magnetischen Felde' ['On the investigation of the state of ether in a magnetic field'], in a neat sloping gothic script, three minor verbal emendations in a different hand (perhaps that of Caesar Koch), 6 pages, folio , on one leaf and a bifolium, on lined paper (some slight weaknesses at folds, skilfully repaired); together with a covering autograph letter signed ('Albert') to his uncle [Caesar Koch], n.p. [Pavia], n.d. [summer 1895], one page, folio , on lined paper, signed again in 1950 at the head by Einstein, '1894 or 95. A. Einstein (date recollected in 1950)', inscribed in pencil on verso 'Avenue des Arts 59' (some yellowing, some weaknesses at upper margin and centrefold, skilfully repaired). Provenance : By descent to Suzanne Koch (daughter of Caesar; sale, Christie's London, 24 June 1987, lot 170). Exhibited : Einstein et la Belgique , Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux Arts de Belgique, Brussels, 1979 Nobel Voices , Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. and Deutsches Museum, Bonn, March 2001 - March 2002 Einstein , American Museum of Natural History, New York City, and Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, 2002 - 2005 Published : The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (1987- ), Vol. 1, pp. 5-10 THE 16-YEAR OLD EINSTEIN'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC PAPER, CONTAINING THE SEEDS OF THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY, WITH HIS EARLIEST SURVIVING LETTER Einstein's first scientific paper pursues an enquiry relating to the ether, the elastic substance which, according to the science of the day, filled all of space: Einstein proposes a research programme into the influence of magnetic fields on the ether, specifically on the mechanical deformations of the ether provoked by such fields, which affect the velocity of propagation of the electro-magnetic waves within it. 'The following note is the first modest expression of a few simple thoughts on this difficult topic. It is with reluctance that I am compressing them into an essay that resembles more a programme than a treatise ...' 'At its inception, an electric current sets the surrounding ether into a kind of momentary motion, whose nature it has not yet been possible to determine with certainty. Despite the continuance of the cause of this motion, i.e. the electic current, the ether remains in a potential state and forms a magnetic field ...' 'Any elastic charge of the ether at any (free) point in some direction has to be ascertainable from the change undergone by the velocity of an ether wave at this point and in this direction. The wave velocity is proportional to the square root of the elastic forces serving the propagation and inversely proportional to the ether masses to be moved by these forces. Since the density changes produced by the elastic deformations are usually insignificant, they could probably be disregarded in this context. One might therefore state with a very good approximation that the square root of the ratio of the change in propagation velocity (wave length) is equal to the ratio of the change in the elastic force'. Einstein goes on to propose investigations into changes in the wave length in the magnetic field, concluding that 'the most interesting, and also most subtle, case would be the direction of experimental investigation of the magnetic field formed around an electric current, because the exploration of the elastic state of the ether in this case would enable us to look into the enigmatic nature of electric current'. It was Einstein's continued interest in questions on the boundary between mechanics and electro-magnetics which provided the departure point for his 1905 special theory of relativity, which was, incidentally, to cause the final abandonment of the ether concept. Einstein's accompanying letter to his uncle is already, even in his mid-teens, phrased in his characteristic self-deprecatory, a