ALS, in German, signed “A. Einstein,” on a 3.5 x 5.5 postcard, postmarked October 24, 1917. Einstein writes from Berlin to Dr. E. Guillaume at the Swiss Insurance Office. In full: “In my opinion, this new point of view [approach] too is untenable. If A is to be a function of u and x, then one must be able to explicitly define this function. Careful contemplation will convince you of the non-existence of a t to which the role of universal time could be ascribed. If it would exist, there would also have to exist a defined area in the Euclidean geometry, after all the former too, is characterized by linear orthogonal coordinate - transformations.” Einstein also addresses the postcard on the reverse, and signed again at the bottom, “A. Einstein.” Edouard Guillaume (1881-1959), received a doctorate in physics, and worked as a patent examiner at the Swiss patent office in Bern. It was there that Edouard met Einstein, another graduate of the Polytechnique, who worked as a patent examiner in the same office from 1902 until gaining his first professorship in 1909. There is no record of the personal relationship between Edouard Guillaume and Einstein while both were patent examiners in Bern, but they were surely acquainted with each other. During the years between 1905 and 1909 Einstein gained international renown based on his remarkable papers on the theory of specific heats, Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect, and especially relativity. The latter subject seems to have rankled Guillaume, and beginning in 1913 (after Einstein had left the patent office to become a professor, first at Zurich and then Prague), he published a series of papers in the Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles in which he argued for a Lorentzian electrodynamics that retained the concept of a universal time. This was directly contrary to Einstein’s relativistic interpretation, which Guillaume consistently disagreed with. As Einstein’s fame grew and the theory of relativity gained acceptance, Guillaume become more and more determined to convince the scientific community that it was misguided. He even announced at one scientific gathering that “I will destroy relativity.” Einstein initially disregarded Guillaume’s attacks on special relativity, as he was intensely occupied during these years with the search for a more general theory to encompass gravitation. However, in 1917, after completing the general theory, he finally took notice of Guillaume, prompted by receipt from the Swiss Society of Physics of a reprinting of one of Guillaume’s papers on his interpretation of the Lorentz transformation. In fine condition, with rusty paperclip mark over greeting, a few minor wrinkles, and small impression from postmark on reverse. Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
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